MASSIVE Wedding portfolio update! 57 Images!

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Break it down!
I think this shot of Kyle from his wedding four weeks ago in Texas pretty much sums up how I feel about getting this most recent update online and available for all of you to view.
This afternoon I uploaded a total of 57 new images to the Weddings section of my portfolio. There are images from four different occasions: The DuBose Wedding, the Knudson Wedding, the D’Orazio Engagement, and the DeLand Wedding… in order of most recent first. The image of Kyle above, is him showing everyone his version of Thriller… I have the entire series of Kyle breaking it down – and it’s hilarious. Maybe I’ll share it in my next blog post. I’m sure many of you read my previous post and saw the portrait I did for Kyle and Tiffanye, right?

Among other shots I selected this image of Tiffanye during the Daddy-Daughter dance. Typically I focus on the father during this moment in the reception. However I love the expression on Tiffanye’s face – she just looks so happy. And the lighting, color, everything else seemed to work in this moment.

And this last image from the DuBose wedding is one of my ultimate favorites from the entire reception. This moment between Kyle and his younger brother is just so pure between the way these two interact and joke. It was very easy to see how happy Ryan was for Kyle that whole day – and I feel I was able to capture that right here.

The Knudson wedding was the second wedding I shot during back-to-back weekends in Michigan while keeping my very busy schedule here in California.
Lisa told me many times on the phone that she “just wanted someone to take pictures during the event” and that “she wasn’t really too worried about it”. I told her that she would probably change her mindset at some point. While I don’t know if she did or not, I wanted to give Craig and Lisa photos that were truly spectacular.
I always say weddings are easy because it’s so simple to photograph two people who truly love each other. And if you read my previous blog post you’ll see how easy it was create great images of these two.

The marina that the Knudson’s chose for the reception was beautiful. After doing portraits, and some fun shots, on the docks/shoreline I found myself in this room with some really great lighting and color to work with. Nearly all the photos on the dance floor were full of purples, violets, and blue due to the color changing ceiling lights. This is their first dance as husband and wife. Please go view this in high resolution since this blog won’t do my shots justice.

Earlier I mentioned that the Daddy-Daughter dance is my favorite dance to shoot. THIS photo of Lisa and her father is EXACTLY why. The amount of emotion in Mr. Favazza’s face as his dances with his little girl says everything. I can’t imagine the feeling of knowing that your baby is all grown up and married; and I can only imagine what it will be like when I’m watching my sister and father share this same moment. Lisa actually told me this evening that this photo makes her tear up when she looks at it. I really feel as though this is one of my best images that weekend.

And the wedding that kicked off my month of madness and traveling all over the U.S. shooting… was Todd’s.
Todd is a former classmate, photographer, and friend from college. And as I’ve said in the blog entry about his wedding weekend, it meant a lot to be flown cross country for his wedding. We had a great time that weekend, too.
This shot above was when we were shooting at the shore, and the guys said “Hey, how ’bout we pick him up…” and they did.. They actually held him there for a while – but I of course ended up liking the very first shot.

Lighting at dusk was a bit tricky, and I appreciated Todd’s full trust and faith in me that I’d manage just fine. This moment during their first dance as husband and wife worked out perfectly. Todd leaned in a kissed Jessica right as they spun toward me. One of so many great moments between this couple  that I was able to capture on my weekend with their families.

And to end on a fun photo, here’s a shot of Jessica sitting down for the garter belt removal – on the knees of men that were told to kneel for her. Hahaha. Todd then had to crawl up to his new bride and remove the garter; the whole process was hilarious. And I’m pretty sure Jessica enjoyed every moment of it.

I didn’t realize just how crazy the four weeks of weddings and travel would be – I even shot off road racing in the middle of everything. I had such a great time being able to share is moment in the lives of old friends scattered around the country. I’ve received such amazing compliments from everyone as well. Jessica told me her and Todd spent 2 1/2 hours going through their images after receiving them. Lisa and Craig told me they spent a couple hours going through their shots laughing and reliving all the moments from their wedding. And I can’t wait to hear from Kyle and Tiffanye when they receive their discs of photos in the mail.

