Mexico Memories

Last year I was tasked with photographing Matt & Deanna's wedding in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I'm not a wedding photographer, so my approach is a journalistic representation. Being a destination wedding, many friends and family could not make the trip. So my mission was to document the event and tell the story with my images for those who couldn't make it. I created the wedding album below for the bride and groom and hopefully the pages will share a little bit of the journey we experienced.

Firstly, the accommodations were first rate. Our suite was 3200 sq. feet with a 180 degree ocean view.

Note: the actual album is 12"x12" and 12"x24" open. The binding allows all the pages to lay flat.

Sunrise in Puerto Vallarta

Infinity pools

Mom with her daughters

Wendy and Carlos (Matt's sister)

With Liz (Maid of Honor) and JT (Best Man)

With Jim and Jan (Matt's Dad and Step Mom)

With Janine, Brett and Presley

Wedding Party Gift Exchange

Getting Ready…

La Mansion

Sisters

The End

Seattle Underground

SEATTLE, Washington (November, 2015) - Hit a pocket of nice weather in downtown Seattle and did some street shooting in the Seattle Underground. All shot with the 5D3.

The Gum Wall

Dawn to Dusk

Mono Lake is a large lake in Central California. It is believed to have been formed some 760,000 years ago. Because there are no outlets, there is a high salt content in the water. The lake is known for its unusual rock formations (Tufas). Tufas are formed from a chemical reaction between calcium and carbonates in the water. They grew under the water, but are visible because the lake levels have dramatically decreased over the years. I captured the images below in 2011 and the interesting thing is that they were captured in the morning and evening of the same day.

Captured on Fuji Velvia 50 and scanned

Bodie, California

Bodie is an original mining town from the late 1800’s. It is located in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains North/East of Lee Vining in Central California. In 1962 the California State Parks System declared it a State Historic Park to preserve what was left. At that point, only about 5% remained. What’s left today stands in a state of “arrested decay”.



I recently ran across these images from a 2011 trip to Central California and thought I'd share them. As I prepared the images, there were some that I included from the surrounding area that are not actually from Bodie but captured on the same day. Thanks for looking.

Shot on film with a Pentax 67II and scanned

Moments in Time

SNOQUALMIE, Washington (November, 2015) - I spent the Thanksgiving Holiday in Washington this year. It was unseasonably cold throughout the trip. Mornings were about 27 degrees and the daytime high was in the low 40's. The area had heavy rain in the weeks before, but we hit a sweet pocket where it only rained one day.

Snoqualmie Falls is a 270 ft. waterfall on the Snoqualmie River between Snoqualmie and Fall City, Washington. Most of the river is diverted into a power plant, but because of the heavy rainfall the water flow was very heavy which created a blinding spray. It was very wet, almost like standing in the rain. If your camera wasn't sealed you might of had issues. In addition, if you didn't have a lens hood your lens element would be wet. When I arrived visibility was just about zero. I heard moans from the other visitors about how you couldn't seen anything and many were leaving. The interesting thing I noticed was even though visibility sucked, the afternoon sun was peaking through the clouds. For many, this made things worse because of the backlit exposure challenges. I setup in a position and after a while started to notice little moments of clarity. Patience was a virtue on this day.

This image of Mount Rainier was captured out of the window of a moving car while driving across a floating bridge. I shot three frames to ensure focus was right. Once I had a chance to look at it, I noticed the bird in the foreground. Amazing how little things happen in milliseconds and could possibly go unnoticed if not for these captured images.

The next image of Mount Si only existed for a short period of time. The mountain was named after a local homesteader Josiah "Uncle Si" Merritt. It was made famous in the show Twin Peaks, which was filmed in North Bend, Washington. From the time I captured it, the clouds continued to drop and completely dissipated within 10 minutes. Amazing how life's moments can pass you by if you're not paying attention.

Playoff Bound

CARSON, Calif. (October, 2015) - The Cal State Dominguez Hills men have all but finished the season ranked 5th nationally and with a conference record of 9-0-2. They have one more game with Cal State Stanislaus this evening before the CCAA playoffs. Here are a few images from the match with their cross town rivals Cal State Los Angeles where the Toros beat them 1-0.

Redhot Toros

The 2015 Toros are off to a great start at 6-2-2 overall and 2-0-2 in conference. They are currently ranked No. 14 in the NSCAA Top 25. The CSUDH Men's team brings back a majority of last year's team, returning a total of 21 from the 2014 roster, eight of which were on the starting lineup. Here are some images from their game at the StubHub Center.