Grace's Bat Mitzvah Part Two

Two years ago I photographed the Bat Mitzvah of Kate, the older sister of Grace. One of their favorite shots from Kate's event was a three generation photo of her, her mother, and her grandmother. So I did a similar shot for Grace as well.



From the moment the dance floor was open kids were dancing, laughing and having fun.



The birthday girl lifted in the chair in celebration, a little scared but enjoying it.



Her father lifted high in the chair as well, a veteran of these events with three kids, he's really getting into it.



The night ended with Grace taking her family for a twirl inside the circle, here she is with Grace who she twirled last.

Grace's Bat Mitzvah Part One

From the moment I entered The Bittersweet Bistro in Aptos, the mood was a festive one of an Asian theme, perfect for Grace's Bat Mitzvah. Here's how the room was decorated:


A closeup of the amazing details:



The appetizers were almost too pretty to eat (and delicious).



The rabbi led the Havdalah service signifying the end of the Holy day (and the start of the festivities).


Soon the kids filled the dance floor having fun and playing games like jump over the hoop with DJ Joel.

Happy Birthday, Skylar

Today my friend Rachel had a party for her daughter, Skylar, who just turned one year old. Here are some of my favorite moments.

The lucky birthday girl had two cakes, a sheet one made by her mom, and this one by her mom's boss, who isn't a pro baker, but should consider creating another business from the oohs and aahs that the cake complete with matching nonedible play blocks received.



Skylar on her grandma's lap with her mom singing Happy Birthday to her:




getting into her cake:




with Erin practicing walking:




Sage didn't realize he had to give the gift to Skylar and at tried to take it back:

Happy Birthday, Jordan!

Jordan, a friend, DJ, and fellow photographer, just turned 40. He had his birhtday party over the weekend at The Capital Club in San Jose, which is ironically where I met him three years ago at a wedding I was shooting and for which he was the DJ.

He had a lot of cute kids at the party (with their parents), this girl stopped to pose for a picture as she moved his balloons around the room.


This little guy just had the best mischievous look in his eyes for his portrait with his mom.



Here is the birthday boy, playing "I got your toes" with his six-month-old son, Joshua.



The food was amazing including this chocolate covered dessert station complete with "Happy Birthday guitar pick (Jordan also plays guitar).



Jordan mixed and ran a lot of his own music, but he left the real life playing up to his friend.



One of the highlights of the night was Jordan performing a series of magic tricks with his friend, Chris.

Dominique's Senior Session - Part Two

Leal Vineyards is full of beautiful backdrops including this patterned wall for an interesting background for Dominique.



As mentioned in yesterday's entry, as these are going to be used for graduation announcements, we incorporated in the actual cap and gown she will be wearing next month.




As ivy is associated with college and knowledge, finding this on a wall seemed perfect for some shots.



This was one of my favorites of the day for her smile and the angle I used.




I had Frank who opened up his vineyards with me pose with her for a quick photo. He was hapy to let us know that Dominique who had wanted senior photos different from that of her friends was the first, and so far only, senior to have her photos taken at the three year old vineyard.

Dominique's Senior Session - Part One

With graduation just a few weeks away, high school senior Dominique found time away from 4-H and track to do her senior portrait session. Some of these photos will also serve in her graduation announcement.

As she specifically requested some shots that would not look like those her friends may have had done, we discussed a few locations that I was certain had not been the background for many senior portraits. On our way to one location, inspiration struck and we arrived at the Leal Vineyards.

The owner, Frank Leal, was really great, opening up his whole location (with the exception of the wine tasting room) to us to use.

We had an absolutely beautiful day which matched the radiance of Dominique's smile.




Frank suggested we have fun in the barrel room, I like this shot for both the colors and the name of the product.



Here she is sitting watch over the vineyard.



The amazing colors of the nearby flowers is just one reason why this is a popular place for weddings and events.




As she plans to go to college next year for liberal studies, the future is bright for this pensive teen.



Tomorrow, some more shots from our session including special wardrobe items only possible because we did this session so close to graduation.

