Charlotte was radiant and her groom dashing in velvet on New Year’s Eve for their wedding at San Francisco’s City Hall.  Both from Prague but living they decided to celebrate on the last day of the year.  City Hall was busy actually!  San Francisco’s City Hall really is the most stunning of places.  The architecture is just amazing and even if your wedding is 4 minutes long it’s definitely memorable.  Just a few snaps from the day and congrats to you Martin and Charlotte!

Chester stole the show this morning to be sure.  I love photographing pets of any kind.   This lively pup was hard to follow so what to do?  Three things:

• Let him do his thing of course!  It was us following Chester’s lead to be sure.  But this keeps him happy and gives great opportunity
• Treats!  Crucial for the obvious reasons!
• Work fast!  The attention span of most pets is pretty limited.  You can tire them out for a more portrait shot after getting the action shots when they are excited and playing.

What a beautiful country.  I always love traveling just at the beginning of the winter season.  The light is ten times more dramatic, far less tourists to contend with and the mood is always kind of more festive with the oncoming of the December holidays.  Last year I walked the streets of Auschwitz almost alone, saw the festivities of the holidays in town squares like Berlin and Vienna and Warsaw. It’s just more amazing than the blue sky and green grass of summer in my opinion.  So this year was a great follow up.  The skies poured on us often but left such amazing scenes to photograph.  You just don’t get that in summer.  So please enjoy my somewhat touristy photos and more artistic visions that happened during my time in Ireland.

This is absolutely my favorite time of year and especially in New York City.  The crisp air, colors and light is just the best.  Here are a bunch of photos I took on my average 6 mile per day walk.  It’s the best way to see the City by far.  I used the Canon Mark II for this to test as I’d just gotten it which was fun but I sure missed my film camera!!!  Remember when you travel always keep your camera with you!  You just never know what you may see.

Michelle and Sam certainly brought their New York flair, humor and love to our part of the world and it was fantastic!  The reception was at the Mark Hopkins atop Nob Hill and the ceremony at St Peter and Paul.

Tram and Howie had the most amazing day at War Memorial Green Room.  It started in the most traditional Korean way with honoring the bride’s family with an amazing array of foods and gifts.  Then it was off to War Memorial.  Eric Yee of Spintronix and Geri did the most amazing job with design.   There were special gobo’s to celebrate Howie and Tram and Eric set up hot pink lights on the columns for the most amazing affect.  It was truly beautiful and Tram and Howie are just the best.

Victoria and Kent did an amazing job planning most of their wedding themselves. Christygale at Mark Hopkins was wonderful and they had great vendors like Jonathon Metcalf for video, Kate’s Blossoms and Hoogasian for flowers and music by Dennon & Doyle.

This was one fun day.  A coming together of two families to celebrate birthdays, life and love.  We spent a few hours together and of course did some family portraits but this was most about the love and celebration of life.  Events in every day are really important to document.    You can see some of the results here and how in a few years they will be moments treasured.

This was no ordinary wedding.  It happened on a Tuesday, the bride wore midnight blue, there was a Top Chef cook off and the wedding gift was a puppy name Kita.  It was fabulous!  The location was Terra Gallery.

Went with a friend last night and it was just a good time.  I was expecting Chris Cornell and got Ozzy but I have to say oddly he is quite the adorable rocker.  The fire hose of soap suds made me laugh the hardest I have in probably 5 years!  But a great time to be sure.  Great crowd and only wish I’d taken more pics of the spectators. Some of the best experiences in life are those most unexpected.