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

Elyse and Bo - engagement

we met elyse and bo early in the morning on a friends ranch, just outside santa maria, ca for their engagement shoot.


now, mind you elyse had said they are planning a wedding that celebrates their love of everything "cowboy". so their engagement shoot was to be no exception...it was helping their good friends with over 300 heads of cattle. everything from branding to immunizing...i mean everything! right out of the gate karen and i were on a ride like nothing else this side of los angeles.


i've been all over and back again and still never cease to be amazed of the color of our nation right in our own back yard. how much fun did we have.?! boy, what a ride. i was sooooo impressed with elyse and bo's riding skills. they made it look so effortless.


however; judging by their boots...they have done this a time or two. one of my favorite images that came out of our day with elyse and bo was an image that embodied beauty, strength and security...all in the arms of the man she loves. congratulations ya'll.

Hufford Family Portrait

my mother once told me that "do what makes you happy and others will see you as you are and want to surround themselves with your spirit." case and point with the hufford family.


karen and i photographed the families niece/cousin's wedding a few weeks back and so they contacted us to photograph their family. honored, not only a compliment but knowing that the family has not had a "family portrait" since the youngest was an infant. the youngest is now a senior in high school!


it is because of all the things that occupy our lives that we sometimes can't stop the locomotive to catch ones breath, let alone slow it down a bit to take a moment to capture our family on canvas.


for this very reason, the choice to simply not take pictures and call ourselves photographers but to capture the essence of ones heart...this is what makes our photography and philosophy so poignant.