Benito and Rangsiwan's Engagement Session

Speaking of Fresh (btw, thanks Rangsiwan for digging the new template:), Benito and Rangsiwan are straight up fresh. We had a fun time shooting their engagement all around town and found some great spots thanks to their diligently thinking about where and how they wanted to be captured. I think we might have walked at least 4 miles around downtown and it was well worth these images:)

Phong and Gracie's Family

I had a chance to meet up with newlyweds, Gracie and Phong over their holiday break to photograph their family and favorite pups. It was so good to see them all again and Gracie's mom's house was amazingly decked out for Christmas and the New Year. Thanks again for having me and see you guys in October:)

The Manabats

In addition to weddings, kids (two legged and four legged ones:), I have also been photographing wonderful families. Through a very kind referral from Rochelle (tobes, buster, & sasha's mom:), I had the fun time of photographing the Manabat family at their lovely home. It was a little chilly that day (by bay area standards;) but we managed to get some good images outdoors. My favorites were the few captured in about 4 minutes at a windy freezing beach near their home.

Tobes, Buster & Shasha

For a very sweet Christmas gift to her fiance, one of my wedding clients had me photograph her trio mini-aussie shepards. We took them to their home park and let them run and do a bunch of acrobatics while I snapped some action shots of them:) They reminded me of photographing little kids, particularly toddlers...a little unpredictable but surely adorable! Thanks Rochelle for the "play date":) Looking forward to shooting 'mom and dad' for their engagement and wedding!

Fresh

After some frustration with editing the xml of one of blogger's canned templates I've been using for some time, I decided to start fresh with a new template all together. A few tweaks here and there and I think I have one that suits wider screens and without all the border junk. Pictobrowser should be able to display image dimensions as designed.

Joseph and Jennifer

As the holiday season was kicking off, I had the great pleasure of meeting and photographing Joseph and Jennifer of San Diego, California. He's a marketing strategist and she's an officer in the Naval Nurse Corps. I told them if those professions don't work out they could always model for Benetton! We covered a lot of SF ground during their engagement session with me and had quite a fun time. Looking forward to their big day in August. Here are a few of my favorites:

Project Wedding Feature

One of the cooler AND surprising emails I got this fall was a notice from Project Wedding that some of my photos were going to be part one of the first 'Real Wedding' sets featuring my beautiful clients, Jacqueline and Demian. You can check it out here: Real Weddings: Jacqueline and Demian

Thanks again eHarmony, Project Wedding and of course Jaci and Demian!!

Happy 2009!

It's been a wonderful Fall and Winter and I am finally getting a chance to post some updates. I've been busy with books and prints from the summer as well as photography sessions for the '09 lineup. Much of my energy of late has been devoted to growing our third baby! Very excited for our new arrival in June, yes, right in the middle of the wedding season, ahh well! My husband and I will be celebrating our 10 years of marriage bliss;) about the time the baby is due!

I want to say a special thanks to all the clients I've had so much fun working with and for all the very kind referrals and reviews! I wish you all a very happy, healthy and wonderful 2009!!

Gloria

Bret & Elis' Wedding

Bret and Elis were married at Caffe Verbena in Oakland. The ceremony was held in the courtyard with the reception following in with the building's beautiful atrium and lobby. The couple had some really entertaining toasts from their closest friends and family. New Wave classics rocked the party way into the night:)

Georgi and Kat's Wedding

I had the privilege of photographing Georgi and Kat's beautiful day on the ground's of the Solage Resort in Calistoga back in October. They and their family and friends were so fun. With me was my good friend Josh shooting as second. DJ Flood was on the 1s and 2s and Khiaecia Key coordinated the day and all turned out flawless!

Stanley and Kara

Hello Folks! It's been a little while since posting. I've wrapped up my first summer season and have enjoyed a bit of a hiatus:) To catch up, below are some images from a trip out to Moscow, Idaho, to celebrate and photograph my bro-in-law's nuptials to his lovely bride (and my new sis-in-law:), Kara. It's beautiful country and the ceremony and reception were a blast.

Bret & Elis

Bret and Elis are tying the knot this weekend in Oakland (yay!). They are both cyclists and train and race extensively each summer all over the state! We were able to find some time at the end of their busy season to shoot their engagement around their cute Oakland neighborhood. They are an awesome pair, super funny and their 18lb cat Timbear is soo cuddly:) Looking forward to Saturday!

