Sekula Family Portrait

i've had the pleasure of meeting some very colorful characters in my life, edna and frank are VIBRANT in color.



i met frank a few years back during a fund raiser golf tournament for saint maximilian kolbe church held at north ranch country club, westlake village. it was a scramble tournament, for those who are not familiar with the term, you are paired up with players that have similar handicaps to polar opposites. this keeps the tournament somewhat "even steven" for all teams. from the time we tee'd off to the banquet frank had more energy and a readily available smile that was contagious. it is because of his laid back demeanor and love for golf and ease of telling stories that the day seemed to just flow. not thinking too much and having a lot of laughs made for a great day. so much so...when i came into the clubhouse frank made a bee-line towards me and announced with jubilation that we had placed 2nd!



i was honored to have been given a call a few weeks back from frank that he loved our photography and wanted to take a family portrait with his lovely wife.


i met frank and edna at their home, showed them a few of my ideas and within minutes...literally,edna said "great" good ideas. so, true to form i kept the portrait session focused on their personalities and their dynamic. my favorite is the clubhouse deck.



great, great people and funny...boy are they funny.

-joey

Lilian and Kevin - westlake village, ca

lilian and kevin's o-line proofing website

as the ceremony was about to begin you could feel the anticipation in the air. lilian and kevin could not wait to be married!
father o’dwyer, the pastor at st. max, presided over the wedding. as usual, he was quick witted, loving and quite brilliant. father o’dwyer keeps you on your toes. this day was no exception.


during the lighting of the unity candle he stopped the ceremony mid-flight for a photo opportunity. we were all surprised… including the bride and groom!


we also never know if father will announce the kiss, sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn’t. on lilian and kevin’s wedding day he did not announce the moment. so we were all ready for that beautiful moment and our cameras were on fire.




lilian and kevin gave us so many opportunities to share their love and do some very classic shots with our artful approach.


the four season’s is exquisite and a local favorite for shooting weddings.


david h. murdock has given us a special gift right here in the beautiful westlake village.

thank you!

p.s. just a little something FUN that makes the day even more unique is when lilian and kevin insisted on really showing why it's great to be "young and in love."




congratulations to lilian and kevin. you’re married!
-karen

lilian and kevin's online wedding album.




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Viva!

so it was a Monday afternoon and we closed the shop at 4pm... which never happens if you know us. we all headed to the FORUM in Inglewood to see night one of COLDPLAY. we always find inspiration through music and imagery and coldplay gave us just that. it was if the band knew we were coming. hhhmmm, could that be possible?



first stop was some healthy dining at matt and roxy’s favorite place... chipotle. to top it off was a stop at the infamous RANDY’s donuts. whose idea was that? then on to the fabulous forum!





in a chance meeting we met the owner of one of the parking lots near the venue... richard. what a sweetheart... we asked him what he was doing working at the lot and he said he wanted to set a great example to his employee’s. we love that!



coldplay gave us gifts throughout the night and brought over 18,000 fans up to their feet and down to their knees, including us. adrenaline pumping rock opened the show and melodies that gave goosebumps brought it to a close. it's amazing to watch a group which is so tight and so talented - they can laugh, joke, or mess up a song and then dive right back into it like nothing happened. brilliant!

Erin and Gary - point magu rock, port hueneme, ca

karen and i met erin a few months back in ventura with her mother on a day with "the girls".


erin just had her hair done to see if she would like it on her wedding day and she looked radiant. i didn't think she could top it until i saw her with gary.


the two just fit together like a nice drive through mulholland highway on a cool, clear, open road day. erin and gary were excited to be out photographing their engagement session that was very dear to their hearts.


gary had said he loved erin for the first time on this stretch of beach.


wanting to highlight their dynamic i immediately focused on them and the surroundings did their job...surrounded them with amazing foliage and breathtaking landscapes.


i truly enjoy going against traditional methods and bringing to focus what most of us miss. thank you gary for pointing this out to me. i had soooooo much fun i didn't want to leave. i will soon enough have more to capture on their wedding day at the pierpoint inn in ventura.

can't wait.

-joey




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yo!

just when you think you are about to hit ROCK bottom matt gets creative and takes one out of karen's book of food styling. inspired by a late afternoon snack matt took off and came back with an awesome piece of art. it looked soooooooo good i reached for my favorite lens 85mm 2.8 macro, rolled up the shades and shot this beauty. here's to ..."WAKING UP" thanx matt.

Rock On!
-joey

Maria and Mike - san diego, ca

maria and mike on-line proofing website
maria and mike on-line bridal album

i remember driving back from san diego after having dinner with maria and mike thinking that there are not enough hours in the day to describe this couple, their family and this wedding day! ! maria is the first of her generation to get married so karen and i, needless to say, were prepared to photograph the wedding of the decade!


this wedding was filled with “old school” traditions, charm,

class with the fun, energy and hip fashion of today’s generation. . from the moment we arrived to the moment we said good night the bride was glowing,

filled with love, emotion, joy and 100% pure energy. the couple loves fashion and we celebrated this throughout the day with our photography! they let us do our thing unscripted, unplugged.

i can not even begin to highlight the day within the time of this post. what does come to mind is a moment that was a turning point in my career. after spending sometime with the bride and groom FAMILIA was a huge part of their day of celebration and a moment that embodied this was photographing maria’s bridal portrait in her parents master. after photographing a few frames and wanting to share my excitement and joy that the bride was so radiant on film i showed maria an image of her.

she viewed the image on the back of my camera and was overcome with emotion that she shed a tear. her reaction overwhelms me to this day.

poignant moments only became more vivid from then on.

from the father walking his princess down the aisle,
to having over 400+ people holding hands in prayer,

to the groom pumping his fists in the air after saying i do,

to an amazing editorial shoot with a 22 person bridal party,

to the extremely passionate and loving embrace after the 1st dance,

to the mother son dance that brought on a joyful laugh from being surrounded by a swarm of family,

to the march to the cake during the tarantella was definitely full of life…you almost had to be a paparazzi to keep up with them,

to a romantic “make-out session” in a old classic olds… one of our favorite “signature” images to date.


maria and mike… there are not enough hours in the day to describe this couple, their family and their wedding day...however, just ask me or karen anytime and we’ll both give you more than an ear full.

siete veramente bravi!
grazie mille

-joey




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Quote of the Month

art is not a category, nor a form, but a secret, hidden part of content. any artistic creation can appeal to the viewer in all sorts of ways, for instance its theme, subject, situations, story or characters. but above all, what moves us deeply is that difficult to define essence, what we call the art of the work, which is worth more than all its other elements combined.

paraphrased work from pasternak out of “dr. zhivago”

Out with the Old, In with the WOW!