I’m currently working through this set of photos featuring Nicole and Sumeet, but I realized that I have so many great shots of Nicole getting ready that didn’t make my final “blog picks” cut. I can’t resist sharing this one frame that won’t make it to my final post. 🙂 More to follow!
If you do a lot Indian-style weddings, you’re often contracted out for the whole week to take photos of various ceremonies – most of the time, the wedding and the reception aren’t even on the same day. It was the same for Allen and Nalini here, who actually did their reception weeks after their wedding day. I was a pretty last minute addition to the photographer line up, so I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them, but if one thing was clear, this was a couple that knew how to party. With delicious food served all night by Chandni Restaurant, by 1 am, the police had to insist that everyone please leave the restaurant and the groom’s brother invited everyone to continue partying at the hotel next door. I have no doubt that Allen and Nalini will have a fantastically fun life together!
Happy New Year! I’ve resolved to start the year off right by updating the blog instead of leaving it by the wayside. I’ve been sitting on these photos of Sheena and Satjit’s marriage ceremony for months now, and I’ve been just terrible about actually posting here!
For those of you that don’t know, I’m regularly hired by a photographer out of Fremont, CA, Zia Mumtaz – he’s fantastic and if you’re in the market for an Indian photographer, he’s your man. He hires me to occasionally second shoot ceremonies and receptions, but mainly, he hires me so that he can get shots of the bride getting ready. For this particular couple, we were actually hired by the groom, Satjit, but Zia threw me in as a bonus and hired me to shoot through the ceremony. Unfortunately, I missed out on a fantastic reception, but it was still a blast. Sheena, the bride, asked me to show up at her house at 5 in the morning and the ceremony went straight through to the afternoon. By that point, I think we were all feeling a little loopy! 🙂
Congratulations, Sheena and Satjit, and best of luck in what’s now the new year!
Today and tomorrow I’m out with Zia shooting another Punjabi wedding – I’m really excited to get to use my 24-70mm/flash combination again at the reception on Saturday, especially after the fantastic shots I got at Gloria and Ryan’s wedding. Also, Claire and Zach’s, but I’m delaying posting that wedding until Adam gets his photos up. 🙂 In the meantime, I thought I’d throw up another personal post.
If you follow my tweets, know my friends, or know me at all, I’m a bit of a foodie. I don’t have the energy to cook all the time, especially since James has a voracious appetite that demands a variety of foods daily. I eat what I consider one serving, he has four! And, of course, I don’t have time to make a 10 course meal daily if I want to get any of my own projects done. STILL, I have been on a major “make it at home” kick lately. It started innocently enough when I was browsing Simplifried and discovered… wait – I just need to put heavy cream into my food processor and go until it turns into butter?! The next thing you know, I got a pint of heavy whipping cream, and it turned into an absolutely beautiful butter. You can see it in the red butter bell in the middle.
This dairy obsession quickly spiraled out of control, and on Monday, my new Cuisinart ice cream maker arrived and I immediately set about making the richest, darkest chocolate ice cream I have ever tasted. And the best part? Because I made it myself, I can make it EVEN DARKER next time! Words can’t describe my joy at this decadence.
Finally, James tends to buy things and forget about them. He’ll often browse through the fridge and find something he’s completely forgotten about, shouting out loud “Tomatoes!” or “I have rutabaga?!” This is all well and good, until I go to retrieve my peppers and find they’ve fused with the head of cabbage he bought 6 months before and refuses to throw out. It’s gross, but more to the point, in early October, James bought a butternut squash and put it on top of the fridge. For the past month and a half, every time we went to the grocery store, he’d suddenly say, “Butternut squash!!!” remembering that he’d forgotten about it back at home. Yesterday, at last!!!, terrified that it had gone bad, he roasted it up, scooped out the flesh and just started eating it raw. I insisted on taking the 3 cups of the leftovers from his post-nibblings and turning it into a curried butternut squash soup. I fried up an onion in my homemade butter, threw in some garlic, chicken broth and a tablespoon of curry powder, added the squash meat, and simmered for thirty minutes. Then, I took all of it, and ran it through the blender, and now James has what he calls, “The Most Addictive Soup Ever.” Not half-bad, if I do say so myself!
Nom nom! I can only hope this leads to more delicious, completely homemade adventures for Thanksgiving!
As part of the most boring couple on Earth ™, instead of going out and partying, James and I fulfilled our deepest desires in life to put on stupid clothing, stay at home, and try to lure children into our lair for candy. I mean. That’s not creepy, right? Also, we’re watching the Nightmare Before Christmas and hopefully some Cowboy Bebop. Happy Halloween, everyone!
