Central California Photographer

Punctuation.  A simple dash or dot can begin, interrupt, link, end, interrogate, or energize.  Without punctuation, life is just a bunch of garbled words with no structure or form, one run-on sentence with no emotion or intensity.  Punctuation is the pulse. Ally has a favorite punctuation mark.  So favorite that it is indelibly marked on her wrist so that she always knows it’s there, always recalls its meaning.  It’s a semi-colon (;).  Which may seem semi-strange for a teenager to choose as a tattoo, but that’s because we haven’t read what came before the semi-colon.  The story of a beautiful young woman…

Ellee and Jonathan – what a couple!  This was not our first wedding with a full-scale Jenga set, but it definitely was the first where the Jenga did double-duty as a guest book!  It was so cool to see how these two incorporated their love of games and good times into their wedding, giving their guests an opportunity to leave a lasting memory on each of the wooden blocks.  But the individual touches didn’t stop there: hand-wrapped car cans with sentimental sayings hung in the lounge, a birch tree bedecked with Marvel Comic heroes directed guests to their seats in the ball room, and…

What a difference four years makes!  It was a pleasure to reconnect with the McCann Family this fall at one of my favorite places, Sly Park Lake, and see how much this gorgeous family has grown.  I always say one of the greatest rewards of my career is that I get to work with families many times over the years and in a sense, grow with them!  In 2012 when I photographed the McCann Family at Boeger Winery, youngest daughter Ellie was just a baby and big sister Hailee a smiling tot.  Today they are two beautiful little girls with an…

A marriage 20 years in the making… Linda and Kelly celebrated the lifelong commitment they made to each other over two decades ago at a beautiful wine country wedding filled with family and friends.  From the outside, you might think they had just fallen in love!  You can see their strong bond in every look and every move: the way Linda gazes at Kelly, emotion in her eyes and a shy hint of a smile…the way that Kelly clutches Linda’s hand in hers, bursting with excited energy and enthusiasm.  There’s no question that these two were meant for each other. I first met Linda…

Chelsea and Chava celebrated their wedding on a sunny summer day in August at the Wedgewood Sequoia Mansion – and what a celebration it was!  Between the handmade, personal touches (s’mores trail mix!) and the enthusiastic mariachi band, this was a wedding that was guaranteed to make you smile.  Of course, a bride and groom as completely in love as Chelsea and Chava are doesn’t hurt matters, either!  Chava kept us laughing with his joking ways, and Chelsea’s bridesmaids (who also happened to be her sisters!) kept things light and fun for the bride. Chelsea and Chava shared their how-we-met story…

Rarely do we see this level of familiarity in a couple after 1 month of courtship…this depth of love and strength of connection is typically reserved for those brides and grooms with a 6, 7+ year bethrothel! Just kidding!  Hayle and Mason have been a couple for a lot longer than 1 month (since their late teens), so there is certainly no question about their familiarity and love for each other.  They just chose a fine weekend in early June to make it official. Watching these two together, the word “soul mate” comes to mind again and again.  Hayle and Mason…

Late summer in the middle of a four year drought and Elaina and Henry’s wedding day was blessed with summer rain, just as my own had been. The difference for Elaina and Henry was the fabulous undercover arches that David Girard Vineyards has and that provided the perfect plan-B ceremony site. That and the cloud cover that came to filter the sun and create beautiful light that we more-than took advantage of during out time together. I loved Elaina’s father’s speech during the reception which was superbly delivered and very moving. Another beautiful touch was that her dad orchestrated a…

After Aundrea and Scott met, he wanted to see her again so he planned an evening out with their mutual friends. For some reason all of their friends had to cancel.  It is still a mystery to this day as to why they all cancelled that night. Gotta have friends… Aundrea wanted a relaxing wedding day at Wine and Roses in Lodi and it was a success, from getting ready in their awesome room with lots of friends to the guys spending the morning in the pool. It was a beautiful day with a light breeze, moving the ribbons in…

To be perfectly honest… I am always a bit nervous when I shoot another photographer (Jason Tanaka), but after hanging out with Sumer and Jason that quickly went away. We met at Baker Beach in San Francisco. It’s an awesome location in the city because it has a bit of everything…the beach, a view of part of the city, an old bunker for a bit of that urban style, and an awesome view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Throughout the session we worked our way down the beach, and managed to beat a night-time photography class to the far end…