The Haight

The Haight is one of my favorite neighborhoods in SF. There is never a shortage of interesting people to watch, things to see, cool restaurants, clothes...

I've been thinking a lot about color lately, and there was plenty of interesting swatches to collect in random places in the Haight.
You could spend an afternoon just walking around looking at the interesting architecture.
Spring time...

Bowling

Sea Bowl in Pacifica has a special for lanes after 9PM, and my friends and I have become regulars there. I'm not that good at it, and my form is SO terrible, but it's still tons of fun! I feel pretty good if I get anything over a hundred.

This is my friend Dillon, who has actually gotten pretty good... His highest score is a 278/300, which is pretty much professional status!!

Driving at night...

Driving at night is not really the best idea. Things I do to keep myself alive are: 

-Listening to Bible studies (that can kill about an hour or so). 

-Indie/Electro/Pop/Dirty Rap solo dance party in the car (maybe an hour and a half).

-3x Red Bull or Rockstar 24oz (this juice can hook up an hour or so).

-Call all your friends that you haven't talked to in a while (about an hour).

-Stop for food/bathroom (this helps for like 20 minutes)

If you aren't home, then I guess that the road will start to look like this photo, and you should do one of the things again. 

I made a quick stop to get this photo somewhere off the 101N.

Josh and Christina

I had the pleasure of taking engagement photos with Josh and Christina today. I have know Christina for a while now through Calvary Chapel SB. When I was in the high school youth group there, she was one of the leaders. We started taking photos at Westmont College which was pretty cool because it has the Montecito feel to it with all of the trees and cool paths. Josh and Christina were so easy to work with too! They are pros at just laughing, making jokes, and just having a good time. Their wedding this summer will be tons of fun!!!
We moved the good times over to Sands Beach at the end of Isla Vista. It is kind of a walk to actually get out to the beach, but the walk is park of the fun. Overall it was a really nice afternoon just hanging out and taking photos.
To see more photos, you can click here.

I Love SB!

I love coming home to Santa Barbara because it is always so nice to see the crew. This time was especially nice because I hadn't been home in over two months. I was able to catch up with so many good friends over breakfast/lunch/dinner/drinks/whatever.

POKER!!! I love playing poker, and I've been playing with some of these guys for a while now. Every time I'm in SB I try to get in on a game or two.

It's not the hand that you're dealt...
...but how you're playing your cards!

Hanging out with all of my friends from high school is also a must! I am SO excited for my cousin Heidi and her husband TJ and the bun thats in the oven. It was cool to chat with TJ. He's really stoked about becoming a dad this summer (I know he will be a really good  at it).

I've been friends with Brandon for so long, and I love hanging out with him. I really enjoy seeing Nicole too :)

My older brother Daniel is SO classic! He's not that into photos, but everyone else in the family is a photographer, so he has to be in photos all the time. Sometimes he's like, "no, get out of here." and other times he'll just play along and do something funny for the camera. 

My mom and dad ALWAYS hook it up huge too. My mom made a salad one of the days I was in town that was straight money! My dad took Brandon and I golfing which was pretty fun. I don't know how many balls I lost in the bushes or in the lake, but I feel like it was a lot. My dad has this thing with hiding money too. He helped clean my car, and when I was on the way home there was a $20 in the ash tray! About a week later I found another $20 in one of my camera bags. It's kinda fun though. It's like when you put on a pair of jeans and find money in the pockets. Good times!

Sandy! She's wild and crazy, but a very nice dog.

Kevin and Vanna's Wedding

Andrew and I were so glad that we got to photograph such a great wedding today! One thing that was really cool, is all of the people who flew down to Cozumel Island to be there for Kevin and Vanna's wedding. It is difficult and expensive to get down there, but there are lots of family and friends that made the journey to be there to support them. That says a lot about the kind of people that Kevin and Vanna are. 

Her ring is by far the most unique ring that I've ever seen. They had it custom moulded to be asymmetrical with the diamond on the side, and not in the middle. It is totally form fitted though, and it looks super comfortable.I love when the vows that they wrote for each other. Hearing people declare their commitment to each other always gets me choked up!

Kevin and Vanna are awesome salsa dancers, so there was really no better way to finish up such a nice day than with some hot salsa!

Rehearsal and Salsa Dancing

We went to the rehearsal for the wedding today. It went really smooth, and I know the wedding will be a blast! It was totally fun after dinner when we got some salsa lessons with the groom Kevin and the rest of the wedding party too.

Cancun, Tulum

This is the beach in Cancun. Not a bad place to hang out for a couple of days, right?

In order to be a good photographer like my friend AVG, you really have to know how to WORK the camera if you know what I mean.

These are the Mayan ruins in Tulum. I am always stoked to see cool historical sites like this one. It turns into Disneyland with tons of people and tour busses in the afternoon, but we went in the morning, so it wasn't that bad.This was an odd sight. You can see the helicopter below is transporting what looks like a missile... is this something that we should worry about?
One of the really cool things about these ruins, is that they are right on the beach. When we decided to walk from the hostel that we were staying at in Tulum, we didn't realize that it was a pretty far walk in the hot sun, so we tried to hitch the rest of the way down to the beach. This really cool couple picked us up and we ended up hanging out with them at their house which is right on one of the sweetest beaches that I've seen.This is their house.

After a couple of really nice, relaxing days we went to Playa del Carmen to catch a ferry to Cozumel Island.

¡Hola Mexico!

I just got to Mexico yesterday after a crazy couple of days trying to finish school work and other projects. Oh yeah, I'm back in school after taking the fall off. I'm glad that I have cool teachers who were willing to let me get work done in advance, and miss a week of class :) But I'm even more glad to be in Mexico now! I'm here for the next week, and will be shooting a wedding on Cozumel Island in the Caribbean with a good friend of mine, Andrew Van Gundy. ¡Buen tiempo!
This is what I call a "scramble." It's my room two hours before the plane was leaving from SFO. (Normally for international flights you have to be there at least two hours early...) Bags not packed, stuff everywhere, I'm really glad that I didn't miss the flight.Piñata action at the hostel that we are staying at.