Wedding: Samaya & James

You might be wondering about the title. Well this was a wedding I was very fortunate to shoot a while back in L.A. The bride was Asian and her family came from the Buddhist faith. The groom was British and from London.

The wedding day started off at The Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood and then moved on the Asian Pacific Museum in Pasadena. I have to say that this was one of the most beautiful weddings I've shot. The decor was amazing. The wedding went great with lots of traditional ceremonies and they even had a Chinese Dragon show after wards. I had a great time and was so lucky to shoot this along side Jenny Stafford from Red Loft Studios.

Here's some shots to see how the wedding day went. I hope you enjoy them. They are some of my very favorites.
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Engagement: Tayler & Nathan

I just finished shooting a fantastic new couple, Tayler and Nathan. They decided to shoot in on of their favorite places: the Santa Monica Pier. This young couple was so fun to work with. They were easy to bounce ideas off of and the result was great fun. We laughed almost the whole session. I'm looking forward to shooting their wedding this September. Here's a few of their images...
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Portraits: Bass Man Greg

I just stumbled across these pix that I shot of Greg. I set up a lighting studio in my living room with two strobe lights and a hair light above to light the background. We invited him to come shot shots for his portfolio. Haven't seen these in awhile, thought they were cool so here they are...
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How I Booked My First Wedding - Part One

One of the major problems photographers face when wanting to break into wedding photography is landing their first wedding gig. It's tough because most couples won't entrust their one and only wedding day to a photographer who hasn't shot a wedding before. Can you blame them?? So what do you do? Well, the common road that many take is to assist another wedding photographer, learn the ropes and gather up a portfolio from those assistant jobs. This could take a while for you to get into the drivers seat of being a principle shooter at a wedding. But it is also one of the smartest ways of going about it without much risk. You just have to be patient and learn as much as you can while you assist. Yes, you have to carry bags and set up lights and get something for the principle shooter to drink and find the bride's father for the formal shot even though you've never meet him and have no idea what he looks like. Meanwhile, you try and act professional and keep it together even though the day's events are going by so fast that you are spinning in your head and it's only 2 hours into an 8 hour day! Are you sure you want to do this for a living? Many photographers don't. Some won't touch a wedding with a 10 foot C stand! But those who do stick it out end up loving it. So I didn't want to go thru this to begin my wedding photographer career. I came up with another solution. Check back to see what it was...
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Central Park Shoot-Out

I was part of this big engagement shoot out last week. It was organized by Jen O'Sullivan, who I greatly admire. There were about 20 couples a just as many photographers and it took place in Santa Clarita. I worked with three of the couples. Everyone was great to work with and we all had lots of fun running around like mad trying not to run out of sunlight. My thanks to Jen for getting this one together. Here's what came out.
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Engagement: Danielle & Alex

A couple of weeks ago I was very excited to shoot yet another engagement session at Union Station. My couples love this place it seems cause they often request shooting their engagements there. This time I got to work with Danielle & Alex. They also have two great boys that I shot too. As always the people at Union Station were very nice and made the day of shooting very smooth. All the best to Danielle & Alex who get married this summer. Here's a few samples.
Enjoy,
SV

World Series: London, Rome & Paris

In 2006 I was very lucky to go to Europe. I visited Italy, Prague, France, & England. I took lots of pix but some of my favs are here:









I love Europe. It's such a different way of living. Hope to go back very soon and see some more countries.
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