Marco and Shelly tee’d off their wedded life at the Rancho Murieta Country Club and golf course. It was a fun wedding with the ceremony overlooking the golf course, and the reception nearby in the country club. Their friends and bridal party were an entertaining bunch, and the Mariachi band was a nice surprise! We got to meet Shelly’s mom and dad while taking Shelly’s getting ready pictures at her parents house, and they were a joy to be around – really loving and great role-models for any newly married couple.

When Chris showed me the photo montage video he made to celebrate his daughter Jillian’s upcoming first birthday, I knew we would have a fun family portrait session. She’s a great smiler, with big beautiful blue eyes. Chris and Meredith were lots of fun too, but Jillian was definitely the star of this show! Happy Birthday, and thanks for all the smiles!

The slideshow from Jeff and Mandy’s beautiful night-time wedding in Redding is online. Enjoy!

http://jeffandmandy.readyforyourcloseup.com/

I had lots of fun shooting with Mike and Kristin on the UCD campus. They’re both in the Chemistry department, so we started out by their building, and took some fun shots around the Chemistry sign. Kristin admitted she was a little (maybe a lot?) nervous, but she did great, and as long as I had her gazing longingly at Mike or kissing his neck, she did fine, and Mike seemed to be enjoying himself as well for some reason… After a warmup by the Chem building we headed over to the arboretum where we terrorized some geese – it was only fair since we had to avoid copious amounts of duck crap. We finished off with a few more shots around the Arboretum, before heading over to the Mondavi Center for some shots by the fountain in the setting sun. Thanks to Mike and Kristin for a fun session (and for helping me carry all my gear around!)

My second-shooter Erika and I had a great time at Jeff and Mandy’s wedding in Redding. We started out the day with some getting ready shots at Mandy’s parents’ house. It was nice to see where Mandy grew up, and her Mom and Dad were very welcoming. Mandy seemed relaxed and ready to go. The wedding was in a beautiful park in Redding, and the mellow, relaxed vibe continued through the event. Jeff and Mandy were great to work with – smiling, happy, friendly and helpful – Jeff even called me an hour before the wedding to give me a heads-up about the lighting (or lack thereof) at the ceremony spot. The ceremony started at 7:00, and sunset was at 7:21! So we’d have just enough light for the ceremony, but the group pictures afterwards, and the entire reception, would be very dark. This turned out to be a fun challenge, and required me to pull out a bunch of my lighting toolkit – which, of course, I loved! It’s always nice when you can justify the $1000s you spend on fancy lighting gear. I set up some studio strobes with a battery pack to light the group shots (as well as the dance/reception area) and used a video light and portable flash for the bride and groom portraits and some of the dancing shots. It all worked out well, and we had lots of fun with the bride and groom portrait. When Erika and I were scouting the area before the wedding, I noticed a big ceramic frog sculpture, and I immediately knew what I wanted to do with that…