Creating on Location in Real Time for Branding Portraits
It was great to collaborate with Nefertari for her branding shoot right in her therapy office for Heart & Mind in Monterey. She wanted to feature the office itself as the background for her branding photos, that also showed her as a friendly and welcoming experienced therapist. We found creative ways to show she works with children, by having a case of toys out of focus in the background, for example. We also went outside her office using some natural light areas in the building that resulted in a photo of her looking out into the distance that I really liked for establishing a therapist brand. Not looking into the camera for every photo is something I recommend to clients. Thank you Nefertari for choosing me as your branding photographer!
I always find it very curious how things work out in my photographer career. After nearly three years since I transplanted my photography business to the Monterey Peninsula area, I had never been to Carmel Valley Ranch. Then all of a sudden, twice in August I have two events of two evenings each within two weeks of each other! It was enough that the valet attendant now knows me. For this pair of evening events, Storck USA contacted me about photographing an incentive trip for 17 of their top sales performers. The first evening was their welcome dinner, which started with everyone mingling outside as the sun was dropping behind the hills. I took the opportunity to get a group photo of everyone just before the sun disappeared after making many candids of everyone catching up. Thank you to Rachel and Storck for choosing me as their event photographer!
AA Construction is still one of my newer construction photography clients, but I have already had the opportunity to photograph several of their in progress job sites around the Monterey Peninsula (including this aerial drone job site). The latest shoot for AA Construction was totally different because it was a finished, completed interior renovation, no saw dust to worry about getting on the camera lens! The renovated kitchen in this Carmel home required removing a wall and adding a clear glass divide. I showcased this new open space in a few photographs before showing off the work and materials used in the kitchen itself. Two renovated bathrooms were next to get renovation photos of with a huge glass shower in one and a free standing tub in the other to highlight. Thank you to AA Construction and Andrew and Mandi for continuing to choose me as their photographer and drone pilot!
Photo shoot inquiries usually come from my contact page or by a phone call, but this one started with frisbee! Felix is a long time frisbee friend, recent summer league teammate, and someone I have watched live music with around PG, and who I have seen him play live too! When the band he is in needed a new collection of photographs to promote and market themselves, downtown Pacific Grove gave us the setting to create group branding portraits that showcased the full range of personality in the band and among all the band members. I was glad to produce photos that they can can pull from for upcoming performances, social media, websites, posters, press, and wherever else they need to visually represent the band.
This was my second year (check out year one) in a row judging the Pacific Grove Concours Auto Rally, and this time as an official member of the Pacific Grove Rotary Club! One thing I definitely learned from judging the car show last year is that I needed to be much, much quicker at it. There is a limited time window for judging all the cars assigned to me, and then going and talking with the other judges for choosing winners. I did not do the math at all last year and never made it to all the cars. This year, I knew not every car needed a full, deep level consideration if it did not really fit one of the ribbon categories, and if I knew it would not be a candidate for any of the three overall grand prizes.
This was actually not my first time photographing an event inside the underground parking garage at Asilomar Conference Grounds! Another similar event with cars, a DJ, and artists was my first time one+ year ago. This time though, for Monterey Car Week 2026, it was an event called Night Rider, featuring low rider and classic cars, lit up colorfully. As guests moved between the cars, a DJ spun vinyl records, and car-inspired artwork was being created on site. The team at Asilomar created another unique event. Thank you for inviting me to photograph it!
Three Years of Photographing the Porsche Monterey Classic
This was my third year in a row (see the second time) attending the Porsche Monterey Classic, an event that for me has become the unofficial start of Monterey Car Week. After already photographing it twice, the challenge this year was trying to see the same crowded dealership, service bays, and rows of Porsches in a different way. At a car show like this, I am certainly not the only person walking around with a capable camera, and with so many people packed around the cars, making photographs that feel different can be difficult. One thing to be different was bring my Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM lens and shoot it wide open at f/1.4, which gave me a different way to work close to the cars while still showing some of the environment around them. I also kept looking for foreground elements, very low viewpoints, and compositions that you would not normally see just standing next to a car at eye level. Did I find completely new angles compared to last year, or even two years ago? I do not know, but trying to find them is part of what keeps photographing the same great Car Week event interesting for me.
