Rebekah and Brian’s wedding was held in Somis at Hartley Botanica, a tucked-away venue where greenery is in no short supply. They had a beautiful outdoor reception held underneath a canopy of trees and surrounded by what else? Green! A parrot, owned by Hartley Botanica, greeted guests as they took their seat before the ceremony began. One thing that sticks out from this wedding was that I was seated at Rebekah’s mother’s table. This is one of the few times I was seated as an actual guest and not a vendor. It was a nice treat. I also had a lot of opportunities to get pictures of the Rebekah and Brian since they didn’t give me any sort of time limits or restraints. This allowed me to get quite a few unique images of them.

Ryan and I met way back in High School and maybe even Junior High when we performed together in the Santa Clarita Honor Band. That’s right we were pretty cool. So when he contacted me to shoot his wedding and engagement pictures, I was excited to say the least.
Two hours before our engagement shoot I got a last minute idea for a location. It ended up being perfect! Placerita canyon was beautiful that day and was a great backdrop to contrast the first location (Bridgeport).
Julia and Ryan were truly a great couple to photograph. More importantly, they trusted me taking them into the wilderness to come out with great pics. It was a team effort.

It was a rainy Saturday when this shoot was scheduled and everyone was a bit apprehensive about having a baby out in this weather. However, despite the fact that we weren’t sure we’d be able to get anything, we just went for it and it turned out just fine. Zoey was the star of the shoot and as such, she did a terrific job of playing up to the camera. She had the cutest little smile and laugh. Brittany stood behind me and made silly faces to get Zoey’s attention. The shoot was a success.

For such a relatively small location, we were able to get a lot of different looks. I met this couple because I frequent my local Starbucks nearly twice a day. Rachel’s stepfather would always see me in there meeting clients or hanging out with my wife and daughter. He knew I was a photographer, so when Rachel got engaged, he referred her to my website. One thing I love about overcast days is that I don’t have to worry about the sun getting in the way. It makes it a lot easier to shoot when I don’t have that extra sunny concern.

It was an extremely beautiful museum, but with “Getty” in its name, that is to be expected. This was a predecessor to the Getty that is on Sepulveda. It overlooked the ocean and was absolutely serene and peaceful. We got kicked out, but not before getting some awesome photos. Rae and Karl had very obvious chemistry that made them a lot of fun to photograph. As an added bonus, Rae baked me cupcakes when I delivered her the photos. They were delicious.

I met Elizabeth and BJ through my wife, as they have been friends since high school.  I then shot a wedding a while back where BJ was a groomsman. It was at that wedding where we discussed this maternity photo shoot. Elizabeth had been mentioning for quite some time that she wanted to do a family shoot with their dogs, but life had other plans and it ended up being a different kind of family shoot. We went to both Placerita Canyon and Brideport. While at Bridgeport, we ran into a group of kids that had a $5,000 camera and were trying to replicate a professional photo shoot of their friends. Pretty entertaining.

Anamarie and Chris were married at the incredible Calamigos Malibu. It is an insanely beautiful location with a large property where I could probably go back multiple times and have different backgrounds each time. They selected a very hip Super Mario theme, complete with a killer cake. They had both been part of a wedding party from a previous wedding I shot, so I was very happy to be working with them again. They ended their wedding with a sparklers grand exit, which added a very dramatic effect for photographs.

Since my wedding at Calamigos Equestrian a few years ago, I seem to be shooting there on a semi-regular basis now. The day of Allie and Bryan’s wedding ran quite smoothly. The timing of the wedding was perfect, which made for a stress-free and relaxed day. Allie and her bridesmaids all had really cool hangers, which adds a certain finishing touch to the dress pictures. The entire wedding party was a lot of fun to shoot and made for a very enjoyable wedding.

I drove down to Huntington Beach on a picturesque February day for Kim and Jorge’s engagement shoot. The weather was perfect, which made the beach a bit crowded with people. At sunset, there were four different groups of photographers all shooting near the pier. We were all trying to avoid getting in each other’s shots. It made for pretty comical end to the shoot.

The weather in Santa Monica today couldn’t have been any better for my engagement photo shoot with Erica and Jake. We had a blast playing the carnival games, listening to a reggae band, and watching some pretty cool street performers. It was the kind of day people who live outside of Los Angeles envision Santa Monica to be. While it took a half hour to find parking, the delayed start time to our shoot was worth it. As was the $12 purchase for a balloon I used for one of the more conceptual photos. Erica and Jake were naturals in front of the camera, which made my job fairly easy.