Over the last few weeks I’ve been reaching out to a select group of vendors whom I know could help make these shoots absolutely magical.  One of the vendors I contacted was Lollipop Events & Designs.  Lollipop is run by a triumvirate of talented ladies–Vanessa,Jen and Cortnie–all of whom have known each other since the ninth grade.  They’ve quickly become one of the most sought-after event planning vendors in California.  We’re all from the Encinitas area so we’d all bump into one another quite often, and we’ve been dying to work together for the last several months.  So when Vanessa called me a few weeks back to express interest and run some ideas by me, I was thrilled!

Their concept was “Wild Seaside Garden” and we selected a small area next to the La Jolla Bridge Club, just down from The Cove.  The bridal model, Ren, was gorgeous, talented, and such a pleasure to photograph.  The groom model, Kiptyn, who was recently featured on “The Bachelorette” TV show, did a fantastic job as well!  We also teamed up with Isari Flower Studio for the gorgeous florals; the über-talented Alisa Benay provided the gown and head piece; the jewelry was created by Noaki Schwartz of Noaki Jewelry; Kip’s styling was done by Tam Ashworth for Stylish Silhouette; the wedding cake was created by Truly Scrumptious; makeup was beautifully done by Jennifer Budner.  Special thanks to Girard Avenue Collection for the chairs and “I Love You” blocks; gourmet chocolates were provided by Dallmann Confections; hair styling was done by Jamie Rosa from Orange Blossom Salon.

Now, let’s get down to some tech-talk…

We wanted to keep everything looking pretty simple in terms of lighting.  Most of the still life/food images were made using natural light, which was open shade.  We mixed in a white reflector where necessary.  We got a little more creative when the models, Ren and Kiptyn, were photograph.  The main light was a large Chimera softbox camera left, about 6 feet from the subjects.  We also had one ProFoto strobe (with standard reflector), camera right, as a kicker to throw some light on the bottom half of the frame where we were getting a little fall-off from the main light.  We also had another ProFoto strobe behind and to the right of the models to provide some edge light.

There were so many great elements in this shoot, all of which are best described in Cortnie’s words on the Lollipop Blog!  You can also catch a recap on the Ruffled Blog (parts I, II), which was kind enough to feature the shoot!

Special thanks to the entire crew and to our gorgeous model, Donna Feldman.

Vuori Clothing Video

Special thanks to the entire crew for their hard work on this shoot.  We moved through the entire line in about 4 hours and two locations.  From our models–Aimee, Kari and Mike–to our wardrobe and makeup crew, everyone did such a great job.

The shirts seen here will be available online and in select stores in the spring of 2010.  For more information, check out Vuori’s website.

Models Aimee and Mike show off a few pieces of the Vuori spring 2010 line. These were shot at the Olivenhain Meeting Hall in Encinitas, CA.

Models Kari and Aimee show off a few pieces of the Vuori spring 2010 line.

Models Aimee and Kari show off a few pieces of the Vuori spring 2010 line.

Models Aimee and Mike show off a few pieces of the Vuori spring 2010 line. These were shot at the Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad, CA.

Models Kari and Mike show off a few pieces of the Vuori spring 2010 line.

Model Mike shows off a few pieces of the Vuori spring 2010 line.

Models Aimee, Kari and Mike show off a few pieces of the Vuori spring 2010 line.

Special thanks to Pete Santa Maria for the phenomenal work on the video.

Dave has referred a lot of work my way, so when it came time for some new portraits of him and his new employee, Allison, I was pumped. We shot the images on the beach in Cardiff under the hot sun of the last Santa Ana we had. In an effort to limit their exposure to the sun in their suits, we kept the shoot to about 10 minutes.