Summer weather has finally arrived! And I can’t wait for it to make its exit! As you may have guessed, I’m not a fan of the blazing heat and the scorching sun. It makes me quite miserable and constantly keeps me searching for an escape from its torture. It got particularly hot at home today, so instead of blasting the AC, I decided to grab the laptop and treat myself to some new scenery (and AC off of someone else’s dime). So here I am at one of my favorite watering holes in Temple City, sipping on lightly-sweetened green tea, ready to share another epic engagement session when a previous client bumps into me! What a pleasant surprise! Cindy, who’s wedding Doug and I shot together a few months ago, notices me hiding behind my laptop and says hello! How nice of her! Her wedding and engagement session were so much fun to shoot and be a part of. I totally remember how cute her and Jerome were on their wedding day and during their engagement session. After briefly catching up with her, I find myself hiding behind my laptop again, but this time, I’m even more inspired and motivated to share that epic engagement session because of the delightful conversation I had with Cindy.

So here comes Andrea & Troy! Inspired by Troy’s family’s legacy of serving in the military and his active status in the air force, this charming couple picked the Palm Springs Air Museum in Palm Springs. Andrea and Troy were properly dressed in stunning attire for the occasion and were fresh off of a flight from Florida to make the engagement session possible. And we thought we had dedication for driving out at 5 in the morning to get there an hour before the museum opened! Please enjoy a few of the engagement photos that we captured in Palms Springs that morning.

As we were going from airplane to airplane, Troy was telling us stories about each plane. We learned that most of the planes in the museum were still operational and he pointed out which ones flew during World War II. It was so cool how he knew all these things! He was our tour guide the whole time we were in the museum and it was awesome!

Andrea was telling us about the journey she went through to get her outfit for the engagement shoot. She told us that after scouring the internet and local boutiques in the Florida area, she finally found a unique boutique on Melrose Avenue, which has been considered a hip shopping district in Los Angeles since the ’80s, that had exactly what she was looking for. It was definitely spot on,and it matched Troy and the theme that they were going for.

After our little photo adventure at the air museum, we headed back to their hotel at the Riviera Palm Springs. This resort and spa was full of bright colors and had this really cool bar area by the valet. I really love the white and orange color combination. The white piano and the orange lighting at the bar were particularly eye-catching.

It was a pleasure photographing their awesome engagement photos in Palm Springs. We all had a great time working together and the two were so happy with our work that they had to have us for their wedding in Lake Tahoe. It was our first time up there and it was gorgeous up there. I can’t wait to post up pictures from it as soon as I’m current with my events. These two are beautiful together and were enchanting to be around. They’re great people who were definitely fortunate to have found each other.

Troy will leave for a tour in Afghanistan later this July. We wish them nothing but the best and for his safe return. You two rock!

Signing off,

Danny

It’s about 5 minutes until midnight on this cool summer evening as I reflect on this past weekends happenings. Remembering that I am behind on blogging and since I forget how sensitive I am to caffeine, I am determined to share one event before I go to bed. (I need to remember to not drink tea after 6 p.m).

Here we are at the historic Mission Inn in Downtown Riverside for our Asian hybrid wedding. For those who may not know what a Asian hybrid wedding is, it is when a Asian couples incorporate Eastern wedding traditions with Western traditions that we are very familiar with. This growing trend of hybrid weddings allow couples to honor the wishes and traditions that their families are more accustomed to and be able to walk down an aisle laced with flower pedals.

Honoring the privacy request from this couple, here are a few select images from their gorgeous event.

I was very fortunate to get this shot. This little human was shy at first and would keep on running away to show his backside to the camera. Little did he know that’s exactly what I was hoping for.

The stunning bride as she makes her way down the stairs towards the St. Francis of Assisi Chapel.

Straight-on shot of the St. Francis of Assisi Chapel before the wedding ceremony began. The Tiffany stained-glass windows and the Rayas Altar housed by the chapel are two of The Mission Inn’s most treasured artifacts according to their website.

I love asymmetrical cakes and I love the bokeh and depth of field you get when you shoot at f/2.0 with a 135mm prime equipped 5d mark II.

This game always makes me laugh at Asian receptions! The groom in this game is first blindfolded before the host asks random female guests to participate. All sitting down in a row, the bride is mixed in with the handful of volunteers and the blindfolded groom is supposed to be able to find his beautiful bride just by touching her knee. A lot of times, a groomsman or, as seen in this picture, a small child gets in the action to try and fool the groom. It rarely fools the groom, but definitely makes for a room full of faces that look like that little girl in the stripes.

This wedding was a lot of fun to shoot and I was privileged to be a part of it.  I wish I was able to share more pictures because there were so many epic moments photographed by Doug and me. I hope this is the first of many visits to the historic Mission Inn & Spa because the architecture and the colors here are so stimulating!

Congratulations once again to our happy, and anonymous, couple! Good luck on all of your future endeavors together! You two are awesome!

Cheers!

Danny

Hola Amigos!

