The other week I went down to Monterey to help cover a work conference for some of my friends.  This trip has demonstrated how much my life has changed.  In the past if I had ever even come close to Monterey all I would be doing is trying to find a way to play golf on any one of those fantastic courses that are down there. Well on this trip I did not even have my clubs with me.  Yes, amazement for even me.  Much of that because I needed to shoot for most of the time I was there but also because once done I pretty much needed to get back to the family.  Well one day I will play again, my big motivation for teaching and getting my daughter to love golf.  =)

Most of the stuff that I got to shoot was pretty standard work type stuff but they did have a reception at the Monterey Bay Aquarium one night.  I must say that it is a great venue.  So can someone please book a wedding in there and hire me?  I would so love to shoot a wedding in there and I think it would just be one of the coolest things.  Unfortunately, I hate to say it would probably cost a small fortune but like I said if someone is so incline please keep me in mind.  =)  Well here are a few shots from that night.

This little guy was on a mission to make it to the other end.

The dessert table

For those of you who might not recognize the house pictured above, it is Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.  It was originally built for Edgar J, Kaufman as a summer vacation home.  It is now one of the most well known homes in the world.  This is perhaps the most famous view of this structure as it shows its beauty and the dramatic way it hangs out over the waterfall that it is built on.

I thought I would share it with you all since it represents part of my life and also where I desire to go with my photography.  I have always loved architecture and have loved this house since the first time I saw a picture of it.  It became one of my life goals to one day see it in person.  So thankfully my wife generously indulged me and we made the trek to Western Pennsylvania to see it.  To echo the words of one journalist who described it in Ken Burns documentary about Frank Lloyd Wright, something about Fallingwater touches you deep within your soul and at the end of the day you can’t find words to fully explain what it is you feel. And you know when you actually see it, well it is deep experience.  So what does that have to do with my photography?  Like my wanting to see Fallingwater and making it a goal in my life, I realize that I must make goals and achieve them as I continue to grow as a photographer.  And like going to see Fallingwater it takes sacrifice and effort to reach a goal that is truly worth achieving.  Also I hope one day I can produce images that can truly touch people on as deep a level as this structure does. 

I hope that everyone is doing well and hopefully you have something that inspires you and drives you to ever greater things.  If you ever get a chance to go see Fallingwater I recommend it, if you are into things like that, it truly is an amazing experience.  Have a great weekend folks.

Okay, I am still working on Christine & Joey’s wedding but thought I would actually put up a proper preview/tease since I only tossed up a few images before.  As I mentioned before it was such an honor to be part of this special day.  Besides being a great couple Christine & Joey were just so easy to work with.  Plus you just have to love the Claremont Hotel, it is the epitome of old world charm and class, and really brings back that bygone era.  I loved that Christine’s look for the day was also very classy so put the two together and…wow!  In some of the shots I really think she looks like one of those glamorous past movie stars. Well that is when she did not have on her big smile or just cracking up like she often does.  Either way though you just had to love it.  Well stay tuned for more to come.  Welcome back C & J, hope you had a great honeymoon. 

Yesterday I had the honor of covering Christine & Joey's wedding.  It was a great day on so many different levels that I don't really have the time to comment at this moment.  I am sorry that I have not posted much lately but I have been busy and was actually a bit sick about a week ago.  But as I was saying Christine & Joey are just a great couple.  They are one of those couples that you look at and just think they are a great fit together.  So just a quick post to say Congrats to the happy couple.  I have so many images from the day but I need to work through them, here are couple to start.  Stay tuned for a more in depth commentary on the day and more shots.  Hope everyone is well, take care.

I have found that since I became a Dad, I am much more enamored and attracted by the innocent and fun things that children do.  They play and enjoy things in such a different way than we adults do.  So I realized that I often am shooting images of kids these days.  Here are a couple of shots that I happened to shoot while I was in Hawaii.  The image above is my friend Linda’s daughter, Lauren.  She was just having a blast with these strips of fabric and it really looked like she was doing a ribbon dance.  The other image is my daughter having a ball on the beach.  During her first trip to Hawaii she was a bit apprehensive but this time around she took to the beach and the water much faster as you can plainly see.  Hope that everyone is having a great weekend.

