Taking Back Sunday (w/Weezer and Blink 182)

With all the wedding posts lately, you may have forgotten that I shoot for a lot of musical acts as well. Mostly around the Bay Area, with some occasional trips down to Hollywood.

A good friend of mine plays guitar for the band Taking Back Sunday. He got me in to shoot at Live105's BFD event earlier this year. Other members of TBS were impressed enough with my work, they I was given photo passes to shoot this past Saturday and Sunday in Sacramento and Mountain View, respectively.

It was a blast! ...a lot of fun to see Isaac rocking his heart out at Sleep Train Amplitheatre... after which I drove him home to the Bay Area, and then we all met up again at Shoreline Amplitheatre the following evening. Weezer put on an excellent show as well, and Blink 182 certainly was entertaining.

Sunday night's show was drenched in rain, which only added to the fun (except for making sure my equipment stayed dry). There was a lot of security that night too, so I had to jump through a lot of hoops to make it down to the stage with my gear. But all worked out just fine :)

Matt Rubano performs with Taking Back Sunday in Mountain View, CA

Adam Lazzara performs at Shoreline Amplitheater 

Matt Fazzi and Isaac Bolivar perform with Taking Back Sunday

Isaac Bolivar performs at Shoreline Amplitheater with Taking Back Sunday

Isaac Bolivar and Adam Lazzara perform with Taking Back Sunday

This wedding is on FIRE!

The title is only half-joking.

I'll explain: My brother is a videographer in Los Angeles. We did a wedding together on August 29th (first time working together on one) for John and Becky. It was beautifully set in the hills north of LA, and everything was ready to go.

Then, if you happened to see the news, a wildfire spread through the hills, covering 100,000 acres by the day of the wedding. Ash was raining on my brother's car, and we had to keep the air on "recycle" because the atmosphere got too smoky.

It's 1:30pm... out having lunch... need to be on site by 4:30. We get a call saying "wedding may be canceled, stand-by".

Long story short: the couple was able to evacuate the wedding site, find a new location, set up tables, sound, decorations, food, and get the word out to 110 guests... all in about 3 hours. Everyone showed up on time, and everything was ready to go at a gorgeous ranch tucked in the hills.

The bride and groom were calm, and all smiles and laughter throughout the whole day. I was extremely impressed. Congratulations John & Becky!

KKIQ Wedding

Mikey & Jodi were my contest-winner couple from KKIQ's "My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding" contest. Probably the shortest ceremony I've ever seen (4 minutes, maybe), after which we went around town to get some shots in, and stopped at a Starbucks before heading back to the reception (they met at a Starbucks).

The rest of the night was filled with dinner, dancing, LEGOs, and more dancing. My job was done around 10pm or so, but I was dragged from the bar by the bride and groom to come dance until about midnight. I just decided to crash at the Marriott rather than drive home. Super fun evening!

Northern California Winery Wedding!

So I shoot for a Bay Area band called Pine & Battery, who you may have heard on KFOG radio if you live around here, and I was hired to shoot AJ's wedding on August 9th. A 3 hour drive up to Ukiah, out in the middle of nowhere, with rolling hills and vineyards everywhere. It proved to be a hot hot day, but an extremely fun event nonetheless!

Wedding: Kensington Hotel, Elk's Lodge, and Old St. Mary's Cathedral

On July 11th, I had the honor of shooting Matt & Maria's wedding at the Kensington Hotel in downtown San Francisco. The ceremony was held at the Old St. Mary's Cathedral, followed by a limousine ride around the city and then a reception at the Elk's Lodge inside the Kensington. They are a wonderful couple... very happy to be with each other, great family, and they treated me like a king (dinner, bar, dancing, conversation, and a room on the 6th floor so I didn't have to drive home).

The entire event was so much fun, and was definitely one fo those moments where I think "wow, this is my job."

Editing is not finished yet, but I wanted to share couple of my favorites so far.

Bride at the Kensington Hotel

Bride exits limousine at the Old St. Mary's Cathedral

Groom and best man at the Elk's Lodge, San Francisco

Groom nervously waiting to be married. Old St. Mary's Cathedral.

Fashion, Fashion!

Hey y'all.

Happy 4th of July! ...a day late, I know. Been busy!

As we all know by now, I've always focused on weddings and live events with my photography. I do head-shots (and the like) on occasion, but have not really had a ton of experience in that area... especially not much with modeling.

Well on Friday, I headed to San Jose to shoot in a studio with a model. The purpose was to showcase some wedding gown accessories for my partner's clients.

After fiddling with the ridiculous amount of lighting options available, getting hair and makeup done (for her, not me) and tossing on some trance Depeche Mode remixes, I am proud to show off a couple images from that session!

RIP to Everyone, it seems.

Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson... even Billy Mays, the infomercial guy that we all love...

What is the deal with this week???

Say what you will about MJ's personal life, he wrote and performed some awesome awesome music. He will be sorely missed in the pop world.