The Moody’s Snowy Virginia Wedding

in weddings on

Ryan and Jen Moody – on their surprisingly chilly and snowy wedding day in Virginia!

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of shooting for Ryan, one of my old roommates from when I lived in Florida. He asked me nearly a year ago to keep the date open for his and Jen’s wedding weekend on the East Coast. I was paid an amazing compliment when he said “Two things we knew we wanted were the church, and your photography.”
How awesome.
And personally, this photo of the two of them while it was snowing outside made for a wonderfully unique shot.

So, a bit of history about me, Ryan, and best-man Mike. We all used to live together in Florida. We were all roommates while doing the Walt Disney World College Program in 2003. Basically it’s a work program that allows you to earn college internship credits while working for the Mouse. I, personally, was a lifeguard and lifeguard trainer for Blizzard Beach water park. And that was one of the best years of my life so far. Ryan and Mike (his best man) were two of the other six guys I lived with out in Orlando. I have so many great memories with them from our time living together that it was awesome to share such an important day with Ryan.

Ryan is originally from Texas, and now lives in Virginia where both him and Jen work in government. Originally when planning my trip out to shoot for them I was expecting one of those stereotypical New England falls with lots of colors in the trees and bright blue skies. And, to be fair, it was like that the day before the wedding for the rehearsal when we all were arriving in town and running various errands.
The weather reports quickly shifted from Sunny, to Chance of Rain, to Rain, to Chance of Snow, to Blizzard. Well, it definitely did start snowing in the middle of the night and continued the rest of the day and through the wedding ceremony. Good thing we were indoors!!

Since I’ve lived with Ryan in the past, and it was just like living with him again while I was there, the morning of the wedding when he was out shoveling snow I was able to run out to take photos and laugh without feeling bad. Actually, I ran out, took a few photos, teased Ryan about how that’s how he got to spend his wedding morning, sent out a photo with my phone to our other old roommates from Florida, and then ran back inside where it was warm.
Lift with your legs, Ryan!

Unfortunately, due to the unexpected weather, it caused a few small issues with the morning. I wasn’t able to get out to the girls while they had their hair done and the usual wedding-morning stuff. There were also a handful of guests that couldn’t make it due to the road conditions. But it also made for a few fun things, like snowboots and photos with falling snowflakes.

Both Ryan and Jen are pretty chill and laid back about things. Which as I’ve said before almost makes things tricky for me because they’re going to be ok with almost anything I tell them or ask them. “Do you want A or B” “That sounds great John! Up to you.” “Wait, no, which do you want!?” Haha, kinda like that…
But we all had a great time. Their ceremony was smaller and made up of their closest family and friends. The reception was at the George Washington Hotel – and many people were able to make it there that may have missed the ceremony earlier that afternoon.

I’ll save the rest of my comments for the captions, as usual. But again, I had a great time meeting both Ryan and Jen’s families. It was awesome to see Mike again, too, who I hadn’t seen in five years since he was still living in Oregon (and we were at another old rooomate’s wedding!).

Click the break for more..

Read More

Cranberry Boggin! (Yes, like the Ocean Spray commercials)

in farming location shoots portrait on

Mike Wainio, owner of the Wainio Bogs in Carver, Massachusetts.

Last week I was way out in Massachusetts wrapping up the last part of a two week trip around New England areas – a mix of work and leisure travel. For those not familiar, Carver is right outside Boston, and home to my friend Merri and her family. Well, it turns out that Carver is a MASSIVE cranberry producer – at one point in the mid 1900s being the largest producer in the US.
I had ALWAYS wanted to see the cranberry bogs and flooded fields in person. And while visiting one of the Wainio bogs I was invited to come back and see them flood the fields the next day!

You have no idea how excited I was. Hell. Yes.

Honestly I tried my best to not be pushy with my friends about coming back right on time the following day. But this chance was going to make my whole trip that much more awesome. Seriously. We’ve all seen the Ocean Spray commercials with the fields full of floating cranberries. I was about to see that in real life. Sweet!

Well that Saturday I returned to the bogs with my friend Brittany. I chatted with Tony, who runs the Berry Guys Farm Stand on location there where you can buy all sorts of fresh fruit and vegetables. It was Tony who had first invited me out to see the flooding the day before and also said I could come back watch the harvesting. I then spoke briefly with Mike and Brandon who were going to be farming the field and doing the actual harvesting. They said come back in an hour or so and they’d be out there working.

