Summer days!!

Summer days!

It''s the middle of the summer and I'm thinking about all the weddings we've photographed this season and it's been a lot of fun so far. Las t weekend Veronica and I were in up in the mountains above San Diego photographing the wedding of Sandra & Michael who are such a nice couple. He's from Burma and she's of hispanic/spanish decent and it's so wonderful to see such diverse cultures come together for the union of marriage! Life is good, God is good!!!!

We've recently launched the opening of our Children's photography business JPP Photography. We're very excited about this because we love kids and we love photography and we thought what better way to enjoy both worlds than to combine them. The style of photography we're going after is "Fine Art Portraiture" and basically this is taking "Natural Photography" and combining it with "Lifestyle Photography" to create Fine Art pieces, in short all sessions are done on location using scene elements to describe a little bit about who the children are.

Click here for more details:
JPP Photography

The Odyssey Restaurant

We just photographed the wedding of Gina & Sherif at the Odyssey Restaurant this past weekend, it's located in Granada Hills high above in the hills of "the Valley". It was our first time photographing at this location and any time that happens we're always able to come away with that unique perpective of a first encounter. The first thing we noticed is the layout of the restaurant and location is very similar to "Castaways Restaurant" in Burbank which was was kind of eerie because it's like being in Burbank. Both are atop a hills at about 2500 feet of elevation, both have a grande view of the valley floor below, this view comes alive at night. The faciity offfers modest to good photographic locations. Mostly because right behind it there's another hill/mountain and the parking lot so you're restricted to shooting into one or two different directions. On the opposite end though, you have the amazing view of the valley below which is better at night because of the smog that builds during the day. I notice the staff was very courtesous with the guests and specially the bride and groom; at one point after the ceremony and while shooting the romatic shots the head waiter came and interrupted us very courteous and brought with him a glass of champage for him/her and a dish with hors d'oeuvre and this nice approach continued through out the night. I would love to rate the food but we were given what's called a vendor plate which wasn't bad but at most locations the bride and groom will include us with the regular meal as their guests get and the venue will offer a discount for them. The table settings, the wall decor, the state of the floor which is very important all looked very well. The grounds on the outside were very clean and well kept and I was very satisfied as a first time photographer and would highly recommend this location to future brides and anyone who requests a recommendation.

Here's a small slideshow of the event. You can simply click on each image or you can click on the play button:

Mirassaou Wines

Mirassou wines is giving away $5K to a lucky couple to help pay for the wedding expenses. Contest ends December of 2006 and is good for couples getting married in 2007.

Enter today for a chance to win $5,000 to help make your wedding dreams a reality.

Just tell us in 150 words or less how you would use the $5,000 Grand Prize to create your dream wedding and how Mirassou wine will complement your wedding reception. Entries will be judged based on originality of dream wedding, appropriateness to the dream wedding theme, how Mirassou wine complements the dream wedding, and grammar. Limit one entry per person, household, or email address.

Enter today. Your dream wedding may come true, courtesy of Mirassou wines.

Click here for more details:
Mirassaou Wines

The Rococo Room

The Rococo Room
We just shot Cindy & Savino's wedding this weekend in Downey and Pasadena. Their reception party was at Cafe Santorini which is a small boutique like restaurant with a nice and large enough reception area for events and weddings. It's located right off the freeway on Union and Fair Oaks, the ambiance is amazing because you walk out the back in to a cool Pasadena alley with cafes and little shops and you're right into Colorado and Old Town. I cam away truly impressed by a large red drape hanging from about a 50 foot ceiling and spoted with a red light with the name of reception area which is "Rococo". Spot lighting a venue with a single color is widely done at upscale venues like the Ritz and Four Seasons and in place with outsoor tents and the look is magical, like the castle at Disneyland, and casinos in Vegas. I wonder why more venues don't catch up to this because it makes them look so good.

Here are just a few images:





You can see their entire wedding at
Cindy & Savino

Monday morning!

Wow, we just shot Mandy & Brian's wedding over the weekend and I'm up this " Monday morning" thinking to myself, 'man I really love what I do!' Veronica and I just had an awesome time this past weekend at their Christian wedding which by the way Christian weddings are very, very special. I mean they sort of have this aura to them that you feel and it's powerful and you can't ignore it. Everyone knows each other really well, they all did things together last weekend and have plans to see each other next weekend, they recognize each others talents and they encourage each other to grow and to share to worship and fellowship and it's just beatiful. You can say the one common denominator is LOVE and God is Love!

Now is this couple good looking or what?! Mandy had this amazing ability to just relax and naturally flow her body to the camera. Brian was very affectionate caressing her and letting her know he's the man. This is one really cool couple and as someone at their wedding said out to everyone, you can see God's hand all over this couple. It's beatiful!

Congratulations Mandy & Brian!!

The Purpose Driven Life

Reading is an amazing part of my life for which I'm very thankful because this wasn't always the case for me. Now I'm an avid reader, often times reading 3 or more books at a time. The other day my wife and I were shopping at Coscto and the tittle of the book "The Purpose Driven Life" caught her attention, she asked my opinion and I said, you can't go wrong in buying books, specially christian faith, self help books. So I told her you should get it and she did.

Here's a little excerpt from "The Purpose Driven Life"

Self help books often suggest that you try to discover the meaning and purpose of your life by looking within yourself, but Rick Warrren says that is the wrong place to start. You must begin with God, your Creator, and his reasons for creating you. You were made by God and for God and until you understand that life weill never make sense.

If you're looking to find out "what on earth am I here for"? this is the book for you!!! But this is more than a book; it's a guide to a 40 day spiritual journey that will enable you to discover the answer to life's most important question: What on earth am I here for?

The book suggest you create a covenant with God to read 1 chapter per day with a partner (hence my participation) or friend and that by the end of the 40 days, you will have been transformed the way God transformed bibble characters in the old testament. This statement in itself is quite amazing, and I can attest it is transforming my life and my wife's (Veronica) and enlarging my purpose and recognition that I'm here for Him, and not He for me. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to get closer to understanding the reason why you were created.

Blessings,

:)

Table of Contents, Backcover

Go Lakers!

Boy as the weather starts to warm up, it gets everybody moving, I'm mean things have picked up for us now and I couldn't be anymore thankful and happy with God almighty sending all kinds of people our way!! Thank you Lord, I really appreciate it!!

My Lakers will start the Playoffs on Sunday and I want to wish them well! I have been a Laker fan fo at least 15 years and no matter how bad the year or how good the year is for them, I will always root for them. It runs in my blood now.

But the bad thing is they're not expected to get past the first round. Still I will watch and root for them and the days I can't watch I'll definately Tivo it.

GO LAKERS!

:)

Slideshow!

I love this new slideshow program. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with it because we'll start using it at receptions to show of the images of the day! Enjoy! :) Give it about 35 secs to load with high speed DSL.