caution: images contain partial nudity. not the kind of r-rated nudity, more like pg-13

jess hid a bag filled with lace and sexy fishnets in her car the night before and as she left the house she told chris, i’m going to the mac counter with sam, getting our make-up done, doing a little shopping, and that she would see him later. chris didn’t care, he was getting ready to head downtown with eric (my eric), to visit our jeweler mervyn at the la diamond factory. he was buying jess a ring, the ring. what chris didn’t know was that jess was heading to see me, to have a boudoir session just for him. a day full of lies, wonderful lies but a story that we had to keep straight, for 6 weeks! considering that eric works with chris every day, that was quite a hard feat. we managed however, without chris ever finding out about the session and jess never had a clue what chris was up to that day either. on their 5th anniversary, last thursday they went out to celebrate. jess with book in hand, chris with the ring in his pocket and the secret was finally revealed. jess cried when she saw the ring, and chris won’t tell eric much about the book, but i am sure he was shocked when he saw it. these pics should show why. jess is sexy, beautiful, and funny. chris is one lucky man and we cannot wait to celebrate this wonderful time in their lives with them!

***boudoir photos are not posted on our blog unless our clients give their permission. if you are thinking of having a boudoir session done and worried about them showing up on the blog, you have the option to keep them totally private

In the last four years that we’ve been shooting weddings, one thing that’s always been consistent is the question about cost, and who can blame them? Clients always ask about the breakdown of costs and I found a great article that really delves into the expenses of hiring a wedding photographer, “Why is wedding photography so expensive?” Wedding photography and their prices can vary; what clients get and what they pay for it really depends on the photographers’ equipment, services, and deliverables so it’s important for brides and grooms to do research to understand exactly what they want and what they’ll get. When anyone comes into our studio, I always highly recommend they interview a few photographers to get a feel for the style of photography and photographer’s personalities. Our first priority is happy clients.

Bottomline: Higher quality is a better value for you! Think of shopping for a wedding photographer like shopping at your local shopping mall. You can buy a knock-off purse or invest in the Chanel one, though one of those — and you know which one! — might fall apart and leave you carrying all your stuff in a plastic bag. You can get a bite of sushi at your local gas station’s quick mart or you could get a reservation at Nobu. Both will leave you full, but one might give you food poisoning. Ouch. If you met someone special and you want it to be your last first date, you have the option to buy unreliable and uncomfortable shoes or you could feel safe in a delicious pair of Manolo Blahniks. But if your heel breaks on that hot date and you have to hobble around, well… anyways you get the point. Shopping for wedding photography for your special day comes with the same options. Some photographers are very low price, and some are extremely expensive. But the same way you look at handbags, shoes, and good food should also be how you think about your wedding photography: quality and value go hand in hand. Your wedding photos are the tangible memories of your wedding day and since your album can be handed down through generations, the quality, the moments captured, and the sturdy album are very important elements of a valuable piece.

Looking at wedding photographers’ sites can be daunting and overwhelming. There are so many different styles out there and after a while they can all start looking the same, but the expertise and the quality within might differ. A brand new photographer’s blog images might resemble those of a seasoned photographer’s but you have to look deeper down than just what you see on the outside. Blog images usually represent the best photos from that series; they’re the Photoshopped, hand selected images, but what about the rest that you don’t see? The same way a knock-off purse might look real on the outside, the inside is where it counts. The seams, the craftsmanship, the durability, and the longevity of its purpose should all be taken into consideration before plopping it on the check-out counter. When it comes to narrowing down a photographer, look at the album samples, and there should be a variety for you to see (are these albums something you would want to display in your home?) and click through the online gallery (is it user-friendly and easy for you and your guests to view, order, pick photos). These practices will showcase the photographer’s value.

Here are the questions I always hope people ask us, and if they don’t I tell them the answers anyway!:
Can we look at complete weddings, and not just one? (Really look for skin tones, exposure and framing).

Do you have insurance, for yourselves, your equipment and your business?

What type of cameras and lenses do you carry?

Do you have back-up equipment and are they the same high quality as the rest of your gear?

Do you always have a second shooter and are they random photographers or experienced wedding photographers?

What happens if you get sick and can’t be there?

Eric and I strive to keep our package costs within a couple’s reasonable budget, which is why our packages start under $3000 and album packages just under $4000. We have worked incredibly hard to give undivided customer service and run a boutique studio, taking on at most 30 weddings per year. I run our home studio and am always here for our clients, so they can always expect an email back from me within 24 hours! Shooting hundreds of weddings has allowed us the opportunity to be familiar with all cultures, venues, themes, and other vendors. Although no 2 weddings are alike, you can be assured that no special moment will be missed. Eric can bustle, I can fix flowers, and if your planner fails to show up, we can most likely run the whole show :). At the end of the day, we are there for our clients and only hope to give them the lasting memories and the high quality and value you would expect from Chanel, Nobu, and Manolo Blahnik!

