TriCoast Photography: August 2007

Well we had a great time shooting the owner of TexasPhotoForum wedding the other day, while a LONG day on hand we had plenty of photographers to help us out throughout the day. Simply a great event full of fun, love and well camera, and boy do I mean cameras!

The Wedding Day

I think the final tally on the photographs taken is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,500 images. WOW! That's what you get when 99% of the friends of the Bride and groom are fellow photographers! Just think that half of the photographers that attended didn't even bring their equipment to shoot!

The Overall shot inside the church

The Rings

Bride and Father walking down the isle

The Bride and Groom

The girls at the reception

San Fran - Day 1

After a very long day shooting the wedding (around 20 hours) I got up early, packed up and headed to the airport. The flight to San Fran wasn’t bad at all but man waiting in line for a rental car was crazy. It took close to 45 minutes just to get waited on. Anyways back to San Fran, it’s amazing… so far everything we have seen has left us in awe.
Today the bride and groom and I just relaxed a little and drove around town a bit to kind of get a lay of the land prior to shooting some more bridals tomorrow. We did head down to the Fisherman’s Wharf area and man was it chilly. There were street vendors selling sweatshirts… HELLO… selling sweatshirts in AUGUST! Crazy I know but you definitely need one here.

Had to locate a place to get our Sushi fix… This place was pretty small but very good indeed!

We made a quick stop by the Rotunda at The Palace of Fine Arts and man this structure is so much bigger than I had imagined. From all of the photos I had seen I knew it was big but I had no clue it was THIS big! That’s me and the bride in the center…

Here’s an impromptu shot that I took of the bride and groom while we enjoyed the sunset behind the Golden Gate Bridge. The experience was spectacular… I had always seen the bridge on TV and such but to be there was much better than we had imagined.

Day 2 In San Fran - Amazing day - long but wow the sessions were fun!

Man oh man was today a looong day! We slept in a little to get rested up from the wedding and from traveling on Sunday. We woke up and went to a small diner across from our hotel for a little late breakfast

me and a cup of coffee in the morning - hard to wake up - ummmmmmmm coffee!!!!!

After breakfast we headed over to Lomard St which happens to be the home of the nation’s crookedest (most winding) road. Driving down this section of road was a blast since I had seen it many times in movies and magazines and today was our day to experience the short drive down it!
There were so many different people at the base of the street taking pictures and just being tourists like ourselves that we decided to have them all pose for a photo! Many of the bystanders were happy to jump on in but some ran away as if they were in the witness protection program hehee… oh well we didn’t need them anyway.

Made a trip back to The Palace of Fine Arts…

Fisherman’s Wharf was our next stop… we all had a craving for some fresh crab so we settled on a small restaraunt and grabbed a table out on the patio so that we could take in all of the natural surroundings. The Fisherman’s Wharf is definitely a major tourist attraction, there were a ton of people there. I had some friends recommend not staying in the F.W. area and I am glad I took their advice, it would have been a nightmare.
Headed over to Pier 39 for a bit to visit with the Sea Lions.

We ended our day at Baker Beach in order to photograph the bride at sunset with the Golden Gate Bridge placed nicely behind her. Since we got there a bit early we shot a bunch up on the hillside which was made up of a ton of cool little trees. (more pics coming soon)
We ended up spending at least an hour there shooting and then once it came time to sunset we made our way over to the rocks. I must admit the bride was a true trooper, the temperature was about 60 degrees with a large amount of cold wind coming in off the bay. I had a sweater on and I was cold and here she was sticking it out while only wearing her black gown.

Runing my $150 shoes I got the shot I wanted and that is all that matters! The sun was setting so fast and it was so cold… so ended up getting in the ocean up to his knees in order to get the right angle for the shot! The bride was a amazing and never complained, (it is so nice when they love art also) I know she was cold but she did what she could in order for us to get the shot!

While we were at Baker Beach we met a photog named Vlad from Oregon, we got to talking shop etc and we invited him along for our session. We all had a great time even though he did shoot Nikon :)

Day 3 - Redwood Forest BABY!!
We spent an amazing 12 hours or so yesterday out shooting and visiting the local scenic spots. Today we woke up a bit early to catch the sunrise 5:00am to be specific. This gave us about an hour to get to the general area we wanted and then scope it out. The plan was to maybe get something around the Golden Gate Bridge but the fog was extremely heavy so it kinda nixed our plans.

One good thing about the location we had chosen was the fact that it was also the location of one of the old armories guarding the Golden Gate Bridge. The armory had many cool edgy backdrops which allowed us to take some more shots of bride in her dress.

