Robert Valdes Wedding Photographer San Francisco Bay Area

I now have TWO galleries of wedding photos taken at the Embassy Suites in Burlingame. Please follow the links below to view the complete Flash Wedding Galleries.

EMBASSY SUITES WEDDING GALLERY ONE

EMBASSY SUITES WEDDING GALLERY TWO

This was one of those weddings where all of the stars were aligned. The couple were absolutely perfect, their wedding at the Stanford Park Hotel was amazing and of course me and my team did a great job as usual. Here are the links to Jessica and Matthew’s profile on the top wedding web sites where you can read the client testimonial for my amazing wedding photography and wedding videography.

Project Wedding Web site

WeddingWire.com

YourBridalPlanner.com

Click here to see Jessica and Matthew wedding photos on my blog.

12/30/2009

LOL this one goes way back. I’m really reaching back in the archives now. I have worked at the Grand Island Mansion 8 times in my 20 year career. I’m surprised how I got booked for a wedding that far out off the beaten path. And trust me, it is a drive along a long dirt road that parallels the delta. It is a nice trip during the day, a little scary at night when the fog blankets the entire area. Anyway, I was working quite a bit there for a while. One time, I was there back to back weddings Saturday, then again the next Saturday.

This wedding took place back in the very early days of digital photography. The black and white you see here is actually TRUE black and white film. What I was doing back then was shooting with digital [in color naturally] and then augmenting the digital coverage with true black and white film. Moreover, this film was 645 medium format.

You can also get an idea of what my magazine style album designs looked like back then in 2003. Not bad, but I have come along way in the areas of wedding album design and creation of the layouts. I know often think of left and right as a single canvas with which to tell your wedding story.

The below images were shot in color with digital, then the color removed from various areas of the picture to give you what you see here. I only mention it because I said I was using true black and white film and for all except the below is black and white film.

I just remembered that they are still using one of my images on their website that I shot at this wedding. I was still known as Axiom Photography back then. I’m going to have to email them asking them to change it. Click here to see the pic that they are still using under CLASSIC WEDDINGS

If you haven’t been to the Ralston Hall in Belmont, CA for a wedding or any other type of special event, you are missing out on some amazing land and property. The MANSION that is the Ralston Hall is so elegantly appointed, it harkens back to the early 1900’s in it’s style and decor.

I feel very fortunate to have been able to work at the Ralson Hall doing wedding photography and wedding videography. I have photographed many weddings there and have shot many wedding videos at the Ralston Hall.

The property is laid out as follows: You drive up a long driveway and see a huge lawn and massive fountain in the front. The wedding ceremony typically takes place out in the front lawn, however in some cases like in the winter, the Ralston Hall has the ceremonies inside the main Grand Ballroom.

The orientation of the ceremony will be dictated by how many guests are to be seated. For instance, a smaller wedding will go straight from the Mansion down the stairs and have your wedding ceremony in front of the huge Water Fountain. For larger weddings such as Sophia & Paul [see picture above] you go down the stairs, make a left walk down, turn right and then back up the aisle so that you are in front of the water fountain but long ways on the lawn.

This wedding at the Ralston Hall was absolutely beautiful. We got many great wedding pictures on this day.

However, my main goal is the show the layout of your wedding reception at the Ralston Hall. So the following pictures are typical DETAIL SHOTS that a second or associate wedding photographer might be shooting whilst the primary wedding photographer does all the family and formal wedding portraits.

Here are some great shots of the main banquet room inside the Ralston Hall. I believe they call it the Grand Ballrooom.

They put the cake in the room that’s just outside of the Grand Ballroom.

Dancing commences in the Grand Ballroom. There is enough room for a band or large DJ set up. The ambient lighting looks very natural and makes for some great backgrounds.

This last shot below is one of my Marquee Shots. I love this shot. This wedding picture taken at the Ralston Hall in Belmont, CA kind of sums up our wedding photography style. Super fine, photo journalistic expee-alidocious LOL

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.

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!