Tim Wheaton Photography | Southern California Natural Light Photographer » engagement

2011: A Photographical Year In Review | Orange County Wedding, Senior, Maternity, Concert Photographer

Tim — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:05:37 +0000

every year i have wanted to do one of these and i just never set aside the time. well this year i have done it! this year was extremely different from previous years for me as a photographer. i shot a few more weddings than i had previously, including some for very close friends, which is always a lovely compliment to be hired by friends for such a big day. i even got to go as far as the bahamas for a location wedding this year! i was finally able to attend the wppi convention for photographers in las vegas this year. that was extremely educational for me with some of the business side of things and also a great opportunity for me to meet up with some of my long distance photographer friends of years, and even meet some new friends. my concert work really started to take off towards the end of 2010 and it took another huge, odd leap this year as i was hired to shoot the Caravan Festivals on behalf of dave matthews band. so instead of going to a bunch of shows like last year, most of my concert work this year was in 3 day festival, multiple-band territory. which is basically like shooting two weddings a day for three days in a row. no joke. i got to photograph some returning clients this year, always nice to have people like you and your work enough to ask you back for more.

there was just no way for me to narrow down shoots to “just one favorite” from them… so sit back and enjoy this. and this is set to complete random mode for your further enjoyment and to keep your eyes on their toes. or your toes on their eyes. or something…

i went into 2011 completely unsure of what was to come. i come out of it completely surprised. i go into 2012 with a couple of new tricks up my sleeve, a couple of definite goals and open arms for even more of what 2011 brought.

here’s to a fantastic year for all of you, whatever it may bring… may it be good! happy new year, and thanks for everything y’all have done for me.

Todd and Rachel | Engaged | Los Angeles

Tim — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:38:21 +0000

it might dizzy you a little if i attempt to describe how it came about that i connected with todd and rachel. so let’s just leave it at the fact that their wedding next year is going to be photographed by my best friend jessica stoker on the east coast. however, they preferred to have their engagement photos taken here on the west coast, where they live. so some conversations took place, my people met with their people (does that still happen?) and we met at the malibu pier last weekend.

quickly onto the pier for some sunbursts and silhouettes (no, that is not a band… though it could be….)

we then made our way into los angeles proper to the los angeles county museum of art, or the lacma to visit the urban light along the street. a fantastic, albeit crowded, little spot.

and a fun little ‘faux-to booth’ shoot to close out the evening:

all thanks to a fun and incredibly genuine couple. you two were so fantastic to spend the latter part of the day with and i truly hope i do get to see you again next year!

Jason and Tracy | Engaged | Colorado

Tim — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:21:06 +0000

how many times have you heard the cliche’s about life? about the craziness of it and the roads we walk down and so on? i mean, even disneyland has a ride that pretty much tries to pistol-whip it into your subconscious about how small the world is. i’ve had these experiences. i’ve seen how it all works out. and this is another one of those instances. i won’t give you too much backstory (i’m still not 100% convinced everyone even reads what i write on these and doesn’t just skip down to look at the photos). nutshell: i ended up in atlantic city, of all places, to shoot the dmb caravan festival. well, i met a handful of people out there and two of them happened to be these two. i saw tracy here and there pretty much every day of my trip. she looked at my work and my weddings and the rest is still history in the making.

so, out i went to colorado, where we would begin shooting in their house in the morning and take most of that saturday to create their engagement photos. and what a saturday it was!

here’s one of their doggies, patience, trying to get in on some of the benefits of a “baking” shoot that morning:

tracy is the real cook in this couple… i mean… jason tried to help. but a blender? for cupcakes?

after some fuel in our bodies (and not just cupcakes), we headed out into the arms of nature.

our final destination: red rocks.

we hustled to beat the sun that falls behind the mountains oh-so-quickly and i started falling in love with some of the silhouettes we were getting:

after red rocks, we returned to their dogs that were desperately waiting for us to take their pictures too.

i’ll put one more up, but i just wanted to say: you two were fantastic hosts. thank you for opening your home to me, i am so completely and indescribably thrilled to be a part of your big day! hopefully we will get to see each other again before then, if shows allow for such a thing :) don’t forget your cali people, now.

jessica & mike | engaged sneak peek

Tim — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 18:25:31 +0000

a little sneak peek of jessica and mike’s engagement session from the weekend. they wanted to do something different from the norm for their session and asked me if we could head out to cabazon. cabazon? hmmm… it didn’t spark anything for me. “the dinosaurs”, they said. ohhhhh… like from pee wee herman’s big adventure? and, yes… indeed they are one in the same. one more fun little thing in california that i have never experienced, even though it is well within close driving range for me. i scouted out the area a little bit on one of my recent trips out to the desert and came up with some secondary areas. so here are a few that jumped out at me right away as i went through them last night:

mike was hankering to get inside the dinosaur’s head so we went through the little museum they have on site to get on up in there.

