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Three’s Company

San Pedro, California

Yesterday I photographed the beautiful Claudia and Tony, who are just the sweetest couple. Not only that, but they were up for an adventurous engagement session so we went climbing out on the rocks for some shots. Here’s a quick photo of them in action along with the wonderful Rebecca who did an amazing job assisting on the shoot. Thank you all for a wonderful day!!! I’ll post more photos soon!

FL&R

Claudia - It was so much fun! Thanks for an awesome shoot!

Polka Photos - That was a lot of fun! I’m happy none of us fell into the water!

Royal Cats

San Pedro, California

Yesterday I was scouting a location for an engagement shoot. The bride-to-be Claudia said she’d like to shoot at Royal Palms County Beach in San Pedro. The late afternoon sun bathed the rocks in pure gold.

As I was walking around I suddenly found myself surrounded by cats. I guess there’s a feral cat colony here.
Here’s looking at you, kid!
FL&R

Anonymous - Beauitful pictures..
This is on the same street as our house (Paseo del Mar)…Royal Palms has some great photo ops! Beautiful scenery! and love the kitties
=) Cicely

Polka Photos - Hi Cicely!!! I thought the address looked familiar! The cats were super cute although a few of them looked like they had been in one too many fights.

Anonymous - hey there….it’s JRB.

i have never looked at your blog before bit this cat pic is gorgeous. all of your shots are! you are very talented! i am bookmarking this now!

hope all is well! Keri

Pretty Pages

Playa del Rey, California

Lately I’ve been working on some album designs and thought I’d share a few pages with you. Newlyweds Ashley and Brian had a beautiful church wedding followed by a reception on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. I’m designing a 10 X 10 album for them using many panoramic spreads across two pages.
One of the hardest things for me is telling the story of the wedding concisely. My favorite albums have between 50 – 75 images. The rule of thumb for great album design is to use on average 2 to 3 photos per page, or 4 to 6 per spread. Since I shoot a lot of photojournalism style images, there are many photos of great moments. My final edit from an entire wedding is usually 600 – 800 images. It’s challenging to edit them into a group that is strong from an artistic standpoint but also one that best illustrates the events of the wedding day. I also have a personal preference for using strong photos as stand-alone images.
So here’s a rough draft of some of the pages. (And in case you’re wondering, my logo is not printed on the wedding album pages, just here on the blog.) So what do you think? What are your preferences in album design?
FL&R

Ala - Beautiful layouts (and of course photos!)

Anonymous - Like the layout of the first pic. Can you use “Art Deco” type lettering ala 1930’s?

Polka Photos - Good idea! Are there any fonts you’d recommend?

Designer Portraits

San Jose, California
Michelle was looking for some fun, different portraits to use for her interior design business website. We met in downtown San Jose and walked around looking for some cool backgrounds. Michelle is a woman after my own heart – she loves the urban feel of downtown. The distressed brick and old gates remind me of my hometown, Chicago.
We started out with more traditional headshot photos. Michelle is absolutely gorgeous!
Then we saw this gate.
We passed by an intriguing but rather dingy alley. I wasn’t sure if Michelle wanted to take photos there – after all she was dressed up and clean. But Michelle was just as excited as I was to shoot here. We walked down the dark, dirty corridor and found this doorway.
The alley was rather narrow. Some workers were moving furniture and we tried to hustle so as to not be in their way. They were super sweet and waited for us to finish taking these photos.
Thank you Michelle for a fun session!!! If anyone is looking for an interior designer in Northern California, check out Studio K Kitchens & Design.

FL&R

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
~ Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116
FL&R