Although I don’t often watch award shows, I was delighted to get an invitation to Matt and Karie’s Fourth Annual Oscar party. Even their entry table was perfectly coordinated and detailed. While I knew I wasn’t going to get the prize for most correctly predicted Oscars, in part as I hadn’t seen that many movies nominated this year, I knew it was going to be a great time and I was right. One of the coolest parts of the party was having a small but vocal group react to the nominees, entertainment and speeches. It was kind of like being in a Mystery Science 3000 episode, though the TV show wasn’t that bad, though there were moments of pure groaning from our audience. 

While I was right that I didn’t win the prize for the most correct answers (copies of all ten movies nominated for best picture, I didn’t get the least amount right (3 in this case), either. I predicted 11 right, not bad considering I’d gone off of things I’d heard about the movies, or the the cases of some of the documentary and foreign categories, titles I liked. 

Our host Matt, read off the winning name, left, and it turned out to be his sister, Raeanne, right. 

Although I’ve lived in San Jose for a number of years, I’d never been to Hawgs Seafood Bar until this week. When my Dining Around the World Group picked it as their spot of the month, I couldn’t wait to try it out. I had the oyster shooters and the dungeness crab and prawns angel hair pasta.

On Saturday a few members of my running group decided to run a new route, all over pavement/concrete through Silver Creek Valley Road and along some beautiful golf club, country club and residential areas. It’s a testament to my desire to get new photos and have new running experiences that I went, as it was billed as 7 miles with huge hills.

The first hill at the beginning looked especially daunting. You can see how steep it is by comparing how big the houses are in front, with those near the top of the arch. We ended up walking a lot of this hill and did the run/walk/run pattern mainly after it, with some walking at the end of our route as well.

In the middle of our run it was pointed out to me that Highway 101 was underneath us, so I took a photo of that as well.

This wasn’t a particularly significant place on our journey, yet the arches framed the palm trees and bikers so well.

Though I knew the preserve would have falls, I didn’t know the extent of how vast they would be (I don’t usually research Meetup places in advance on purpose to be surprised and have a fresh pair of eyes to view and photograph locations). Still when our group came to the impressive set of manmade falls (right), I thought the natural ones would be even bigger (perhaps I was picturing something more common to Hawaii). The actual natural falls (left) were more subdued, yet were especially beautiful surrounded by all the lush greenery of nature. 

That being said the manmade falls themselves were surrounded with greenery and made a nice photo opportunity showing natural and manmade beauty all at once.

One of the best parts of taking this hike as a guided tour was that we learned history of things along the way. I learned that this amazing patterned rock was originally part of a mountaintop formation, which explained its uniformed structure. I photographed this from many angles before finding just the right one to show it off.

I was delighted to learn that Harold Davis, a renowned photographer and author, was on the trip with us. While he adapted a hollowed out log to hold his tripod, I took a photo of him with some aspects in silhouette form. In post processing I experimented with making all of him a silhouette, however, I think this version is the best of the moment. 

Along the trip our guide spotted a salamander which everyone wanted to photograph. Though we tried putting him on a fallen tree for photos several times, which s/he promptly moved off of time and time again, the photo of him or her in the native leaves, ironically where we had spotted the creature, was my favorite of the series I shot.

As you can see in the first photo the decorations were absolutely amazing. At one point early in the evening all power went off and all the lights went down. Though power was quickly restored I took this photo of a centerpiece in candlelight.

These amazing and intricate designed Nouvelle Vogue dresses are a tribute to stylish eras gone by with a modern twist to them. They were a perfect addition to the library. I gave the photo a Polaroid inspired processing action to celebrate and reflect their mood.

The three excellent DJ’s from Spintronix had helped create just the right musical atmosphere for talking and partying.

Since I have so few in action photos of me, and very few in a dress I made sure to ask Amy Frugoli of Twitterpated Weddings to take one of me.

The party was definitely the place to be. Even well behaved canine Ellie came out to help celebrate the launch.

At the end of the night, Izzy’s founder, Melissa Bagley, of Melissa Ann Bagley Photography (shown in the first photo on the left) with her good friend, Allie, gave out some amazing raffle prizes.  I had a wonderful time at the party meeting people and reconnecting with some industry friends.  I can’t wait to see more issues of Izzy.

Reverend Jeri Murphy will be the officiant at the first ever Wish Upon a Wedding granted wedding wish of Florence and Michael on March 13th. In this short video, she talks about her role.

Reverend Jeri talks about Wish Upon a Wedding Charity from Danielle Stolman on Vimeo.

Wish Upon a Wedding is a wonderful charity that I am delighted to be a part of. If you know anyone who is facing a life threatening disease and would like to get married (both straight and gay couples are eligible), please direct them to to the request page. If you know a wedding vendor, particularly one that runs a venue, is a disc jockey or officiant, who would like to be a wish granter, please direct them to the wish granter page.