Marketing Dept. Brochures for SJSU

How do you take photos for brochures of a busy campus (San Jose State University) without people in them? Go on spring break, of course.

The Marketing Dept. will be coming out with all new brochures, so they wanted me to photograph the campus just focussing on the buildings, so was there yesterday when it was both light out and quiet.

The sky was dark and dramatic for the shots of the Business Tower.




This horizontal really shows off the dramatic sky that Rachel, who contacted me for the project really liked as "different" from most marketing brochures. This shot gives her lots of room to include text such as "Change your environment, enroll in SJSU's Marketing Dept.", a slogan I came up with for them.




Don't let this next shot fool, you, yes we had clear blue skies for a short time.





However, soon after I finished the building shots and got into my car it started raining. It was a total downpour. I'm glad and lucky I finished when I did.

Surprise 110 Birthday Party

Can you keep a secret?

I've heard it said that once a secret was known by two people it is no longer a secret. This aside on Saturday I photographed an event that had been kept secret from two people for over two months, even though the party guest list was over 38 people.




The party was a 110 birthday party. While no one at the party was even over 90 the two guests of honor, Chauntel's mom and dad, now have a combined age of 110. The party featured M and M's in their favorite colors that said "Happy Birthday" and "110".



Chauntel had me take pictures of everyone to put with cards they would write for the birthday guests. When photographing them I learned that Penny's favorite pic of two of her children was of them looking out at Disneyland, one in which you could only see their backs. So I recreated the moment, even taking into account the height difference that had existed before.



Tom and Penny thought they were just going out to a nice dinner with a few family members at Dominics in South San Francisco. Dinner turned into a real family affair when a screen was drawn showing everyone who had come out to help them celebrate their birthdays. It was obvious that no one had let the cat out of the bag.




After a great meal, a chocolate cake (made by all the kids of the family was brought to them).



One of their presents even involved me, the family portrait I had taken of their family in March.


As the evening came to a close there was time to get one last informal portrait of Ian, who upside down, didn't run from the camera.

Improv Night at the Local High School

One of the best things about shooting for a small town newspaper is that often I find fun activities just driving around looking for things and people to photograph. Last week, I saw a sign that it was freshman improv night. In addition to being hysterical, it made for some great shots.

These folks are playing hitchhiker, where the hitcher displays some quirk (in this case being in a car with no shocks) and the rest copy it, when they stop laughing themselves, that is.



In improv, the actors surprise the audience, and sometimes each other. You can really tell the girl had no idea, the boy was going to lift up his sock for her inspection here.



Even without props and costumes, so much emotion and action comes out with this type of acting. High emotions, be ready for anything, just like another great day at the job as a photojournalist.

Gregor Family Portrait Session

Last year I shot the wedding of Chauntel and Gerardo. Even though not all their family could make it, they still had a huge number of people in their posed formals.

I got a call last month from Chauntel as she wanted to doing something special for her parents' upcoming birthday party. As they are still on vacation and do not subscribe to this blog, I can safely put on some pics here.

First some outtakes.

For one photo we tried to get everyone in, even the dogs. In this photo, everyone person and dog, looks at the dog who won't come to the photo.

We ended up doing that photo without the errant dog. Chauntel said her grandmother looked kinda like "The Godfather" in the chair with her family all around her.

Next Chauntel wanted a photo with both her siblings. When asked what they should do I told them jokingly to just have fun and "I don't know, punch your brother," and soon they were complying.

Throughout the day dogs refused to stay put, and Henry chased Bijoux all over, including right through this photo.




The majority of the images though, were just beautiful. Everyone kept saying how long it had been since they had had a portrait, so I did lots of groups.

Here are some of my favorites.

Chauntel and her siblings.

Just the kids.
Her sister's family, even the dog looked in the right place.

Finally this is the one that will be the present.

The parents' joint party, which is a surprise even to them, will additionally be featuring a twist so unique I've never heard of it done before. I'll be shooting that also, and will post pics and details after it occurs.