It took me a bit longer than I anticipated to edit everything. From these wedding, and Mike’s engagement shoot, I took nearly 4,500 images. And a few hundred of those got affected by a small hair that found it’s way in my camera while shooting in a salon – what a pain! But, over all, I’m VERY happy with everything.

Next up I have nearly three months of racing photos to edit. I haven’t done a racing update to my portfolio since the Long Beach Grand Prix – and I’ve photographed tons of events from probably 5 different sports (at least) in that amount of time.
Check back soon for a major racing update. And coming soon I’ll have the racer portrait series online that I started last month.

Good night all!

And Enjoy!

(link to the Weddings section: here)

Beautiful models, stunning photos, great shoots…

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The above image was created with the stunning Melissa Miko, a motorsports model and racer. Melissa and I connected while I was working on a project recently and created a number of stunning images together. There were many other aspects to the shoot that I will be able to share at a later time.
But, while on this shoot I was able to create this shot. It’s actually a recreation of a similar shot I did nearly two years ago. I’ve been interested in redoing this image for sometime to once again have it in my portfolio. It just happened to work out that I was able to do it during a separate shoot with someone with an incredible figure like Melissa.

Obviously I was having a lot of fun with silhouettes and the sunset that day. Melissa was a great model, and simply laughed when I asked “gettin’ bored standing here while I do these?”.

So much fun. I look forward to shooting with her in the future.

I also recently shot with Jenny, a model and good friend that I met last year doing fashion shows in Hollywood.

This was a quick snap I took when Jenny was joking around during the shoot. I love working with this girl. We always have fun, she’s always willing to go along with wacky ideas I have, too – but I’m pretty sure it’s only because she trusts my judgment as a photographer. Either way, we always have a great time.

This photo I absolutely love.

I NEVER have photos of myself from a shoot, unless it’s one I take with people afterward. So the fact that Nick took this shot of me and my friend Adam while we were shooting really means a lot to me. It’s blurry, with yellow light.. but it’s hand held with available tungsten light. And it’s perfect because this exactly how I looked if you were watching me that morning.

Here’s another shot that Nick took while I was reviewing the images with Jenny. We were going over what worked and what didn’t every few minutes as we tried different things. Honestly, I’m not sure how people did this in the film days, haha. I love digital.

Another image of me, Jenny, and Adam between shots. Talking about different ideas/changes to the images we were creating that morning.

Anddd the standard “Me and Jenny” shot we always take at our shoots. Overall we had a great morning and a lot of fun at the shoot. It had been far too long since working with her and, among other things, it was great to catch up. My race coverage has kept me so swamped the last six months that I didn’t realize how long it had been since seeing so many of the people I used to work with constantly.

It’s been a crazy summer so far. And things are continuing to get more and more interesting for me. We’ll see how the next four months go. A lot of things are changing right now – but you guys know me… I’m always optimistic.

Check back late this week as I start updating my portfolio with larger versions of images that have appeared in my blog, and new work of mine from the last three months of race events, and photoshoots!

Trips back to the Bay Area are never dull.

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I’m not even sure I can find the words to describe the hilarity of Jared’s mustache.
First, I haven’t seen this guy in at least two years. And then he comes walkin’ in with this Mario Brother’s ‘stache and shaggy, curly hair. I think the conversation went like this: “Dude, you got to let me take you picture” “Ok.” “No, really. Can I?” “Sure.” “Ok, cuz I have my light kit in my car… I’m gonna go get it…”

Anyway, Jared was a great sport and we took a bunch of shots playing with lighting a bit to try and get the effect that I wanted. I’m thinking that this is pretty close to what will become the final version. However, I’m positive the Gamma on my monitor is off… so this version might be overly contrasty to you all.
We’ll see…

But, this is the main reason that I returned home:

TJ’s surprise Bachelor party weekend!
Amazingly, he had no idea. Which worked out pretty considering that I came up from Los Angeles specifically for this event. It was great though, and we were all glad that TJ was surprised.
In this shot is me, TJ, and our friend Evan. We’ve all known each other since Jr. High. I’ve actually known TJ since 6th grade… which is crazy when I think that we met 15 years ago… and now he’s gettin’ married in a month.