No problem. To the coffee shop!

An hour later Brittany dropped me off so I could shoot – she had a couple errands to run.

I wandered out to the bog where Mike and Brandon were starting their laps on the threshers. I waved hello and pointed to my camera and threw a thumbs-up… basically non-verbally asking if it was cool to take photos of them. Mike yelled back “Wanna come out here with us?” “Uh… YEAH!” was my response.

I walked around to the ramps. Mike picked me up on his thresher, and soon I was out on the water with them harvesting cranberries! SO.DAMN.COOL. I’m sure to a degree I seemed “so Californian” to think this was as great as it was, but who gets a chance like this out of the blue?

I spent the next hour and a half with Mike chatting about everything from cranberries to motocross – Mike used to race motocross and I used to handle all photography for K&N Filters, so he was completely familiar with my old employer.
There was so much I never knew about cranberry bogging that I learned.. here are a few things…

There are two types of harvesting. Wet harvest and Dry harvest. Wet harvest is what people all know about due to photos and Ocean Spray commercials, the flooded fields. These berries are immediately brought to the plant for processing since they will spoil within about 48 hours. Wet harvest berries are used in jams, sauce, juice, etc. Dry pick berries are harvested with a different type of thresher and used for everything else (dried berries, cooked into foods, etc).

Below are 40 more images I shot while at the bogs. I encourage everyone to read on. The experience was really amazing, and I’ll share more in the captions as usual.

Click the break for the rest of the images:

Read More

Megan Renee and Rita von Riot

in models portfolio updates studio work on

A couple weeks ago I shot with Rita von Riot (left) and Megan Renee (right). This was part of my color themed series that, honestly, has been somewhat on hold the last few weeks with all the wedding work I’d been doing. Rita, or Crystal depending on how you know her, got in touch with me wanting to do a polka dots kinda theme for her shoot. The great part about working with Crystal is that she always comes up with some fun stuff and plenty of costume/wardrobe ideas to use.
A couple days before we were going to shoot Crystal asked about Megan joining us. Megan Renee is a highly published model across many different tattoo magazines. So of course she’s going to be someone I would be thrilled to shoot with. Not only is she extremely experienced, but her look is also completely different than a lot of the women I’ve worked with over the years.
So we all met up at Crystal’s studio to shoot and spent part of the afternoon creating a bunch of images. It was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to getting back to shooting more for this series after my next round of traveling finishes up.

However, until that time enjoy some of the shots from this series. I actually created a separate glamour section in my online portfolio now since it’s been getting more difficult to throw everything into Fashion knowing that not all of what I’ve shot is exactly fashion. Haha, so, some of them fall more in to that category.

We also got a shot of Crystal and her daughter Rylee. Rylee wasn’t too keen on spending much time with us shooting, but, we got a couple decent shots. I still need to go back and edit a few more.

This is one of my favorites from the afternoon

Both girls immediately started sassing it up once they started playing with the sunglasses Crystal had. haha.

And I loved Megan’s expression/pose here. You guys will mostly love the two ladies in not-much though I’m guessing.

 

I’m getting ready to start about three weeks of travel again in a couple days. I hope to have another update later this weekend for everyone in between my trips. So, check back soon.
I also will find out how I did in the national voting for RAW Artist’s Photographer of the Year contest that just closed public voting.

Mattie & Vince’s Minneapolis Wedding

in weddings on

I recently returned from Minneapolis, Minnesota where I shot the wedding of Mattie Crawford and Vince DiDona. When I have the chance to head out to the midwest it’s usually an opportunity to see a lot of old friends. In this particular case the brides family and I go back a number of years – I met Mattie eight years ago in Florida when we were both lifeguards. But I met her family years later while attending school in Michigan. I photographed the second half of her gymnastics career for our college newspaper. Vince was a college wrestler, and while I don’t recall shooting him at his meets, I do remember photographing a number of his groomsmen that were on the team.

So, there were of course a lot of the gymnasts from college attending, as well as other friends that I knew from school but hadn’t seen in many years. It was awesome to catch up and see so many people. And I joked with Mattie that it would probably be a lot easier to shoot her walking down an aisle instead of flying and flipping through the air, hahaha.

I flew out to Minneapolis one day after returning to Socal from the SF Bay Area where I was the week before shooting the Balatoni wedding. So the quick turnaround was somewhat tricky – especially knowing that I had to return to the Bay after flying home to Socal from Minnesota. Yep. Lots of traveling right now.

