Robert Valdes Photography

Cinta Salon in San Francisco, CA is a popular place for brides to get their hair done on their wedding day. I recently had the pleasure of taking wedding photographs for a bride who was getting her hair done there. It’s rare that a bride wants this type of coverage, so I was excited at the prospect of capturing an additional element of the bridal day of preparation.

This is a wedding at the Deer Ridge Vineyards in the Livermore Valley. The sun was really doing a number on my exposures so I had to be extra careful not to blow out the highlights. Fortunately, I shoot in RAW format which gives me some leeway in post to make adjustments.

These are some really nice wedding photos I took of at Elizabeth Gamble Garden in Palo Alto, CA. This is one of my favorite couples whose wedding was in January of 2010. I took the couple here  after their ceremony for the photo session. Their wedding was not held at the Gamble Garden. But there reception was close by over at the Hong Kong Flower Lounge in Millbrae, CA.

I got  lucky with the lighting that day. It was raining all day and then there was a brief moment where the rain stopped. The rain clouds that weren’t raining provided a really nice soft light for the pictures. I didn’t have to use any flash for any of these shots.

Let me know what you think! You can see more shots like this on my award winning photography website!

I was doing some clean up and stumbled across this old photo of me taken with Cardinal William Levada and Cardinal Ricardo Vidal. This photo was taken in 2004 at a photo shoot I was doing for Monsignor Fred Bitanga, whom I got to know so well because I was doing alot of wedding photography at St. Patricks Catholic Church in San Francisco, CA. Monsignor Bitanga was retiring and the even was his 40th Jubilee. In attendance at the event were his very esteemed aforementioned colleagues. At the time William Levada was the Archbishop of San Francisco. Enjoy!

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Like other industries, the wedding market is full of would-be scammers. One of the biggest scams us vendors need to watch out for are the EMAIL, cashier’s check scam. They’ve been trying for years to scam wedding vendors [POSING AS WEDDING PLANNERS] with these cashier check schemes which often involve sending a cashier’s check for more than the amount and the vendor refunding the difference. I hope by now that wedding vendors can tell a scam from an email that LOOK LIKE THIS, or similar to this.

The scammers are getting smarter of course. This latest email spam, scam includes Names and Addresses. Here is the Email I just received.

The first sign that this is a scam is the FROM email address. If it were a legitimate email it would be from the WEDDING PLANNER’S domain. The second is that the FROM email address doesn’t match the NAME of the person emailing. Also it is a YAHOO email address. If this were a PRO wedding planner it would be from a domain. The third sign this is an email cashier’s check scam is that the address given where the wedding is going to be is not a wedding site. It is a gas station or something. I used Google Maps to find this out. Fourth the English is TERRIBLE…with sentences like this Sequel to my findings , i heard you a one of the competent photographers around .

You can read the email and pick apart things such as this

cos i need to know if its within my budget = A true wedding planner would not talk like this, any mention of budget would be if the CLIENT can afford it, not using the words MY budget. and words like COS. Looks like a teenager wrote this.

There are many Grammer and punctuations mistakes in this email. And finally, if it so urgent, where is the telephone number or name of the company that is at stake? No web url to refer to show this is legit.

PLEASE, if you get an email like this DO NOT EVEN RESPOND. At the very least you could end up with a virus or something in the next email.

One of the advantages of having my own video crew is that I can often get some great shots of me in action! Through out the year I have accumulated footage that I have personally edited to create version 2 of my promotional video.

Version 1 of this video was first produced at the end of 2007 so the footage was quite old and I was 30 lbs heavier then as well. You can tell the new footage because I wear a BLACK GLOVE on my grip hand. I call it my POWER GLOVE and it does nothing else but give me a better grip on the camera and the padding on the glove reduces hand fatigue so I can shoot longer and more controlled. I still have some old clips in the video that I will one day replace. You can tell the old clips because I am heavier and I am not wearing a glove. I also do not have the big white dome thingy on my flash in the old clips.

At any rate, I hope you enjoy this new version. Please leave comments and let me know what you think!

I saw an old friend of mine at a recent wedding. What a blast. I was shooting a wedding at the OAKHURST Country Club in Clayton, CA. The classical guitarist for the ceremony was none other than MARK ABDILLA. Mark and I go way back in to the early days of 1980’s melodic rock. We were always in rival bands but the respect and acknowledgement of each of our respective talents was always evident. Well, maybe not the respect….LOL

If you need a great classical guitarist for your wedding I strongly recommend Mark. You can get in touch with him through his website.

http://www.markabdilla.com/

Here’s a sweet, tender moment I captured from a wedding back in April 2009, at the Terrace Room in the Lake Merritt Hotel @ Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA. It’s moments like these that really show my instinct for capturing deep, emotional moments between the couple, family and friends as well as the guests.

I was in a meeting with a potential client when a good question was asked of me. The topic had to do with what I refer to as the ‘general and forensic’ moments of getting basic posed formals on the altar after the ceremony. You see, myself as well as other photographers typically do not promote these images in albums or online portfolios. Photographers [and I'm one of them] are often guilty of trying to impress viewers with their more artistic and creative images. However, I do feel that these photo sessions are critical in the sense that these ‘forensic’ shots are absolutely necessary for the family as it captures this moment in that family’s history. In fact, it’s rare to photograph a wedding that does not require any posed/formal shots.

So the bottom line was how do I capture these moments, what’s my approach, etc. My approach is the same as the rest of the day which is relaxed and in control. I use my extensive lighting experience to deliver HIGH END images of these required moments. I often use the backlight to enhance the images and I always use soft artificial light [flash] to liven up the subject matter[s] face. I feel the lighting on the face while not as creative as using ambient or existing light, is necessary to show the person. I feel that since the picture is more forensic in nature, I do not have to be so creative with the main light.

So check out these posed formals on the altar and let me know what you think. I feel that my technique, quality and style are a cut above and that if you hire me you won’t be disappointed with any aspect of my work including the standard poses.

I had the pleasure of working with Christina Felix Hair Artistry. She did a great job on all the lady’s hair. I have a gallery up of images that Christina likes and has added to her portfolio. Click here to see the Gallery.