Lisa and Matt, Newport Beach Marriott, Images and Slide Show

This last Saturday, I had the opportunity to photograph Lisa and Matt's wedding at the Marriott Hotel in Newport Beach. The Marriott is now a great venue for weddings! I had been there several years ago, and I was pleased to find that there had been a dramatic renovation since then. The hotel now has a lovely outdoor space for wedding ceremonies, and the grounds have landscaped walks that are great for portraits of the bride and groom.

The wedding was beautiful and I'm thrilled to have had the opportunity to photograph Lisa and Matt's day.

I've posted a few of my favorites from the day here. And don't miss the slide show at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

Beautiful Bride

...brought to you by the new, and complettely amazing Nikon D3, ...and a lovely bride!

I don't usually have a lot of time to review past weddings once I've finished editing them, but the recent wedding I shot in San Diego was different. It's the first wedding I've shot with the new Nikon flagship DSLR, the D3. It's likely the most advanced digital camera on the planet, and its precision is truly amazing. So, I've spent a few hours that I normally wouldn't to study the images from this wedding and gain some insight into this camera's personality.

This is by far the most advanced and configurable camera I've ever shot, and it's going to take some time to explore its posibilities. But I knew imediately upon picking it up that no camera before had felt so natural and well balanced. I think this may be the first camera that will just "get out of the way" and let me take pictures. I'll post more updates as I learn this amazing camera.

But in the mean time, as I study the images from the D3, I keep finding images that I can't resist adding a little photoshop magic to. This is an image of the lovely bride enhanced with an "old photo" treatment.

Wedding At The Abbey, San Diego

On Saturday I had the opportunity to shoot a beautiful wedding in San Diego with Mark Bassam of Bassam Design. The weather was perfect, and provided incredible views for my early morning drive to San Diego. It truly was a perfect day for a wedding.

We began shooting early at Jet Rhys Hair Salon, a super cool salon with an awesome atomosphere, and very cool wall murals. The salon is in a small courtyard between buildings, and it was like a little oasis away from the noisy cars on the street.

The details were simple, yet beautiful.

...Getting ready at the Hyatt.

...these girls have been busy with weddings!
...the stained glass windows of The Abbey provided perfect light for a lovely bride;
...and the handsome groom too!

I love this shot of the flower girls coming down the isle.

The groom's sense of humor kept the guests laughing through the ceremony.
The beautiful, and very tastey cake.

The old Abbey church has very cool architectural details and stained glass windows.

The brides father had some really fancy moves for the videographer. At one point, he was break-dancing on the floor, ...doing "the worm," and various other moves that would put me in the hospital.The bride knew a few moves as well. ...Guess she got them from her father.

...the first dance, of course, was more reserved.

Party Of 5 Engagement Session

It was really fun to get to shoot a few shots of one of Becker's engagement couples. And they were the best of subjects; ...the makings of another beautiful [b] wedding. I can't wait to see the images on [b]ecker's blog.

The weather on Sunday was as perfect as it could be, but the light... the light was more than perfect. As promised, here are a few more images from the session. And thanks, again, to Becker for this opportunity.





This shot was taken right before the shot in the previous post. I think I like this one better. What do you think?

Becker's Party Of 5 Was Awesome

I just had the most incredible opportunity to meet The Becker. Becker is one of the best (and most successful) wedding photographers in the world. Five of us spent the day at the [b] pad, [b]ecker's [b]eautiful home in the OC. Becker is so open and generous with info about how he has generated his success! There was lots of priceless info, and it was fun too.

We also had opportunity to shoot a real engagement session with a couple who's wedding he'll be shooting later in the year. Becker kicked out hundreds of awesome images in no time, and each of the 5 got to shoot too. I've posted one of my shots here. Check out [b]ecker's blog for more. I'll post a few more tomorrow, but for now, I'm [b]eat. Thanks [b].


And here's a pic of [b] in action...

Christmas Pics

Ok, so I didn't really take very many pictures at Christmas this year, so there's not much to show. But I did like this shot of a delicate lace angel hanging on my mother's Christmas tree.

Each year at Christmas I take a few quick portraits of my only niece (so far). They have to be very quick as the window of opportunity for posed shots is very small at her age.

She is her grandparents' pride and joy, and being an only child, she is showered with gifts and attention.

I almost forgot the nephew! Here's a cute pic of my niece with her older brother.

Ted's Headshots

I recently had the opportunity to do new head shots for Ted. Ted is a transplant from Oregon who came to LA to find work in television. And congratulations are in order! He just landed a national television spot for Nissan which will air next year. So watch the Nissan commercials for this face.

Here are several from the session:

House On The Hill

Yesterday I blogged about my recent boudoir shoot with my friend Miriam. Well, after the shoot we took a moment to enjoy the incredible sunset view from her yard, and I wanted to share this view. Yes, I said this is the view from her yard! I told Miriam that I'm going to pitch a tent and live right there in her yard.

I've never been to Italy or Greece, but these pictures remind me of images I've seen from that part of the world. I hope to visit there soon!

And this is Miriam. She's as pleasent and humble as she is beautiful. She said I could blog any of the headshots from the session.

Portrait Session With Miriam

Miriam has an amazing story, ...too much to tell in a single post. She's done so much for someone her age! She's a single mother, business owner, investor, musician, ...even a licensed helicopter pilot, ...enough to make your head spin. She has an energy an drive that doesn't stop.

She also loves to be photographed. I've photographed Miriam several times, and its always a joy. I'll post more about her story in the future, but just to tease you; get this, ...she grew up in a religious commune, and they didn't even have electricity!

This photo is from shoot last week. The shoot was actually a boudoir shoot she did for a special someone, so there's not much I can post. But we took this one in a park near her home before we did the boudoir set.

Stay tuned for more of Miriam's story in the future!