Southern California Fine Art Wedding Photographer - SherriJ » beach

San Diego is for Lovers

sjphoto — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 06:04:23 +0000

This past weekend, Mat and I took our first trip to San Diego. Neither of us had ever been before, so it was a new experience and a much needed time away to relax. We stayed a couple of nights at Pacific Terrace Hotel; a welcoming place right on the beach and just a couple of blocks from many great restaurants. One afternoon we went over to the USS Midway, a Navy aircraft carrier. Outside of the ship, I found the popular KISS statue called “Unconditional Surrender.” (Rendered from the iconic photograph from Alfred Eisenstaedt taken on Aug. 14, 1945, the day the Japanese surrendered after the war.) Just a couple of days prior to our visit, a campaign was launched to raise $1 million to replace the statue with a permanent bronze state of equal height. I’m not really sure which I would prefer, but I’m pretty happy we got a chance to see the color version and capture this great picture of it! I think my favorite part of this image is the small child at the foot of the statue looking up under the skirt. It captures innocent curiosity while also giving some reference to the grand size. If you get a chance to visit and you want to photograph this statue well, the best angle for this statue isn’t head on (as you first see when approaching the statue). Just walk a little to the right so you can see more of the woman’s face too. It’s magical. =) Anyway, if you’re looking for a weekend getaway place to visit with your love, I definitely recommend San Diego!

Marissa + Tyler’s Beach Engagement Session: Santa Monica

sjphoto — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:45:28 +0000

I met Marissa and Tyler at the end of last year during a wedding I shot for Marissa’s sister in Bakersfield. I was so thrilled when she contacted me soon afterwards as she was starting to plan her own wedding!! It was almost 7 years ago when Marissa met Tyler during spring break at Pizmo Beach. In the spring of last year, Tyler brought Marissa back to Seal beach to ask the big question! They’re now planning an intimate wedding at the beautiful Seven Oaks Country Club, in Bakersfield, this May. When I talked to Marissa about where she might like to do her engagement photoshoot, the idea of the beach was on the top of her list. We began their session at one of my favorite hotels in Santa Monica, the Viceroy!

For some beach shots, we walked across the street towards the pier. Spring is definitely in bloom, and we took some warm sunset shots overlooking the ocean.

Fleming + Samantha: Venice Engagement

sjphoto — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 05:04:11 +0000

Fleming and Samantha met back in 2005, on an elevator. Their relationship grew after some dates, and now 6.5 years later they are planning a wedding in their favorite neighborhood! These two love hanging out in the Venice/Santa Monica area, their pup Ruby, and exploring the world, and food. For their engagement session, they wanted to stay close to home and visit some of their favorite spots! First stop, the popular Binocular building, on Main Street.

The Rose Cafe on Main Street is the location of their rehearsal dinner.

Venice Beach, CA

*UPDATE* Fleming and Samantha chose their favorite 8×10″ to be displayed at the entrance of their wedding. Here’s what it looked like!

Sakura + Nathan: Movie Themed Engagement Session

sjphoto — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 17:16:00 +0000

Sakura and Nathan have been together for almost a decade… They met while working at the same video game store way back when. I actually met Sakura a couple of years ago at a wedding and was pretty stoked to hear she wanted to hire me for her own backyard wedding! Sakura describes herself as “non-traditional” and creative, and their wedding will have a lot of fun alternative ideas with a great color scheme and details! I can’t divulge too much right now, but maybe their engagement sessions has some hints for what’s to come? Sakura and Nathan both share a passion for movies. For their engagement session, they wanted to reenact some of their favorite movie scenes. This first set is inspired by “Shaun of the Dead” zombie scene, riffling through some records.

These two love their dogs Halo and Rambo!

These two birds are from the movie Dumb and Dumber.

Can you guess what movie the last shot represents?