The man with the plan was long time friend, and incredible drummer, Justin Imamura. I’ve known Justin for 8 years now. We met back when we worked in theme parks in the Bay Area. Check Justin out in Street Drum Corp: BANG, and the band PNDRS. Plus, we’re both Eagle Scouts… which makes him that much cooler, haha.

I’m not going to bother everyone with the shots from that evening, but rather share this last one of everyone before we split the next morning after breakfast. Overall I had a really great weekend with all the guys. It’s definitely hard to be so far from certain friends. However, I see them when I can and spend the rest of my time incredibly busy with my sports photography, fashion work, and weddings. My photography is my life, but my friends and family make up who I am where I’ve come from.

I also was lucky enough to see Liz, Steph, Linn, Chantel, the Bay Area S2ki guys, and Jill briefly before I left town. Thanks for making time everyone. I don’t know (other than the wedding) when I’ll be back in the area just to visit. The way that my shooting schedule and bookings are looking… it won’t be for a while.

In the meantime I’ll be rockin’ in Socal.
Hit me up people… I don’t have time for much, however I can always do lunch and dinners.

And, on a professional note: I have some really incredible shoots lined up. I’m doing one tomorrow morning with my gorgeous friend Jenny, and will be doing another one either this weekend or early next week with a few other models. Big news coming… just can’t share it quite yet..

Drag racing, XDL Freestyle Sportbike, and photoshoots…

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Yep, that’s my boss.
No, really… it is.

Last Friday I went to Fontana to photograph some drag race practice for the day. The frustrating thing about shooting drag racing, other then them just going in a straight line, is that it’s not really a good sport to shoot during the day. Night time, dusk, lower light conditions are what help make for some really nice drag images..
But, I did the best that I could and came home with some halfway decent stuff. This particular shot is actually cropped in quite a bit from 200mm and has lost a lot of detail in the process. The day was also a practice day for select individuals to come out and test new setups – so, needless to say, it was slow moving.

This rider had a few shaky starts to his runs. I was actually fairly certain he was going to lose it at a couple points. But, he held it together and didn’t bail (thankfully).

Saturday I spent the majority of the day at the XDL Sportbike Freestyle championship in Irwindale. (I make my rounds to all the tracks in Socal, haha)
Honestly, for me, watching these guys break out some of these tricks makes me want to pick up a bike and start learning. I would never be an idiot out on the freeway doing this crap… but it’d be fun to just know how to control a bike like that.
I came home that night with a few hundred images from the competition. I still haven’t had time to sort them since I’m so busy with my other projects. However you can bet that I’ll be adding these to my portfolio soon. I’d also really love to do a dusk shoot with some color and lights with some of these guys… that’d rock.

—

I’ve also been catching up on TONS of other work from July – and even a bit from June. I’m incredibly swamped with work right now and have had trouble keeping up on my editing for my site. My work, and work for clients I’m on top of, however the stuff I do for myself I’m wayyyy behind on.

That being said, check out this wonderfully attractive image of yours truly:

This was during the Lucas Oil Off Road Race Series, in Lake Elsinore, Calif. in the middle of June. It was over 105 degrees out on the track all three days. Yes, I’m wearing long sleeves and a scarf – my hat was on the table. I stay completely covered for outdoor race events. You stay cooler sweatin in a long-sleeve than you do in a t-shirt with the sun beating down on you.
Try it. Seriously.

