Photo Catering

2008 year in Review (part one)

2009-01-15T23:53:00.001-08:00

It's 2009 and I haven't posted in over a year so I'm going to make a ginormus post summarizing all of 2008.
From here on my resolution is to stay fit and caught up in my life.
January 3rd set the stage for the entire year when my beloved mom died of renal cancer.
We are a very close family and this was an overwhelming emotional roller coaster that changed my perspective on life and mortality in a good way.
I created a video tribute with the generous help of my friend and graphic designer Rhonda Moore.
The first image is of mom and her triple trouble in 1963 (me on far left) and 42 years later was our last "nice" group shot in 2005. The last image was the announcement for her services.

After the service we had the most incredible "Celebration of Life" reception hosted by my friend Jennifer Carlsson of Cigi's Waterfront.
A day that began with tears, ended with laughter and fond memories of my moms wonderful life.
I miss you mom.

January 12
Ulrich's 50th Anniversary

February 2
Lauren and Andy's Wedding

Check out their slide show and signature book or entire wedding.

February 8
Kelly and Scott's engagement session collage.

March 1
Second shooter for Gillian at Christine and Daniel's wedding.

March 26
Jillian and Michael's engagement session.

Love their signature book.

April 2
Rachael's senior portrait session.

April 5
Addie and Pete's wedding with Tracy Sherman at beautiful Coto De Caza. She is a pleasure to work with and flattered me by using my photos for their spread in The Knot magazine.

April 8
The start of an awesome 4 week intensive (missional photography) at Rock Harbor. I was in the presence of Dane Sanders, Jessica Claire and Mike Colon. Yep, I was in lala land.

She digs me.

Piggy backin' the Mike man. GREAT TIME !

April 10
The high was immediately squelched by the reality of turning 50. Hey, it's just a number.
I was the victim of a huge surprise party. Thanks again to everyone for a great time.

April 24
Promotional shot for The All American Boys Chorus Asia tour.

April 26
Amber's senior portrait session. Tons of great shots that will eventually show up on my site.

April 28
I've been working with the fine people at QSC Audio for 15 years now.

Congratulations on their 40 year anniversary.

May 1
Promotional shoot for the band Aviation Hero. Had fun with them young whipper snappers.

May 25
Another fun family portrait session.

This concludes part one.

2008 year in Review (part two)

2009-01-10T16:39:00.000-08:00

June 7

Kelly and Scott's wedding.

June 27

Jillian and Michael's wedding at the Ritz with the fabulous Gail Garceau leading the way.

Want more... slide show and full wedding if you so desire.

June 28

Congratulations to Caroline and Kirk on their 40th Anniversary.

July 4th

God bless America in this troubled time.

July 21

Working again with the innovative Glenn Mossman of Pacific Parking systems.

July 23

Back at QSC Audio for some location studio head shots.

July 29

My niece Ronna and a couple of her friends for a fun shoot in the S.A. river bed.

August 2

Nothing like heading to the Temecula wine country on a bus with 30 friends and neighbors.I'm not a fan o' the grape juice so I tossed back a couple of bruhaus. FUN DEAL !

August 6

As mentioned in part one, I get to meet incredibly talented photographers who are truly the nicest people.

David Jay is no exception. I love the way these "Young Guns" came along and really changed the dynamics of the photography environment. What use to be pure competition and trade secrets is now a pleasant Open Source environment of photographers working together. SWEET !

I'm so bummed the pic I took with my point and shoot of David and me was just not good enough to post. We both looked great but the low light quality of that camera was C-rap. BUMMER !

August 9

Meet the Beverly's.

August 21

First actual vacation time at Lake Lopez. AHHHHH...

I'm very fortunate to be surrounded by soooo many great friends and family.

That's my dad (lower left) with his yellow lab Holly that I think is actually glued to his leg.

August 29

"Witch" the reunion tour. I've know these guys forever. Don't let the stage garb scare you. These are some of the nicest, smart and successful guys that happen to be head bangers at heart. I met, saw and did a lot of things back in the 80's while working for a couple of big time record companies. I'm glad I survived.

