I heart Misti Layne. She is stellar; her photographs speak for themselves; they make you stop and think. Take a look at her website. My words would not adequately describe what I feel about her work.

She was the last of three photographers we interviewed, and as soon as we met her, we knew she was the one. Misti has a warm, fun, friendly, open personality that we connect with, and that at the end of the day we would have gorgeous pictures.

She offers professional, high touch client oriented service, including being responsive by e-mail and phone, taking both digital and film pictures (she has a Holga; major points!!), and of course doing both color and black and white pictures. If you like, and I do recommend this, she will select the pictures for your album with your input and edits, of course. I tried selecting pictures myself and it was challenging given the number of great pictures. Another plus is that in her 2010 packages she offers 3×5 prints (high quality) of every picture that she and her assistant takes.

Our wedding pictures are nothing short of stunning. Looking at my pictures is like reliving my wedding day over again. I cry and laugh looking at them, and am so amazed at what she was able to capture. She captured our wedding.

I could not get over how people who are normally not that photogenic looked just radiant. AND she got candids of our folks, which is pretty much a miracle because they can spot a camera from a mile away and immediately pose. My mom loves her, and she’s difficult to please. Our family and friends are raving about the pictures too.

Misti advertises herself as your photographer for life. I would hire her again for our next life event, if she’ll have us! And of course I recommended her to friends.

Hire her! You’ll be just as thrilled.

Thank you Nirmala and TS!  You gave me a lot to work with and you guys are just too cute!

I had a great time photographing Toni and Christian recently.  They are having their first baby and their excitement is palpable!  We shot simply in their flat in San Francisco and the natural light was fantastic.  The time will come soon and I’ll be putting up baby photos as well!  All the best!

This years event at Colgin was of course catered by Thomas Keller of French Laundry as usual and again an amazing menu! It’s always fun to watch him and the crew in the kitchen.  The entertainment started with the bartenders!  Don’t believe me, well take a look at them!  From Cirque USA, they really had people entertained including Ryan Seacrest.

I’ve been shooting with a Holga longer than I can really guess.  I recently heard that the latest thing is shooting with them at weddings.  Well, ok, not the latest thing in my book!  I took this image at the wedding of Tse-Sung and Nirmala at Holly Farms in Carmel.  Gorgeous!  It was my favorite shot of the day by far.  I hope you agree!  It’s simple, old school, has texture and depth.  Film is so underrated and I find it simply beautiful.

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Nirmala and Tse-Sung got married at Holly Farms in Carmel last month and it was just amazingly beautiful.  The DJ was Gregory Talbot of Uptempo Productions.  He really had the crowd moving.  The grounds are amazing, unique and fabulous.  The images are amazing and so is this couple.  I think you can see they have a ton of fun together!  All the best to you guys!  By the way, the black and white shots were taken with a Holga!

Brett and Jessica are the cutest couple!  There wedding is next week and here are some of the images from their engagement session.  It was a great time and the love and joy that they have is just amazing.  I’m looking forward to an amazing event at the Sir Francis Drake and florals by Laurel Winzler and music by DJ Jeremy.

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.