Hi! I'm a photographer in the San Francisco, Bay Area. I love capturing emotion & creating dramatic portraits. I get inspired by what I see, who I meet, what I hear, what I read... I hope that you enjoy my work. I LOVE light, LOVE awesome people and bringing the two together. It's as simple as that =)
In June, I photographed the fund-raiser Strength for Stow put together by my good friend and personal trainer Darrell Lutz from The MASS Training. The fund-raiser was to help raise money for the Stow family for San Francisco’s Giants fan Brian Stow who’s still hospitalized. For more information and to get status updates on Bryan please visit www.support4bryanstow.com
As you can probably guess from the name, the fund-raiser was a bench press lift-a-thon and these guys put up some serious weight. It was nice to see a lot of familiar faces. I have photographed a lot these guys before when they played sports in high school. Despite the June rain we got, the day went on great on these guys went to work. A special thank you to Darrel Lutz for putting all this together and letting me part of it along with all the business who sponsored the event:
It’s hard to believe that my little brother is already a senior in high school and is just a few days away from graduating. He was the first person/athlete I ever photographed nearly 7 years ago when he was just 10 and played in little league. I couldn’t help but to get nostalgic when I photographed his final at bat. I vividly remember the first time I photographed him batting when he played for the Orioles at Centerville American Little League. It was fun photographing his final baseball game at my alma mater along with some of his teammates.
Here’s a quick group picture of all the 2011 WHS baseball seniors. I would like to thank all the parents who purchased images and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them. If you would like to share any of the pictures, all of the parents who got pictures can find them on our FACEBOOK PAGE – CLICK HERE and please feel free to tag the photos. Unfortunately I was only able to cover the final game and couldn’t get images of all the players. I mainly tried to focus on the seniors. However, if any parents are interested in action photos, collages and/or portraits for next year please contact me so we can plan ahead early and do a lot more. I absolutely love covering sports and creating portraits at WHS. You can view samples on my portrait and sports website – CLICK HERE
Ngoc and Dan were so fun to be with. We did things a bit different than the usual engagement session followed a few months later by the wedding. As you can see, Ngoc & Dan decided to first have a small intimate wedding at San Francisco City Hall and have the rest of the day to roam around and take pictures all over San Francisco. We were able to hit up a handful of places before the sun decided to set, then took advantage of the short gorgeous window we have right after the sun goes down and stood around afterward for a bit to take a night portrait. We didn’t finish wrapping up until around 10pm but I could have gone on for another 8hrs! They were an absolutely stunning couple and this is only the beginning. I will be seeing them again this July for their second ceremony and reception that they will have with all their close friends and family. Here are a few pictures we took at City Hall.
After we got done with City Hall, we headed over to One Post Street and arrived at the McKesson building. Both Dan & Ngoc used to work there & that’s how they first met. We headed straight to the roof top for a stunning view of the city & to catch some nice cool, fast, screaming San Francisco wind! We also took a picture or two =)
Right after that, we quickly made our way to the Montgomery Street Bart Station and had only a few moments to get some images before a mob of people hit the BART station. This was a real special place for Ngoc & Dan and even though we literally only had about 2 minutes to create an image, I wanted to make sure we got something really nice.
Not only are they super fun, but Ngoc is also a huge San Fransisco Giants fan and she wanted to swing by AT&T Park because the Giants were playing the same day. Swinging by AT&T Park was super fun and all the Giants fans were thrilled to see a bride wearing a Giants jacket. Some of them even wanted to take a picture with them!!
While roaming around the front of the Giants Stadium, we happen to run into Ashkon! He was with Vinny Minton from Imperial-Video and they were filming footage for the video “Feeling Like a Giant”!! At the bottom of the blog post I posted the video so you can check it out if you’d like. Dan & Ngoc both made it into the video!!! I’m also there for a second or two as well!
After AT&T Park, we all went to dinner and ate some good food at Original Buffalo Wings. They had great food with great prices as well. While we were all eating & hanging out for bit, I took some pictures and made this portrait of them.
As the sun was setting, we headed over to the Palace of Fine Arts and created some more images.
The next place we were planning on going to was the Legion of Honor. However, while we were driving there I noticed how stunning the sky looked and knew it would be like that for only a few more minutes. I couldn’t pass up creating this image so we ended up pulling over and were able to create this image just in time before the last of the day light in the sky gave way for the moon. A minute or two later & the entire sky would have been pitch dark!!
Speaking of pitch dark, this image was literally taken in the dark! Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden was our final location. This image took a while to setup & create being that everything was dark and I had to light everything. Thankfully throughout this whole day I had an amazing 2nd shooter & assistant with me, Sara Atkins! She helped me setup for this image (well, she also helped me out the entire day too) and I had her light the entire windmill in the background. The image you’re seeing is actually a 35 second exposure and it’s only 1 frame. It’s not a blended collage or an HDR image. Once we got done creating that image… we called it a night and dropped off Ngoc & Dan back at their hotel.
Here’s everyone that made everything you’re seeing here possible. From right to left is our lovely newlywed couple Dan & Ngoc, congrats guys!!! Then yours truly, and my good friend/2nd shooter/assistant for the day, Sara Atkins! THANK YOU SO MUCH Dan & Ngoc for letting me capture this special day for you guys and letting me do what brings fulfillment to my life and what I love most. And thank you Sara for all your help and hard work. I could not have done any of this without ALL you guys.
We took A LOT more then just 17 pictures the entire day. So I put together a slideshow that better shows how the day went along as it unfolded. Please check it out & I hope you enjoy.
And at last!!! Here’s the Ashkon & Bailey – “Feeling Like a Giant” – OFFICIAL VIDEO!!!! Keep your eye out for us there =)
by Alexis
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