Destination Sacramento Wedding Photographer fun alternative

Bed Head and Breakfast

daveshilling — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:16:42 +0000

While I was checking out info online about secluded outdoor wedding spots similar to Coloma Country Inn , I found this awesome spot called Nestldown ( I really want to shoot at Nestldown!). Redwoods and lush greenery… sounds heavenly right? Well during my research I noticed that my son decided to challenge the Man of the house to a bed head contest during breakfast…IT WAS ON!

Winner by unanimous decision ( my daughter was the only voter) :

Indiana!

Looks like you’re the man of the house now, little buddy.

Happy Saturday!

Much <3,

Dave

How to Use Engagement Photos for Invitations

daveshilling — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 09:38:45 +0000

Today the mailman did his usual routine. Walk across my lawn with his mailman boots, track mud on my entryway, and loudy dump the mail into our “antique” mailbox. Thats fancy-talk for old. Anyways, amidst the Costco Connection magazine and random recycleables, I got an invitation to a wedding! I’m already invited to this one though.. it was from Christine and Roger, who are getting married in April in beautiful Monterey, CA. She told me she used some photos from our session for her invitations and I was excited to see how they turned out!!!

Needless to say, these are awesome! The details slide out from the left and reveal all the relevant goodies…and of course I loved seeing my client use their engagement photos in such a creative way! If I get permission, I will post the how-to’s for an invitation like this if anyone wants a similar look. Thanks for sending me this Christine, you guys are the best!

Much <3,

Dave

Green is the New Black

daveshilling — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:42:27 +0000

Green is everywhere now, and I couldn’t be happier! And I don’t mean winter grass, I’m talking about the concept of sustainability, especially from businesses. Companies everywhere are turning to more environmentally responsible choices for distribution, communication, and day-to-day operations. Many of the things they do benefit the environment and the business. If you have been to Costco, you see a fine example there. No plastic bags are allowed, only leftover product boxes. And nobody complains! Today on the UC Davis Campus, attended a vendor fair where catering and venue businesses were invited to show off their environmentally friendly menu offerings, and companies were there to demonstrate how their facility is a wise choice for anyone who is an enviro-geek like myself.

And then there was me. I was the only photographer there! I didn’t have duck meatballs in creamy risotto to offer passerby’s, I may not have been the busiest booth, but I felt like I was the most fun… Rather than have a typical trade show booth, I turned my lil space into an instant photo-booth, and people could come over and have their picture taken doing something silly while they were browsing the vendors. Cool right?

So why the heck was I there?? I got a special invite from Lina, the Director of Event Services at UC Davis to attend the trade show and represent for all of us Green photographers out there. Lina and I will be working on a project for UC Davis to help promote weddings on campus. Check out the photography I’ve done at the UC Davis Arboretum to see how gorgeous this place is… I can’t wait to rock out some wedding photography here soon! If you are a bride thinking about getting married here, check out their website for more details, and just know that fabulous pics are guaranteed!

I had a good time meeting new people from different vendors across the valley, and of course the brides-to-be who were there looking for food options, and found wedding photos too =)

Special thank to Lina for inviting me to the Plan Green Trade Show, you and your crew were fun and energetic, and I can tell you love your jobs! Since every post can benefit from a photo or two, here’s a picture of Lina’s crew getting some hangtime!

Much <3,

Dave

Sunshine in Sacramento

daveshilling — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:32:01 +0000

I don’t know about you, but my kids were definitely enjoying the nice weather we’ve had recently. Gray skies just make me feel, well, gray. Usually, I get super excited during storms because it means snow has arrived and its time for snowboarding, but it just hasn’t happened this season. So I might as well bask in the sunlight while its still here! We had a fruitful day at the Farmers market… I’m going to try these Japanese yams I scored this week, and Kaitlyn got to head behind the table( next to the register to pick her mandarines… she’s a little charmer! She must’ve gotten like 20 mandarines for $3.00, which is way cheaper than normal. I’m glad I’ve hassled her to say “please” and “thank you” for so long. After some much needed chores around the house, we headed to the park for some playtime. I wanted to write this post so it helps me remember that sometimes there are tons of things to do, but even when you are slammed with to-do lists, you have to stop and enjoy the reasons you work so hard. I hope you were able to get some sunshine with your family and friends this weekend!

