Matt & Crystal

Matt & Crystal have a huge heart. Their big dog certainly proves it. Jamison is their 160 lb St. Bernard, who is most likely going to be walking the ring down the Isle. I can't wait for that! So last week we took them around to a bunch of cool locations, one being my favorite, on the tracks, after the sun went down. Shooting couples like them is really fun and relaxing because they are so free, fun and just relaxed being themselves. Thats what makes these sessions really strand out as something fun unique. They were serious at times and goofy. I know when I'm with Rachel, my sweet bride, I am totally myself, and I loved how my buddy Cameron Ingalls captured that. I am always inspired by my own life when I shoot, and often I am inspired by others. Seeing couples in love like this, reminds me how simple life is during the engaged period. Thats why I LOVE to capture this, May this be the time that sets the benchmark for how much fun they will have, always looking back remembering WHY they got married and that their kids would even look and say. "My parents were smokin' back then!" (and still are). So here are my fav's from the day.

Super cool couple from Pepperdine...

Today we had a relaxing drive down the BEAUTIFUL coast to Malibu, Ca and met up at Westward Beach near Zuma. Right before we started shooting there was a pod of 4-5 whales playing 100 feet offshore in the surf. It was crazy! So here are some of my fav's. Krystal & Jason, thanks guys for a great afternoon. It was a blessing to share today with you and to hang out over dinner.

Jon {&} Savannah

So, let me just start by saying, straight up, during dinner last night, this couple is inspiring. We'll to be honest, everybody inspires us in some way. Some people inspire us to be better, other people inspire us to not be a certain way. Jon and Savannah are a beautiful couple together. And while its my job to make them look beautiful in photos, there is something much deeper. We see actors and models on tv and in print that are beautiful on the outside, but that doesn't make them beautiful people to be around.

My seventh grade spanish teacher was the first person to help me connect this and "see". There was a "teammate", (or girl) in my group we were learning with and i made a comment explaining to her how at the beginning, i thought they were pretty, but then after 2 weeks of working with this person and being treated without respect, i really didn't like them at all. And i made a comment to her that they were not as pretty as i thought 2 weeks ago. She explained to me that physical beauty is part of it, but "who someone is", makes them more or less attractive on the outside.

Getting back to this session yesterday, I learned: Getty Center engagement sessions = slightly illegal. We got reprimanded on a monday!, but after talking, the supervisor directed us to some spots that were more low profile and ok to shoot at. If you have not been to the Getty center, its an artistic paradise to shoot in.

Savannah and Jon were a good looking couple and fun to work with. I loved how they were able to relax and let go, just out to have fun. All i want to capture, is who they are, and why they are together. They kept coming up with ideas and locations. At one point I had to fake being on a cell phone conversation to not bring attention to one shot we wanted to pull off in the gardens near the water. I would act distracted and get the shot. Everything turned out sweet.

Capping the night with a dinner in Santa Monica, on main street, at Urth Cafe, we chatted for almost 2 hours about life, marriage and got to learn more about who they are. I can't wait until their wedding at the Four Seasons Resort this summer!

Thanks guys for a fun evening. Can't wait for round 2 in a few weeks!

