With the unusually warm weather we’ve been having this January, it reminds me how much I love living in Southern California. I can’t think of many other places to live where you can snowboard in the morning and catch the sunset on a surf board the same day. Warm days like these reminds me of the fun times I had in Long Beach, and also the fun times I’ve had shooting engagement photos in the area. Allow me to introduce Melanie & Alan. They are a cute couple who share the same love for warm weather and sunny skies. Please check out some of the engagement photos Doug and I were able to capture on our fun little day in Long Beach.

After spending a short time on the Campus of Cal State Long Beach, we headed off to our next location. We stopped by the Maya Hotel in Downtown Long Beach and picked up shooting where we left off.

And finally our last stop! You can’t like warm beach weather without liking the beach, so that’s where we ended up taking the last few shots. We raced to the beach to make sure we caught the setting sun and it was worth the brisk jog from the parking lot to the sandy beach.

Hope you’ve all enjoyed our little adventure out in Long Beach. If we had more time, Doug and I would have showed them around some more. Some of my favorite mom and pop restaurants were in the area and it would have been great if we were able to catch dinner together.

Congratulations, Melanie & Alan!

Cheers,

Danny

Please allow me to introduce Marissa & Dong, a couple of San Diego’s coolest and easy-going people. Marissa, who grew up in Louisiana, has that Southern hospitality and relaxed attitude that pairs well quite nicely with Dong’s casual Orange County personality. Currently working and residing in San Diego, they both have made the plunge to share the rest of their lives together, which is always inspiring.

Doug and I made the short trip from Los Angeles to photograph their engagement session at Balboa Park in San Diego, a place we’ve been to a handful of times to shoot engagement sessions and weddings before. We were a little worried about the weather because the forecast said there was a high chances of rain, but we lucked out and avoided the showers. Check out some of the photos we pulled off in not-so-sunny San Diego.

After spending a couple of hours shooting inside Balboa Park, they wanted something a little more urban in San Diego. We remembered a few crazy hills in Downtown when we drove by earlier that morning and thought it would suit them just nicely.

So there we have Marissa and Dong and San Diego weather that didn’t rain on their parade. I hope you enjoyed and we’ll see you again soon!

Cheers,

Danny

Palos Verdes in Los Angeles County is full of gorgeous venues, like The La Venta Inn, Los Verdes Golf Course, Wayfarer’s Chapel, and Abalone Cove. Abalone Cove Shoreline Park is one of the top spots to shoot engagement photos in that area because there are two small and intimate beaches along with a beautiful bluff area that gives a great view of the Pacific Ocean. It’s also a cool spot to take wedding party portraits if your couple wants something a little different or simply another place to take photos. Doug and I passed by Abalone Cove on the way to the Los Verdes Golf Course where the wedding we were shooting was at, which reminded me of Janie & Thomas, one of the last couples Doug and I shot here.

Janie & Thomas are super down-to-Earth and so easy-going that you can’t help but to be very comfortable around them. They are also foodies who also live in the San Gabriel Valley, so we had plenty of restaurants to chat about and foodies stories to share with each other. But once it was time to get down to business and start taking photos, they were ready to rock.

It’s a good thing those two were pretty healthy and active people because we needed to hike down and back up a short trail to get from the bluffs to the beach area.

After we hiked back up the trail to get to the parking lot, we still managed to loiter and chit chat more about food trucks and some of Thomas’ stories at Disney in Burbank. We managed to not go through too many stories and called it a day. And what a fun day it was for all of us.

That’s all for today, but look forward to more blog posts in the near future! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers,

Danny

Finally, there is a little time for me to start blogging again! This summer has seen so many great wedding moments and gorgeous wedding venues, such as the Los Verdes Golf Course and Wafarer’s Chapel in Palos Verdes, The Fairmont in San Jose, and The London West Hollywood, but that’s not even all because we still have several more weddings to go to wrap up wedding season. Doug and I still have venues such as Turnip Rose and a destination wedding in Waikiki to look forward to, and looking forward to we definitely are. I’ve been telling Doug about how much fun and how delicious Hawaii is and he’s been bragging about some kind of chocolate dessert that they are known for. All that talk about my first trip to Hawaii reminded me of why I was able to go there in the first place- all thanks to Sandra and Josh!

Sandra & Josh are two of the most endearing people I have the pleasure of being friends with and they were kind enough to invite me to the Big Island and to Oahu to photograph their engagement session. I’ve known Josh for about 10 years through a college organization we were in years ago. He’s a great guy with a huge sense of humor and I was thrilled that he had met someone who was able to capture his heart the way that she has by the way he was describing her to me. It’s a really cute story how they were friends at first and how they ran into each other again 10 years later to learn how great they are together. I was quite excited when they invited me to go with them because I had never been there before and thought what great company they’d be in on my first trip. They were totally cool with me bringing Doug along to join in on the fun, but unfortunately, Doug was busy and couldn’t make it.

I flew in a little late, so we had to start the engagement session the next day. We started our day on the Big Island at the Fairmont Orchid Resort, which wasn’t too far away from the Hilton Waikoloa Village where we were staying at.

What an amazing beach for visitors to the Fairmont Orchid Resort on the Big Island.

After a wardrobe change and a quick trip back to the Hilton Waikoloa Village, we continued the engagement shoot.

The next day we hopped islands and were in Waikiki on the island of Oahu! This place was very sentimental to the two because this was Josh proposed to Sandra.

Remember how I mentioned his sense of humor?

I owe those two big time for being such great tour guides! I felt like a local when I was with them because they took me to all the great spots to snorkel, sight see and especially to eat! I can’t wait to show Doug these places when we visit Oahu in November for a destination wedding. It was an amazing first-trip to the Big Island and Oahu with Sandra and Josh and nothing but love goes out to those two. I can’t thank them enough!

Many more blog posts to come, so we’ll see you soon!

Cheers,

Danny