Tonya and Matt - engagement

california has many resources, no finer than the people that make up this great state. i have had the pleasure to really sit down and soak in relationships because of the openness of our brides and grooms. tonya and matt are true californian to the bone.


they welcomed me into their family like they've know them for years. immediately sharing with me what drives them...laughter, family, good friendships and the pursuit of a great life...all in balance.


i have mentioned before that our engagement sessions are allllllllll about the celebration of the engagement of two families but most importantly the engagement of a couples relationship and what makes them unique. tonya and matt are everything a home is; they are comfortable, welcoming, full of stories, GREAT AMOUNTS OF FOOD and down right the place to be after a long days work.


if you know tonya and matt, then you KNOW what i mean. so, it was fitting that matt invited me over to his parents home, where he grew up, to let their pets run around and photograph him and his bride to be. home is definitely where the heart is...in the comfort of each others arms.

Staci and Jim - engagement

jim told me, right to my face, that "i was crazy". my reply to him was "yes, yes i am." how can i not be with such a great gift before me?


jim and staci are one hell of a nice, nice couple. jim loves staci and staci loves that jim loves her. isn't that funny? i had so much fun on their engagement session that i forgot that i was there for them. ha! karen and i met jim at our bridal show in ventura a few weeks back and immediately took a liking to him and what he was looking for his bride to be.


after our initial meeting he wanted us to meet with him and his fiance, staci. after our meeting we all came away excited that the celebration was ON! at first jim and staci hadn't given a second thought to an engagement shoot because...they were already engaged for awhile.


so... i reminded them that this is an especially awesome time in their relationship that they need to celebrate the bringing together of their two families and announce out loud to all to hear that they are ENGAGED. isn't that cool?!


anyway, when i showed up for the engagement session they were ready to celebrate in their own special way...toasting with their favorite wine, making each other laugh, showing me around their beautiful home and..........going for a sunset run in the hills. WOW! how much fun did we have. jim and staci took me up to their favorite site to run and it was SPECTACULAR! during the shoot all i kept hearing was them laughing. laughing at me and how much i was blown away with how beautiful the session was turning out to be just by being PRESENT.


after the photo of jim and staci on the rock (the very rock that jim proposed to staci by the way) we headed off for our 10k run.


two words... FAN .....TASTIC!

Erica and Shaun - engagement

often i mention that it is our couples that treat us to experience their lives only the way they can share it...by inviting us in. erica and shaun invited me to "their neck of the woods" and boy was it nice.


they live just outside a beautiful community in valencia ca called bridgeport. it is an amazing community right out of a charles dickens novel or somewhere near nantucket. with a lighthouse and everything.


every home had an immaculate garden with wisteria, jasmine, cala lilies, a winding and romantic man made lake with canals branching off and grabbing homes by the dozen.



what a peaceful place. so, erica and shaun invited me to share with them a piece of their life that was a gesture that i gracefully thanked them with an engagement session that i truly enjoyed.

Gabriel's Bar Mitzvah

there is something about a father and his sons love that can illuminate an entire room when witnessed together celebrating a young mans bar mitzvah.

speaking from a father's point a view, images like these bring pride to all fathers. the pride from both father and son is soooooooo priceless. as parents we sometimes forget that our children mirror us so readily so being able to capture the relationship between gabriel and his father only strengthen my love for my son. it so made me smile when i photographed gabriel's father planting a BIG smacker on gabriel's face.


i was privileged to be gabriel's photographer at his bar mitzvah and i enjoyed every minute of it. i often find moments that define an emotion that just stops me in my tracks...the image of an elder of the family reading during the ceremony brought me to tears. this was such a moment..."a defining moment".


there was a time during the party that the dj pulled out a guitar hero "playoff" that gabriel ROCKED the house. this shot happened without any setup. toooooooo much!



the last photo was a of gabriel hitch hiking down the road after the party. something of an inside joke within the family. do you notice that the photo is two separate images?



mazal tov gabriel...enjoy the journey.

Laci and Brady - engagement

i photographed a couple a few days ago that, again, showed me why i really enjoy being an artist photographing weddings. laci and brady loved our style now they wanted to see our photography in action.


i took them around the calimigos esquestrian center in burbank, ca to unveil not only some beautiful and unexpected location shots but really to peel back the layers of their relationship.


i often talk about the relationships in our photography because i feel that it is the backbone of our photography. judging by the beginning of the session to the end it would be safe to say that laci and brady no longer considered me just a photographer.


rather, someone that photographs their relationship on film and tells their story from a friends vantage point...up close and personal.

Quote of the Month

herioc!

in the 1950s art critic harold rosenberg described the archetypal "action painter", jackson pollack, an artist who transformed his canvas into a modern-day arena wherein an epic struggle between man and material might unfold. process was paramount. with grand, heroically scaled gestures, the action painter created an art of confrontation and catharsis. nearly half a century later, contemporary response to the rhetorical excesses that helped establish action painting as a "heroic" art form has been tempered, and the view of abstract expressionism as the triumph of american painting has fallen out of fashion. there is, however, no denying pollock's monumental impact on the history of american art.

Nicole and Greg - engagement

never am i more excited than i am when i have an opportunity to share our photography with couples that come to us happy and in love.


from the word go, nicole and greg were into sharing a beautiful day with me on the streets of santa monica, california.



their energy and love for one another was evident from the start and i uncovered a sense of playfulness that they both shared and provoked from one another.


we literally walked up and down the streets and found beautiful backdrops that helped tell the story of their engagement.


they have a beautiful, edgy style with a hint of fun and contemporary hip that is today. i learn more and more about our couples through our engagement sessions than i could not possibly know any other way.

Great Fun!

i just spent the WHOLE day with some very gifted and wonderful people, joe and mirta barnet of barnet photography. the dynamic duo were not only extremely gracious with their time and talent but they were a true joy to be around! what started out to be a continued effort to expand my knowledge through a workshop, offered by joe and mirta, quickly developed into a admiration of a school of thought. the school of thought that staying true to oneself is not only a gift to yourself but also to your client. "it would be a dis-service otherwise". i have said this before, and i'll say it again... to truly experience more than we are we need to experience all that we are not. i am a whole lot more now than i am not... after spending time with these two. haha.

what was so refreshing about joe and mirta was they really enjoyed opening up to expose more light on their how we do it workshop well beyond "regular business hours". joe and mirta revealed their thoughts regarding advertising, networking, working with wedding planners, shooting techniques, camera settings, equipment in general, low light ideas, slide shows, promotional materials, photoshop actions, as well as many business and production workflows that were fun, efficient and practical.

i emencly enjoyed swapping stories, learning, laughing... but most of all really connecting with genuine, giving and talented "straight" shooters such as joe and mirta. the time that they spent with me personally and making me feel comfortable in their beautiful home was priceless. -salute

Belle's Princess Tea

she's turning 5! wow, my little girl is all grown up.


she's having a doll house tea party with a few of her girlfriends and she is soooooooooooo excited. it is every parents challenge to get their little ones on camera because moments come and go so very quickly. no exception here. professional or not kids, especially little princess', can challenge our patience. today however, katie was all into her belle costume that she "allowed me into her world" to capture her love of being a princess. you see...sharing in ones life is much more rewarding than simply taking their picture of them in it.

Quote of the Month

"No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition."

-Claude Monet