Yesterday we shot the bride in mainly the black wedding dress and today we focused in on the white dress.
After the armory we headed up to Muir Woods which is home of a batch of Redwoods. This was the most strenuous portion of the entire trip. All 3 of us Hiked about 5 miles total and we had muscles aching that we didn’t know we had. I was packed down with a large photo backpack and was wearing flip flops since my shoes got soaked in the session the night before at the bridge. The bride wore jeans under her white wedding gown to keep her warm and she made the entire hike while wearing the gown and high heel boots since we somehow forgot to pack her some tennis shoes. It was crazy… but oh so much fun!

We definitely found some very cool photo spots and all in all I think we all felt that the long hike was well worth it since we captured some amazing photographs. After heading out of Muir Woods we drove straight home and crashed for several hours and it was barely about 1pm to boot. Somehow we managed to cram a full day’s photo session worth of work into about 6 hours.

The rest of the evening was very mellow…we went out to dinner and neither one of us wanted to lug a camera around since we spent a grueling 5 hours or so doing just that on the “Evil Trail of Death” in Muir Woods. Okay so maybe that wasn’t the official name given to the trail we were on but it is very fitting! hehee.
The next morning I headed back to Houston while the bride and groom started their journey northward towards Seattle to catch a crusie for Alaska.

THANK YOU both for an amazing trip and time and moments - truly your love for art is wonderful and allowing me to share it with you is something I will always remember!

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Well I am WAY BEHIND on posting here in our blog, between the speaking engagements and the overseas trips and weddings I am just now getting able to play catch up. So with that said I am going to backtrack a little to the PPA guild meetings in LA and then go from there. Hope you all don't mind, but the stories and the people and the events were simple too amazing to not talk about. Special thanks to Jordan, TriCoast's good friend for coming along for the ride, capturing these amazing images and pretty much writing the experience you are about to read!

We left on Sunday and met up with some members of www.Pro4Um.com. Even though I'm not a member, I was treated very well. Our host, Shanon LeBlanc of Studio S Photography, introduced Jordan, my buddy along for the trip and main writer of this blog entry, to boudin balls. Instant favorite! After that, we finished the day up in New Orleans with a bottle of Skyy Vodka and some Cranberry juice.

The next day, Rick from CowboyUp Photography picked us up and drove us out for lunch. I don't remember the name of the restaurant but it's located next to Lake Pontchartrain, several blocks away from the 17th st Canal. After lunch, we took a short tour through the devestation site. Even though it's been almost 2 years, the area still show signs of the flood damage. we werre both so entranced by the scene, the camera never left my bag.

After a the trip, we stopped back by the motel so we could get the presentation updated. While Mike, was doing that, Jordan wandered around the La Quinta looking for something to shoot.

The night before, we noticed the Quality Hotel across the lot where our motel was located. It was dark, creepy, and all the windows seemed to be boarded up. I thought it was abandoned but the parking lot was full.

Close up of the logo.

The abandoned Denny's next to the motel.

Later that day, George Kuchler of GK Photography, took us back out for a more in depth tour.

Bridge under I-10 going into the 17th st canal area.

Mike looking into the canal.

Rebuilding process.

The homes bordering the canal.

After the canal, we drove into the downtown area towards the French Quarter.

After the quick tour, we rushed Mike back to the guild meeting since he was the guest speaker. After the speaking engagement, Mike was kind enough to sign some autographs. Mastering Digital Wedding Photography, an indepth book containing images from TriCoast, Mark Rideout and some others. In case you were wondering, the shirt does have pearl snaps...

After the autograph session, we headed out to some local bars for food and beer. If you get the opportunity, check out Abitha beer. Quite a tasty local beer from Abitha Springs Lousiana.

The next stop took us out to Baton Rouge. When we got to Baton Rouge, Mike realized he had left some shirts back in NO. Since we werent sure if could make it back in time, I drove back to pick them up, which was no big deal at all. On the way back, however, I had to race the storm coming in.

The PPA Guild there met at Drusilla Seafood.

Mike previewing a slideshow of images entered into the print competition. There were overe 20 submissions ranging from flowers to weddings. Shanon LeBlanc, bottom right, also made the trip up to Baton Rouge for the speaking engagement.

After a good time and some drinks with Shannon and her boyfriend we headed back to the hotel. The safety and security of hotel is top notch as you could see...

Last leg of the tour is in LaFayette. The guys there took us on a tour through downtown and lunch at T-Coons. Later in the evening, we headed for the the meeting held in a restaurant called Zea Restaurants.

Presentation.

This is the story about the Nutria rat that jumped stole the bread pudding.

Mark Eric from Trash the Dress

Another story about flowers and such.

We didnt get place to stay since we had planned to head home after the meeting. A couple members of the guild however, insisted on have a couple of beers and a good time. Colin, another member from Pro4Um, took us into his home so we didnt have to drive home that night. Next morning, he took us out to Rayne, Louisiana to check out the new studio he's building.