Santa Barbara Portrait Session for Bella Spa - (Model) Brooke Hill
I had the honor of shooting a model for Bella Spa of Santa Barbara a couple weeks ago. Monica of Bella Spa was putting together some advertising images and had Brooke Hill brave it out through a modeling session. Brooke was a pleasure to work with and really made my job a piece of cake!
Here are some of my favs from our shoot. I had a couple guys from FotoCielo come and assist so the last picture is of Kiel and Nick hard at work! I sat back and enjoyed my sweet tea while they were working it! haha
I just got back from our family vacation about a week ago. It was so awesome having everyone together in one place. My brother from Maryland came out with his family, the Santa Barbara Mia's and my folks in Henderson all got together in Sedona, AZ. This was the first time for everyone to be in Sedona and we had a blast!
Five cameras (shocking huh?) and thousands of pictures later, I finally put something together for my blog! I'm going to try to briefly narrate our whole trip according to the pictures...... ready?
...awesome mountains, mountains, mountains everywhere, Javelina piglets dressed in funny clothes everywhere, Mom dressed the same way as the Javelinas hahaha, Ro being Ro, Ro and Rey being.... something, cool Indian ruins everywhere, Ben and Jordan being tourists, more awesome Indian ruins with a full family portrait in front of them taken on our Pink Jeep Tour... yes I said Pink Jeep, ruins framing Rey, Mom and Hip Hop Dad, Sande and Jordan at the Grand Canyon, Marcia and Ben at the Grand Canyon, Rachel capturing a "vision" at the Grand Canyon, "Indiana Ro" at The Grand Canyon!, way cool tree, Mom and Sarah toasting on our Train ride, Dad smooching Sande on the cheek, Ro and his narcolepsy with Jordan abusing dad, awesome ride on the train, group picture hanging off the train, Bald Eagle sighting as we whiz by on the train, cool skies under a bridge from the train, Happy Birthday Sande!, Golf-Golf-Golf, Dad after a 30ft put!?!, Ro's awesome photography skills and finally brotherly love!
Sarah and Jordan's Camp Kono play at Peabody Charter School
Today, Sarah and Jordan, my precious niece and nephew had their Camp Kono play at the Peabody Charter School here in Santa Barbara. There were kids everywhere! They were all in their groups with orange camp shirts and caps. Each group did an awesome dance routine, too cute.
It was cool to see all of these parents in the audience waving to their kids, taking pictures and video taping. Check out the picture of that one crazy looking dad!!
After an incredible week in Capri, Melissa and I spent a few days in Rome before we flew home. I couldn't wait to see Rome and I had no idea what to expect. Being in Italy alone was culture shock enough but walking around the streets of Rome was absolutely amazing. As you walk around the streets of Rome, you know you're in a city but then all of a sudden, you're standing in front of St. Peters Basilica or the Colosseum! To think that there was a civilization that lived around and built these structures almost 2000 years ago blows my mind! My concept of "The Big Picture" has suddenly been magnified 100 fold.
The first piece of history we came upon was St Peter's Basilica. San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) is best known as the home for Michelangelo's statue of Moses. It was surreal to be walking inside of this Basilica that was built in the years 432-440. Where are we now... 2008?
Again, as we are walking down the cobblestone streets, we turn the corner and there stands the Colosseum. This was incredible to see. The size, the age, everything about it. I walked up to it and just stood there staring at it with my hand on one of the walls... people must've thought I was nuts!
We walked for miles but it didn't matter because of where we were. We were starving and since we've been eating like kings for the past week during the wedding, we wanted something quick and bad for you so we found a McDonald's! How wrong was it to be eating at a McDonald's where the view out of the front door was The Pantheon! Yes, I know that's just wrong :)
After the Pantheon, we found ourselves at the Piazza Navona. There were people painting, sculpting, singing, dancing and acting all over the place. One of my favorites was this guy that looked like a business man on the move. He was pretty funny and the crowd around him was huge. He just stood there nice and still, but looked like a guy walking in the wind! He would raise his eyebrows with every tip he got.
The Vatican City was pretty amazing to see. You could see it way off in the distance but nothing compared to standing in front of it.
One of the last sites we saw was The Trevi Fountain. There were so many people here that I had to wait for the crowds to move just so I could stand in front of the fountain. Again, simply amazing. I read that the fountain collects around 3,000 EUR a day just from people wishing into it! That's awesome! I think we did really well for seeing Rome in a day, but there's so much more to see and I can't wait to come back!
I had the honor of shooting a portrait session for Barb Jennings at her home here in Santa Barbara. Her property is so beautiful so we had fun running around shooting on the grounds.