Speaking of editing and catching up on some other work. This is an engagement shot I did in Michigan. I’ll be photographing Mike and Christina’s wedding next summer – can’t wait, we’re gonna rock it out with photos.
Sure, this shot is  a bit cheesy, but you know what… you need at least one cheesy, cutesy, pleasemomanddad photo during your engagement shoot.

And lastly tonight, a bit of insight on how I shoot.. I roll deep at weddings, night time location shoot, two assistants… ballllllin’
HAHAHA.

This is an image of the location shoot I did for Todd and Jessica during their wedding in Northern Michigan in July. This was during setup for our night shoot during the reception. We disappeared for nearly an hour, people started to wonder what happened, haha.
This is my Speedlite and Pocket Wizard setup. So easy to use, and very flexible for many locations and scenarios.

So, that will wrap up this update.
Tomorrow I leave to go back up to the Bay Area and see some friends and family. It’s another whirlwind weekend in the middle of my extremely busy schedule. I’m booked up the next two months solid – and once I return to LA on Sunday I’ll need to get back to editing again.

Hopefully I’ll have portfolio updates soon everyone!
Just keep coming back to see me

;)

The DuBose Wedding, Prince Charming gets hitched..

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Today I returned home from Texas – and as nice as it always is to be back at your own place, this is a trip I wish had lasted longer.
I went out to Texas to attend the wedding of one of my best friends from when I lived and worked in Florida six years ago, Kyle. Kyle and I went through lifeguard training together and worked at Typhoon Lagoon while on the Walt Disney World College Advantage Program in 2003. About two months into our program however, Kyle attended face character auditions and ended up in the roll of Prince Charming throughout the remainder of his contract with Disney. I was busy saving lives, he, however, was busy signing autographs – tough gig…

Here we are, six years later, all reuniting in Texas for his wedding. Sadly, not everyone was able to make it out, just four of the 10 or so in our group. Becky (NM), me (CA), Joe (NJ), and Deanna (TX) were all guards out in Florida and have remained great friends since. And again, it was just really great to be able to spend three days catching up with everyone while celebrating Kyle’s wedding.This was our second night in town after rehearsals when everyone went out for dinner.

The ceremony was great – and I managed to make some really awesome shots like this one here. This poor little guy looked so bored up there, and was rolling his head around waiting for time to pass.

Tiffanye’s dress was beautiful. And she was sweet enough to ask me to take some photographs during the wedding. I was not the official/hired photographer. However, I don’t attend anything that I may want photos of without my camera. And by the end of the night, I knew I had created many great shots that I’m sure both Kyle and Tiffanye will be very pleased with.
Let’s face it, I don’t want an important friend of mine to have bad images of their wedding if I’m there. I stayed out of the photographers way the best I could, but I’m also shameless when it comes to making sure to get a shot that I see someone else missing. So I ended up coming home with quite a few images.

The flower arrangements were beautiful. Tiff did a great job picking out her colors.

There also was a brief moment of panic when they realized makeup ended up on her dress at some point while putting it on. Five anxious bridesmaids and two concerned mothers later it was taken care of…

Here we are again, goofing off at the end of the night. I would say that after one hot and humid south Texas summer day, lots of walking, dancing, and goofing off later… we all still look pretty good. Haha!

I’m really excited to edit the rest of the images from this weekend. Unfortunately I’m still busy finishing the other three shoots from earlier this month; Kyle and Tiff’s photos will have to wait. I’m looking forward to a somewhat quieter August (less traveling anyway) before ramping up for a very busy September.
Good night all! Hope your weekend was at least half as great as mine!

Find my work in various ads…

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So I share with everyone who follows my work various updates on the many events that I go to and shoot. I’ve honestly lost track of how many different races and types of sports I’ve shot this year – which is pretty incredible. I’m sure that if I sit down and write them out, then I can figure out each and every one and their location.
Either way, I’m so busy shooting, editing, and getting work out to clients for projects that I do on the side (weddings, engagements, fashion, and models), that I don’t always have time to track down the many magazines that feature ads with my work.