Congratulations to WUW, who reached 5,000 fans on their Facebook page, during their week of WUW Awareness.

Since my last Topical Tuesday post, I attended three new first ever/launch type events. The most recent was yesterday’s Dream Wedding Show bridal fair in Sacramento to promote Wish Upon a Wedding, the nation’s first wedding wish granting organization for brides or grooms facing a terminal disease. 

On Friday I attended the launch party for Izzy Magzine, a new online bridal magazine for unique and independent brides. I really love the theme of the magazine and have at least one bride coming up this year whose wedding might be perfect to submit for this. I was especially happy that the party was in Villa Montalvo, which had coincidentally been the site for the Wish Upon a Wedding launch party in January. The party started at just the right time, 6:30 p.m., and the dramatic sky provided a great contrast for the multilit structure. 

The outside photo will serve as just a small sneak peek of the event. Inside the even had a lot of style going on, and I’ll be blogging all about the party and including many photos I took on Thursday.

The last launch event I attended last week was the Bay Area Wedding Photographers and Wedding Professionals Get Together Launch Party at Motiv (pronounced motive) in Santa Cruz. I love Santa Cruz, it’s a beautiful town, there are almost always musicians playing outdoors (my favorite was the flute player who was simultaneously jogging and playing), great places and people, and parking easily findable. 

I’ve never been to Motiv before. Our well packed party took up the whole top floor private room, and we even had two bartenders pouring us specialty drinks including a chile margarita which was just the right amount of spicy. The room was a great mix of familiar faces and new friends to meet. Many of the attendees were photographers, and I met wedding planners, florists and DJs as well. Everywhere I went people were smiling talking and happily posing for photos. 

If you are a wedding event professional, please join us for our next get together, on Thursday April 1, 2010 (seriously) at Vbar at Hotel Valencia.

The last two Topical Tuesday photos of the week, were just finds that I found were very funny. The first one was on a truck I saw in the parking lot for Motiv. I’ve always loved this saying a lot, and the particular way the condition of the sticker and the truck is, really drives the amusing slogan home.

The second one just cracks me up. It caught my attention at a Burger King in Vallejo off the 80E where I stopped for a quick breakfast on my way to Sacramento to support Wish Upon a Wedding at the bridal fair. I noticed it as I’d just attended the Silicon Valley NACE meeting, “Pairing Port, Wine and Chocolate” a few weeks ago. While I’d never considered these food items as paired in the same way, it does make a bit of sense and is so unique that I uploaded it to my Facebook page and even had one person asking if this was a real photo, it sure is.

Introducing Wish Upon a Wedding Press Release

America’s Only Wedding Wish Granting Organization! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE San Francisco, CA December 21, 2009 Wish Upon a Wedding is a brand new nonprofit organization, dedicated to granting weddings and civil union ceremonies at destinations across the United States to couples facing life-threatening illnesses.  The organization will begin accepting applications for Wedding Wishes in mid January, 2010. Founded by wedding planner, Liz Guthrie of San Jose Wedding Consultants, with the hope that no couple should ever be denied the chance to marry the one they love, Wish Upon a Wedding is the only organization of its kind in existence today. By calling on a regional database of wedding vendors known as “Wish Granters”, the organization will be able to grant five types of weddings (from simple to more elaborate), some in as quickly as 48 hours.  How quickly the services are granted, and how detailed the weddings are, depends upon the Wish Recipient’s health condition. “Many couples cannot afford to get married, due to overwhelming medical bills, particularly those who have been battling life threatening conditions, sometimes for many years, ” says Guthrie.“Often a person is too sick to even leave their hospital bed, or they may be in hospice care,” explains Guthrie, “If their last wishes include marrying their partner who stood by them through their most difficult times, we want to help make that dream come true. What better way to celebrate love than with their closest friends and family, in one of life’s most significant ceremonies?” Four chapters will be ready to grant wishes in early 2010, in the following locations: San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Orlando. Industry leaders who have joined the cause so far, by leading chapters across the country, include renowned wedding planners Sasha Souza (Founding President), Samantha Goldberg, Elisa Delgardio, and Kevin Covey, and author Sharon Naylor. Official website launches January 15, 2010. For questions email info@wishuponawedding.org .

Yesterday, Wish Upon a Wedding attended its first ever bridal show, The Dream Wedding Show in Sacramento in a space donated by its organizers Buzz and Sue. I was thrilled to be able to drive up from San Jose to help its founder, Liz Maudsley Guthrie, and San Jose WUW Board Member Amy Frugoli, with their booth.

Amy and Liz decorated the booth with some great decorations in the WUW colors. The booth had a serious and simple feel, allowing brides and vendors to come talk to us directly about the message of this great group, matching couples in which either the bride or groom had a terminal disease, with a beautiful wedding day.

