Wonderful Italian Wedding

On July 21st I had the opportunity to photograph the wedding of John & Mary at the DoubleTree Hotel at Cabrillo Marina, in San Pedro.  I was so impressed with this wonderful Italian wedding. The pretty bridesmaids dresses, the fun wedding party, including two cousins from Italy, Mary's sister Dora’s 6 cute kids in the wedding party, the custom made signs, the personalized decorations at the reception, the beautiful hand made wedding favors, the delicious Italian cookies and cannoli. Everything was awesome! I captured all the details, including all the guests.  The photos are all online, so everyone can view and enjoy them.  Now I look forward to creating an amazing design for their wedding album.

 

This wedding was extra special for me because I had photographed Dora's wedding 10 years ago, so it was great to be with the family again.  And then at the end of the day to have such an assortment of Italian cookies and cannoli....what a treat!

I recently created this poster for a classic 1956 T-Bird.  Super nice, clean car.

The owner, Joe Freitag, brought me some digital snapshots of his prized Thunderbird.  We edited and customized his text together.  Then, in Photoshop, I cut out the 3 views of his car and arranged them.  Next I overlayed the text and added the highlight around the letters.  We were pleased with the result, hopefully you like it too.

LaMar Photography was featured in a pilot for a new Reality TV Show!  On Saturday a film crew and cast spent several hours in our studio shooting scenes for a pilot for BET Network.  Cameras, Lights and Action!  Several young rappers are shown arriving at our studio then interacting with me asking about photos for their CD cover and promos.  It turned out to be a great promo for our studio!  I explain to them about the quality of the photography that we do, (with samples blown up on the big screen... they were very impressed!), and about my 40 years of experience, and being voted Best Photographer, (for a number of years now), by readers of the Daily Breeze newspaper.  The film crew did 3 takes of each scene from each direction, with several video cameras, then an interview type review of each segment, (again 3 versions).  Next we went into the portrait studio and I did a number of promo shots for them, with 4 different backgrounds.  Then back to the big screen monitor to review the images with them.  The young rappers were very pleased and excited.  The film crew were, "very impressed with LaMar's experience and professionalism"

It was a great experience for everyone and I'm quite sure that it will turn out to be a great promo for our studio.  I will post the photos online for the guys to select from.  I wish them all the luck in their endeavors.

Plan Your Wedding together and get to know one another.

Wedding Plans are More than an Exercise in Getting Things Done... All this decision making by the Bride & Groom together can help build their relationship.  Planning a Wedding can be a stressful time in the life of brides and grooms and their families, with so many things going on at once and more details than they ever considered.

To reduce some of the challenges associated with that momentous experience some prospective brides may consider hiring a professional wedding planner.  No more hassles with everything associated with the reception, flowers, photography, catering, etc.  You just tell them the type of location, the size of the party, the time of the day, etc. and they do the rest. Do you really want someone else to plan your wedding?  What learning and bonding experiences are you giving up by letting someone else do it? To start with, it is no longer Your Wedding, you have already outsourced this special moment in your life. Even though it may be very stressful and energy consuming, planning your own wedding is also, as many couples can tell you, a great moment for the bride and the groom to bond and get to know each other better. It is also an exercise in human relations and in how to manage often times divergent opinions.  Happy couples have learned that "give and take" is the foundation of increasing love, it is also a better way to know your future spouse. Wedding planning will provide you with the opportunity to interact with the "in-laws" and get to know the other side of the family.  You will discuss personal preferences and get to know them very well. You may, at first, consider hiring the services of a Professional Wedding Planner, so that you may devote more time and energy to make those extra dollars that you need to have a comfy life.  It may not be worth it and you may regret the fact that you didn't spend that time together with your better half. Couples who have been happily married for many years often times look back to this challenging time of their life and remember the decisions that they made together and the happy moments they shared.  That it was THEIR WEDDING that laid the foundation for a happy life together.

Wedding Photography by LaMar

Beautiful Baby Boy

What a fun and happy little guy. He was joy to photograph!

His mom loved the way his hair sticks out, just a bit, on each side, and that his two front teeth are showing in his grin. The fur covers his diaper and his happy little toes are sticking up. I used a softening filter to make it a bit more dreamy. Isn't he adorable?

Happy Earth Day

To help celebrate Earth Day, we just got a new composter for our garden. Now all of our kitchen trimmings have a place to composte into nutrient rich soil for our vegetable and herb garden. All those banana peels, apple cores, egg shells, and other scraps of produce can now become mulch for our new vegetables, herbs, berries and fruit trees.

