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My assistant and I were casually pacing the reception hall at the Fremont Marriott Silicon Valley Hotel waiting for Dave and Pauline and the rest of wedding party to be introduced after the ceremony. The buzz inside the hall was the same as most weddings… guests were simply milling around chatting with each other while others were trying to figure out which table they were going to sit down at. After some time passed, I remember looking over to see the wedding party forming outside of the entrance… And just as I had enough time to process this thought… I was instantly surrounded on the dance floor by about half of the 400 guests who were attending the reception.

It turned out that a mob of people had formed shortly after the traditional Assyrian drum and flute began playing. I felt like I was a part of the “Running of the Bulls” in Spain and just waited for them to “release” Dave and Pauline into the crowd. If they were the only subjects to shoot I wouldn’t have been too bothered by the task at hand, but I had to capture more than just images of Dave and Pauline… I had to try and take photos of each bridesmaid and groomsman that walked in prior to Dave and Pauline’s entrance. I had to fight for position in the crowd just to get near each couple… Follow them for a few steps… And then fight my way back to the front to get photos of the next couple walking. Since they had 8 bridesmaids and groomsmen each this was not the easiest of tasks to accomplish. Thankfully I avoided knocking anyone over and eventually made it back to the front of the crowd in order to shoot Dave and Pauline as they walked through a crowd full of guests who were clapping and waving scarves to welcome the couple inside.

That scene was just a taste of what Dave and Pauline’s wedding was like. It was a high action wedding with a lot going on from beginning to end. I had a great time shooting them and am already hoping that I get some more phone calls to shoot some Assyrian weddings in the future.

I also want to give a shout-out to the videographer who did a great job, but more importantly was great to work with, Ator Nisan. For anyone who is curious to see his video highlight reel of the wedding, feel free to check out the video by clicking on the following link: http://vimeo.com/23562274

I’ll put up some more photos from Dave and Pauline’s big day on my facebook fan page soon so make sure to keep your eye out for that.

A few weeks ago I went to the city to for an engagement shoot with Leila and Chris. We met at the Palace of Fine Arts and then hopped into one car to hit a couple spots before ending the day at Baker Beach. Before the shoot we exchanged emails throughout the week and our plan for the day seemed simple enough… But there was one element that none of us really planned for… The WIND!
It’s a little embarrassing to even admit that the wind wasn’t on my mind. I’m in San Francisco a lot for work, so I should have thought about just how powerful the wind can be, but I was purely focused on the temperature and whether or not there would be any clouds out during our shoot.
We started off doing a series of shots and were light-heartedly laughing about the wind we were dealing with… but when we started posing for our third set of photos, I think reality struck us and we all began to realize that we would be in for a long day. I’m not exaggerating when I say that there were times when Leila’s hair was honestly standing straight up! (… see the last photo of this post to see what I mean). Chris did a great job of shielding Leila from the wind as much as he could, but I have to give extra credit to Leila because I don’t know how she was able to stay so upbeat and positive throughout the entire shoot.
But when you’re in a situation like this… All you can really do is tough it out, (… or start taking pictures “inside” of course). But we really wanted to get some photos out on the beach so we continued over to our last location of the day at Baker Beach where we were all absolutely freezing! Despite the weather, we ran through the water, played on the beach, … And even had to scare a dog away moments before he peed on my camera after I momentarily placed it on the ground (… That’s a story for another blog). But in the end we had some good laughs and got some pretty good shots. Already looking forward to shooting their wedding in September.