We had a great engagement session recently with Joanna and Michael. Michael lives nearby us, and they wanted to shoot in the ‘hood. We were happy to oblige! It’s always fun to shoot in a familiar area, as I’m always imagining photos as I walk around, and it’s great to be able to actualize them. They were a very fun, light-hearted couple and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them!

Photo geek note: This was our first shoot with the 5D MKIII’s and they performed quite well, the autofocus in particular is a major improvement. Can’t wait to do more with them under the more challenging conditions of a wedding, should open up some possibilities that weren’t available before.

I got threatened by an off duty police officer for this shot, who knew they frowned upon a guy laying down in the middle of the street to get a photo?   Totally worth it!

The paparazzi was out in full force!

Can’t wait for your wedding!

Cliff

Enjoy!

Cliff

A big thanks to all my clients for making it possible for me to do this for a living, and to my own wife Malarie for her never ending support. I’m a very grateful guy.

If you have 3:39 to spare please take a look!

2012 is already looking like a banner year with lots of excitement in store, I can’t wait to share them all with you all year long!

Cliff

It’s not really fair that these two get to look like this, have a great sense of style, and be brilliant.  They’re both doctors!  I was sick this day, so it was nice to have them there in case things went downhill.   I really love the light we found for these next few images.

Then we made some light of our own.  Um, can you say “SWAG!”?

Hakeem spotted the floats for the Chinese New Years Parade nearby, so we went to scope it out.  This was such a natural backdrop, and we made it just in time, as they started leaving right after.

A little F train action:

Love this one!

Thanks for spending this time with us, and we can’t wait for the wedding!

Cliff

I finally found the time to feature one of my favorite weddings of the year! A group of very warm, thoughtful, and down to earth people, some of the best vendors in the biz, and a new favorite venue make for very happy photographers.  I was lucky enough to have my friend Maurice along as a 2nd shooter, and he made some fabulous images, thanks dude!

I started with a very jubilant Caroline at the Fairmont SF  for her preparation.

Maurice teamed up with the guys, and the next 3 resulting images are his.

Maurice’s image:

Maurice’s image:

Chris first laying eyes on Caroline coming down the aisle.

Maurice’s image:

The Academy of Sciences is a crazy place to make portraits!  Could have shot there all day long.

Maurice’s image:

The days details:

Huge props to the whole wedding team for pulling the day together so flawlessly.  It’s such a pleasure to work with people who are true experts in their respective fields. Here’s the dream team:

Event Design/Planning: Jess Flood (HUGE thank you again for the referral!)

Venues: SF Cal Academy of Sciences, Old St Mary’s, Shakespeare Gardens

Catering: Taste Catering – Hayley Seed

Floral Design: Hunt Littlefield

Hair/Makeup: Meaganne Mccandess

Lighting: Got Light?

DJ: Sound in Motion

This is an unusual ring shot I must admit, but when there are Ape skulls around to be used, I simply can’t resist!  Don’t worry, they got a “normal” one too.

Maurice’s image.  Love this one!

Maurice’s image:

Thank you so much for trusting us with your day!

Cliff

Image by Ari:

Image by Ari:

Image by Ari:

One fun part of shooting along with a friend photographer is a little friendly competition.  We were kinda put on the spot to make an interesting portrait of the couple while they were sitting on the stage in a spare moment.  We both did just one setup, taking turns holding flash for each other.  Mine is up first:

Ari’s up next:

Who won?  Saira + Mohsin!

Happy accidents are great.  I love that is looks like Mohsin is conjuring up a cosmic blue orb in this one.

Image by Ari:

Thanks to Saira + Mohsin for having us along for the ride, it was a blast!

Cliff

4 days of shooting (we had another wedding this weekend as well) was too much for Malarie, as she works with me in addition to having her own demanding career, (love ya wifey!) so I was lucky enough to have a friend and a fabulously talented fellow photographer Ari join forces with me.  Thanks dude!

One of my favorites of the day:

Next 2 shots of Mohsin are Ari’s:

Only had a few minutes for portraits, and had to keep them hidden from the guests, but we made those minutes count!

The days details:

Venue: Hotel Sofitel

Planner: Avant Planners: Purvi Shah

Florals: Waterlily Pond: Natasha

Makeup: Farhana Baig

Cake: Studio Cake

Next 2 shots by Ari:

Another one of my favorites of the day.

The dancing was krazy!  I love the energy of Pakistani weddings!

They were spinning around like you used to do on rollerskates as a kid “cracking the whip” style.  I was shooting this at 16mm, so you can imagine how close to the action I was!  Glad to have lived to shoot another day.

Did I mention I loved shooting their dancing?  Such elation on their faces!  Another personal favorite.

This guy does a thing where he spins as fast as he can until he can barely stand and people have to hold him up.  I think it’s kind of his thing.  He did it all three nights, and everyone knew to clear out and make room!

Next shot by Ari:

Mohsin and Saira’s Mom:

Next shot by Ari.  Love the feel of this one, nice job dude.

Last 2 also by Ari:

Day 3 coming up next!

Cliff

We’ll start off with an image from Malarie:

Friends and family did some rehearsed performances for the couple before everyone joined in the dancing.

Then the party got started!

You know the dancing has gotten serious when you stumble upon this scene:

Stay tuned for day #2, the Shaadi!

Ok, let’s see if I remember how this blogging thing works!

Here is an elegant, yet lighthearted affair thrown by two of the sweetest people ever to find one another.  We started things off at The Palace Hotel for the getting ready.  The fabulous Giao Nguyen and her team took the lead on hair and makeup, and she’s quickly become one of my favorites.

We were lucky enough to have the chance to shoot in the restaurant with no one around.  I was pretty happy to be able to make some images with the most beautiful ceiling in the city as my backdrop.

Gwen Helbush of Where to Start Weddings even pulled some strings to get us access to the upper tier.  Definitely above and beyond Gwen, thanks!

We moved on the Asian Art Museum from there for a few more portraits before the ceremony.

This is Malarie’s shot of the little flower girl going into melt down mode when walking down the aisle. Kids.

The deets:

Florals: Nancy Liu Chin

Event Planning: Gwen Helbush

Makeup/Hair: Giao Nguyen

Dress: Melissa Sweet

Cake: CakeWork

Caterer: Global Gourmet Catering

Videography: iq Videography

I loved the restrained elegance mixed with the playfulness of the video game theme.

A spin on the father daughter dance was the father/daughter slideshow, which brought out some great emotion.

Thank you so much for having us!

Cliff