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….

Jupiter over Los Angeles (self-portrait)

I was waiting for my wife Heather to get home from Dallas when I decided to run up to Griffith Observatory to take a few shots.  As usual, the view was great, but not so usual, the view was very clear. Isn’t the universe awesome? Jupiter has been good to me this year. Canon 7D 10-22mm 30″ f20 ISO 800.

I took this photo of Jupiter back in August:

My 8,000 mph drive to Vegas, etc.

Its all about video today:

1. I assembled a timelapse of my drive to Rollercon 2010 in Las Vegas this year and you should watch it. Every year, my wife’s band the Pin Ups, plays a show at the Double Down in Sin City, known for its signature drink, Ass Juice. The show kicks off right as 1000-15000 roller derby girls from all over the country “marry” each other in the parking lot of the Double Down in the Derby Wedding as a sign of commitment to each other (derby wives are hardcore connections between two derby gals). I’ll post pics from the show later, in the mean time you can see images from 2009 in this post.

2. A video for Jamie & David.

Jamie & David

Have you ever met a couple with a smiling, quiet confidence, as if they know some secret you don’t? Jamie & David have that mysterious and cool connection. We spent an afternoon with them taking photos and exploring Apollo Park.

We give a free engagement session with every wedding that we book. It allows us a chance to break the ice and get to the know the bride and groom. The better we know them, the better they know us and the more comfortable they feel. In the end, the photos show it. We brought a cooler with some food and drinks and had everything waiting set up on a table to loosen the mood from photo-shoot to picnic and we ended up having a great day. Rare birds buzzed around while we hung out in a park on a beautiful day making art, how could that go better?

[Skip the next two paragraphs if you don't like techno-jargon about photo-geekness, I won't be offended.]

We shot this over about two hours in natural light with a diffuser until fill flash was necessary, then when the light was right, we used two flashes with umbrellas as key light and fill light balanced with the night sky and the afterglow of the setting Sun for a backdrop. With the wind around here, my gear would have escaped like Mary Poppins if it weren’t for Jonathan Redman and Sigifredo Castenada who were nice enough to come along and man the light stands. Many thanks. I had a light stand blow over at a wedding with 20 pounds of weight on it ( I need more sandbags).

Images taken with a Canon EOS 7D + 50mm 1.4 or 10-22mm (f3.5-4.5). We used one large 40-something inch Westcott shoot-through umbrella on a Matthews reversable light stand + Jonathan for the key light and some off -brand cheapo light stand + Sigi for the rim light  from amazon. The Matthews stand is awesome, when I make the jump to C-stands, I’ll have to buy Matthews.  I’ve also been using the California Sunbounce Sun-Sniper strap, which I have to mention because it makes wearing a camera feel great.

There were a few things that I wanted to try that we didn’t get a chance to because time got away from me. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment when you’re having fun and things are going well. I was in the zone. In the end, I feel like we got some great captures and every time I do this, I realize more and more that this is definitely what I need to be doing right now. Love is the most important thing in the world and I am happy to be out there photographing it. It beats birds and mountains hands down. I feel lucky to have people out there that choose us for their photos and as long as they keep coming, we’ll keep shooting.

Jamie & David are getting married April 2nd, 2011. Big thanks go out to them for believing in us.

 

North Lake and South Lake

I decided to process some shots from last fall.  North and South Lake near Bishop, Ca. These are HDRs of about 7 shots then contrast adjusted and then converted to black and white. I love the black & white custom filter function in Photoshop; careful, you can mess around for hours.

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:

San Francisco on Valentine’s Day

For a slide show of these images, click here.

Every time I go to San Francisco, I leave feeling like I have unfinished business. It’s the kind of place you couldn’t truly experience in one lifetime. Like many other cities, it hustles and bustles and has its pitfalls, but there is a charm to this city that I couldn’t find in London, Rome or Madrid. I absolutely love these cities as well, but the fog city stands alone on the planet a singular individual. I watched the fog will the Golden Gate Bridge into being just by dreaming about it and sea lions stealing bait from angry fisherman. I stood in one place while people stopped their cars to simply look at light shining through the trees. One woman with a childlike sense of wonder in her voice exclaimed, ” isn’t the world we live in just beautiful!?” Yes. To quote TV, the world is just awesome.

