Santa Barbara Wedding Photographer

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I had a wedding scheduled for today, but the wedding was cancelled.
This is the second wedding that got cancelled this year.
I hope everything will work out for the best for them.

Ordinarily wedding photography deposit is non-refundable.
I often turn down clients because dates are already taken.
But, if nobody asked for that date, I will give them a refund.

I went to the photo lab and picked up the pictures from July 22nd Santa Barbara Wedding . Pictures I took on the beach came out pretty good.  I hope the client will let me use some of their images on my website so I can share them with you.

PS. I wrote this blog entry at the cafe in Moorpark…  I’m just relaxing here…

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Today’s Wedding schedule
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Wedding Date - Saturday July 22, 2006
Wedding location - Hotel Mar Monte, Santa Barbara, California 3
:00pm - Arrive at Santa Barbara, ca
5:00pm - Wedding Ceremony.
5:30pm - Formal pictures at Cabrillo Beach.
6:00pm - Grand entrance, wedding reception.
10:30pm - end

I put on a thick coat of sun screen and headed up to Santa Barbara. This was my third wedding at Santa Barbara this month.  Santa Barbara’s been good to me and I love going to Santa Barbara.  Hotel Mar Monte is yet another high class wedding/reception spot in Santa Barbara by Cabrillo Beach. The statistic shows that, at any given weekend, about 200 weddings take place in Santa Barbara area.  As I drove up to Santa Barbara, I saw number of wedding photographers working already. I’m always paranoid when I go to Santa Barbara, because traffic is unpredictable.  Today, I arrived to wedding site one hour earlier.

Photographer VenturaPhoto.com

The wedding ceremony took place on the sand at Cabrillo Beach.  Everything went very smooth.  It was a good beach wedding day.  Pictures came out very nice. The only challenge was the clouds.  We had small patches of cloud all over the sky. After the ceremony, we had the formal photography session on the same beach at Cabrillo.  As usual, people were nice to me, so my job was easy.  It’s hard not to take good pictures when people are happy and good looking.  As you can see, pictures came out good.  Little patches of cloud gave us a cool effects.  But, I must confess that I was extra busy with constant changes of lighting situation.  Because of the clouds, the lighting situation was keep changing.  I had to measure the light every minute .  I had to adjust shutter speed and flash output constantly to make pictures look natural.  Every single picture was taken with a flash. 

Photographer VenturaPhoto.com

After formal photography, we all crossed Cabrillo street, waved to people honking at us, and headed to Mar Monte Hotel.  From there, everything went smooth. The reception was held at La Cantina Room.  The bride sang “Could not ask for more” to the groom.  She sang with a lot of feeling.  She was a good singer.  The entire bridesmaids cried. I swapped business cards with the DJ (Coastal Entertainment Group) and the videographer (You’re The Star Video Productions).  I cracked a lot of jokes with the videographer because we were working side by side for 8 hours.

Hotel Mar Monte
1111 East Cabrillo Blvd Santa Barbara, California 93103
805-963-0744 Resv. 800-643-1994 www.hotelmarmonte.com

You’re The Star Video Productions
P.O. Box 60703 Santa Barbara, California 93160
866-STAR-959 www.see-your-memories.com

Coastal Entertainment Group
805.896.2777 www.conejovalleydj.com

Related Topics
Hotel Mar Monte
Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center

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I was getting ready to ship out the finished album to my client from Wedgewood Wedding (June 30). Then I have noticed that they live in the same city as one of my coworkers.  So I asked my coworker to deliver it to them for me.  Next day, I have received an email from my client saying thank you. 

I saved $19.00 on shipping.

I made a deal with my coworker that I would treat her a lunch.  First she was happy with a burger or sandwich ($5.00).  Then she learned that I saved almost $20.00 on shipping.  Now she’s demending a $10.00 lunch. 

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One of my wedding clients had a birthday party for their baby. And I was invited. It was fun. I ate a lot :0

Chavez was my wedding client 2 years ago.  They kept in touch with me with baby news.  I had a referral client from them as well.  I also photographed the baby’s baptism last year.

Baptism 2005

It was really nice to get invited to my past client’s family event. It was fun to meet family members wearing shorts and aloha shirts. Because I only remember them in formal-wears.
The baby was only 1 yr old, but he had a lot of friends.

1st birthday party 2006, Piñata time

I took some pictures with my pocket camera.

A few clients keep in touch with me with baby news. God bless all of them…

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There was a quick family photography session on the beach at Mandalay Bay Resort in Oxnard. The whole thing lasted about 2 hours. (1 hour actual shooting).

A family of 32 got together for a dinner.  They wanted some family portraits.

Mandalay Bay is a very popular wedding spot. I did 2-3 weddings here before.

Mandalay Beach Resort, Oxnard - Summer 2004

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Wedding Schedule
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4 July, 2006 Santa Barbara, Beach House Wedding.
4:00PM - Arrive at Santa Barbara
6:00PM - Wedding Ceremony
7:00PM - Formal Photography
8:00PM - Dinner / Reception
9:00PM - Reception ends
9:30PM - Fireworks at Cabrillo Beach.

