Photography Behind Door 51

A long overdue post comes in a form of an engagement session we shot in Halfmoon Bay. Jennifer and Joe are a very sweet couple with a wonderful taste in seafood. :0) Our post session dinner at Sam’s Chowder House proved to be the best seafood experience we had in a long while. If you go, we HIGHLY recommend you try the Steamed Mediterranean Mussels - they are amazing! In fact, we recommend you don’t order anything else - you may just choose to go with another round of mussels and bread instead of a regular dinner plate.

Did I mention Joe has a sweet Harley that served as a wonderful prop and made room for some creative shots like these …

Thank you guys for a great time!

Went for our second appointment today, and to our surprise (a pleasant one at that!) the Doc brought in the ultrasound machine to show us our baby! The baby was moving around in there! Trying to show off no doublt!

Funny how you don’t really understand the “miracle of life” until you see this tiny moving thing that’s growing inside the girl you love. I can’t help but replay it in my mind and grin.

There’s nothing like a wonderful, activity-filled weekend to recharge and inspire you. It started with a short walk on a Friday night; the weather was just too beautiful to say home. Hummingbirds were out in full force… and they refused to pose!

I don’t even know what that thing is, but it took me 10 minutes of trying to get this shot… He was beautiful!

Saturday started with a tour of the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory in Berkeley. You have GOT TO try the Nibby bars. Soooo good!

The next stop was the Chihuly exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Chihuly’s work is absolutely breathtaking! I wish I could put every picture I took on the blog - everything was that amazing. We highly recommend you go see it.

Sunday, while the girls shopped the Gilroy Outlets, my friend and I went to the MotoGP at Laguna Seca. I always wanted to attend this particular event - something about my love for motorcycles… Our seats were in the very first row, right across the start/finish line, where for 32 laps the bikes blew past us at obsene speed, making an obsene amount of noise. Unfortunately, sitting behind two layers of fence made it near impossible to take pictures.

Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner had an awesome battle, but after running a bit wide on one of he corners and dropping his bike, Stoner guaranteed Rossi’s victory.

…ahhh that was fun!

Aaron and Alicia got married right next to the beach. A lot of creativity and love went into this wedding: from custom-painting the runner with their initials, making their own huppa, placing fish bowls with sea shells scattered around them on guest tables, to the custom painting of the ocean floor for people to sign their wishes on. Everything had a great feel to it.

Alicia’s dress was beautiful, she undoubtedly has good taste…

Alicia’s parents were in the room while she was getting ready. They are lovely people. My watch managed to die and her father was so gracious as to offer me his! He saved the day! Thanks again!

Aaron and his Best Man:

Before the ceremony, we escaped to the gardens were we shot their engagement. Aaron rode with us, Alicia with her dad. I walked Aaron into the depth of the garden and asked him to wait with his back to the entrance… and to Alicia. She walked in. We snapped the image on the left. Then when she approached, I asked Aaron to turn around. And the rest, as we say, is history!

We returned with plenty of time for the ceremony. Happiness is contagious!

The ceremony was beautiful as well! Readings by the bridal party were only overshadowed by the vows they wrote for each other. It was such a privilege to witness this event.

They had matching wedding bands!

We just LOVE these! Don’t you?

Father and daughter dance was an emotional event, and there were tears abound.

Yep, that’s gold fish in there!

I simply can’t wait to get to designing their album. It’s going to be so much fun!

I’m not sure if it’s Matt’s sense of humor or Bethany’s genuine and pretty smile, but we love these guys! I think we spent half the time laughing and half the time shooting. Can’t wait ’till the wedding.

I’m feeling artsy tonight! And how can I not when I’m so inspired.

Somewhere in the middle of Alicia and Aaron’s engagement session I had a thought - (oh oh… he’s thinking!) - I love my job!. “And where”, you would ask, “did that thought come from?” I’ll tell you where! From having the privilege and the pleasure of working with wonderful people in LOVE. That joy, that warmth, that energy that a couple in love exude feeds our creativity and passion for what we do. Tonight, I saw it morph into something beyond a photograph, and even beyond a work of art, into an article of emotion.

On Friday we went to a doctor and had our first ultrasound.

Head … check! Body … check! Hands … check! Feet … check! What else can we ask for?!

And here’s a picture of the printout we were handed. A close up of sorts :0).

Did I mention Nicole’s ready to buy her own Ultrasound machine so she can see the baby more often?

“Come as you are, as you were,
As I want you to be
As a friend, as a friend, as an old enemy
Take your time, hurry up
The choice is yours, don’t be late
Take a rest as a friend as an old memoria…” ~ Kurt Cobain

Tomomi and John are High School sweethearts who love their rock. Memories flooded my eyes as I walked into their music room filled with posters of Kurt Cobain, Korn, and Brandon Lee as The Crow - to date my favorite movie. If I went to their High School, we would surely be friends!

They were nervous at first, but were having a good time with us by the end of the night. Their dog Baxter (whom I renamed to Dexter - yes, the quirky Serial Killer from HBO!) was totally adorable and managed to steal Nicole’s heart in 0.5 seconds. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…

It’s been long overdue for a redesign and it’s going to get it! Meanwhile, we’re redirecting everyone to this blog. We will update it with all the important information, including an Albums tab! (Look for it at the top of the page.)

As always, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

I come home to a suspiciously familiar gift box, neatly positioned in the middle of the dining room table, with a bow on it and everything! “A present!”, I thought, “I love presents!” I open it up to find a velvety red Sephora bag inside. “Uhm… I don’t need makeup, but I’m curious.” I feel for the contents inside (a stick of some sort), I turn to Nicole for a clue and the tears in her eyes confirm my suspicions of what may be inside. I take out the pregnancy test out of the bag, look down on it, turn to Nicole and everything around us fades. We’re pregnant!