after the dinosaurs, we took a little drive further into the desert to use more of the scenery for their backdrop…

yes, we found a car graveyard / junkyard on our journey. yes, we did not hesitate to go in. more from this spot will be in the normal post for sure. these are slight teases, remember :)

more to come in the future from this… just wanted to let y’all see a little bit of it. a fun fun day in the sunny sun sun.

missy & gus: engagement in disneyland

Tim — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 06:07:59 +0000

in the midst of a completely hectic and busy time of the year for these two, we were able to get together for their engagement session today. they are getting married next month, so we had to squeeze this session in as much as we could. i am relieved we were able to shoot at disneyland on a weekday rather than a weekend. it was still fairly crowded… but i cannot imagine how much more difficult this would have been had we waited for a saturday.

i would actually love to do more engagement shoots here (wink wink to any future couples).

spinning around on the teacups ride, with your eye pressed up to a camera can be fairly nauseating. these were a lot tougher than i had imagined.

one of the final shots, people all lined up quite early for the parade along main street.

i had a great time hanging out with you two. i cannot wait for your wedding!!!

jaimee & jason: engaged Sneak Peek

Tim — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:00:19 +0000

we went all over south orange county for this engagement session on sunday. these two were total troopers throughout and we had a great time. can’t wait for their big day next year!

our first location was the continental room in fullerton. what a fantastic bar. dark as all get-out inside, but i think we did okay…

on to the outdoor stuff…. these two were all set with what they wanted to do that day and brought props and everything. so, behold the props :)

since these two were all about the props and kind of “devised” shots, i figured i would try something that i have always thought about doing for a couple of years maybe now.

and a silhouette to close it all out as the sun set…

hope you two love these… more will be coming to you soon… and huge congrats again!! :)

jess & tommy | engagement photography

Tim — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:11:04 +0000

this session and couple (and wedding coming in october) is extremely special to me. i have known jess now for a few years, as we work together. she got stuck sitting at a shared cubicle with me a few years ago and she has put up with my tomfoolery as work neighbors ever since that first day (though they did try to separate us once because apparently we were laughing too much in the workplace. shouldn’t that be encouraged at an office?). jess is such a dear, dear friend and i have been delighted to experience and witness the joy of her relationship with tommy. to say i am honored to be their photographer is not even close to a big enough word.

here are some of my faves from their engagement session:

i am ecstatic to be a part of their big day and extremely honored to be able to document it for them. i love you guys…

Gavin & Holly: G&H Pure Cane Sugar (day two)

Tim — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:48:07 +0000

do you have a good memory? remember my first blog post here? no, not that one… the one after that. okay, my second. but who’s counting? anyway, it was this cool couple at balboa… let me refresh your memory:

yeah, that’s them. remember now? okay, good. you may not remember all of the details, but for recap: we went to the beach on the one day there was no sunset. so we made plans for a second day of shooting. the sun was up when i met them, we went over some wedding details, and then set out on walkabout. yes… just like crocodile dundee would have…. sans “big knife”.

we started out along the docks of the bay. oh man… can i try and get more licensing issues to spring up and quote otis redding?

we started making our way toward the beach. just like last time, they were up for anything when i asked them to stop here or there.

by the time we got down to the beach, the sun was behind the upper slice of this cloud sandwich above the horizon. it did not look good, and we maybe only got 5 or so minutes of actual sun-time.

commence canoodling…

once the sun hid behind the bottom section of that (very not delicious) cloud sandwich (that none of us ordered, by the way!), i moved them onto a lifeguard tower for some photo experimentation of sorts.

after some close-ups, i gave them one of two “talkabouts” (yes, we had talkabouts for our walkabout… that’s how i do things…) and headed off with my zoom lens to the pier.

another fun day of shooting with these two. i have gotten a rain check on the sun (is that ironic?) and will use it in the future. i cannot wait to shoot their wedding in october and am not only thrilled more than before to be their photographer, but i am honored and completely looking forward to their big day.

thanks again, you two, for being adventurous and having fun with your engagement shots. in my opinion, it paid off! :)

Gavin & Holly: G&H Pure Cane Sugar (day one)

Tim — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:30:13 +0000

through word-of-mouth (thanks joel & michelle), i got hired by this couple to shoot their wedding in october. we got together for an e-shoot (engagement session, since people always ask me what that means) in and around balboa island in the end of may. the sun didn’t make much of a showing that day, so we meandered around the streets for most of the shoot.

these two were so much fun to hang out and shoot with, that when we realized we wouldn’t get any of the “sunset” photos we wanted, it was a non-issue in my mind to get together another day with them for a second go-round. but, first things first. here are some of my (and their) faves from the first day of shooting.

on the ferry ride from the island back to the newport side:

there are so many fun houses around that area to shoot in front of…

lovin’ the red doors we were finding too…

we made our way down to the pier at the very last minute to catch the last bit of daylight.

it is so fun when people are willing to try new things, even if the end result may not prove to be what it was in my mind. these two were all about it, and their leaps of faith proved to be fruitful.

a fun shoot, new friends and a blog post that i got to use the word fruit in. what more could a guy ask for? : )