Party in Pasadena

This past weekend I had the great pleasure of shooting with Bree from Brienne Michelle Photography in the beautiful wedding of Lisa and Dali.  They were married in the beautiful city of Pasadena and held their reception at the Athanaeum on the campus of Cal Tech.  Most of the wedding party met at harvard, so I was around very smart people all day, but they let me take their pictures anyway.  They had a very interesting and engaging "east-coast-ness" to them which I liked a lot.  I haven't had a lot to blog lately, so I'm putting up a few more images to make up for it.  Here are some of the images.  

Arghrrrrrrrrrr....

Loved this dress shot

Love in an elevator, livin' it up as I'm goin' dooowowown

Who doesn't like an elevator?

Mod Squad

thanks Becker!

Dali, the groom is in the middle of the seven.  

She and my camera had a staring contest.  She won.

Brother and sister

The handsome groom.  Bree sent me over to get the guys

while she worked with the girls.

They had a fabulous candle lighting part of the ceremony 

where the dad's lit their candles from the big church candle

and then walked to the back of the church, where they sent

the flame up through the congregation sitting in the pews.  

Then the mothers lit their flames from their sides, and 

placed their candles next to the unity candle, which the 

bride and groom lit together. Kind of cool imagery.

I thought this balcony of the church looked straight out

of Indiana Jones, complete with spider webs and a silhouette 

shadow of a statue through the window.  I started to look for

numbers on the floor, or a secret passageway, but then Bree

told me I had to take pictures. Oh well.

A Grandpa.

This picture was taken in 1952, thanks to Kevin Kubota.

What a happy couple

I caught these two in the act just after the ceremony.

The getaway car was incredible.  

I'll let the picture speak for itself.

It is common in Pasadena culture to give high-5's to brides

passing you in the hallway of really nice hotels.

We wanted City Hall, but another group got the permit before us.

So, we walked in the street in front of city hall, technically not on

the sidewalk so we were safe, and still got some fun pictures there.

Cal Tech had a gorgeous campus...truly beautiful!

On the way to the reception...

The father's speech was hilarious!

Here's to you, kid.

The details were quite exquisite.

The band was really good, and tons of fun.

Father Paul was the officiating clergy for the day.

He was so laid back and relaxed it was wonderful.

Wilderness Challenge

This weekend I had the awesome privilege of doing some climbing with a student learning group called Wilderness Challenge from Valley Christian High School, where I teach. We headed up into the San Bernardino Nation Forest out of La Canada on Highway 2.  About an hour up the road we turned off onto a smaller road towards Horse Flats, a remote campground high in the mountains.  We parked at the trail head and hiked about two miles up further into the hills.  It was beautiful.  Here are some of the photos.  It was a great day!

Right in the middle, in the distance is where they set 

up camp, right on top of the cliffs we'd be climbing.

Jeff is the master-mind behind this genius program

Allison is the super-helpful moral support and female brains

Another helper, Jason and his wife Serena and their Dog

came down from Northern California where they run NAWA,

a fully accredited high school and vertical adventure rescue training facility.

Their dog was really cool.  I was hiking back from the car after

going down to get more water, and all of a sudden this animal 

runs out of the brush behind me and my heart stopped.  I slowly 

turned around, only to be greeted by their friendly dog with a big

"woof!" when he recognized me.  He kept the bears away at night.

The climbing was tons of fun.

Feel the burn

I was parked on this ledge most of the day, about 2/3

of the way up the cliff.  Below is a chimney, which we were

climbin up and out of.  Talk about a great place to climb...

The view to my right.

They tell me shoes make all the difference.  

I'll have to try them sometime.

Here's a picture of Jason, king of the hill.

a backpack

Some quality time in the word.

I loved the way the light was coming through this tree

When I first showed up I was a little spooked by the presence

of this other photographer who was sporting a Mark III Ds (I think)

anyway, a really big camera with a 70-200 2.8.  We quickly became

friends, and he loaned me his 24-70 2.8 for some shots on the cliff.

I look forward to seeing some of Doug's pictures.

This was the view of LA coming down the hill.  Too cool.

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to leave a comment.