Mike and Alexia contacted me through the Knot and we booked the wedding over the phone. We photographed their engagement session at Sutro Heights above the baths at Ocean Beach in San Francisco a few months ago. When I found out their wedding details I was completely excited to be able to document their wedding. It seems the wedding was designed to be sweet, beautiful, tasteful, classic, chic and without airs. The Hastings house boasts stunning gardens with a clean cottage to get ready in and has the beach as a backdrop, the Farallon Restaurant’s Beluga Reception Room at The Kensington Park Hotel doesn’t get any more classic, tasteful and quintessential San Francisco than that. Completely up my alley and the thing that synced it for me was Alexia said they liked my work because it felt alive the other work they looked at seemed soulless. I think it’s still one of the best complements I have ever received. I respect her politics tastes and her amazing education. Alexia and Mike are a wonderful couple who seem to operate on courtesy, partnership, mutual respect and an honest friendship. I learn a lot about people at weddings and Ian I left wanting to be more like them. After hearing Alexia’s mother’s speech about how her daughter chose a husband I wanted my daughters to learn from Alexia. Ian and I also enjoyed them immensely. It’s a day for us either will soon not forget.

We ate a very late dinner at the Farallon restaurant and it was one of the most amazing meals of our lives. I can still taste it.

Beautiful Heather Greene now Upton’s  Wedding in Lake Almanor is finished. It was such a beautiful wedding and day. I feel so lucky I was able to photograph their wedding.

I was wondering if I should advertise in my local Costco Store ad. I thought it worth giving a shot. I’ll try anything once. Liz called me because of that ad and we had instant phone repour. I liked her very much over the phone and so we decided to meet in Chico rather than have them drive all the way to my studio we met at Starbucks. They called me a few days later and I was booked. We met in Chico again and photographed their engagement session at Bidwell Park. It was their I took one of my favorite engagement photographs. Ian and I covered their wedding in June it was such a beautiful day, beautiful ceremony and beautiful bride and groom.

I heard from Jane she was getting married and I couldn’t stand the idea it wasn’t going to be documented in a special way. It was a Sunday wedding, I wasn’t booked and she is my photo shop tutor, fellow community member and fellow artist.

Generally a photographer is usually the last to get booked for a wedding and not the obvious priority until 5 years down the road when it becomes a big regret that it wasn’t covered. I can’t tell you, seriously, how many times I hear  ”I wish we knew how important it was” or “we didn’t really pay attention to style or our photographer sucked” or “we were so uptight , because he was  weird and dominating”.

It’s really an odd industry I have entered into because the buyer doesn’t realize they have a need. Time and time again I see it in regret.

I adore Heather, she’s a lovely girl and I couldn’t let her regret not having had this day documented in the beauty it was presented. She is in love with her Ian, there needs to be a photo of that.

In the case of the wedding photographer,  ignorance isn’t bliss. Bliss is seeing how blissful we were. And with that said I am making a commitment to photograph the bliss in my family more.

So a bit of advice.  

Book a pro photographer even if it’s for just a key few hours. Uncle Ed has a great camera but you are his experimental subjects for his little photo hobby, if it was really just about the camera there would not be a pro photo industry and is that what you really want to be an experiment?

Look at the work this pro photographer does, if you are in love with it,  call them. If you like them over the phone, meet them eye ball to eye ball. Would you enjoy spending time with this person?  Because they are going to be part of one of the most special days of your life?

Heather is gorgeous, that is obvious, but she radiates a sunbeam of happy energy that discounts all the exterior pretty and draws us in. I loved documenting her special day and feel honored she let me pressure her into it! Hopefully she’ll live to be grateful for it. 

Beautiful Heather and Ian 10 years together and now married!

I have  been with my husband for 23 years. I have been married a long time. I  love my husband, I like my husband and I am in love with my husband. The three being quit different things.  There is no other person on the planet that can send me through  a  gambit of emotion. To say we have a passionate marriage is an understatement. I have a very rich marriage. At times it rings me out and every once in while I fantasize about moving into a little place all my own and being alone on the coast. Taking a rest from the work of my marriage.

