My Little Sis is Engaged

My little sister and her fiance planned a trip out to California for Christmas this year. It was nice having her and Danny here together for the first time. They brought out their cool little "kids" so they could enjoy the festivities as well.

She had inquired about me doing her engagement session and of course I had to step up. We went down to Balboa Park. I haven't personally shot down there before this but knew there were a million photo opportunities. Needless to say, we bounced around from location to location until it was dark. Afterwards, we stopped off and got a Mexican Mocha from a little stand. Let's just say, yuuuuuummmmmm!

Rob joined us on the shoot. We both clicked away and got some really cool photos. Thanks Rob for heading down there with us.

Now that school is over for winter break, I should have some time to get back on the PC to edit some photos. I have a bunch of cool stuff of the kids during the holidays. Jayden is getting big and Jake is such a big help.

In the meantime, enjoy some more photos from the engagement session.

Steve & Kerry

Here are some teaser images from Steve & Kerry's wedding this last weekend. It was a very cool wedding and I'm really happy with the images. Steve & Kerry were great to work with! Rob assisted me on this shoot and I can't thank him enough for the help. I got through the culling phase tonight and started working on the post processing. There are a lot more that will probably be put into a slideshow.

It's going to be a short post tonight as it's really late (or early depending on how you count time). I will be heading over to Rob's tomorrow to go through his images so I probably won't be posting tomorrow. Give me a few more days to get through some more edits and I'll start working on the slideshow. In the meantime, enjoy the images and thanks for checking in.

Flowers for Daddy Part II

Here's another photo from last Monday. I wanted to play around with cropping and this image lent itself for the task. Because I usually use my 70-200mm, I do a lot of cropping in camera. Although I like cropping in the camera, it does kind of limit the possibilities with an image. The crop below is a 4x8 crop of the image above. The only difference between the two images is the amount of sharpening in certain areas.



It's a short post tonight but I think the last few nights are catching up to me and I'm exhausted. Rob and I are shooting a wedding on Saturday so some new images will be posted soon. In the meantime, you can enjoy these pics of my baby girl.

Until next time...

It's All In the Details

I was going through some older images today trying to get caught up on some editing and I came across this detail shot I took of Jayden's first pair of shoes. This photo was made during one of Jake's baseball games while Jayden was playing around. I think detail shots are extremely important, especially of the little one's because they do grow so fast. I can't believe she's already 16 months old.
For the final image, I went for a cross-processing look on this one with some de-saturation of the grass and her pants. The original image is posted below.

From Daddy's Girl to Rockin' Brother's World

Last night I said I would post a pic of Jayden wrestling with her bro while yelling at Jake's buddy. Well, I decided on this one instead. The joy Jayden gets while playing with her brother is just too cute. Like I said before, she's not afraid to get in the ring with people. In this case, the grassy octagon.
This was shot with my 85mm f/1.8 lens. I like using a fixed lens when I need to push myself to move around. The post from last night was shot with the same lens. I really love this lens. The images are crisp and it makes me move around which is a good thing.
Tonight, you get the joy of getting two versions of this image. I would like to know your comments on which version you like better. Just for the record, I am still undecided on which one I prefer.
Until next time...

Flowers for Daddy

Last night, we were in the middle of watching the Chargers game against the Jets and the kids wanted to be outside. After playing a little catch with Jake and Jayden yesterday, Jayden decided she wanted to be a girly girl and pick some flowers for me. It's a complete trip watching her. She will go from throwing a football one minute to picking flowers the next.
She has some of the cutest expressions. About 5 minutes after picking flowers and posing for pix, it was time for the girly girl to start wrestling around with the boys. I would like to think that Jake is going to a protective big brother but I have a feeling Jayden will be able to handle her own. She's a tough one and gets a kick out of wresting around with brother. I have another shot of her conquering her big brother as she's yelling at his buddy, Anthony. I plan on putting that up sometime this week but you know how that goes.

