1824 days ago, just outside of Tibet, I laid my eyes on something that would forever shift the course of my life.  Her name was Felicia and although it wasn’t exactly love at first sight (I believe she referred to me as a “crass American” to her friends online), after a few days trapped in a Land Rover with my charms, she changed her mind and it had truly began.  Over the course of the next couple months we traveled through Tibet, China and Mongolia together before a tearful parting at the Beijing airport where we never expected to see each other again. We lived 9000 miles apart and both of us had life plans other than falling in love.

Now, very close to 5 years later our entire lives have shifted, we live on the other side of the globe from Asia, own a company together and get to spend the better part of everyday together. Never in my life did I think I would find someone as astounding as Felicia – everyday she encourages, loves and challenges me. For that I thank her with all my mind.

So Happy Birthday babe! Here’s to another 28,116 days together!

I love you, always.

Happy Friday everyone!

As you may have noticed, I have been pretty quiet on the blogging front for the past week. It was a deliberate silence as I took time to unwind, finding joy and inspiration in other forms of photography.

Tomorrow is our first wedding of the year and from there out, we will be kept very busy between wedding photography and editing until November.  Needless to say, I think we deserved the last week we took off – just relaxing around Los Angeles, taking a photos for fun, visiting museums, doing yoga, hiking, and eating too much.  Here are a few images we captured this week and now it’s time to pack all our gear and get ready for Orlando and Paty‘s big day tomorrow!

Wedding season, here we come!

It seems like in a blink of an eye, we’re already in April, and for Felicia and I, that means we are on the cusp of wedding season, where we will plunge into week after week of non-stop shooting & editing. In the past couple of weeks, we’ve deliberately made some room in our schedule for much-needed social interactions, catching up with friends & family whom we would undoubtedly neglect come summer.

The previous weekend, while it was dreary gray and pouring in Los Angeles, we drove up to Santa Barbara to picnic with Felicia’s Singaporean friend Danielle and her wonderful French husband M who drove down from the Bay Area. I brought the Paetz hospitality and plied them endlessly with all manner of cheeses, cured meats and artisan breads.

A few days after, Felicia and I took my 78-year-old grandfather (my other grandpa, not Robert Senior) on a photography outing. He has always had a great interest in photography, going as far as building himself a darkroom in his house, and even shot a few weddings here and there. Ever since I bought my first Canon 5D (Mark I) back in 2005, Grandpa had spoke fondly of wanting a full frame camera and a 50mm f/1.4 lens. Well, we happened to recently retire one of our Mark I’s, so Grandpa is now the proud owner of a not-so-gently-used full frame camera and the lens of his choice.

It made me really happy when, a few days later, I received an enthusiastic email from Grandpa about how this was one of his most memorable days of the year, and he’s already looking forward to our next little photography adventure.

Grandpa also has a sweet panoramic film camera that shoots two-and-a-half frames of 35mm film, giving a 120 degree panorama. Since it needed manual metering, he shot while I metered. That’s teamwork.

Last weekend, Felicia again took up the challenge of the annual Free to Breathe “yogathon” of 108 Sun Salutations – each Sun Salute is a series of 12 poses, so that’s about 1,296 poses in about 2.5 hours – while I again, took up the challenge of walking around taking pictures while watching my wife suffer. What most people don’t realize is that my suffering comes afterward, because, 5 days later, she’s still whining and complaining about how “@&#!^# bad” she’s hurting everywhere.

I have to say though, I’m really proud of her for taking up this cause and help organize this despite her already-packed schedule. Thanks to everyone who donated!

Yoga-ing aside, we also took time last weekend to celebrate the 94th birthday of my grandfather – Robert Carl Paetz Sr. He is absolutely a dessert fiend and has a penchant for chocolate, so Felicia and I braved the 30-minute line at Porto’s Bakery here in Burbank, where the line went out the door, and got this Grand Marnier Chocolate Ganache Cake.

If you ever go to Porto’s for a cake, disregard the length of the line or the time you have to wait, and get this cake! It’s so ridiculously delicious that my grandfather’s wife, Ann, described it as “Almost pornographic for the way it feels in your mouth!”. Oh, the wonderful wisdom of old people!

The RCP was completely thrilled with having an entire chocolate cake to enjoy, and upon his first bite, he couldn’t help but unleash a happy tirade of “GOD DAMN! WHAT THE HELL!!! What is this?! This is SO GOOD! GOD DAMN!”, and proceeded to repeat this rant in between bites and going “Mmmmmmmm!!!!”

