March 30, 2010

Sundial Bridge Surprise: Kayla and Jaime: Chico Engagement Photography

Before Kayla said "YES" to Jaime we spent several hours shooting on the Sundial Bridge and the botanical gardens.

Here are the images taken before Jaime asked the question:

greentrees

Rocks

Branches

Mosaic

Fence

SundialBridge

WallUnderBridge

UnderBridge

Oh ya.... There is one thing that made this day almost a disaster:



Don't worry the equiptment is fine:) If you watched the video closely you can see that this was right before the proposal. I was in the process of positioning Jaime and Kayla so that Jaime could get down on one knee! And you can see both families on top of the bridge getting ready to surprise Kayla. Thank you Jaime and Kayla and once again, Congratulations!!

March 29, 2010

Butte College Photography: All American, Norman Rockwell: Model - Lauren

The first shoot of the Studio Photography class assignment, "All American, Norman Rockwell," was mine.

The original plan was this: put a male and a female model, acting as though they were on their first date to the carnival, on the Butte College football field with about 40 balloons and a wide open, beautiful blue sky. Unfortunately, as should be expected, there were a few issues. First, the male model was a no-show. Second, rain began to fall.

So...? Plan B: shoot in the Butte College art department's brand new Black Box Theater. The new concept? Shoot the female model, Lauren, as a southern belle at the carnival jumping with complete excitement and happiness. Thankfully, Lauren was able to really get into character and turned a failed shoot into a fun and educational day of photography.

Here are some more images from the shoot:

HeadinBalloons

Daisys

StoodUp

BalloonHead

As the shoot neared the end we realized we had 20 balloons that needed to be taken care of. Lauren wanted to take one home, and a few others were inhaled, always a good laugh. I had decided that I wanted to pop the balloons and maybe catch something exciting. Here is a fun video of this event.



and an image:

BalloonPoP

Thank you everyone for helping me with this shoot!!!

March 23, 2010

Chico, Ca Engagement Photography: Redding, Ca.- Sundial Bridge Surprise

A few months ago, my friend Jaime came to me with a unique and exciting idea. He was planning to propose to his girlfriend, Kayla, at the Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA. Being that this is the location of one of their first dates, almost five years ago, it holds very special meaning to them.

This is how it went down:
Jaime told Kayla that they were going to get portraits taken at the Sundial Bridge. My assistant and I met them at the Turtle Bay parking lot at 10A.M. After a few hours of shooting on the bridge and in the botanical gardens, my assistant went back to the car to get "an important piece of camera equipment." In actuality, he was going to the parking lot to meet with both Jaime and Kayla's families. While I was photographing the couple under the sundial side of the bridge, the families gathered together above them, just out-of-site. When the time was right, my assistant signaled the family to move to the side of the bridge, at which time Jaime got down on his knee to propose. Through the shock of seeing her and Jaime's families standing on the bridge above them, and realizing that the whole day had been a set up, Kayla said, "Yes!" Well, that's not the only reason why she said yes. Even a passerby overhead said, "you can see the Bling from up here"

Congratulations Jaime and Kayla!

TheProposal

The photos I took before the proposal will be up soon:)

March 22, 2010

Butte College Photography: All American, Norman Rockwell

The advanced students in Michael Agliolo's studio photography class at Butte College have decided to take on a photography challenge. The challenge to each of the students: Create an "all American, Norman Rockwell" themed image that tells a story. At the end of the semester, we should have a series of five images that tell a different story.

A week and a half ago we shot the first of the five images. As it happened I was volunteered to be the first Head Photographer. Here is the teaser on what sort of images are to be expected from this assignment.

Jumping

March 15, 2010

Wedding Photography- Chico, Ca- Summer Love

We just leaped forward one hour and this means long and hot, summer days and nights, something this photographer yearns for. Thinking back on last summer, and all that was accomplished makes me hope and plan for this upcoming summer to be twice as successful as last.

Last summer I got the opportunity to shoot a wedding with my good friend Rich. The wedding was in the Dahlia Gardens right along the coast of Fort Bragg. I never got the chance to blog about any of the images from this wedding because I was in the middle of other photo sessions to post process. Since I was just playing assistant on this wedding I never went through the images. As I have been reminiscing about last summer I came across a few romantics portraits that I really like. I decided I would blog about a few beauties from last summer as we get closer and closer to those long summer days.

Ocean

Kiss

Fence

Dahlias

March 11, 2010

Introducing The Band, Rewind! Chico Band Photography

Again, here is the bands website, they are local!!
RewindRocksChico

Holly: lead vocals

Holly

Warren: Lead guitar, backing vocals

Warren

Susan: Backing vocals, percussion

Susan

Chip: Drums, percussion

Chip


Mike: keyboards, guitars, and vocals

Mike

Rich: bass guitar

Rich

March 8, 2010

Chico Band Photography: Rewind

I got the privilege to photograph a local band, Rewind. Rewind is a group of 6 individuals who play cover songs from some of our all time favorite, Classic Rock and New Country titles. This band came to me in hopes for some fun and unique photos for their press release CD. I jumped right on this opportunity, I really enjoy shooting images of a group of people who are simply excited to get their photos taken. Sure enough, come Friday afternoon the band was more than ready to have their photos taken.

Please take a second to check out the bands website, which can be found here: RewindRocksChico

OldHouse

BlueSteel

TrainTracks

relaxin

Grass

I will introduce the band in the next post:)

March 4, 2010

Chico Portrait Photography- Oldies BUT Goodies

I have recently decided to go through all of my old dvds and back them up digitally on my hard drive. Most dvds only have a 5 year life span so it is important to make sure you have them backed up in two places. The images I have been backing up are some of the very first images I ever took as a student. I must say, I am so incredibly shocked with the amount of knowledge I have learned in the past 3 years. Going through these old photos has taught me so much about posing, lighting, editing and composition that I would recommend as photographers we all do what I have done at some point in our careers, and again in several years. As we progress further as professionals we must not forget where we started out at. This is what makes us the photographers we are today. Pull out those old photos and as you go through them you will remember what not to do, as well as what worked really well. You may have forgotten some old techniques or poses or locations. So, with that in mind here are a few of my first photos that inspired me to become a professional photographer.

AshleyTree

debbi

michelle

Ashley

EmGrass