Tami and Steve

Last week my niece, Tami, and her husband, Steve, were here in N. California visiting from Texas. Tami loves photography (both sides of the camera) so we had to do a photo shoot, or two.
Steve loves to work out and is a power lifter and HUGE Arnold fan so we went to the capitol bldg in Sacramento to see if would could track him down, ... and it's a fun place to take photos. Arnold was nowhere to be seen but the state police guarding the governors office was so impressed by Steve's exuberant posing for Tami at the golden bear statue in front of the big double office doors that he allowed us to go inside. We chatted briefly with the secretary and spotted a wall photo of Arnold and Maria that got Steve posing again. Oh, he was like a kid in a candy store!

Back in Grass Valley we shot more photos at the North Star Mine powerhouse. I'm posting a few of those below, too. You've heard of "trash the dress" photo sessions, right? Well, Steve did a trash the shirt and pants session for us. He tried taking a shortcut across the creek and fell in! I wasn't close enough to help him, so what else could I do but take pictures! Ha. If I get enough comments below requesting to see one then I may post that as well.
Yay, Steve and Tami will be celebrating their 5th anniversary next year!!

San Francisco Day Trip

My niece, Tami, and her husband, Steve, came to visit from Texas last week. Steve had never been to California before so we had to take a quick day trip, along with my youngest daughter, Dora, from the Sierra foothills to see a bit of San Francisco before they headed back home. I can vividly remember, many years ago, when I first came from Texas to visit San Francisco, ... it's the ga ga effect. Everything is SO different and fun to see and experience, the 5 senses are going ga ga. Bay Bridge, Treasure Island, Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard St and the Golden Gate Bridge was all we had time to quickly see. Tami really enjoys photography and took tons of photos with her new Sony camera and I took a few as well. The golden gate bridge is always a fun photo op for me. By the time we arrived at the Marin headlands to check out the view of the bridge from there the sun had just set. I had never taken shots of the bridge that late in the evening so it was cool to get some photos as the night lights came out. Here are a few photos of the day. I also had a couple of nice photo sessions with Tami and Steve which will be ready to post in a few days.

Tami took this shot of Dora and I.

Ashley and David's Wedding

Saturday the 24th I had the great pleasure of photographing Ashley and Dave's beautiful wedding and reception at the pristine grounds of Pilot Peak Winery in Penn Valley, CA located in the Sierra foothills of N. California. The weather in October can be iffy, especially for an outdoor wedding, but we were fortunate it was a perfectly beautiful, warm, mostly sunny day. Sorena, my talented asst/2nd shooter, and I arrived early to photograph Ashley getting ready for the big day. So much fun! Also had the pleasure of working with Lance Watts www.wattsfilms.com, a videographer and family friend from Portland, OR. First class guy and very professional, loved his new little 7d, but didn't get a chance to swipe it.
Ashley was radiant, the wedding went flawless, enjoyed by tons of family and friends who were all having a fantastic time! The dj/singer was Jamal Walker of My Way Productions and his amazing blues band, Loose Change, was absolutely killer! I have to acknowledge a few more vendors as they all did such a wonderful job, beautiful flowers, by Grass Valley Florist, lovely cake by Donna the Cake Artist, and the delicious food by Cats World Foods, the wine, of course, was provided by none other than Pilots Peak Winery.
A final thank you goes to Dave, firefighter and Ashley's hero, who recently spent weeks in southern California, fighting the terrible wildfires. We didn't get a chance to go an engagement shoot as work came first.
Selected photos are posted below. Still processing, but ALL the photos will be available for viewing at Pictage.com in about 10 days.