I’m here late tonight, wanting to get as much as I can done on all the weddings we have had so far this summer.  Erin & Mike’s was one I’d been looking forward to all year, but that’s a story I’ll tell later…when I have more to show!

But this one’s one I was so proud of.  I saw Erin’s bridesmaid sing and her voice was simply showstopping.  St. James Church in San Francisco is a sweet little church with a whole heckuvalota stained glass everywhere.  I had moved around to behind the piano and had an idea – but would it work?  I closed down my lens as much as I could get away with in a dark church.  Down, down…until I could see the colors of the stained glass window behind her.  My hope was to put her in sillouette as much as I could.  I was so happy to see this, straight out of the camera, while I’m picking out the best from their ceremony for post production work.  Yipee!

More on them later – they’re too fantastic of a couple to just mention, they need a whole entry!

A colorful song at St. James Church in San Francisco

Gabrielle’s Bridal Atelier is throwing a sample sale May 29th and 30th at their Los Gatos location located at 104 University Ave., Los Gatos, CA 95030. This is a true sale – Gabi’s getting ready to move into her new storefront location (along with the amazing Nicole Lisanne of Nicole Lisanne Weddings & Events By Design) less than a half mile from me here in Campbell. That means making room rather than packing. Yipee!

Gowns will be 50-70% off!!!

Call or e-mail to make an appointment at 408-399-9393 or appointment@gabriellesbridal.com

Gowns will be 50-70% off. Did I mention that?

The gorgeous bride above is Talia, who speaks very highly of Gabrielle. It’s where she found this beautiful Melissa Sweet gown.

Any excuse I can get to photograph my friends in action, OR photograph my friends looking all gorgeous, I’ll jump on it.

So when I found out my friends from Casa Real and Palm Event Center were going to have a special “what to do with your own makeup” session with one of my favorite stylists, Armando Sarabia, well…I got a two-fer!

Armando is a true talent, so much so that he’s ridiculously booked up doing hair and makeup styling for brides and others. He was even on a recent episode of Who’s Wedding Is It Anyway?! You can find him at Get Your Do Up.

A few fun shots from the day!

Ligaya & Paulo just made my day. So in love, and so happy, and just so much fun to hang out with. Here are a few of my faves from our recent session:
And I gotta say, Ashley & Allan looked amazing during their shoot with Kelvin! I don’t know how they did it, but check out the amazing wall of yellow flowers…

Competition is getting fierce. But hey, I still placed two out of my 5 entries! Yipee! If you’re interested, go visit the Wedding Photojournalist Association. Truth and real moments wins out over Extreme Photoshopping, at least in my little world. ::grin::

One of the reasons why I always always always give my couples an engagement session before the wedding is because it’s really more of a “get comfy” session. No really! I want to get to know my couples, and for them to get to know me. I’m a total goofball! Perfect example – today with Silvia and Danny, I actually squished my face in to show what happens when you pose cheek to cheek without pulling away a bit.
(Speaking of Silvia & Danny…this is him trying to kiss her and she’s not letting him! Fun!)

Portrait sessions are hard! They’re scary and intimidating and you want your images to look good but you don’t want to “model up” and where the heck do you look, right? So by getting my couples comfy with me, with each other and most importantly, with my big a@@ camera, within 20 minutes it starts to get fun. But those first 20 minutes can be a little unsettling.

Some of the comments I might get back are, “this kinda feels weird” or “really, lean over that much?” or “what the heck do you mean like a turtle?”

