Roxy & Tom’s Beautiful Beach Wedding

in beach weddings on

Tom and Roxanne’s Monterey beach wedding was nothing short of beautiful – and amazingly, we almost didn’t have it on the sand. Can you believe that?!
I’ll get to that story in a few moments, but first, let me introduce you to the Schaffer’s. I met Tom and Roxanne through one of my oldest and dearest friends, Phil. Roxy is his younger sister. And, when her and Tom got engaged Phil told her that he would take care of photography and his wedding gift to her. So I was the gift, how cool is that?!
Apparently Roxanne had been a fan of my work for quite some time and would watch my website and check out new images that I would post up and things that I’ve shot. So, to hear how thrilled a bride was when hearing that I’d be shooting her wedding meant a lot.
The Schaffer wedding was in Monterey, California. I was actually just down the street from where I shot the King wedding a month or so beforehand. I wrapped a trip to the Bay Area around Tom and Roxy’s wedding, and then shortly after flew to New Jersey for another wedding – but that’ll be a different blog update.

Now when I say the beach wedding almost didn’t happen, here’s what I mean. About three hours before the ceremony the coordinator for the hotel came into the room to talk to Roxanne. The hotel explained that “there wasn’t enough beach” because the tide hadn’t gone down yet. They also pointed out that it was foggy.
This bothered me for two reasons: First, don’t freak out a bride THREE HOURS before the wedding ceremony with something you can’t be sure of. That’s just stupid, and it’s too far away to tell for sure. Second: Did I mention it was THREE HOURS til the ceremony? It’s 1pm in Monterey. The ceremony isn’t until 4:30pm. Don’t try and say there “isn’t enough beach” or “it’s too foggy” for a beach wedding – this client booked your venue BECAUSE she wants a beach wedding.
Imagine my frustration when I see a bride walk back into the room with a huge look of disappointment on her face. This venue just convinced her not to have her beach ceremony. My opinion? They didn’t want to move everything off the patio and down to the sand – they had a morning patio-wedding and everything was already set up.
Long story shorter… I talked to Roxanne for a bit, and finally asked “Do you want a beach wedding?” Silence. Of course she did. “Call (the hotel people) back. I’ll talk to them.” So, me and a bridesmaid or two when and spoke to the hotel, explained that we were doing it on the beach, and that they need to set up what they can because the bride wants a beach wedding.

I share this story with you guys for a few reasons. First, working in this business you start to see things occasionally that shouldn’t happen – like a venue changing plans last minute that seriously affect what the bride wants. Second, because whether you as a photographer, a guest, a relative, or any vendor sees something like this, then you may need to be that “jerk” that tells them they can’t do that. And most important, is that it’s the bride’s day. I personally believe it’s safe to say that a bride who wants a beach wedding will be happier having that wedding on the sand with her feet in the water if she has too more than moving it to a patio hours before the ceremony happens. What a bride wants (within reason), she gets… most of the time, it’s not nearly as hard as people think.

I know that story was a bit long, but, I wanted to share.
Keep that story in mind as you look at the photos and see what a gorgeous afternoon it turned out to be by the time the ceremony happened.
And, as usual, I’ll be leaving quite a few comments and captions with the photos below.

Enjoy!

First though… Let’s meet the whole family :)
Tom and Roxane, then Reese, Taylor, Katie, Jordan, and Mateo.

Many more photos after the break.

Read More

Chris(tine)’s Disneyland Engagement Shoot

in engagement on

Chris and Christine are former workmates of mine from years ago – actually we all worked at Disney together.
Well, years later here we are and the two of them are now engaged to be married next June! Chris contacted me a while back when a friend of his was getting married to talk to me about photography, then a few months later he got in touch with me again with the news that he and Christine were engaged!

Well the two of them decided they wanted to do their engagement shoot at Disneyland, how fun! Disney has a special meaning to the both of them, so what better place to do your photos than the Happiest Place on Earth?