After 2 days, I am back to Santa Barbara for another wedding, again, near Cabrillo Beach.
Today’s wedding will complete my long weekend with 3 weddings.
Today is independence day.  The house was right by the beach in Santa Barbara.
There were thousands of people coming to the beach to view fireworks and show patriotism.
The parking was impossible. But, I was lucky to find the best parking space right in front of the wedding site. This was a sign I was going to have a good day.

It was a small wedding in the backyard of a beach-front house.
The background was a full view of Santa Barbara beach.
Sun was very strong.  I had to use flash on every single photograph.
They had a short wedding. Everything was over in less than 4 hours.
Then there was a firework on the beach.

I had a memorable weekend.
I did 3 weddings, had a dinner with my parents, bought a computer, and went to Hollywood Bowl.

I forgot, today was Sunday. I can’t believe I have to go back to work tomorrow morning

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I have received a customer comment on Long Beach Wedding.
Thank you.

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Wedding Schedule
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Wedding Location - Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort Hotel, Santa Barbara, California Wedding date - Saturday July 1, 2006 3:30pm - Arrive at Santa Barbara 5:30pm - Wedding Ceremony 6:00pm - Formal Photography 7:00pm - Reception 10:00pm - End I have three weddings on 4th of July weekend. Today’s wedding was the second one. We are in the middle of a major heat wave. I left for wedding 2 hours before the scheduled ceremony. But, the traffic was bad. From Camarillo, it took me over 1 hour to get to Santa Barbara County line. This is a wedding photographer’s worst fear. Anyway, I managed to arrive at the wedding site early for photography. Perfect record Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort Hotel is located near Cabrillo Beach ca. I think this is the biggest Hotel/resort in the entire Santa Barbara area.

Photographer VenturaPhoto.com

I went to the bride’s room and took some candid (photo journalistic) pictures. Some of the relatives came to the hotel room to say hello to the bride. One lady gave the bride such a big hug that she unintentionally broke off the veil from the bride’s head. We all ran down stairs, where the hair saloon is located, and got her veil fixed. Meanwhile, at the wedding site, when we were getting ready for the wedding, the guitar player finally showed up. He came from Thousand Oaks area. He was complaining about how horrible the traffic was. He almost couldn’t make it to the wedding.

Photographer VenturaPhoto.com

My biggest task was the strong Santa Barbara beach Sunlight. Strong Sunlight will cast strong shadows. So, I had to use flash as much as possible. Also, I had to come close to the subjects so my flash can reach the subjects. There were a few palm trees blocking the Sun. I had to constantly move people so they would stand in that small patches of shadow.

Photographer VenturaPhoto.com

The beach was right across the street from the hotel. We went to the beach and took some pictures on the sand. After a few posed pictures, we took a short break. “Just relax for awhile”, I said. That’s when the groom talked to the bride and kissed her on her chick. I had time for a quick candid shot. When people are beautiful and in love, pictures usually come out beautiful as well. We photographed flowers and rings on the beach as well. It was hot, but we had a beautiful day in Santa Barbara today.

They had a good reception. The dinner was well planned. Music was provided by All Occasions Entertainment, locally from Santa Barbara. All Occasions Entertainment provided mariachi for dinner time and DJ for the dance.

Photographer VenturaPhoto.com

The DJ knew exactly what kind of music to play, and he didn’t talk much, as if he was shy. He just kept the party going. When the night was about to end, the DJ sang one song (Karaoke style). He sang very good… everyone was saying “Wow~~!!. One more~!!” The dude was amazing.

Photographer VenturaPhoto.com

This (above) is my new buddy Juan. When he first saw me at the hotel, he was a little shy. He didn’t seem comfortable in front of my camera. So, I tried to break the ice. I said “I’m John, too. My friends call me Juan. If we play basketball, it will be Juan-on-Juan”. He really liked that joke. After a little introduction, Juan became my buddy. At the reception, he came to me a few times and said “I would like to play Juan-on-Juan with you”. And the whole table at the wedding reception would laugh. Throughout the night, I gave him hand gestures saying “You & me, Juan-on-Juan”. We laughed a lot. good time.

Photographer VenturaPhoto.com

Wedding album was mailed to the bride and groom in about 3 weeks. They loved the pictures. They wrote me a nice Customer’s Testimonial on my web site. It was memorable even to me, and I was just a photographer. I can only imagine how much fun the bride and groom must have had. This wedding was a fun one, a well planned one. All Occation Entertainment set the mood from very beginning. I could have gone home earlier, but I stayed until the very end.

Oh, there was a bartender who was a typical Santa Barbara “surfer dude”. He was very popular. Young ladies came by to touch his muscles.

God bless everyone.. God bless my Juan-on-Juan buddy. Thank you.

Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort 633 East Cabrillo Boulevard Santa Barbara, California 93103 (805)-564-4333

All Occasions Entertainment Heather Levin PO Box 445 Santa Barbara California 93102 (805) 687-5225