YEN Mixer

What does YEN stand for? YEN is short for Bay Area Young Entrepreneurs Network; a new organization which encourages young (or youngish) business owners to get together and network. Their first network mixer was at A Different Day Gallery in Albany.

It was a great chance to talk with others about their businesses, swap cards and expand my network.

They also had a few drawings for different items. I won a bottle of nice wine!

Thanks to Serena and Lea for putting this together and giving us a new opportunity to network and learn from others!

Newborn Session in Mountain View

Newborns make the cutest faces!
I photographed Masako's maternity session while she was pregnant this summer and was then able to go back and capture some images of Mia within a few weeks of her birth. She is so cute!

Baby Session with Gavin

Bobby and Laurel brought their little guy Gavin over for pictures when he was about a month old. It was really hot the day we photographed Gavin; add studio lights to a small studio and that makes it even hotter. However, we were able to capture a few good images before he became incurably grumpy.
We will have another session soon so we can catch him on a better day!

Wedding at Embassy Suites Milpitas, CA

David and Leah were married in September at the Embassy Suites in Milpitas.

The open atrium lobby at the hotel is a perfect environment for foliage and trees to grow; which makes for a nice backdrop. The best thing is you don't have to worry what the weather is like on the day of your event it will be nice inside no matter what.

The room where the girls got ready had a thin white curtain that made for a perfect light box and backdrop for pictures.

I had the guys pose for some group shots in the library and lobby and made good use of my new fish eye. Love it!

The reception was jam packed with entertainment. First the Mariachi Jalisco band played followed by a Mexican dancing group.


Alex Mag from Mag One Productions created a slideshow/video to play in the background while David and Leah danced their first dance. The family also had Alex put a mini movie together as a tribute to Leah's grandfathers boxing career.

Just when we all thought the entertainment was over in came two impersonators who sang Johnny Cash, Elvis and Marylin Monroe songs.


Congrats to David and Leah!

Makeup by Erin Slater 510-557-4497
DJ E&B Music www.djbrothareese.com

Ecco Friendly Wedding in Wine Country

This was the “greenest” wedding I had the chance to photograph so far.
Peter and Jackie were married in August at Jackie’s parent’s house in Healdsburg. It is a beautiful location surrounded by vineyards.

Jackie is naturally an environmentally friendly person which was evident in many of their wedding planning decisions. Their center pieces were cute small planted herbs that the guests took home. There are many other ecco friendly alternatives to traditional wedding items that they implemented for their wedding; some are mentioned below.

Jewelry by Mallary Marks available at Barneys at select online stores.


They scheduled most of their picture time for prior to the ceremony; which worked out perfect.

When I first saw Jackie's schedule I wondered why she had several 15 minute breaks scheduled in. I quickly figured out that it was so everyone could rest from the heat. I will be shooting in sandals and crop pants next time I work a summer wedding in Healdsburg! I'm so glad Jackie scheduled the breaks and had ice water ready for everyone to rehydrate!

Peter and Jackie provided umbrellas to block their guest from the hot sun, miniature lights so their guests could find their way to their cars in the dark, a bottle of homemade Mead wine handmade and bottled by Peter and Jackie, and a Trader Joe's reusable grocery bag to carry it all home.

The scrumptious food was catered by Sage Catering. I also overheard several guest compliment the groom’s home brewed beer (which I forgot to sample).
The homemade Hostess style filled cupcakes made by Sibby's Cupcakes were super-duper yummy!

DJ Dave Tutton kept the mood just right all day with a perfect blend of music.

How cool are Jackie's aunts white Hollywood style sunglasses! I so need a pair of these.

Peter and Jackie worked really hard in advance so that their family and friends would be able to enjoy a relaxing and unique day of celebration. Congrats to these two newlyweds!

Japanese Tea Garden and North Beach Engagement Session

Steve and Jody rock! We started their engagement shoot at the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park and then went to North Beach to keep shooting. I like to shoot for a couple hours if the client is willing and Steve and Jody were all for it so I think we were out gallivanting around town for about 3 hours. Yeah!

They own a web-based image management and sales platform service called Spit Fire Photo It gives organizations and photographers a place to archive images and have e-commerce store fronts.

This first image below is probably my favorite of the day! It wasn't posed at all! Or at least I didn't pose her. :^)

We found this really old looking brick wall while walking around North Beach. I so love it. Then we waited around til we could catch a cable car. We successfully caught a few quick images without disturbing the cable car driver or passengers.

How can you not have fun shooting in the middle of traffic on Columbus? Notice the nice officer in the background who asked us to stay on the pavement, but didn't give us a ticket (center image).

Engagement Session at San Jose Rose Garden

Wow! I am so far behind in blogging! Its just been so busy and I have to put shooting and editing first. But I'm in the mood to write so I'll be working on a few new posts for sure.

I shot David and Leah's engagement session at the San Jose Rose Gardens prior to their wedding in September. Leah is able to go from a happy in love look to super sexy in a split second so they were really easy to work with.
The makeup artist had run a little late so we only had about 50 minutes, but we were still able to get some amazing photos.

My favorite images has to be the bottom middle shot. It just rocks!

I'll be blogging their wedding images soon!