Christine was amazing – though she’ll probably be quick to tell you she was nervous the whole time. I kept trying to mention in emails to Chris that “we’ll have a blast man, it’ll be great to see you two and catch up. Don’t worry, we’ll have fun and get plenty of shots.” Chris said that Christine was worried, and she also wanted to make sure she looked good in the photos. And Christine, you looked amazing. I’m pretty sure everyone will be able to see that in all these shots.

But here’s the best part, Christine had done tons of research on different engagement photos that had been done throughout the park by other photographers. She came with a few pages of images for ideas and both of them had a really good idea of what they wanted. They had already decided they needed enough images for a book they were putting together.

Well, we walked through the gates and got started! It was a pretty warm afternoon, which turned into a wonderfully warm night as we ran all over the park making sure to cover everything we could.

The first shot of the day was something that Christine had found online. The wishing well shot. Try posing your hands like that and make it look natural and comfortable. It took us a few tries, I’ll be honest. And it was great that so many park guests came up and congratulated them as we shot.

More images after the break below.

Read More

LA Rooftop shoot with 8 models, yikes!

in fashion models recent work on

Two weeks ago, while in the Bay Area, I was contacted by my friend Elle Favorule. Elle is a make up artist that I met two years ago doing fashion shows here in Hollywood. She called because she was putting together a small photoshoot with the idea that it would end dirty, grungy and with harsher contrasty light.

Well the small shoot quickly blew up in to a much larger production. Elle told me a few days before the shoot that we now had eight people interested in modeling, two hairstylists, two wardrobe designers that wanted to bring their clothing pieces, and the original two make up artists Elle, and our friend Samantha Ward.

We started simple and slowly added different clothing, different makeup, hairstyles, etc. By the end of the day we ended on the dirty, greasy looking photos like the end shot above.

I’ll keep this short, and share a little bit after some of the photos in the captions after the break.

Enjoy!

Natalie was the first model I shot that morning, and she was stunning. Very few models can take such a beautiful headshot straight on and without having to force any sort of expression.

And the equally stunning actress Zoe Myers.
Zoe and I had actually met a while back – but both had to be reminded by Elle, haha.

More after the break..

Read More

So much amazing news! And some BMX! LOL!

in bmx news personal sports weddings on

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, nearly three weeks! I’ve been swamped with travel and also my little sister’s wedding!!
But I have some other really amazing news to share with everyone – even though most of you know. My images from Eryn Holl’s wedding were featured on both CNN.com and AOL.com’s homepages! How incredible.

Eryn’s father Steve Holl’s fight with brain cancer and the experimental treatment that has helped prolong his life has made headlines and grabbed national attention. His story has been shared all over the U.S. and also has been broadcast during the Stand Up 2 Cancer telethon on national television. My photos from the wedding were shown on TV, and the image above has been used on tons of different websites.

It’s really incredible the reach that their story has had.

Also, before leaving town a few weeks ago for my sister’s wedding I met up with BMX stunt riders Sean Logan and Eric Hough.
Above is Sean getting some serious air at the jumps here in Burbank.

It was great to catch up with these guys again. I was shocked how long it had been since I last photographed them.

I don’t know the exact names of all the tricks Sean was throwin out, but he’s really impressive to watch in person.
We spent a lot of time BS’ing and talking. It was also incredibly hot that afternoon so Sean and Eric were takin it a bit easier than normal.

Unfortunately the jumps were overgrown with a lot of shrubs. So it made most all of the camera angles terrible. And it really detracts from just how high in the air Sean is. That bush, is about seven feet tall in front of me that I’m trying to shoot over.

Eric was throwing some pretty hard tricks, too.
And again, the bushes really take away from just how high he’s getting on these jumps.

Sean, left, and Eric, top, takin a break. It was still in the 80s when we were finishing shooting at 6pm.
Crazy weather that day, and these guys were probably burning up I would guess. Hell, I was sweatin’ a ton myself and I was just wearing some cargo shorts while standing there cooking in the sun.

