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.

here it is. did you do a little drumroll? oh wait… i forgot to tell you. you can do one now. briefly. cuz you might be looking at the bean already…

i mean. look at it! so so cool. let’s see it from another angle, shall we? we shall…

i could do that all day. but after we were there for some time, we headed off to some nearby places katelyn and i spotted on our quick scouting jaunt.

the best yellow-leafed tree i saw? on an island in the middle of the street. like i said, they were game for anything and everything…

and then we switched places…

as we walked to our next little spot, there were all these couples dancing. maybe a class? not sure. but come on… how could we not?

i often talk about how i dance with the light when i am taking photographs. whether it’s the lights at a concert, or the sun through the trees. another thing my female clients will hear a lot (if we’re shooting outside) is me talking to the wind. no… not like pocohontas. but when the wind is doing its own little dance with my subject’s hair… it can become another one of those truly magical things in a photograph:

as we walked back to the car to head off to our final location, we found one more section of millenium park as well.

and off we went to catch the last bit of sunlight (and the last hour of time before katelyn and i had to be at the airport) at a skatepark. yes. a skatepark. seth is involved with the building of skateparks. so when we originally talked about this TTD session, i was excited that they agreed that skating would be a fantastic inclusion to our time together.

i usually separate things out more when i shoot in this style. but because of the action and the motion, i like how the more clustered feel is on this:

even this was not easy… but seth pulled it off.

in case you missed it, seth and michelle even modeled this bomber hat that i had for betabrand. if you click on the link it will take you right to the page with them on the internet… as models! woo! but here they are in all their glory for your viewing as well:

one last shot from the skatepark, though…

all of my trash the dress sessions this year have been awesome. they have all been so unique and had a good personal touch to them for either the wedding itself, or for the couple. this day was no exception. i feel like this embodied these two as a couple, for where they were married and as individuals as well.

thanks again to michelle and seth for an amazing weekend and a truly fantastic “trashing of the dress” on the day after. you two are brilliant!

we had other plans originally for this session, but we ended up back at what is starting to become my “home studio”, the salton sea. we were mainly targeting a place called salvation mountain, actually. so that is where this all begins.

as we started to head off from the mountain to explore some other places along the salton sea, all of the beams of sunlight through the stormclouds were phenomenal.

i’ll take abandoned warehouses for the win, alex.

sometimes, the jump can be even more about the moment just before or after:

another good and successful trip out to one of my favorite places in the state. stay tuned if you like these from that area… looks like i may be going back again in december or january  :)

thanks again for scheduling this extra session with me, you two. i hope you love what we got from the journey out there!

i will give more detail on their little sneak peek from their wedding… but this all took place on harbour island in the bahamas. after an hour or so of scouting for places to do this session, we didn’t even have time to get to half of them. the small island was a goldmine of cool locations. but, here are my personal faves from the time we spent:

so this tree, where we started, is clearly something that will be an “urban legend” on the island. i think i heard three different versions of stories as to how it arrived there, on the beach. this stretch of beach it is on is perfect for it, too. the water will be up around the tree during the more high tide, and it will be all sand like this during low tide. (in future blog posts, you will see the other versions of this)

we took leave from the tree (get it? took leave… oh man… do i need coffee…) and headed out for some of the local color…

as we left the little scene we were creating on that corner (it is fun when a bunch of people stop to watch you shooting… but i know it can be intimidating or embarrassing for the model/bride, too), we drove past a little ice cream shop and turned back as gina said how long it had been since she had ice cream. when i say “little ice cream shop”, i mean it was someone making it out of part of their house. we had three flavors to choose from, and strawberry seemed the way to go.

i love these next shots. there was a family (and others just on the street) across the way peeking their heads out through their front door watching us. made for some great expressions on gina’s face:

as the sun was about to set, we headed back to the shoreline. unfortunately, there was a cloud cover above the horizon that kind of killed what had been beautiful sunsets that week. but we got some great light and color still:

again, there will be a lot more to come from my week in the bahamas for gina’s wedding with adam. so stay tuned….

the mother-daughter bond here was something one could almost just pull up a chair and enjoy like a good film. so much love here and it made some of these moments incomparable for me.

“fiesta”. i said that, right? well, i will get to that. but, i was told during their “prepping time” that they share a passion for all things Dia de los Muertos so we made sure we incorporated some of that into their details photos.

their ceremony was beautiful and they had a tremendous circle of love from those who were there to witness it.

after the ceremony, we did some very quick ‘romantics’ of the newlyweds. one of my favorite parts of photographing weddings and i am going to push a little bit harder next year to make sure i get a decent amount of time with my couples to do these. it is just such a glorious (i know, that sounds cheesy… better than saying ‘magical’, though, right?) section of time during such an amazing and memorable day.

