Rosanna & Adrian - Balboa Park Engagement Photography

Kara + Matt - Engagement Photos

Photographed Kara & Matt the other day for their engagement photos. We spent a few hours up at Kara's parents beautiful home and got some pretty cool photos. I'm photographing their wedding later on this year in May which I am really looking forward to. The wedding is going to be held at The Golf Club of California in Fallbrook, California. We split the photo shoot up between using natural light and using some flashes. For the first few images I set up my Speedotron lights, two umbrellas camera left & right. Tucked the two lights right behind the pillars and cruised over to the other side of the pool and triggered the flashes via Pocket Wizards. Next we killed some time getting some natural light images before we set up a few shots for sundown. I especially liked the pool images we got with their reflection in the water, definitely a few of my favorite images.
Stayed tuned for their wedding images in May.

Kristen + Mike - Sunset Portraits

Photographed Kristen & Mike the other day down on the beach during sunset with their two dogs Onyx & Tucker. Kristen & Mike were just looking for some casual portraits of the two of them just hanging out during sunset. Kristen actually went to the same high school as me and it was good to catch up with her and meet her fiance Mike. We ended up with a nice array of images and below are just a few I picked out to display.
Thanks again Kristen & Mike and best wishes to you both in your future to come.

Joe & Michele's Vintage Engagement Session

Wanted to share a slide show I put together from our engagement photo shoot with Vaughngo Photography. Michele and I searched for quite sometime to find the right photographer for our engagement and wedding pictures. With the help from our wedding planner we were able to get in contact with Chris & Bri @ Vaughngo Photography. Chris & Bri have a very cool style about them and it truly shows in their work.
With a little planning and some perseverance Michele and I were able to accomplish our goal of capturing some beautiful vintage photos.
This video has definitely brought a tear to my eye once or twice since I finished it. It truly makes me realize how lucky I am to have Michele in my life.

I love you Michele!

Joe & Michele Engagement Slide Show from Joe Hamilton on Vimeo.

Special thanks to Chris & Bri from Vaughngo Photography. All images on slide show created by Vaughngo Photography.

http://www.vaughngo.com/

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.

Kim & Alan - Slide Show - San Francisco, CA

Follow up post to the San Francisco trip I took earlier this month. Just wanted to share the slide show put together to a song of Kim's choice. Assembled their portraits along with images of San Francisco to give them some good memories to look back on in years to come. Really looking forward to photographing their wedding in Winnipeg, Canada later this year.

Kim & Alan - San Francisco, CA from Joe Hamilton on Vimeo.

Alan & Kim - San Francisco, CA

Spent a day photographing Kim & Alan up in San Francisco, CA. They were a really cool couple to work with and we got some really good images throughout San Francisco. We started out the day at Alamo Square which over looks the city landscape. Great place to shoot, but, a lot of people that want the same exact shot. Just need a little patience.. Next we were off to Golden Gate Park where we decided to take a stroll to check out the beautiful scenery. The Park was absolutely enormous and you could spend a whole day there photographing, but, we had to move on to capture more. Lunch first though... We headed down to the water a had a great lunch at The Beach Chalet. The fish & chips were quite tasty I must say!
With new energy we headed off to Golden Gate Bridge to get a few more images before calling it a day.
Really looking forward to photographing Kim & Alan's wedding later this year in Canada.
Below are a few samples from the engagement session.
All images by Joe Hamilton Photography.

Joe and Michele's Vintage Engagement Photo Shoot

It was really nice to be on the other side of the camera for this photo shoot on Sunday. Michele and I are getting married in June and we wanted to do a different style engagement photo shoot. With the help from Dina & Don (Michele's Mom & Step-Father) and our wedding photographers Chris & Bri we were able to capture the look we were going for. We would both like to truly thank them for are their help and support through this.
Michele and I put a lot of time and thought into what we wanted to do and how we wanted the final images to look. From the get go we both liked the 40's themed style and it was just a matter of finding the right props and location for the shoot. This is where the fun comes in... The wardrobes were relatively pretty easy to find thanks to Michele's internet skills. Most of the items were purchased on Etsy for very reasonable prices, like my pants which were only $15!
We used numerous props to completely capture the look of that era. Trying to incorporate items from both of our families into the shoot. From a 1940 Ford to a a newspaper with FDR on it, we pretty much covered the gamut of props to incorporate.
Lastly, we needed to find a location to do this. Michele and I had made a few road trips out to the country to try and locate a cool looking spot. All trips ending in just an empty tank of gas and no solid location. We were in search of an old Victorian style house in the country and we were not having much luck. The idea was brought up with Michele's hair stylist Natallie and she had a few recommendations for us and offered to drive us around to all of them. We met up with her a few days before the shoot and we all hopped in her convertible, I honestly can't remember the last time I was "California Dream'n" in a convertible. Sporting the shirt and shorts I came highly prepared.., it was just a little cold I must say.
The first locations we drove to were both great and Natallie knew the owners, but, it was not exactly what we were after. The last location we pulled up to was a gated house and it was it, it was absolutely perfect!!! We were parked in front of the gate with a call box right out side the drivers side window thinking we were going to be buzzed in. So, I asked Natallie, with a bit of excitement in my voice, "do you know the owners of this house..?" Natallie replied with an honest answer of, "no, I do not". She knew it was just a great spot. A silence fell over us for a brief few second as we gazed out at the perfect scene we were after. Then Michele's cute voice chimes in, "Joe will push the buzzer and ask if we can use this house..." I slowly look over at her with a little grin on my face thinking, "this should be very interesting..". 5 minutes before we pulled up to this house Natallie was saying folks in Ramona are either going to greet you with milk & cookies or a shotgun, so, I was hoping for the milk & cookies approach when getting out of the car.
Got out of the car, pushed the buzzer, waited patiently, and a lady with laryngitis picks up on the other end. I introduced myself and explained to her why we are in her driveway. Right away she says, "come on in, let me open the gate for you".
The gates slowly opened up to this long driveway lined with trees leading up to this Victorian style home, it was seriously straight out of a movie. We were pleasantly greeted by Dolores at her door step and she wanted to apologize for her laryngitis. This was definitely the "milk & cookie" type folks we were after! Next we were greeted by Dolores's husband Louis, who right away wanted to show us the pond around back. Michele and I looked at each look other like, "can this place get any better"?
After a full tour of the property Dolores and Louis graciously said Michele and I could use their property for our engagement shoot. All the pieces were finally in place and now all we had to do was the actual photo shoot.
I will leave the rest of the explaining to the photos. Below is just 2 images for now, once we get the final images are complete I will post some.
1st image was taken at Michele's Mom's house before we headed out with our photographer. 2nd image was provided to us by our photographer.

Special thanks again to everyone involved with making this happen.

Michele I love you more and more each day and look forward to many more adventures with you.

Todd & Kirstin - La Jolla Cove

Photographed Todd & Kirstin the other day down in La Jolla Cove. We definitely got some great images and the weather could not have been any better. I've known Kirstin for quite some time and it is really nice to see her so happy with Todd. They are both very natural and it comes across in the photos. Kirstin & Todd have their date set to get married later on this year which I am really looking forward to photographing.
All images by Joe Hamilton Photography.

Todd & Kirstin from Joe Hamilton on Vimeo.