I have noticed how much people love photography. Wherever i go with my cameras there are amateur paparazzi already there! Even at weddings I have begun to make it a habit to photograph the paparazzi guests. It's fun.

So, I thought all those aspiring photographers would enjoy learning a bit about photography from my blog.

I plan to add a lesson every week or two, so keep checking back. 

The flower girl at Karen and Dean's wedding was very beautiful but very shy. I tried my ususal (typically successful) strategies to get a good expression from her but to no avail. When I gave up and took my eye from the camera I saw this beautiful vision - her shoe against the wedding dress.

Why does this image work so well? Simplicity! Simple light, simple background and simple subject. The light is soft as it is diffuisng through the tent that is keeping the bridal party comfortable as they await the ceremony. The background is simple - just the wedding dress - but also appropriate. If I had used the white tent as the background the photo would have much less meaning. And what could be simpler than a child's shoe.

But what makes the photo so impactful is the "high key" composition. That is what photographers call an image that consists of mostly light values. The high key composition allows the red details to pop out!

It is starting out to be a very good year...

My opening at the G2 Gallery was a smash. They do a good job of promotion and 
several hundred people visited the show that night. 

My work was reviewed in the prestigious Art Scene, which covers the Los Angeles 
art world. In the review, Jeanne Willette describes me as a photographer 
"whose career trajectory is a dialectic from shooting blissful weddings to 
documenting the homeless. His motto--photograph what he wants--fits in 
well with his back story as a next generation Lee Friedlander, a Jack Kerouac 
with a camera, traveling the world and observing it through a lens."

At the end of the year I also exhibited at The Julia Dean Gallery in Venice.

You're invited to my opening at the G2 Gallery

Click the wedding flyer to see it bigger.

I had a great time with Danny and Renee photographing their engagement pictures at Paradise Cove in Malibu. That always makes it more comfortable when the wedding day comes as we have already worked (and played) together. It made for a great wedding day shoot at the DoubleTree Hotel and the Orange Hill restaurant in Orange, CA.