Mom Says I'm Running Away

Heather + Ian | Rustic Elegance

Published at: 03:09 pm - Monday September 19 2011

Sept 19th, 2011:

[Guest Post by Felicia because Rob is busy editing like a maniac]

Ian and Heather. So many wonderful things we can say about these two, who booked us a solid 18 months before their wedding day. Their engagement shoot was one of the most memorable ones we’ve ever done, and lots of people that we meet make reference to “that photo in a bar” even just from glancing at our website.

Their wedding was no less memorable: While a lot of our brides have “DIY” aspects of their wedding, Heather had some “GIY” – “Grow It Yourself”: She carefully grew the succulents for the centerpieces and arrangements in her backyard for over a year until the wedding. Ditto the birch table number thingys: a birch tree was felled in her yard, so the branches were cut to size, and Heather used woodburning tools to engrave the numbers / words by hand. Very impressive (And sustainable too: she intended to replant these drought-hardy succulents, which is a great choice for Southern Californian gardens).

These nature-inspired elements were the perfect complement to their laidback, rustic-elegant wedding at the Pinerose Cabins in Lake Arrowhead.

Midway through the ceremony, I spotted a wedding crasher: A raccoon! According to the venue coordinator, there’s not one, but a whole family of raccoons living under the floorboards.

Their wedding day was beautiful not just aesthetically, but in spirit too: It was a day full of raw emotion, with tears of unbridled joy, as well as tears of remembrance (the photo above was from when Ian made a moving tribute to Heather’s late father. I couldn’t do anything else but keep shooting even as my eyes brimmed up with tears, memories of the loss of my own father fresh in my mind).

Congratulations, Heather & Ian, and thank you for having us be part of your beautiful day. You guys made it so easy for us, and we’re so happy for you both. See you soon!

Posted in: Travel, Weddings by Robert No Comments Arrowhead, CA, Cabins, Photographer, Photography, Pine, Rose, Wedding

Danielle + M + Lush Food Photography

Published at: 01:09 pm - Wednesday September 14 2011

September 14th, 2011:

A couple of weeks ago when we were up in Napa to shoot Pete & Cindy’s wedding, we also met up with Danielle, Felicia’s friend from Singapore whom she met during French classes back in 2005 at the Alliance Française in Singapore. Now living in the Bay Area, Danielle is a writer and food photographer, and requested some portraits that she could use when being featured in various publications or for her columns (for example, she writes for Etsy).

The light was beautiful as we shot at a vineyard, so Danielle’s husband M was quickly convinced to jump in with her for a photoshoot. These two have been married four years and haven’t had nice pictures together since their wedding.

Blue Steel, yes.

Can you tell whose pair of shoes cost $350 and whose cost $16.99? Well, neither could I nor M, but M made sure to encourage Danielle to go shopping with Felicia in future.

Posted in: USA by Robert No Comments

Sunday Activities: Thieving, Antiquing and Composting

Published at: 09:09 am - Monday September 12 2011

Sept 12th, 2011:

For the past two months, every Sunday morning our Los Angeles Times has been missing from our doorstep. The first few weeks I figured it was a new paper-person (paperboy is no longer P.C. is it?), but then every week I would complain and they would re-deliver the paper. Yesterday morning at 6:30pm I woke up to pee and for some reason the missing paper situation popped into my head. As soon as I shook it off, I walked to the front window and glanced at the front step, and low-and-behold for the first time in months my paper was sitting there. For a moment I thought about grabbing it, but instead thought I would leave it and see if it was still there in a few hours, I shuffled off to bed and forgot about it.

A few hours later, I woke up, headed into the kitchen, brewed a cup of coffee and remembered my experiment. I opened the front door and found a paperless porch… I instantly felt violated, angry and vengeful. Some SOB has been snagging our paper every Sunday morning the entire summer! My mind quickly started working on a scheme for next Sunday morning… should I use a bucket of water tied to a rope on the roof over the porch and lay in wait in the bushes, should I go rent a superzoom and capture the whole thing on camera and turn this criminal in, or should I just sit behind my front door peeping out the peephole confront him and/or chase him down?!?! All these idea streamed though my head but I also know I have a wedding to shoot next Sunday and may not have the chance to catch the thief in the act. More to come on this situation…

The rest of the day I was looking forward to a relaxing Sunday working on some pictures, schemeing about how to handle N.P.T.’s (NewsPaper Thieves) and puttering around the house – but while, reading the (second copy) of the paper, my wife looked up and said “It’s the second Sunday of the month!”. She didn’t even have to say what that meant, I saw the excitement in her eyes and for almost two years she has been trying to get me to the Rose Bowl Flea Market. It has some 2500 vendors and sprawls across the parking lot of the Rose Bowl and up until now, we have fortunately always had something to do on the second Sunday of the month. Yet I am unable to say no to this woman, so I just smiled, walked in the other room, and began slathering on the sunblock and rummaging for my hat.