I’m not sure I could come up with the words appropriate to describe Ryan and Gloria. I’ve known both since high school. Gloria and I shared at least one French class together – surely doodling in each other’s notebooks counts as learning. Later on in high school, Ryan joined the drama club where I spent all my time before, during, and after school for 4 years. As two people I have so many fond memories of from the past 11 years, I loved watching the planning process unfold over the last year or so. By the time the day came, I was bubbling with anticipation to see how their day would unfold! Gloria and Ryan hired the fantastic Ash Imagery photographers to cover the day, which left me open to basically take photos of whatever I wanted as long as I didn’t get in the primary photographers’ ways. 🙂
They got hitched at the Bluemont Vineyard outside of Leesburg, VA, all within reach of our old high school era stomping grounds. The view was amazing, as you can see below, and the readings included the most adorable excerpt from the Velveteen Rabbit (way to hit my soft spot, guys!). With a view on the details, the three-tier, triple layer cake was entirely homemade by three of the bridesmaids (also high school friends), who have been testing out various forms of the cake on all the rest of us for the past year – it’s possible that my friends and I have all grown fat on delicious cake. The dance floor was rocking all night, including guest appearances from “Like a G6” (see the Red Cross #gettngslizzerd debacle/stroke of genius encited by Gloria’s errant tweeting) and “Tunuk Tunuk Tun” (children of the internet, unite!). It was an absolute blast and a gorgeous wedding right down to showering of “heirloom quinoa” on the happy couple as they departed.
Congrats, Gloria and Ryan! I love you both and wish you many happy years together, along with a puppy as soon as humanly possible for the both of you to adopt. 😀
Last weekend, I packed up my gear and trucked over to my home state to attend the wedding of two people I’ve known since high school, Gloria and Ryan. As a second shooter not frequently hired for post process work, I pretty much shoot and hand over, meaning I can edit the photos for my portfolio in whatever dang order I want! So I sat down last week to power through the shots I took as a guest at their wedding when the common cold hit and incapacitated me for half the week. Worst. Although I hope to get the whole set up within the week, here’s a quick snapshot of their gorgeous wedding.
But seriously, it was lovely and a lot of fun. 🙂 More when I actually finish processing! Hopefully soon now that I’m getting well again!
If you know me, I’m a bit of a zumba fanatic. Ever since my friend, Gloria, became an instructor and infected my friends circle with the dancing plague, I’ve sought out zumba classes wherever I go. I stalked Regine’s online presence for a month before finally deciding she was The One.
Regine is an ex-corporate tool gone zumba instructor, and she is an absolute inspiration. Just a few months ago, she had knee surgery and was teaching by the end of two weeks! By contrast, I dislocated my kneecap at the beginning of the year and it took me a month to find the courage to get out of bed again. Her choreography is challenging, and her teaching style is easily modified for high or low impact needs. I love the cardio, if only because it definitely helps me to run around for 9 hours with my camera. For more information on Regine, her facebook page is here: Zumba With Regine
About once a month, Regine hosts “Zumba After Dark” with her friend Ruby, and because their usual tequila bar wasn’t available, in August, they held it at the Dancer’s Loft in Menlo Park. Between the sweating and the wine (which we all know just makes the dancing better!), I was sure to snap a few photos of Regine herself. It’s been awhile since I shot in the pitch black and I’m glad some of these shots came out for me to share. I’m going out of town for TWO weddings this weekend. I promise to have more up soon! 😀
Well, it’s official, I’m 26. James, the boyfriend, took me out for a lovely tapas dinner (my latest obsession is garlic aioli!), and luckily, my birthday was much less fiery than his birthday. That said, I might have had a glass too many of the sangria at the restaurant and as we were leaving, I stopped by a bed of sunflowers to start talking to them. When James came to drag me off, I started crying for breaking up my conversation with the “sunny happy sunflowers.”
So, he bought me a bouquet of sunflowers and a yellow rose in apology, although clearly, I’m the one at fault for my crazy behavior! 🙂 Other spoils include a Minolta SR-2 that’s unfortunately currently broken, but maybe someday I’ll have the time to patch it up.
I’m going on vacation for two weeks, and while I’ll have my internet, I won’t have the wonders of lightroom and photoshop! I might be willing to let my second shooter work slide, since it’s all personal portfolio work, but I just did not feel right putting off blogging about Denise and Mikael’s super casual winery elopement barbecue before leaving. I pride myself on going 5 weeks, absolute maximum, in having photos to show my clients after post process, and I will be pushing 4 weeks by the time I get back to my computer! So, Denise and Mikael, here’s my pick of the best of the best of your wedding (with many more to come when I finally get home again).
I first met Denise through my boyfriend, before she moved from NYC out here to the Bay Area. Little did I know that she’s not only a wonderfully opinionated ex-financial-type, but also a potter fascinated with labyrinths. In her spare time, she makes labyrinth balls (which you can find out about here: About Labyrinth Balls), and then, in a complete career change, she came out to the west coast to pursue wine selling in the guise of a Fairy Wine Mother. Here, she met Mikael, a talented wine maker with his own label – Wargin Wines (Buy Buy Buy!). With one selling, and the other making, they’re a perfect match. For their wedding, they didn’t want too many bells and whistles. According to their low-key wishes, it was a small affair at the MJA Vineyards satellite tasting room in Los Gatos, with about 30 guests, a 7 minute ceremony performed by Denise’s father and lots of delicious Wargin Wines. I wish them much luck – both in marriage and in their amazing wine adventures!
P.S. The food and cake you see are by Original Sin Desserts – Tanya’s amazing! Be sure to find her on facebook if you love food and cake!
