Robert Valdes Wedding Photographer San Francisco Bay Area

Marisa and Joe got married at the fantabulous Spinnaker Restaurant in sunny Sausalito, CA. I’ve shot quite a few weddings at the Spinnaker in my 20 year career. I’d say I’ve been there at least half a dozen times. I’ve always tried to get on their preferred vendor list for wedding vendors. Maybe with this truly amazing wedding I photographed, I can finally achieve this goal.

The day actually started with a bridal prep coverage at a nearby hotel. After that, the ceremony AND reception commenced at the Spinnaker. If you are ever in town, Spinnaker Restaurant has the best seafood in Marin County, period!!!!

Marisa just left me a glowing 5 star review on YourBridalPlanner.com. Please  click here to read it.

AND THEN CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE GALLERY OF WEDDING IMAGES FROM THE WEDDING OF MARISA AND JOE AT THE SPINNAKER RESTAURANT IN SAUSLITO!!!!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE GALLERY OF WEDDING IMAGES FROM THE WEDDING OF MARISA AND JOE AT THE SPINNAKER RESTAURANT IN SAUSLITO!!!!!

Kari and Shawn are the most wonderful couple who got married at the Wente Vineyards in Livermore, CA. I had the pleasure of recieving their inquiry. At that time, I was still advertising on TheKnot.com so the found me through that wedding web site. I made the numbers work for them which resulted in us commencing to do business with one another. Here are some of the fantastic wedding photos I took at Kari and Shawn’s wedding.

Please note that I like as much natural light as possible. I take a more ‘ORGANIC’ approach with my wedding photography.

OK I have to admit, that I don’t own this lens. The father of the bride, believe it or not, was the owner of this awesome Nikon fish eye lens. I would kill for this lens. But I guess I got lucky because I didn’t have to as he didn’t have any problems with me using the lens through out the day.

I do like fish eye lenses so the reason I don’t have one has nothing to do with a dislike. In fact, I can’t think of a reason that I don’t have one, other than I have never gotten around to ever buying one. I have plenty of space in my carrying case. I do have a nice wide angle that doesn’t do the fish-eye thingy….ok I’m starting to go off in a tangent….’nuff of me ramblin’ – on to the pics…

As you know we always try and film the bride coming out of the limo and going into where the wedding ceremony is going to be. This pic is taken in front of St. Joseph’s Cathedral in San Jose, CA. LOL my associate is in the background there taking the bride as she walks up. I could have easily erased him from the photo. Probably, if the bride chose the image for an album he would be erase. But for my purposes here it’s not crucial.

Wedding photo from inside of St. Joseph’s Cathedral during the wedding ceremony. The fish eye really came in handy on this one. I’m glad the father of the bride let me use it.

St. Joseph’s Cathedral has an incredible dome on top. This truly is one of the most awesome’ist churches I have ever had the privelage of shooting a wedding. Keep in mind I also got many close ups but for this purposes, I mainly wanted to show off the fish eye lens.

Details shots….gotta love them detail shots…….

The groom was looking quite dapper. So by now we are at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose, CA. Actually right down the street from the church. It’s so convenient that everybody walks from the church to the Fairmont for the wedding reception. I found this nice little spot just out of the North Entrance on the side of the cause-way. The lighting was quite good. The groom had an nice, organic, natural look about him.

.

Ok so now inside the Fairmont Hotel’s Club Regent Room. It’s just to the left as you enter the Hotel from the main entrance. This room has a stage and is quite large. I believe it holds about 300 guests. LOL, I just checked their web site and my guess was correct. It fits 300 guests. Here is a blurb from Fairmont’s web site

Club Regent
The 3800-square-foot Club Regent is octagonal-shaped and features a built-in stage. Slightly elevated balconies circling the perimeter of the room provide excellent sight lines to the stage below. Greco-Roman murals grace the walls to create a very unique and versatile space. Perfect for meetings up to 300 guests.

These are the kinds of quick and dirty shots I get as I cover your wedding reception. I know the term ‘quick and dirty’ sounds derrogatory, but what it means is simply, that I don’t spend alot of time doing these types of shots. In fact, I’m bascially just making the rounds of the room…..snapping away.

I don’t own the fish-eye, but if enough of my brides request it, I will invest in one. The wide angle I do have is nice as well. You would get similar angle and similar quality to what you see here.

awe, those detail shots of the wedding cake. I try and always use natural light. After all, I bill myself as an ORGANIC and edgy wedding photographer. Which means, I like things natural, including the light. Of course I use flash too, but the trick is to make it look natural.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of the fish-eye lens along with wedding images of St. Joseph’s Church and the Fairmont Hotel, both in San Jose, CA.

Here’s a jolly ‘ole wedding I found that I photographed waaaayyyy back in 2006!. The exact date was Saturday August 26, 2006. This was a great wedding that started with Groom’s prep and Bridal prep at the Hotel St. Claire in San Jose, CA. It’s common for couples to get married at St Joseph’s church [where this couple got married] and have your reception either here at the Hotel St. Claire or up the street at the Fairmont Hotel.

