Here’s a favorite from a recent wedding I shot for a great couple, Kellie and Jun. The reception was held at the Turnip Rose at Grand Newport Plaza, in Costa Mesa. It was a great venue with great lighting, especially on the dance floor, where I shot this as the couple enjoyed their last dance of the night. The ceremony was at the St. Bartholomew Church in Long Beach and was also very beautiful. I’ll be posting this and more from the ceremony on my wedding site in the near future.
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An edit of my work on Haitian hip-hop, or Rap Kreyol, was recently featured in 100 Eyes Magazine, an online magazine published by photographer Andy Levin of New Orleans. My piece is one of several stories selected to represent Haiti. The Rap Kreyol story is something I worked on last year and am hoping to revisit sometime soon. I like the story because I found it to be a good way of addressing the Haitian plight while showing the people in a positive light. The young rappers embody people who are determined not to be victims of their situation, but are trying to do something to change their own lives and the lives of those around them. I think there’s great potential for me to revisit this story with a greater emphasis on multimedia storytelling. I did collect sound when I was there, but hopefully next time I’ll be able to throw in some video segments as well.
The story is here and the entire issue of the magazine can be seen here.
Santa Ynez Valley vineyard
Santa Ynez Valley vineyard in autumn
Santa Ynez Valley vineyard in autumn
We just returned from a two-day, mid-week weekend in the Santa Ynez Valley wine country. As it was mid-week and off season we practically had the place to ourselves. While there we hit up Foxen, Curtis and Beckmen Vineyards, as well as the Flying Goat tasting room in the “wine ghetto” of Lompoc, a small town abutting the Vandenberg Air Force Base, about an hour north of Santa Barbara. The name is derived from the fact that the tasting room is one of a few located in the town’s commercial warehouse district. Nevertheless, they served up some excellent Pinots from a number of the area’s vineyards. I was hoping for some more photo ops while we were there, but not much was going on as the season winds down. However, we were treated to some lovely landscapes as the effects of fall turned the vineyards a nice golden yellow. It’s nice to know that if we tire of the lack of seasons down here, autumn is only a couple hours away.
Last Saturday I had the pleasure of shooting a very fun, unique wedding held by an equally fun and unique couple, Adam and Ashley Phalen, in Santa Monica. The wedding and reception were held at the Santa Monica Bay Woman’s Club, a cool old building dating back to the early 1900s. The couple are both very creative – Adam is a sound designer at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City while Ashley is a sushi chef - and put a ton of effort into making practically all of their own decorations, from the place mats to their very own logo, a pair of AA batteries, representing their names. They had a great group of family and friends present and everyone had a great time. In addition, they were fortunate to have the lead singer of their favorite band, The 88, play live for their first dance after striking up a conversation with the lead singer at a gig on the Sunset Strip. They had been planning on having a friend sing one of their songs and when they told him he obliged to sing it himself. Very cool.
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Fashion Week L.A. at the Petersen Automotive Museaum
Backstage during Fashion Week L.A. at the Petersen Automotive Museaum
Last week was quite fashion-heavy, with Thursday spent doing an all-day editorial fashion shoot up in Simi Valley and Friday night spent shooting the final night of Fashion Week L.A. at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Blvd. Both were done in collaboration with my friend Erika Stanley for her fashion website, SNOBStyle.tv, and will appear there soon. I’ll be sure to add links when they do. Although the editorial shoot came first I’m posting the Fashion Week images now, as it may be awhile before the first shoot publishes. We’re also hoping to publish it in a new upstart magazine, SoCal-Scene, with which Erika has recently become affiliated. More on that later.
For this event I stayed away from shooting the standard, down-the-runway shots in favor of shooting more of a behind-the-scenes piece. It was the second of two nights of Gen Art’s Fresh Faces in Fashion show and featured a variety of designers I’m not personally familiar with. I was really just curious to check out the scene. Fortunately, Erika was able to get me a backstage pass to facilitate this and I came away with some decent images. I surely outshot Ashton Kutcher at least.
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