Our E-session with Cameron Ingalls

So my good buddy and amazing photographer Cameron Ingalls, Inc and his sweet wife Anna, took their afternoon to bless us by shooting some sweet images of my wife and I. I am so inspired by Cam. He has been such a great friend over the last 4 years, and I feel his photography business inspires me. Its that mutual encouragement that brings us closer as friends and pushes us to become better servants to our clients. Rachel had been desiring for Cameron to take these shots for a while, and I asked C-dog earlier this year before the wedding if he was game. So I waited till the perfect day. I surprised Rachel and we had a sweet Anniversary day. Starting with a walk downtown for breakfast, followed by a beach/surf day, then we got ready for the e-session. After that, we headed out to dinner at a cool place called Naples, and had some good Italian Food. Rachel gave me an Apple Bluetooth headset, which stoked me out, its one of those few toys that help me work that I have not bought myself. We finished off the night by surprising Rachel with a night in a cool B&B spot. I had her close her eyes, and I drove around town in circles to disorient her. Then I carried her up the stairs as I gently laid her down on the couch, I asked her to open her eyes. For a second she didn’t recall where she was. Then it hit her, I could tell cause her eyes lit up and she made that high pitch excited noise. I love it when she does that. She just realized this was our honeymoon suite after our wedding night! So we had a nice romantic evening. I LOVE this place, and you have to check it out. So much more style and fun than a regular hotel in town. The Sanitarium Spa. That night it was 80 degrees and we slept with the windows open. It felt so amazing to have a warm breeze blow through the room on a quite money night. There was nobody else in the house. I love my wife more after that night and I love to surprise her. Then when we woke in the morning, they had OJ, Fresh omelets and croissants for us. Mmmm, does it get better than that! I have learned to keep dating your wife or husband. Its easy to get into a routine. That gets hard to do the longer your married, so you have to keep it a habit, I am thankful to say, that we do. I feel like it keeps our marriage young. With God’s help, I hope to forever have the youngest marriage, sweet, innocent, pure, fun, exciting and growing deeper every day. Thanks Cam, thanks to everyone who was so sweet to us and to all the props. So whenever we see the number 22, we pray for our marriage, and if your wedding is on the 22nd, say hi and we will pray for your marriage too!

Here are a few of our favs from his site!

Jaime & Kevin

So in a small world, this couple knows another one of the couples we are working with this year from San Francisco, Aaron & Yoko. Wow, well, let me just say how much fun we had with them shooting on Wednesday, even though we were shooting right next to a Honda Commercial, we had the freedom to have the park we were shooting in blocked off so there was nobody else around! In Montano de Oro we spend over 3 hours hanging out and getting some sweet shots, it was so hard to narrow down, but here is the favs. We concluded the evening at one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Romo. What a day! I am so blessed to be able to serve Kevin & Jaime and can't wait for their wedding at Villa De Buena Vista next May!

San Luis Obispo

So, being from California, I feel that we know a lot of people in the state, regardless of how far away apart. Maybe it’s a Bay Area - LA thing, but it seems that after high school, (which was almost 10 years ago for me, and that’s crazy to think about) everyone you know from your hometown moves and goes to college around the state, but inevitably you run into someone you know at college, they know some other people at another college and you hang out. Next thing you know, your meeting up with everyone from your hometown and boom, now I get to photograph their wedding, we have a bunch of mutual friends at the wedding, its like a recipie for good times. But I LOVE IT! Not only is it an honor and a blessing to be asked by fellow classmates and hometown roots, but its exciting because I feel like I know more about the couple that I am working with.

Enter Katie and Andrew, Katie is news anchor in Bakersfield and Andrew is a paramedic and someday desiring to be a fireman. They had SO much fun together at the shoot day. Here is another example of a couple who just can be themselves and have fun. From swinging on the swings to running in the waves, they gave me a lot of material to shoot, 1768 images to be exact in 2 hours. I seem to be shooting more and more lately. But I love it. Their wedding is upcoming here in SLO in the fall and I am really amped for it. Thanks guys for making the drive out here.




These swing shots were awesome, i was swinging right next to them and got the camera blur, my shutter speed was @ 1/15th, iso @ 100, aperture @ 22. 16-35mm lens, Tv, shot 150, and 4 came out good. Thats exactly why i shoot so much.

Summer Love...

Here are Korey & Christina, the sweetest couple. Korey is a surfer and Christina a painter. What a perfect combo. So today, after the rain, and emerging sun we headed out for a shoot along Huasno Road, right near where my buddy Cameron Ingalls got married this spring, we shot at several locations, we shot them biking, hanging out, climbing trees, active kind of stuff they normally do. In a perfect setting while the sun was going down, we spend a few hours just relaxing and having a great time. I am really excited about their wedding!!! Its going to be @ Eucalyptus Lane Thanks guys for a great time today!

Sweet engagement time...