Santa Barbara Engagement Session for Bubu and Marcus!
I had a ton of fun running around Santa Barbara yesterday shooting an engagement session for Bubu and Marcus. They're such a fun couple from Costa Mesa and they're getting married up here in Santa Barbara next month.
We started up at the Santa Barbara Mission, ran into David Caruso from CSI: Miami (being a tourist at the mission!), trekked down to Alice Keck Park where 5 different bridal parties were getting pictures done and finally wound up at beautiful Butterfly Beach in Montecito where the water was so incredibly warm!
Here are a few favorites!
Here is their slideshow and to see the show full screen, go here. Enjoy!
I wanted to share this email from my good friend and business partner Melissa. The pictures are amazing!
The subject of the email was... Wildflowers in honor of an innocent squirrel.
"I went to Figueroa Mountain in Los Padres Forest above Los Olivos yesterday for a little solitude (spa health people!). The hike was great, but I think biking would be better. The wildflowers are at their peak and I thought you would like to see a few good pics -- looking at the photos makes you want to frollick naked in the fields, doesn't it? Well, maybe the thought of ticks or poison oak scares you, so maybe not. Aside from running over a squirrel in my miata, it was a great day -- not too hot, not too cold and really nice views."
During the WPPI convention in Las Vegas, I had the honor of being one of the photographers at a boudoir shoot sponsored by Flosites and Pixel2Canvas. Brittney Palmer of Las Vegas was one of the models for the evening. She was such a doll and an absolute pleasure to work with.
Brittney, call me anytime if you need any photography work done! Here are some of my favs.
I had the honor of doing a portrait session for the Bulov family this past weekend, right on Rincon Beach just south of Santa Barbara. I've known Mark and his wife Amanda for almost 9 years now. They moved away and just recently moved back to Santa Barbara so when he gave me a call and asked if I was available to photograph their family reunion, I said of course; I would've moved mountains to be available. My good friend Karen was in town so it was perfect timing, 2 for 1!
They are such an amazing family and they took us in like long lost children. I couldn't thank them enough for their hospitality. Here are a few of my favs.
So, I've been in Las Vegas this past week attending WPPI, the largest trade show in professional photography! WPPI stands for Wedding & Portrait Professionals International. It was amazing! It's all about networking, education on the latest and greatest in the industry and one of the biggest perks is that it's way too much fun!
I have many things to blog about like new products etc. but here's a photo from a photo booth at the Bludomain party. They went all out at this party being held at the Parisian Palace with casino tables, tattoo artists, a hypnotist and even a tarot reader!
The folks at Bludomain are an amazing bunch of people.
I just wanted to let everyone know that my re-designed Santa Barbara Wedding Photography website is up and running so if you get a chance, visit the site and let me know what you think! www.rickymia.com
The Tammy and Spooky Dan Wedding at the Houdini Mansion in Los Angeles, California
I was a 2nd shooter for Karen at one of the most unique weddings of last year. Tammy and Spooky Dan were married at the Houdini Mansion in Los Angeles, CA. The mansion itself was incredible but what made the event so awesome were the friends and family that were there to celebrate the Goth wedding.
The details to this Goth wedding were pretty amazing. There were corpses laying around the grounds, skulls for centerpieces, guitar hero on the TV, body parts in the pool, Frankenstein and his bride were on the cake and more!
Here are some favs to show how awesome the wedding was...
I didn't think I had these images with me to blog about them but I did! Just before I left, Kacie Jean and David Jay had a PUG/Christmas party and it was held at David Jay's house. It was way too much fun! Thank you DJ for having us all at your new home. Lots of good food, drinks, heated competition on the Nintendo Wii and most of all, people. I saw friends I haven't seen in a while and also made some great new friends.
Here's a little collage of fun pics from the party!
My niece, Sarah had her Girl Scout graduation this past weekend at Alice Keck Park in Santa Barbara. I didn't realize how large of an organization the Girl Scouts was until this weekend. Since Sarah has lived in Europe for the past 4 years, she's participated in the Girl Scouts over seas so she has some badges that the other girls don't have.
When they graduate, they call it bridging so they all walked over the bride at the park to signify their accomplishments! I had to look all of this up online! haha
They all sang their songs and when Sarah walked across the bridge, she had to recite the Girl Scout Promise and Law. She's such a rockstar, I was so proud of her.
Jordan was a little rockstar too. Here he is, the little brother at his sisters Girl Scout Ceremony surrounded by what else.... girls! haha He kept himself busy with his scooter doing jumps the whole time!
