Take Ivy

A few weeks ago my friend, and lead singer, asked me if I could shoot his band's first gig playing at Chain Reaction. It's been years since I last stepped foot inside the venue so I felt really dated when I walked inside =(

The band is named after a popular photography book by T. Hayashida that documented the style of era at Ivy League schools.

Check out some of the book here

If you ask me how they sounded all I can say is from whatever I heard its pretty good. I only say that since I was shooting most of the time and I was concentrating on photography more than the music. Kind of weird since the venue is extremely loud but shows how our brains work when their in concentration mode.

















Support my friends band by visiting their MySpace and seeing them live! Check out their MySpace Take Ivy

Walt Disney Music Hall, Fresno Puja & San Diego Wedding

I've been told I don't blog enough and I read on CNN that consistent blog updates lead to 10-15% increase in business, so here we go!

A while ago I did an engagement session at Walt Disney Music Hall. Great couple, awesome architecture and pretty good light.































So what is a puja? Wiki defines it as "a ceremony of gratitude or a religious ritual performed as an offering to various deities, distinguished persons, or special guests". I received a phone call from the groom (as seen from the photos above) if I could come out to Fresno to document his two day puja before his wedding.

I definitively wanted to, but there were a few issues. One of them is Fresno is ~240 miles away from where I live and ~340 from San Diego where I had to be Sunday for a wedding.

Solution: Fly from LAX to FAT (Fresno's airport) on Friday, fly back to LAX on Saturday and drive to San Diego that night for a wedding at Little Chapel of the Roses on Sunday.

Complicating but it turned out excellent!

I'm scared of flying and going on an Embraer 120 didn't make things better. You feel absolutely everything, pitch, yaw, roll and all the other little bumps!


Photo courtesy of my BlackBerry Storm

I also shot some video while coming back to LAX, awesome sunset!






Onto the puja - Day 1:













































Day 2:
























The puja went great, the flight went well and onto my 2 hour drive to San Diego was excellent because of a pit stop at San Juan Capistrano for a little Jack In The Box =)

The Little Chapel of the Roses is an awesome place to have a wedding!








































































Until next time, happy shooting!