I Do: The Wedding of Hiren & Chaitali

When their custom, gold and burgundy 8x10 wedding invitation graced our mailbox -- a welcomed diamond in the rough amongst the usual postal suspects -- I just knew their wedding was going to be a grand event.

A wonderful couple, eye-popping colors, choreographed dances -- great food! This is the first Indian wedding I've had the pleasure of attending, and wow, what an amazing experience. It was really a sight to behold, a celebration spanning the course of not one, but three days, with a beautiful outdoor evening ceremony at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center, and a royal reception the following evening at the Long Beach Westin. Chaitali and Hiren are friends of Gian and I, and it was fun seeing them tie their own knot after having them as guests at our wedding two years ago.

I look at weddings a bit differently now. Even as a guest, I'm always scoping out possible picture moments, or admiring the hired photographer at work. Chaitali and Hiren encouraged me to bring along my own camera, but I also wanted to be respectful of their event photographer, and not intrude on their work. So, I left all the big gear at home and brought along a single 50mm lens on my trusty Canon. I'm deliberately a little bit more removed from the action here than usual, but it was a fun challenge to keep to my own space, work from a distance, and be creative from the point-of-view of an invited guest.

Congratulations again to you both, and best wishes!!

Let's Hang Out - Canvas Prints

After recently selling a couple of my Plum Island prints, I decided it was time I finally invested in a print of my work for our own enjoyment at home. In this digital age, too often images don't make it past the computer screen, and you forget how nice it is to hang something up on the wall. I also wanted to experiment with a new product offering, canvas prints. Rather than the image being processed on traditional photo paper, the photograph is instead printed onto a high quality archival canvas and stretched over a frame.


The image bleeds continuously over all four edges, and sits raised from the wall at a height of about 2 inches. It's a bold, contemporary alternative to the classic frame, and the quality and craftsmanship of the canvas is top notch.





I splurged for the 16x24" canvas, but there's a wide selection of sizes available -- both smaller and larger -- so if you have a favorite image from your session or event you've been thinking about displaying at home, definitely give these a shot. It comes ready to hang, right out of the box. Pricing is available upon request, so feel free to ask!

All Aboard! Fullerton Train Station

Thumbs up to Laura for suggesting this super cool location for their family photo shoot! Actually, she had a list of about four or five interesting Orange County spots, but being from the L.A. area, I'm not very O.C. savvy except for where Disneyland is, so we narrowed our pick down to this little gem, and I really think the location served us well. Nestled in the heart of downtown Fullerton, the station wasn't particularly large or crowded, but that's what made it picture perfect. The earthy adobe architecture cast a few nice pockets of shade for us to work in, and, every once in a while, a locomotive would roar past and zoom its signature through a shot. The kids were a little spooked by the trains -- but, at that age, I'd be a little scared of these monsters, too.

Laura coordinated this session with her brother and cousins, intended as an opportunity to take a few nice family shots for their grandparents -- always a nice gift. We kicked off the morning with a couple of group photos, and then, rattled off an assortment of paired-off shots, solo portraits, and kids-just-being-kids moments. I've been told everyone had a great time -- I sure did -- and the kids were full of energy and smiles. And this is the second consecutive session I've had with an all-smiles infant -- check him out!

Next stop: the pictures. Thanks again, Meredith family! Choo-choo!