glenn + jenn - the ritz carlton pasadena (the new Langham) wedding

Infernal temperatures aside, I had a real fun time shooting this one! (It was like 110 during the ceremony..causing one of the bridesmaids to almost faint. I felt like I might be going down with her!) Highlight of the night was watching them perform their first dance with their bridal party! The gorgeous bride is an accomplished ballroom dancer and they choreographed this absolutely amazing dance to "Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing Soundtrack. It was truly incredible and had the house rocking! I'll try and post the full thing later on, but for now you'll just get a taste of it in their Cinema Reale.

Glenn & Jennifer are a total sweetheart couple and were so incredibly gracious to everyone.

They asked me to use the duet with Nicole Kidman and Ewan MacGregor from Moulan Rouge for their clip. I have to admit, at first I was not too happy about the thought of using that song. I have always thought it was a little too over-the-top for my tastes. However, their couldn't have been a better song to go with the footage of the day as it came together quite nicely. It was shown on two 12 screens to accommodate the large number of guests.

The creative groom Glenn did their photo montage so I came up with a novel way of transitioning from slideshow to Cinema Reale. The clip starts with the end of the slideshow for reference. :)

elizabeth + noel - first engagement shoot

Elizabeth and Noel were perfect for my first official engagement shoot. Cute couple with great attitudes which put me at ease and made me feel comfortable.

They had the whole 50's vibe going with the look and the car so I went with some BW and antique treatments of the photos.

Here are a few of my favs:

Elizabeth & Noel

ian & sainvie - westin pasadena wedding

Ian and Sainvie found out about me only a few weeks ago. They came out to see me after hearing about me from their photographer Vanessa Preziose who happens to be a good friend of mine. We had a blast shooting their "how we met" videobio and some funny skits to go along with it. I really got to know them well in only a short time and I was really looking forward to being their videographer at their wedding.

They left it to me to choose their music so i went with one of my new fav songs "Stop and Stare" by Onerepublic.

riyo + irma- pacific palms wedding

After a nice weekend off, it was back to work for me and the crew. And what better way to get back into the swing of things than do two weddings in the same day and edit two separate Cinema Reale clips?

This crazy day started very early in the morning with Irma & Riyo's wedding. They are such a tremendous couple and i loved being their videographer for their special day. ( Even though they had me start at 6am in the morning!) The Pacific Palms is a beautiful place to host a wedding and the day couldn't have gone any smoother. I was so happy because I wanted nothing but the best for this special couple.

tim & jennifer - brookside equestrian center wedding

Part two of my "two weddings in one day craziness" was held at the beautiful and unique Brookside Equestrian Center. Tim & Jennifer's wedding was so unique in a lot of ways. From the groomsmen's matching tennis shoes to the bride coming in on a carriage, it truly was special. I also had the unique experience of editing in a room right next to the horse stalls and hearing one one horse kick the wall next to me very hard the whole night. Apparently he wasn't too happy with the music being so loud! At first it was very jarring and nerve-wracking but I found it to be quite funny after awhile. The horse was like your old grumpy neighbor who always tried to ruin your parties. ;)

The song is "Life is Beautiful" by Vega4 and I have to thank my bud Drew Renner for suggesting this song. The groom Tim liked it and agreed to it as it was already one of the songs on his list.

A Few Family Pics

Hey guys. i was off this past weekend so we took a little mini family trip and I brought along my new toy. Here are a few of my favs.




















We hung out at the beach and then finished up at Balboa Fun Zone where my boy Connor totally surprised me with wanting to do the Bungi Trampoline thingy.

Who Wants a FREE Photo Session???-EDITED

All you former and future brides of mine who read my blog regularly I have an offer you can't refuse! I have been taking photos on the side for awhile and am thinking about expanding my services and need your help building a portfolio. If you are getting married and want to do an engagement session with me for free, hit me up. Even if you are already doing one with your regular photographer, let me know if you want to do another with me. :)

If you were already married recently and want to do a "trash the dress" session with me, let me know. (if you don't know what that is..google it! Very cool pics but not for everyone.)

EDIT:

OKAY ..I was not expecting the response I am getting! I thought maybe one or two of you guys would respond but in little 24 hours I have had about 20 emails! I am thrilled that so many of you trust my artistic talent enough to take pictures of you.

Obviously, as nice as it would be, I cannot shoot all of you guys. So for the next few days I am going to assess what I am going to need and how the schedules work.

IT'S NOT TOO LATE...PLEASE still inquire if you have not done so and are still interested .

Email me at daniel@dvartistry.com and send me some pictures of yourselves if you have not already done that.