This neat composter was only $39 from the local warehouse, simple to assemble, and easy to use. Now we'll have a convenient source of nutritious soil additive for our happy garden.

Why throw away perfectly recyclable stuff into the trash to be shipped to a land fill in someone else's neighborhood?

Also remember to recycle every possible container and most of your trash. This is where we live, let's preserve it for our grandchildren. Happy Earth Day!

Beach Portraits

What a beautiful sunset at the Manhattan Beach Pier! And what a good looking and fun family! An enjoyable experience for all of us.

What a Beautiful Wedding!

What a beautiful wedding I had the pleasure of capturing on Saturday. This was the 3rd daughter's wedding, in the family, that I have been honored to do the Photography and Video Production for. Stephanie and Kevin were married at the Croatian Catholic Church in Downtown Los Angeles. There were 12 couples in their wedding party and everyone had a great time. We began at the bride's parent's lovely home in Redondo Beach, with photos of all the family and the bridesmaids, including her 2 sisters. Then at the church with all the guys and their beverages.

A bagpiper played as the wedding party entered the church. The sanctuary has a warm old world feel and decor, with beautiful stained glass windows. After the wedding vows and kiss, the couple walked down the aisle as man & wife with the bagpiper's serenade. There were hugs from all the wedding party before going back into the church for formal photos. Parents and family were first, so they could then join their guests for the social hour with Mariachi Music. After the formal photos, we all got into the 2 Hummer stretch limos and drove the few blocks to the L.A. Music Center for photos of the wedding party by the fountain.

Then it was back to the church reception hall, where each member of the wedding party was introduced and entered the dance floor strutting their stuff to their own individual music. After a standing ovation entrance, the bride & groom began their first dance, then busted out into their own "precision pair" moves. The amazing Croatian meal, (Grand Parisian salad, melt-in-your-mouth roast beef, potatoes, rice and a whole platter of delicious vegetables), was served family style, to each table. We were entertained by a terrific Croatian band and lots of traditional dancing for all. A great time was had by everyone.

I captured over 900 images for their website, proof album and slide show, (that are included in their wedding photography package). On their Pictage.com website, the bride & groom will create a folder of their favorite images that will be used in the design of their wedding album. They will be notified by email when the design is ready for their review. When everything is approved, we will create their hand crafted, leather wedding album, (embossed with their names and date), as a family heirloom.

For the video production, we used two, 3 chip digital video cameras to capture the ceremony and reception events. The computerized digital editing process is progressing as we create an incredible, memorable video production of this happy day's events. The DVD menu will offer multiple scene selections and the library case will have a personalized cover.

I so much enjoy this profession where I get to share and capture these special experiences for a wonderful family. And it was extra special because it was the 3rd wedding for this family, where I've been the photographer and also created the video production. I've been doing this for many years, and probably over 2,000 weddings, but I still enjoy it very much.

Can you fix my parents wedding photo?

This was really quite a mess, but I knew we could fix it for her. After I scanned it and brought it into Photoshop then enlarged it on my 47" monitor, I knew I really had my work cut out for me. As you can see, it required a lot of detailed digital repair, but we were successful. She was very happy with the finished product!

Sweet and Cute Baby Portraits

Sweet baby Sofia came in with her mother today. With fresh flowers in her hair and pink ribbons down her back, she was all decked out for her 4 month portrait. She also had an adorable pink dress, cute shoes and pink bloomers... What a doll!

She had a long nap today so she would be ready for her close ups. She was so fun to work with, but a little stingy on her smiles. I removed several scatches, (baby fingernails do that, you know), from her face, using Photoshop. Later, her dad came by to help select the poses. A good time was had by all.

Bellies Before Babies

Nine months plus one week! She is definately ready, whenever the baby is. This is a wonderful and special, but challenging, time for a young mother. Capturing these tender moments of expectation for my clients is an honor that I appreciate.

Mommy & Baby Portraits

I had the opportunity to photograph Amy's wedding several years ago, so now what a pleasure it is to see her beautiful daughter River, and capture these sweet moments of them together. Isn't she just so precious!

Being a grandfather myself, I just enjoy babies so much. What a blessing they are.

Commercial Photography of hand dyed yarn

I photographed over 70 skeins of hand dyed yarn yesterday, for a web site: PagewoodFarm.com. Robin Page is quite an artist at dying yarn, very impressive. I used a black velvet background so that each color could show really well.