The other weekend I had the opportunity to head down to Las Vegas to attend Scott Robert’s workshop.  Last year I attended his San Francisco workshop and it really changed everything about photography for me.  I learned so much and was inspired by not only his words and teachings but really by all the other I met and the entire community that is developed by learning under such a gifted and giving teacher.  I have grown so much in the last year but really knew that I wanted to go even further.  Scott has workshops all around the world and although I would have loved to go to London, Paris, Barcelona, Venice, or Beijing; my family circumstances make it difficult to get away for one of these venues.  So I took advantage of Vegas being relatively close and made the commitment to attend this workshop.  Thank you to my wife Diana for allowing me to get away for a few days to have this great experience. 

Well I was not disappointed.  I learned a bunch of new stuff and solidified some of the things I did before.  Also Scott and the other attendees were just a blast to be around.  So I come back more invigorated and ready to apply the things I have learned to hopefully take my imagery to the next level.  Here are a few images from the workshop.  One of the highpoints was getting to shoot in the Neon Boneyard, which is a collection of many of the old signs from the casinos.  These images were shot with the permission and under agreement with the Neon Boneyard Museum.  Hope you enjoy them and I look forward to producing bigger and better things in the coming year.  Also if you want to improve your photography I highly recommend attending one of Scott’s workshops.

I have known Christine for awhile now.In fact we used to serve together at our church. Although, filled with blessings our time serving, since we were in a leadership capacity, sometimes meant we had to shoulder some heavy burdens. So to get a chance to go out with her and Joey to do their engagement session was definitely a nice change of pace. I just recently met Joey but from the times we have spent together I have to say he is a pretty good guy.

As I mentioned in my preview, Christine and Joey decided to go over to The University of California at Berkeley, better know as Cal, for their e-session. The campus was great as it provided many places to shoot but perhaps what was nicer for all of us was it brought back some good memories. They even treated me to a Top Dog.It doesn’t get much better than that! Well I have to say that Christine and Joey were a total joy to work with. They followed direction well and were real trooper in hanging in for the whole session.I really am looking forward to covering their wedding next month.

I will be heading out for Vegas in a few days to attend Scott Robert’s workshop, so I am expecting to come back armed with some more knowledge and inspiration from Scott and all the other attendees. Take care everyone and catch you when I get back.

What can be better than a nice birthday celebration? A great birthday celebration in Hawaii! A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go over to beautiful Hawaii and cover Elaina’s Big Birthday Celebration.Wa, Elaina’s husband, went all out in planning this special birthday for Elaina.I have been lucky enough to be friends with them for many years and we have all shared some fun and silly times together. Well one day I happened to be talking to Wa and it came up that I have been involved in wedding photography. He was putting the final touches on Elaina’s birthday and on the spot decided to hire me to go over and help cover this special time.

On the schedule were things such as BBQs, hiking up Diamond Head, ATV riding, an ocean cruise, etc. To top off the whole thing Wa booked a great celebration dinner at Azul, over at the JW Marriott in Ko Olina. I was a bit concerned on Elaina’s actual birthday as one of the few shots they really wanted was some sort of sunset shot. Well a big storm was coming in and that morning I thought, “Well it is either going to be overcast and they will have no sunset or if we are lucky the storm will not be completely here and we will probably get an awesome one.” Thank goodness it was the later. Although, we must have been out there in like 40-50 mph winds, but I am glad we got some good shots.

What made this assignment even nicer for me was I got to take my family along for a vacation as well. Wa very nicely let me have a lot of free time and also included me and the family in the celebration. Thanks to Wa & Elaina for giving me the honor of recording their celebration.I wish Elaina a great coming year full of wonderful things. Hey she got off to a fantastic start already.

The other day I had the pleasure of going out with Christine and Joey to shoot their e-session.  As they both went to Cal they decided that they would like to go over to the campus for their pictures.  The funny thing is I went to Cal as well, but as we walked around we realized how much things have changed since we were there.  To add to that there is still a ton of construction going on so we wandered about for awhile trying to make our way up Soda Hall which was one of Joey’s old haunts.

Well it was a blast running around with Christine and Joey, they were real troopers and kept smiling to the very end.  Here are a few shots from the day, stay tuned for more to come. 

I know, I know, there is only so many times I can post on this wedding but what can I say, it was a beautiful wedding with an awesome couple and awesome venues.  Although, what I just said is true and is in part why I am posting again, in reality what happened is Christine contacted me through Facebook and asked if I could link her to my photos so she could share them as well.  So long story short when I initially worked through my images for this wedding I had not yet figured out how to post a slideshow.  So I figured that I would put one together now with images from their wedding.  Obviously in a slideshow format I can share more images than in a normal post so this is a good chance to share some of the other images that I could not share with them before.  Well I hope you enjoy it, I enjoyed shooting it.

Congrats again Christine & Vivek!