An Irishman's Birthday Poster design

I was recently commissioned to design a poster for a friend's Birthday (gone unnamed)... Little did I know it would turn into a nine-hour photoshop intensive assignment.
I was approached by a local cadre of Irish SF Socialites, all mutual friends of the birthday boy, who wanted to commemorate the special occasion with a limited edition of posters given to party guests. Easy, I thought.
Well, the design request called for "a fighting leprechaun dressed in a green tuxedo, conjured into reality by the birthday boy through a psychedelic array of flashbulbs and sparks in a fantastic character-come-to-life comic book cover look and feel".

I've had numerous request to share the design online.... Here it is! whew!

Note: all images used were sourced from an iphone camera. Yah! seriously.

Sense Yountville 2010

SENSE Yountville 2010, the quintessential event showcasing the amazing food and wine in Yountville, and this time the first weekend of May (normally reserved for The Kentucky Derby) has been indelibly marked on the calendar of events in the Napa Valley... photographer's note: I've made the Yountville scene as a local/photographer for the last 20 years, and I have never seen a celebration like this!
The stars have aligned for the Town of Yountville over the last year, and Sense Yountville has officially made its mark. This is not to be missed in 2011!


Grilled Morel mushroom, skillfully prepared by Sean O'Toole, head chef at Bardessono







THE Bob Hurley in his "perenniallyartfuloffering" of Wild Boar... This is one of many dishes that Bob has mastered and I will always set my camera down for!



Paul Jeanty serving up a pork loin topped with foie gras, designed to knock your derby hat off...

Bimbo's 365, a San Francisco original

We covered a private event last week at Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco, and some of the details are worth sharing here. Bimbo's has been a San Francisco Institution since the 1930's, and just about anyone who considers themselves a "San Franciscan" most likely has some fond, distant foggy memory of this place. In my years as a photographer, I've covered no less than 100 parties here and I've never really seen a bad one.





Catering was through Small Potatoes Catering Co. of San Francisco.


The cover band "Notorious" always puts on a great show! A fun group to hear and watch!
They cover Def Leppard like no other band in town, which is sure to get the 35-40 crowd out of their seats.

It's Rainbow Season!

Driving through Shasta National Forest over the weekend, we spotted this amazing rainbow, and made a quick exit off the highway.
With the perfect combination of rain and sunlight, it's definitely that time of year to catch a full rainbow. Carrying our camera (with polarizer filter) ready to go at all times, we had been waiting a few years to catch one this perfect!

San Diego in February, ahhhhhhhh!

You can say all you want about Southern California, but when it comes to weather you can't beat it!

It's Corporate Conference Season, and we spent last week in San Diego for a Tech Industry Client covering four straight days of various awards ceremonies, tech demos, sales and developer breakout meetings, etc.. This type of photography requires you to spend most hours of the day inside Hotels and Convention Centers with NO windows!
You'd think that being in February we wouldn't mind, but this was San Diego! The weather was amazing and we had just enough time to catch this sunset photo on our final day wrap-up.

Carrie & Tim's Wedding details

This Year's first wedding for us was in Scottsdale, Arizona, and was a great photographic start into the New Year!



The Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale is perfectly designed around the desert environment, from the moment you enter the lobby until you walk into your room, and all points in between. Every amazing view of the terrain down to the smallest cactus becomes a detail to the guest framed by the architecture. As photographers, Kate and I couldn't have asked for better natural lighting, and we spent most of our time covering 'details' from the weekend.



Carrie and Tim had the perfect weather at the perfect venue, and couldn't have guessed that the sunset would turn out to be the "Best all Year" according to the Hotel staff.

The perfect sunset for the perfect marriage!

Our photos showcased on StyleMePretty...

We received word over the weekend that our recent photos of Christina & Jeff's amazing wedding in Sonoma (see June 2009 post "Christina & Jeff's wedding") has been featured in the hugely popular StyleMePretty blog.
It's no surprise that Christina & Jeff's wedding made the impact it has- it had everything going for it: A beautiful couple, an incredibly picturesque venue and one of the best wedding planners in the industry, Amy Nichols.
As we stated in our original notes about the wedding, "Christina & Jeff had all the luck and love in the world, which made for constant chances to to capture those defining shots."