In front of thousands of people and against some tough musical competitors, Noel Kunz was voted by 4 judges ast the best performance at Kollaboration 11's annual show at the Nokia Theatre at LA Live.  This amazing venue hosted some talented performers on Saturday November 5th, 2011 including the headliner Korean Pop Star G.NA (Gina Choi.)  But even with such talented musicans competiting such as Lions Ambitoin, Inch Chua, Emanon Dance Crew, Monsters Calling Home, Afterschoolspecial, Andrew Figueroa Chiang and the Blazing Rays of the Sun, and Dawen, Noel Kunz jumped to his trophy win and prize of $1000!!

Now you might be wondering what dows Noez Kunz do if he doesn't sing.  Well check out his videos here and you'll see why his talents won him the trophy on Saturday.  Noel also also won Kollaboration Tulsa in 2010 so he's no stranger to the Kollaboration Spotlight.   Yo-Yo Wiki and all, Congratulations to Noel Kunz for an awesome win!

More Photos of the show to come so stay tuned.  Or visit Kollaboration's website to stay updated at http://www.kollaboration.org

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3 Hours of fun on the beach then off to downtown Los Angeles for awesome night photos.  Awesome time, awesome couple.  Coming soon!!

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Having known Dave since college, it was a huge honor when he asked me to photograph his wedding and engagement session in San Francisco.  Back at CSU in Ft. Collins, Dave was a genius.  Now?  Well let's just say Dave runs Silicon Valley.  :-)

So I flew up to San Francisco for a day and instantly was sad when I looked up.  Clouds, even a little rainfall?  This was not going to make for good photos.  Then after Dave picked me up and we headed down to Woodside, once we broke the "fog barrier" of SFO, it started to clear up.  It was amazing.  And then at their friends amazing estate in Woodside, I got to meet the beautiful and very friendly future Mrs. Dave.  Shirine was soon to be Dave's better half, and I was happy to finally meet her.  They were truly a perfect couple and so much fun to hang out with.  I wish I had more then just 1 day, but we had to jump right to it.

We wandered around this beautiful area filled with trees, ponds, vine covered walls, and more.  The owners even took out their Audi R8 and let us take a few photos in his 1960 Mercedes 220 SE Cabriolet.  Nice!!!

As we headed off to Downtown SF, we took a few photos at his house with family dog Tucker.  Then a few more at the Ferry Building.  After an amazing dinner at Kokkari we headed out to a bar for some additional cocktails.  With one last find, we got our favorite photo of the night with the Transamerica Pyramid in the background.  An end to a perfect night for a perfect couple. 

Thank you to you both for the hospitality and I can't wait for next year!!

The Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens has an amazing reputation for elegant weddings, beautiful scenery, and just all around nice staff.  I couldn't agree more with all of those statements as I was very happy to capture Grace and Nick's wedding there on July 10, 2010.  Not only were Grace and Nick a fantastic couple, but they had an amazing wedding with close friends, loving family, live performances, a photo booth, and even Boba Tea.  With a perfect scheduled day, we started with getting ready photos, then photos in the gardens.  Both Nick and Grace were kept separate but given 30 minutes with me to capture a few fun wedding party photos before their guests arrived.  The ceremony soon began overlooking downtown LA on top of this gorgeous hotel in a beautiful Japanese garden.  A small water stream trickled through the ceremony site and ended up at a waterfall on the other side near the cocktail hour.  A few I do's later, and everyone was all smiles.

Family photos were taken then 45 minutes of location shots down in the lobby.  Inside the lobby of the Kyoto Grand Hotel was just too beautiful a location to not take a few photos.  Amazing light sculptures on the ceiling, red walls, a piano, and a fairly empty bar made this area a perfect setup.  Grace and Nick are not only extremely nice, but they've got great attitudes and a great sense of humor.  With a few typical romantic shots, we also managed to get some hilarious photos of them acting in their usual fun personalities.  Their wedding party was just as entertaining as they helped make a few of our stylish photos something a little bit different.

Amazing food, Grace's brother as DJ, and Instabooths rocking the props and photos, they continued the night with dancing, drinking, and eating.  I'm pretty sure everyone had fun, and even their friend Vudoo Soul sang a few songs for the crowd.  Great times, great people, and a great location.  Thanks Nick and Grace for making it a fun and smooth wedding day and I wish you both the best in San Francisco!

Event Planning:
Nicole & Gaby - Stacy Porras Wedding Consulting

Photo Booth:
Tuan - Instabooths

Second Photogrpaher:
Erich Chen Photography

Makeup:
Amy

Thirteen years of marriage is a huge accomplishment, especially when I see it in a couple younger then myself.  It reminds me of stories that I see on TV of an elderly couple celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary, and it makes me smile.  I truly believe Hope and Chadd will someday be that couple.

On the day before their 13th anniversary, Hope and Chadd met up with me for their first real portrait session.  They were excited about a photo session since I photographed Hope's brother's wedding, Alex and Corina, last year.  With locations in mind we started around MOCA in Downtown Los Angeles.  As we continued around the area we were quickly informed that the Water Court area didn't allow "professional" looking cameras, but I was free to take photos on my iphone.   sigh....  Do I have any couples out there volunteering to do my first engagement session taken completely on my iphone?  No need to worry about getting kicked out of anywhere!!!  Cause it's the camera that makes me professional, not my website or business cards or skill level.  Anyone??  Anyone?  :-)

So not worring at all about finding good spots, we still managed to walk around the area and find a few hidden corners, stairways, as well as walk over to the Disney Music Center and get some great photos around there.  With a Hope/First St. sign in the back, creativity rushed through our minds, coming up with different angles, poses, and shots around the area.  After an hour, we jumped in the car and headed over to Union Station.

Being probably one of the most visited and popular places for engagement and portrait photos, I wanted to get unique photos that I had never seen before.  There are always the chair shots or the long halway shots toward the trains.  I wanted variety.  So we wandered outside.  We wandered inside.  We jumped around in front of a fountain.  We stood in front of flowers.  And for the finale, we even got permission to walk in the CLOSED section for 5 minutes.  We thanked the friendly and generous security guard and quickly got the photos I was looking for.  Different, artsy, but romantic and elegant.  It was a perfect end to a perfect day for a perfect couple.

Thank you to both Chadd and Hope for being excellent models.  Maybe next time we can do a beach session and include the dogs!  :-)  Cheers!