Hey y’all! Remember Tina and Jeremy from last September? In case it wasn’t obvious, they were featured today on one of the few blogs that concentrates on San Francisco Bay Area weddings, The Lovely Bay! I’m honored to be published there, and I’m super excited to share Jeremy and Tina’s wedding with the world!
Look! A Pulgas Water Temple engagement photography session! I’m jumping out of order here, but I realized last night that Tonja and Pete are getting married today!!! I wanted to make sure I had their blog and facebook posts up before their wedding this evening. 🙂 They are a seriously great couple. Every time I meet with them, the meeting ends up spiraling into hour long conversations and hilarious stories. I love them so much!!
I actually hadn’t ever been to the Pulgas Water Temple before, but I have been to Filoli. Unfortunately, Filoli has taken to outlawing professional photography sessions, despite their beautiful grounds. Understandable, but still super sad. No worries, though! The water temple is just as amazing and much less crammed full of tourists! There is apparently another one also run by the water company in the Bay Area, but it’s to the east of the bay in a town called Sunol.
I’ll tell you more about this fabulous couple when I’m done with their wedding. It’s at a beautiful winery in Los Gatos! For now, just enjoy the photos! Congratulations, Tonja and Pete! See you tonight!
First up, the Pulgas Water Temple itself!
As you can see, they love joking around. I didn’t even ask Tonja to jump up on Pete’s back!
Pete’s told me several times at this point that he thinks this photo is jaw dropping amazing. Thanks Pete!
A Golf Club at Boulder Ridge wedding photography session!
Cheryl and Rui are probably two of the most patient and understanding people in the world – I’m so grateful to have shot their wedding back in early April! An obsessive planner at heart, Cheryl contacted me a year and a half in advance, and made sure the grand majority of her wedding details were set in stone before they were even a year out. You may remember these two from their engagement session back in March.
Cheryl and Rui were married at the Boulder Ridge Golf Club in San Jose, a slightly out of the way golf course with breathtaking views. Breathtaking, really, doesn’t even begin to do it justice. Plus, they easily had one of the most fun bridal parties I’ve worked with. They kept the laughs coming all day long!
Everything about their wedding was elegant, beautiful, and my favorite, word… fun! Take particular note of the flower arrangements by De Young Flowers! And special thanks to Amber of Mr N Mrs Photography who tagged along as a second shooter!
Mwahaha, I’m slowly catching up on blogging! Thanks everyone for your patience!
First – check out this awesome panorama from this incredible tree smack dab in the middle of the golf course!
Okay, now we’ll shuffle backwards in time… to a hair salon far far away…
The girls at the salon were my first indication this whole day was going to be full of laughs.
When there was some extra time before we needed to be at the golf course, we took a detour to a local Chevy’s – that’s not something I get to say for every wedding! (more…)
Remember that beautiful engagement session in the redwoods back in February? Well, now you can see Bo and Karin’s Cypress Meadows wedding photography session! Every detail was planned by Karin and her wonderful planner, Leslie at Rêve Events & Concierge, and the result was simply spectacular and everything I know Karin and Bo wanted for their wedding. Outdoors, sunshine, games, and fun! It’s hard to really find the words to describe how fond I am of these two, and their sun-filled wedding, so perhaps I will just let the photos speak for themselves!
One note of importance, I would have been lost without the capable second shooting of Mieke Strand, of Mad and Moonly Photography. Do you get the reference? If so, yes, she’s just that cool. Various photos below were taken by her, although they are so intermixed with my own, I couldn’t specifically reference them all! Thanks, Mieke!
(side note: I am using a different algorithm to optimize these photos for web viewing – do they look okay, everybody? They look good on my screen, but you never know!)
