The Expressive Blog

Rocio and Ruben asked me to do their engagement portraits on the Stanford University Campus, at and around the Stanford Memorial Church. With the beautiful architecture in that part of the Stanford Campus, and lovely spring blossoms all around, it provided an amazing backdrop for me to work creatively with them. Many folks feel at least a little on-the-spot or shy about being in front of the camera... that is until they are in front of my camera, having a blast, as these two did! There was plenty of happy laughter, and we all enjoyed a magical spring-like evening. We collaborated on lots of ideas for fun, interesting photo-opportunities, which helped us create these engagement portraits. Thanks again, Ruben and Rocio, for a wonderful photo-session! I'll be looking forward to the wedding later this year!

Here is a sampling of my favorite images of Rocio and Ruben...

I am pleased and honored to announce that one of my images was chosen out of thousands submitted by a select group of California wedding photographers, to grace the cover of the January 28th, 2010 "The Ultimate Wedding Guide" issue of Good Times Magazine. Shown below, is the cover of today's issue of Good Times, illustrated by one of my recent wedding images, taken at Carmel River State Beach. Although Expressive Photographics is available for weddings and events nation-wide, the majority of my work happens in the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas. The Carmel and Pebble Beach area has some fabulous wedding venues, all within short distance from amazing photo-opportunities such as this beach photo-spot!

Cecilia and Ron held their fabulous, festive, wedding at their home on 12/31/2009. From now on, NYE will be twice as fun for the both of them! I had a blast capturing all the laughter (there was a lot of that), and everyone celebrating this sweet occasion. Congratulations Ron and Cecilia, and thank you for allowing me to be there as your wedding photographer!

They also had the able assistance of Nina Leis, of Leis Events, who choreographed a perfect night of ceremony and celebration, and worked tirelessly to make sure everything went off without a hitch. If you are planning a wedding or other special event, and you want it to be fantastic AND easy... do connect with Nina, to see how she can help make it happen for you!

I could go on and on about the beautiful sparkly details, and great things that happened on this evening, but the photos tell the story so much better than I can. Here is a small sample of the pics from Ron and Cecilia's wedding...

After the ceremony, the guests enjoyed a cocktail hour, while the Great Room was completely reset for dining. Paul Alexander, of Continental Caterers, and his great crew made quick work, and the results were gorgeous. Like this...

Here, Nina, of Leis Events, makes sure the tower of cupcakes is all set to enjoy. Nina is one of those professionals, who make you wish all event planners had her kind of personality, because while she is very effective at getting things done, she does it all in such a pleasant way. I think she must love what she does for people!

Kelvin and Sumaiya held their wedding overlooking the Monterey Bay, at the renowned Monterey Plaza Hotel on Cannery Row, Monterey. The day was amazing, and the couple and their guests were all great fun to work with. I would like to send out my personal thanks and best wishes to Kelvin and Sumaiya! Here are a few of my photos from their wedding day...

Hair styling was done by Nana, of Artisans Salon, of Monterey.

Makeup by Terri Estrada, Monterey area aesthetician.

The floral creations were exquisite, and I couldn't resist taking lots of detail shots with them! The florals were provided by Floral Designs by Reina, who can be reached at theflowerlady2000@yahoo.com.

In this traditional Tea Ceremony, the bride serves the parents of her husband and the groom serves the parents of his wife, as a gesture of respect. Beautiful moments...

I was so happy that Sumaiya and Kelvin wanted to take some quality time with their photographer, at the end of the evening. They asked if we could capture something romantic, with the lights reflected in the waters of the Monterey Bay. Of course I LIVE for cool photo-opportunities like this! The icing on the cake, was that due to the fact that things ran about one hour later than planned(no, I'm not kidding... the bride's getting ready process was very elaborate and took just a wee bit longer than they expected), um... like I was saying, the icing on the cake was the amazing moon, which we would have missed if things had gone according to schedule. See for yourself...

Recently, and old school buddy, Mark Martinez, asked me to do portraits of him and his two children, at the Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk. Of course I loved the idea, and we recently did the portrait session. Mark explained how he loved the action-oriented portraits of kids he had seen on my website in the family portrait gallery, and wanted to know if we could do something like that at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. He was not looking for the traditional style of portraits, but preferred more of a lifestyle portrait, that would show them all just having a fun time together. We also did a few shots in a traditional portrait style, because we could, and also because I know parents and grandparents also love to see those! Here are a few of my personal favorite photos from this fun portrait session. I hope you enjoy them!

I also want to acknowledge Mark, for his recent accomplishments in publishing a new book, that is very relevant to our times. It is called "The Myth of the Free Market: The Role of the State in a Capitalist Economy". Congratulations Mark!

Okay, here is a sampling of the cool photos from our session at the beach and boardwalk, in Santa Cruz...

I recently met with Julie and Christopher, for their Santa Cruz engagement session. We roamed around Santa Cruz, and eventually made our way to the beach, where we finished with more photos on the beach at sunset. Here are a few images from this fun portrait session...

View proofs for session here.

Miranti and Scott became engaged at the Ritz Carlton Resort, in Half Moon Bay, so it was the perfect location to do their engagement portrait session. Everyone familiar with Half Moon Bay, knows that it gets a lot of fog, but on this day, the fog was not too thick! Nature actually supplied us with perfect conditions for creating beautiful photographs. We had just a touch of pastel sunset colors to keep this visuals interesting.

Here are a few samples from our session at The Ritz Carlton, Half Moon Bay...