Elizabeth and Christopher's Wedding Day - Wedding Photography in Nevada City

The Goodlaff wedding has been a long wait since the engagement pictures taken back in January. As I mentioned in the engagement session post I have known Christopher (Chris) for a long time. So not only was this wedding important to me because I was photographing it but also because I got to see someone dear to me commit his love to someone as beautiful and smart as Elizabeth (Beth).

We started out the day with the bride and her bridesmaids at their hotel spending time taking pictures of the many details a wedding will have, most importantly the wedding dress. The hotel room gave many different options for where to hang the dress. I loved the dress on the gold framed fruit basket picture.






Beth spent endless hours preparing for her big day, paying attention to every detail creating a fabulous DIY wedding. Beth has also started a blog, The Goodlaff Bride. I enjoy following her blog because of all her creative ideas plus she tells it like it is. For her big day, Beth made a birdcage veil, a hair flower piece, a necklace, personalized hangers for each of her bridesmaids, and a lot more. Plus, the hint of blue on her wedding dress and the blue wedding shoes just showed how fun of a girl Beth is. She and her girls looked so stunning together.











One thing that really made this wedding unique was the old style buildings and architecture of Nevada City, California. The Miners Foundry Cultural Center was really a beautiful venue for a wedding. The guys photos were a little pressed for time but because we had the rustic buildings that Nevada City has to offer we got a few really neat pictures of the them hanging out around the buildings. Plus they had matching argyle socks so we managed to grab some photos of them showing their socks off.





After the ceremony we took some photos of the newly married bride and groom. Here are a few of my favorite of the two of them as newlyweds.







Congratulations to the newly weds, Christopher and Elizabeth Ratzlaff!

Senior Portrait Session - Beautiful Andrea

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of photographing Senior Portraits for the lovely Andrea. Her mom is a friend of mine and was super excited to show me a location where all the high school seniors hang out. It is always awesome to find new locations to shoot.

We met in the afternoon at Chico's Hooker Oak Park and walked a ways until we found our first location...one of my favorite things - a graffiti covered wall. Andrea was wearing her Prom dress to start out the photo shoot: a perfect contrast. The graffiti covered wall made a lovely surrounding for the beautiful gown Andrea had found for her senior prom. (The dress was going to be a surprise for her boyfriend so I decided not to post the pictures until after the dance.)

We shot for a few hours with several outfit changes. Here are my favorite images from the photo session:





















Congratulations Andrea!!!

Table Mountain Family Portrait Session - Roxie, Kat and The Kids

During Christmas time my friend Kat asked me if she could purchase a family portrait session from me as a gift certificate for her girlfriend Roxie. Kat and Roxie have been friends of mine for several years now and I knew Roxie would be super excited to receive this gift from Kat. So, I made a gift certificate on the computer for Kat to give to Roxie in a card or as stocking stuffer.

Christmas came and went and because spring was quickly approaching, we decided that a great location for a family photo session would be Table Mountain, just north of Oroville, California. This location is famous for it's abundance of wildflowers and vast open space. As the date approached, we decided to shoot in the late afternoon into the evening to take advantage of the naturally moody sunset lighting.

Before the shoot, I suggested the family grab some props that are meaningful to them - and they brought PROPS! We played with a few stuffed animals, an umbrella and a toy microphone. The day of the photo shoot, the forecast called for showers all day but we decided to head up the hill anyway, just in case there was a break in the weather. Luckily, only minutes before the shoot, the clouds parted and the rain headed to the north. The props, the amazing natural beauty of Table Mountain and the perfect moody weather made for another fabulous photo shoot.

Here are some of my favorites from this family portrait session.