This is really quite a feat, considering the man had suffered a stroke a couple years ago and often has trouble expressing himself, much less enunciate his praise so clearly. That’s the magic of a Porto’s cake. Brides & grooms out there, you now understand why we wholeheartedly suggest them.

After being given about 4 hefty slices, we had to take grandpa’s plate away from him (Felicia was worried that we might kill him with a sugar overload), but he got all mad and just proceeded to attack the cake with his fork and/or finger instead. I think he ate one-third of that cake all by himself.

Oh. And periodically, he would look around quizzically and ask me, “Hmm. Did you bring a kid?”, then start badgering us about RCP-IV. Sigh.

(That’s not a wheelchair, it’s a bicycle. Ann rides down to Seal Beach sometimes.)

(In the last couple months, he has also given up on shaving. I actually think he wears the grizzled sea captain look quite well.)
Happy Birthday, RCP. Keep on keeping on. You making it to 100 bodes well for me.

Marie & Huong found us a few months ago through our listing at SoYoureEngayged, and when we met them on a Friday evening for their consultation, we hit it off immediately, talking about anything and everything under the sun. When we finally parted ways, I glanced at my watch while walking to our car, and I said to Felicia, “Shoot. I think my watch battery died yesterday.” The hands on my watch indicated 11 o’clock. We met up with Marie & Huong at 7pm.

Felicia checked her iPhone, and we realized, no my watch wasn’t broken: but we had been hanging out and talking to them for FOUR HOURS! Holy crap! We were thrilled to find clients who became instant friends, but also somewhat embarrassed for taking up their entire Friday night. Oops.

So last Sunday, though we cautiously tried not to take up Marie & Huong’s entire day, we still spent more than 5 hours with them for their shoot at UCLA (where they met) + dinner afterwards. The greatest perk of what we do is really the fact that we get to meet such awesome people and make new friends that we otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to meet! Thanks Marie & Huong for such being so awesome. Just as we were putting together this blog post, Felicia looked at me and said, “I REALLY like them!”.

There you go, a rare seal of approval from The Felicia Wong.

Congrats, Marie & Huong! Can’t wait to see you both again soon!

Madalyn just turned 10, yeah like an entire decade. I’m surprised too…

In our ongoing tradition of not giving gifts and instead taking our nieces on an adventure for their birthdays, Madalyn got out of school early and headed down to Santa Monica with us to check out one of the latest Cirque du Soleil shows, OVO.  We took her to a Cirque show a few years back and she absolutely loved it , so Felicia and I took our chances and brought her to another.  She was thrilled and after a few hours wandering 3rd St. Promenade, the pier, and eating burgers – we made it to the show.

Now, Madalyn is a little gymnast who for the last 2 years in a row has qualified for the national competitions in her age group, so when she turned to us in the lobby and asked how much we think the performers make we could see the little cogs in her head turning. We threw the questions through Google and came up with the answer being $24,000 – $100,000/year depending on the uniqueness of the performers skill set. We informed her that if she was interested in preforming, she should think about it as an option AFTER college (hey, I have to be a moderately good influence, right?)

Anyhow it was an absolutely awesome day with the little one and I realized I love this kid more than ever as she develops he own personality and quirks.

You got to love a kid who trusts you enough to stick their head in a canon – not to say I wouldn’t do the same, but my melon was a little too big. (I tried)

The obligatory use-the-trashcan-as-a-tripod shot. A little self timer and a complete lack of framing at least yielded us a group shot out front of Le Grand Chapiteau.  I foresee that Felicia will only be taller than Madalyn for another 2 years at most…

A few days after we took her to Cirque was her birthday party – which coincided with St. Patricks Day – and for the first time I broke my rule about not giving gifts. I spent a few days last month assembling all the pictures I have ever taken of Madalyn (literally thousands of them on both film and hard drives), and edited them down to about 50 pictures covering the first 10 years of her life. We then had a Leather Craftsmen album printed for her with her name emblazoned on the front, telling the story of her first decade.  Barring an catastrophe, it should be something that will last her until she’s an old lady screaming at kids on her lawn.

After she gave me a giant hug – at which point Felicia caught me looking my sappiest – she proceeded to carry her album all around the party and sit with everyone showing it off.  I was thrilled that she loved it, when I was designing the album I didn’t know if it would be important to her now or if I would have to wait a few decades before it was appreciated.

