Featured Photographer on I Do Photographer Network!

I feel like a bit of a rock star right now. I was highlighted on The I Do Photographer Network as their featured photographer!

click image to go to full feature!

The I Do Photographer Network is a great resource for couples who are looking for a great wedding photographer in their area. The network has a fantastic listing of photographers with full portfolios. I'm so happy to be one of their featured photographers!

A Secret About a Secret

When I look at photos, and when I'm taking photos, I often think about what is going through the minds of the subjects. I shoot a lot of weddings, and those are such emotional days. Happiness, hope, love, nostalgia, anxiety, are all emotions that are experienced that day, and what I strive to capture in my images. With portraits too, there's so much emotion within a person during their portrait sitting. What are they thinking about? Posing for a portrait is such an intimate time between a subject and a photographer (one that I'm so blessed to experience), and those raw emotions are often so beautiful and make their portrait them.

I was just thinking about that today... What do our photos say about us? What secrets from within are we giving away when someone takes our photo? 

One of my very favorite photographers is Diane Arbus. I love her because she made her life's work about photographing the people and things that would, at her time, otherwise never be photographed. She photographed what most people looked past and often didn't notice (or tried not to). She photographed the people who were deemed socially unacceptable. Her photographs are so honest and real. Looking at the photos I like to think that I can see what they're feeling while being truly looked at  by their photographer, who appreciates them, rather than people who were instantly judging them, but I don't know what secrets their holding within. The pain and the hope are there, definitely, but the more I look, the less I know about them.

Photo by Diane Arbus

Photo by Diane Arbus

Photo by Diane Arbus

I guess that's why I love her photographs, and photographs in general. The ability to show so much is always possible when snapping a photo. But showing what a person is feeling, what they're holding back within themselves is not always easy. Each photograph holds its own secrets, and we, as viewers and photo-takers, can only begin to try to unravel them.

Monique and Ray's San Francisco Engagement Session: Palace of Fine Arts and Sutro Baths

If you stop someone on the street and ask them what they think might be some of the most romantic, steamy music in the world might be, I bet a lot of them will say Salsa music. And it was at a salsa dance class where Monique and Ray's dance-paths crossed, where they met, and where they fell in love...

And it might have been destiny that these two eventually found each other, it turns out they had worlds in common. While Monique was waiting for him to pick her up for their fist date, she heard a loud put-puttering of an old car coming down the street. Curious, she ran to see what was causing the noise... and it was her date, Ray, coming to pick her up in an old VW Beetle... the classic version of the same car she drives! Later, they learned that they both lived in San Diego for a time and that they both completed their degrees at San Diego State University! (PS- I love this because I'm from San Diego and I studied there too!) It's a small world, indeed!

These two are so sweet, and I had a great time getting to know them during their engagement session. It was one of the warmest, sunniest days I've experienced since being in San Francisco. We ventured to the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts and Sutro Baths at Land's End and had a great time! Along the way I learned that only a few people very close to them knew about their engagement, so they were planning to surprise the rest of their family and friends with the news about their wedding after their engagement session! Well, the world now knows to expect a massively fun wedding in September!

Wedding Expert 2013 Awards WINNER!

Every day I am so grateful that I've been given the opportunities in life to do what I love, and to get to know and work with such amazing, beautiful people along the way. Some days it's hard. Being a professional in a creative field means dealing with a lot of hurdles and challenges, but overall, I am one of the lucky ones to have a gift that I've been allowed to share with people. Some days, that warm fuzzy feeling is amplified. Today i was notified that I am the recipient of a Wedding Industry Experts award for 2013! I was voted as the top wedding photographer in Oakland,  the voting results for this ranked me #7 out of the top ten, and #27 out of the top 100 in the United States! WOWZA!

So thank you, all of you, for supporting me, and if you took a minute to support me with a vote in the Wedding Industry Experts pooling period, THANK YOU for your faith in me!

I feel a little bit like a rock star! But don't worry I'm still here for you and will continue to be of service as best I can! 

--So much love from me to you!--