Robert Valdes Photography

I had a great time working with Emily and John yesterday for their E-Pics. They chose the fantabulous location of St. Vincent’s Church grounds in San Rafael, CA. Click here to see a video of a wedding we did at St Vincent’s Church back in 2008. Here is a sampling of some of the pics. We came away with about 100 great pics. As part of EVERY E-Pic session package, I will clean up each and every one of the ‘keepers’ and send high resolution versions on disc to the couple.

If you would like to see more of these e-pics [engagement session images], please log on to my website.

here’ss my favorite pic o’ the month. ENJOY

p.s. u can c this entire wedding gallery from Clos LaChance on my website

We use to call them after wedding photo sessions. Somewhere down the line, someone coined the phrase Trash The Dress because of brides who would do things they wouldn’t normally do on the wedding day for fear of getting the dress dirty. The TTD is usually done before the dress is cleaned and packed for storage. So hopefully it didn’t get too dirty on the wedding day.

Anywho, this particular couple, David & Janice had no intention of trashing the dress [try saying that ten times fast!!!]. But they did want some really nice, traditional posed shots at the Legion of Honor and the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, CA.

To see more of these images please click through to my WEBSITE and click on PORTFOLIO

Here are some really nice client selected images from the wedding of Tina & Landon. The wedding was held at the Half Moon Bay Golf Links. I took over 1000 images that day. If you would like to see more I have a gallery of 83 images on my website. Click here to go to my site, then click on GALLERIES and scroll through the choices. You will see it there.

Nicole and Sam are a wonderful couple who got married at the San Rafael, CA EMBASSY SUITES hotel on McGinnis Parkway. If you are going to shoot a wedding entirely indoors, then this is the hotel you want it to be. All of the elements came into perfect play and the stars were certainly aligned. Great wedding location, great looking couple [oh the bride...don't get me started WOW!]. You will see by these wedding pictures that they had the most wonderful time and truly enjoyed their wedding day!

The day started with the bride coming down the elevator to meet the groom. I call this my ‘FIRST GLANCE’. This is something that I set up prior to knowing that the couple wishes to see each other prior to the ceremony on the wedding day.

Keep in mind that I take over one thousand wedding images on your day. So what you are seeing here is only the TIP OF THE EYEBERG so to speak. The good news is that since the wedding albums run 20 to 30 pages, it is very easy to pick out only your favorite pictures…like what I have done here….

Believe it or not, this was only me shooting. I didn’t not have an associate photographer with me this day. Even without, I am still able to get many different angles for the bride.

Ok, so after they had their first glance and exchanges kisses and whatnot, we started doing posed shots. Their bridal party was quite large, which is why we started a few hours earlier. We managed to get all of the posed shots out of the way before the ceremony. This means the couple is able to enjoy the wedding more and mingle with the guests during the cocktail hour.

What a lovely couple.

This is one of my trademark shots. Well not really but I do this angle a lot.

Did I mention that the groom is PERSIAN? I love doing Multi Cultural Weddings. I learn a lot about different ethnicities and cultures. Experiencing it first hand like this really takes you off to another place. The power of love and spirit is AWESOME!

The bride comes down the aisle! I take MANY shots of this sequence! And I love seeing the grooms reaction! Even with the first glance, you can feel the emotion on Sam’s face.

Got some great journalistic shots during the ceremony. They exchanged such passionate looks. I felt a shiver going down my spine. Well, maybe more like a tingle.

Below: one of my favorite shots! Persian weddings are much fun.

The ceremony ran for about 45 minutes. The kiss at the end was very passionate.

CAN YOU FEEL THE JOY?

After the ceremony, we did some really quick shots outside. However, the couple really wanted to enjoy their wedding so we didn’t spend more than 10 minutes taking a few shots in the natural light.

The ceremony was off the hook. Anybody that knows about Persian weddings knows that the dancing is insane. And everybody knows the words to all the songs! Lots of arms in the air and everyone having the best time! I actually even sang some karaoke. Unbeknownst to the bride, when they played the Journey song, Don’t Stop Believin’, I grabbed the mic from the DJ and was singing it too. Some people didn’t notice but when they did, they were like…. YAH… YOU GO GUY!

The couple truly had a wonderful time and it’s weddings like this that make me want to do this again and again. After 19+ years I still have not lost my LOVE OF being a wedding photographer.

I took almost 1500 shots of the wedding. I will be posting more RECEPTION shots later. This is all I could gather for now.

Sean and Christine are a great couple who really got me excited about working with them. They were enthusiastic from the get-go, and the E-pics session earlier in the year turned out spectacular.

Here’s a few of my very favorite wedding images from their special day.