Georgi and Kat Bounce, Roll, Skate

A few weeks ago I met up with Georgi and Kat to shoot their engagement session in SF. We started in their fine loft space. Still in the process of getting settled, some of Kat's beautiful paintings were up and as well as gazillion gallon salt water tanks with fish of all sorts (or will soon contain fish, once they immigrate from the east bay). Georgi is an engineer, and as 99% of all engineers like to do, he loves to solve problems. In this case, he has designed self-contained salt-water fish tanks that require very limited maintenance, literally the kind you just add formulated salt water to and voila! you have an awesome aquarium with colorful fish and coral in your own home. Why settle for goldfish? Oh, and they also have two very sweet dogs:)

Later, we made our way to a loading dock for Kat to do donuts around Georgi in her skates. You see, Kat rolls weekly in a local roller derby league and has no problem maneuvering her way around a 6 foot wide dock, fast, very fast. Thanks guys for letting me stop the car and say "hey that dock looks good"!   Looking forward to October.

Jacqueline and Demian get hitched!

Jacqueline and Demian were married in the beautiful Hakone Gardens to the sound of Taiko drums and strings. It was very cool. The reception was held at the Hong Kong Flower Lounge in Millbrae. The entire day was beautiful and well orchestrated thanks to Crystal Lequang and her talented team from Amazae Special Events. I was very lucky to have the chance to celebrate with Jaci and Demian and work with veteran photographer, Kerry Rodgers and videographer Justin Fone .

Congratulations Jacqueline and Demian! you rocked it:)

Phong and Gracie - Wedding

Phong and Gracie booked me via their wedding coordinator, Cindy Chin, who learned of me from a kind referral from Jacqueline and Demian.  Phong and Gracie met when still growing up in Gilroy and have been in love ever since.  

The couple were married in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in San Jose.  The architecture and lighting of the cathedral is pretty breathtaking.  Gracie was looking fabulous wearing a hand tailored gown from the Philippines and it was evident that Phong was one happy groom! They have a wonderful family and it was so fun to photograph a Filipino wedding:)

Congratulations Phong and Gracie!  Can't wait to see you guys again in December:) Enjoy a few images from their day....

Nick and Cara - Wedding

I had the pleasure of photographing Nick and Cara's wedding at Jack London Lodge in Glen Ellen. The day was warm and the evening perfect for a wonderful couple and their friends and family.  The grand finale (besides their vows of course!) was the entire party yelling, I mean singing :) along to Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline.  Neil would have been very pleased to see how enthusiastically the words "touching me, touching you..."!! would overcome this crowd.  It was pretty awesome. Congratulations Nick and Cara! Here are some images from their big day....

Mi Semana al Lago de Tahoe

Usually I like to post fairly quickly after a session but tonight I'm playing catch up. Last week I was at Lake Tahoe for LTCC's Intensive Spanish Summer Institute . As it's name implies it's an immersion program for students, professionals (e.g. teachers, healthcare workers (like me:) and it seemed like a lot of retirees.   As much as I wanted to be online all the time I was pretty busy listening and speaking in Spanish in a number of sessions from grammar in medical spanish to learning how to sweat it out with some salsa.  This was the first time I've been to South Lake Tahoe during the summer, winter yes, for snow of course! And it turned out to be pretty spectacular.  I'm still conjugating verbs as I fall asleep.  Below is a photo of mi clase durante una loteria and processed in that nice greenish tiajuana flourescent light. 

Matt and Carrie's Wedding

A couple weeks ago I had the honor of capturing Matt, Carrie and Elijah's big day.  It was a perfect celebration at the Petaluma Hill Gardens above Santa Rosa, California.  There was not a dry eye (including mine!) during Matt's vows to Carrie's son Elijah.  It was so sweet and the reception was great fun.  

Thanks and congratulations guys!

Gina and Chad's Wedding

With a sweet intimate ceremony in Shakespear's Garden to kick off the day, Gina and Chad's closest friends and family joined them for their lifelong commitment to each other and an evening of celebration. The fluids and music flowed into the wee hours of the night with DJ Marcus on the ones and twos spinning beats all night long. I had the fortune of shooting with a good friend, Michelle, who soon came to be known to this party's bad boys as "camera girl...hey camera girl take a picture of THIS!" Oy!

It was a fantastic day with a fantastic couple. Congratulations Gina and Chad!!

Jacqueline and Demian

What can I say about these two besides they are super funny, sweet, and hella (i know i date myself using words like that) gorgeous. Jacqueline keeps IP protected:) and Demian is a webmaster whizbang. They met way back in H.S. and they became best friends, then realized after many years that spending the rest of your life with your best friend is a good thing:) Together they have mad game (oops i did it again, i can't help myself) and would make any parent proud. I had the chance to shoot some engagement photographs before their big day in September. Congratulations guys you are awesome!