But it was awesome to see Mattie’s family again. Honestly, I can’t believe had been five years since seeing all of them. It makes you realize how fast the time really does go by. It had only been two years since I last saw Mattie and Vince at the Knudson wedding in Michigan during the summer in 2009. Everyone looked the same, so it was like no time had really passed as I caught up with the family after arriving. The Crawfords are wonderful people and truly made me feel like family during all the sports events I would see them at during college – which was awesome since I was 3,000 miles from my own family.
I met a lot of the extended family, friends, and Vince’s family as we passed the time before heading to the rehearsal.

The wedding was going to be at St. Boniface – a huge old catholic church. The pastor who would be marrying Mattie & Vince turned out to be a very cool guy. He told me I was more than welcome to use flash as long as I wasn’t obnoxious about it. AWESOME. You have to love any catholic church that allows flash – I would say that 9/10 do not. The rehearsal was a breeze, and everyone shared in laughs as they figured out order of events and people for the ceremony.
Dinner was after at a nearby park where the families had decorated the picnic area with lanterns and candles.

Mattie and Vince’s wedding day was incredibly smooth. I spent the morning hanging out with the bridesmaids and bride, as usual. The problem, if you call it that, is that I hadn’t seen most of these girls in five years… so catching up a little bit was inevitable and I had to keep some conversations short so I could bounce between the rooms the girls were getting ready in.
After heading to the church we did a first-look that way we could shoot all the family photos before the ceremony. It helped shuffle everyone out the door after the wedding, and allowed us time to go out and get a few images with the downtown skyline in the background. The image above we tried twice. And there was just no way we were going to get everyone’s faces showing with 21 people on a high-traffic bridge on Friday afternoon… ha!

The reception was a blast and I even had time to sit and catch up with the Favazza family who attended the wedding! They are Lisa’s family from the Knudson wedding two years ago; and I would definitely consider them one of my many extended families out in Michigan now, haha. I also had time to catch up with the gymnast girls more, and even Mr. Langley, one of the gymnast dads I used to see and talk to at all the meets. Really it was just awesome to catch up with everyone. Makes me realize I need to take a trip to MI and the Great Lakes areas soon. Or maybe after winter…

Saturday after the wedding was pretty chill. I actually didn’t end up taking any photos and instead socialized and relaxed with everyone. We all had a picnic out in the park and spent the evening hanging out at the hotel.

Minneapolis was great. I had an awesome time and it’s a really cool area in the parts that I got to see. Who knows, maybe I’ll eventually be heading that way. For those of you who remember, earlier this year I was one of the nationally selected applicants for the Viking’s team photographer position. They postponed interviews unfortunately so I don’t know if it will open up again to continue the interview process.

Mattie and Vince, I had an awesome time. Vince, your family is wonderful and I’m so glad I got to spend some time getting to know them in between all the running around. Mattie, you know I love your family, they’re amazing. To everyone else that are old friends or new, it was great catching up, and awesome to meet the rest of you between all my running around.

After the break are over 150 images from the wedding. As usual I’ll throw in various captions here and there. Otherwise simply enjoy them, I liked a lot.

Read More

The Balatoni’s Los Gatos wedding

in weddings on

Hey! I used to be in Boy Scouts with that guy!
This past weekend an old friend and fellow Eagle Scout, Nick Balatoni married Melissa Cadmes at the Los Gatos Opera House in the Bay Area. I traveled back up to the Bay last week to photograph the rehearsal and ceremony for them. Nick is an old friend, and while we’ve gone different directions over the years since high school we’ve been in touch loosely through various mutual friends.

You see, I’ve known Nick, and best-man Paul, since I was in 6th grade. We all went through scouting together (they were already scouts and I joined when I was 13). We were all in the same troop, Troop 14, and all part of the same patrol, Foxes. I have tons of memories with these two. And according to Paul I still hold the record at camp for fastest time up the climbing wall! Yes! 12+ years and going strong! Both Nick and Paul were instrumental on my path to Eagle Scout. Nick reached Eagle before me, and being one of the MC’s at his ceremony really helped push me to finish my requirements and reach Eagle myself. And when I did Nick was one of my MC’s for the night. And while this blog is about the wedding weekend, I will share one image from back in high school from our scouting days..