I decided to make a brief post before I leave California again in a few hours and share with you all a couple ads that are running this month.
The above shot of Team Fun Center Suzuki was one that I did about two months ago, or so. I remember being at the track much longer than anticipated due to mechanical issues. That same night I had to get down to Newport for a fashion show, haha.

Keith Little I shot during AMA Quadcross in Glenn Helen a few months back as well. I took so many photos that day that the only person I specifically remember is Corry Weller from Weller Racing – and that’s because I’ve seen her at many other races recently.

Rhys Millen of Redbull Racing is someone I had the pleasure of meeting during the Long Beach Formula Drift event. I came back with some really amazing images from this event. I would encourage all of you to click on the link to my portfolio (top of the page) and check out my Racing section for more of my drift photos. So cool to watch, and pretty incredible to be 5 feet from these cars and drivers as they come whipping around the turn right in front of you – well, from where I stand as Press anyway.

This particular shot of Carl Renezeder I took out in Nevada during one of the Lucas Oil Off Road Race Series events that I was at. I’ve shot Carl many times since then and have posted shots of him driving multiple times in my blog. Carl’s a really nice guy, and one hell of a driver. Watching him out on the track truly is impressive.

So, there you go! A few examples of my work that’s been in print recently. You can find these in multiple magazines including D Sport, Import Tuner, QUAD, Truckin’, Off Road Truck, Bagger, Cycle News, Parts Mag, Drag Specialties, Moto Playground, Thunder Press, Transworld, Modified, Sport Truck, Super Street… etc. There are least 6 different style ads running right now with differents – maybe closer to 10, I’m not positive.

So, now I’m about to pack up a few last minute things and head to the airport..
I’m leaving the state again in a few hours – this jet-setter lifestyle, man, it’s rough… hahaha

Catch you all this weekend.
Peace

Another incredible off-road race, wrapped!

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Last night wrapped the final day of the Lucas Oil Off Road Race Series, Lake Elsinore, event. As many of you have already read, I spent three days out there again this month covering the races. The main difference this time around, compared to last month, was that these races were held at night. And, for only one heat… we had some incredible light!

The day, overall, was slow paced for me. I spent most of it tracking down certain drivers and trying to set up some portraits for my side project I was doing during this particular weekend. Unfortunately I was only able to shoot an additional three drivers – but, that’s better than not being able to shoot any. More on that later though…

It’s really unfortunate that more of the racing couldn’t have this kind of light! How amazing would it be to have a series of race images with this kind of color? Granted, I would have needed some Alien Bees and my Pocket Wizards to REALLY play it up and take advantage of the light… but either way, I wish sunset lasted longer than one race, haha.

And check out this shot of Robby Melton… I wish I was this much of a badass at his age. Seriously. How much fun would this have been in Elementary school? I had to settle for the little go karts at the mini golf place. I feel slightly cheated out of race-driver-in-training childhood.

Now I mentioned above that I was able to do a bit more on my portraits project that I previewed in my last post. Sunday evening I had the pleasure of meeting, and photographing, Carey Hart. Here’s a guy who was not only a really chill person, but also a man of his word – which can be very rare in this industry. Carey agreed to a shoot at dusk, which as it turned out, was perfect for my lighting. And even as busy as Carey was, he still made time to meet with me – which is hugely appreciate.
Check out this portrait below..

Let me know what you think in either a comment, or shoot me an email. I would love feedback on this series of portraits I’m working on.

Night fell pretty quick, and that’s when things started to get really serious… Trophy Kart was done, UTV was done, and Buggy had long since been over… It was time for the trucks.
Lighting, was harsh… I’m not going to lie. But, I love a challenge, and even if I don’t come back with a ton of images, I can usually create something cool.

Above is Rodrigo Ampudia driving the Papa’s & Beer truck, being chased by the KMC truck – which is quite obviously rocket-powered.

