Guest Blogger – Zachary Good, Web Guru and All Around Great Guy.

Jared was scheduled to take some kitchen remodel photos for my family, so he and the Bauman Photographers crew were kind enough to move their weekly lunch a little farther east this week. We met at Gingham (http://www.ginghameats.com/) in La Mesa, one of Brian Malarkey’s more recent San Diego restaurants. I got a chance to meet Jared’s sister and her fiancé, and everyone had a chance to let my mother charm them.

The first time I ate at Gingham, I had no idea what to expect. Malarkey’s other restaurants (Searsucker, Burlap, Gabardine) are pretty high up on the “hip food” meter, so what would they bring to La Mesa Village, the home of antique shops and San Diego’s largest Oktoberfest? How do you introduce revolutionary flavors and a trendy atmosphere to East County without scaring off the cowboys and octogenarians?

Apparently, by serving good food and decorating it like a Texas roadhouse.

I didn’t know how to describe the food when Jared asked about it. I think I used the phrase “BBQ Fusion.” They call it an “Urban Cowboy Diner” and that seems to sum it up perfectly. If you look up when you walk in, there’s a cow statue painted with the Texas flag. We ate next to a photo of a girl riding a cow jumping over a fence. Cow skeleton chairs in the entryway. Lots of cow.

The food took ideas from your standard BBQ menu and spiced them up a bit. At least half the table ordered the tri-tip melt, a delicious meat sandwich with jalapeño jam and a cheese I can’t pronounce. Someone ordered Gingham’s version of nachos: homemade potato chips with smoked salmon, fried capers, and a chipotle cheese sauce that looked amazing.

All in all, it was a great place for lunch, and they handled our table of 10 with no problems whatsoever. One tip – if you have a tendency to fall off of slippery metal barstools, like my mother, request one of the wooden ones.

Check out thephotos from San Diego’s fun photography team.

You don’t have to be engaged to have some awesome portraits done. Rebecca and her boyfriend are from Las Vegas. So when they came out here for a vacation they contacted me to do some portraits for them. A vacation portrait session is an awesome way to capture fun memories.

For their photo session, we started in at Belmont Park in Mission Beach and then we went to Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach. I was happy to see them jump right in to taking fun photos since when we met at that day was the first time we had ever met in person.

It was a lovely day in Rancho Santa Fe. The breeze in the trees made them sway like seaweed in the bay.That’s enough rhyming for one day wouldn’t you say?
Liz, Chad and I had a great time with this one, especially since they got every joke I made (anchor man, zoolander, etc.)
and we were able to thoroughly explore the grounds of the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe and get some beautiful sunny day shots.
Looking forward to the wedding guys!

You never know what you will find in a strip mall. Sometimes there are some pretty cool things. Last Wednesday we found Long Island Mikes Pizza. It was a solid place for lunch. They are the type of place you can go in and order by the slice. For a quick lunch when you want pizza that is a big deal.  It’s also great because you can go in with a group and not have to worry about agreeing on a type of pizza.

They have a pretty cool lunch special, two slices and a drink for $6.

After lunch we walked over to the grassy hill in the corner of the strip mall and did some creative photos.

I have fallen behind on blogging about our lunch outings, so I’m going to try and catch you up in the next week on the last three outings that we have had.

The first one is the lunch that we had with Bob and Merrylin from Artistic Productions. In February, Bob and I won gift certificates for our awesome slip and slide skills at Sweet Cheeks Baking Company 5 year Anniversary Party. We put on a show for all the wedding vendors in attendance. The gift certificates were to Lisko Artisan Deli & Fish Market so we decided to go there together. It was a really nice experience. The deli has awesome customer service not to mention a great menu to match. They also have really fresh looking fish and a very colorful bakery section.

It was awesome hanging out with Bob and Merrylin and exchanging stories.

Suzette and Patrick are
A. Sweet
B. Fun To be Around
C. A beautiful and inspiring couple to watch
D. All of the Above

If you answered D, then you are correct and deserve an A+
This day was a long one, but an amazing one! We started at the ever amazing Hilton San Diego Bayfront, went to their church for a Christian ceremony, then to Suzette’s parent’s home for a tea ceremony before going to the Twin Oaks Garden Estates for the KILLER reception. All of it was perfect.
The guests came ready to spend the day on the festivities and have a great time too. My favorite part was heading behind the orange trees to a super cool shack/barn/pump house for some twilight shots

I love it when couples really get in to the engagement session and invest some time and energy planning out a fun session. Michelle and Lee had some cool ideas and wanted to go to different locations. I love how they brought some fun outfits and even brought a parasol for the beach photos. A little prop makes a big impact in the photos. It adds that extra level of cool.

For me the only challenge was trying to narrow down the photos. We had so many to choose from!

I’m happy that I Michelle and Lee chose me as their wedding photographer. They are a very fun couple and I know that their wedding is going to be so much fun to capture. They are getting married in Old Town, it’s going to be so cool!

It had been awhile since I had done a session in Coronado, so when Sarah and Andrew suggested we shoot there, I was all over it. Andrew is in the military so he and Sarah have had one of those amazing stories of perseverance through being apart and long work hours, distance, etc. I am always amazed and appreciative of the sacrifice.
We had a lot of fun with the session and made sure to mix in some details that are personal to them…for example, the fact that they love candy

Claude is a smart guy. He knew that although he and Veronique were having an intimate family wedding at the County building, it would still be good to have some great images of the event! It was a great experience working with a couple from another country (both are from France) and it was fun to hear French all day. We started at the county Admin building and then headed to the water for some photos -then, for dinner, the whole bunch went to Mr.A’s for a delicious experience and beautiful view of San Diego

I don’t know how I have gone so long without blogging about Angie and Nick’s engagement party photos. Their party was at an estate in Escondido and it was furnished by Archive Vintage Rentals.
Look at all the cool decoration details. I really liked how everything come together.

It was a great party with good food and music. They had a mariachi come and play and did a great job getting the girls up and dancing.

Towards the end of the party I took Angie and Nick to the back of the estate and we did some photos of them alone. A fun mini engagement session.