Vintage Me, Vintage You - San Francisco 2002

The following photographs were made on a trip to San Francisco in early 2002.  I know this because that's what my wife told me!  I'm not that old but my memory isn't that good either.  Bryony and I had just let everyone know we were in a relationship, something Brandon wasn't too open to.  But he learned to deal with it.  Brandon and I were friends for quite a while before I started dating his sister.  You may not know this, but there is somewhat of an unspoken rule between friends, that states you do not date your friends sister.  I ignored this rule and married one of my best friends sister.  Classic example of rules are just a loose guideline to life!  And Brandon and I are still best friends.  Having your best friend as your brother-in-law is pretty cool too.

Anyways, about the photographs.

I shot this at the top of the world (the highest point in Frisco).  The light is just broad daylight but it looks so beautiful.  Brandon is pretty much a natural in front of the camera too.  He makes it look easy.

The photo on the left is Brandon and I.  I really like the look of the photo on the right.  The light again is awesome.  Very bright but it seems to be shadowless when it lands on people.

My beautiful bride to be in the middle of the left photo.

Brother and sister in the top.  Best friends in the bottom.

I'm not sure if Brandon and Amy were technically even dating yet here.  They weren't quite as gung-ho about sharing there affection as Bry and I were.  That's me on the right.  My hair was a little longer then.

Love this image.  It seems very voyeur-esque.

Two beautiful girls on the left and a cute couple on the right.

The image of Brandon on the left is pretty timeless for me.  I love the American flag.  I love the way he's sitting, the diner feel, the on-camera flash, and again the voyeur look to the image.  On the right, its kind of hard to tell, but Brandon talked his way into a ride in a Lamborghini.  Yeah.  Not fair.  The funny thing is he left me waiting at the top of the world for almost an hour.  Happy for him but mad at him.

I shot all of these images with a Canon Sure Shot TELEmax.  It was a great point and shoot 35mm.  No thinking just shooting.  There's something special about that.  I'm often tempted to set my camera to full auto now and not even think about anything but composition.  But I know too much now, at times I feel smarter than the camera.  Probably not true but I do know what light in an image I want to expose for, that's one thing a camera cant do.

Glad I got to capture some of Brandon and Amy's earliest moments.  Glad they got married.  Love them to death.

Redefining.

Since I started this blogging process I've been committed to putting out a post every day.  Whether that be from a shoot, writing about photography or just sharing links from other blogs or photographers that I like to follow.  The point is that I've been committed.  And I can honestly say that it is beginning to pay off for me.  More mentally than anything else.  The biggest thing its helped me with is identifying my strengths and my weaknesses and defining who it is I am as a photographer.  That person I'm becoming is an editorial photographer and a story teller.  This image, from a relatively unsuccessful shoot, sums up where it is that I'm going:

After editing my images and critiquing all aspects of this shoot, I asked myself what was I trying to say here?  I wanted to express something youthful, something fun, something that captured where Brittony was in her own life at this moment in time.  I thought to myself how can I feed off of a single word and create an entire shoot off of one thought.  This image captures a lot for me.  It is helping to define who I am.  I want every image I take to tell a story or at the very least evoke something from the viewer.  I want my images to speak, to be alive, not just be snapshots.  I find myself falling into the snapshot concept.  Maybe because its easy, it certainly takes less thought.  This blogging process has caused me to push myself and to ask "Why?", with every image I make.  I'm growing because of it.  And as difficult as it is doing this every day, I'm thankful for the struggle.  I'm redefining who I am as an artist.

Not So Technical Tuesday - Valentine's Day

This post is more a series of thoughts than technical by any means.  Come on...its Valentine's Day!  My wife wanted to surprise me tonight and not let me in on what the plan was for the date.  She succeeded.  First she kept me distracted while we were driving so I wouldn't pay attention at all to where we were.  And when we pulled around the back of the building and there was no signage she had me again.  So we entered this hallway on the back side of the building and this was the first thing I saw:

You can imagine my dismay.  However that black door on the right was the actual entrance.  At this point I was laughing so hard I was sure this was a joke.  Then I saw this and it totally made up for it:

Seriously!  A giant mustache over the entrance.  Are you kidding me.  Perhaps the single greatest piece of decor that I have ever seen.  She took me to a great little pub here in Stockton, called the Abbey.  The food was amazing...

...and the laughs continued.  Bryony ordered a "Mexican Coke", fully expecting something exotic and fun, but what she got was literally a Coca Cola Classic made in Mexico.  How great is that?

Bryony thought that was hillarious and so did I.  Doesn't she look beautiful?  This is our 10th Valentine's day to celebrate together.  Two dating and eight married.  Time really flies.

I loved her jewelry selection for the night.

Yeah that's my name on her heart.  Pretty cool huh.  I bought her the hot pink necklace for V-day.  She said she liked it.  She wore it.  I believe her.  Here I am with my smorgasbord of food.  Tri-tip sandwich, potato salad and raw oysters.  I told her oysters were like sushi only really squishy.  She still didn't want to try.  I thought I made them sound amazing.  Hmmm, more for me.

We finished dinner off with these "Fried Dough Fries".  They were incredible as expected.  Serious side effect though...bodily enlargement.  Not gonna lose any weight eating these bad boys.  Especially when I'm dipping them in that chocolate sauce.

Here is the sign I missed on the way in.  I guess the joke was on me.  Thank you baby for a great night out.  I love you so very very much and can't wait to spend a lifetime of February 14th's with you!

Santa Rosa, CA - Brittony Miraflor

When ever I go to my brother and sister in law's house I make it a point to shoot.  The light up in the hills of Santa Rosa is amazing.  My little sister went up for the weekend too and made the perfect subject.  This was someone experimental, so it was hard for me to cut images.  I was testing my ability to capture good images in camera versus fixing images in Lightroom.  I did OK, I like most photographers, still have room to grow and learn.  Here are some of my favorite images.  Enjoy.

Santa Rosa, CA - Miraflor House Warming

We spent the weekend up in Santa Rosa again, to finally warm the house of Brandon and Amy.  They have done a ton of work to the house and it looks amazing.  I'll have several full length posts from the trip but for tonight I just wanted to show a single portrait.  It is very very rare that we get all of the family together.  And all of us were here this weekend, I mean all of us.  All the children, son and daughter in laws and all the grand babies.  So we had to make a family portrait.  The kids are all in miss matched pajamas and rain boots, because they woke up and just wanted to go outside and play.  So we all obliged, a little peace and quiet never hurt.  We had such a great time this weekend and I hope this photo shows it.

I know it will be a long time before we can all get back together and that's why it was important to me to make this photograph.  As mixed up and miss matched as we are, its us at this moment in time and I'm thankful for it.  God Bless and good night.