Straight from Colorado, this couple is getting married later today, 7.7.07. We shot these on the 3rd, earlier this week. Chris & Heather are so fun, I was unable to meet with them earlier in the year, so we shot their e-session this week. I Loved shooting this couple because they just wanted to have fun and did whatever, their personalities came out and I am SO excited for their wedding day. Its going to be great. Born & raised in CA, they now are 2 year residents of CO, and loving it, but wanted to have their wedding in the Golden State. I can't blame them! So here are my fav's!!

Jesse & Kelly

My wife's cousin Jesse, finally found his lady to spend the rest of his life with! He proposed last week and is getting married coming up in October. We had fun yesterday snappin a few shots. They are so fun together, and its going to be a great wedding. Jesse is from Molokai Hawaii, where his family owns a plumeria ranch, they were so sweet to hook us up with plumerias for our wedding 2 years ago. Now that i think about it, our weddings are going to be exactly 2 years apart, almost to the day. 10.20.07! Thank you Jesse and Kelly for lunch yesterday. That was so sweet of you guys! I am so honored and excited to be a part of your wedding.

Meet:Liz & Bryan

This sweet couple is getting married in less than 2 weeks! June is a busy month, but we fit in some time shooting them in Santa Barbara, the next day after Aaron & Yoko. We did a little bit of shooting up at Knapps Castle, which is now a highly requested spot. Thanks to recent shoots such as Comon & Vineda. But we had a blast shooing with Liz & Bryan, they had so much flavor, and one of my favorite things about our couples is that they are relaxed, have fun and be themselves, and we get to capture who they really are as a couple and how much fun they have. Now Bryan, who looks like a young James Dean, fit perfectly on the Vespa, thanks to the local Santa Barbara Vespa dealer>Vespadealer. The owner was amazing and let us borrow one of his vespas to shoot with, we had a blast wrapping up the shoot on a warm evening in one of my favorite beach cities.

Sweet Summer Afternoon

One of my favorite things is when the couples we work with have a passion and incorporate their style in their portaits. Pete & Maria have exactly that. Pete love to restore old trucks. Maria Loves Pete. She has such character, it was easy to photograph them. We had a great time yesterday shooting around Nipomo for 3 hours at the ranch. What seemed more like 45 minutes, the time flew by as we photographed them riding around in their '57 Chevy. Thanks guys for the fun afternoon. Closing the night with some sushi and great conversation about our lives. Their wedding is coming up this fall at Firestone Winery, at the pull Barn. I love shooting there. So here are some of the favorites, I wanted to put up all 20, but you will just have to ask Pete for the keyword to see them! Enjoy!

Yosemite E-session.

One of our favorite couples, Mason & Adriana, took monday off last week and we all drove up to Yosemite National Park to photograph them having fun for a couple of hours. We had a blast shooting around the Valley. Its bursting with green and color. One of the things that we do with our couples that makes these sessions especially fun is that we just hang out for a little bit before we even start shooting. Then, we always start off with some kind of mellow far off shots & angles that lets them relax. Then we do action shots, not to many posed settings, I will give them a direction, setting the scene, and let them go for an alloted amount of time. So here are my top 11 shost from the couple of thousand that we took!!! Thanks to Shawn Reeder for his help relfecting and assisting us.

Comron & Vinny

This is their second e-session and we headed to the mountains in Santa Barbara to a place called Knapps Castle. This is an amazing place where there are the ruins of a Castle from Circa 1916. As you can see, this is a totally unique place and we had a blast here. Comron & Vinny are getting married in Fresno next month.

Keone & Anna (Part 2)

This was our second shoot with one of our favorite couples this year. They are really fun and great to hang out with. They are getting married up in Auburn this summer, which is in northern California, near the wine country and foothills of the Sierras. They have an AMAZING wedding venue. So we took most of the morning and shot again, and we had a blast with them. Keone is from hawaii, and Anna is from Nor Cal, they have fond memories here in the central coast of california so it was fitting for them to grab some shots here. We shot in Montano De Oro. Definetly a place that has a huge variety of locations to shoot. Endless nature, and every day is different.

