As I mentioned in my preview, the week leading up to Rita and Andrew’s wedding was terrible for me.  I even missed out on one of my favorite activities which is playing golf.  So you can imagine my anxiety about not being able to make it to Rita & Andrew’s wedding or not being of any use while there.  But I have to say God is good and I actually felt pretty good. 

The day was a special one in many ways, of course mostly because I was allowed to share in this intimate and momentous event with Rita & Andrew, but also because I was again able to shoot second for my friend Scott Robert.  In addition, I met and was able to work with Jackie who was there helping and observing Scott. 

One of the things I love is when the couple begins to become more comfortable with you and forgets about you.  Those times are when you can begin to see into who they are and how they love one another.  One of my favorite moments was when we were waiting with Andrew.  Scott had finished taking his shots of him and he was waiting for the First Sight Meeting.  During that time Jackie and I tried to keep Andrew loose and in turn were blessed with him sharing how he and Rita met.  It was one of those cute and funny stories that I’m not sure even the movies could come up with. 

Well congratulations Rita & Andrew may your new life be filled with many joys and blessings.  Here are some of my shots.  Of course the set up group stuff was put together by Scott but as always I tried to catch the second angle or frame it differently.

As you can see Andrew was pretty relaxed as he told us his story of how he met Rita.

Andrew is a huge turtle fan so you can guess what one of the themes was. Here is one of the table cards.

Now I know we are parents of a young child.  Not that I did not know before but suddenly our weekends are filled with going to children’s birthday parties.  I guess it is just another stage of life.  Yesterday we attended the Birthday Celebration for EJ and Jadon.  It was at the Nut Tree.  The Nut Tree once was this famous eating/stopping spot between San Francisco and Sacramento.  I believe that in days gone by when travel was all part of the journey and experience, people would make it a point to stop at this establishment to eat, buy gifts, and purchase special treats.  Sadly we now are more interested in getting where we are going and don’t include places like this in our plans. 

Well a number of years ago the Nut Tree closed.  Recently they have built a shopping area and now the Nut Tree is a shopping village but still has a little theme park where their old little railroad still runs. 

The party was fun and there were a number of our friends there with their families.  Happy Birthday EJ and Jadon!  Here are a few shots that I managed to get.

Today I was off work since I work a 9/80 schedule. That means I work 9 hours a day so every other week I get an extra day off.  It is nice to have a weekday off since it seems much easier to go places and do things.  We went over to Cal to get a couple of birthday gifts.  After buying the gifts we went over to one of the grassy areas to let our daughter have some play time and look around.  She ended up having a ball watching people walking by and of course all the Wowo’s, which is Chinese baby talk for dog.  Here are a few shots of her most recent Cal adventure.

Someone is happy with her new friend!

This is over by Doe Library.  This area is so much nicer than when I was there.

Okay, I wasn’t going to put up more of Rita & Andrew’s wedding until I finished it all up but since I got comments from my two loyal readers to see more I will toss up a few more.  I will try and get the rest done so I can do a full post, but for now I hope this suffices.  Thanks for the comments and I would love to hear from any of you who happen by.  Maybe I will find out I actually have 3 or 4 readers.  =)

Last week was a long week for me.  Not because I did a lot of things but because I was ill for most of it.  I started off first feeling bad late Monday afternoon but seemed to get better the next couple of days which was a relief for me as the 4^th was coming up and I had some plans for the long weekend.  Unfortunately, Thursday evening I felt even worse.  I was so bad that I even could not make it out to play golf on Friday morning and had to bail on my friend.  Sorry Alvin!  You know I am sick if I pass on golf!!  What I was even more worried about though, was I was scheduled to shoot Rita and Andrew’s wedding with Scott Robert on Saturday.

So I was praying hard that I would recover so I could make it out and feel well enough to be effective.  I really wanted to make it since Scott is actually one of my good friends and we just have a good time when we are together, but also because as many of you might know he is an awesome photographer.  I learn something every time I go out with him.  Well my prayers were answered and I was feeling pretty decent on Saturday.  So I headed out with Scott and Jackie.  Rita and Andrew’s wedding was a great affair with beautiful venues but also sprinkled with things that just made it fun too! 

To the couple of you out there that actually read my blog, sorry for not posting anything last week, but I will try and get some stuff posted.  In the mean time here are a couple shots of Rita and Andrew.

The other day we had a BBQ lunch at work.  Our managers are nice enough that each year they usually organize and host a little luncheon/picnic for the staff to show their appreciation for all the work we do.  So the normal schedule is we have a staff meeting and take care of business and then have our little BBQ.

Well this year my co-worker brought along her boys Austin and Logan. They are just so funny and were having a great time.  So I just had to chronicle some of their time with us at the park.

I had the day off today so I actually got to see my little girl in the morning.  Normally I have to leave for work before she is up so on the days I am off it is a nice treat.  Well I decided to grab my camera thinking I might record a little of her morning antics.  Oddly there was some great light coming in from this little side window that is not always there (the light that is, the window is always there).  So I snapped off a few shots.  So yes again it is time for my favorite model.  =)

And here is her American Idol pose.

I got a new toy in the mail today.  So of course I just could not resist running around experimenting with it.  Yes, it is a macro lens as you can tell by the pictures.  Back a couple of weeks ago Diana asked “Do you want this for Father’s Day?”  Me, “Oh you twist my arm…ouch…oh…okay if I must.”  Ha ha ha!  Thanks Diana!!  Well here are a few shots.  In the shots with the little robots I was messing around with lighting as well.  If you could not tell I had the sophisticated flashlight system in full effect.  = )  Hope you enjoy my little macro madness.

Okay, if my wife had walked in while I was doing this she would have thought…oh wait she would have SAID “What are you doing?  Are you stupid!?”  Okay maybe she would not have said that in those words exactly but she would have been thinking it for sure.  Actually, after she reads this she will have the same reaction.  =P  At any rate, in my ever evolving journey to become a better photographer I was experimenting with my flash the other night.  I just wanted to get a better grasp of just how different things work and how little changes can sometimes make big differences in the image you produce. 

I was short on models so yes, I resorted to the fluffy bunny.  The good thing about the bunny is it does whatever you tell it to and stays where you put it…well sort of…it decided to fall over a number of times.  But in the end I have to say he did a fantastic job… ha ha.  Well giving Fluffy Bunny a break I decided to use Dumb Bunny (I actually am a rabbit in the Chinese Astrology).  Well I think I learned some stuff from all this so it was not a complete waste of time. Besides the more knowledge I have the better off I am as a photographer and a person in general.  Yes, not a very deep entry and that was a stretch at the end but hopefully it was entertaining on some level.

The better of the shooting subjects.

One of the images that I came up with of the "Stand-In Model"

I mentioned a few entries ago that my daughter had her first little walking experience.  Well she still is pretty wobbly but it is amazing how much better she gets daily.  I really think we are in for trouble, especially since she is also starting to exert her own little strong willed personality.  But in the end I still would not trade the experience.  There is nothing else that makes me feel the way I do when I watch her do her thing. 

A couple of shots to let you see her progress, and my eventual undoing.  =P