Window Light

We went up to Monica's house yesterday. Jordan stayed with us for the night Friday to hang out and play with Jake for a bit. We were just sitting around and Jayden was walking around. It was a pretty cool moment because as I was thinking it, Jess said, "Look at the way the light is hitting her." I quickly grabbed the camera and then the fun began. Anyone who has worked with kids knows that as soon as you want them to do something, that becomes the farthest thing from their little mind. It took about 7 shots before I finally got this one. There was a stick in the plant that she wanted to play with. I tried to get her attention by showing her how to pet the plant like she does with the cats but she wasn't having anything to do with it. She started swinging at the fences towards the plant (Jayden does have quite the attitude). For whatever reason, she just kind of chilled out for a split second and I was able to grab the shot.
The image was shot at ISO 1600 so I ran some noise reduction on the image and then went to town on the processing. Luckily, I have found quite a few filters that I tend to always play with and it makes it easier on my time. I still play around with some other filters but I am digging the Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 filters.
I love capturing these moments. Once again, I can't reiterate enough why having a camera with you at all times is a wonderful thing. I have mine in my bag with the 24-70mm f/2.8 mounted at all times. For whatever reason, I tend to use this lens anywhere from 50-70mm. I am still working on getting wide-angle shots that I like. I might like them more once I get the 5D so I can use the full lens view.
In the meantime, enjoy the photo and leave some comments if you have the time.

Chris

Pano's

After going to the Sallee's seminar last month and seeing some of their amazing panoramic shots, I decided to get outta my box and try some. The Sallee's have some great work. I went with the intention of getting some marketing ideas but learned so much more. The 5 hours seemed to fly and the Sallee's are really cool. A few of us hung out with them afterwards which was really fun. We had a chance to talk about various things and I was able to pick their brain a little more. Mainly I just listened. They had so much information to pass on. I have been really contemplating going back to school this last year to further my electronics career but I have passed that up so I can invest more time and energy into my photography. Going to seminars is one of my investments and it has paid off tremendously. I feel so much more comfortable on shoots than before and my photography is taking on a higher level.

I am in the process of designing an album of the kids and will be posting various images that are going to be in the book. This is one of the images. I have a spread that contains this image processed 3 different ways and it looks really cool. That was another thing that was reinforced at the Sallee seminar: shooting for the album. That's the 3rd seminar I have heard that phrase and you wouldn't believe how much it helps with "What should I shoot next?" I am learning more about going in with a page spread in mind so I can get the shots I need. Not every shot is thought of in that way. There are some moments, especially with kids, where you don't have the time to visualize the page. I'm just capturing the moments as they happen and sometimes the images will present themselves as I am going through the selection phase.

I hope you enjoy the photo and thanks for checking in.

Until next time...

Look at the Pretty Colors

We went to dinner tonight with my brother and stopped off at the local Acapulco's. Not like I don't eat enough mexican food throughout the week but what's one more stop (I had a carne asada burrito for lunch today as well)? Anyway, we had just finished eating and Jayden wanted to go for a walk around the outside dining area. We stopped by the flowers and I whipped out the camera once I saw that she was interested in the flowers. This is a key reason I keep my camera with me at all times. I get a lot of crap from people because I am always lugging this bad dog around but this shows why I don't mind carrying an extra 25lbs of gear with me...ALL THE TIME. I might go days without taking a picture but I always have my gear with me. Jake calls my backpack my baby which is quite true. Photos like this though show why I love carrying around my babies.

Tomorrow will have another flower photo post from tonight's after dinner walk.

Jayden's First Birthday

Look at that face. What an adorable little boo. Considering she was pretty darn sick about a week before this, the smile was extra special. Jayden caught some bug that was going around and she was pretty mellow through the Mother's Day weekend. For Mother's Day, I sent Jess and Jake to a Padres game. It was good for them because they don't get to spend much time together like they used to. For one, Jayden takes up a lot of Jess' time. Secondly, Jake is kinda going through a phase where hanging out with Mom & Dad ain't what it used to be. Anyway, that Sunday was probably the most quietest day in our house for a long time. Jayden literally slept most of the day and when she did get up, all she wanted to do was lay her little head down on mommy or daddy. She definitely wasn't our normal little fireball. She felt pretty crappy up until Tuesday and then my little firecracker came back to life.

Right now is so cool because she finally started walking. She's only taken a few spills but we keep a really close eye on her because of all the tile in our house. Now she feels like an independent woman and she is off and going. Now if I could just get her to give me some shoogies. She shakes her head no when I ask her to give me some shoogies. It is pretty darn cute.

Well, I hope you all enjoy the photos. Until next time....