I am NOT looking for "perfect model" types..(but if you are that...thats ok too!). Because I am a novice at this and need some great photos to build up enough for a website, I am looking for people who are comfortable in front of the camera and are adventurous and have a great sense of self confidence.

This is what shines through on photographs more than looks. :)

tammy + lance- lake tahoe wedding extravagance

Wow! What an incredible weekend and I honestly don't know where to start. I am very thankful to former Laker girl, turned event coordinator extraordinaire Jeni Waters for hooking me up with this gig. I used the word "extravagance" on this entry for a reason because Jeni, Lance & Tammy pulled out all of the stops on this one. It was held at the beautiful Edgewood country club right on Lake Tahoe and even though there was rain off and on, it did not dampen the spirits of anyone involved for one minute. It was a big fun party from from the fun-filled prep session until the last song played by the most kick-butt band of all time. They even had fireworks. And I don't mean sparklers, I am talking full fledged fireworks!

Besides the bride Tammy being incredibly beautiful and extremely photogenic, the thing that really stuck out for me with this couple is that it was obvious that they truly enjoyed every minute of it and took nothing for granted. Lance and Tammy were so humble and thankful for everything and truly appreciative of not only their family and friends but of of their vendors as well.

Got a chance to work with Jim Kennedy yet again which is always a treat. Just a great guy who is just fun to be around. He snapped this shot of the bride and Jeni that I crashed last second:




Wes and I took a break from shooting to take a couple goofy photos in the photo booth they had there:



Groom left it up to me to choose music for the Cinema Reale so I chose a couple of my favorite songs. I used two because both Cat Power's "I found a Reason" and Coldplay's "Don't Panic" are each only around 2 minutes long. I thought it worked out perfectly.

ann + wes - anaheim sheraton wedding

I know I probably come off sounding cliche because i am always saying how much I love my couples. Honestly, it's just because I seem to get hooked up with the best couples and ann & wes are no different. The weekend prior to their wedding was very hectic for me (4 weddings!!) so going into their wedding I was looking fwd to shooting only theirs. We had such a fun first meeting just days before their wedding which made me look forward to their special day even more. They are such a sweet couple who, I could tell from day one, really valued my services. (And like i always say, this pumps me up and makes me want to do the best job ever)

Prior to our meeting, i had only dealt with Ann over the phone so I was anxious to meet them in person and finally meet Wes the groom. It turns out, he had a song picked out for their Cinema Reale and wanted to run it by me. I had never heard the song before, and like i told him when he asked what I thought about it, I won't be putting into my iPod anytime soon but because of the lyrics, I knew the song was a really song for a wedding clip. Wes did his research on my clips and knew that I loved to match stuff with lyrics and found a perfect song for that!

As far as the actual day goes, lucky we were rested up for this one! From early morning tea ceremonies at both houses, to the traditional american ceremony, to the reception at the Sheraton late into evening, it was a loooonnng day. But we enjoyed every minute of it and the pay-off was hearing them saying that I exceeded their expectations!

julia + michael - cicada wedding los angeles

Ever since our first conversation just a few weeks ago, I was really looking fwd to shooting this wedding. This is because on the other line was Julia Sweeney former Saturday Night Live star (most notably "Its Pat" sketches) and current writer and producer of her own critically acclaimed one woman shows like "God Said Ha!" and most recent "Letting Go of God". As a huge SNL fan of the "golden years" growing up, I was very aware of Julia's sketches "It's Pat" and always thought they were some of the funniest skits from that era.

Julia is such a warm and sincere, sweet person who had one of the most unique stories about how she met her now husband Michael. So unique the story just had to be told so she wanted to me to come out two days before her wedding interview the suspects involved with this most unusual courtship and create a short clip to show at the reception. She also had seen some of my same day edits and couldn't believe I put them together in a few hours and was also excited about the prospect of having one shown at her reception. Usually when we do both a biography video and cinema reale we show them together in one seemless piece, but Julia had the genius idea of showing it right before the reception to essentially show the audience how we got to where we were at that point. The wedding ceremony was officiated by another SNL alum, Don Novello who was best known for playing "Father Guido Sarducci". He came out and did a short monologue in character before doing the officiating of the ceremony. It was a huge hit.

Got a chance to work with Mary Sushinski of Occasions again and her and her crew are awesome. They are so on top of everything but yet easygoing and extremely helpful. Love that combination! Also worked with photog James Johnson for the first time. He was a lot of fun to be around and talk shop with. A true artist who is one of the remaining few who still shoots on film. Hope to work with him again soon.


Later on, we showed the Cinema Reale which Julia decided would be good set to Ron Sexsmith's "Wastin' Time".