It’s been a long time since I’ve done a shoot at Mission San Jan Capistrano so I was excited to shoot Ally and Jeff’s engagement session there. We were hoping for a bright, sunny day but got a super gloomy one instead. But as always, there something special to find in the unexpected. We had so much fun and I am loving how moody and romantic these turned out!
Last August we spent a wonderful day in Santa Ynez, Los Olivos and Solvang areas photographing Candy and Joey’s engagement session. They are a fun loving couple that enjoys wine. So we drank wine, shot at wineries, drank wine, shot on sides of roads, drank wine, shot at sunset and drank wine. Did I mention we drank wine? Needless to say, fun was had by all. Maybe a little too much…
Thank you Candy + Joey for showing us such an epic time. So excited for the wedding in a couple weeks!
I live for roads like this.
We had such a fun time exploring Los Olivos. This was at Byron Winery.
This was my favorite place we found driving around at sunset.
As we got on at about 10pm (on a Wednesday) there were all sorts of characters to behold. A guy free style rapping like he’s alone, some shady people drunk and/or on drugs and a man with six fingers. Cool. 1,2,3,4,5…6. Definitely six. All I can think is, “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.”
The older drunk man sitting next to Josh offers him a drink. Josh says no thanks as the man downs half a medium bottle of rum (as if the man wasn’t drunk enough already. But hey, at least he’s not driving.) Then he asks Josh for a picture, which Josh interprets as a picture of Josh and Kristi, since it is their engagement shoot. No, this man wants a picture of himself with Kristi. So Josh, being a good sport, takes the man’s flip phone and snaps a shot of Kristi and this drunk stranger. The whole subway car bursts into hysterics as the man makes the image his screen saver. The rapper is laughing and says, “This never happens and I’m from Philly!” The girls behind us tell Kristi how nice that was while the man is making kissing faces at his new screensaver. Everyone is laughing at this strange scene.
All of the sudden, somehow the rapper’s friend now wants a photo with me? Sure, why not. This is the subway car from the Twilight Zone and I have nothing to lose. The rapper who calls himself “best writer in the world” calls me “red shaped heart” because my hair is red and my pants have hearts on them, naturally.
We’re all best friends by now and Josh asks where we’re going and they tell us we’re heading to Long Beach, which is the wrong way. Everyone is hysterical laughing at us again. So we get off at the next stop, which is Florence and I wonder if anyone will try to rob and/or kidnap me as we wait for Uber. It also happened to be the drunk man’s stop and he staggers over to us and tries to tell us in broken English to be careful. Uber finally gets there and we almost hit the drunk guy as he is staggering around middle of the street.
LA gave us quite an excitement filled day for Kristi + Josh’s engagement session. They told me about the LA subway (which I hadn’t heard of and not many people know about) and we decided that would be a perfect engagement shoot for them. We had no idea the crazy adventure we had in store for us that day!
The interesting story of how our night ended on the subway will be coming up soon…
Thank you Josh + Kristi for an amazing, unforgettable night!
We started at the subway station.
I’ve always wanted to do a shoot in the New York subway and I got my wish, just in LA. I couldn’t have asked for a more fun couple to shoot!
Our first stop was one of their spots, Seven Grand, a whiskey bar in downtown LA. It was closed (we were an hour early) so we shot outside.
Our next stop was the fun little diner called 25 Degrees connected to the Roosevelt. They gave Josh and Kristi free Champagne!
We walked around the corner to The Roosevelt Pool bar to get drinks.
As I was shooting, I was told I needed a permit (or something) so I snuck a few more shots before we left.
This picture was a total accident and I love how it turned out.
The light bouncing off the buildings and the motion of this sequence are what I live for.
Dancing the way to our next stop..
First we got yelled at by some man preaching, which was weird. But then a man played Johnny Cash and it made up for it.
They walked closer to tip him and enjoy.
Seven Grand was calling us back. Kristi and I enjoyed a “Gold Rush” (so amazing, I like Whiskey now) while Josh enjoyed his favorite Irish Whiskey Tullamore Dew.
We got in the fountains for about five minutes before we were kicked out. But not before I got some fun pictures.
