Being a San Francisco Bay Area Wedding Photographer

We all gotta eat. California is an expensive state. Wedding sites like The Knot cost money to advertise, rent costs money... hell, even just driving over that Bay Bridge into San Francisco costs $6 if you go at the wrong times (I'm based in Walnut Creek, so I use that stupid bridge a lot).

That being said, it's all easier to deal with when you love what you do. Being a wedding photographer is not all fun and games, but I try to make it very close to that. The brides and grooms that I work with tend to pick me because of things we share in common (personality, sense of humor, music tastes, etc). 

There's like, 1.2 billion wedding photographers in the Bay Area... give or take a few... so I am grateful that many couples find me and see the difference in how I work and what I do to make their day more enjoyable.

Thank you to all the wonderful couples I've been able to work with, and to those of you still shopping around: Hi! I'm Clay. I run Lancaster Photography. Have a look :)

Walnut Creek Engagement Photos!

Just arrived back in the Bay Area from a few days in Seattle. Wanted a few days in a different city to just kick around. Have you ever seen that show "Ghost Adventures" on the Travel Channel? They did an episode at the haunted Kell's Irish Pub... and you can bet we had a few drinks there.

But now I'm back at the daily "grind"... which means editing through engagement photos of Brooke and Chris that I snapped just before skipping town. I say "grind" because I of course love what I do, and it's always fun for me.

Here are a couple of my favorites!

Brooke and Chris engagement photos in Walnut Creek, CA

Brooke and Chris engagement photos in Walnut Creek, CA

Chris Cornell - San Francisco, CA

Thanks to some swift-moving folks, I ended up with a couple of tickets and media passes to shoot a sold-out Chris Cornell show at the Fillmore in San Francisco on Tuesday night (May 3rd).

With Soundgarden announcing their first tour in 13 years yesterday, it was no wonder the Fillmore was packed to the brim to see Mr. Cornell strum through his vast library of music-altering songs. I was surprised... a fair amount of the selections were from his solo records, but he threw in quite a handful of Soundgarden tunes, topped off with a couple from Audioslave and even the Beatles and Michael Jackson.

All in all, my teenage self was completely satisfied. But I'm dying for the full band to make it through.

The night was also a lot of fun for me socially, as I got to shoot alongside my good friends Jen & Mike Cash of Calibree Photography, with my buddy JC from theFIVE10.com on my left gathering material for a show review, and my pals Jeff Campbell and Andy Weller (of the San Francisco band Pine and Battery) performing an acoustic set upstairs in the Poster Room in between acts.

Enjoy a couple of shots from Tuesday night!

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at the Fillmore in San Francisco. May 3rd, 2011.

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at the Fillmore in San Francisco. May 3rd, 2011.

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at the Fillmore in San Francisco. May 3rd, 2011.

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs at the Fillmore in San Francisco. May 3rd, 2011.