Julie & Ryan

I’m still thinking about this wedding. Julie and Ryan are one of those couples who exude togetherness. To anyone around, its quite obvious that they’re meant for each other. It’s hard to explain, but they just fit. It’s romantic and sappy perhaps, but I believe there is true love and I’ll go on the record as saying these two are going to be together forever.

Aint love grand?

We hit it off with this couple right away. Ryan is a space geek and we couldn’t stop talking about NASA and telescopes and planets, etc. Julie and I both go to the same college. We couldn’t have made a better connection with a couple in the short time we had before their wedding. When they said they wanted to shoot their engagement session at Griffith Observatory, I was beside myself.  A 2 hour session turned into 5 and I was ready to stay. That night we looked through a few telescopes (one belonging to Tuvoc for you nerds out there) and saw a pass of the International Space Station.

If a great fit and an amazing e-session wasn’t enough, they got married at Le Chene. My wife has been telling me about Le Chene for 15 years, but for whatever reason, life probably, we never made it there for dinner.  She’s told me over and over again how good the French cuisine is there. They say that its the best food in northern Los Angeles County and is the oldest building in the area. I don’t know about the history, but I can confirm that the food was phenomenal.

From the gorgeous ceremony outside in the garden, to the grapevines, to the accommodating staff, Le Chene really impresses.  I’ve never been fed so well fed photographing a wedding or any other job. Though working a little and dining a little, I’ve seldom had a better meal in my lifetime when I was sitting down and I was on my feet. The staff there took special care of me, seeing to it that I was fed and hydrated throughout the night. I can’t see why more Antelope Valley brides choose this great location. While other venues might be more extravagant, Le Chene delivers a fine experience, even if you’re just the photographer.

This wedding had an amazing vitality that surrounded it. The day, the couple, the venue, were all amazing and I was fortunate to be along for the ride. Once again, I was allowed to live my dream and take photographs for a living. Not everyone can do what they love for a living and that’s a privilege I don’t take lightly. I wish Ryan & Julie happiness and contentment forever and Ill never in that time be able to thank them enough for having me.

They asked for cheestastic photos and came up with this idea.

I think its kinda awesome.

Over Los Angeles

Griffith Obsevatory.

Le Chene was beautiful.

The place settings were simple and elegant.

The food here was definitely the best wedding food I’ve ever had.

Julie & Ryan were high school sweethearts.

This is one good guy.

A lovely ceremony in the garden.

Aint love grand?

This couple has a great sense of humor and they know how to have some fun!

Lots of fun.

Is it me or do we get the best looking couples?

Will and Jenn

These two people live far away from me, but somehow distance doesn’t separate us. I’m from Georgia originally. Will and I were in our first band together. We went to high school together. So when I heard that Will and Jenn got engaged I was beside myself with happiness. Will was one of my groomsmen just 4 short years ago, before I even started shooting weddings. I wouldn’t have missed this one for the world. It was a grand evening catching up with old friends and making some new ones.
I traveled light on this one and although I brought an umbrella and a softbox, I was unable to use them due to the wind and lack of proper sand bags or assistant. So it was all about bounce flash, or fill flash and for this I used and promptly lost my beloved Rogue Flashbender. Ill definitely be buying another one of those. So I ended up shooting the whole thing without modifiers, something I haven’t done for about two years. All shots are with either 10-22 or 70-200IS II and Canon7D. I did get to shoot two bodies, I usually shoot one. I thought it would be too cumbersome, but it turned out to be quite convenient and I didn’t miss fumbling around and changing lenses, that’s for sure. Glendalough Manor turned out to be one of the most accommodating, photographer-friendly venues I’ve ever worked< I can't to shoot again in Georgia, I'd love for it to be there again. In a shocking coincidence, Winslow Thomas, an old buddy from my days at the Atlanta Shakespeare Company, turned out to be the officiant. I've been in California since 1998, but I return to shoot this wedding and I ran into two old friends in a town of millions. What are the chances?
It felt amazing to catch up with old friends, take some photos and visit the state I grew up in. As I flew West, I must have been polluting the heartland with contrails of nostalgia. Click here for the full set of high resolution images.
It was a beautiful day, one I won't forget.