Felicia excitedly bought an old 7-up crate for guess what? Storing newspapers after reading, before recycling.

All in all, it was a much less painful experience then I imagined, and I even managed to enjoy myself a bit – strolling the endless aisle of knick-knacks and old, used junk (or “Treasures” as Felicia is fond of calling them). I might even go so far as saying I had fun, but that was mainly because there was lots of interesting things to photograph (like a grown man holding a 3 foot tall Barbie doll), and I was with my wife whose zeal for rummaging for “Treasures” made the whole thing more enjoyable – but please don’t tell her I used the “fun” word. Otherwise, I have a feeling that I’ll have plans the second Sunday of every month for the rest of my life….

In other news, Felicia and I have been talking about composting for a while now (we already recycle everything we can and figure this is a way to recycle some of our organic waste), and this weekend we finally bit the bullet and bought a bin and set up our compost pile outside in our small garden. Now I just have to hope the insects don’t start breeding in it, or if they do, that the guy who steals our paper takes the smelly insect breeding bucket as well.

Posted in: Travel, USA by Robert No Comments Angeles, Flea, Los, Market, Pasadena, Photography

Jose + Hellen | Valencia Wedding

Published at: 03:09 pm - Friday September 09 2011

September 9th, 2011:

Earlier this year, Felicia and I shot Hellen & Jose’s engagement session, and before we knew it, it was time for their wedding at the Valencia Country Club. It was a blazing hot day when we started, with the mercury apparently set to hit 105 that day. Thankfully the heat had abated by the time they had their late afternoon ceremony, which left us with a beautiful soft light to shoot in.

Purple was the color of the day, with coordinated details in every aspect of the wedding.

We were surprised that day when the make-up artist, Angelina Tam, who did Drea’s make-up exactly a week before, walked into the room to do Hellen’s make-up too. What a coincidence!

Hellen surprised Jose with a ‘special’ portrait as a gift. We were instructed that the picture was strictly for his eyes only. Sorry, blog readers.

In loving memory of Hellen’s mother, a white bouquet was placed on the seat between her father and her sister. It was a beautiful gesture to honor her.

Besides wedding cake, Jose & Hellen completely spoiled their guests with a decadent array of petit fours and luscious dark chocolate fudge cake. I grabbed one little morsel right as we were leaving. All that decadence and I just took one teeny piece. My wife should be proud of me.

Hellen had a trick up her sleeve: The toss bouquet separated into three bunches!

Congratulations Hellen & Jose! Thanks for being so awesome to work with, and may you enjoy a beautiful life together!

Posted in: Travel, Weddings by Robert No Comments Club, Country, Day, Photographer, Photography, Valencia, Wedding

Old Photographs: The Power of a Print

Published at: 11:09 am - Wednesday September 07 2011

September 7th, 2011:

About a year ago, I was sitting around narcissistically Google-ing myself when I came across the first photo above of Robert C. Paetz + Mother, dated 1923 being sold for $12 by a man named Paul in Northern California. I quickly did the math and figured it was my 93 year old grandfather and my great-grandmother, Matilda (who eventually lived until 102 when I was 16). Felicia contacted Paul, sent him a check for $12 and inquired where he found the photo. He told us he found it at Pauline’s Antiques in Alameda, CA while rummaging through photos looking for ones with names on them to sell online to narcissistic self-Google-ing family members. He has never before sold a picture of someone who was still alive, so he was quite excited.

Over the last couple trips north we have tried to make our way to Pauline’s, but they always seemed closed for this or that and it never worked out for us. This last weekend, on our way to Napa for a wedding, we showed up to the open store at 4pm and immediately hunted down their old photos, only to stare in dismay at what must have been a pile of 20,000 pictures in a giant heap, and the store was closing in 1 hour….

We began rummaging, systematically trying to look at the front and back of every single picture for either someone we recognized or a name written on the back we recognized. Within 12 minutes and the first 500 pictures, I came across the second picture above of Robert C. Paetz alone – it was taken at the same spot as the first and judging from the nosey neighbor in the 3rd floor window in the background, they were just moments apart. I love his hair and stunning fashion sense.

Over the next hour we continued searching, and even had Pauline and the staff let us stay after hours for 40 minutes to keep looking but the only other photo of significance we found was what we think is probably Matilda’s sister – my great-grand aunt.