Just as there will never be another Tony Bennett, San Francisco will always live and breathe and be unique.  If your not convinced yet, hopefully the images will win you over. I’m not sure whether the earthquake gave everyone a chance to rebuild and recreate a city better than it was before or whether the topography itself mandated such a cosmopolitan and lovely place to occupy its boundaries, but whatever it is, it has me and I will return.

What you won’t see here is photos of the Great San Francisco Pillow Fight. Russ and Heather and I decided that just the event title alone was good enough to get us there with great expectations. I brought 10+ gigabytes of photos home and it takes a little while to get through all o’ that. I’ll post the pillow fight as its own post in days or weeks to come. In other news, I’ll be shooting one of the most fun projects of the year over the next few weeks for an old friend: a series of romance novel covers. Who hasn’t seen a zillion six-packs on rippling dudes staring at you while waiting in line at the supermarket? I had to jump at the chance to help this author turn on women across America. Sounds like good karma to me.

Also, we had a chance to photograph Marcela Carmona at one of the coolest recording studios I’ve ever seen , the Bomb Shelter in L.A. (founded/owned by Eric Kretz, drummer of Stone Temple Pilots) while she tracked vocals for her new album, shots coming soon. Stay tuned….

The Salton Sea and Joshua Tree National Park

If you like to see a slideshow of these images, please click here.

In southern California, we don’t have to stop doing outdoor stuff just because of winter. While it’s pretty cold in the high desert where I live, all it takes is a short drive to reach a climate more to suitable to adventure. I spent a weekend where desert regions meet and the climate seems like summer in winter.

The Salton Sea is an experiment in management gone wrong. Orginially created by the Colorado River, it has been filling and drying up for centuries. All the salt and minerals from the surronding hills are carried into the lake and remain there when the water evaporates. The changes in chemisty kill fish in huge numbers in giant “fish die-offs,” which leave countless fish carcasses washed up along the beach. The area supports over 400 species of birds with this life cycle and harbors 30% of the U.S. Pelican population.

In contrast to the abundant life, is a number of abandoned business ventures, homes and infrastructure. Dotting the shore are buildings, docks, cranes and homes that have been left to the advancing layers of salt.  Graceful three foot tall birds stand on top of  one leg, on top of  little fish faces, on the scaly beach. Every object on the shore for long enough takes on salty tumors that cling to the skin. Lift your head and again, you see a million birds in the distance, an amazing meeting between living and dying.

Anthony Bourdain came here for the patty melt. John Waters narrated a documentary about the Salton Sea’s forgotten America vibe. This place definitely has its own appeal. Hard to be on the shore of this giant salt lake and not think about the big stuff. like time and mortality.

Not to far away near Palm Springs is my new favorite sanctuary from the cold weather, Joshua Tree National Park. There are more miles of hiking trail than you can shake a stick at, the park has numerous campgrounds and the weather was fantastic in late January. The landscape is amazing, covered in enormous boulder piles that punctuate the desert for miles. The rock mountains make for perfect camp sites, great hiking and attracts climbers from everywhere.

From Keys View, you can see Twenynine Palms, Palm Springs, the Salton Sea and on to Mexico on a clear day. The size and scope of this place is fantastic to see laid out in front of you. Like many of the great National Parks, you could spend a lifetime here and never know this place. Though I left a little over a week ago as I write this, I want to go back. What a vast place.

At night, Kangaroo Rats were shooting through the camp like kamakzes with bad aim. It didn’t take long to realize that this is yet another animal that survives off of our trash and crumbs. Usually this leads to overweight, balding mammals with little or no health insurance.

The Salton Sea at sunset

My Top Ten Shots of 2009

As a response to Jim M. Goldstein’s challenge, I’ve assembled what I believe are my 10 best images of 2009. Things definitely took a turn with the purchase of my first new SLR in years. Yeah, yeah, I know you’re all sick of hearing about it, so plug your ears.  An early trip in the year turned out to be very fruitful and an adventure filled year made for some great shooting.

School is to blame for not getting to more remote locations for landscapes, a scenario which will not repeat next year. We’ve got some really big projects in the works (some invovling NASA’s final shuttle launch) and we are looking forward to some eary weddings in 2010, so look out, its gonna be a great year.

So I want to say thanks to all of my readers. You’ve stuck with me as things struggled to get off the ground and I can’t thank you enough for all of the time and eencouragement you’ve invested in me, I can only hope to give you more next year than I did in 2009. Thanks again to all those great friends and families that let us in to record their lives.  We look forward to creating memories of 2010….