Wedding Documentary Photography and Videography Blog

Sima and Sushil recently hired us to photograph their upcoming wedding in August of this year. It was our last available slot for this summer and I am so glad they got it.
We quickly set up an engagement shoot and had a blast doing it this past weekend in San Francisco. I really liked how much Sima and Sushil love each other. They both are so comfortable just “kicking it”, and in return, that allowed me to focus more on the creative side, as opposed to the “trying to make my subjects comfortable” vibe.

We headed down to Golden Gate Park where we could simply drive around and look for excellent spots to shoot in. Whenever I saw an interesting background, beautiful back light. or ambiance I wanted to go for, we could simply pull over, get a few shots and keep on moving. This allowed us to get a wide variety of shots without wasting too much time. After the park, we headed down to Baker Beach, where got a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge without any fog! The wind and cold could have been a lot worse since it is still only Spring but the weather was perfect and we stayed long after every other engagement shoot had finished!

I prefer to shoot a little in the dark so I can create some back lighting effects with off camera flash, triggered by Pocket Wizards and Radio Poppers. With front soft fill flash, and a more hard and directional light in the back, we obtained a look that is pretty unique.

Below are some of our favorite photos. We hope you enjoy! BTW: Very little PhotoShop was used. We did most of our tweaks right within Lightroom 2!

Baby Hana was born on April 1, 2010 to my past wedding clients Nami and Ray. Just a few weeks ago, Nami and Ray were in my Los Gatos photography studio doing their maternity photos. Just a few weeks later I got the email that Baby Hana had been born! I quickly came to the family’s home in Fremont to take her first “professional portrait”.

I am so amazed at the miracle of life. Once a baby is born they transform so fast. Each day they gain weight, get taller, and learn more and more about their surroundings. This crucial time in the first couple weeks of their life, only lasts that, a couple weeks. From there they start to change and adapt to the world and their personalities take shape. Truly, at this stage of life, they are innocent and totally pure. That is why it is so important to have this fleeting moment captured on film. It is such a brief moment in time.

Baby Hana is going to be a diverse and cool person. She is half Japanese and half Mexican. She will have both cultures as her heritage, but will be a true American girl as well. How sweet it is to have amazing parents who are rooted in their traditions, but have also become Americans themselves. She will be a really cool trilingual girl that is going to be very unique. From our shoot, which lasted a little less than one hour, here are Nami and Ray’s favorites of their special little girl!

Both Sandhya and Zach live pretty far from the Bay Area. Sandhya is residing in San Diego in Medical school and Zach is all the way on the other side of the country in New York working as an Assistant Principal at a school. They contacted me several months ago about their wedding and hired me over the phone!

I had the lovely opportunity to meet them both in San Francisco for an engagement shoot and we went around lots of areas throughout the city. Both of them love nature so we started at Golden Gate Park, and Sandhya loved my idea of the Cable Cars so we went on one, if only for one second for a photo, then moved onto the beach where we captured the sun setting over the Golden Gate Bridge. Finally, hearing that Zach proposed to her at a wine bar, we just had to go to one, to capture some moments as they shared a glass of wine.

I admire both of them for being so cool and well rounded people with passion for their professions and such a strong love for one another that they can bare being apart for weeks on end. I will be so happy when they are able to live together permanently under one roof and enjoy each others company. Until then they are working hard and getting ready for their big day!

I am super excited for them and could not be happier with the way these photos came out! Yes, I shot 900 photos, edited down to 500 proofs, and then posted 19 of my favs! Enjoy and drop a comment if you likey!

Erica is one my past brides from a few years back. Since then we have remained friends and have done multiple shoots over the years. I was really excited when Erica contacted me about doing a maternity shoot for her second pregnancy since she says it could “possibly be her last child”. She regretted not doing it the first time with her daughter so this time around we just had to do it! It’s one of those things in life, like marriage, that you want to preserve on film. Not just for yourself, but for the child that will grow up and eventually really cherish these photos of what life was like even before they were born!

To me, a maternity shoot is all about preserving time for future generations to enjoy. To see how pretty mom was, and how happy she was to be carrying around this baby for 9 months. It truly is remarkable for me to be a part of someone’s life, not just for their wedding and family portraits, but also in their days leading up to child birth.

Here are some of our favorites from the shoot. If you would be interested in scheduling a maternity photo shoot in Los Gatos please call our studio at 408-656-1014.