Monday morning when Drew mentioned going to Balboa Island, I had to laugh.  The only time I had ever previously heard the word balboa is when my son asks for strawberries.  He can’t say strawberry yet, so he just says balboa in his really cute voice.  :) 

Here I am having brunch at Wilma’s Patio on Balboa Island.  Thanks, Drew, for the fun shots!

After taking in the shops and scenery of the gorgeous and exclusive Balboa Island, Drew took me over to Crystal Cove.  What a cool and laid back place!  I can’t wait to vacation with Katie and Carson there in the future.  I’ll butcher the whole story if I try to tell it, so please click HERE and HERE for more info about the cove’s history.  Pretty much what you need to know is this, though:  It’s like stepping back in time to the 1920’s when the cottages were first built there against the bluffs.  Half of the structures have not been fully restored, but the state has renovated the other half and makes them available for rental to anybody.  The prices are really reasonable, but the competition is stiff.  Online reservations are accepted on the 1st day of each month for the month 7 months ahead.  Apparently though, the entire month ends up booking up within minutes.  Gotta be quick!  Go-go-gadget typing fingers!

One of my favorite shots.  I ordered a print for my house.  Can’t wait!

Below is another cool shot.  I love how the light is skimming off the water and grasses toward the camera.  I meant to shoot with a smaller aperture to render more of the background in focus, but I’m kind of glad now that I didn’t.  The focus point is on the grasses in the middle, and I really like how the foreground’s mottled bokeh almost brings out an impressionist-kind-of-quality to the shot.

Not alot of foot traffic at Crystal Cove, which I love.

Here’s one of the areas off-limits until the structures are restored:

Even the birds are laid back. 

After having taken in Balboa Island and Crystal Cove, Drew took me back to Laguna where we chilled and rested up for dinner at Mosun, which is a sushi bar and night club.  There was a great dj right next to our table that took some fun old-school requests.  It’s hard to beat a combination of sushi, warm saki, Journey and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch  (you know you liked the song Sweet Vibrations, admit it).  Best of all was the great conversation and laughs I had with Drew and his friend Amelia, who is an account manager for the Boston Beer Company.  Can you say cool job ?  Speaking of cool jobs, Drew works for Young & Rubicam and will soon be releasing a crazy cool Land Rover commercial that he spearheaded.  Wow.

Anyhow, thanks for stopping by, and here’s a big shout-out to Drew Lewis who totally made my trip rad (his word, not mine). 

Funny story…I didn’t realize until flying out of LEX that my driver’s license had expired the week before.  No big deal, though, with regard to flying.  I was just checked out a bit more thoroughly on my way through security.  The big problem, however, was that I was unable to rent a car once I arrived in LA.  Luckily, the Westin hooked me up with a company that I could rely on to drive me around.  Here’s a self-portrait of me being driven to Jule’s house for my mentoring session.  In my line of work, I am ALWAYS driving.  This was a real treat for me to kick back and enjoy being a passenger.  See the thumbs-up?

I really enjoyed my Tea for Two mentoring session with Jules.  Even before our session began, I felt like I’d already acquired a ton of great info just through shooting with her the day before.  For you photography junkies, here’s a quick summary of things I picked up be being around Jules at the wedding:

1)  I need a 70-200.  Of course I’ve always known about the lens, but I had always believed that I had that range covered by using my 85/1.8 and 180/2.8 (I’m a freak for prime lenses, you know).  I realized that because of the necessary lens swapping, I’m not reaching for the 180 much.  I simply keep the 85 on and zoom with my feet.  There’s nothing necessarily wrong with going about it that way, but I’m missing out on some really cool compression that only the long end of the 70-200 provides.

2)  The 100mm macro isn’t just awesome for macro work (rings, etc.), but it’s also a champ for formals.  Edge to edge razor sharpness makes it tough to beat, and the perspective at 100mm is a really pleasing and flattering one.

3)  Using an off-camera strobe at receptions is such a cool way to create depth and drama with lighting.  Back home, I had already been experimenting with off-camera lighting using my two speedlites and Nikon’s incredible CLS system, but with Jules I finally got to try out the strobe/PocketWizard combo.  I love the look, and I’m really looking forward to incorporating it into my own flow.

4) Get high.  Get low.  Get crazy with angles to get perspectives that Uncle Bob isn’t already getting from the pew or reception table.