In any case, Joanna & Joseph had their reception at the Fabulous Hotel St. Claire, a venue I have been proud to work at least a dozen times in my 20 year career. Here are some of the amazing wedding pictures that I took that day. If you would like to see more, please send me an email and we can make arrangements to meet and for me to show them to you. Comments to follow pics, enjoy…..

We began with pictures of the Groom in the Lobby of the Hotel.

Yes, this is a good idea.

The father of the bride. I always strive for natural poses in a natural setting even if the setting is unnatural.

The bride expressed to me that she really wanted to see the details of her dress.

The girls are horsing around before the wedding.

I love getting organic and natural journalistic wedding shots such as this one below.

The mother of the bride passed down a ring to the Bride. It was a very emotional exchange.

Some poses over by the window. I use natural light whenever possible to achieve a more organic nature to me wedding photographs.

Ok so now we are over at St Joseph’s church in downtown San Jose, CA. The church is right up the street from Hotel St. Claire. It s a beautiful church with a huge DOME. I have been fortunate enough to work here at least a dozen times in my 20 year career as a wedding photographer.

It gets pretty dark in there and they do not allow any flash for the ceremony. Most catholic churches do not allow flash for the wedding. However, from this far away, a flash would not do any good. I rely on my FAST lenses and steady hand to get little stolen moments such as this.

Ok, this shot is up from the balcony. Sometimes, they don’t open the balcony so I was happy to get these from the top.

After the wedding I took them over to this little square PLAZA like area, I forgot what it’s called. Anyway, this was a fun couple and I got many natural style wedding photos.

So back at the Hotel St. Claire. This is a picture of the front of Hotel St. Claire from across the street.

The room looked fabulous as usual. The Hotel St. Claire has a great wedding and banquet manager.

A shout out to my buddy Adrian from Sound In Motion DJ’s. I worked with this guy many times. Him and his partner KING RAFFI. We’re all old timers in this biz…lol

The first dance of the bride and groom were very emotional. I got a combination of close ups [like this one] and wide angle.

They cut the cake and that was pretty much the end of the night.

I hope you liked all these wedding photos from way back in 2006. Just goes to show that I have been doing great work for many years. My style has changed a bit from this time. And I have a new camera since then. So my quality is much higher now as well. But I think it’s great to look back every once in a while. It’s important to know where you been, in order to have a clear vision of where you are going!

These are some of the latest wedding pictures I have taken at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Burlingame, CA. I have worked at this hotel for 20 years now and was lucky enough to get on their preferred vendor list very early on in my career. At that point in my career I didn’t even think of pursuing getting on any lists, I just got lucky because one of the banquet manager’s there liked me and put me on the list.

At any rate, I work there alot. Here are some of my latest wedding photos from Kay & Voltaire’s wedding in February 2010.

They had their ceremony at a different location. Later, I will be posting the wedding video and more of the photos from this fabulous wedding!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE PHOTO GALLERY FROM THIS WEDDING

I dug up the black and white film files from that wedding I was talking about at the Auberge Du Soleil. Here they are, let me know what you think.

I got hired to be the wedding photographer for a wedding at the Auberge Du Soleil in Napa Valley.

Napa Valley is stunning enough but when you get the Auberge you are even more stunned as the view from the Balcony is nothing short of incredible.

This wedding was actually from a few years back. I was surprised to find it wasn’t on my blog. I think it got lost in the conversion when I switched servers a couple years ago.

I really enjoyed this bride. She was up for almost anything and instructed me to get as EDGY wedding photography as possible. I like it when a Bride trusts her wedding photographer enough to give him full creative license. Hence shots like below.

The kids DESTROYED the designated ‘kids room’. A wedding should always have a ‘kids room’ especially if the wedding is more lavish and high end and held at a place like the Auberge.

Pictures [among  other things] were falling off the wall.

I actually got a whole host of different styles of wedding photography at this wedding. What I have shown you here barely touches the tip of the ice-berg in terms of what I acheive time and time again, without FAIL on EVERY SHOOT!

I think if you are looking for pictures of a wedding at Auberge Du Soleil than my blog is a great place to start! Here’s a link to some more wedding photos taken at the Auberge Du Soleil Napa Valley.

Special Thanks to all the other wedding vendors that helped make this date a success!

Wedding Video Slow Motion recap from Deer Ridge Vineyard in Livermore, CA

This is a wedding I photographed back in 2007. Sarah and Joel at the Crystal Springs Golf Course in Millbrae, CA. The wedding division of the Golf Course is run by Wedgewood Banquet and Event Centers. They operate a handful of wedding venues in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.

They have a really nice facility there for both your wedding ceremony and wedding reception. The ceremony takes place out aways up at a Gazebo as you will see in the pics. The reception is indoors back at the venue. It’s very easy and convenient to go from the ceremony site, to the reception site.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE GALLERY OF WEDDING IMAGES FROM WEDGEWOOD BANQUET

Here is a great web site to help you plan your wedding day. YourBridalPlanner.com specializes in weddings and wedding vendors, reviews and much more. Vendors register for your FREE vendor listing. Brides and Groom’s register for your free account to make Quote Requsts from vendors, make a wedding website or publish your Real Wedding.