i try to get into my old thought-process with at least one shot with every wedding. this is my artsy take from their day:

okay… on to the fiesta, as promised. when alaine and i sat down to go over specifics in our first meeting and she told me of her plan for the party following the ceremony, i was completely jazzed and on board. even in my imaginings, it was not like the brilliance of that day, however. so fantastic. er… uh… fantastico!

during the toasts, vanessa’s sister took it up yet another notch with a song (accompanied by their friend tim on guitar). she re-wrote the lyrics to ‘fire and rain’ by james taylor and it had everyone bursting in laughter at some moments, and wiping their tears at others. a beautiful gift…

i love a group shot, if possible, for the newlyweds to be able to look at and kind of do a “who’s who” of their guests. the day is always such a blur for people, so this can be a great keepsake. for this one, i merely climbed through a window and walked out onto the roof with my shoes off. i don’t do that for just anyone.   ;)

they had a little slideshow for everyone when it got dark…

and then the fiesta set into full motion…

again… i cannot say enough how honored i was to not only be present for this day, but to be able to photograph it as well. thank you so much, you two, for thinking of me for it and trusting me with documenting such a love-filled day as words cannot even describe. i wish you the best in your lives moving forward…. you are well loved, by each other and by many others, indeed.

you know that “game” you can play at, say, disneyland where you grip this handle and squeeze it and the lights go up and down and it tells you your HOT meter or rating? well, if you could gauge love in such a way, the amount of love (not only between the couple, but within their friends and family) at this wedding would have put that thing on tilt.

again… just a few that jumped out at me quickly tonight. more to come, you two…. much more….   :)

while the couple “worked the room”, you could tell how deeply loved they were. i love this first moment of a ring display  :)

this friend of the happy couple was cutting a mean rug all afternoon. he and karen had everyone entranced while they shared a dance…

with the enormous windows, i could not help but take some silhouette photos of karen and nick together. this is one of my favorites:

as i said before, thanks again to the happy couple for trusting me with documenting your day with you. it was a pleasure to meet you both and your families. i wish you both the an amazing life together.

these two were so incredibly cute. the night before, at the rehearsal, they walked up to each other and held hands before going down the aisle and i think all of the adults’ hearts collectively burst at once. so adorable.

so, here is a little factoid or interesting detail about the church they were married in (red hill lutheran church). i noticed this during the rehearsal the night before the big day. this is regarding the altar bench that’s between the couple and their pastor in the photos above. i asked the women who worked there and were acting as the couple’s coordinators if they had ever noticed this. i said, “now, i’m no tom hanks… and i’m not on a search for some albino monk. but, i know as a fact from an old building that i used to work in as well, that sometimes architects can get kinda fancy schmancy with their designs.” i assume cathedrals and churches could very often have these little nuances to them that people maybe do not see right away.

so this may or may not mean anything to you, but i thought it was pretty cool. and it may just be the way my mind works, but it seems that the way the lighting and everything from the ceilings would hit this cross, it creates three shadows. thus, as you look below, there are now three shadow crosses. one larger one in the middle (Christ’s cross) and the other ones beside it (for the other crosses that were there when He was crucified). when i pointed it out, a few of us just stood there in silent awe for a minute.

because of the timing and location of the wedding / reception, we had arranged to do a TTD (trash the dress) shoot a few weeks later in the month. however, we still caught a few of the bride and groom together to celebrate their special day.

the second part will be coming soon (no need to check your local movie listings or anything like that… i will let you know).

here is a little sneak peek from our brief time together.

this little spitfire was seriously one of the cutest little girls and overflowing with personality.

as i started to pack up my gear in my car, i thought to myself: why not head back and try to get a couple of quick shots outside and maybe even of the groom. i was glad i did.

it was difficult for me to wrap my head around leaving when i did… not being able to continue telling the story of their day. but i am hopeful they will love what i deliver to them of even just the brief time i was there.

i usually allow myself one or two photos from a wedding to play with… to just get a little outside of the box… this was that shot…

and here is one from the beach in front of their reception hotel location:

while we waited for the grand entrance time, we got to play a little more in this fantastic room:

and what bride doesn’t love a little audrey?

the sand castle candles were such a great touch for this beach wedding…

during the father/daughter and son/mother dances they had a photos slideshow playing. it coerced some strong emotions from the dance floor participants.

they had so many people serenading them throughout the night. it was another testament to the couple as to how much people love and wanted to honor them.

and even david got into the act. a surprising and uber-romantic performance of a song he had written for stephanie. yes, even us male wedding photographers can well up while shooting a wedding. or… at least… this one does   :)

as a former break-dancer (hey… i could do some crazy legs and an egg spin on the cardboard in my living room!), i give it up for the bride’s brother:

as i said in my previous post, the sense of family and love from this entire day was just something that washed over you. it was refreshing to see how two families just completely embraced one another, from every extension of it.

thanks again for inviting me to be a part of your amazing day, stephanie and david. it really was an honor and i wish you both and all of your family the best of what life has to offer.

one more shot of the passion between these two love birds in parting   :)