Winning Images from the recent ISPWP contest

We placed 9 images in total at the recent International Society of Wedding Photographers contest. Including two first place images and one second place. Truly honored to be part of such a great group of photographers. You can check out the contest galleries here.

 

 

A Feather In Our Cap…….

We are truly honored to have one of our images chosen as the Best of the Best 2012 at Junebug Weddings. This year Junebug had almost 7000 entries from 39 different countries! The winning collection of images is truly stunning. Our picture was taken at Rupali and Rikhi’s Bollywood Meets the Bay Treasure Island wedding. You can see more of their wedding on our Facebook page.

In addition to being included in Junebug Weddings Best of the Best we got an honorable mention for the “Wedding Ceremony” category. This timeless photo was taken at Rachel and Doug’s wedding, you can see more of their very unique wedding on our Facebook page.

A personal note to our blog.

Dear Blog,

So sorry we have not been updating you in the last 4 months or so. It’s not you, it’s us. No, we are not breaking up with you, but we started a Facebook page, and you know how it goes. No, Facebook is not better than you, and yes they have issues too. But you have to understand, it somehow feels redundant to blog and Facebook at the same time. We have some new and great ideas for you, but we are so busy right now, so please be patient. We will be updating you, but in the meantime check out our FB page, it has all our recent weddings and engagement sessions, I think you’ll “Like Us”  ;-)

Click here to check out our Facebook page and don’t forget to like us

 

 

Andrew and Jenni Wed at the City Club in San Francisco

We got to know Andrew and Jenni when they visited us in the wine county and were good sports about going to the local county Fair to shoot part of their engagement session there. Both are soft spoken and somewhat shy in front of the camera, but were willing to try anything. They got ready at the Intercontinental in San Francisco and said their vows at the historic St. Patricks Cathedral, the oldest church in San Francisco (1872). The bride and groom did not see each other before the ceremony but did charter a mini-bus to drive to the reception and stop along the way in the financial district to take some photos. The San Francisco City Club is gorgeous with its huge mural by Mexican artist Diego Rivera in the grand stairwell. We got to go to the roof with the couple and photograph them in the twilight hour with the SF skyline in the back. Very cool!

Jessica and Tyson Tie the Knot at Thomas Fogarty Winery

Jessica and Tyson, a radiant and charismatic couple, got married at the Thomas Fogarty Winery in Woodside. We really enjoyed this rustic and scenic location with several cool indoor and outdoors locations to shoot in. It was a glorious day, the scene was set with great panoramic views of the valley and the vineyards surrounding the winery. Jessica looked amazing with her short veil and long eyelashes!  They chose not to see each other before hand, waiting instead till Jessica walked out onto the lawn where they said their vows. After dinner guests got to witness a spectacular sunset while enjoying hand rolled cigars by Patricio Angulo. Dancing was very energized thanks to wonderful DJ Woody and his amazing lighting which made for some great pictures! We had a great time working with Janece, from Every Elegant Detail who worked her magic throughout the day. We had a good laugh when we received Tyson’s email to us: “Like Jessica said, thank you so, so much, these photos all came out amazing. We keep having friends over to dinner and then we force them to look through all the photos again and again.  The slideshow came out great and we have been watching it over again and again.”

Journey To India

In December of 2011 we took our kids to visit India, mostly in and around Mumbai, where Meher was born and raised. We had a truly epic trip. Everything in India is an adventure, especially crossing the streets! We were glad we celebrated Christmas with the kids before we left, because it isn’t really a big celebration in India and we never got into the Christmas spirit once we were there. We did throw our own party though, a couple of days after Christmas.  We had a special celebration for our kids and threw a small reception, it was great way to meet up with Meher’s large extended family and friends. Even Marcel’s sister and her family came all the way from Germany which made it extra special.  An other highlight of our travels was a trip to a town called Matheran. It is a unique place, where no cars are ever allowed into the town. It is located only about 100 kilometers from Mumbai.  Although Matheran is not far from Mumbai in terms of distance, the journey can take 3 to 4 hours by car! Matheran is located on a plateau at a height of 2,600 feet., is well forested and full of wild monkeys. Once in town, the mode of transport is your own two feet (yes, a lot of hiking), or horseback, or a person pulling you along in a rickshaw (glad to say we didn’t have to resort to this quite yet). Our daughter (who is an avid rider) was in her own kind of paradise with all the horses and other wildlife around. Every day we went on hikes, while the kids rode on horses leading the way. It was a magical place for us and we were all sad when it was time to leave. Special thanks to Meher’s brother Darius who drove and guided us the whole way. The rest of the trip we stayed in Mumbai with Meher’s younger brother Zal and his wife Karishma, enjoying this vibrant city and surrounding areas, catching up with old friends and feasting on the varied Indian cuisine. A special thanks to Meher’s family for putting us up and helping with all the events and trips, they made this really special. Please find below some of our favorite pics to give you some impressions from our trip, hope you enjoy them.

One of the many vista points in Matheran.

Most of the trails in Matheran have a canapé of trees, making it pleasant to hike or ride during the day.

One of the many chickens calling Matheran their home. This Rooster was quite an impressive specimen. Seriously, you do not want to mess with this one

Our local guide Bhavesh, showing us the steep trail by which the milk is brought in every day.

Nikta and Behram’s Zoroastrian Wedding

Although we are privileged to shoot a lot of multi-cultural weddings, living as we do in the Bay Area, Nikta and Behram’s wedding was a very special one for us. Nikta and Behram are both Zoroastrian, as is Meher.  You won’t see many Zoroastrian ceremonies now-a-days, especially not in the United States. Behram was born in India like Meher, and Nikta’s family came over from Iran several years ago, before she was born. They started the day at the Le Meridien Hotel with love notes to each other while getting ready separately. We then helped coordinate the “first look” at a beautiful curved staircase located within the hotel. They wanted to ensure that there would be enough time to get some cool shots in the city, so we took off with the couple to the Palace of Fine Arts, and then some more urban shots in the financial district, very close to the Julia Morgan wedding venue. The ceremony was conducted by Nikta’s grandfather, who is a Zoroastrian priest. It was a beautiful and touching ceremony, with ancient prayers blessing this couple’s future together. The reception took place in the beautiful and classic Julia Morgan Ballroom. In true Persian fashion, the reception started and ended with dancing. Nikta’s cousins even put on a choreographed dance performance for her as a surprise! We had fun working with the very talented videographers from REB6Studios, who did a killer highlight trailer of the wedding.