Maria and Rafael

On Saturday we had the pleasure of shooting Maria and Rafael's wedding. The service took place at the beautiful St. Dennis Community Catholic Church in Diamond Bar. We had a great day with Maria and Rafael including hanging out in the limo for a few hours including a stop at McDonalds! We took some photographs, but the manager informed us we could not photograph the McDonalds logo - hence no images posted here. (But I have them for the album).

Getting Ready

People would not believe the amount of preparation that goes into getting ready for a wedding shoot. I have a check list that I use every Friday. I am a Nikon shooter, so I check and pack two Nikon D200's and a Nikon D70 (for back-up). I format over over 40 GB of cards, pack seven lens, charge batteries, check camera settings, etc... (Don't forget the ladder).

Now that it is all done and the equipment is ready to be loaded, I am getting excited about tomorrows wedding.

Girl's Night

I know it's hard to believe when you look at my picture in the upper right corner, but I am a grandfather. The image below is my 10 month old granddaughter - Lorelai. My son and his wife are expecting again and tonight we went out for a family dinner and ripped open the results from today's ultrasound test - and what do you know - Lorelai is going to have a sister this coming February. My wife and I have three boys, so girls are a welcome addition to our family. I am sure Lorelai's sister will be just as cute as she is.

Robin and Nuri

On Saturday we had so much fun shooting Robin and Nuri's wedding. It was an outdoor ceremony and reception. The set up was first class all the way. Robin's dress was so awesome that the girls from Cruz's Bridal showed up at the wedding to help! The flowers from Flower Finesse were breath-taking.

What really made the day for Lisa (my second photographer) and me were the Bride and Groom's families. They were so nice - I actually felt like I was a guest at the wedding. There were so many friends and family from out of town, that Robin hosted a family reunion the day after her wedding. (Talk about packing a lot into one weekend)! It was so cool that I went back on Sunday and took family photos. I'll post some later this week.

Wild Computer Monitor

Yesterday I received a new toy which should also improve my productivity. Photography is very "digitally" intensive these days. Almost all my work sees Photoshop at some point for retouching, color correction, editing etc... For the last four years I have used a tablet to draw and paint on for retouching. This requires awesome "hand to eye" coordination. Something I lack at the best of times.

Yesterday my new Wacom Cintiq showed up. It is 21 inch monitor that lets you draw or paint right on the screen with a special pen. Very cool. I played with it until 1:30 AM. No more coordination issues for me.

Georgina and Johnny

I shot Georgina and Johnny's wedding a few weeks ago. I had a blast hanging out with them. They were such a great couple - that I uploaded other images from their wedding to my website yesterday. Their reception was at the Airtel Plaza Hotel.

My first post!

Well it's official - this is the first post on my new blog. My goal is to post at least three or four times a week. Today's excitement including having my picture (see upper right hand corner) taken by my good friend and awesome photographer Teri Montoya. Be sure to visit her website and see her great work including my portrait in her gallery. I will post some images tomorrow from a recent wedding.