Much <3,
Dave

Jackie and Andy are Engaged!

daveshilling — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:39:49 +0000

We kept waiting for the perfect day for our photoshoot… and it came.. on a random Tuesday months ago. We missed it, and I swear it’s been raining since then. Well Jackie and Andy said to heck with it, lets make lemonade out of lemons, and do our shoot in the rain! Well not entirely in the rain, but it was rainy=) We walked around Old Sacramento and found some awesome directional lighting to put this fun loving couple into… Even though they’re both two big kids at heart, they turned up the heat a couple of times, and nearly dried me off from the hotness!!

Thanks for being so much fun, walking in uncomfortable shoes on cobblestone streets, trespassing, and for not making fun of me when I got that parking ticket… hey it’s good luck right?

Much<3,

Dave

2010 means better choices.

daveshilling — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 07:57:21 +0000

It isn’t every day that I watch something on television that directly impacts the way my day begins and ends.

I watched Food, Inc. after being recommended by Jasmine Star on her Wedding Photography Blog. She mentioned how watching this documentary about where our food comes from shaped her food choices, and after watching it myself, I understood why. I don’t want to list out every awesome point that the movie made, just watch it, but at the end of the day my family and I decided to make a stronger effort to know where our food comes from, support local growers who grow their food naturally, and find a more responsible choice for our meat purchases. Today we headed to a local Farmers Market behind Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights to check out what local growers had to offer during the winter season, and we came home with a bag full of goodies! Everything we ate was delicious and the cost was not prohibitive to doing this every week, so it has instantly become house law. Jenny is headed to the Farmers Market downtown under the freeway to see if they will have any locally raised meats that weren’t corn fed and raised in their own excrement ( seriously, watch this documentary) and I look forward getting pictures on my phone of these delicious treats! For you photo-nerds and the generally curious, here’s a setup shot for the delectable fruit display above:

NERD ALERT!!!!
Two SB-800’s both fired with CLS on manual at 1/80th power. The flash at camera left is snooted with a piece of tin foil, and the flash at camera right is diffused through an extended roll of paper towels help up by a flashlight. D300, 85mm@f8, ISO 200, 1/250th sec

P.S. We all tried the Asian pear on the right for the first time this evening . It was so freakin delicious. We’ll be getting more next time!

Much <3,

Dave

New Years Day in Photos

daveshilling — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:08:45 +0000

A rare moment of child-free leisure led us to Midtown for Crepes and coffee, and I didn’t dare be without my camera!

Bellies comfortable but not stuffed, we strolled around midtown for a few and enjoyed the solace of the New Year. Jenny is super patient when I’m shooting random eye-catchers on the street, and she holds stuff for me, models, and points out cool stuff of her own.

Jenny commented on how quiet it was in Midtown today, and I concurred. It was peaceful, strangers seemed to stride optimistically towards their destinations, and birds were dancing around from tree to tree.

Maybe everyone is excited about the possibilities of 2010, and they are starting their year on a peaceful note, setting the tone for the rest of the year.

I picked up a fashion magazine from the UK that is as thick as my thumb, and it spurred photo-shoot ideas which I’m looking forward to embarking on. Anyone want to model? Comments are welcome!

Happy New Years to my friends and blog stalkers!