Rodrigo was one of my favorite drivers to photograph all weekend. He was realllly pushing his trucks to the limits – sometimes a bit too far actually. And again, the fun part about night shots is capturing the flames that shoot out of the exhaust. I would have loved to do some dusk drag-racing shots when I was in Nevada a few months ago, but the weather didn’t permit it.

This shot of Carl Renezeter is among my favorites from that night too. This shot is pretty much straight out of camera. Let’s hear it for the 1D Mark III, L glass and some serious hand-held panning skills huh? To be fair, panning at 1/100 of a second is not difficult at all. This was shot at 1/100, f/2.8, ISO800 at 80mm with my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM and 1D Mark III with available light from the track floods – no additional speedlites/etc used.

Another example I wanted to share. Number 99, Robby Woods – a really cool guy who actually wrenches on his own truck. I don’t care who you are, it’s impressive to walk into a pit and see the driver hunched over his rig making repairs on his own.
The above image hasn’t been altered in any way. No color correction or toning – nothing at all.
It’s shot, completely handheld, at 1/60 of a second, f/3.5, ISO800 at 70mm with my 1D Mark III and 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens.
I really wanted to share with everyone what my images look like, uncropped, straight from camera.

Here’s another quick shot of KMC’s rocket truck! Haha, seriously though… there were quite a few trucks spittin’ flames last night. KMC and Papa’s & Beer just happened to be in front of my lens most of those times.

I thought this might be a nice image to end on.
It feels a bit serene… Like it’s all quiet on the track and this lone truck is out there by himself in the moonlight. Of course that’s not actually the case, but it’s fun to make up little stories in your head, right?

Overall, I’m thrilled with the images I came back with this weekend. I shot quite a bit less than previous races – but, I was aiming for more variety and trying some new things. Some of those new things worked, and some didn’t. I have more ideas for what I’d like to try in the future and will hopefully get some opportunities to do other shoots with various drivers or teams directly in the future for other projects.

In the mean time however I have quite a few photos to edit still and some major updates to my portfolio to do at some point. But I’m also still editing previous wedding shoots from this month.

I’m still busy as hell, and will continue on like that the next six weeks.

But when you’re doing something you love, it’s hard to call it work.
I haven’t had a day off in a month – but I barely notice.

Good night everyone!

Lucas Oil Off Road, Day 2… Rocked

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Yesterday was Day 2 of the Lucas Oil Off Road Race Series event at Lake Elsinore. This time around the racing was all at night – with made for some tricky lighting, but also some bitchin’ shots.
From my location on the track, around turn 5, I noticed pretty quickly that some of the trucks were backfiring pretty bad. And after getting a pretty cool flame shot during the Long Beach Grand Prix, I decided I wanted a night-backfire-shot from off road, too. It was only another two laps or so before I nailed this one; the image itself is a bit grainy… but it’s shot with only available light – I don’t have Alien Bees to set up on the track and risk them getting run over.

The racing actually started in the evening, at dusk. Here’s what shots were lookin’ like before the sun went away completely. Not terrible, but not amazing either. I think I miiiiight actually bring some of my 580EXII’s and Pocket Wizards out to the track tonight and play with some lighting at sunset… maybe… that’s a lot of gear to risk.

This shot was made during the Unlimited 4’s… Carl DESTROYED the rear end on his truck coming off a jump. I was fairly sure he was going over the way that he landed (right in front of where I was shooting from). He held it together just fine, but the truck was done – and he was out of that race.

Flames were pretty common in the Unlimited 2’s and Superlite classes. There were mainly three trucks or so that kept backfiring when they landed. KMC Wheels was one of those trucks. I was able to get a few pretty good shots of it. This image looks really soft as I read this post – I need to double check if my images are being resized on upload… grrr.

Last but not least… another preview of the portraits I was shooting yesterday. These are quite simple, rough, harsh portraits of the various drivers. I shot these with hard, direct light for the really dramatic and powerful effect. What these guys do for a living is pretty hardcore, I wanted some cool images to show that attitude. The above driver, Leroy, is the driver who flipped his truck last month (see earlier posts for photos). Really great guy and his race team has treated me great this weekend.

