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CINDY & TONY’S WEDDING @ HAKONE GARDENS

This past fall I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to second shoot four weddings with two wonderful photographers – Marielle Hayes and Paul von Schwarzenfeld! Saying I loved it wouldn’t be enough to describe what an incredible experience it has been so far. I still remember how ecstatic and nervous I was at the first wedding in September and how comfortable (and equally ecstatic) I felt by my third and fourth one. It has been an exciting last few months, and I’m excited to see what’s next!

In November, I second shot another wonderful wedding with Paul. Cindy and Tony’s wedding was beautiful and planned to perfection, and I had the hardest time narrowing down the photographs to share on this blog. Cindy and Tony got married at the beautiful Hakone Gardens in Saratoga. But before heading over to the gardens, Cindy and Tony decided to do a “first look” near their apartment which gave them a chance to spend some time together before their ceremony and allowed Paul and I to capture lots of stunning moments between them. Cindy and Tony, I’m so happy I was there to capture your beautiful day and I wish you much love and happiness in your life together!

Cindy and Tony couldn’t wait to see each other, and we had so much fun shooting them and their wedding party before the ceremony.
The Hakone Gardens is a beautiful place for a wedding. We only had time to take pictures in a small portion of it.

I took a few pictures of Cindy and Tony on this bridge, and it was almost impossible to pick which one was my favorite. This one with their reflection and the Koi fish in the pond is one of my favorites from the day.

I love love loooove this black and white photo.

We had a few minutes alone with Cindy before the ceremony, and did a mini photo shoot with the beautiful bride.
How cute is this little boy??

Photo booths are so much fun!

Heather - January 11, 2012 - 7:23 PM

Your photography is getting better with every blog post. Good job and so proud of you for following your dream. Keep it up….

SAN FRANCISCO SUNSETS

Happy New Year! I’m so grateful for the experiences that I had, the memories that I made, the new (and old) friends that I met, and the photographs that I took in 2011. I am so excited for what 2012 has in store and hope that I’ll be able to share many more photographs with those of you who enjoy visiting and procrastinating a bit on my blog.

To start the new year, I wanted to devote a post to a few sunset pictures that I took over the past three weeks. Sunsets are my absolute favorite time of day (sunrises are a close second, but the big con is the waking up way too early part), and I love when I’m able to capture a fraction of their beauty in a photograph.

You may have seen this photo from a post I wrote in October (San Francisco & New York City Photo Collage), but I wanted to include it here again because it shows one incredible San Francisco sunset.

I actually took this photo while visiting my family in Boston two weeks ago, but thought I’d sneak it in here anyway…

FLEET WEEK WITH THE BLUE ANGELS, SNOWBIRDS, F-18 SUPER HORNET, F-15 STRIKE EAGLE, 747, AND PATRIOTS

The Fleet Week Air Show in San Francisco is one of my favorite weekends of the year. I love hearing the loud and thundering engines tearing up the sky, and I try to spend every minute I can on our rooftop watching the jets maneuver in stunning formations and fly at the speed of sound.

I finally had a chance to go through my photographs from October, so here are some of my favorite shots from the air show.

NATURE IS EXQUISITE

As I was trying to figure out how to title this blog, I keep trying to pick just the right word that could follow “nature is”… beautiful, stunning, incredible…and it wasn’t until I thought of “exquisite,” that I knew that I had found the perfect word. Exquisite portrays something that is not only extremely beautiful, but also delicate, which is exactly what I saw when I captured the below photos.

There is also an element of time in all of these photographs. Whether it was the spider web covered with dew that I accidentally noticed while walking by a park, or the fall foliage that transforms Napa’s vineyards into an autumn rainbow, or a worker bee secreting wax from it’s glands, or a total lunar eclipse, these are all things that come and go and also things that one might never notice if they aren’t there at that very moment.

I was in awe when I saw this spider web covered in dew as I was walking to my dentist appointment one morning. And while I contemplated skipping my cleaning, I was lucky that the dew hadn’t disappeared when I returned a couple of hours later with my camera. This was a remarkable sight, but didn’t last long, as the web was completely gone the next morning when I went back to see it again.

That bee in the middle is secreting four wax scales on its right side.

While bees typically work together, they can also fight. This can be seen in the below left picture, as one bee puts the other in a headlock. The picture on the right shows them working together, creating a chain as they build the comb.

A few clusters of grapes that managed to hide and avoid getting picked in the fall harvest.

These yellow spiral flowers are nicknamed Angel’s Trumpet. They open up at night and then close in the morning when the sun comes up.

While waking up at 4:30am is painful, watching the earth’s shadow engulf the moon and seeing the moon turn red was a remarkable phenomenon that I couldn’t miss. 

EMILY & MIKE’S WEDDING @ CAÑADA COLLEGE

I love that I am able to blog about something that I love so much and share my photographs! And not only do I have an excuse to share my own photographs that I capture throughout my life, but I am sooooo grateful and fortunate that I have gotten a chance to capture photographs of wonderful couples on their wedding day over the last few months! I am also so thankful for the sweet notes and encouraging words I have gotten along the way, and I can’t wait to share many more pictures with all of you!

I was lucky to second shot another wedding with Paul von Schwarzenfeld a week and a half ago! Emily and Mike are the sweetest couple and they got married on a beautiful November day at Cañada College, where Emily teaches. The ceremony and reception was intimate and special in so many ways – Emily and Mike wrote their own vows and officiated their own wedding, the speeches and songs by their friends and family were filled with laughter and touching tears, and they had karaoke (which is so fun, even for those of us who can’t sing in tune)! And not only was this their wedding day, but it was also Emily’s birthday, which explained the three cakes that followed!

Paul and I were lucky that we could sneak away with Emily and Mike for an hour after their ceremony for their photo shoot around the campus and town. You can see how much Emily and Mike love each other in every single photo of them and we had so much fun shooting with them. Emily and Mike, I am so happy that I got to witness your wonderful day and I wish you a beautiful marriage filled with love and happiness.

It was a bit challenging to get the rings to hang on the delicate orchid, but so worth it!
I looooove this picture…
I love how the photos at the Woodside Store (which served as a lumber store and a post office once upon a time, but is now a museum) turned out.  
We were so excited when we spotted this tree because it had the most stunning foliage and was the perfect backdrop for some beautiful pictures!