Left to right: Paul Barron, Jon Anderson, John Remus III (me), Nick Balatoni, and Robert Rico.
This was right after we finished my Eagle project. Robert and I were 17, everyone else 16.

BUT ANYWAY! So Nick’s married now!

Unfortunately due to crazy schedules of both myself and Nick/Melissa I never got the chance to meet Melissa before the rehearsal day – which is really too bad because she’s a totally sweet person and her friends and family are hilarious.
When I arrived at the rehearsal last Thursday evening it was easy to start chatting with Nick like no time had passed. I met Melissa, groomsman Shawn, and Dale who would be the officiant. I went upstairs to check out the venue – the Los Gatos Opera House. I had actually shot an event here shortly before moving to Los Angeles years ago for a fundraiser for battered women and children. So I knew the lighting was going to be terrible, but that the venue itself is very pretty.

The rehearsal went great, and quick! Nick and Melissa emphasized that they don’t want a long ceremony – opting instead for quick and simple and to get right to the reception and spend time with their friends and families. Later on at dinner I talked the ears off various family members that wanted to know about my work and photography I’ve shot over the years.

Their Saturday wedding was in the afternoon – and it was a good thing it was indoors because it ended up being a pretty hot morning in the South Bay. I met up with the ladies as I normally would and laughed and joked with them as they got their makeup and hair prepped. Later on I headed down the street to the Los Gatos Hotel to shoot the guys a bit – did you guys know there is a GORGEOUS hotel right down the street from downtown?! I didn’t.
As Nick and Melissa said, the ceremony was FAST. I just made sure to shoot almost non stop because there were only a few chances for photos and “moments” instead of longer ceremonies with multiple speakers/etc that other couples have.
The reception was a blast, I got to catch up with a lot of old faces that I knew from school, or from scouting. Met some new people, and even found out I have things in common with some family members too! I’m going to leave the rest for the captions below, so enjoy the images.

Tomorrow morning I head out of town for the midwest – Minnesota to be specific. I’ll be shooting the DiDona wedding out there for a couple old college classmates! The awesome thing with weddings is that they take me all over the place for work!

..more after the break.

Read More

Makeup shoot with Amber, Lauren and Alicia

in models studio work on

Two weeks back I did some studio shooting with Amber – a girl that good friend and MUA Lauren (Elle) Favorule had talked to me about for probably eight months. I’m not sure how she met Amber, but, Elle had mentioned wanting to do a shoot with her for quite a while. So we finally found some time to put something together and shoot.
Also brought on set that day was MUA Alicia Yvette who ended up handling most of the make up that day. We were keeping everything very simple and straight forward. Single color themes, white backdrop. I actually had very little do on set for that reason – all my work really come around in post to bring out more of the image.
I’ve received a ton of compliments on these images and on Amber. Amusingly enough Amber jokes that she doesn’t model professionally, but rather just “goes to auditions to get turned down and feel bad”… She’ll tell you that as she laughs about the competition and strict/picky industry.

Either way, enjoy the shots. Hopefully I’ll be doing some more studio work soon. I really do enjoy the simplicity of shots like these. However I’m also starting a series dedicated to colors. Those images will be a bit more themed though.
I’m also getting ready to leave for two weeks of travel and weddings in Northern California and also in Minnesota. Gonna be a busy few weeks!

Click the break for more photos..

Read More

Calee and John Fernandez’s bright & sunny wedding

in weddings on

Last weekend I traveled up to San Jose to photograph the wedding of Calee and John Fernandez. It was a bright, sunny, and hot Sunday at Cinnabar Country Club. And everyone had a really amazing time – despite the higher temperatures.

Calee is someone I met a couple years ago, through friends of mine. She’s a close friend of my best friend’s wife. So I would occasionally bump into her on my trips to the Bay Area. And when it came time for her to plan her wedding, she asked me about coming back up to the Bay Area to photograph it. I knew Calee is the critical type – she works in the wedding field herself, she makes some really awesome custom cakes. So to be asked to be part of her wedding weekend would be some big shoes to fill. (I feel bad for whoever I one day hire as photographer when I get married)

Also in wedding party was Cassandra, a friend of the last 14 years at least, and wife to my best friend. She’s a photographer, too. On video, my best friend TJ, who I’ve known since sixth grade. And a few of the guests were other old friends of mine. So it was definitely one of those times that while I’m in great company, I also worry a bit about doing my absolute best. NOPRESSUREATALLLLL!!!

Read on after the break..