Haircut For the Birthday Girl

Here's Jayden during her haircut for her birthday party. Her hair was a freaking rat's nest and we had to do something about it. Little milestones like this are such an eye opener for how fast time goes by. Her 1st birthday was last month and we took her to the same place we took Jake for his first haircut. Jess went all out for this birthday. She spent countless hours on the invitations and all the other little trinkets for the big day. Jake had a baseball game that day so I was busy watching him while the ladies got the decorations set up. All in all, I think the day went great. We appreciate all the attendance and wish others could have been there.

Jake's baseball season is over so hopefully I will have some more time to post. It has been crazy around here for the past few months. Jayden is finally walking and she is about to become a model for daddy. More seminars are coming up and I have been doing a lot of studying and not doing. It's time to play around some more.

We hope everyone is doing well and we will talk to you soon.

Little Girl's Getting Big

Here's baby Jayden crawling around in the park after I got done with some baseball practice with Jake. I've been working with some new devices that are totally changing the way I photograph now. That was part of the reason for the lack of posts this last two months. I have been going to seminars and learning new tools along with Jake's baseball practices and games. It's taken a while to get myself accustomed to the new tools and workflow but the return on investment is paying off. Now I just need to get some more clients to try out my new stuff. In the meantime, I will be using my two main models. They're a tough duo to beat.

I hope you enjoy the photo. I will have more sometime this week with Jayden standing on her own. My little girl is about to make her third milestone!

It's About Time...

...that I finally posted an image and that my boy is playing sports. Tonight's image is of the big J-dawg booking it to third base! This was during the first game of the season and it is great to see him enjoying baseball so much. I have been helping out at the practices and it's pretty cool to see how far some of the kids have come in such a short time. We're really happy with the coaches and it's so cool to see Jake enjoying sports.

His batting has been improving and this weekend he hit a triple! The ball soared over the second baseman and then right between center and right field. He has been rotated through various positions and enjoys all of them. He's great in the outfield due to his throwing ability. The kid can throw a ball. It's just great that he finally came to me wanting to play a sport. I didn't want to push him into something. I think it's better for them to let you know they're ready. On top of that, he is also kicking booty in school. We couldn't be more proud of our little dude!

There will be plenty more photos as the season goes on. I processed a few other photos tonight so I should have some more to post this week. I finally got Adobe's Lightroom software and it is pretty cool what this software is capable of. The last week has been spent getting familiar with the program and implementing it into my workflow. More like a workflow overhaul but it's a good thing.

Back Again

It's been a while since my last post. I've been staying busy with the kids. Jake is starting baseball soon. He's already signed up and we are just waiting for the fields to dry out so he can have a practice. Jayden is getting big and is going to be walking soon. She is a fireball. I will be posting some pix of the kids in the next few weeks.

I took Jake to Super Cross at Qualcomm a couple weeks ago. We had a blast and it was great hanging out with the dude and getting some father/son time. Here is a link to the slideshow I put together today.

Click here to get to Super Cross link and click on the play icon. Let me know what you think.

That's it for now. I just wanted to say hi and let you know I hadn't fallen off the map.

Until next time.

More Ben & Cindy

Tonight's image is another from the session with Ben & Cindy. These chairs were set up for some play that was either taking place later on or had already taken place and they made for a nice patterned background. It was starting to get dark at this point but I was still able to pull off some shots with the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.

Hopefully everyone's Christmas was as good as ours. Jacob got hooked up with a bunch of goodies and Jayden enjoyed her first Christmas. We started off the day hanging out at my mom's house. My sister is in from Arizona and we had a nice time visiting with her. My brother hooked me up with some bowling items so I can eventually join his team. I never thought I would enjoy bowling so much but it is actually quite fun. It also gives me time to hang out with my bro which is always an adventure. Jess got most of the items she was wanting as well. It's so tough to get in the Christmas spirit when the weather is as beautiful as it was today. The rest of the country is in heavy snow storms and I wore shorts and a T-shirt all day! We also hung out with Jess' family which was nice as we don't hang out as often as we should. We finished off the day with a prime rib dinner and a call to my dad. Maybe I can get him out here sometime for the holidays. Overall, the day was great and it was really nice hanging out with family. I will be posting some pix from the day as soon as I get them processed.

Stay tuned for more images with Ben & Cindy. I need to go as my little girl is getting ready for the 2:00-3:00 am feeding. I am going to deviate from this session tomorrow night so I can post some pix of Jayden's first Christmas along with her brother. I was also playing videographer today so I don't have too many shots. I do have enough though for a few posts.

Once again, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and enjoyed time with your families.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I can't believe how fast this year has gone. My baby girl is almost 8 months and my son is almost 9 years old. It's crazy how time flies once you have kids.

