Christine and Donovan envisioned a more traditional and romantic e-session so we met at the Stanford Campus last week for their engagement pictures. Wondering around Stanford Campus, we discovered a tiny hidden park, Kingscote Gardens. We all knew right away we had found our first shooting location…

Christine and Donovan were a bit camera shy at first… I say this to all the couples out there: it is quite normal! I myself am a very camera shy person But, what I like about the camera shy couples, is that they get so tender with each other, their expression is vulnerable and sweet, and a lot of their personalities actually still come across in the photographs… So camera shy people, don’t despair, your shyness will make you giggle and the sweetest expressions will be captured on camera. And as you can see it didn’t take long to Donovan to warm up… this was one shot only, we got it right at the first jump

While we were spending time together shooting and getting to know each other a bit, Christine told me she took Donovan to Michael’s on their first date, he had never had ice-cream before! So of course, we went straight to eat gelato together there, you have to try their Chocolate Marzapane!!

Allison and Brian celebrated their love earlier this month with a lavish ceremony and reception at The City Club in San Francisco. See my absolute FAVORITES I posted earlier this month in a sneak peek. I joined Allison at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel were she prepared surrounded by her family and bridesmaids… I fell in love with her dress and hairstyle, so very 1930s! Her beautiful, soft gown is designed by talented local wedding designer Amy Kuschel and hairstyle by Cheyenne Kratz from Salon801 San Francisco.

Following my advice, Allison and Brian decided to shoot photos before the ceremony… they just wanted to enjoy their party after their ritual… Before we headed out to sunny Embarcadero with their wedding party, they spent a few moments alone when they met for the first time…

This is their first kiss, and then many others on the Embarcadero…

And while I was in the company of Allison and Brian for some romantic moments, my second shooter Nellie Guerrero took this fun shot of the Wedding Party.

We arrived at The City Club in time for some formal pictures with the family, more photos with Allison and Brian and a well deserved 30 minutes break for them before the ceremony would start.

Mazal Tov!

All these amazing colorful floral decorations and bouquets were prepared by Laurel Ann Winzler.

The cake was prepared by Celebrity Chef and Executive Pastry Chef of Scala’s Bistro/Sir Francis Drake Hotel Tim Nugent, also Allison and Brian friend.

And for many more emotional and fun moments from the reception, I invite you to stay tuned for Allison and Brian’s slideshow coming up in a few days. Last but definitely not least, many thanks to Jamie Furman, close friend of Allison, and Catering Sales Manager at The City Club, for all her help coordinating the day!

I love the time of the year just before the Holidays cause I get to see all my favorite clients and catch up with our lives… It’s great to see the kids grow up and how they seem to have each year more fun taking pictures…Last year the Connerys loved their Vintage Christmas photos… and this year they proposed to shoot at Cavallo Point in Sausalito, but they didn’t expect I would be intrigued and inspired by the grungy walls of the warehouse nearby rather then the luxurious buildings of the resort But my fantastic clients indulged my creativity and I had a lot of fun editing my favorites… Hope they like it too!!

This past weekend I had another great experience, teaching  the basics of photography to a group of talented moms. I am always surprised of how much fun it is to teach photography. It’s great to see my students build confidence in their skills and have lots of fun shooting, once they figure out how their camera works! I love to showcase their work, take a look at their talent!

These are Ivy’s pictures, two really nice portraits of her son Ryan!

Here’s Michele having fun with her happy model… love the tilt and the off center framing and the choice of background without distractions!

and a tender moment captured…

Stacie brought her dog along… isn’t this puppy the cutest?! Great composition!

Stacie caught an action scene playing with a fast shutter speed!

Lisa caught this precious action portrait of her daughter Audrey… Not easy to capture a fun moment and still have a perfect composition!

One of the advices I give while teaching  is to constantly look for a different prospective while shooting, don’t be static move around… I love this pose!

Here’s a good example of a shallow depth of field you can achieve with setting your camera in Aperture Mode and choose your f-stops…

Here’s another interesting composition by Lisa..

which can be a bit more dramatic and spooky adding the appropriate filter in Photoshop…

Tracy captured this wonderful expression of Lisa’s daughter!

and worked on her composition skills…

and was very excited to learn how to shoot in backlight!

After our afternoon outside shooting on Saturday, on Sunday I ask my students to bring what they consider their best  shots and the worst.. The one below was among Nkia’s list of unsuccessful shots, but I actually like it very much! It is a bit underexposed, but the energy and composition is so good that it can’t be dismissed! What is it more important then to capture an emotion while you shoot?

Nkia also experimented with backlight in this lovely portrait of Noah, our adorable model… and while I was busy checking on my students and teaching, Noah’s mom took a few pictures of our students and post them on Noah’s blog.. yes, Noah’s a young blogger

The time just goes too fast when you’re having fun.. Thank you Ladies for a very fun weekend…

I look forward to another round of “Through your Eyes”.. If you are interested in participating, please send us an email at dany@danieladegrassi.com and we’ll put you in our mailing list and alert you when you new dates are set.

I am very happy the weekend is approaching.. it’s my second time presenting “Through your Eyes” workshop for moms with cameras, but really, is open to whoever is interested in an ‘introduction to photography’ class. We are SOLD OUT for this class! If you are interested in attending in the future, please contact us at danieladegrassi@gmail.com. We’ll alert our mailing list whenever we’ll have a new date set. And, we are exploring  the very exciting possibility of offering the workshop in SEATTLE!!! So stay tuned for more exciting events, it’s gonna be a busy 2011!!!

Pictures are forever precious moments… What better time then Holidays to create special memories and share them with loved ones? Pictures make great gifts… besides being the most popular way to wish Happy Holidays on a Holiday Card. Have you booked your Mini Session with Daniela Degrassi Photography yet? Call us at 650 759 6020 to reserve your 30 minutes mini session in the Palo Alto area. We’ll give you a free high res to create your own card design.  But we also have customized design to help you make your holiday card even more special. Check our Christmas Special Menu Bar to check out our Christmas Special dates! And here a few favorites from past Portrait Sessions…

Last May I photograph Zoe for the first time.. five months later, we meet again, and she was as much as a happy child  she was earlier this year… We even attempted a few snaps outdoors before the sun would peak through the clouds…

I love the portrait below, it looks like Zoe stood still on purpose, giving this regal pose, it probably lasted a second or so, before she was up and running on her sofa again

And, magic of filters… her pink dress becomes red in this version:

This past weekend I witnessed Allison and Brian‘s wedding at the glamorous venues of The City Club and Sir Francis Drake downtown San Francisco. It was the perfect location for their 1930th style lavish wedding. Here’s just a few favorites… more to come soon of course… stay tuned!

This is one of the 6 fun collages that I created for my listing on MyWedding.com. MyWedding.com is a fresh, classy and helpful resource guide for brides and grooms to be. Unlike many of the resource websites out there, they offer free wedding website hosting for all the engaged couples out there.

And to check out the other  5 diverse and colorful collages in my photo gallery please visit our brochure on MyWedding.com. A big thank you to MyWedding.com Sr. Business Manager Kathy Nordstrom for being so efficient and pleasant to work with.