The ceremony was held at the Church of the Assumption in San Leandro California. It was a great church to shoot a wedding. Not too much ambient light but just enough on the altar.

The reception was at a place called Murietta’s WELL Winery
 

They were really looking forward to my edgy style, so I took it to the limit. I came away with some of my most stunning work.

This shot below will most likely become my new “MARQUEE SHOT”

I am able to capture the mood and essence of your wedding in LOW LIGHT while still getting crystal clear images with little to no blur as I’m not dragging the shutter so much, in favor of using a higher ISO which the new digital cameras handle VERY WELL!

For the dancing, using a backlight can’t be beat. I always get great background in my images which makes them standout above the rest.

Keep in mind this is only the very best of Sean and Christine. I shot literally a thousand pictures. If you like what you see here, I would love the opportunity to show you more. So please contact me right away as my availability for 2009 is extremely limited.

Contact me if you want to see all of the journalistic wedding photography from this wedding. I can show you the cake cutting, garter and bouquet toss or any other shot.

Here’s a few pics of Peter and Jennifer’s wedding at the Mission Santa Clara. This is a wonderful place for a wedding. The lighting is decent and there are plenty of angles that you can get.

DUDE, THE BACKLIGHT FLASH IS AWESOME FOR THE BRIDAL MARCH!!!!

Make sure the photographer you hire uses a BACKLIGHT FLASH!!!!

How’s this for no flash in a dark church!

Tech: 1600 iso, IS lens. f2.8 @ 1/30th

My style combines standard shot with photo journalistic shots like this one below. I can even get more creative if the bride wants!

Like I said, my style combines journalism with the standard poses. The standard posed and formal shots are very important because the Parents and family members always want them. I will give you some pretty darn good posed shots like the one below.

I bring alot of extra lighting and this is where my assistant comes in handy. I use strobes as well as my lightstick as a backlight. Here, I used the backlight flash to light up the brides veil.

I will always find the best light when doing outdoor stuff. I try and stick with all natural light outdoors with a little off camera flash if necessary.

Peter’s a nice guy. We got along great!

I like the low angle and use it often.

I think it is important to point out that very little processing was done to these images. I did color correction and that’s it! You can rest assured that your raw images will look good enough to use for any purpose. Going a step further by processing is simply icing on the cake!

Wente Vineyards is a very popular place to have your wedding in Northern California. It is not uncommon for me to shoot at least 3 weddings here in a season.

Angela & Rich got married here in 2008 and these are some of the wedding photos that I took.

These night time shots were taken at the The Mountain Terrace in Woodside California.

I absolutely love taking night shots when I photograph a wedding. My backlight flash or ‘light-stick’ as I call it, enables me to get shots that would otherwise be impossible. This is just one of the many benefits of using extra lighting when shooting a wedding. Using only camera flash generally produces adequate at best results. Ambient light is always the best, but when you mix in a little off camera lighting, you can get some AMAZING RESULTS. And interestingly enough, I still travel very lite! All my equipment fits in one bag, and my assistant carries the light stick[s] and any other strobes I may have that day.

Please take a look at my night wedding shots and let me know if you like them! I would love to hear from you.

The Ruby Hill Golf Club is a great place to have your wedding. The wedding photos that you can get there far exceed that of a standard hotel or wedding hall. This is the 6th time I have been to the Ruby Hill. I love shooting weddings there and can’t wait to go back. I’d like to share some of my favorites with you now. I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

We started off with some shots of the bride in the ready room.

The ceremony took place on the back patio.

The groom held his composure for most of the ceremony. But underneath his rugged exterior, a mountain of emotions were about to explode.

The ceremony ended with a passionate kiss.

We took some posed pictures after the ceremony

The reception in the lower ballroom is spacious with a huge dance floor.

Speaking of dancing, the bride and groom had a wonderful choreographed first dance.

here are some of the detail shots I got through out the day.

Before I left, I took the bride and groom for some of my famous wedding photographs both inside and outside the venue.

As you can see, my use of a ‘light-stick’ to back light the subject [and front light at various times] elevates my imagery to a higher level, vs imagery with simple on-camera flash. Morevoer, my assistant is invaluable in facilitating the use of the light-stick.

I strongly urge ALL brides to commission a wedding photographer who uses additional lighting off camera, vs. one who is only using on camera flash. Also beware of photographers who use no flash at all, relying on only ambient light, which means they have to use higher iso settings. The latter often results in poorly lit imagery and dark circles under the eyes.

Of course, natural light is always the best, and I always use the natural light to my advantage, whether by using it 100% or by augmenting the natural light with additional off camera lighting.

Ultimately, you will be the judge in deciding what type of imagery you prefer. Just keep in mind that with me as your photographer, you will have a virtual plethora of options available in terms of lighting and photography styles.