My First Wedding Experience

Today, I’m headed to the LA Cathedral to shoot a wedding with Mellisa Koehler.  I’m pretty pumped to get a wedding under my belt and hang out with a photographer who’s been doing this professionally for a while.  I don’t exactly know what I’m getting myself into, but I’m excited.

Guess Who’s Coming Up Next…

Barents Family Portraits Finale

The rest of the session will be on my galleries site.

Thanks for calling us, Barents Family! We had a great time coming out to hang out with you.


A face only a mother could love.

Barents Family – Round 2

I didn’t get time to do a lot last night, but here’s a few more from our family session on the beach.

I think I asked them who chased whom back in the day. J. made this gesture which I’m interpreting to mean, He chased me like the coyote after the roadrunner. (meep-meep)

More of these love birds and the rest of the family tomorrow.

The Barents – Round 1

My wife and I were dating when I helped her move out to Southern California seven years ago. G. Barents was one of the first people I met from the RCS community. Jill and I were preparing her classroom and G. came in, sat down, and talked to us about the school and the church. Needless to say, we knew a lot more about the school and the church after our history lesson.

There’s something kind of awesome (in the true meaning of the word) about seeing these kids.  I just kept thinking about a young G. and J. beginning a family, and decades later here is what that family has grown into.  I was looking at a live family tree.

Even though they were goofing around, I really like this photo.  This is a strong family, illness or no illness.

L. put the guns away!  They’re covering up your sister-in-law.

I’m pretty sure that they were arguing about who Grandma and Grandpa liked best. L. just about brought out the guns again before everything quieted down.

There are more photos on the gallery site. Be sure to check it out. More on our time with this awesome family tomorrow.

Sneak Peak of the Barents Family

This week I’ll be posting photos of the Barents. Jill and I got to go out to Oceanside and hang out with the extended Barents family last weekend. It was awesome to see their whole family together having a great time. The Barents family is not short on a sense of humor. There were a lot of moments like this during the shoot.

Jacob’s 1 year – Finale

It was obvious that Jacob really enjoyed playing in the grass. It was difficult to get photos of him while trying to prevent him from mulching the lawn.

We were taking our last photos by the fountain at the Lincoln Shrine when Jacob started coughing. Alan quickly realized that he was choking on something, but he couldn’t see what he had in his mouth. And Jacob seemed reluctant to allow his dad to swish his finger around in his mouth at will.

Finally, Jacob let out a big series of sneezes and out came a long strand of grass… out his nose that is. I could tell that Alan was a tad horrified and disgusted. Patty, of course, thought the whole thing was hilarious.

Thanks, guys! Happy Birthday, Jacob!

Jacob at One Year – Part 2 of 3

I thought I might be able to finish processing Jacob’s photos tonight, but we just got too many good ones.  I’ll have to finish tomorrow.

“mmmm…. grass”

Jacob’s 1 Year – Round 1

We had a lot of fun in the park with Jacob.  All we needed to do was get him into a patch of grass and he was happy as a clam… a clam that likes to eat grass, that is.  There was a great grass moment during the shoot that I’ll have to save for the next post when I’ve got the pictures to prove it.

Patty and Alan are one of the couples in the Couples Without Kids bible study that started 4-5 years ago.  It’s been interesting to watch the lives of our couples parallel each others in many ways – teaching, switching jobs, getting dogs, and now having babies.  Patty and Alan are one of those couples that we constantly say to ourselves, “Man, we should really get together with them more often,” and then we go on with our busyness.  It was a pleasure and an honor to have the opportunity to photograph their first son at one year.  Thank you, guys!

Shanghai Came Through

My power cord arrived yesterday.  So I’ll be processing photos like a little energizer bunny for the forseeable future.

We had a great photoshoot with the In’t Houtes yesterday.  Eva was great.  Julie was great.  Nick… eh.