A Cute Idea for the Wedding Receptions

I had a lovely Engagement Session last week and I wanted to share this great idea of pictures for the table numbers at the reception.  Nothing new, but this cuteness is worth sharing!

A Naturally Backlit Engagement Shoot

When Amy contacted me for an Engagement shoot and talked about taking photographs on the beach during Sunset, I wished for clouds.

My wish came through and we had heavy rain for a few weeks and we had to postpone the shoot several times.

In the morning of the actual day of shoot, it was raining in Los Angeles and we almost postponed it once again. But, in the afternoon, when the California sun showed her gorgeous face with the help of the heavy wind, we kept the scheduled shoot on time and headed to Venice Beach.



Are we glad we did!



The sunset was absolutely stunning.



Using the sunset and the thick and heavy clouds, I took the liberty to create an atmosphere that reminds me of films like La Jetée (I know it's a dark story, but visually it's stunning) but more of the video of the hit Noir Desir song "Le Vent Nous Portera". OK... The video appears to be dark too but the end of it (and the lyrics) are full of "life" in my humble opinion...

Anyways! Back to the lovely couple...



I almost wanted to shoot the entire thing en silhouette (which would effectively cause the end my life in the hands of Amy).



I would like to share a few more with you...

 See you next week!

Big Sur 2013

Last week was a very special week for me: as we took Vivienne back to Big Sur, my brother and his girlfriend joined us and we had a wonderful 3-night stay in our favorite campground, Limekiln State Park.  I've been talking to my brother about this magical place for such a long time, it was exciting to be able to share the experience with him.

 

I was also excited to see how Vivienne was going to adapt to the different living environment.  Although we took her at this very campground when she was 4-month old and although we took her camping last year as well, it is still interesting to see her explore.  My wife has been very active with her since her birth.  She exposes her to the nature as much as possible, and while doing this she is also inspiring other moms by organizing weekly hikes and sharing their adventure on her Mommy Hiker Blog.  So, by all means, she is familiar with Mother Nature but I wasn't particularly familiar with her familiarity!

Vivienne enjoyed the camping trip immensely.  The huge smile on her face, when she woke up in her little sleeping bag in our tent the first morning was priceless.  Her happiness and her insatiable curiosity brought all of us joy and it was a treat to watch her socialize with our neighbors.

  

The rain that woke us up in the middle of the night made all of us smile, Vivienne couldn't hide her excitement and in a semi-sleep-state she called both my wife and me and informed us it was raining before Jen told her to go back to sleep, which she obeyed immediately... I even got out of the tent and tried to save the chairs (too late, but they were dry for the next night) and enjoyed the cold water pounding my body before I went back in the tent and got in my quasi-warm sleeping bag.

In the morning, I was the one first out of the tent and prepared breakfast.  We took our traditional hike to visit a dear friend who departed a few years ago...  We were happy to find Katie's box where we left it, under a few rocks on a clover bed in the middle of a natural circle made by a few very tall redwood trees...

We took the inevitable night and fire pictures on the only night the sky decided not to hide behind the thick marine layer.  The Big Dipper was instantly recognizable.  And, yes, we heart Big Sur.

Overall, it was a fantastic family vacation.

 

I will finish with one of my favorite shots of the trip... On the first day, we set up our tents, the campground was ready for us to enjoy, and I took a walk towards the beach.  I saw this hat on the picnic table of an empty campground.  Clearly someone had forgotten it...  When I was heading back to our campground, I saw that someone put it by the trees...  I went back up to our campsite and grabbed my camera, and took the below photograph.  Those of you who follow this blog regularly would remember I always talk about changing the angle when photographing things, and here I am, listening to my own advice!  See you next week!