Santa Barbara Wedding and Portrait Photography

Just wrapped up processing Lisa and Hugh’s engagement session from around Santa Barbara (we shot at the beach as well as on one of my favorite trails here in Santa Barbara - Cold Springs Trail)

I found this picture from our session and I think it’s seriously one of my most prized images from all of our recent engagement sessions, but I’m trying to figure out if I like it better in black and white or color. (anyone who’s been following the blog will know that I always struggle with this, I absolutely love black and white photographs, but sometimes color just says a little something extra) What do you think? Should I add the color or black and white image to our online gallery?

It’s been such a long time since I’ve blogged here, TIm is so much better at that then me. He seriously rocks when it comes to blogging!

Anyway, I wanted to share some of these images I took last Saturday for the Cummings family portraits. They are such an adorable family. I just love the emotion in this first one, and the girls are so cute in the next two pictures.

Here is a link to their slideshow if you’d like to see more

Starting late next month my former employer and buddy David Jay will be on tour around the United States helping teach other photographers how to simplify their business and make them better. He’s big on teaching us/you not to be a commodity, and that’s big time!

I know there are a decent number of photographers who check out this blog fairly regularly, so if you are one of them and want to expand your mind and getter better at business, then check out DJ’s tour by clicking here and selecting the date/location nearest you! You’re sure to learn some good stuff, DJ is wicked smart with business!

Part of hiking the John Muir Trail is shipping portions of your planned food ahead to points on the trail (or close to the trail) where you can pick it up and re-supply as you go.

So, for the last week or two I’ve been grabbing supplies and mixing and matching together the food I’ll eat while backpacking. I did a shake-down backpacking trip over the mountains here in Santa Barbara this past week and realized that packing 1 pound of GORP for each day of the trail was a HUGE mistake, so I had to scramble over the weekend to grab some different foods to pack) Now I’m eating a mixture of dried fruits and smashed up pringles chips (gotta smash them up so they take less room - everything gets re-packaged into ziplocks to save space)

The whole lot of food:

I found these bananas that come flattened and ready to go from Trader Joes (I think they’re slightly dried as well) They look pretty gross, but they’re pretty tasty.

My ultralight mentor Paul Cronshaw took me out with him on a trip into the Santa Barbara back country. We hiked from his house in Montecito up over the top of the mountains and down the back side to Forebush. It was a great trip (101 degrees coming down the mountain at 10 a.m.!!) Here’s Paul showing just how light his pack is:

Cheryl and I were up in northern California photographing Suneet and Majique’s wedding this past weekend at the Kohl Mansion, and while we were up in that part of the state we decided to visit my good buddy Mark. He’s also a wedding photographer and he’s always so inspiring to be around. I always tell him he over thinks things, but after spending enough time around him I wonder if it’s more that I “underthink” things sometimes. He’s always forcing me to think about stuff that I’d normally just stumble through without really putting my mind to it.

I’m stoked to see him and see how he pushes me this weekend. Here are a few pictures from our time in San Francisco with him last weekend:

After I saw the pictures I realized that I’m not very good at jumping, I need to go out and try again and see if I can’t do some better poses and get a bit more lift (I think after I lose some weight on the John Muir Trail I’ll be able to boost higher!)