The Expressive Blog

Here is a recent engagement portrait session I photographed in San Francisco, at The Palace of Fine Arts, Baker Beach and a little-known photo-spot near The Palace of Fine Arts, on Lyon Street, San Francisco. There is a special significance to "Baker" in Baker Beach, in this engagement photo session, because that will be the couple's family name, after they tie the knot, later this summer, in San Francisco!

Here is a selection of favorite images, from this fun engagement portrait session...

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From time-to-time, I meet folks who I just know I will have a blast working with, and that is exactly what happened when I met these two, at a bridal show, a few months ago. They asked if we could do their engagement portraits in Big Sur - one of my favorite places!

We decided to begin the photography session with a tour of the Point Sur Lightstation, which is something I have been wanting to do for some time, but had never actually done on my visits to the area. Since none of us had ever taken the lightstation tour, we did not know what to expect in the way of photo-opportunities, but we were not disappointed. Even though we were on a docent-guided tour, we had plenty of chances to create photos along the way, while learning history, and odd facts about the lightstation. For example, who would have thought that due to the strong winds common on the high rocks where the lighthouse is located, the former lightkeepers would keep their chickens on leashes, to prevent them from being literally blown away? I am happy to report that we too, were blown away... by the amazing beauty of this place!

Here is a small selection of images from this Big Sur portrait session...

The lighthouse sits atop the rocky pinnacle, shrouded in fog in this image.

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Cherry and Will had me create their engagement portraits in Monterey and Pacific Grove, and even though it was a bit cold on this day, we had a blast roaming around Lover's Point, Berwick Park, and many little-known spots along the rugged rocky shores of Pacific Grove. I loved working with them, because they were full of aliveness and open to doing anything to make an interesting photograph. These two did a lot of laughing and smiling, and I think they had as much fun during their engagement photo session as I did. I can only imagine how much fun their wedding will be, later this year, at Highlands Inn, in Carmel!

A few images from this session follow...

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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...

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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.

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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...

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Kathy and Ed did a lot of laughing and smiling, during their Santa Cruz engagement portraits... Not because I asked them to smile... I don't ask people to smile when photographing them, because it usually results in those "fake" smiles that nobody likes to see. Actually, we just had such a playful photo-session, that we spent much of the time laughing. But we created so many cool images, that it's not even funny!

Here are a few of them...

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