Meant to Be – Jonathan & Charity’s Wedding

Jonathan and Charity are some of our closest and dearest friends, so you can imagine how elated we were when we found out they were getting married. These two are meant for each other.

It’s not every day some of your best friends get married in a mind-blowing building built in 1929 in Santa Barbara, but January 6th was one of those days. Rest assured, this is the most beautiful courthouse wedding you’ll ever see! If you know these two, its impossible to miss that they belong together. They’re a runaway freight-train hauling car after car of destiny, inevitability and meant-to-be. It has been a privilege to witness.

Jonathan and Charity have worked weddings with us in the past, either shooting video or helping us run around with equipment and lights, so we’ve all been in that setting together before. Being so close to them, the comfort level was amazing and they felt secure enough to get silly and run around madly, which led to the image above. It’s one of my favorite wedding shots I’ve ever taken, not just because I know and love them, but because of the way it makes me feel. I’ve been there running hand in hand on the beach with Heather and the feeling is phenomenal. Heather used to grab my hand in the early days without warning and seemingly tow me at light speed down the beach damn near removing my arm from joint, proclaiming we were flying.

This shot is a peak at what it feels like to be in love.

When we found out they were getting married at the Santa Barbara Courthouse, we were drooling over the opportunity to photograph it. When the director of our local planetarium showed me photos of the place a few years back, I began anticipating the day I shot there and now I was very happy that the day was coming soon and that it would be our best buddies pledging their undying love in such a historic place. We were thrilled.

We set out to get there early, but due to baby circumstances, we arrived at the courthouse just in time. Heather had to watch our newborn, while I ran through the courthouse past some of the most beautiful architecture I’ve ever seen, searching for the Mural Room. I’d seen it before in photos and couldn’t wait to get in there.

Unfortunately, when I arrived, it became suddenly clear to me that it was VERY dark. This makes for bad images that strain your equipment to the limit. (Warning- photo geekery ahead) I turned my ISO up to 3200 and 6400 to get the exposures I was looking for and threw on my 50mm 1.4 and opened it to f2.0 and was still having problems. I feel like the images I captured are great, but I was stunned to see how little light there was in there to work with, my tiny on-camera flash was blasting the atmosphere right outta that beautiful place, so I had to give into noise.

It wasn’t hard to get caught up in it all, all the love in the salt air and the history in that beautiful courthouse set us all up for an afternoon fairy tale.

When I left the courthouse, I knew I’d never be done photographing that building. One could shoot there for years and not capture it, I highly recommend a visit if you’re passing through or in the area. The coast of California is one of the most beautiful places in the world in no small part because of the amazing Spanish architecture and an endless highway of charming Mediterranean-like towns where you could get lost forever. Santa Barbara is a jewel. Fitting that such beautiful people chose to couple amongst the water, sand and Sun in one of the greatest towns on Earth.

Congratulations to Jonathan and Charity. It’s hard to find better people. Selfless, kind and extremely talented, we are the lucky ones to witness as their adventure continues….

Jennifer & Jason

You know, once in a while, something comes along that is just perfect. Sometimes, its a mate.  Not only are these two perfect for each other, but they were also the perfect client.

Heather and I are new to weddings and could not have found a more interesting couple to shoot for our first big gig. We’ve shot everything it seems, but we’re beginning to think we were born to shoot weddings. Commercial work can be very exciting and we love the studio and portraits are good times,  but something about capturing weddings has us in a fever. Bring it on universe full of couples and let us show you how amazing and cool your love is.

Below are shots of Jennifer and Jason on their engagement and their big day.

Their Slideshow: