I could not have been more surprised to learn I was to receive the Paul Harris Fellow recognition from the Pacific Grove Rotary Club. The award, named after Rotary founder Paul Harris, recognizes service and contributions supporting Rotary’s mission of “Service Above Self.” I am very grateful to be part of such a welcoming and community-minded group of people here in Pacific Grove and am very humbled by it. I have not previously felt this desire to serve a community like I have since purposefully moving to Pacific Grove a couple of years ago. I will do what I can for as long as I can for PG.
Thank you to President Dr. Sarah Frahm and the other board members, and to Tracy for wielding my camera for me so I could be in these photos.
Studio Headshots for a Monterey Actor and Theatre Creative
Lloyd Brewer, also known professionally as LJ Brewer, came to my Pacific Grove studio for an actor headshot session. Lloyd is a local actor, performer, creative, and co-owner of Paper Wing Theatre & Supper Club on Cannery Row in Monterey. Lloyd had ideas for his headshots, but we were also very freewheeling in the studio seeing what worked best. For the first time, a client brought their social media consultant to a shoot! So it really was a team effort in creating the look of all these headshots for Lloyd. We set out with a goal of making a series photos that show a range of emotions that can open up Lloyd to roles other than villains, which he said he often plays. His Instagram profile name is even “reluctant_villain.” It was great working with Lloyd and his social media consultant, and very interesting to also see their own process for choosing the final photos from the session which we did in studio at the end of the session. Good luck in New York Lloyd and thank you for choosing me as your headshot photographer!
A Dog Park Grand Opening Video for Del Mesa Carmel
This was my third video shoot for Del Mesa Carmel working with Odeli, and each one has been very different! The first video showed the highlights of a guest room, the next was a drone video showing the entire expansive property, to now this one, of the grand opening of a newly renovated dog park. There were vendors in attendance and food offered to note the new and improved place for the community’s dogs and owners to meet up at and play. As you can see in the video, the dogs seemed to really like it! My goal with the video was to show a number of things, from the vibe of the event itself, to the renovations made to the part showing some of its new, unique features, and of course to capture some wagging tails and dog on the loose activity. I was happy to be invited back to Del Mesa Carmel for making video of this special community event. Thank you to Odeli for helping with the shoot and for continuing to choose me as your videographer, photographer, and drone pilot!
A Complete Business Photo Session for a Local Pacific Grove Accounting Team
I came to know Travis through the Pacific Grove Rotary Club. In talking he expressed an interest in updated team headshots for his accounting team, as well as some “better than stock” candid photos of the team in action. I said I would be very happy to help out with that when you and the team are ready. Well, they survived tax season this year and we scheduled a date for me to bring the mobile studio setup to his office, which is actually only walking distance (if I didn’t have to bring so much photo equipment) from my own photo studio. It took a bit of creative setup to make the best use of the space for headshots, but in the end I was able to figure it out and make the same great headshots I do for all clients whether it is at their location, or at my downtown Pacific Grove photo studio. We moved on to make a couple of group shots, then some candid business portraits, or as I call them, “better than stock” images, which required a little bit of acting on their part which they seemed to enjoy! Thank you so much to Travis for choosing me as your photographer. It is always great to work with a fellow Rotarian too! And thank you to first time photo assistant Theresa, for helping with this multi-faceted shoot and getting that BTS (behind the scenes) photo of me below.
A Windy Monterey Peninsula Golf Round with Friends Visiting from Georgia
When Lindsey first contacted me about Monterey peninsula golf photography for her husband Travis, and his friend JT, no one would have been able to guess the unbelievable weather that day! I was worried about rain in the days leading up to it, so never thought to check the wind. Only a few rain drops on the 18th hole, thankfully, but the wind! It was hard to walk against it when it gusted, and was at 30mph+ sustained nearly every hole. Despite this challenge, Travis and JT still played well and I was able to make the same range and quality of golf photography shot I was able to just one day earlier when I was also on the course with another client and the weather was absolutely perfect! So you'd never know from looking at the photos they were playing in essentially tropical storm level winds. As you can see in the one photo gallery below, their spirits remained up and it was still ultimately a great round out on this special golf course. And if they ended up in sand traps a few more times than they would have, that just made for more dramatic photos like the one above! Thank you to Lindsey for finding and choosing me as the golf photographer for Travis and JT, all of them visiting from Georgia!
Dr. Jamie has been a fantastic client since she started her dental practice in Pacific Grove earlier this year. I first met her making headshots for her and her team, then photographed her grand opening ribbon cutting event, and now have had two photography lessons with her and her team. Dr. Jamie asked me if teaching her team is something I would be able to do, and I said yes, absolutely. I have taught hundreds of 1-on-1 lessons, but also some team / group lessons too so I had the photography teaching experience with only a need to look into the specifics of dental photography.
I helped Dr. Jamie pick out a camera and lens and lighting system. She pointed me in the right direction about a dental specific camera mounting lighting system, and after a little homework, I was able to confidently recommend one to her that offered a lot of flexibility. She ended up getting the same camera I use and also a macro lens I already had too! This made teaching the camera pretty simple since I am very familiar with the camera of course!
I was impressed by her and her team’s ability to learn how to shoot in manual mode quickly, and then become comfortable with the logistics of getting photos of patient’s teeth in not exactly the most natural shooting positions as you can see in the above photo!
Thank you Dr. Jamie for continuing to choose me as your photographer!
A new Pebble Beach location for Corvette Z06 Auction Photography
I have photographed several cars for auction for Brian of Peixoto Auto Group in the past. They were all his client’s cars (a Lexus, a Mustang . This time though, it was much more personal as his very own Corvette Z06 Convertible was to be in front of my camera! Add to that we were trying out a new location and the variables that brings, I wanted to be focused and make sure I delivered once again for Brian a set of photos that will really drive the bids up when he lists it on Bring A Trailer. The new location was a spot I had considered for a while, the large turnoff area on 17-Mile Drive called Bird Rock. There is a lot of space there, so even if it had some tourists, there would be space. Well, there were way, way more tourists there than I thought, in fact at one time 3 bus fulls!! Not only that, the local wildlife was getting in on the action. While trying to get a low angle shot, I see appear right under my camera a squirrel very much unafraid of me and looking like it wanted a snack! I said sorry buddy, no food, only a camera — haha.
