For a while now I had been trying to talk my clients into doing a shoot at the pumpkin patch.  And while I don’t think any of them hated the idea, the problem was that most people want to use them for Christmas cards.  And I see the hesitation; it could be slightly odd to send out Christmas cards with a pumpkin in them.  Well recently this wonderful family agreed to my pumpkin idea.  I really enjoy Halloween so I thought it would be festive you know?  We went to a place called Bates Nut Farm; I have only heard of by name and have never actually visited.  Well this place is pumpkin mecca! Everywhere you go PUMPKINS! Problem was it didn’t feel very fall like, it was more like high eighties and summer like.  Nonetheless it was an extremely popular destination and I’ll have to add it to my yearly Halloween activates right up there with watching all my Halloween movies.

This family is actually friends with a past bride of mine, she had told them about the special I was offering on The Daily Save and actually joined us on our shoot.  She proved to be a big help in getting the little Carter to smile-so thanks Julie.

Happy early Halloween everybody!

I believe these pumpkins were actually called Fairytale pumpkins.  I loved them they had this vintage pumpkin feel about them.

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This is little Devin, poor thing was asleep when I got there but with all the moving him about he woke up. But he behaved like a champ and I was able to get some lovely shots of him.  He was only about a week old too, so this was his first photo shoot, I’d say he did pretty well for a first timer.

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Can I just start by saying these two were total fun we had great conversation (talked about everything from my sad lack of followers on Twitter to Express having killer coupons) completely relaxed, good time…but I think they were trying to kill me.  Alright not really but the location they chose lent itself well to maybe doing just that.  It was a beach in the Del Mar area but it was down these bluffs that just by looking at them you wouldn’t think walking down them was even possible.  Dena and Shane both assured me that they had done this before and with surfboards non-the less! I just had a hard time not banging my camera into the rocks.  But aside from the getting down there and back up everything went smoothly.

These two met at a mutual friend’s party.  Dena had just went out on not such a hot date and was gonna call it a night but decided against it and ended up at the party Shane was at.  This was in 2007- the day of a Chargers-Patriots playoff game.  Shane was there in his Chargers jersey and Dena had on her Patriots jersey well instantly that was a conversation starter.  Shane said he liked her cause she wasn’t afraid to give him crap in his choice of team.  She even went home to get her Patriots hat to prove her love even further.

Have fun in Costa Rica you two!

Oh p.s remember you said Myspace is some “hook up” site now?  You’re right I went on there the other day (only to find a bands page to hear a song) and there was this new link saying “looking to meet someone new” so good call on that!

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I felt like I had already met these two before.  Something about them just reminded me of friends that I have, so instantly I was on a relaxed level with them chatting about this and that.  Probably talking too much I would be talking and then go ohhh ya photos! I suppose we didn’t just come her to chitchat.

The location was a new one for me and I really liked it. I always thought college campuses would make great locations to shoot, on the weekends their relatively vacant of people and there is some great architecture at the campuses in San Diego.

Josh is from LA and Jaimie from the Lodi area (how embarrassing is this I told her I have heard of that place only because I might have watched The Girls Next Door once or twice…but not the new ones! Just with Holly and the others) OK don’t judge I never said it was good!

Anyways for a time they were both living in LA and never met until they each came to SD for an internship in accounting.  How cute they both do accounting! Josh proposed to Jaimie on the Santa Monica Pier apparently under some “shady circumstances” which meant there were just some questionable people around so he proposed to her and immediately shuffled them off to another location- can’t say there is no character in that proposal story though.

You were right Jaimie you both took direction well and were great!  Also remember I told you my cat loves me too much?  As soon as I got home she had to get on my lap at the computer (and is in my lap right now).  So there you go, now you know there are cats out there as affectionate as dogs.

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After I shot Rachel & Laura’s photos in La Jolla I knew that I had to go back there, there were just too many great spots to shoot at.  And go back there I did! With Charise and Josh a very beautiful couple.  I mean really they have this model look thing going on and were so comfortable with each other in front of the camera.  It’s like I wasn’t even there as they interacted with each other and just had fun.  Oh and can I ask does anyone else thing Josh has a little Jake Gyllenhaal look about him?  This didn’t hit me until after the shoot, and I thought yes! That’s who he looks like.

Anyways the only negative thing I can say about this shoot is that there wasn’t enough time!  I could have photographed these two for over an hour but the sun was not on our side.  Charise had brought some really fun props to the shoot, which I thought was great.  I’m all for clients who want to jazz up their photos with personal objects.  She had brought a trunk to use but unfortunately we just didn’t have enough time.  Good news is though we have talked about setting up another time to do a shoot and utilize that fabulous trunk of theirs.

This shoot was interesting because it let me experiment with a new style which was night photography.  We kept shooting even when the sun was down utilizing available light, which is not how I usually shoot.  But it was interesting and I got some shots I would have otherwise not have gotten.

Real quick note on my favorite quote of the shoot, Josh is From Florida and Charise from Northern CA.  Well they came to know each other through mutual friends but weren’t in the same state.  So as we chatted about them and how they met I asked Josh “So why did you come out here?” (not knowing if maybe work or other reasons were at play) he says “To marry this girl” Aw that melted my heart.  LOVE IT!!!

You could tell the were just so comfortable being goofy with each other

complete professionals!

This is about when it started getting dark…

I loved these stairs but there was a locked gate.  Good thing is a student happened to be going in there a few minutes after we were shooting on the other side.  He was very sweet to let us follow him in.

This was one of the available light shots.  I kinda like the moodiness about it. It’s different and speaks to the individuality of this shoot!

As if that wasn’t enough here is a slide show of some of my other favorite images!

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