About 10 minutes before they finally asked us to leave we felt like we had frantically looked at almost all the pictures and were happy to have found one confirmed picture of RCP. However Pauline just had to come over and off handedly inform us that she has “Crates and crates more photographs” deeper in the store. Sigh… now we have to make a return trip to Alameda…

A few other images I came across that I just loved and decided to spend the $0.50 each to buy so I can put them up in our house. The first is from Passau, Germany - where I spent a few nights in 2007, and below is an unidentified French town with no date, and the only reason I know it’s France is from the “Dubonnet” advertisement on the side of the building in the foreground.

Robert Carl Paetz Sr. with the first picture we found of him. He had a stroke a couple years ago and normally has trouble getting his thoughts formed into words, but as soon as we handed him the picture it all came back and he told us where in Chicago it was and how he had just got the bicycle for his 6th birthday. He came to life, just by holding an old print. Powerful.

It makes me want to go on a printing spree for all my images that never leave my computer and it makes me hope my clients print as much as they possibly can. It may not seem like much now, but a print becomes a historical record that someone in the future, someone that may not even exist yet, may value immensely. I’m glad my Great-Grandma Matilda had taken the time to label and caption some of these prints.

Posted in: Travel, USA by Robert 2 Comments Alameda, California, Photographs, Travel

Drea + John | “Totes Adorbs”

Published at: 09:09 am - Thursday September 01 2011

Sept 1st, 2011:

Drea and John wed a couple of weeks ago at their beautiful home off Mulholland Drive on a mild Californian summer day (thankfully). It was an intimate wedding with just over 60 guests, with ample time to enjoy the good food and the company of friends & family, very much reminiscent of our own.

It was one of those perfect wedding days for us, and to top it off, John & Drea are some of the most fun, intelligent and charming people we’ve ever met. I mean at one point during their photo session I said “As the kids say, you guys are adorbs” and John coolly replied “Totes Adorbs”. How can you beat that? Seriously?

Smart idea: Using RSVP cards as part of the decor. (Felicia and I didn’t have RSVP cards – we used Google Forms instead – and it makes us sad that RSVP cards, pretty as they may be, often never see the light of day besides being quickly shuttled back & forth before being trashed).

The wedding dress was a dress that Drea had worn to an awards ceremony a couple years before (you can see the award later in this post), and she had some ‘beading experts’ (for lack of a better term) add embellishments and pearl straps to jazz it up for the wedding.

Drea’s Emmy with their rings. Hello, Emmy.

Drea definitely let her creative side shine, with lots of handmade details at the wedding.

Cafe lights = magic. I think every wedding venue ought to be awash in them. Felicia now wants to permanently string cafe lights across our front lawn…

Super cool friends who do an interpretive dance instead of a toast. How’s that for creative?

Felicia had to be all polite and tried to impose upon me something called “decorum”, insisting that 1 of each flavor was more than enough to take home at the end of the night. Fail.

Congratulations, Drea & John! Truly good things come to those who wait. We wish you both a beautiful life together!

Posted in: Travel, Weddings by Robert 1 Comment Encino, Los Angeles, Photographer, Photography, Wedding

Caught Up… For 37 Hours

Published at: 09:08 am - Tuesday August 30 2011

August 30th, 2011:

Seated at my computer late last week around 11:30pm I turned to my wife and said “Done. At least for the next 37 hours.” (When we have a new wedding to photograph.)

“Does that mean we get to go see Tim Burton?!?!” She excitedly asked (referring to the Tim Burton art exhibit at LACMA). We have wanted to go for a while now, but sometimes I become so consumed in shooting and editing that I keep pushing things back. The Burton exhibit will only be at LACMA a couple more months, and I don’t know when we will be completely caught up again, so I agreed as she rushed to buy the tickets online.

The next morning, I traded my ratty t-shirt and old board shorts for a pair of jeans and a slightly newer t-shirt and we were off. We picked up our tickets at will call and crowded in with all the other camera toting Angelenos who had the same idea of how to spend a Friday afternoon. Right at 2pm they unleashed the hourly mob, who were all instantly disappointed (much like myself), at the “No Photography” signs everywhere and the ultra attentive security personnel. Alas, blogging about an art exhibit without a single photo of the exhibit is rather boring, but I shall let you enjoy pictures of my kooky wife instead.

The exhibit itself was stunning, watching Burton’s growth as an artist and the early work which showed his style was inspiring. The crowds much less so. Shoving, elbowing and jostling became the norm and it was all very un-museumesque. I kind of regret not showing up on a Monday morning right when the museum opened so we might have has a little more peace to look at the work.

