Spent last Saturday once again shooting shooting shooting- it’s that time of year! Laura Grier from Beautiful Day Photography and I headed out to Santa Monica first and then to the Bel Air Bay Club for one of the most beautiful weddings. Lisa and David pulled out all the stops- first by hiring Ryan Larson of Savoir Flair Wedding Design! She is always such a pleasure to work for and never puts on an event short of fabulous. We also had Laura’s intern, Jessica, out with us for the day too. She is the same age I was when I started shooting weddings (a baby at 19) and she always so great! The weather has been funky around here lately- first blazing hot then thunder and lighting… but this weekend was gorgeous! A slight breeze kept Lisa veil blowing and the guests cool while the warm sun kept the light perfect and the guest warm!

On with the photos- shall we?

I started my day with a bottled water and a balance bar, as any good wedding photographer should. Then headed over to Lowes Hotel in Santa Monica for Lisa’s getting ready shots. I only stayed for about an hour because I was in charge of heading to the club for the guys stuff but I managed to snag some great details while I was there.

When I arrived at the Bel Air Bay Club the guys were already in full drinking mode- Ryan had it all under control though, as she always does. These guys were honestly the most fun group of groomsmen I’ve ever shot. We were hanging out singing Grease tunes at the grand piano for awhile then headed out to do some portraits. Most of these guys were all in Dave’s fraternity- can you tell? Love it.

Lisa and Dave decided to do a First Look- which I LOVE and am a huge supporter of.

I’m a sucker for cute little boys faces… he wasn’t quite into wearing a flower on his jacket.

The ceremony was out on the lawn overlooking the ocean…

Thanks guys for a wonderful day!

As most of my clients know by now I am a Pictage User- and most of my photographer friends who use Pictage know that there is a lot to learn about it! So the lovely and talented, not to mention my mind soul mate, Heather Kincaid and I decided to head out to this months Pictage User Group meeting held in Beverly Hills. As is our style, we grabbed some wine before with my two cousins, chatted (sarcastically no doubt), then carpooled it on over. Last night’s speaker was accountant Mark Varshawsky of Mark S. Varshawsky & Associates. Although I definitely have my main man, Adam Yorkshire, this accountant really knew his stuff and really talked to us about things that were pertinent to our business. Very insightful- although the best part of the night was reading Heather’s mind.

Can you spot us?

(from Jules Biachi)

Heather and I will be PUG Spotlights later on in the year so we’ll be working hard to impress. Good for Juan Turcio, though, he was last nights and it was really a pleasure to see his work and hear him talk a little bit about his processes!

My dad recently reminded me of my first business venture- I was probably around 15 years old, I had discovered my two loves: music, specifically musicians, and photography. Those of you who “knew me when” will chuckle at this admission: I was a huge huge.. huge… Hanson fan. The love still lingers but thankfully has matured quite a bit, however not only was I a Hanson fan, but I made money off of them. Armed with my mom’s camera and her zoom lens I attended countless Hanson concerts and took countless photos- a couple times from the meet and greet line- thats right folks. I GOT BACKSTAGE! At some point it must have dawned on me that they were good photos compared to the “.gifs” we were all downloading and collecting in folders titled, “Taylor 1997.” So I started a business!

I had all my negatives organized in a box and scanned prints of my favorites. Uploaded the scans and created packages. 3 4×6s of Taylor, 3 of Zac, and 1 of Ike for $25- then I created an ebay account and a website, and waited for people to bite. … and they did! 13-17 year old girls everywhere sent in orders and my trips to the Walgreens photo department became more frequent. I’m not sure how long I sold those things, it probably got to be too much work or I may have moved onto other bands, but I had my little envelope of cash and I was happy- more importantly I was making money off of something I loved doing.

So here I am now, dating my musician boyfriend of 5 and a half years paying my rent (almost) doing something I love. It may not be photographs of Hanson anymore and my boyfriend might be leaving the rockstar dreams behind, but the passion and excitement is still there in both photography and my musician.

My love in 1997: Taylor Hanson and Photography

(scanned from a print found in a shoebox, sorry ’bout the quality)

My love in 2008: Timothy (on the left- Andy Barr on the right) and Photography

Had a busy, yet really awesome Memorial Day weekend. Spent the weekend shooting and relaxing with Timmy. The both of us had some work to do today but since we set up our “office” we at least get to work in the same room and occasionally turn around and smile at each other. Went on a beautiful hike today up to the Observatory too- I love Los Feliz!!! Hope you guys are wrapping up your celebrating and getting ready to embrace a new week.

Had the utmost pleasure of shooting Anna and Steven’s wedding with Laura Grier of Beautiful Day Photography this weekend at one of my favorite venues- Wattles Mansion! Shooting with her always makes the day an absolute treat… like exploring haunted upstairs rooms at Wattles searching for a better vantage point. But, seriously folks, not only is it classic and elegant but it’s super close to home. Another treat was working with the lovely and talented Ryan Larson of Savoir Flair Weddings, Danny Farrell the best salsa dancing DJ around, and our shadow, yet ultra talented already, Mai Hunyh!

Check out Laura’s post at her new blog: here!

And remember this post? Check out the awesome color scheme down in the reception pics. How excited was I to see it!

One of the coolest things about Wattles is that there are so many cool areas to take details shots. Great window light all over the place…

Loved her “Something Blue” shoes…

Anna is so stunning and looked so elegant!

One of Anna’s bridesmaids working on her hair…

After getting ready in the library, seriously this place is that classy, we took the girls up to the gardens to get some shots.

Then we took Steven and his guys up there… no first look so it took some maneuvering

The ceremony was very short a sweet due to the impending rain!

Here’s that color scheme I mentioned…..

At the last minute they decided to get a tent and even though it didn’t end up raining the temperature outside was so low it was a good thing they opted for it.

Again, hope you had a wonderful weekend…. can’t wait for the next long one, myself. Off to watch the Lohans…. so bad yet so so good. XoXo!

Katie Widdowson and I go way back.. Presentation High School back. Although she’s heading back to the Bay Area soon her and I have managed to keep in pretty good touch in this wide world of Los Angeles. So when she asked me to cover the release event for the new issue of Saturday Night Magazine at The Viper Room I immediately said, “Sure!” Even though sometimes it’s hard for me to muster the energy to get alllll the wayyyy down to the strip I am so glad I did because we had so much fun and got to hear some great music too! Timmy was in New York all week for work so it was nice to have something to drag me out of the apartment.

Ran into the lovely actress extraordinaire Bevin Prince (love her!) (far right, top photo) and good friend of my roommate Jenny Dempster (or Adrian Lynn, help me out here Jen!) -hanging with other lovely actresses Danneel Harris of One Tree Hill (Far left) and Odette Yustman of Cloverfield (2nd from left).

Katie (w/ headband) and her Saturday Night Mag crew…

The nights opener- Melodee Lynn

And then there was the lovely Amy Kuney (who I remember from a brief stint on Gilmore Girls as a folk singer… how I miss that show…sigh..and my personal favorite of the night might I add) and her keyboard playing friend…

And then there was Million Dollar Mouth- apparently a merge between an US band and a UK band- very cool sound.. interesting entourage..

and then there was Krissi Moses, who has a really nice Myspace page, but I didn’t quite care for the music or her style… but her hair photographs well.

I realize this isn’t my typical “subject matter” – although more on that in an upcoming post- but I took the week off from blogging. Needed a few nights of downtime. Two weddings this Memorial Day weekend though so I promise some solid posting next week. Ciao!