The blue matching details were so well coordinated that some brides and even grooms stopped by just to look at them.

It so happens that WUW’s first bridal show ever, this one, was held at a location not too far from the Hilton Elk Grove Inn, which is where our first wedding wish to be granted, that of Florence and Michael will take place.  Steve Baker and his daughter, Candice, owners of Grace Vineyards and catering company, Fresh & Quick Catering, will be providing the food for the event.

The WUW both was right across from that of Romantique Weddings, owned by Amanda Gall, a Certified Wedding Planner.  Here is a photo of their stunning both and Amanda, one of her client brides, Mandy, and her assistant, Nicole.

February’s Silicon Valley NACE meeting at the Golf Club at Boulder Ridge in San Jose, had my favorite theme thus far since I’ve started attending meetings, Pairing Port, Wine and Chocolate. As usual the details were amazing with even the plates at our tables bearing a chocolate lollipop favor, and themselves being a chocolate color.

One of the first things that caught my eye was the chocolate display outside. It was amazing seeing all the colors and textures that were created just using chocolate. All of these intricate displays are made entirely of chocolate.

These photos were a little tricky as they were taken outside at dusk with little outside light. Still I was able to capture some intricate details with my camera.

There were so many beautiful pieces that it was hard to pick a favorite. Since I could decide on one here are my two favorites, the cigar case (even the box and the cigar are pure chocolate and the chocolate jigsaw puzzle. The former is popular at bachelor parties, the latter make great favors for all kinds of parties and even bridal show giveaways.

Inside the room was absolutely amazing. We learned during the meeting that the cards hanging from the lights were antique Valentine’s Day cards.

After a wonderful dinner it was finally time for dessert with our special lecture. For chocolate each table was brought a box of truffles to share. My favorite was the white ones – white chocolate with honey and hint of lavendar. It was interesting learning which ones worked best with white and white which with red, though I did think the red wine brought out the best of all of the chocolates even the white one which is best paired with white wine. It was a great evening with fun, networking and great tastings.

The images above are familiar to me, taken from Asri’s makeup application, by her talented makeup artist, who happened to be her sister, Sami, for her Indian wedding, and in fact one somewhat like the top one is in my portfolio link above in the wedding slideshow. These photos are unique as they are the first two to be in my blogsite with a specific actions on them from The Totally Rad action set.

It was suggested to me this week on a photography forum that I belong to, the Digital Wedding Photographers (DWF), that I check out this particular action set, and the above photos, both quite different from the original were made just from the ones in the sample demo (the first to bring out certain colors and highlight certain parts of the photo, the second to have a sharp Infrared film like look), then with a few small finishing touches of my own in Photoshop, are my first results.

This was also the first week I’ve tried using the More/Cut tag in my blog so that it both makes the length of the blog shorter and allows clients and visitors to see all the topics from five days at one time, and scroll quickly to ones they are most interested in. Yet another great suggestion from a fellow photographer. It’s great being in communities where others are so willing to offer advice from experiences.

I couldn’t resist trying one more portfolio photo with the action set, so here is one of my favorite engagement photos ever with some actions to really bring out the texture of the fountain in front of Sonny and Lindsay.

A photographer friend outside of the DWF group commented that my watermark looked nice and clean. I’ve been toying with the idea of trying to get a more complex logo designed to go where the current NSSL rectangle is, after all it was taken literally from the former framing design I used even before I started the blog this January, yet as for now, I’ll be keeping it as is. That being said, if anyone knows any great logo designers please let me know, I may be looking to get it redesigned later this year.

The Silicon Valley NACE group had their February meeting, entitled “Pairing Wine and Port with Chocolate” at The Golf Club at Boulder Ridge in San Jose. I’d been looking forward to this meeting for a long time, both having had other plans during the January meeting, and liking the topic subjects. The view of the Club and their surrounding areas show why this is a popular place to reserve for weddings and events. 

The inside was breathtaking as well. On Friday I’ll check in again with some photos of the amazing decorations and chocolate at the meeting.

The invitation to come photograph the belly dancing show at Dance Center in Capitola made the even sound like just the right combination of challenge (no control over the lighting, no flash allowed, choose and remain in one spot during the performance) and fun (beautiful and intricate costumes, elaborate movement, artists on both sides of the lens). It was a night for me to use the shallow Depth of Field of f2 with my 35 mm lens, and the highest ISO speed on my Leica, 2500.

With the placement of the mirror, I was able to catch Sabine, and her shadows at many different angles. I found out after the show that she has just recently begun belly dancing. It made her spirited dancing all the more remarkable.

The first dance was extra special as it featured many dancers and colored gels over the lights.  Other numbers had only one dancer and most had the sultry reds dominating as the light tone.