I thought that maybe I’d share with the three people who read this blog (grin) what goes into a few of the shots. First, the story, then the photo.
Melanie and Mike and I were wandering around Santana Row when I gasped. “Oh my gosh, this is awesome! Can you two lean down all the way to me?” Yeah, they felt really stupid, but I was able to lie on the ground (almost) and get the sillouette of the M on the building behind them.
I love this shot. It’s sexy and anonymous and yet so sweet and touching! I had to keep moving the grape vines so I could get just the right amount to circle their lips. Poor Kat & Scott just had to keep kissing and kissing, I’m sure that was annoying. hehehe

Back to Melanie & Mike – I was so impressed when we were all able to pull this off without laughing. I told them I wanted to see a little passion, and showed Melanie exactly where to put her back against the wall, and Mike I told to get as close as he could with his face – then just…just..just touch a tiny bit. Steamy!

So what to remember during the portrait session? If you like the work they do, then trust your photographer. Yeah, he or she may have you doing some of the weirdest things, but it’ll look yummy.

These were done in the cold rain here at the PruneYard and yep, we had an awesome time!
Proof that you don’t need trees and pretty-pretty in the background (or even daylight) to get some fun and emotive engagement session images! Just great light and a carefree attitude. Maybe some latte?
I can’t wait to see you two this weekend!

Meet Eva.

I had just gotten to know Alex & Nicole Barsuk over tea and talk about a bonding session. Seriously! We were there for maybe two hours just talking about his hopes in the photo biz (he’s a relatively new pro, talented and very humble) and her hopes for the new baby they were about to have. Would her name be Eva? Gianna? They weren’t sure and knew that they should wait to meet her before they named her.

Eva arrived just days afterwards, and I asked if I could be one of the first (besides Daddy of course) to get my camera on her. They were SO polite to say yes – new babies are just exhausting! But I remember how eternally grateful I was when my friend and pro Angela asked if she could take a family photo of us when Donovan was just a few weeks old, knowing that we working photogs just never seem to focus on our OWN families! I knew Alex was having a great time getting lots of shots of his two lovely ladies, but none of the three of them.

So I headed over right after the Sunday Pronovias show and couldn’t wait to meet her. But she wasn’t too thrilled that some chick was interrupting her dinner. Poor thing wailed and cried! Then I find out that poor Nicole just had her wisdom teeth out a few days before. Ouch! But they didn’t want to reschedule and I’m so glad we didn’t. And I’m thrilled we got a few sweet shots in our very brief session.

I had a great time taking shots of some of the incredible bridal dresses by Enzoani today at Trudy’s trunk show. Fun! Thought I’d show you a few highlights. The silver dress is one of my favorites! See the detail of the front three images up? The Enzoani representative Mary told us that the roses took 4 weeks to make! There’s another Enzoani show tomorrow at 11, and next week it’s Pronovias. Did I mention I’m raffling off a blank e-session guestbook?

So how cool is this! Trudy of Trudy’s Brides asked if I’d like to join them for their two upcoming trunk shows. We were thinking it would be a blast if we took shots of brides trying on the designer gowns while the designer or their rep is RIGHT THERE! Talk about high fashion, huh?

So it all kicks off this weekend (Saturday the 21st) at 9 am, with a fashion show of design house Enzoani, with the trunks open and showing after the show, and another fashion show at 11 on Sunday the 22nd.

Next weekend, it’s Pronovias of Spain (Saturday the 28th), same time for the shows. (My fave dress in this year’s collection is Ronda. Wow!)

On both Saturdays, I’ll be there for the show, and then afterwards until 2 p.m. taking photos of brides with the designers or their representatives as they try on dresses. On Sunday, I’ll be there from 10 am until 2. Hey, maybe you’ll find “the one!”

Everyone who comes to say hi and sign up for more info, we’ll enter your name into a drawing for a beautiful 8×12 guestbook, with lots of room to mount your engagement session images and for your guests to leave special messages on your wedding day. And of course, we’ll be sending you the images of you in those designer dresses, ready to post on Facebook or your wedding website.

Here’s the kicker – seating for the show is LIMITED so call ASAP. Have a great Friday and hope to see you these next two weekends at Trudy’s!

Trudy’s is in the PruneYard Shopping Center, 1875 S Bascom Avenue in Campbell, and their phone number is 408-377-1987.