About to call it a day and head out..

I have so many more shots I’d love to share with everyone from family shoots I did recently, too. I also have a bunch of photos from my little sister’s wedding a week ago. But, I’m going to have to save those and do a much longer blog about it separately. And expect another post soon about last week’s rooftop shoot that I did with eight models, two make up artists, and two hair stylists. I have a ton of great images from that.

Check back soon! I’ll be doing more frequent updates again since I’m back from traveling.

The Holl-King Wedding, Monterey, Calif.

in weddings on

When an old friend like Eryn asks me to shoot her wedding day, it’s definitely something special. Even more was that when she was in the planning phase she double checked my schedule first to make sure she selected a weekend that I was available. How flattering!

Being able to be a part of Eryn and Ryan’s wedding was wonderful. Eryn and I go back a long time – back to days when we worked together (she’ll be the first to point out that she was my manager, too) and had silly jokes like calling each other ‘Jim’ instead of our given names. We both still answer to that with one another though.

The Kings were married at  Santa Catalina Chapel, which is part of the Santa Catalina boarding school. Eryn spent part of her school career there, and various women in her family were alumni themselves. So not only was the location beautiful, but also meaningful to the bride.

Ryan had this pose down. Seriously. It took very little direction on my part to get this image, and Ryan has the “Why yes, I DID just step out of a tuxedo magazine” pose goin on like it’s his job.
Ryan is one of those grooms who had complete and total faith in his wife’s decision on the photographer. I’m glad I had the chance to meet him over dinner prior to the wedding, however his personality is one that seems to click with everyone that talks to him. And it was heart warming to be able to watch and see how much Eryn loves him.

Eryn and I made sure to have some fun and take plenty of shots. There were so many areas around the venue to shoot, but Eryn knew exactly where she wanted images made. The rest was mostly left up to me. Given the style and age of the school I felt a bit of aging was needed for this portrait.

I have over 150 additional images after the break that I want to share with you. I know, it’s a lot, but like I said Eryn and I go back pretty far. And since she was always so excited to see new images from other couples weddings that I photograph, I want to make sure I upload plenty from hers!

In two weeks, my little sister is getting married, and Eryn was teasing me this morning about how it’s a shame that I can’t tag along to Hawaii and be around to photograph all the activities they do. How cruel is that?! Haha, I love Hawaii! I personally think Eryn and Ryan should just reschedule their honeymoon til the week after when I’m free… don’t you? Haha!

Enjoy the photos, leave any thoughts in the comments section.
Check back soon, too! I’ll be up in the Bay Area by the end of the week and will hopefully have some time to do some new shoots.

view the photos after the break

Read More

The Rundborg-Johnson wedding, Michigan.

in weddings on

The Rundborg-Johnson wedding, my third trip to Michigan this year!

Most of you guys that follow my work closely know that I travel quite a bit despite being based in Southern California. The place I’ve traveled most this year (repeatedly for work) was Michigan. Second place is Portland, OR.

This time around I was in town to shoot for Alison and Ray. I first met Alison last summer, during the DeLand wedding I flew to Michigan to shoot. She was one of the bridesmaids at that wedding.
Well, when Alison and Ray got engaged she contacted me to see if I was available and interested in returning to Michigan to shoot for her. Of course! It’s always flattering when someone would like to bring me cross-country to shoot.

Over various emails and phone calls we worked out the details and everything was in place as her wedding approached. Alison was actually planning her Michigan wedding all the way from Washington D.C. where she lives, people were flying in from various areas to attend, so naturally a photographer from across the country should be expected, right? I heard many different ideas that Alison had and was really excited about what was ahead of me.

Two of the things that stuck out in conversation with Alison were the church she was getting married in, and her grandfathers old car she wanted photos in. “Oh, I can definitely do something with both those” I thought.

