April 5th, 2013:
Last week we met with Justin & Diane at LACMA for their engagement shoot, enjoying a leisurely afternoon where, when we encountered some bamboo groves, Felicia declared herself “a panda with skillz”. My wife’s pretty strange.
Diane & Justin are both civil engineers, so Diane requested photos with these concrete blocks – an installation art piece, actually – very apt!
Diane was particularly excited about pictures with Levitated Mass, so with some patience, we finally managed to get a clean shot of just them and the big rock.
Thanks Diane & Justin for a fun Friday. We had a great time with you both, and can’t wait for your wedding!
April 3, 2013:
Blog post by Felicia:
Spring is surely in the air, as the cherry blossom trees around Balboa Park here in Los Angeles burst into life with their powder pink clusters of delicate flowers.
The brief beauty of cherry blossoms represent the transient nature of Life, and are a great reminder to seize the day, and live with no regrets. Cherry blossom viewing festivals - known as hanami - are immensely popular in Japan and I can certainly see why! They are such a gorgeous sight, and I’m glad that we had been closely watching the blooms in order to schedule N+S’s engagement shoot a couple of weeks ago. We had a wonderful time with the lovely couple, but sorry, due to their request for privacy, we can only share a few pictures.
Enjoy!
April 1st, 2013:
Blog post by Felicia:
Lindsay & Joe are New Yorkers who are getting married here in Los Angeles, so we were looking forward to finally meeting them in person. I got a sense from our initial phone consultation that they were a pretty fun couple, but their session really kicked things up a notch!
We started in San Juan Capistraño before heading down to blustery Monarch Beach, during which time I also got to practice un petite peu de français with Joe, whom I learned, is actually French, born & bred! Unfortunately for me, it’s been a good 6 years since my last French lesson, so it was pretty embarrassing to be frantically trying to recall whatever is left of my French proficiency (or lack thereof)! YIKES!
Thankfully I’m currently a lot better at taking pictures than speaking French, so I think I still have my job.
Felicitations, Joe & Lindsay!
March 29, 2013:
Blog post by Felicia:
Our Saturdays are usually hectic work days, but last weekend, we took time off to celebrate Robert Senior’s (aka The RCP) 95th birthday! Age is certainly catching up with him and he now looks somewhat like Bilbo Baggins at his eleventy-first birthday, but The RCP still displayed the sprightliness of his younger namesakes, enjoying a beer (“GOOD STUFF!”), eating an insane amount of chocolate ganache Grand Marnier cake (his favorite from last year) and SEVEN cups of ice cream.
The RCP was cognizant that it was his birthday, and, counting on his fingers, he said to me “5 more to go!”. I said to him, “You already made it 95 years, 5 more is easy right?”; to which he gave me a hearty “YEAH! Easy!”
I sure hope he gets to be a centenarian, because that’s also the goal of RCP2 and RCP3. This bodes well for them both.
We had spent 40 minutes at a nearby Ralphs getting these balloons because we had bought them for The RCP before when we visited, and he apparently enjoyed them so much he played with the balloons for an entire week after that until they were utterly deflated.
Sadly, a strong gust swiftly took the balloons while we ate lunch, and they ended up in a tree… Sorry, Grandpa…
Lots of stories to be told. At one point, I swore he yelled “Where are the Elves?!”
RCP2 and RCP1
All the RCPs!
March 28th, 2013:
In the midst of all the engagement sessions (wedding season “pre-game”, if you may), we shot Todd & Jane’s wedding in Newport Beach, at the Turnip Rose. It was the first wedding to kick off the year, a reminder to us that very soon, full wedding season will be upon us.
It felt awesome to be back in action, especially since Todd & Jane’s friends knew how to party and really rocked the reception. Certainly fitting, since the location, Celebrations by Turnip Rose, apparently used to be a club!
Congrats Todd & Jane!
March 27th, 2013:
Blog post by Felicia:
Last week we met up with Danielle & Mike for a shoot around downtown Los Angeles, where they showed up dressed to the nines in their wedding colors. Awesome!