Posted tonight is an image of our friends Ben & Cindy. We always have a nice time hanging out with these two. This image was taken in Old Town after we stopped off to get some Mexican food last weekend. I thought the session was going to be tough considering Ben's height. One thing I should have noticed at the time of capture is the placement of Ben's right hand. He really is grabbing the wall! So many things to consider when posing people. Besides that, I really like this image. I dig the relaxed pose and I like how the door's darkness separates Ben from the background. Cindy's dark hair separates her from the white building. The sun was going down really fast but we were able to bounce around to about 5 different places to capture some shots. I will be posting more from this session as I process them. Thanks again you two for helping me out with my "multiple people" portraits. I really appreciate it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy the time off and enjoy the time spent with family.

Back to the Ally

Here is to make up for the post with Rob yesterday. I have a few more to post from this session and that should take place over the next few days. This is going to be a short post today because I need to get some last minute Christmas stuff done. In the meantime, enjoy the image. With an image like this, who needs my rants anyway.

Blog has been updated

Well, no new images for this post. It's more of a "I got off my duff and finally moved everything to this blog" post. I should have some images in the archives that I should be able to post tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, you will have to read my rants.

I am going to be trying to expand my stock portfolio while I am on vacation for a week and a half. I plan on doing some lighting with LED's. I know what I have in my mind so let's see if I can actually reproduce the images I want. I need to get the lights first and I plan on bringing in Rob for the shoot so we can collaborate. Speaking of Rob, I do have a post for tonight. Here is big bad Roberto striking a pose during the shoot with Ally. I don't know about you, but I would rather look at Ally posing for the camera!

A simple post turns lengthy

I love black & white images. B&W photos in magazines always catch my attention and this was the first thing I thought of when converting this. I wanted the image to have the feel of something you would see in Vogue or something similar. There's so much I like about this image. This is one of my favorites from the shoot. The pose was all Ally (I didnt' direct her at all in this shot) and everything just came together. The way her left leg runs parallel with the shape of the rock on the left. The gentle S-Curve with her left hand adds another dimension. And then there's the angle of her head which runs parallel with her right leg. The more I study this photo, it IS my favorite from the session.

I have been doing a lot more reading & studying lately to take my photography to the next level. A few months ago, I started getting bogged down and getting frustrated with my images. I felt like I was at a stand-still with my images and my post-processing. I would sit at the computer for hours on one image playing with different settings and get nowhere. I ended up having a 3 month break from photo sessions and I feel like the break I took was the best thing I could do. I started critiquing the crap out of my images and making a real assessment of where I was going with an image before I even touched a tool in Photoshop. There are a lot of great photographers out there and I can become frustrated easily when comparing my work to theirs. That's part of what drives me to outperform my last shoot. Take the good and the bad from a shoot and learn from it. More of my reading lately has to deal with the actual shoot and the posing. I feel really good about my latest post techniques but you need a great starting image. A lot of my late nights are spent looking at ads, watching movies, and I find myself watching more commercials on TV lately. It usually takes me a while to get through a movie because I am looking at the lighting or the camera angle and trying to dissect the shot so I can improve my abilities and give the client images that they are truly happy with.

I know I have said this what seems like a thousand times this week, but working with Ally was what I needed to get inspired again. I'm just giving credit where credit's due so thanks again Ally. And a huge thanks to Rob for setting up the shoot. Everything just came together at a perfect time for me.

I was just going to post the B&W image tonight but I wanted to see what people's opinions of the color shot were as well. For those that made it through the text of my post tonight, thanks for hanging in there while I aired some thoughts.


Oh yeah, I finally got around to updating my website to take out the wedding section considering I am concentrating on my portraiture and commercial-type work. I also changed the image on the home page to the B&W image posted tonight.

I will be posting a few more images over the weekend so check back in. Enjoy the weekend.

Ally continued

Considering I haven't posted any photos of Ally since Sunday, I decided to post 3 tonight! I have some more that I will be posting this weekend. Thanks again Ally for giving me such a great variety of photos to post. You rock. It's been another busy week with post-processing and trying to get some sleep. As you can see from the time of this post, sleep wasn't a priority tonight. Volleyball is going to be rough tomorrow at noon.

I would write some more but I need to get some sleep.

Just a reminder that I will also be updating this blog sometime over the next few days with all the archived posts from the old blog.