The photo above was shot after the ceremony, on the way to the reception. We piled everyone into the limo and I followed along in my rental to her grandparents house. “He’s so excited to have his car in this shot” Alison told me before the wedding.
Well, we took a number of photos in and around the car. But it was HOT out, so we tried to hurry so Alison and Ray didn’t have to stand there and sweat the whole time. I also made them climb up into the rambler seat in the back.  Those photos are later, after the break.

The most important part of this whole wedding was the church. “When I was a little girl I told myself I’d get married here one day… fortunately Ray was ok with that too and we traveled back to Michigan for the wedding.” See, the church is owned by Alison’s grandmother, so there is a lot of sentimental value attached to it.
And Ray is the type of guy who is definitely going to do anything he could to make sure his fiancé was happy. A perfect example, and big compliment to me, was at the rehearsal dinner. Ray pulled me aside and said “We’re so happy you could be here. It really means a lot to Alison that you’re doing this.” “Oh, thank you! I’m really happy to be here for you guys, it’s going to be a lot of fun.” “It was really important to Alison that you photographed her wedding. So I knew we’d do whatever it took to make sure we got you. So Thanks.”
Wow, what an awesome thing to hear out of the blue as your hanging out with the families at dinner and the groom comes to talk to you.

I had an incredible weekend. I got to see a few familiar faces from the DeLand wedding of course, and meet a lot of great new people, too.
I’ll cut this part of the blog short. I have over 100 photos that I wanted to share with everyone. So, as usual I will be posting comments along with various shots.

Enjoy!

more after the break..

Read More

Beau Peregino’s Mad Men contest entry

in fashion models sportbike on

Beau and I need your help!

Beau has entered the Mad Men contest for a part on the show – and has submitted a shot that we took last week. Please click the image above, or this link, and vote!!
This shoot was very quick and we were able to do it here our large leather arm chair we have in the living room.
I used a simple two-light setup that allowed for two different shots. Beau only really needs one shot, and went with the image above.

This is a different angle of the same pose. Beau barely moved, and I changed one side light just a bit (softer for just a slight touch of light on his right side).
I actually really like this shot too. I think it’s a powerful feeling shot/pose.

I also told Beau that I would get a shot of him riding while he was in town.

Beau on his Yamaha R1.

This is shot one-handed from my S2000. My friend TJ has video of it. I’m sure my family would be mildly concerned if they saw what I do to get half the shots I take for stuff like this, haha.

Update:
AMC has removed Beau’s (and many others) image from the contest. We launched Beau’s photo into the Top 10 in under a day a half with out voting. Beau held the #5 spot (overall) and #4 for men for three weeks aquiring nearly 300,000 votes. AMC then suddenly removed all contestants with over 45,000 votes. No reason was given other then “you were cheating”.
Frustrating to say the least, especially since between this blog, facebook, myspace, twitter, and all my friends and followers who were helping promote this image, we had a ton of support.

Another friend married, Theresa Payne.. er, Spoeneman!

in personal weddings on

Blue eyes is what pretty much anyone will say they remember when they meet Theresa. She has bright, bright blue eyes that everyone notices immediately. They were the focus of this photo… well, actually Theresa made her goofy expressions the main part of this image. But when I heard that she was engaged, among the first things I thought was “Perfect, I know exactly what bridal portrait I was to create with her”.
Cuz that’s what all creative photographers do, right? We use our gorgeous friends for creating beautiful photos, hahaha.

Theresa is a friend of mine from when I was a lifeguard and lifeguard trainer in Florida, at Disneyworld. We are part of a core group of friends, mostly lifeguards, that all spent a good portion of 2003 living and working together. Her wedding was a small reunion for some of us who hadn’t seen each other in years.

This posting will include a number of personal shots since these are my old friends. Typically I keep personal things off this blog, but this is different and I’m even in some of the group shots, too. Overall we had a great time hanging out in Downtown Portland and catching up on life. It was a crazy and hectic week – did I mention I flew to Portland for this wedding less than 24 hours after landing back in California from spending the week shooting in Michigan at the D’Orazio wedding? Yeah, didn’t sleep much at all.