Read More

The Clark Wedding Reception

in weddings on

A short while after officially tying the knot, Brandon and Cassidy threw a party and reception for friends and family – and they brought me up from Los Angeles to shoot it all!
The Clarks are two old friends from high school… two friends that I haven’t seen in 10 years, however, like many people, we all know what each other are up to through Facebook and other mutual friends.
I was contacted by Cassidy a few months back and asked what it would take to get me to the Bay Area to shoot her wedding reception. Her and Brandon had married earlier this year and they were now going to have the reception separately for friends and family. It turns out that Cassidy checks out my photography from time to time and was hoping that I could shoot for the both of them! How awesome is that.

And I travel to the Bay Area frequently as many of you readers may know, so a trip up was no problem at all.

The party was a blast. It was crazy to think it’s been so long since I’d seen some of the people there. Brandon and Cassidy are the first people I’ve shot for that I went to high school with, so there were a number of familiar faces there that day.
Brandon and Cassidy have truly gorgeous wedding photos. Seriously, whoever they had shoot for them during their private San Francisco ceremony did an awesome job – and I’m very particular when it comes to other people’s wedding images. So when it came down to shooting their reception, Cassidy said she wanted plenty of shots of everyone just having a good time.
Piece of cake, right?
Their reception was outdoors in Saratoga (the South Bay) and had a Hawaii/beach theme to it. It was bright, sunny, and mid 80s when we started. Haha! And anyone who’s ever picked up a camera knows that means there is going to be some strong light and harsh shadows. But, despite the tricky lighting, I made the best of what was a really gorgeous afternoon. Check out the images below! Sorry for the delay for those of you who were waiting so long.

Enjoy!

Images below the break.

Read More

Chris & Christine become Chris(tine) Nguyen

in weddings on

Chris and Christine became Chris(tine) officially last week.
And part of me is still somewhat feeling like “Wait! They’re so young! No way…”

I met Chris and Christine nearly eight years ago. We all used to work together at the Disney store in the mall. I worked there during two Christmas seasons between my other job with Paramount Parks. But during those two busy, crazy, insane-christmas-shopper-filled seasons I made some amazing friends.

And I can say, to a small degree at least, that I’ve been able to watch this relationship grow from “I think there’s an interest there” to “Awe, how cute they’re dating!”, and all the way to this point now… Married, and sitting on the beaches of Mexico on honeymoon as I write this.

I remember all sorts of silly stories with Chris, while him and I worked the stock room dealing with a million boxes of product. Late night floor moves with Christine who was always soooo shy and quiet – and people at one point trying to figure out if she was being mean, or really just THAT shy.

Many of you may recognize these two from the Disneyland engagement shoot that I posted last Fall. Seriously, we had so much fun.
It really was touching when Chris contacted me and let me know that the two of them were interested in me shooting their wedding. And then of course went on to plan out the Disneyland engagement photos, etc, with me.

My weekend with the Nguyen and Pingel families was a blast.

I remember Christine getting ahold of me because she was concerned about the rain in San Jose that was blowing in for a very un-seasonable June.
I said I wasn’t worried and we’d make it work. That either way we would rock out with some awesome photos and have a great time. Then… It turns out that Christine ordered six bright white umbrellas to use – how amazing is that? A bride that brings her own props for the photos!

The rehearsal was at the church – St. Joseph’s in Downtown San Jose – and went pretty smooth. And despite everyone being really hungry and eager to leave and get to the dinner, everyone made sure to learn what to do and how things had to happen. The parents all seemed excited, but a little nervous at their roles in the ceremony.

And the wedding was beautiful. Rain was mixed in with some sunshine, lots of clouds, and both cool and warm weather. But when things finally started moving along, everyone was in great spirits. It was awesome. And just like I expected, everyone had fun and barely let the small amount of rain slow them down.

I don’t want to write a novel here about the day – even though I know I could go into all sorts of detail. I’ll leave a lot of what I want to add with the captions. But I will say that I had an amazing time. To be able to be included in Chris and Christine’s engagement, and now their wedding is a huge deal to me. I don’t think I would have ever expected to be such a major part of either of their lives years ago when we met.

So, Chris and Christine, Thank You.
I had so much fun sharing such a milestone in your life together. I hope you enjoy the photos below, hopefully we have a few that you’ll cherish as much as the shots we created for your engagement.

Click the break for nearly 200 images of the Nguyen wedding weekend.

Read More