It’s nice to know that excellent quality and great value don’t have to be painfully expensive for brides and grooms.

And because no post should be without a photo, here is one of my all time favorite detail shots from andrea and david’s wedding!

extra! extra! make sure to grab a copy of the “jewish journal” this week and flip on over to the wedding section — page 34 to be exact! –  to see our lovely may 2008 jewish wedding couple, alison and bryan, featured in an eight20 showcase surrounded by ads for awesome and beautiful kosher catering-venues. it feels great to be in such good advertising company with the four seasons westlake village, shutters, casa del mar, and the luxe hotel at both their beverly hills and bel-air locations! we know how to capture all the special moments of a jewish wedding ceremony and reception, and we never get sick of a good ol’ round of “hava nagila.” we’re so glad to be a part of an important and wide-reaching publication that we just had to blog about it. after all, a blog is an internet yenta! so, don’t walk — run! — to get your copy and don’t forget to call your mother!

from the weekly paper: “Serving a community of 600,000, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles is the largest Jewish weekly outside New York City. Our award-winning paper reaches over 150,000 educated, involved and affluent readers each week!”

sangini + vik: the wedding

as i waited for yenny and rosendo to arrive at the manhattan beach pier, i kept glancing around at all the people passing by since i knew they’d make their appearance at any moment.  my fun little round of people watching was interrupted when i spotted the happy couple immediately. yenny caught my eye from yards away as they made their way through the crowds. i couldn’t miss yenny’s beautiful, vibrant smile! yenny is so bright and bubbly and rosendo complements her perfectly with his reserved and cheerful personality. but most importantly, they make one amazing, gorgeous couple. we strolled through manhattan beach, passing houses with cool, beachy architecture and stopping at the ones with backdrops for perfect photo opportunities. we hiked up a hill, got in a great work out, and ended up at the beach under the boardwalk. yenny and rosendo looked at me like i was crazy when i suggested silly poses, but they were great sports and totally went along with the ride. that’s a photographer’s dream! and the dream came true: the photos turned out just as fun and adorable as they are! i am so excited for their wedding coming up in july!

yenny and rosendo:  i enjoyed tagging along with you for the afternoon. you two are perfect together and i thank you for making my part of the shoot fun and easy.

i just wanted to let the world, or whoever reads our blog ;), know that today is nicky’s birthday! let’s all wish her a happy, wonderful, fun filled day! and to you all, a happy memorial day weekend. and because no entry is good without a picture, here’s nicky on her 2nd birthday.

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with love,
mr. eight20

there were so many great images from this session that nicky did all by herself that i couldn’t narrow down for a blog entry and just decided a slideshow would be the best way to see them all! make sure to click show next to the slideshow and it will begin to play!

angel and sean just have this cool couple thing going on. they are both so stylish and fun. we met up with them in newport beach and strolled around the boardwalk area. as you know, we never actually take photos in the common areas. we go into the back alleys and newport has some awesome back alleys! we had not actually shot in this area before so we were very excited! well, we found amazing brick exposed walls, doorways and gritty staircases. angel and sean’s outfit choices were so vibrant and they worked amazingly well with the backgrounds. we cannot wait for their wedding coming up in august!!

hiroko and michael were referred to us by some of our favorite clients, alison and bryan! when i asked about engagement session locations, michael had a great idea. we went to the place that hiroko and him had their first date, father’s office in santa monica. the restaurant was nice enough to let us take some photos inside, and then we had an amazing lunch. if you live in the area and have never been to father’s office, go, go right now! after lunch we drove through venice and found a really nice secluded beach area almost in the marina. there were hardly any people and across the street from the beach was an awesome patch of flowers and vines that i knew i would have michael and hiroko jump into ;). we had a wonderful time shooting with them and cannot wait for their wedding coming up in august!!

monica and jesus live in new york, but are getting married at one of my favorite locations, spanish hills country club! while they were in town a couple of weeks ago we managed to squeeze an engagement session in and i am so glad we did! we ventured out to cal state channel islands and then drove down PCH and found a beach to grab a few more shots. the beach had a lot of rocks, which didn’t make venturing down to the water that easy but i am very pleased with the images we got anyways ! i love the cool style and vibe these 2 give off and i can’t wait for their wedding coming up in july ;).