Congrats to Vie & Tim!

What a great day this was - Vie looked amazing and Tim, yes, the groom, was just glowing. His smile was ear to ear all day. He's so crazy about her and it shows. See?

Super Cool Thing #4 - Practice what you Preach

Dear lord, what I put you poor brides and grooms through?! Ack! :D
My friend and portrait guru Jeanne de Polo turned the cameras on me, my hubby Paul and little D last week. You have to understand, if there was a choice between getting his photo taken or something else, Paul would rather sit in a tub of ice while someone scratched nails down a chalkboard to the tune of My Heart Will Go On. Really.
We were there for one big reason - Mother's Day. Paul's dad asked each of his kids to give him an updated family photo for grandma for Mother's Day. It was the excuse I needed for a new session, since the last one was when little D was 3 months old. Gasp.
I called Jeanne immediately. See, ever since Jeanne shot with me at the Carmel Mission last year, we've become great buds. Jeanne has a fun, warm and sometimes silly personality and I knew that if anyone could help Paul out of the ice tub it would be her.
We started off slowly, me trying to remember all the stuff I tell all y'all when it's me behind the camera. Stay active, check. Lean a lot, yep. Find ways to touch my son and hubby so they know I love them, check. Get close, you bet. Laugh and smile and play, check.
At first, Jeanne had the camera on little D. Not surprising, since he's one of those little guys you literally gasp at when you see them, they're so angelic. And it doesn't hurt that his momma's had a camera in his face since day one (uh, yes I DID bring my camera to the hospital when labor pains kicked in. Stop laughing!), so he's perfectly fine to go about blowing bubbles and kicking soccer balls and occasionally look up to smile. (proof of how darn cute he is...just a little snapshot I took on our deck...)
Then, at one point, Paul's kicking the ball to little D and I'm just standing back, watching. And then, it happenes.
Jeanne points the camera at ME.
Well, what do you know. I about froze. Everything I knew just went SWISH down the drain with the ice water from Paul's tub. I was completely nervous and self conscious as Jeanne says, "Okay, look this way, now chin out, good, there, that knee to the left, no your left, no your other left..."
Just me. No one else. And the brain starts screaming. "What the heck do you do with your hands?! Do I have a double chin? Is there a bat in the cave? Did I remember blush? Oh no, my hair is having an 80s moment. Wow I really need a girl's room..."
Today, the gorgeous Lindsay and her fiance Tim met up with me for their e-session. Lindsay was surprisingly nervous and boy, did I feel her pain! Usually I just goof and laugh and joke until everyone's guard is down, but that little pang of nerves from my own session was still with me. I was much more empathetic for today's session, yet we still brought out a soft, sweet but not sappy unposed side, and even a few "magazine hottie" looks, with little to no pain. At least Lindsay said so - she even said she had fun!
I'll post new e-sessions soon!

Hey, whatcha workin' on? (1 in a very long series...)

This week is all about the retouching and album design. LOVE IT. Okay, yeah, I sit waaaay too long at the puter and don't eat or drink enough and I look up and EESH it's 6:30 already...but it's so much fun to see these weddings again.

I thought I'd show y'all a little bit of Caitlin & Ronnie's soon to be album!
This was such a fun and unique wedding. I was looking soooo forward to this wedding since the engagement session! I just fell in love with both of them. A little funky, very fun, extremely erudite, outrageously observant, and both just gorgeous.

For our e-session, Ronnie was just not looking forward to it. He had just met me, didn't really know what to expect ("dear god is this gonna be cheesy" perhaps?)...he gratefully took me up on my suggestion to have a beer first at Rock Bottom Brewery while we got to know each other. When Ronnie started talking philosophy, that's when Caitlin & I knew that he was ready to try being in front of the camera. They nailed it within 20 minutes! So natural and so crazy about each other...without being ChuckeyCheesy. :D

Back to the wedding...the reception was in the elementary school gym. They filled it with trees and twinkle lights and brought in lighting to make it look more romantic and cozy. Nice!

And I'm not at the studio or I could tell you more, but I do know for sure that the whole thing was orchestrated beautifully by the amazing Amy Byrd Weddings, and Caitlin found her stunner of a dress at Jin Wang in San Francisco.

Casa Real is OPEN and it's a dooozieeee

So here's cool thing #2 - Casa Real is open. This huge (yes, it can seat 500) event space has gorgeous wrought iron, beautiful modern chandeliers, stonework galore yet isn't overdone. Reed and the gang at Beet's Catering in Pleasanton really know how to create a great event space!

First, I got a peek during the opening party, then again to help out Michelle with some corporate shots, and then again at Una Bella Sera, by Nicole Ha (amazing floral design) and Crystal of Amazae Special Events (that's the two of them looking gorgeous even though they'd been up for something like 30 hours straight!). Three times in one week! So when it came time for our first wedding there last Friday, it felt like home. I'll post shots from the wedding soon, but for now, check out both Casa Real and the work of Amazae & Nicole Ha.

Now, let's talk about lighting design (incredible - can you see the details on the wall of the tree branches?). Yeah, I know, I'm a photog, I'm supposed to love light. hee! Seriously, I've been a HUGE fan of making a space your own not just through floral design, but lights as well, and how it can make a regular room look just enchanting. Look at that aisle in the Amber Room! Wow. Kevin at Fantasy Sound and his crew were responsible for this amazing light show. I know, a DJ offering lighting and sound?!

Cool thing #3 - while I'm there talking with some incredibly talented wedding professionals and some of my 08 and 09 brides who came out to get ideas and meet vendors, there was a very familiar face. I couldn't place him at first until we were introduced - Andrew Hsu, a videographer. I about fell out! I knew that face because it's in one of my very favorite wedding shots from a few years back! Andrew introduced himself to me at his cousin Chiaty's wedding and, even though he's an amazingly talented videographer, we hadn't run into each other since. How "oohsmallworld" was that! You can see more about Andrew at his website.

Featured in a book. Yipee!

It's crazy the number of amazing things have happened over the last week. What I should do if I was a good little blogger would be to actually, uh, tell you about them when they happen. :D But we have about 12 albums in the queue, and lots of engagement sessions, and a toddler, so forgive the jumbled mess of the next few posts. :D

Cool thing 1 - we're in a BOOK! Not like a little shot in the corner of a page, oh no. It's Susie Coelho's new book Style Your Dream Wedding. When I got the book (and it's HUGE and soooo full of inspiration), I started to tag my images with little posties and the next thing I knew, posties were everywhere. And some of my shots are even on the website. Yeah!
Here are some shots...that's Christine changing from her white wedding dress to her party dress for the reception at Kohl Mansion, and on the left hand side is Ana getting into the limo to head for the Church of the Nativity. Ana's dress is by SF Bay's own amazing Amy Kuschel Brides.

I do have a copy here at the studio if anyone wants to take a look. :D I'm not kidding, it's a great resource to have if you're just starting out.