Okay…so back to the mentoring session.  What did we talk about?  I’m such a systems-driven person, I was just dying to learn from Jules how she structures her workflow.  We discussed everything from scheduling clients, to putting together slideshows, to editing down her images, to designing awesome albums, to backing up all of her data.  Jules thinks and teaches really quickly, so I felt like I got 4 hours of info in just 2 hours.  That’s perfect for me, though.  I was a bit of a class clown in school because I was bored to tears with the pace of the work.  It was awesome having someone challenging me!  Thanks, Jules! 

Here’s a shot of me, Olive, and Jules right before the driver picked me up.  What a blast!

From Jules’ house, I headed down to John Wayne Airport in Orange County where my uber-talented buddy Drew Lewispicked me up and took me to his home in Laguna Beach.  What a host.  My trip was only awesome because Drew took the time to make it such.  Thanks, Drew!  Here we are walking down toward the beach.  That’s me on the left…

Here we are at a restaurant on the main strip in town.  That’s me hiding behind the chips and margarita.

This is a cool trick that Jules taught me.  I put Drew in the very center of the frame, set the shutter to 1/50th, and fired off several frames per second while rotating the camera.  This was the best one of the series.  Pretty cool, eh?

I love these next two shots.  If, by chance, you’re a beach-lovin’ kind of person and would like one of these last two images printed in a large format for your home, please contact me by email directly, and we can work out an arrangement.

Whew!  This was a long post.  Thanks for hanging in there!  I hope you’re enjoying hearing about my trip.  Tomorrow, I’ll be posting details from days 4 and 5.  See you soon, and please feel free to leave a comment if you have a second.  Take care!   -SR

Saturday morning brought with it a ton of excitement about shooting with Jules, but I also couldn’t help feeling just a bit nervous.  I’m pretty confident in my shooting, but still—it’s Jules Bianchi.  I reeeally didn’t want to suck. 

Once at the incredible Fairmont Miramar Hotel next to the Santa Monica Pier, I got to meet up with Shannon Lott, who was in the second shooter position for the day.  Shannon was awesome, AND she’s a fellow Nikonian like me.  After arriving and greeting me with a big smile and hug, Jules led the way to the super-cool bungalow where the bridal party was getting ready.  The rest of the day was a blur.  We knocked out the getting ready shots, the formals, then drove over to the breath-taking St. Monica Catholic Church for the ceremony and some outdoor shots.  The reception was back at the Mirimar, where the venue was stunning, the food was yummy, and the band played their cans off.

There’s no way I can possibly convey through words how great the day was.  You really need to see the images that we captured.  Please check out Jules’ slideshow by clicking HERE.  Jules also posted some great comments about the shoot on her blog, including a much appreciated shout-out to me (THANKS, Jules!).  To see that post, please click HERE.

Tomorrow I’ll be blogging about my Sunday Tea for Two mentoring session with Jules.   I learned a ton, so please check out my post tomorrow.  In addition to talking about what I took away from the shooting and mentoring session, there’s a great pic of me, Jules, and her adorable dog Olive that I’m going to post.  Thanks for stopping by, and take care!  -SR

2 weeks later, I’m finally caught up enough to be able to write about my trip to Los Angeles.  There’s so much to tell, I’m going to break it up across a few seperate posts.  Please keep checking back!

My main reason for heading out to the west coast was to meet and shoot a wedding with the incredible Jules Bianchi.  More on that later, of course.  Here’s a self-portrait I shot on day 1 in the Cincinnati airport on my way to catch the flight into LAX.  Notice how the wide-angle lens adds to this already-goofy shot.  Oh so flattering!

Once aboard, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the new Counting Crows album was one of the in-flight selections.  What could be better than flying to LA and listening to the Counting Crows?

Okay…so maybe there is something that could make the flight even better.  Yummmmmmm.

Ignore the crazy downward angle.  The pilot did a wonderful job.  I just liked shooting the diagonal for this one.

Here’s the LAX Westin.  I got a killer deal on Priceline.  Yay!

Not much else to report from Day 1.  Had a great flight, but I was sooooo glad to be on the ground.  The remainder of my day was spent preparing my gear for the shoot, checking in with the fam back home, and getting my travel plans worked out for the wedding.

Definitely check back here on the blog tomorrow.  I’ll be posting some cool stuff from the wedding I shot with Jules in Santa Monica.  Thanks for stopping by.  See you tomorrow!   :)  -SR