Much <3,

Dave

Sacramento Chinese Wedding: Amy and John

daveshilling — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:49:32 +0000

I was talking to one of my couples from 2008, Nelson and Linda, and they mentioned that Nelsons sister Amy was getting married soon…Of course I was super excited to meet them! Amy, John, and I talked about life, love, pictures, and how much we wanted to rock out some fun youthful photos for them. I was super stoked off of their engagement session at the Davis arboretum, and after that shoot I knew that the wedding was going to be just as fun! We did the tradtional tea ceremonies, and after a fantastic lunch ( one of the perks of shooting a chinese wedding… yummy food!), we went to midtown to shoot some fun portraits. My friend Jessica Moores came to hang out in midtown for the portraits and do some no-pressure shooting with me, which was rad. While we were out shooting, John got a call that the ENTIRE reception had to be moved from the King Palace restaurant to Happy Garden Restaurant due to a plumbing issue… and he was as cool as a cucumber! Amazing… Amy, he’s a keeper =)

Happy Garden Restaurant is a popular banquet hall for Chinese Weddings in Sacramento, and my last four have been here:

To see more, check out this slideshow

Amy and John, It was wonderful being a part of your day!

Much <3,

Dave

Google Wave and Piles of Leaves

daveshilling — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:26:02 +0000

A while ago, I saw a video on Google’s YouTube channel about the new Google Wave application…. It was a long video, but very interesting! In this marathon Youtube video, developers demonstrate how Google Wave revolutionizes the way that people communicate online. Imagine combining email, instant messaging, and Social networking ( Facebook, myspace, etc) all into one program. Thats what Google Wave is! I was pretty excited to see it go live and start using it, but at the time, only Google employees and people cooler than me were given access. Until now. Yesterday I was lucky enough to get an invite to the new Google Wave service that Google is providing, and so far, it looks pretty cool! Right now, its in Beta testing, which is a nerdy way of saying it may have problems and Google wants to public to uncover them through using it frequently.

But we need more users to test out this bad boy! I have a couple of Google Wave invitations to give out, so if you are interested, leave me a comment with your email address and I’ll invite you. Then we can test out some of the cool features… one that I particularly like is the photo sharing abilities =) But its also possible to integrate this into a blog, and comments can be seen live, and immediately replied to! Man, technology is amazing. That first video was way too long to watch, so for a much shorter intro video about google wave, click here!

Since blog posts are always more fun with photos, here are some photos of Fall Family Fun! We raked the yard, and ended up with a big pile of leaves… irresistible to my children and I. If you haven’t jumped in a pile of leaves, or in my case jumped over a child who jumped in a pile of leaves, I encourage you to do so!

See you on a wave!

Much <3, Dave

UC Davis Arboretum Wedding Photography| Christine and Roger

daveshilling — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:48:27 +0000

I love shooting at the UC Davis Arboretum. My first session there was thanks to Amy and John, and when Christine suggested a location that was chill, romantic, and had water, I ditched our original spot once I realized how awesome the Davis Arboretum is. I scoped it out as a possible location for my own wedding, but walking around the place has shown me many more cool spots to shoot! Christine is not only a friend, but also a bridesmaid from Mishell and Christians Yosemite wedding last summer. Here she is looking FAB as a bridesmaid:

She told me then that she was planning to trick this poor boy marry this stud named Roger, and now its her turn in front of the camera! Excellent choice Christine, Roger is a cool guy! Here’s some photos from our day around the Davis Arboretum:

UC Davis Arboretum
1 Shields Ave
Davis, CA

I love this sequence… so cute! I love when my clients want to goof around on our shoots.

The light that poured in at the Davis Arboretum was golden and delicious!

IN addition to being gorgeous and fun, these two are also part-time Ninjas, and they had a Ninja fight when were trying to shoot silhouettes… hey, sometimes you just need to kick somebody in the face.

I’m so proud of Christine for braving the big scary spiders to get this shot!!

We were literally in our cars, driving away, and I saw this steam rising… I flagged Roger down and when Christine got out, she jut knew exactly what I was thinking…. I love my brides!!!

I had so much fun on this shoot, and I think it shows in these pictures… can;t wait for your Monterey Wedding!

much<3,

Dave