It’s curious, as I begin this blogging adventure, that I find it hardest to start out for a reason totally different from what I might have thought.  It’s not what to say that I’m struggling with, it’s what to say first.  And when facing such a choice, the answer is always the first thing on you mind.  In this case, California.

I’ve been to California exactly one time in my life.  I shot a wedding in Santa Barbara three years ago and got my first taste of In-N-Out Burger and my first glance at the Pacific (from the continent anyway).  Truth be told, I flew out of Dulles and ate Five Guys for lunch and landed in Santa Barbara and take In-N-Out Burger for dinner.  The coast-to-coast burger challenge was an unexpected but delightful treat.  The real meat-clad treat, actually, was neither (they were both great, don’t get me wrong).  Freebirds World Burrito near the campus of USC.  Quesarito.  This will change you.

Well I’m a few days away from embarking on California trip number two (for California wedding number two).  And while I will not be visiting Freebirds or anything in Southern California, I’m so excited to see Sonoma and San Francisco.  The wedding I’m photographing is in Sonoma and I’ll be visiting with my (engaged) brother and his fiancee in San Francisco after I’m finished.  So there are obviously two blog posts coming from that.  But I suspect I have to go there and take the photos first.  So I’ll share some of the wedding I did last time I was in California to get us both warmed up.

The ceremony was at one of the old Santa Barbara Missions.  Very old and widely-known.  Obviously they did not allow flash photography inside the Mission – sort of surprised they allowed me in there in the first place.  Some places are pickier than others.

$50 Tip: Most ceremony sites have a list of rules/expectations for your photographer.  Ask for this or ask about the rules they might have early and often.  Surprises on wedding day are always best to avoid – for both our sakes.

California, I found, has this open-air, Pacific-breeze, tranquil beauty to it that permeates everything you do.  I was admittedly a bit struck by the places I saw while I was there.  We went from the Mission to take some photos of the couple.  We took some photos in the gardens behind the Mission and then we paraded over to the location for cocktail hour and the reception where we took the rest of the photos.  Probably this is a good time for me to stop talking and let you see some of what I got to see.  Lovely spot for cocktail hour, photos, and reception.  Nicely done, you two!

The bride at this wedding happened to have earned her MFA in Photography from the Brooks Institute – which if you know anything about photography education means you know she’s got talent.  Her work has always been appealing and motivating to me.  Truth is, when she called me and asked me to photograph her wedding, I told her “congratulations, but no thanks”.  I figured that I didn’t need the kind of pressure that would go along with photographing a photographer’s wedding (and a very good photographer nonetheless).  She was, thankfully, insistent.  Relentless even.  And I finally acquiesced to photographer her wedding for her.  The surprising thing about photographing her wedding was that she understood some of what I was trying to accomplish and as such was the most willing and wonderful subject for photos I’d had to date.  And her husband, well, they’re prefect for each other.  Never even hesitated to go off and take a photo or stop what he was doing to go entertain some artistic goal of my mind or his wife’s.  Thanks, guys!  Enjoy the photos.

And under the stars and hanging paper lanterns, the rest of the night passed with good music and much love.  The bar is set high for the next California wedding, but it’s fun to me to see these photos after a few years and see how far I’ve come.  The next set will raise the bar for sure.  Ok, California, see you in a week!

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