It all started at Seal Cove Inn, next door to Cypress Meadows…
I love this shot of her getting her make up done + a hint of her dress in the background! (more…)
Despite my best intentions, I still fell behind on writing blog posts! I’m sorry, guys! Please accept my offering of this Conservatory of Flowers family photography session! We met for this session back in March at Golden Gate Park. The flowers were in full bloom, and provided a beautiful backdrop for this new family. James was almost 6 months old at the time! He was a smiley, happy baby for one whole one hour before deciding he’d had enough play time and would like some milk PLEASE! 🙂 Then Grandma graciously took over the baby care, and I was able to snap a few photos of the happy couple together as well. All in all, despite the fact that both Jessica and I completely forgot it was St. Patrick’s Day and that the park would be crawling with people carrying brown bags, it was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I hope you had a happy first Mother’s Day, Jessica. Enjoy this time with your little boy. It’s amazing how fast they grow up and I’m so happy I got to capture this special day with you guys!
First, let’s take a look at this adorable!!! happy baby! The chair, incidentally, was handmade by his family! (more…)
Marisol fell in love with my photos when I was hired to take engagement photos for her friends, Angie and Marlon, last year, and then again, when I was at Angie and Marlon’s wedding. We made a day long trip up to Napa Valley for this shoot, and wandered around the Castello di Amorosa, though we didn’t stop to sample any wines. Tragic, right? Still, the day was beautiful, sunny, and warm, and the castle overlooking the yet-to-bloom grape fields was just about perfect for Edgar and Marisol’s engagement photos. The sun coming down and lighting up Marisol’s hair just about bowled me over, she was so pretty!!! I can’t wait! I’ll be doing their wedding in another month or so as well, so, no worries! More of this gorgeous couple to come! 😀
I met Cheryl and Rui last year, when they were getting everything out of the way with wedding planning a year in advance! Talk about prepared. As I walked up to the Municipal Rose Garden in San Jose, California, I was a little skeptical – there wasn’t a blooming rose in sight! Not unsurprising considering the time of year, but still! In the end, as the sun filtered through the giant trees, providing beautiful backgrounds and shade for the shoot, it really all worked out. Â They’re getting married in just under a month, and I’m super excited to finally see them married!
Rui worried that his friends are going to see these photos and wonder “why does he look so serious? what happened?!” so I was sure to include some goofy photos just for them. 🙂
Fair warning, y’all – this story has a small, sappy ending, but it’s tough to get through. Don’t want a downer on your Monday? Skip the read! I’ll be posting a new engagement session on Tuesday!
My friend, Taylor, and I, dressing up and posing for the camera at Otakon 2007, one month after we met.
In some ways, nothing has changed since March 11, 2011 – I stayed up late, trying to get work done, but mostly refreshing my google rss feeds. An eternal insomniac. The difference between now and two years ago is that while I watched the tsunami flood Sendai Airport on the news, I didn’t know that my best friend was already dead. (more…)
Sitting around, watching facebook’s stream-of-consciousness updates usually serves to keep us grounded in the moment. Still, every so often, something will pop up that throws us far back into the past, and remind us of long dormant memories. This 90s gem is a prime example.
For a few short years in preschool and elementary school, I took ballet. I was stalking a friend’s facebook timeline last week, and someone had posted this photo (in all its unblurred glory – I wanted to protect everyone else’s identities)! The original poster had no reason to know I was also in this photo – I was in a younger class, but yes, that is me as a raindrop. Out of the 5 girls in a row in blue, I am the middle (the one kid I didn’t blur), a particularly flamboyant, and overly showy springtime raindrop. If you squint, you can see that most of my counterparts were pretty bored. In short, I’ve clearly been awesome since childhood. (more…)
This is a bit old at this point, but Topher and Oscar were featured on 4 Real Equality Weddings back in mid-January. Thanks for the feature and sorry for the delay in posting about my excitement!!! Emily, who runs the site, is super friendly and I loved exchanging e-mails with her. You can view the whole post at the above link, and if you missed their post here, you can see more photos from their engagement here on the blog as well.
Incidentally, Topher is of Topher Simon Photography, and he is a talented, wonderful photographer with a real gift handling kids. I did some second shooting for him last year that’s just sitting on my hard drive (woe! the dangers of not second shooting for a living!), and I’m always grateful for the kindness he’s shown me in this business. Topher, you rock!!! 😀
