LAGQ

Last Friday I had the opportunity to shoot some of the best guitarists in the world. The four of them make up the Grammy Award winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and aside from them being killer musicians, they're also some of the nicest guys as well. They needed some promo shots for their upcoming tour and possibly their next album as well so we went out and had a great time and made some really cool images. Here are a few from the shoot.

Christina and James

Saturday I had the oportunity to shoot Christina and James' wedding. The ceremony was held at the beautiful St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church near the campus of UC Irvine. The priest was a childhood friend of Christina's so the homily was really personal and moving. Going to a lot of weddings, all the priests/ministers/officiants start sounding the same, it was nice to hear something a little different. The reception was held at the Newport Beach Marriott in Fashion Island. It was a great hotel and the ballroom was beautifully decorated. It was also the fist time I got to see the traditional Korean ceremony. According to tradition (the number of dates and chestnuts the couple caught) the couple will have 7 boys and 3 girls. Its a good thing James is a doctor!

Here are a few pictures from the day.

I love this one Tyler caught during the toasts.

Wedding Coordinators

Having been at a lot if weddings I've seen many brides try to do everything themselves. It takes a lot of work to put together a wedding. One thing I've come to understand though, is the value of a Wedding Coordinator. When I first began in this industry I thought they were a frivolous expense but now I know they are anything but that. Having a professional with years of experience in event planning and design will not only take the weight off of your shoulders in putting the day together but it will also help you have a more beautiful, relaxed and enjoyable wedding day.

I work with my friends from Simply Mumtaz pretty regularly and they never cease to impress me with their impeccable designs and flawless execution. If you want your wedding to look like this give them a shot.

Angela

Last September I shot Erica and Bobby's wedding, (which also happens to be the wedding featured in Ceremony Magazine this month) there I met Angela, the sister of the bride. She is graduating from UNLV this semester and wanted some graduation photos. We made plans to shoot her pictures at 3:30 in the afternoon in the beautiful late afternoon light around Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles.

Well hair appointments ran late, make-up appointments ran late and there was an accident that shut down the 405 that afternoon so we didn't get to start shooting until about 4:45pm, only 15minutes before the sun went down. I'm a natural light photographer. I don't like shooting with flash, especially on camera flash. It doesn't make for the most natural photographs and alot of the time its pretty unflattering as well. So when we went inside to continue shooting after dark I was a little discouraged but I know that part of being a professional photographer is making good images with the circumstances your given so I was determined to get something good from the shoot.

When I came home and looked at the images I could not have been more pleased, Angela was a great "model" and I just love the images that came from the shoot. Here are a few of my favorites.

Photographing still life

Well technically I was photographing Stillife.

Before I was a photographer I was a musician. I was in a band, creatively named "Norwood." Now, before you go accusing me of being conceited or having a rock star complex it was the rest of the band that came up with the name. We had a good run, toured a whole bunch, we put like 30,000 miles on my SUV in three months in 2004 driving all across creation. Then I decided to move here to California. So there they were, a band without a singer, and eventually they found a singer without a band and formed Stillife. They got a record deal and now they're climbing the proverbial ladder of success.

So Beji, my old drummer and one of my best friends called me up last month and said he'd just gotten endorsement deals with Silverfox Drumsicks and Risen Drums and he needed some promo shots. So he came out last weekend from Texas and we went out and got some really cool stuff which is going into DRUM Magazine soon and hopefully a few others too.

The first place we went was Balboa Island. I've seen this alley down there a few times and always thought it would be a cool place to shoot... really urban. So we're walking down the alley and this girl is following us very suspiciously. We stop and begin to shoot and she's watching us like a hawk. After a few minutes of her hovering over us I turn around and start talking to her... turns out she's homeless, living in an abandoned theater down there and we're taking pictures right by her "front door" (which is just a hole that someone's made in the outside wall of the theater). We assure her were not after her stuff and then with a 20($) convince her to be in the background of our shoot. Nancy was a pretty cool girl.

Here are a few from the shoot.

As cool as Beji looks, he squealed like a 13 year old girl when he heard he was going to be on my blog.