So, now it’s about time to start packing up my gear and get ready to ready to head out. I have one more day/night of race coverage for this event. We’ll see if I feel like setting up my Speedlites today – I’d love to play with some light and color, but am also half certain that my gear will get run over out there. hahaha.

Check back late tonight or tomorrow morning for an update of the results of the entire weekend!

Back in Lake Elsinore, shooting LOORRS once again.

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Today was the first of another three days of off road racing at Lake Elsinore for the Lucas Oil Off Road Race Series. I was out at this track a month ago covering the same race/series. Today wasn’t quite as hot, but I would say it was MUCH more dry, and MUCH more dusty… All around, a pretty miserable day.

I was incredibly frustrated with how many issues there were on the track – I have no idea what they were, I just know that I sat out on the track for an hour waiting for whatever the delay was to end. I came home with VERY few images in general, let alone many good ones.

I did, however, decide that I’m going to do a portrait series on our sponsored racers…

This is how I intend to shoot this series… very dramatic lighting… harsh, sharp shadows… The races are in the desert, these photos will pretty much demand this style I feel.
This is a portrait of Malcolm Pointon, from New Zealand. I actually have shared a few shots of him in previous posts. Today I had the pleasure of meeting him.

This is a shot I did of Malcolm last month as the previous race. It’s one of my favorites from that weekend.
Speaking of that weekend, I need to update my portfolio still with those images. I’m not behind by off road racing, flat track racing, two weddings, and an engagement shoot…

Too much to do, and too much edit.

I’m staying incredibly busy though… and honestly, I may hire someone to start assisting with editing.

Good night all, see you on the track tomorrow.

Weekend two in Michigan – another gorgeous wedding.

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For the second weekend in a row, I flew cross country to Michigan to shoot a wedding.

This time around it was Lisa who called me “last minute” a few months back to explain some problems with the photography company they were dealing with. Long story short, her and Craig decided they wanted to bring me out from California to shoot the wedding instead.
I met Craig and Lisa shortly after transferring to Michigan to finish my degree. Craig I knew through football, he was on the team, and I shot the team..

The wedding itself was beautiful. It was a traditional wedding in an old Catholic church.

The lighting was really tricky – however the priest gave me permission to use strobes, and asked that I not photograph the sacrament part of mass. Easy enough rules to follow.

I have a lot of really fun photos from the reception, too. It was basically a huge party and small reunion for many of the athletes from school. I got to see so many old faces and I had such an incredible time with everyone.

I do want to share one particular photo though…

I captured this image of Craig, quietly waiting for the ceremony to start. You can see a hint of light catching the side of Ben, the best man’s, head on the right side of the image as they both sit in the darkness. I think it just shows the feeling of slight nervousness and anticipation as they talked beforehand.

One of my favorite images is this shot of Lisa, Craig, Me, and Anne after doing some portraits by the lake. We also took some really gorgeous ones at the marina as well. But the whole shoot was filled with laughter, and dancing. Anne was my hot assistant for the afternoon multiple times – gonna have to start bringing her to California to help on shoots now.

Also, I’m jumping back and forth between this wedding, the DeLand wedding from last weekend, and the D’Orazio engagement shoot.

This is another shot from the D’Orazio engagement shoot last week in Frankenmuth.
Mike really liked the bridge shot I did for Joanne and Jason two months ago for their engagement photos. This was a variation of that image on a pretty cool bridge out there. I’m pleased how it turned out. And while it looks nice in color, I think I prefer it in black and white.

Anyway, I have another busy week ahead. Tons of editing to do, many many images to color correct and tone.
This weekend I’m shooting the Lucas Oil Off Road Race Series again – but it’s evening/night racing under the lights… so that should be a blast.

Check back later this week… I should have many more updates and some portfolio updates as well.