Literally everything you ever wanted to know about Witch is listed on Mark Piotroski's site.

I took both of these promo shots. ROCK ON !

September 15

Vivien and David's engagement session.

October 4

Rainy day portrait session for the Musselman's.

October 11

Promotional shot for the artistic and talented jewelry designer Erin Cone of Ruby's Whim.

October 11

After Erin's session I headed over to the OCPCA K9 dog show. AWESOME!

I was invited to photograph the event by my CHPie friend and artist/photographer Kelli Francis.

Nothing like being surrounded by hundreds of police personnel with their K9 counterparts. I highly recommend you see one of these shows. They are so entertaining and you support the high cost of training these valuable dogs. Funny, I didn't see one gang banger in the area.

October 25

Vivien and David's wedding.

October 31

Another first. My mom's Halloween birthday without her. SAD !

November 7

Caught my first dodo (dorado) while fishing with my super fun friend Dan.

Not only are they pretty fish but they're pretty tasty.

November 9

Meet the Mobley's.

November 15

Economy buster. I did 6 family portraits in 1 1/2 hours. That's one session every 15 minutes.

It went quite well and I may do this every year.

November 19

Family portrait of my close friend for 40 years Rick and his wife Julie with their cute kids.

Before dinner I got this shot of their daughter doing her homework.

November 22

This is my dentist Dr.Crisanta Alzona (I call her Cristeen) with her hubbie James who is also a dentist.

I did their wedding many years earlier and think they are genuinely the nicest people you'll ever meet.

She'll hate me if she reads this but I think she is the prettiest dentist I've ever seen.

November 23

We decided to bail out of town for our first Thanksgiving without mom. She was really into whipping up a fantastic T-day meal so the three boys along with dad decided to hit the road. Thanks to my incredible sister in law Jane, who planned a train ride trip to the Grand Canyon and a home cooked meal at her mom's house in Kingston AZ. AWESOME TIME ! Thanks Jane.

November 29

Meet the Periolat's. Grandma and Grandpa with all the youngins.

November 30

Jackie and Nick about to experience the joy of their second child. Their wedding photos are on my website.

November 31

This is my cat Keekee that I've had for 19 years. I shot this with the 85mm 1.2 "butter" lens.

I swear you can't even breathe using this lens wide open.

December 4

A session of Natalea and James in HB with my talented photographer friend Cindy Meadors.

Love this shot I got while we were there. Now that's a big bubble.

December 7

I present to you, Brian, Alex and Matt. Shot of the boys for their mom's Christmas gift.

December 14

Got a little place at Crystal Cove to enjoy some holiday cheer with my close friends Lauryl and Dan. They unofficially adopted me so I'm their baby Huey.

Yep, that's an unaltered sunset. Another rough winter in SoCal.

December 21

My younger brother Ron casually mentioning to us that he's getting married after Christmas. WHOOOAHHHH !

Congratulations to you both.

December 23

Last minute hectic mall shopping with my brother Kenny and his son Hayden.

December 25

Merry Christmas !

This is my niece Ronna getting a MacBook Pro. I'm Jealous.

Ohhhh Holly ! I love this dog.

December 31

Happy New Year ! I HOPE...

Well this concludes my wrap up of 2008. I sure hope 2009 can pull out of this economic debacle.

Thanks for taking the time and I hope we run into each other some day.

Surf City Nuptuals

2007-10-20T12:00:00.001-07:00

Congratulations go out to Jackie and Brayden after expressing their love for each other in the ultimate way. Brayden is tall and looked sharp with his supporting team of groomsmen.

The entire event was beautiful and flawless thanks to Kristen Poyser with her attention to detail and keeping a nice comfortable flow.

Jackie's dad Michael proudly walks his beautiful daughter into the lobby for some photo fun.

Jackie is one of those mellow brides just going with flow. She had a beautiful group of bridesmaids for her supporting team. There's nothing like photographing beautiful people in beautiful places.