Midway through the shoot, Mike and I started discussing in detail a certain National Geographic episode where a filmmaker tirelessly waited to document a rare Papua New Guinean Bird of Paradise performing its annual mating ritual. Later conversations also turned to the March of the Penguins as the sun set and poor Danielle was freezing, so I suggested that they “huddle like penguins”.
Some days, my nerdy weirdness becomes pretty evident and Rob has to gently remind me not to scare the clients. Thankfully, Danielle & Mike didn’t seem to mind, and we had a really fun, light-hearted shoot.
Thanks for such a great time, Mike & Danielle!
March 25th, 2013:
Blog post by Felicia
We had 5 shoots last week, one of which was M+M’s at Vasquez Rocks, the famed site of the Star Trek movies. We had first visited this location while sightseeing with friends last year, and certainly wanted to take a couple out here. Thankfully, M+M love the outdoors and immediately took the idea when we suggested it to them.
Due to an error on the park’s official website about opening hours, Rob & I arrived to find the parking lot locked, and a very apologetic park ranger. Thankfully M+M were great sports even though we had to make the half-a-mile walk through gravel and scrub to get to the rocks, and because the parking lot was closed, we essentially had the entire place to ourselves!
We had fun clambering around, then ended the night with beers and fish ‘n’ chips at a local British pub. Good times!
March 22nd, 2013
Blog post by Felicia:
In our line of work, we meet lots of people, get to experience many different things: from being out in the middle of Joshua Tree at 3am, to running around on the basketball court in Staples Center… Just this past Monday, L&J’s recent engagement shoot at his family’s equestrian ranch in Temecula now certainly ranks as one of the most memorable shoots we’ve ever had.
No, I’m not just saying that because I was given chocolate and a pony ride - or more accurately, I got to briefly sit on a very handsome, famous, record-breaking horse. But because L+J are genuine, charming, down-to-earth people that made their shoot feel like we were just hanging out with friends. Seriously, I think Robert and L have a budding bromance going on already. But it’s OK, J and I can hang out over sushi and wine while those two nerd it out.
Thank you, L+J, for a SUPER fun afternoon. You guys are amazing, and we’re sad it’s going to be a while till your wedding!
March 14th, 2013:
Last week, as part of our whirlwind tour of Northern California (where we visited my brother and had some photos done for ourselves), I met up with my Dad in Lake Tahoe for some epic spring-like boarding, a little afternoon drinking and evening gambling. We spent two days on the slopes together trying to out do each other, even using a iPhone app that tracks our distance traveled, elevation and speed. I topped out at just under 55MPH as I straight lined it down some black diamond runs, and Dad came in at a top speed of 52 MPH, which isn’t too shabby considering he has got a couple decades on me. It was a couple of spectacular days of father/son bonding on the slope.
While sitting on the lift on the second day, I got to thinking how I would love to shoot a snowboarding engagement session and/or wedding – so if any of our clients out there would ever be up for it, I am all game.
The morning Felicia and I had to drive home, the spring-like conditions abandoned us and winter made its return. We had to chain up the Prius and spent the next 2 hours driving through the snow to make our way off the mountain.
March 13th, 2013
Blog post by Felicia:
If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you would have noticed that we’re pretty close to our two nieces, celebrating birthdays and making time to hang out with them as they grow up all too quickly.
What many people don’t realize is that we actually have FOUR nieces, not just two (+ two step-nephews who are totally awesome too, for the record). However, Rob’s brother Matt and his family live up in Northern California, so we don’t get to play uncle and aunt to these two little ones very often.
Last week we finally were able to go visit and get to know the newest members of the Paetz clan. These girls have two distinct personalities: Ally (age 3) is fearless, rambunctious, opinionated and outspoken – including yelling “Auntie ‘Fenisa’ you’re CRAZY!!!” when I did silly things to make her look at the camera – whereas Lilly, on the opposite end of the spectrum, is possibly the most mellow baby I’ve ever met.
Thanks Matt & Niki for a wonderful weekend. We miss you guys already!
