My two sons, Josh (16) and Brandon (14) play guitar and drums respectively and are in a progressive rock band called Diminishtry with two of their buddies, Jonny Williams (15 – guitar) and Drew Howard (14 – bass).

They recently recorded a couple of their original songs to submit for entry into a local Battle of the Bands and added the songs to their [...]

FLASHBACK: On Sunday, July 6th, we were at the University of California Riverside (UCR) Botanical Gardens for the engagement portrait session for Jill and Linda Johnson-Young.

They brought their daughters, Chloe and Kerry, along. So, we took the opportunity to get a few nice family portraits in there as well.

Then, on September 6th, we were at the First Congregational Church in Riverside, CA for their wedding. [...]

This blog last saw Kristina Lew and Chris Weist on June 4th when we were inside Angel Stadium in Anaheim to photograph their engagement portrait session. On August 30th, we traveled all the way to Camarillo to photograph their wedding at the Spanish Hills Country Club.

Kristina and Chris decided to see each other prior to the ceremony to shorten up the time required [...]

On Sunday, August 24th, I was back at one of the most popular engagement session spots for my clients — Laguna Beach, behind the Montage Resort. This time, the happy couple was Tiffany Merrick and Fady Mikhael. The weather was great for a sunset at the beach, and Fady and Tiffany were clearly in love and enjoying themselves during the session.

And, at the moment [...]

On Monday, August 25th, I was back in Temecula Wine Country for the engagement session of Flor Melgoza and Ben Vargas at the Wilson Creek Winery. You can really see the love in in her eyes as Flor looks up at Ben in these shots.

On Wednesday, August 20th, we were in Valley Center, CA at Harrah’s Rincon Casino & Resort to document the wedding of David Mikowski and Tobie Romzek. Since the passing of the California law on June 17th of that legally recognized same-sex weddings, this was my first time photographing a gay wedding.

Not only was this a long day coming, but this was a long day in [...]

On August 16th, Shana Ard was in my studio for her maternity portraits. She was very excited to do her session, and it showed.

As a photographer, some days just flow and every shot comes out great. This first shot below just ended up perfectly as I envisioned. Shana’s pose was perfect, from the slight forward tilt of her head, to the hand gently cupping her [...]

On August 15th, I photographed the engagement session for Rose Bentley and Nick Trkja at Ponte Winery in Temecula. Their wedding is coming up soon — October 17th at beautiful Lake Oak Meadows in Temecula.

This was the perfect time of year for a photo shoot in wine country. The leaves were full and green on the vines, and the grapes were ripe and [...]

I have shot engagement sessions for couples at many different places during my photography career. Whenever possible, the sessions are usually shot at a place that is meaningful to the couple. For example, I’ve done sessions at the university where they met (USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Point Loma Nazarene University, etc); their favorite spots such as Angel Stadium, the San Diego Zoo, the Getty Villa [...]

I had photographed the engagement session for Jineane Moore and Kaden Kennedy way back on February 17th (view images here). Their wedding was held on the beach below their hotel (The Ritz-Carlton) in Dana Point, CA on August 8th (08/08/08).

Since Jineane and Kaden were going to go ahead and see each other prior to the ceremony (to shorten the time required for portraits between the [...]

Their wedding is not until June 13th of next year, but Andrea Calderon and Andrew Zaragoza are definitely ones to plan ahead. They booked me for their wedding over a year in advance!

For their engagement session on July 20th, we went to beautiful Balboa Park in San Diego. This day was the most crowded I had ever seen Balboa Park. So, I had [...]

On July 24th, Julia Miller and her hubby visited my studio for her maternity portraits. As with many of my maternity portrait clients, Julia came prepared with several printouts with sample images of different pose ideas that she wanted replicated for herself.

Usually, with these type of sessions, the first 15 minutes or so is just “warm up” time where we take the more “conservative” shots [...]