jessiechophotos.com »

See more pictures from Laura & Colin’s wedding

Laura and Colin’s wedding was set at a family friend’s home atop a hill in Los Gatos.  The sweeping views of the valley below were breathtaking and the wildlife seemed quite domesticated since deer and wild birds gathered as the wedding went forward.  As the shuttle buses started to arrive, Laura with her bridesmaids came first.  Laura was beaming with excitement for her big day and was very enthusiastic about getting ready for her big day.  Her dress was lovely and had one of the most unique bustles on a wedding dress that I’ve seen so far.  Colin was next to arrive and my husband made sure that he didn’t see Laura before the ceremony.  Colin was very gung ho about getting some photos done before the ceremony with family and friends was super easy going.  As we shifted from spot to spot taking photos, the sun began to set which was nature’s cue to start the ceremony.

Colin’s father officiated a touching and humorous ceremony which kept everyone’s attention.  With the sun almost down, the candles started to shine more brightly which casted a beautiful glow around the reception.  It grew a little chilly as the night progressed but the heat lamps kept the party warm.  Both Laura and Colin’s fathers made touching speeches as well as their siblings which drew laughter and tears from everyone.  It was very apparent that Laura and Colin were meant to be together and as the night went on, you could tell that they had both their family and friends full support too.  An elegant first dance and a energetic dance floor continued late into the night with a finale of a live performance of “At Last” by a family friend.   And as the music faded out so ended a beautiful wedding but was just the start of Laura and Colin’s beautiful life together.

{text by Jeff}

I spent a great afternoon recently at Amy’s house to photograph both Jackie and Josie.  This is my second time photographing Jackie but the first time for Josie.  I think that compared to weddings, it’s more of a challenge to photograph kids since they’re pretty tough to keep still for a second!  Jackie seemed much quicker than last time since she was a blur in her pink dress while running away from me most of the time.  After a little bit, she settled down and I was able to get some cute pictures of her. I then went inside and took some pictures of Josie.  I think that photographing kids can be captured in the following:
Challenge:

1) Toddlers like to run away as fast as they can and they sure are fast!

2) They can shift emotions pretty quick which makes it unpredictable at times

3) Unless you have candy or a toy, cooperation can be difficult at times

4) Unlike a wedding, staged shots can be nearly impossible

Rewards:

1) Their playfulness is priceless

2) Seeing them grown up is awesome

3) Impossible to direct = true emotion = priceless

4) Is there’s anything cuter than kids?

I noticed there were a lot of black pepper sized ‘dots’ by my tomato plants. I had no idea what those were until Jeff told me those looked like caterpillar poop. I did not see any caterpillars on the plants until Jeff screamed right next to my ear (although he never admitted that he screamed..), then without knowing what was going on, I screamed out loud as well. Yes, he kindda freaked me out.

We found 3-4 these cool looking caterpillars on my tomato plants. The basil and the parley were unharmed since the caterpillars were not interested in those. Later we found out the caterpillars are called ‘tomato hornworm‘, which is a typical pest found on tomato plants. I quickly grabbed my camera and took few shots of this gigantic caterpillar.

Unfortunately Jeff thought it was not a good idea to keep them on the tomato plant as ‘pets’, so he threw them into our pond to feed the fish….