April 11th, 2012:
Fiona & Jeffry found us through a double recommendation: We photographed their friends Yenny & Anthony in 2010, as well as Michelle & Endy last year. We started off their shoot at UCLA, since both of them were students there, before braving rush hour traffic to make it to downtown LA for twilight.
Congrats Fiona & Jeffry! See you soon at your wedding in June!
April 9th, 2012:
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.
April 3rd, 2012:
Having met Jessica & Nathan at Jose & Hellen’s wedding, then shot a maternity session with them, Felicia and I were thrilled to finally be able to meet their little one – Noah Edward. We showed up to find a beautiful aviation-themed nursery, and thankfully, in between feeding and changing, Noah gave us about 45 good minutes for photos before he called it a day.
And…. his patience for cameras had run out.
Congrats Nathan & Jessica!
March 30th, 2012:
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.
March 26th, 2012:
We met Katie & Clay last year at Matt and Amber’s wedding, just a few weeks after Clay popped the question. We’ve been corresponding for a while now about their wedding photography, but when we finally met them again last week for engagement photos, their arrival was like a scene out of a movie: As Felicia and I stood in a dusty field in San Juan Capistrano, camera gear by our sides, they pulled up simultaneously and parked, one on each side of us. Katie in her sleek black BMW, while Clay rocked up in a very sweet 1971 GTO. They stepped out, hair blowing in the wind, and flashed their megawatt smiles as they whipped off their sunglasses.
Complete rockstars. These two are almost too cool for us. Almost. I’m pretty damn cool myself. So cool that I rock up in my VW Golf – hey, we get 35MPG but Clay’s GTO with 455 horsepower only gets 9. HA!
For all their awesomeness, Katie & Clay are incredibly down-to-earth and friendly. Felicia and I had a blast with these two, and we just kept hanging out until the restaurant staff had all the chairs inverted on the tables and were scrubbing the floors. It was a not-so-subtle sign that it was time to go, but indeed a sign of how much we enjoyed their company!
Doesn’t Felicia just rock the ring shots?
Meet Beaucepheus, their 1-year-old “puppy”. Though he’s sitting still in this picture, Beau went completely berserk at one point when he seemed to smell a squirrel/gopher/ground marmot in the dirt. While we were taking pictures, Clay had him tethered to a large log, but that didn’t stop this dog: Beau ended up dragging the log as he ran around. He would give any Icelandic sled dog a run for their money.
I can totally see how Beaucepheus could completely rip the shifter out of Clay’s other car last week, to the extent that he needed the car towed, and shifter replaced. Ouch. Thankfully, during our shoot, Beau was on his best behavior, so nobody (or property) got hurt.
We ended the night at Monarch Beach, where Katie & Clay were very close to freezing to death as I made them stand still in the water for 15-second exposures. Thankfully, Clay’s a professional photographer too, so he knew what I was going for. They were such great sports for braving the wind and waves on this particularly chilly SoCal day.
Congrats Katie & Clay, and thanks for a wonderful day. We can’t wait to shoot your rustic-themed wedding this October!
March 23rd, 2012:
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!
March 21st, 2012:
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!
March 14th, 2012:
Bright and early last Saturday, Felicia and I met with Kate & David at Griffith Observatory for their engagement shoot. We thought we were pretty smart for starting “early”, but we were surprised to find the parking lot almost completely full already at 8am on a Saturday morning, with scores of people heading off for the hiking trails. I guess Angelenos are a much more active bunch than I had ever imagined. We had our run of the place, but not without dodging camera-toting tourists, sightseers and occasional “f**king idiot” who threatened to photobomb the pictures. It was a wonderful morning, and we’re glad we got to share it with Kate & David. Well, plus the fact that I got to go have dim sum afterwards was a bonus!
Congrats again, Kate & David! Have fun with the wedding planning, and we look forward to your wedding in September!
March 13th, 2012:
The most recent loan from Canon Professional Services was the 400mm f/4 DO IS, definitely not a lens I would bring along to a wedding or engagement shoot – but it’s spectacular if you have the back seat of a car to store it in on a road trip and want to capture some wildlife. When we took this along on our recent road trip to Sequoia, Yosemite and the Pacific Coast Highway, that’s exactly what this giant piece of glass did – sat on the back seat of the car with a camera attached. Felicia and I could whip it out and snap away from the front seat of the car whenever we spotted wildlife on the roadside (usually using the door for support).
Once I started reviewing the images on the back of the camera I quickly realized that sharpness at f/4 this is awful and it really only starts getting better at f/5 or f/5.6. At f/4 there are horrible amounts of ghosting and an unreasonable amount of softness to the lens. Thus after the first few days with this beast that is where the aperture stayed – at f/5.6 (kind of sad to lose an entire stop, but I wasn’t happy with the pictures otherwise). To have a wasted f-stop on a $6000 lens is kind of a massive fail on Canons part. I loved the reach of this lens and if I decided to get heavy into nature or sports photography I would consider the 400mm range, but I would probably never own this model. It works great in daylight, but it’s failings show quickly as the sun starts to fade.
Still it’s fun to use a focal length that you’d otherwise never shoot with.
This is a pretty massive lens, weighing in at almost 4 and a half pounds, in order to get a steady shot you need to use a monopod/tripod or fence/elbow/wrist combo as Felicia did for the next few pictures. Also, the strap we ended up using was attached to the lens instead of the camera – I really didn’t feel like snapping the lens mount out of my camera.
In one line – great reach to shoot things far away, but an unacceptable level of sharpness at f/4. Not for me.
March 9th, 2012:
As you might be able to tell from the last few posts, Felicia and I are right smack in the middle of engagement photos season – It’s like pre-season for the upcoming summer packed full of weddings. This past Sunday we met Alex and Amy in Santa Barbara (one of Felicia’s favorite places on the planet) for their shoot. The weather was perfect and these two have great chemistry & comfort with each other, that they were super easygoing and fun in front of our cameras. Amy is a dancer with the Radio City Rockettes and used to being onstage, and Alex didn’t have any trouble keeping up with her posing skills. They both are wonderful to be around and made our afternoon of pictures taking extremely enjoyable.
When Alex showed up with his tandem bike in the back of his truck I was thrilled. But when he told me the story of how he originally bid for the bike online and had it shipped, disassembled, from New York, so he could ride it around alone I was totally impressed – it is so badass to ride a tandem bike alone! Eventually, when Alex got with Amy, he allowed her to ride with him, provided she doesn’t slack off with the pedaling.
Thanks again guys for the super fun day, and the post-shoot dinner & beer! We’ll see you soon at your wedding in May!