After a couple hours in the exhibit we had some time left on the parking meter, so I just strolled around the outdoor areas of the museum with my favorite person, taking turns photographing each other. Afterwards we braved the L.A. traffic and I took Felicia home to cook her a simple dinner, enjoying each others company and the peace of not having my computer staring across the the room judging me with unfinished work.

All in all, a perfect day with the perfect woman – I can’t complain.

Posted in: Travel, USA by Robert 1 Comment LACMA, Los Angeles, Photography

Angela + Jeff | San Diego and Swords

Published at: 03:08 pm - Thursday August 25 2011

August 25th 2011:

A couple of months ago when Felicia and I flew out to Washington DC for a wedding, we also shot Angela & Jeff’s engagement session against the epic backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial. Jeff and Angela moved out to DC due to Jeff’s work with the US Coast Guard, but they recently wed in San Diego, back here in California, on a beautiful summer’s day.

Angela, who works in the wedding industry, designed her own bouquet of textured, cascading crimson blooms. (Felicia’s description, not mine)

White was the color of the day: Angela’s Dad is a Veteran who spent most of his adult life in the Navy.

Angela’s niece & nephew performed Jason Mraz’s I’m Yours as part of the ceremony. Unfortunately, Jason Mraz didn’t magically show up to crash the wedding.

I’ve always wanted a bride & groom to slice a cake with a sword. Licking optional. Angela & Jeff just made my day.

Congrats Angela & Jeff, have a beautiful life together!

Posted in: Travel, Weddings by Robert No Comments Diego, Loma, Photographer, Photography, Point, San, Wedding

Sean + Amber | Caspers Regional Park

Published at: 10:08 am - Monday August 22 2011

August 22nd, 2011:

Sean and Amber were sent our way by Matt and Amber a few months back (Sean and Matt are good friends and refer to their respective ladies as “my Amber” whenever talking amongst themselves).

When we originally planned to meet with Sean and Amber, Amber was out for lunch with a friend the day before our scheduled meeting. They were discussing wedding planning and Amber mentioned they had a meeting with a photographer (me) the next evening. Her friend, Kelly, immediately told her not to book anyone yet because they “have to” check out this other photographer she knows. ”What’s his name?” Amber asked.

“Robert Paetz.” Kelly replied.

Sheer awesomeness when I have to start competing with myself for referrals.

Anyhow, Sean and Amber met Felicia and I at Caspers Regional Park just outside of San Juan Capistrano for their engagement shoot. The weather was perfect and the bugs numerous on this languid summer day, but other than a few wasted frames of Sean swatting gnats like crazy, we couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend an afternoon.

Congrats again Sean and Amber, and thanks for being so much fun to shoot! We’ll see you next month for your big day!

Posted in: Engagement Sessions, Travel by Robert No Comments County, Engagement, Orange, Photography, Session

Lisette + Dom: Even Superheroes Need love

Published at: 12:08 pm - Thursday August 18 2011

August 18th, 2011:

Over the course of the year, we’ve shot two engagement sessions for Dom & Lisette, and both times, they let their personalities shine through: Night-time shoot with lightsabers? Check. Hiking into the woods dressed in Batman and Superman tees? Check.

So how can you expect their wedding day to be any less SUPER? They had all their groomsmen wear Superhero shirts underneath their tuxes, which made for this very cool picture. Check out the special version of this picture Felicia made. (I can’t take credit for such awesomeness at 2am after a long wedding day)

Dom has got the most stylish stride down the aisle of any groom I’ve seen. Well done.

Some wedding guest got very creative with their beverages. Felicia shot this as-is: The glasses were already arranged so.

Dom’s childhood friend recounted a tale of Dom trying to hold a bumblebee in his hand. By Dom’s definition, holding a bee wasn’t really ‘bothering’ it. Totally sounds like something I would do. Except that I’m allergic to bees.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, yes, Dom did get stung.

A broken foot clearly didn’t stop this wedding guest from having a good time!

(No, this is not a United Colors of Benetton ad.) Congrats Dom & Lisette! Thanks for your friendship, and thanks for having us be part of your special day! Here’s to many years of wedded bliss, and many little ones so Felicia and I can take pictures of them dressed as StarWars characters!

Posted in: Travel, Weddings by Robert No Comments Angeles, California, Coco, Los, Palms, Photography, Wedding

Mom Says I'm Running Away

Heather + Ian | Rustic Elegance

Danielle + M + Lush Food Photography

Sunday Activities: Thieving, Antiquing and Composting

Jose + Hellen | Valencia Wedding

Old Photographs: The Power of a Print

Drea + John | “Totes Adorbs”

Caught Up… For 37 Hours

Angela + Jeff | San Diego and Swords

Sean + Amber | Caspers Regional Park

Lisette + Dom: Even Superheroes Need love

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