What I have learned about marriage is getting married isn’t a marriage, it’s a party. Just like being in love with an infant, so that when they are unruly teenagers we won’t kill them, the beginning of a relationship serves the same purpose. Remembering the beginning ; long term marriages seem to have a way of tainting one’s today’s with yesterday’s injuries. Hearing marriage vows keeps it fresh, new and real for me. It also causes me to reflect.

I photograph weddings and the odd thing about being behind my camera is my ears hear everything. I hear every word of their vows. Every word hits me in my gut. Whether the couple being married is taking the the vows that I am hearing seriously,  matters not,  I am taking them very seriously. My marriage is serious business to me, a whole life,  family, trajectory of many lives hang in the balance. Marriage is not for the weak or faint of heart.  The longer I am married I come to understand for me marriage is a sacred covenant not a contract. That was the message I took away from this wedding. Even though I already know it on some level, sometimes I forget it. Sometimes I feel like it’s a contract that can be renegotiated or adjusted or absolved.

Shirley, who was there in my early married life and Yoda to me, said “Marriage is made everyday Kim. One day at a time.” I know a little today what that means.  I speak for me only, because I am by nature stubborn and a flawed human being, I look at my marriage as my sacred spiritual work.  One day at a time, it  demands  I grow up just a little more that I love a little  more, that I change a little more. Thank God I know Love to be a verb, just like faith without works is dead, so is love without right action, because when I want to move to my quiet little cottage on the coast I am shown one more time there is something I must work on and change in myself. At the end of the day I find, it begins and ends with me and it is a lesson I have to keep learning.

Once when I was having a moment where I thought my husband wasn’t taking this marriage work as seriously  as I was, I asked him. ” Honey is this a  marriage of convenience for  you?” He laughed hard and loud, and said with a big smile “There isn’t anything convenient about it.”  Now that may sound bad, but I took it as a  great sign. He’s working too and he wouldn’t if it didn’t matter to him. We both are in it one day at a time.

Photographing Weddings is good for me and my  marriage.

I have been in love with the Mendocino Coast since I was 20 going up to through Booneville to Greenwood Ridge and on down to Elk. We have great friends there. We would escape the San Francisco work week for a backwoods weekend often. When we took the job at the Bidwell House Bed and Breakfast we first thought it was in Mendocino. We wished. We are were we are supposed to be, but visiting there is always a slice of heaven. The enchantment of the Redwood forest, ferns, blooming Azaleas and Rhododendrons, with the coasts bounty of lush colorful foliage, there is no other place more vibrant to photograph. I don’t think I have ever seen it more beautiful.

I am a Mendocino Wedding photographer because I want to be there as much as possible. My friend Khamoore  has Mendocino Floral Design there. Their work is progressive, stylish, timeless, stunning. I can’t wait to shoot one of her weddings.

The wedding we just photographed was just outside of Albion in the Redwoods. We photographed Alli Marion and her Beau Cory Fagerskog. I have known Alli since she was 13. Her mother and I worked together for years making weddings at the Inn. Making one more wedding, this wedding was truly special.

Some of my favorites

with such ease

preperation

At the Met

I can feel the movement

Inside the Queensbourough Bridge for a Black tie affair, outside a sandlot with a baseball game going.

On the way to the Chapel

On the way to the Chapel on the Hill, Benziger Family Winery.

All set for Dinner in the Benziger Family Winery cave

On the shores of Lake Almanor

Looking out at Mt. Lassen

calm movement

I love the lines of her Dress

On the way to the Aspens

When I met her mother, Gea, I was 23 and Gea was still in High School. I felt and instant repour with Gea and her mother Betsy. I became friends of the family; I became Gea’s mother agent. Gea modeled for city model management for years. I came to know and love Betsy and got to know Gea’s grandmother Joanie and got to hear the story of Gea’s great-grandmother Cookie. I visited their wonderful old home in old town San Jose. I always thought if I were to write an Epic novel this line of women would make a phenomenal slice of an American story. There is a very special story inside the generations of women that live and have lived in that house in San Jose.

