Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Lance Stewart and Sarah Giammichele in the Rose Garden at the Los Angeles County Arboretum. The couple, who live in San Francisco, were one of the first to book me after I moved to Los Angeles, well in advance of the big day. It was wonderful to finally witness their wedding after such a long time planning.

The couple started the day at the luxurious Langham Hotel in Pasadena where they each prepared for the day with their families. Then we all moved down the road to the equally beautiful grounds of the L.A. Arboretum for the ceremony and reception. Both were held in the Arboretum’s Rose Garden, which was the perfect setting for a small wedding such as theirs. The ceremony was held just at as the sun was setting, providing a beautiful warm glow to the scene. During the ceremony they had a unique ceremony called a ‘ring warming,’ in which the rings are passed from guest to guest before being exchanged by the couple. Following the reception I went off with the couple to take some portraits in the nearby herb garden while the guests enjoyed cocktails as the ceremonial space was converted to a reception space. A delicious dinner was then was prepared and presented by Contemporary Catering of Encino. After the reception wound down the couple then stayed behind to share a quiet and touching moment alone before exiting to a grand a sparkler send off. Following the affair everyone moved back to the Langham for a fun afterparty in the couple’s bungalow suite.

Overall it was a great day and I wish the couple much success in the future!

Hanging art on Market St.

Venice Art Crawl After Party at Video Army

The inaugural Venice Art Crawl launched with a bang last night with a solid crowd showing up to check out the numerous local artists who were showing at pop-up galleries mostly located between the Boardwalk and Pacific Ave. I was showing my own work at Nikki’s alongside artist Scott Simon (check out his work here) and was also working the event as a volunteer, so I didn’t have much time to get out to all the venues, but I did manage a quick lap and took a few photos along the way. It was great seeing so many artists participating in the first event. A good sign that the event will continue to grow in the coming months. After the crawl wrapped up we made our way over to the official afterparty at Video Army, a new production company located on Pacific Ave. It was a fun environment with lots of people dancing and great light for shooting. After the party wound down we hit up a nearby taco truck and made our way home. Really a successful night if you ask me. Looking forward to next month!

Art on display at the 73 Market St. rooftop

Checking out photography by Martin Linss at the Hotel Erwin during the Venice Art Crawl

Live Painting by John Park at the C.A.V.E. Gallery exhibition at James' Beach

Venice Art Crawl After Party at Video Army

Venice Art Crawl After Party at Video Army

Venice Art Crawl After Party at Video Army

Venice Art Crawl After Party at Video Army

Venice Art Crawl After Party at Video Army

Venice Art Crawl After Party at Video Army

Venice Art Crawl After Party at Video Army

Incognito on Abbot Kinney, Venice, Calif.

A random encounter with Henry Hopper and friends who were sitting in front of Abbot’s Habit coffee shop on Abbot Kinney today. Reason for the mask? I didn’t ask. Any relation to our neighbor Dennis Hopper? That’s a good question too.

Fake horses in a pickup truck, Venice, Calif.

When taking this picture a guy passed by me and said that he’s always wondered when seeing quirky photos if the scenes pictured were set up or found. I can’t speak for anyone else, but with the exception of asking my girlfriend to lay in a field of mosquito-ridden ivy, I prefer to wait for the quirky situations to unfold naturally rather than make them up. And living in Venice there are plenty of opportunities if you keep your camera close at hand. I have no idea what the large plastic horses were for, and in this case I think I prefer not to know. It’s more fun to imagine, no?

This is also the first post on using this new blog template. How better to celebrate than with a blue horse?! I was looking for a new template for awhile and finally came across this one that allows a perfect combination of big photos, widgets (those things in the right column) that aren’t buried at the bottom of the page, and super-easy customization. I’ve spent hours with previous blog templates customizing the css code and much prefer the built in customization tools this theme has on the back end. Anyway, that’s probably too much information for most of you, but I hope you like it!

For the assignment from my previous post I decided to rent a fisheye lens to emphasize the spherical shape of the light stage. I picked up the lens the night before and decided to go out and play with it on Venice Beach in the waning evening light. There wasn’t much time but these are a couple frames I liked.

Just some more stormy weather photos taken on Venice Beach over the past week. I was hoping to find someone out there surfing, but the surf was too rough. I don’t know what it’s called, but the shot of the crashing wave after the jump is something that happens when a wave coming in from the ocean collides with a wave that’s coming back out to sea from the coast. I think it’s caused by a steep incline near the shore that forces the water back out. On a smaller scale I found myself in that spot in El Porto, a beach a couple miles south, while surfing a couple weeks back and was pretty close to getting hit in the head by my own board by the force of it. On the scale seen in this photo I’m not surprised no one was out in the water! The fire spinner is Ricky Otterstrom, who was out practicing atop one of the winter dunes on the beach. A few days ago I complained on Facebook about getting sand in everything. This was when that occurred. Despite the wet sand from days of rain the wind was strong enough to dry off the top layer and send it whipping across the dunes. I shot him for a couple minutes until I couldn’t take the beating anymore and called it quits.

I think I’ve taken that first seagull photo before. Nothing much here but a few pretty shots I took on a sunset stroll a couple weeks back.

Venice Beach handball courts

Venice Beach

Just a couple shots from a stroll along Venice Beach this Sunday. Not that you can tell from these pictures, but this weekend marks the end of the “busy season” along the boardwalk. It wasn’t as crowded as I’ve seen it, but there were still plenty of people out enjoying the sites, sounds and smells of Venice. Good and bad in each category. The beaches were lined with surfers and sun worshipers as well. Luckily for everyone, the warm spell we’ve been having the last week or so subsided and temps dropped down to a near perfect (in my opinion) upper 70s. It was a nice day to be out.

Top: Fidel Ramirez, 18, of South Central, plays handball with friends at the Venice Beach handball courts.
Below: A child rescues a large strand of seaweed, dragging back to its rightful place.

I had a fun time checking out the U.S. Sumo National Championships at Venice Beach yesterday. The competition was held on the basketball courts near Muscle Beach and drew a decent crowd. There were competitors from all weight classes, with the largest wrestler, Kelly Gneiting, top photo on the right, weighing it at about 440 lbs., if I recall correctly. The current champion, Dan Kalbfleisch, is pictured top center and above dropping Gneiting to the mat. He keeps a blog about sumo called Sumo Dan, if you’re interested in learning more. More photos after the jump!