DJs Doing Acoustic Shows... What?!

Let me state right away that this is not a sponsored blog.  I am not associated with the venues, promoters or artists mentioned in this blog post.  It is coming from my passion for music.

A few years ago, I shot an event at Vanguard when this locale was used by Giant and it was one of the most popular clubs in Los Angeles.  The venue had a state of the art sound and light system, and in its glory saw many big DJ/Producers tearing up the roof while the audience was bouncing on the dance floor.

Well, Above & Beyond will be at the Greek Theater with a full band.  In a couple of weeks.  If you are a fan, you probably already know it.  The tickets may already be sold out, but check it out if you like this kind of things...  The sample track on their website reminds me of the early Zero 7. And if you would like to hear the electronic version of that song (Love Is Not Enough), you can watch the video below.

And here is a video of the original DJ trio along with the singer Zoë Johnston and Pete Tong of BBC 1 having an acoustic set with a couple of lucky fans in a hot air balloon.

What?!

Yes. A Hot air balloon.

Pretty cool.  See you next week.

Bridget & Ivan's Wedding

This week FPB is on depth of field...

I will not get technical, but I think for those of you who are not familiar with the term, it might be useful to talk about it for a second.  The  depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image.  If you would like to have the entire image sharp, you would need a large DOF (in cinematography "deep focus"), and if you would like to emphasize only part of an image a small DOF ("shallow focus") might be more appropriate.  A small DOF would also create a bokeh.

Well, I would love to share the following photographs from a wedding I shot recently.  All of them are small DOF.  While a few of them were shot at f2.8, most of them are at f1.4.  While I am as obsessed  with the  small DOF as I would be with fish-eye shots and macro shots; it is obviously necessary to serve the client with a variety of creative approaches.  I am omitting the other photographs (traditional and otherwise) for the sake of focusing (pun intended) on shallow focus this week.

Ivan is obsessed with Batman.  There were a few Batman themed surprises for Ivan from the very thoughtful and hands-on bride Bridget.

She organized, had fun and got married at the same time.

Details... Details...

Bridget got wings... How appropriate for the Batman groom!

A family member remembered...

A macro lens and/or a small DOF can come handy when shooting the details...

The boutonnieres...

The bouquet...

The flower girls' baskets...

The program...

The flowers on the aisle...

The aisle itself...

The cake and its friends...

Let's get back to the couple, shall we?  Here is Bridget getting ready.

I just love to do this when the bride is walking the aisle to portray the anticipation of her arrival.

PRICELESS!

Here are the couples portraits in shallow focus.

Let's finish it with a few from the reception. See you next week!

Atanasia & Grey's Wedding

Last August, I had the pleasure to shoot the wedding of a lovely couple with my wife.  Atanasia and I have been in touch for a year since they have booked me, and with every email and phone call the excitement was increasing...  Here they are, Atanasia and Grey...

They got ready in their own way, a mile away from each other.  While Ata was getting ready at The Reef in Long Beach, Grey was on the Queen Mary having fun with his groomsmen and his family.  There are many pictures of Grey and his mom as this was a very special occasion.  Grey's mom got married on the Queen Mary and they have pictures from that day, together on the deck.  This particular picture strikes me more than the others for some reason...

Let's stay on The Queen Mary for a sec and see Grey and his groomsmen striking a pose with their cute socks...

Here is the Barabas Family before we headed out to shoot the bridal party portraits.

The girls studied well to their lesson and they added an extra character as well... This is the first movie reference of this blog... You can guess it, right?

When Atanasia was getting ready, I grabbed a few shots of the rings and the dress and all the other details... Here are the rings, in a Earth / Fire / Water theme... Yes, only three of the elements... I considered throwing the rings up in the Air and grab a few shots while they were falling down, but then I thought about many different ways Atanasia would get creative about killing me slowly, so I scratched the idea pretty quickly.

And here is the dress...

And the ceremony...  Here is why it is important to have two photographers covering your event...

Following the ceremony, we did the couple portraits and the wedding party portraits.  This lovely and good looking group of people was not afraid of silliness... I can tell you that much.  Here is the second movie reference... You can guess this one too, right?

I love this photograph as well.  I recognize that it is not particularly a classic wedding picture, but I love the expression in her face and how he is completely immersed in her...

The beautiful bride...

We were talking about how they were silly, right... Here are a few fun pictures.  It is remarkable how Atanasia looks comfortable while the groomsmen carry her.  It is downright wrong that Grey fell asleep while the bridesmaids were carrying him.  And no matter what the last group photograph depicts, they are very happy...

Following the incredibly fun portrait session on the decks of the small marina, we headed back inside.  After the Grand Entrance, the couple had their first dance followed by two very funny and two incredibly touching speech.  There was a slide show that was ridiculously amusing (especially for the couple) and than there was dancing and partying.  I will let you go with pictures of the dances and one last portrait of the couple... Ata and Grey, may you prosper in good health and good fortune!  I look forward to serve you and your family for your next photographic needs!