Anyway, enjoy the photos. I’ll put more info in the captions!

Read More

My photo inspired someone to change their life..

in personal portrait on

This photo inspired someone I’ve never met to completely change their life.

What an incredible compliment. Wow.

A friend of mine, named Liz, occasionally tells me about her friend Adam. I’ve never met Adam, it’s likely I never will. But I’m constantly reminded by Liz that “Adam has asked about you again” or “Adam mentioned you today. He’s still working out and exercising.”
I’ve heard this from her for at least the last year or so.

But, this week Liz sent me this in a text:

You’re his idol. Simply put. Like, you really did trigger something and inspire him to get into the gym.
It’s pretty major. You basically made him turn his lifestyle around and he doesn’t even know you. You’re amazing.

Adam, this is one of the most incredible compliments I’ve received in a long time. To be given even a small amount of credit in encouraging someone to change their lifestyle to be healthier and take care of themself is so hugely flattering to me.
I wish you the best in your goals, wherever you set them. And Thank You again for such a wonderful compliment.

I’ve never actually shared this photo on my blog – for those of you who don’t know, this is a self portrait I took a while back. To answer the most common questions: Yes, it is me. No, it is not photoshopped. Yes, I’m in that level of shape. Yes, I do actually eat food. Yes, I wear glasses, but usually contacts 99% of the time. The shot is fired on a timer, single light setup. And no, I have no clue what my body fat level is.

For those who are curious: My workout routine is mostly cardio. I run a few miles every day. I do pullups, pushups, and inverted (hanging upside down) situps. That’s about it. Occasionally I may use weights – but not often. I eat healthy, always have. But don’t deprive myself of things for the sake of being in shape. If I’m in the mood for something I will still eat it. And yes, I also eat bread… those Atkin’s dieters creep me out. The main thing… I’m consistent. I run every day – unless I’m traveling for work.

So, good luck to those who have their goals for fitness. Eat healthy, and stick with a routine.

And I’ll be back to photo updates soon with another wedding I recently shot. Thanks everyone!

The D’Orazio Wedding, Michigan

in engagement weddings on

… sometimes, you leave your wedding reception in a squad car.
<insert cliche about being sentenced to life here>… We should all hope to be so lucky.

I recently spent the week back out in Michigan. This was my second of three trips back out to the midwest this year. I was in town to shoot the D’Orazio wedding. I had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time. Mike and Christina booked me nearly a year and a half ago. Last summer I even had the honor of shooting their engagement photos while in Michigan shooting the DeLand wedding.
It’s always nice to hear any feedback on my work. I would say one thing for me that disappointing is that I never usually get to see my clients reaction to the photos I create of them. However during this trip I heard from both Mike and Christina’s families that they all loved the work I did for the engagement shots – and that they were all excited to see what I would do with their wedding day.

So, Mike and Christina… I hope that I don’t disappoint!

I have over 100 images in this posting. There were so many hilarious shots from the weekend that I had a hard time trying to narrow it down. So, hopefully you guys take a few minutes to look through everything. It should be quick to get through them. And, as always, I would love to hear any feedback from you readers about everything. Also, click on my Facebook fan page on the right hand column to stay updated with what I’m doing.

My weekend with the D’Orazio family was a blast. Spending time with Mike again was funny in the sense that Mike’s attitude was “do whatever you think will look good, John” every time I asked “So what are you thinking you want from your wedding shots?”.
Both the D’Orazio family and Vilk family said they had heard a lot about me. So, obviously I had the bar set pretty high, lol. But they warmed up to me fast, and ignored me taking pictures just as quickly. That’s always helpful since all my wedding work has a journalistic approach.

Anyway, I’m going to continue this blog post with a number of captions. There are so many small comments and stories to tell about the weekend that it’s better I do it with the photos that they relate to.
So please read on! Enjoy the photos, and leave your thoughts at the end!

Let’s get started…

Read More