Keeping with the St Patrick’s Day theme, Felicia also baked her a ‘rainbow cake’. Six layers of various colors that had all the little ones amazed when Madalyn cut into it.

Happy 10th kid! Here’s to another 8 or 9 decades!

For the home stretch of our week on the road we headed over to San Francisco, or what some of the older Chinese call Jiu Jin Shan (Old Gold Mountain).  It’s called Jiu Jin Shan because it was given that name by the Chinese who arrived during the gold rush searching for their fortunes.  Random tidbits of info, I know.

Anyhow we spent two days/nights wandering the city by the bay, checked out the Marin Headlands then finished up the trip with a slow two day drive down Pacific Coast Highway, with dozens of stops along the way.

I think Felicia and I were skinnier in 2008. Damn photographic evidence….

While checking out the curvy section of Lombard Street, I noticed a couple of tourists who decided they needed a photo in front of the street, so much so that they decided to leave their small child chilling on the street corner.  Fortunately this little baby gave me a little wave while I took his/her picture.

After meandering the bottom of the hill, I drove Christina and Felicia up to the top and raced down the eight switchbacks screaming like a small child. This turned out to be so much fun for me that I rerouted us for the next two days so I could jet down this killer road.  I think Felicia got carsick by the look she gave me on the 4th trip down….

17 Mile Drive. Abso-freaking-lutely epic.  I had never done this particular stretch of coast, and they charge a $9.50 toll, but it was worth every penny and the detour.

Remember that scene from Up where Karl and Russell meet the talking Doug the talking dog who immediately yells “SQUIRREL!”?  

Well that’s how I started feeling when traveling around California with Felicia’s mother. For some reason Christina is absolutely fascinated by these little guys and anytime we came across one she would squeal “SQUIRREL!” then forceable push me in that direction and ask for a picture.  While editing I realized I had so many squirrel pictures it demanded it’s own post. Enjoy!

By Day Three of our California road trip, I’d put the chains on the car for Sequoia, taken them off to get back on the 99 to head to Yosemite, then had to put them back on to make our way into Yosemite Valley.  For any of you who have ever had to put chains on your car, you know it sucks – the second time putting them on outside of Yosemite was in 3 inches of ice and snow, which left my fingers fumbling like I had attached 2 lbs of Jimmy Dean sausages to the end of my knuckles.  Trying to attach the frozen chain connectors, with popsicle fingers, deep in the wheel well left me grumbling – but fortunately the skies were clearing and our day in Yosemite was starting to look less ominous.

By 10:30am when we rolled into the valley, all the snow clouds had left and gave us a near-perfect day to drive around the valley floor.  The roads around the valley were clear of snow and ice, but I’d be damn if I was going to take off the chains only to have to put them back on a few hours later to leave the valley.  We drove around slowly and bumpily – and no one complained, especially me.

Most the trails and roads were closed, but we did manage a hike to the base of Yosemite Falls, a visit to the Ahwahnee Hotel, and picnic with a view of the falls.   Christina was astounded by the majesty of the valley, but was exceptionally impressed that she didn’t have to plan any of the trip so far.  She kept repeating that she felt like a baby having Felicia and I take care of her, while all we really did was pack lunch and do the driving. Yet, I guess after spending most of your life looking after others, it’s great not to have to stress about those little things.

So Felicia’s mom is in town and we have to entertain… What to do? We figured a grand road trip across California was the only way to go, what we didn’t figure on was that we would start off during the only big storm of the winter.

We left Burbank early last Monday and by the time we hit the foothills outside of Sequoia I had to get out and put the chains on the car. Soon after we were hit by an epic blizzard and temperatures that dropped into the single digits (like 8 degrees Fahrenheit).  By the time we did a little snow hiking to look at some big trees, had a picnic at Lodgepole, and gained a few thousand feet in elevation, the snow was pounding down and we were frozen.  We had dinner in the empty Wuksachi Lodge (they had all of 27 guests for the night) by the fireplace and called it an early night.

The next morning we woke up to one of the most pristine winter days I have ever witnessed. The skies were blue, the sun was out, and everything was covered in snow and icicles – photographers heaven.  A gorgeous morning of legendary status – everything you could ask for when trying to impress your mother in law. We spent the first half a day running amok throughout the open sections of Sequoia National Park, then spent the afternoon driving north to visit Yosemite.

Christina (Felicia’s mom) Loves this picture of me because it makes me “…look like a spy from one of those old movies.”  Can’t complain with that critique, can I?