Getting the shot: at all costs...

I love putting myself on the line for the shot, dont get me wrong, i am all about being safe, but these days, delievering something unique takes risk, and in any successful business, risk plays some part. So this is my little bit of risk, granted, this ain't the 405, but i love the shot, and later this week i will post the images from this e-shoot. Thanks to my beautiful wife rachel who shot this image. I couldn't do what i do without her help!

Vegas/Dry Lake Bed E-shoot!

Dan & Carolyn are the sweetest couple, they flew out to Vegas to meet me and to take their photos. Their wedding is in Berkely in 2 weeks and we waited down to the wire, but it was a great shoot, thanks to Brittany of BLR photo for helping out with the night shoot, she knows vegas much better than I do!

The 1st part of this shoot we started on saturday night after the wedding I helped brittany at, so we shot from 11pm, to 1am. The next day we went out to a dry lake bed near Primm, and had a blast for a couple more hours....

Desert Shooting

Here is a time lapse of our latest E-shoot in the desert, outside of vegas in a dry lake bed. Those places are INSANE to shoot in. Later today I will post some of the images i shot.

The Grove, LA

Back from a New York to a warmer city, even though it was raining earlier, this e-session goes to show that rain or shine, our couples can get great images. Today we photographed Matt & Maurnen at The Grove In Los Angeles. This is an outdoor South Coast Plaza, and has an amazing vibe. With the same light and water jet show as the Bellagio in Vegas , the grove is sure to be a great time. Matt manages the Grove and was able to get us access to anywhere. Which was nice. We had such a great time and photograhed for hours, then had dinner at Maggios "little italy". Rachel an I had a great time getting to know Matt & his fiance better and shared some great stories over dinner. Thanks guys for a great sesson!

Times Square Shoot

WOW, I have been to the city before, but a winter wonderland in NYC is really a site to see. the snow kind of tones things down and makes the city eerily quiet. Definitely a sight to see. Well our E session went immaculate today. Jason & Lauren who are locals from here in NY had me fly out to shoot their session, some of the highlights included Times Square , which almost feels as much of a tourist spot as disneyland. We also hit up many of the side streets covered in snow, Bryant park on 42nd, where they had one of their first dates, and Grand Central Station. Wrapping it up with dinner at Central Cafe, it was a great night, with thick snow falling all day. It was really really beautiful. When your with friends in the city, its really a warm and fun place. Thanks to my photographer assistant Lowell Swartley, we were able to pull off this amazing 3.5 hour session. See our "best of'" selection below.

One very interesting part of this couple is that their relationship was strenghened by a story when Jason was here last year in NY and was hanging out with friends at a home. An armed robber came in and Jason and another brave brother from another mother tackled this guy, who was quite a bit larger than they were. One grabbed him from the back and tried to take him down, Jason went for the gun, and when they had almost got the guy pinned, he strong armed the gun and shot Jason in the abdomen. As the police came in, they found the guy pinned by Jason and his friend. Not realizing any casualties, Jason got up and then walked around and fainted, it was then that the cops saw the blood on him, and realized he was shot. God was watching out for him though, the injury took only part of his intestines. No damage to his spine, liver, or lungs, nothing! The next day his girlfriend flew out from LA and came to his rescue and stayed with him for a week or two as he recovered. His faith in God kept his strength alive and his now fiance took care of him for better or for worse, even before her vows. I wanted to share this story as you see these images, This man could have died, but is getting married to the woman of his dreams. After a great Dinner with the couple at Central Cafe in New York, and hearing about this story, and the relationship, I am excited to take part in documenting it. They are going to have a great life.

3/11 San Francisco

What an amazing day in California , and the city, and we had a session to day for am amazingly fun couple from the city, Brett & Fran. Brett's fiance Fran was in a photo class that I had at Monte Vista High School, way back in the late ninetes. Now her and Brett have an amazing relationship and are getting married in a couple of months. Here are some snapshots of how much fun they have together.