Thank you!

Last week, I celebrated my birthday with a little party my wife threw for me in the restaurant we met 15 years ago. Our friends came, some met Vivienne for the first time and we had a great time.

I am not someone who looks forward to gifts. I don't expect them. I don't give them when people expect them either. Unbeknownst to me however, my wife had been preparing a very big surprise for my birthday. Not only did she choose the most perfect gift (something I actually wanted and more importantly needed) for me with the help of my photographer friends (you know who you are); my friends actually contributed to this gift.

And as I mentioned, this was the most perfect (and the most expensive!!!) gift I have ever received.

Thanks go to my lovely wife who always keeps amazing me and to my lovely friends who have always shown their support by following this blog, by encouraging me with their positive words, by challenging me with new projects and now by contributing in my career by getting me this amazing lens.

And although I have already used the lens for a portrait session, I will share photographs taken with this beauty in the future blogs... Thank you!

70-200mm zoom lens with a 2.8 f stop... Fast, convenient and useful for all kinds of events, weddings,sports etc.

The lens has the Vibration Reduction Image Stabilization technology, which detects vertical and horizontal movement and offsets it by initiating compensating motion. Once the "active mode" is chosen the camera will disregard the panning motion information so you can shoot the sports events :D How awesome is that!

Thank you again for this awesome toy and business tool! :D

Noilya & Murat's Wedding

A few weeks ago I shared the engagement session pictures of a beautiful couple, and this week, I would love to share their wedding pictures! Noilya and Murat tied the knot on October 22nd of this year in a beautiful wedding in the gorgeous Palos Verdes Golf Club. I was there early to document the preparation, take a few pictures of the wedding party and be part of the celebration. Here are the photographs I selected to share in chronological order for you to somewhat follow the story of their happiest day. Let's start with a few details.

While the bride and the girls were getting ready, the groom and the boys were ready for their close-up.

When the bride was ready, I went upstairs to photograph her and she was game and ready to make professional models jealous with her talent in front of the camera!

The girls had a lot of fun too. Here is one right before they went down for the ceremony.

After a sweet and short ceremony, we had the family portraits and also the wedding party pictures. I have to tell you, the Best Man, the Maid of Honor and the rest of the Bride's Maids and Groom's Men were an incredibly fun and pleasant bunch! We laughed a lot during the shoot.

Then, I took a ride with the newly wedded couple in order to take a few formal portraits. The fog/mist of Palos Verdes that provided us a beautifully eerie background at the start of the couple's engagement session came back to complete the theme!

First dance...

Now... I've been in many many weddings as a photographer, as a friend, as a member of the wedding party.... I listened to many toasts by the Best Man.... Some were drunken rants, repeating the same thing over and over again... Some was filled with "F" bombs (not always a bad thing)... Some were funny... Some were boring and most were informative.... I have to tell you though, nothing came close to Best Man Suat's toast to the couple. His speech was informative: it gave a good idea of the friendship and why he was the Best Man, how the couple met. It was very funny. Suat's delivery was also key as he was incredibly at ease. There was not one dull moment in his speech. And the way he tied it was very touching and thoughtful. Kudos to Suat!

Let's do a few more editorial/detail shots....

And then, it was time to party...

Noilya and Murat, I wish you a very healthy, happy and properous life together!

sea.thos

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure to shoot an absolutely fantastic event. Hosted by the Sea•thos Foundation, this was an exclusive photo exposé and book signing with renowned surf photographers Art Brewer and Tom Servais. The event was to promote awareness of the human impact on the world’s ocean. All proceeds from the book sales and prints were generously donated to benefit the Sea•thos Foundation, and the money raised will help fund Sea•thos’ ocean awareness educational programs.

Both Art and Tom were in great spirit and there were really cool t-shirts donated by Quicksilver for the event.

Tom took us all to a journey thru his photographs first.

Then Art went thru his inspirational photographs. For me, shooting an event and getting to hang out with two great photographers that night was a blast!

The limited edition prints will remain on display at the Sea•thos headquarters for the next few weeks. You can send them an email to schedule a viewing!