I’m excited about this post because it was the first time I got the opportunity to fly to San Francisco for an engagement session! It’s definitely not my first time out to the Bay area by any means though. My younger sister just finished up her 3rd year in optometry school at Berkeley and I have some other great friends who live out in the San Francisco area, so when ever I get the chance, I like to come out and visit them.

In this particular trip to San Francisco, I was fortunate enough to make 5 new friends – Nina, Ren, and their three puppies. Nina and Ren are an awesome couple who are totally in love with each other and their puppies. After being extremely close to missing our bright and early flight from Long Beach, Nina and Ren picked up Doug and me from SFO and we were on our way to Golden Gate Park for the engagement session. Check out some of the cool shots we pumped out from that gloomy/rainy engagement session!

We started off parking by Stow Lake, which is pretty much at the center of the impressive 1,000 acre park. We were immediately in awe when we saw a small group of cherry blossoms and started off there.

As we started to walk deeper into the park, two of the three puppies wanted a quick time-out to relax their paws for a minute. This shot was taken with the 135mm at f 2.0 on the Canon 5D Mark 2.  I love the background blur and how deep the photo looks with that lens/body combo.

When we first met the two, Nina was warning us that Ren was a little camera shy. If she didn’t say anything, I’m sure I would never have guessed.

We decided to hike over to the Japanese Tea Gardens nearby for a change in scenery

It wasn’t until about here when our luck was running out and we had to pull out the umbrella to protect ourselves from the rain that we were hoping would hold out until our engagement session at Golden Gate Park was over. (When I mean we, I mean Nina and Ren because Doug and I didn’t bring any umbrellas because we were in a rush to catch our flight.)

Our last stop was the historic Dutch Windmill, which was erected in 1903. The Tulips garden surrounding the windmill were really awesome.

The rain started to really come down and we decided to call it a day after this shot.

The Bay area has a different feel than the LA area I’ve been born and raised in. Things seem to move at a slower pace up there, and it seems like people there like to stop and smell the roses. Here in LA, it always feels like everyone is rushing from point A to point B, leaving no time soak in their surroundings. Both Berkeley and San Francisco have this sense of community to me. There are little neighborhoods everywhere and each seem to share that sense or feel of community. What I really love about the Bay area is the food! I’ve had many “Best ____ I ever ate” here, which include Chicago style deep dish pizza, hot chocolate, vanilla cream-filled churro (yes, a cream-filled churro), and strawberry shortcake. It’s a really awesome area, and sometimes, I wonder if it’s more right for me than LA. I wish I had an opportunity to spend a few months rather than a few days to hang out up there and really soak things up.

It was really fun chatting with those two about places they love to eat around San Francisco, and I will definitely try them out the next time I’m there. Doug and I were able to hang out with them again when we photographed their wedding at the Surf and Sand Resort in Laguna Beach recently. It was such a fun wedding and we took some stunning photos of their Indian wedding. I can’t wait until I catch up and blog about their wedding because it was one of most colorful weddings that I have ever photographed.

Congrats to you two, Nina and Ren, and I wish you two only the best in your future endeavors!

Cheers,

Danny

Greetings, Everyone!

First off, my apologies for lack of updates in the last couple of months. It has been a busy wedding season and updating my blog has not been on top of my priority list. I assure everyone that the blogs in the near future will be totally awesome! There will be engagement pictures from San Juan Capistrano, the Palm Springs Air Museum, LAX, and also Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, and wedding photos from all over Los Angeles, Orange County, and Cancun to name a few. There’s a growing folder of pictures that I’ve been eager to share with everyone and I promise that once things start slowing down in about a month, I’ll flood my website with really cool pictures from all my engagement sessions and weddings.

Today’s wedding features Tracy and Danny, a very sweet couple who are head-over-heels for each other. This wedding included a Chinese wedding tea ceremony AND a Thai water ceremony, both very traditional wedding customs in their respective cultures. Check out what their big day looked like!

The couple started the day off in traditional Chinese style with a tea ceremony. Before a groom is able to enter the bride’s parent’s house, her bridesmaids have to test his will and love for the bride with really funny games. In this challenge, Danny had to take a healthy bite out of the bitter melon fruit to prove that he will eat anything that Tracy would cook for him.

After the traditional Chinese wedding tea ceremony at Tracy’s parents house in Alhambra, everybody headed to the Groom’s house in Pasadena to start the Thai water ceremony.

After a nice, long lunch break, we were ready to take some pictures with the whole wedding party. We made a stop in Old Town Pasadena and San Marino to snap these photos of our fun wedding party.

I thought it was one of the coolest ideas that they wanted a rock band shot. I’ve clocked in many hours on the drums and on the guitar playing that game and I love how that game is such a crowd pleaser. Rock on, guys!

It’s always inspiring to me when people from different cultures can come together to celebrate love.

This wedding was filled with a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. The funniest moment I remember about this day was during the portrait session. Doug was directing this shot and asked Tracy to look at Danny. Confused, she asked which Danny and Doug yelled out, “Photo Danny!” We ended up getting the shot we wanted plus endearing shots of them genuinely laughing. To Tracy and Danny, I am known as “Photo Danny.”

I have no doubts that these two are going to share a great life together. They are an awesome couple and I wish the best for them!

Over and out!

Danny