A Celebration of Love and Life

Brian Powell - January 23, 2012 - 11:39 pm

Good evening, you replied to my post on photography-on-the.net about my need for a photographer. We finally found time to seek a photographer and we would like to reach out to you to inquire for more information. A little information about the day, Our venue is located in Malibu at a place called Calamigos Ranch 9I believe you said you got married there). Our special day will be on September 30th 2012. We would like to know more about you and what you offer, Please feel free to send me a message. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you

Brian

Cathy Crawley - January 26, 2012 - 6:31 am

Wow, you had a really busy year and your clients got some really amazing photos Wonderful work!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Aurora + James: Engagement Long Beach

I met Aurora and James last month as they began planning their September 2012 wedding at a villa in San Juan Capistranio. They had only been engaged a month, and I was so thrilled photography was a high priority on their list of things to book first! Their ideas for an intimate wedding with lots of handmade details, made my heart happy. Aurora and James met in Long Beach and are planning to relocate at the end of the month to be closer to James’ new office. To celebrate this time in their life and how they met, they chose to have their engagement session at the Queen Mary and a nearby lighthouse!

long beach engagement session

I actually photographed the Queen Mary a couple of month ago for one of my architectural projects… during that shoot I learned the hotel was recently the location of choice of a Victoria Secret Campaign. CLICK HERE to watch the behind the scenes video of that. As we walked around the ship, we found so many great locations! The following 2 shots below was one of my favorite location finds… angel wings!

long beach engagement session

We were about to leave the Queen Mary and head over to our second location, when James found this amazing photo spot! I love how you can see the sign, boats, and the lighting on their faces is just beautiful!

Queen Mary, Long Beach

Location #2 was across the river at a lighthouse. There were lots of people around, so we had to wait for just the right moment to get these shots.

long beach engagement session lighthouse

long beach engagement session

long beach engagement session lighthouse

Posted in Engagement Tags: beach, Engagement Photography, travel, wedding planning

2 comments

Joe Shipley - December 16, 2011 - 11:01 am

Haut Sauce!!

Well, that’s one way to make Long Beach look better..hehe…
You two are awesome. Cya soon!

Anne Cummings - January 31, 2012 - 10:16 pm

CONGRADULATIONS TO A BEAUTIFUL COUPLE! Wishing you many blessings
in starting your lives together.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Honeymoon in Paradise: Personal

While I was busy in the world of wedding planning, my fiance Mat was doing some research for our honeymoon. After talking with a few people, he decided to book us a dream vacation to Bora Bora and Moorea. Both are places I’ve never heard of before, and if you haven’t either, imagine an island where the sun warms your skin, a rainbow of tropical fish, sea turtles, and other marine life swim in crystal clear water, and you can walk barefoot along white sandy powder beaches, while sipping on the juice of some freshly fallen coconuts. Something I thought only possible in postcards, was my dream turned reality for the past 2 weeks in French Polynesia! Our first stop: Bora Bora, (aka the second most expensive place you can travel to in the world.)

Most of the resorts on Bora Bora are only accessible by taking a plane to the main island of Tahiti, then a small prop plane to the island. From there, you then take a small boat to your oasis in the middle of the Pacific. We stayed at place called Le Meridian, which had some cool over-the-water bungalows with glass floors to see into the water, a sea turtle sanctuary, and private lagoon for snorkeling.

We stayed for a few days, and on our last day we woke up to a double rainbow sunrise. It was so magical!

Some underwater screen shots from the Go Pro camera, swimming with black tipped sharks, sea turtles at the turtle sanctuary, chopping into some fresh coconuts for a snack, our amazing glimpse of a humpback whale and her calf, ended with a uber rare shot of a manta ray (these things have a wingspan of 15 feet!)

The second half of our honeymoon was spent on the remote island of Moorea. Here, we explored more of the local life.

One afternoon, we drove around the whole island and ran into this giant holding a pineapple. As legend has it, the statue is designed to be life-size of a man who lived on the island many years ago. They say he was so big, that if he wanted to travel from island to island he would just swim across.

During our whale excursion, we came across a documentary crew filming the new IMAX movie about the humpback whales. I learned a lot about whales that morning… like how mother whales give birth to their calves neat Tahiti in the warm waters. During the time they are with their babies, they don’t eat anything for months, since their food source is only the plankton that is found in the Arctic. They end up loosing a lot of their body weight. Our guide drove us around the waters all morning, and after about 3 hours, we finally saw the whales surfacing. I had my camera with me and got one lucky shot of a whale breaching out of the water! At the end of our boatride, we got to get into the water and swim with the whales! We were about 30 feet away from them at one point. It was so surreal to see them swim, but it was over faster than I could even comprehend what was going on! Thankfully we were able to get some shots of it on video. =)

Many things were checked off my “Life’s To-Do” adventures list during my honeymoon. It was really an amazing trip!

Posted in Personal Tags: beach, event photography, Favorite Things, travel

3 comments

Christine - October 17, 2011 - 7:59 am

Wow. Color me envious! This really does look like a dream honeymoon. That rainbow… WOW! And then the whales and scenery. Just beautiful. Congratulations on your marriage!

Tim Halberg - November 28, 2011 - 11:23 pm

what an AMAZING destination for a honeymoon!!!! congrats!!!!

Angela - November 29, 2011 - 12:47 pm

These photos are absolutely magical! Beautiful, beautiful!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Our Wedding: Personal

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may know that I’ve been planning my own wedding for the past 10 months. Our wedding finally took place on October 2nd, 2011 at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu (exactly one week before our 3 year anniversary!) Now, looking back at our wedding day, I can definitely say it was awesome and really everything I could have hope for. I’m really looking forward to the new chapter in my life as a Mrs. =)

Our vendors
Venue: Calamigos Ranch, Malibu
Photography: Alison Yin
Florist: Exotic Green Garden
Hair/Makeup: Kelly Zhang
Dessert: Sprinkles Cupcakes
Graphic Design (all paper goods): Manami and Nick Leebert
Music: DJ Celeste Lear (Processional: Nick Drake “Cello Song,” Priscilla Ahn “Dream.” Post ceremony: The Who “Cant Explain.” First Dance Bride/ Groom: Chuck Barry “You Never Can Tell” (choreographed first dance from Pulp Fiction). Father/Daughter: Rascal Flatts “My Wish”, Mother/Son: Harry Connick Jr “It Had to be You.”)

Posted in Personal Tags: fine art, los angeles, Malibu, wedding photography, wedding planning

1 comment