Victor Sizemore's Blog

Here is part two of the slew of May engagement sessions Then below are two links to engagement albums that I just finished designing. This week and next I am concentrating on wedding albums and will post a couple of those next week.

Rosanne and Frank’s Engagement Book [ CLICK HERE ]
Vanessa and Warren’s Engagement Signature Book [ CLICK HERE ]

The couples in order below are:
Jackie and Patrick – Balboa Bay Club, August
Meredith and Dan – Hyatt HB, August
Janelle and Chris – Winery, Oregon, July

Chris re-built his ’70 Mustang when he was in high school!

It’s always great when everything comes together at a wedding! Beautiful day, Montage, awesome couple, it’s a formula for success… It didn’t hurt having the line-up from Sunday either: Jeannie Savage, White Lilac, It’s All About the Cake, Elysium Productions, James Gang Band, and of course Jaime Snyder from the Montage. Sara looked gorgeous, I loved the stud and bead work on her dress and she finished it with a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes. The details were all there in chocolate and light blue! Scott is originally from Cincinnati so very close to my home. He even had a local ice cream brought in for the rehearsal dinner. Speaking of food and Cincinnati, that’s where my favorite BBQ chip comes from called Grippo’s, check them out online, you can mail order!

So check out some for the shots, enjoy! Please feel free to leave a comment…

Mom helping with the veil

Yes, the image is a little blurry!

You gotta love the details, click on the photo to see larger.

Infrared of the ceremony with overcast sky.

Here are a few sessions that I’ve shot during May and I will post another set within the next week or so. I have been all over for engagement session in the past couple weeks. We have shot in Venice, Hermosa, Laguna, Santa Ana, Pasadena… I’m off to Portland for a few days to photograph an engagement sessions and spend some time with one of my best friends. It’s his little sister that’s getting married on the hottest date this year, July 7th (7/7/07)! Then I’m back home on Saturday for a killer wedding at the Montage on Sunday. Stay tuned for those shots next week too.

It’s always a pleasure working at seven-degrees, each and every wedding is truly different. This time the artwork had a huge impact on the event floor. The large geometric paintings worked well in the background for photos and with the couples decor. Amy and Romeo had a nice Catholic ceremony with Mass in Laguna Beach. Check out some of my favorites…

Last Sunday on Mother’s Day I shot Liz and Peter’s wedding at Palos Verdes Golf Course. We had an absolutely beautiful day! We had plenty of time before the ceremony so we checked out a few locations off the property. One great thing about working there was they turned us loose with a golf cart! Probably not too smart if they knew the way I drive… I got to chauffeur my couple to hole #15 to shoot with this huge tree overlooking the ocean. The sun was in a tough spot so I took a different approach foregoing the water in the background. Check out a few of my favorites from the day.

Do any photographers have any opinions on the above photo? I was trying a new action that I’m in the process of developing. CLICK HERE for the original image.

I must tell you San Francisco is one of my favorite cities in the world and I thrilled to shoot there this weekend. I flew up a couple days early to meet up with some other photographers. Thursday night I had dinner with my good buddy Peter Atherton and on Friday lunch with new friends Ed Pingol and his wife Monica. Friday evening I attended the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The weather kind of scared us, it was overcast and really, really windy! After dinner I went out with Jake a former groom of mine to meet up with some of his friends. We went to this awesome bar which happened to be an old ‘Speakeasy.’ We had a reservation and we had to have a password, you would never even know the bar existed from the street. The clandestine entrance was a tiny unmarked door on the side of a black wall, no sign, nothing! Anyway, the password was “milk-toast”, for those of you not familiar with the term. Milk toast is actually a dish with buttered toast served in milk , but in the country we subtitled cornbread for the toast and then sometimes added black pepper and onions. It really is yummy with good cornbread! So the expression “milk-toast” came to be know as a softy or pantywaist… Back to the bar. The ambiance was awesome; a super high ceiling covered with stamped tin, romantic chandelers, dark wood, mirrors, and molding ran throughout the place. The drink list was huge featuring a special concoction nightly! The most fascinating thing to me was a second bar which entrance was hidden behind a bookshelf built into the wall. Appropriately enough the bar was called the ‘Library’. The Library had a total different vibe with books to the ceiling, chill music, no seating it was definitely a place to socialize.

Saturday the weather cleared up for us but it was still a bit windy. The wedding took place on Treasure Island which is on your way to Oakland across the Bay Bridge. It’s a phenomenal view of the city! We started in the city at Hotel Union Square with the girls getting ready and the couple first meeting, then went down Powell St. to shoot with some cable cars and final over to Sixth Street, sort of a “skid row” type area to get some colorful graffiti art before leaving to Treasure Island. Check out the gallery below, these are the shots I pulled out at the reception. My favorites are: shoes, Corey in the hotel hallway, girls with the brick wall (that was my hotel room by the way, check out before I turned it into a studio HERE), guys walking in the road, and couple with SF skyline #58. Enjoy!

As promised here is Part II of the Maui shoot on the Road to Hana and beyond! I’m off to San Francisco today to shoot a wedding on Saturday. There is supposed to be a huge parade and fireworks show so the view from the wedding location on Treasure Island should be great.

This is part two of Rosanne and Frank’s engagement session, the first one was at Disneyland. They are huge Goofy fans! So we did the a fun session and this one they dressed up a bit and we wanted a completely different feel. Their wedding is in July at the Disney Concert Hall in LA. It should be killer! Rosanne’s sister is a coordinator so they are on top of everything. The observatory has an awesome view of the Los Angeles area; the Hollywood sign, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, downtown, and the mountains. It has been closed for a multi-million dollar renovation and is now open and it’s amazing. Take a day and do a shoot or take the family, or both, it’s worth the tram ride. Check it out HERE! They not only revamped the exterior part of the building but built an entire new level underground and a cafe on the lower level facing west so you can enjoy the sunset. There a markings on the ground so you can gauge where the sun will hit the horizon at different times of year. They marked is each planets orbital path circling the entire front lawn. Check out some of the shots!

Beautiful building and grounds…

The “City of Angels”

We still had to play a little bit, Goofy!

‘Rusty Cage’ – Boutwell Actions, gettem! CLICK HERE

I met up with Stella and Phil last week for there engagement session. They wanted something urban but close to home so I pulled out all the stops and found some cool urban stuff in the OC. We were all home by dinner! Their wedding is in September at the Hyatt Huntington Beach. The weather is good around that time of year for that property. I shot Lillie and Bijan last year on September 9th, (CLICK HERE for gallery highlights) great wedding! Now Lillie runs Lillie Ann Designs which is located in the Country Side Center in Costa Mesa next to Mon Amie. Check her out HERE. Here are some of my favorites from Stella and Phil’s session.

Saturday’s wedding was at the Los Angeles River Center just north of downtown near Dodger Stadium. I’m glad the traffic wasn’t as bad as Friday. It took me 3 hours to get to Hollywood on Friday for a shoot. Anyway, Cyndi and Clint had a great event, coordinated by Carolyn Chen. Clint is a producer and has his own production company and does some amazing work. Cyndi looked amazing and we had some awesome light throughout the day all around the property. This weekend was also a great weekend for sports as well: Kentucky Derby, De la Hoya fight, PGA Championship, NBA and NHL play-offs, and of course baseball! Roger Clemens in a Yankee again! Below are a few favorites…