Best of 2011

sjphoto — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 05:29:22 +0000

Angela and Eugene’s Wedding, Rancho Del Cielo. Malibu, CA

Shana and Brandon’s Wedding at Gainey Winery. Los Olivos, CA

Laura + Chris’ Wedding, Santa Barbara Zoo

Kelly and David’s Destination Wedding: Yosemite, CA

Anne and Peter’s Wedding, Verandas Manhattan Beach

Jen and Rylan’s Wedding, Seven Oaks Country Club, Bakersfield

Reagan and Ken’s Wedding, Sherwood Oaks Country Club

Monina and Matt’s Wedding, Calamigos Equestrian Center Burbank

Karina and Kevin’s Wedding, Malibou Lake

Tara and Timmy’s Backyard wedding

Tina and Armando’s Wedding, Sportsman Lodge

Melissa + Ray’s Wedding, Walnut Grove. Moorpark, CA

Manami + Nick’s Wedding, Museum of Art Long Beach

Danielle and Gabriel’s Photobooth

Engagements

Personal: My engagement at Joshua Tree

Bridal Photoshoot: Las Vegas

Portrait: Paul Kenny

Sony E3 for Playstation, Jane’s Addiction

Mindy: Feather’s Photoshoot (unblogged)

Aurora + James: Engagement Long Beach

sjphoto — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 23:31:20 +0000

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!

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!

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!

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.

Honeymoon in Paradise: Personal

sjphoto — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 03:00:11 +0000

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!

Melissa + Jeff: Sunset Engagement

sjphoto — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:41:01 +0000

Every once in a while, I get a couple who decide to book me as their wedding photographer, without ever meeting in person. They’re usually referrals from a friend’s wedding I’ve photographed. I’m actually super flattered in these cases, but also a really nervous! Last night, I met one of my 2012 clients in person for the first time, Melissa and Jeff. They were giggly and loving right from the start, which always makes my job super easy. They chose to have their engagement session during sunset at one of their favorite spots in Malibu, Paradise Cove!

Architectural Photography

sjphoto — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:33:44 +0000

I was going through my archives today and realized I’ve never shared a blog post about my architectural photography work, one my many photography talents. It may seem like it has little to do with people and weddings, but techniques used in architectural photography can in be applied to other subjects. More specifically, things that make a good landscape image include even lighting, using a wide angle lens correctly to get straight parallax in images (the vertical lines in an image), HDR editing (high Dynamic Range), and use of a tripod in low light situations. Here’s some of my favorite samples I recently shot for Orbitz.

Kyoto Hotel. They recently renovated, and the signature gold and maroon color scheme is found throughout the hotel. They also have a beautiful rooftop Japanese garden that overlooks downtown Los Angeles.

Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes. This shot overlooks one of their many outdoor pools. They have 180 degree views of the Ocean, a spa room with copper soaker tub, and private Villas! I’d love to spend a romantic weekend here anytime!

Queen Mary, Long Beach. A retired cruise ship is now a fun destination for travelers from around the world. This is a shot of their classic meeting rooms.

Portofino Hotel and Yacht Club in Redondo Beach. Beautiful gray lounge.

Noe Restaurant, downtown Los Angeles

Pacific Palms Resort Spa. The cool lighting in this room changes!

Hilton Universal City Cafe with glass atrium

Hotel Erwin, Venice. Very modern rooms

Hotel Erwin, Venice. Hightop lounge with Ocean views

Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood. Great location in the heart of Hollywood along the Walk of Fame.

Roosevelt Hotel, poolview king room

Roosevelt Hotel’s pool

Anne & Peter: Married at Verandas Manhattan Beach

sjphoto — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 07:01:50 +0000

Venue: Verandas, Manhattan Beach
Photography: SherriJ Photography
Florist – Flowers by Laurel
Makeup & Hair – Tara & Meyon at Bob Roy Salon Manhattan Beach
Wedding Coordinator – Sara Lehnberg, Verandas
Band & DJ – Dwight Kennedy
Dress – Somsi Couture
Suit – Jos A Bank
Desserts & Catering – NY Food Company
Invitations: Bride’s own design

*UPDATE This wedding has been published on Engaged and Inspired HERE. (August 23, 2011)