I was chased by a massive 2000 pound bull through a forest with a guy named Goulet!!

I'm completely serious.....


story to come later.....


:)

I can't believe in less than 3 days I'll be out of the woods and in a nice hotel in Hawaii!! :) Crazy!!

Last Day at Camp

Well last day for the kids for this session. I'm still here till Tuesday. Yesterday was the last full day with the kids and I was able to grab a few last activities that the camp directors wanted. In the afternoon I got to hang out with this prodigy skateboarder kid whose been skatboarding since he was FOUR?! He was amazing!



I got to also shoot some mountain boarders. The kids here are so talented at this stuff. I swear I would KILL myself on a half pipe or on a mountain board! I'll just stick to taking pictures. :) I took both of these pictures using a technique called "dragging the shutter." You use a fairly slow slow shutter speed (for this I think both of them were in the 1/80th of a second range and then set your camera flash to fire "rear curtain" which basically if you think of how a flash works, you click the button, the shutter opens and the flash fires and then the shutter closes (all super fast). With rear curtain flash, the same thing happens but your flash fires right before the shutter closes as opposed to as soon as it opens and so you get some of that movement like that. The flash "freezes" your subject and the longer shutter speed (with me panning the camera with the movement of the subject) makes the background motion. Hope that made sense!! :)



Anyways, last night was the traditional candle light ceremony where all the kids line up in a huge circle in which there is a cross in the center. They are handed candles and one by one the candles are lit until everyone in the circle is holding a lit candle. The analogy is of the light of Christ in a dark world. Then different groups of kids go to the middle and put their candles in the center until all the candles are in the cross. It's a really cool ceremony and a lot of the older kids were really emotional, because this service happens every year on the last night of camp and for many of them they have been here five or six (or more) years and this is their last year.






Then this morning, I got up early and drove up to this high place that overlooked the lake and got some scenic shots of the lake.




Then the kids ate breakfast here and then boarded on buses after saying goodbye to their friends and counselors that they have been with the last two weeks.




Then last but not least after all the kids left the directors wanted a group staff shot. In the past we've just done traditional shots, but this year I suggested we make it a little creative. :) They ended up harnessing me into this contraption called the "King Swing" which basically pulls you up and backwards about 100 feet in the air and then the release you and you free fall for about 2 seconds and then swing out (think like a pendulum). The staff all grouped together and then I took a bunch of pictures as I swung over their heads! Looks cool huh?! :)

Brett and Katelyn

Brett and Katelyn work here at the camp and I'm blessed enough to be coming back to this area to do their wedding in October so we took a little time to get away from camp and get some engagement pics for the two of them last night and then enjoyed a good "Forks Burger" afterwards to talk about their wedding. For those of you who have been to Bass Lake you know what I'm talking about with the Forks. For those of you who don't it's almost worth driving up here just to check it out! :)

Can't wait for your wedding you guys! :) This area in October will be AMAZING!

Back at YSSC

The last few days I've been up in the INCREDIBLY HOT region of Bass Lake. This is my 3rd year taking a mid summer break from weddings to come and shoot campers up at YSSC . It's been a crazy last couple of days capturing water sports, high ropes climbing, and other camp activities. As much as I love weddings, it's a fun break to come and shoot somethin just a bit different.

Here's a few of the highlights! :)




This kid was amazing. He climbed up this 40 foot "tower of power" blindfolded.



Yosemite is an hour and a half drive from camp and I got to drive down to take some scenic shots of the park since the camp drives kids down there a couple times during their trip. This is half dome right by Mirror Lake.



This cabin of girls were super cool and got up at 6AM to do a morning war canoe trip.




Some more water shots on Bass Lake...

Tovi and Becca! :)

I seriously don't know how time goes so fast! It seems like JUST the other day (really a little over a week ago) that we were shooting Becca and Tovi's wedding. I'm seriously having a hard time doing it justice describing just how beautiful every detail of it was. I'm such a fan of big details and the details in their wedding were amazing! Becca and Tovi you guys are amazing and I can't wait to get together with you guys when you get back!

Becca's dress was SO beautiful! It was handmade by a designer in Spain!




Becca and her dad practicing their dance that morning....

My wife is beautiful. :)

So yesterday, I convinced Katie to come down and go to the beach so I could take some pictures of her. I should stress his took QUITE a bit of convincing.....I think the argument that finally got her was "what if she was killed in car accident and I didn't have any other good pictures of her... (which is of course not true).....actually she didn't really like that argument that much :) She really is the the most amazingly kind and sweet and definetly the most beautiful girl in the whole world to me and I'm so glad I get to wake up every morning and have her there.

Anyways, we went down to the beach by the Bacara (a super fancy resort just north of Santa Barbara) and I took down the 200mm f1.8 lens that I had rented for the weekend and had a bunch of fun photographing my super beautiful wife. :)

Kevin and Tiff!

