Eddie & Leslie - Engagement @ Balboa Park

Met up with Eddie & Leslie at Balboa Park to take their engagement photos. Leslie looked really nice in her new white dress and Eddie's smile just wouldn't stop. It was quite obvious during the photo shoot how in love Eddie is with Leslie and it shows in the photos. They are planning on having their wedding later this year in beautiful Hawaii and I wish them all the best in their future to come.
Below are a few images from their shoot.

Tom & Sarah - Engagement @ La Jolla Cove, San Diego, CA

Spent some time with Tom & Sarah shooting their engagement photos down in the La Jolla Cove area. They both did an awesome job and we had a good time seeking out some spots to take some photos. Actually went to school with Tom's younger brother Kevin for quite a few years. It was cool to catch up with Tom and how his family is doing. I'm really looking forward to photographing Tom & Sarah's upcoming wedding. Below are a few images I selected to share from their photo shoot.

Jimmy & Crystal's Wedding Book

Video of Jimmy & Crystal's wedding book that was hand made by West Coast Albums. John Hildebrand and myself photographed this wedding and John spent some serious time on putting together their wedding book. The finished results are very impressive and the quality of the entire book is worth every penny. John made this really cool video to give everyone an idea of the work we do and the great work that West Cost Albums produces.

Jimmy and Crystal's Wedding Book from H2 Weddings on Vimeo.

HDR Portraits

Photographed my youngest brother Jordan doing what he loves most, playing the guitar. Jordan has been playing guitar since he was around 11 and he has definitely acquired his own style of playing. Whether it be on acoustic or electric Jordan surely knows his way around a guitar.
Cruised over to his house to try and get some worthy HDR images of him in his own environment. For those of you who have never heard of HDR, do a quick Google search on it and you will get plenty of info on it. Numerous folks have lots of info on the whole process. In a nut shell, HDR blends numerous exposures into one final image. Reason for doing this is because it gives you a very large tonal range and it looks very cool. Some love it and some hate, but, you can't win them all can you. This is just a tool and should not be used to excess.
HDR is typically best used for landscapes or objects that are not moving. Because we are taking more than one image anything that does move will give off a ghostly appearance and not look right. This can be corrected in Photo Shop, but, you might as well get the shot right the first time.
From my past experience and images I have seen online, HDR is not a friend to skin tones. Finding ways around the skin tone problem is what I am after.
Below are a few examples of what my final results were from the shoot. The color images actually didn't look half bad, but, in the end I decided to apply an action to get this sepia look. Jordan did an awesome job of staying completely still for the 3 exposures for each of the images. I had a few where you could see his hand or head moving to much so they were deleted. Had Jordan just hold his breath for these 3 images and try to not move at all. His room had very little ambient light coming in through the window so the exposures were going to be quite slow. Only other tool that was used was the "Transform" tool to "Skew" the walls and posters to get them all nice and straight.
For anyone that has any questions on HDR or photography please send me an email, I am here to help.

Camera Data
Canon 5D
F-stop f4
Exposure 1/3, 1/13, 1.3
ISO 160

Camera Data
Canon 5D
F-stop f4
Exposure .5, 1/8, 2
ISO 160

Camera Data
Canon 5D
F-stop f4
Exposure 1/8, 1/30, .5
ISO 160

Beverly Hills Birthday Party

Photographed a birthday party up in Beverly Hills, CA over the weekend. Actually left Oceanside three and half hours prior to the event thinking this would give me plenty of time before to set up. Of course not.., L.A. always has surprises for you. Showed up at the exact scheduled time, so everything worked out in the end. Got just a little stressed out there for a minute.. Next time I will give myself 5 hours....
Shawn & Caroline the hosts of the party threw a very nice gathering and had all their family & friends attend. I was very impressed with huge selection of fruits & desserts set up on the dining room table. Must have taken over 100+ details shots of all the selections. My favorite had to have been a tray full of mini bavarian cakes. I would have accepted some of those as partial payment..
All in all looks as though everyone had a really good time and I hope they enjoy the images. Below are a handful of images from the event.

Hunter is Home

Jeff & Becky (my brother & sister-in-law) invited the family over to see Hunter in her new surroundings. Nana (my Mom) got the best pictures of the night while holding her on the couch. It also gave Becky some time to have some dinner before getting back to feeding the little one. My other two nieces Makena & Madison were both there and it was very cool to see them interact with little Hunter. Below are a few images from the get together.

Grandma Barros & Sister Emma

Drove up to Murrieta, CA to photograph Michele's Grandma and her Grandma's sister Emma. Emma had been visiting from Sacramento and they wanted some images before she headed back up north. We set up a few shots in the front and backyard of Christina's beautiful house (Michele's Aunt). Extra special thanks to Michele and Christina for assisting me! Shooting at 11:00am in Murrieta there is definitely a lot of sun to deal with and I needed some help diffusing it out. Michele is camera left in the first image holding a umbrella over their heads. Below are a few images from the photo shoot.

Thought I would grab a quick shot with the ladies.

Hunter Lynn Hamilton

My brother Jeff and sister-in-law Becky are the proud new parents of Hunter Lynn Hamilton. She was born 2:53pm 5.8.2010, 7lbs. Quite a cute new addition to the Hamilton clan.
Michele and I swung by the hospital just to pop our heads in real quick and say hello, and of course take a few pictures... Luckily we were there the same time as my parents and Becky's folks so they could get a couple pictures with Hunter. We didn't stay to long, we wanted Becky to get some rest. I'm sure there will be more images if Hunter to follow. Below are a few images from the hospital visit.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Sophia - Final Images

Just got the final images back from one of my re-touchers today for Sophia. Out of these 4 images Sopia is going to choose one for her iTunes cover and add the rest to her C.D. layout.
To see the before and after of these images zoomed in to 100-200% is quite impressive. The detail that goes into re-touching is a lot of work and it pays off in the end. I highly recommend paying a few extra dollars to have a very nice image re-touched to make it look it's absolute best. I don't knock my Photo Shop skills at all, but, some folks are truly amazing at what they do in Photo Shop. Looking forward to seeing Sophia finished product and also hearing some of her tunes.
All images by Joe Hamilton Photography
Photo Retouching by: http://www.yoyodigital.com/
Tell Kelli I referred you if you hit her up for her services.

Walk Around the Yard in Ramona

Michele and I were asked to house sit at her mother's house over the weekend and I got there early Friday. Showed up and I don't think the housekeeper was expecting me, she was wondering who I was for the first few minutes. After explaining to her that I was Dina's son-in-law we had a good conversation. Very interesting conversation about her first marriage and second. She told me her first husband liked cheeseburgers and she didn't. And he liked bread over her choice of tortillas. I suppose opposites don't always attract...
Thought I would stay out of her way while I waited for Michele to get there, so, I grabbed the camera of course. Took a walk around the border of the property just to kill some time and get some vegetative stock images for future projects. Below are a few images from my walk around the yard.

Cody (A.K.A. Code Man)

Midori living the rough life.

7749 Calle Andar - Real Estate Photography

Photographed this cool house over in La Costa yesterday. You don't expect the size of this place from the outside. The interior work on this house is quite nice and it definitely has all the upgrades. This residential townhome has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, 1,493 Sq. Ft. and is being listed to sell at $479,000.
Below are a few images of the listing.