sarah & debbie are such a cool couple! we met last weekend to go over details for their commitment ceremony and the big reception. afterwards we walked around downtown alameda and got some fun shots. it was a good time to get to know them better before their big day. see you both next month.
a few favorites...
last weekend we went to the ferry building to find primavera for their tasty chilaquiles. thanks to married with dinner for the great recommendation. it was delicious!
check out these cute photo cards we got this holiday. i love the simplicity of them both. it makes me happy to see the photos i snapped used in a creative way for the holidays!!
ryan, my step brother, got married to stephanie in september. the wedding was sweet and lots of fun! ryan asked me to work their polaroid guest book which was action packed. i knew ryan's side of the family but it was a fun way to meet most of stephanie's family. some of their guests took more convincing than others but i think i got most everyone in the book. ryan took polaroids at our wedding and put the guest book together for everyone to sign (it turned out fabulous!!). it was my turn to return the favor. not only did i have my polaroid camera on my shoulder i also had my DSLR and wine in the other hand. i got some really fun pictures that night. here's one i snapped of them towards the end of the night. i'm so happy to see they used it for their holiday cards!
i've been experimenting with some TTV (through the viewfinder) shooting techniques. alec and i have a good collection of older large format cameras plus super 8mm & 16mm cameras. most of them still work and a few don't. going through the collection once again i stumbled upon alec's argus 75 large format camera. score!
last week i went out to shoot some graffiti along some railroad tracks. this is the first time i've tried shooting TTV so there was some trial and error for sure. my set up was using my DSLR, 24-70mm lens, the argus 75 and a black blanket cover. after i loaded the files onto the computer and did a little color post processing. i love the results!!
it's time to get creative. each year at work they do secret santa for the holidays. this is strictly voluntary. the rules are you can't buy anything, the gift has to be "handmade". working with so many creative people you can imagine all the cool & amazing gifts i've seen. this only adds to the pressure. each year i tell myself i'm not going to do it. that doesn't work. october rolls around and i'm feeling creative ready to take on the challenge so i sign up. now i'm less than a week away from the exchange and i don't have a solid idea. time to think fast.
last year i made a set of photo magnets of a car. this guy loves his scout international! i took photos of differnt parts of his car, painted wood panels, decoupaged the images onto the wood and added a magnet back. for packaging i sewed a denim draw string pouch which would hold the entire magnet collection. he loved it!! i think he was more shocked at how i was able to take close ups of the "hood" lever and the stick shift knob. i got sneaky and got the keys to his car but he thought someone broke in. it was very covert.
liz & rob were married last month at the croatian american cultural center in sacramento. the day was mostly rainy but that didn't stop anyone from having a fabulous time. fortunately they had a back up plan to move the ceremony indoors so no worries there.
i got to spend time with the guys while they got ready. they were fun to shoot and up for anything even going outside. what a bunch of crazy & handsome guys!
liz & rob's family and friends were great and certainly know to have a good time. the mariachi band los gallos arrived during the cocktail hour and serenaded the guests... it was awesome!! i also loved rob's speech... he had it all ready and read from his pages and pages of notes. when he talked about how happy he was to be with liz and the boys i started to get teary. it was so touching.
congratulations you two!
i won a pumpkin photo contest put on by blu domain! blu domain is an awesome team that offers cool website interfaces for photographers. stay tuned because i'll be launching my site in the next week featuring one of their interfaces.
back to the contest...the requirements were to take a photo of your carved pumpkin but to make sure it was taken recently you had to place 5 pieces of candy somewhere in the photo. i got word today that the party disco ball pumpkin won! alec came up with the idea and i snapped the photo.
check it out here.
halloween definitely snuck up on us this year. we didn't follow through with any costume ideas so we dressed up as ourselves. the kids who came by trick or treating didn't care. but we did find some time to carve pumpkins!
so let's flashback to the days when we did dress up.
happy halloween!
alec back in the day with his superman costume
"lights out SF" happened last night. this was a city wide effort to conserve engery where certain landmarks turned off their lights from 8-9pm. different photographers donated their time to get before and after shots of the landmarks which was pretty cool. you can see their pictures of the buildings here. i went to the top of twin peaks to get wide shots of the the bay bridge and the golden gate bridge.
you can see in my photos that the city didn't get very dark. i was hoping to see lights start flicking off creating some dramatic effect. it wasn't as dramatic but it was good to see the city support the efforts by turning off the major landmark decorative lights. it was pretty cool to see city hall lights and coit tower go off too. i didn't realize how much they illuminated at night.
click here for more info about lights out. the next lights out in SF is march 29, 2008!
check out paul furman's website for a cool time lapse video.
bay bridge view
on sunday the 23rd alec and i celebrated our one year wedding anniversary! it only seems like yesterday we were planning our wedding but here it is a year later. we had so much fun celebrating the beginning our marriage with our family & friends.
for our anniversary we went down to santa cruz for a night to hang out on the boardwalk, relax and have some fun. we left sunday morning and took the scenic highway 1 all the way to santa cruz. it was a lazy sunday and we weren't in any rush. when we arrived we parked the car and got some lunch. the town was pretty quiet for a sunday. after lunch we headed to the boardwalk for some photobooth photos, arcade games, corn dogs, miniature golf and of course, the roller coaster rides. i haven't been on the giant dipper in years!
later in the afternoon we took a break and headed to the sea & sand inn to check in to our room. the inn sits on a cliff next near the boardwalk and all rooms face the ocean. the inn so was cute and the view was amazing!! after we settled in we hit the boardwalk again for a few more rides. riding the giant dipper once wasn't enough.
after the boardwalk closed we went back to our room to share a bottle of wine and to watch the sunset. it was so relaxing hanging out with alec on the lawn chairs hearing the waves crash and sipping on wine. later it was off to dinner at carniglia's located on the pier. the food was delicious! i'm so happy to be married to alec... i look forward to growing old with him.
i managed to get some fun photos at the boardwalk. for most of the afternoon the sun was trying to break free from behind the clouds so the weather was perfect.... not too cold and not too hot. the clouds and overcast light made for some great pictures! here's some fun photos from the day. click here to see the entire set.
i love the light from inside the photobooth