One morning Gea called me at home to inform me that she had had a prophetic dream about me and her.  She said,” Kimmie, I had a dream about us last night. I dreamt we were both pregnant with girls”. Me, just having had given birth not 9 months previous, was like NOT!!! Some months later we both gave birth to girls. This is her girl!

My dear friend Edgar pulled the dress from a designer friend of his Mark Zunino, who if I could afford it, designs would fill my closet. He is a genius. We shot it in Edgar’s Twin Peaks apartment. 

10 feet tall and stunning

Her red shoes

waiting on a ride

Soft

Growing up

Her First Test

Edgar's wall

There she is

At the Saramonte shopping mall in 1970 there was a toy store, I can’t remember the name, it was situated in the Southern Wing of the mall on the western wall. The first time I saw them I must have been 6. There was a wall full of dolls. Collector’s editions as I know it today. Then all I desired was to hold one. To dress her put jewelry on her. I love the ball gowns all indicative of the confederate south. It’s no coincidence why I love, Gone with the Wind, Hello Dolly, My Fair Lady and many more. I am mad about beautiful clothes. Costumes if you will.  I spent many hours of my early childhood standing in front of that glass staring at those dolls. The one I wanted was a doll in a huge wedding ball gown. There were many reasons I didn’t have a doll collection, the first being I didn’t know how to take care of it. Somehow I have satisfied my need to play dress up with myself, my daughters and the brave girls that model for me for the sake of making a pretty picture. I have wondered for sometime my attraction to the fashionably feminine and beautiful. I am not gay; sometimes I wish I were, husbands are hard. I remember my mom telling me once the males of all species were more beautiful than the females, that was at an age when I was apt to believe anything she said. I knew that her statement was false. That was just impossible. I wanted to remind her of the fat bald smelly 50 year old man we walked past. I was also most grateful to my creator for making me a girl. I recall feeling like my creator got my costume just right, I felt so lucky to be a girl.

I caught a picture while I was gone. I didn’t plan it. It was a moment. Mia seeing for the first time what was inside her grandmother’s class case. Then it all came together. My attraction is a simple as hers. PRETTY. I like pretty things, among other things.

Her First Look

Let me in

 I also have a knack for making people feel prettier than they have ever felt. A letter from a recent shoot.

Hey Kim! Just wanted to say thanks for EVERYTHING. I absolutely love my pictures. I’ve never seen myself in that kind of picture before..its weird. But you made me feel so pretty and confident. The pictures are perfect- love the processing! It was fun chatting with you bout your life as a model..I gotta hand it to you..you’re a strong woman. Gosh I have a new respect for models..they go through a lot. But anyways, thanks for taking the time out of your crazy schedule, not to mention being a mom of five kids, and make my senior pics an amazing experience. Oh and thanks for the make up tips. Well, hopefully I’ll see you sometime soon!
          Kelsey

And now, some of the pictures I took of  the amazing beautiful young woman that were gracious enough to let me photograph them.

Sarah and Grace

All there

A FriesianRush Ranch

Last Light

Top of the Bay

I have finished editing Ethan and Lauren’s Lake Almanor wedding. They had it outside on October 24th and the weather held beautifully for them. Lauren’s family is from Carmel and her dad is a fine art photographer. I loved her style and they way she is with her husband. They also have Ridgebacks, like we do and Ethan is a cop as Ian is.  It was a gorgeous day and the hit of the wedding for me, besides the stunning bride was the little man in his coattails and it was his 3rd birthday. Everywhere I turned he had me laughing. The cake was D E V I N E. I wanted another peice everytime I would see the photo of it.

They used

Gambonis Peninsula Grill  for catering which is one of the area Basins best!

Cakes Unleashed out of Greenville …she can compete on a global level…she’s that good.

Lauren and her family did everything else.

The Rings

A dress a coat

A Guest

A big day, A little boy and his dad

A girl and hers

A time and a place

A kiss with a promise

Some help

A moment to reflect

The Sky

Im outa here