Last night I got to meet up with Kevin and Tiff and shoot some engagement pictures. Kevin and Tiff are getting married in Hawaii and we'll be flying out to shoot it! Obviously, I was already looking forward to going out there for obvious reasons, but after I saw how photogenic Kevin and Tiff are it made me even more excited about their wedding!

Thanks so much guys for having us join you out there! Can't wait!

Three Weddings in a Row!!

As some of you know I just finished my crazy weekend of three amazing weddings in a row! I could talk so much about how amazing each wedding was, but it would take me all day to write about it! So I'll do my best to give good summary's! :)

Megan and Josh were AMAZING. I used to work for Megan way back in the college days when I was pretty much the only photographer for the school yearbook and she was the editor. Megan pretty scheduled her wedding around days that I would be available....SUCH an honor! (It's really making me strive to have all of my clients e-mail me first before they book a reception site to see if I'm available!) :) I couldn't believe during the reception when I got the slideshow up and going, it was right after she and Josh had cut the cake and they were sitting down at their table to enjoy it and I mentioned (cause I knew Megan would want to see it) that I had the slideshow ready and she literally RAN (as fast as a bride in a wedding dress can run) over to see it! Josh was like, "can't we eat the cake first?" but even by then she was out of earshot! I want more clients like THAT! :)

Thanks Megan and Josh for such an INCREDIBLE wedding!

Josh and his boys....



Megan had this incredible smile on her face the ENTIRE day! It was seriously impossible to take a bad picture of her! It was hard for me to figure out which ones to post because we had so many! :)





One of Josh's guys were checking out his ring after the ceremony....



We had such great lighting at the end of the night. I loved it! :)



Meg and Josh had such a great exit with everyone lined up with sparklers! I hope you guys have such a great honeymoon! Can't wait to see you after you get back! :)




Next was ANOTHER Meghan (but spelled differently!) :) and her super sweet husband Ray. Meg and I also go back all the way to our Freshman year at Westmont college. Meg has been one of my biggest supporters since I started my business 2 years ago. She's passed numerous engaged friends my way who have ended up being clients so it was such a pleasure to be a part of her day. It's kinda a long story, but when Meghan was in college she developed an extremely rare disease and was in the hospital for months. All the doctors agree that it is a miracle that she is alive today and I had that in my mind the whole day I was shooting. It just made the day that much more precious that she is here getting married when just a few years ago death was quite literally at her door. Praise God! :)

Super cute flower girl getting her hair done.....







Meghan and Ray had such a cool ceremony which Ray's youth pastor officiated at. It was his first wedding and it went so well!





I can't say much more without talking about my new friend Rudy Arpia



who came up and shot both of these weddings with me! I was so lucky to have such an incredible 2nd shooter with me. He is so talented and such a great guy! I really enjoyed his company and can't wait to go through all of his amazing images. Here are just a few from the weekend.....





He grabbed this shot of me shooting on his Nikon gear. Now he thinks it's because I'm secretly in love with Nikon, but really I was just making sure that Canon had way better gear.....and yep! I was right! :) Actually, the Nikon D2X is a SWEET camera, and the images out of it look amazing. If I were starting all over I might invest in Nikon, but at the same time, I'm very happy with my Canon 20D and Mark II N. :) I think too many people make too big a deal out of the different camera companies. The truth is, you can get great images out of either, and it's really the person BEHIND the camera not the actual camera that makes a great image. :) Thanks so much Rudy! I can't wait too shoot with you again! :)



The LAST wedding was yesterday and that was with Thomas and Rachel....again friends from Westmont! :) (No, I swear I don't just shoot friend's weddings!) :) Their wedding was so much FUN to shoot! Thomas is just about the sweetest guy a girl could ever find and Rachel is so lucky to have him! He has such a heart for God and for people, it's amazing to be around him.

I love this shot of Rachel peaking out the doors leading into the church before she came down the isle! So cute! That's Thomas in the foreground....



During the ceremony Thomas and Rachel played this hilarious video of how they met and how their relationship grew. It was so funny listening to it and seeing everyone's reactions. This was Thomas's old pastor from Chicago cracking up with his groomsmen in the background.






Again, I'm so blessed to have awesome 2nd shooters. Kristin Shaparenko joined me and did such an amazing job at yesterday's wedding.

Here's a quick shot I grabbed of her.....



Thanks for your amazing shots Kristin! :)




I wish I could take the next few days off before my next wedding on Saturday, but I have over 8,000 images from the last week to edit!! :) Even though, I'm pretty exhausted, this whole experience has taught me really how much I love wedding photography and how lucky I am to be able to do it! Getting to be a part of the most important day in these people's lives is such a blessing that I never want to take for granted. I really do believe I have one of the best jobs in the world and this last week only reinforces that sentiment! :)