This was a big time wedding with thousands of guests (maybe not that many) but they certainly had a lot of family and friends to witness their vows.

My signature shot of the day (below).

I have never seen soooo many awesome flower arrangements at the church and reception. I thought Jen did a great job brightening things up with all the colorful flowers.
Back to the Waterfront Hilton for the rockin' celebration.

These guests were not shy and ready to party.

Congratulations Jackie and Brayden on an awesome wedding and thanks for letting me be part of such an important day in your life.

You can check out a little slide show I put together right here.

Melissa and Jason

2007-10-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

I had a great time at Melissa and Jason's wedding. We had an unexpected guest show up to join us...RAIN ! Who said it never rains in California ??? The rain was light and sporadic so everyone handled it quite well. Melissa told me she actually enjoyed the cooler temps along with the clouds and moisture.

As a photographer, the weather presents an additional challenge to maintain proper exposure as the sun plays hide and seek behind the clouds. I'm just glad it wasn't a heavy rain because we know how fun that can be, YEAAAAAA...

The reception was held in scenic Coto de Caza at the Golf and Racquet Club. Not only do I have a beautiful bride and groom but I've got an awesome waterfall 50 feet away.

Okay, it's time for me to walk another old lady across the street. In the mean time you can check out this little ditty from from the wedding.
Congratulations to Melissa and Jason !

Where's my Photographer ?

2007-06-21T14:41:00.001-07:00

This is one of those situations every couple dreads on their wedding day.
I did an engagement session for Jamie and Brian who were getting married in Hawaii for that beautiful tropical setting. Well, I'll let her tell the story in an email she sent me...

Dave~
On my wedding day I was so bummed that you were not there to do our wedding. I wish I could have had the money to have you there. The photographer that I ordered never showed up to my wedding, and never called. He ended up sending these two 12 year-old looking kids that looked like they were there for an ROP class. I had researched and made sure that I was going with one of the best photographers and then I got these kids that seemed to have no clue on what they were doing. Photography was the most important part of my planning and that ended up being the biggest let-down. Gosh, I missed you.
Sincerely,
Jamie

I feel bad this had to happen to Jamie and Brian because they're such a good looking, fun couple and it taints the profession I love.

Mini Photoshop seminar tour

2007-06-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

I've attended several Photoshop seminars in my day. So many in fact, I became obsessed with the program and the miracles you can produce from a digital file. My friend Brenda Harper from Albums Inc. knows my work ethic and approached me to be part of their "WOW" tour (click on image below) This seminar includes 6 hour of jam packed info about work flow in the digital world presented by Moi. Not only do you walk out with a plethora of Photoshop knowledge but you get lunch and you can touchy-feely the great products Albums Inc. offers photographers. It's only $99.00 and I'll share what took me 5 years to learn. Hopefully I'll see you there.

Meet Rhonda

2007-06-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

I'm so fortunate to have my friend and very talented graphic designer Rhonda Moore in the house. We have known each other for almost two decades. She's a ham and I'm a man with a cam. When ever I set up for a shoot she gladly accepts the role of test subject. I think she photographs quite excellent. As you can see, her favorite color is red.

Although we are both artists, we have our differences in opinion (who doesn't)
This is the look (above) I get when I've gone too far.

This is Rhonda with her son Rylee. He is such a character.

For you photographers out there looking for someone to design personalized (no templates) flush mount albums, give Rhonda a call. Now that I think of it, she's quite the character too.

Lisa and Matt

2007-06-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

Just about every photographer I know is booked on July 7th this year (lucky 7-7-07) I'm lucky because I get to photograph Lisa and Matt's wedding that day. They are a super fun and free spirited couple that enjoy being in front of the camera (bonus) Here are just a few of the many great shots we got from their engagement session.

This is probably my favorite shot from the session.

Thanks for a fun shoot Lisa and Matt. I look forward to creating some awesome memories from your wedding.