California Wedding Photographer, Photography Worldwide – Victor Sizemore’s Blog

It was such a pleasure this week being in Louisiana to shoot Dunia’s bridal session! The areas we visited were amazing and Dunia looked simple gorgeous as always! We drove the “Old River Road” from Baton Rouge which whines along the mighty Mississippi. We made several stops along the way to shoot on our way to Avery Island. Avery Island is where Tabasco sauce was concocted. Check out some of the shots!

After a redeye from LAX to Baton Rouge, via Dallas I made it to Louisiana early this morning. After breakfast at a local greasy spoon we toured all day. Starting at LSU we visited “Mike” the live tiger mascot and then went to a small town called St. Francisville which has several amazing Plantation homes and estates. It was so picturesque, beautiful homes sitting at the end of a long drive lined with 150+ year old oak trees while the Spanish moss hangs in the wind. The cemetery there was great too, many of the head stones dated back around the turn of the century. For dinner we ate at a home style place called “Parrian” which means Godfather in Cajun. Food I ate: hushpuppies, boudin balls, gumbo, catfish, fries, and stuffed shrimp! Check back this week for photos of Dunia’s bridal session at Avery Island and then a cool promo shoot in New Orleans’ famous French Quarter.

Above is a shot that my host Scott took at the cemetery, I did the photoshop of course…

I spent a few busy days in the Bay Area this week. I had a real round-trip experience! Flew up Sunday for my friend Peter Atherton’s 50th Birthday party it was a great time! That night I hung in Berkley with my buddy Blake, his floor’s not that comfortable… The next morning I headed to Santa Cruz for an engagement session, then caught up with my buddy Cameron from college, I got a couch that night! The next day I toured Stanford with my friend Chris who is just leaving his post-doc there. Stanford’s campus was amazing, it would be an awesome place to shoot an engagement session or wedding. After lunch I headed into the city for the evening. I met up with some other photographers (Ed and Monica Pingol, Cliff Brunk and wife, and the boys from Perspecta for dinner at a place called Park Chow, great little place in the “Inner Sunset” area. Then Wednesday had a client meeting before heading home!

Washed up and over the hill…

Peter and Paula’s two beautiful children

Happy Birthday Opera style!

We had quite the trip yesterday with Calvin and Kathy in Orange County. Getting ready in Santa Ana, Ceremony HB, shooting in S.J. Capo, and finally back to the Double Tree in Santa Ana for the reception. There was an unusually long break of five hours in between the ceremony and reception so we had to find a place to shoot and kill some major time. Well, we ended up at the “Swallows Inn” in S.J. Capistrano. If any of you have been there you can image what fun we had, it’s truly a local joint! The bridal party loved it and didn’t really want to leave after the band started playing, they even dedicated a song to the bride and groom. Here are a few of my favorites…

Jessica and her mother Toni worked so hard on planning the wedding and it was nothing shy of AMAZING! Although I was a little worried when I woke up on Saturday morning around 8AM. I nervously walked out on my 9th floor hotel balcony and watched the rain pour down. In one direction I could barely make out the San Diego skyline through the storm clouds from Harbor Island. Then in the other directions I could see a huge white tent set-up for 300 people!

I started shooting at 11AM and Jessica was so calm an reassured me that everything would be fine. I was still a little skeptical… The day seemed to fly by and flow really well. We started photography Jess and the girls around the hotel as we waited for the limo to take us downtown to meet the guys. Then we did the first meeting on the roof of Hotel Solamar, awesome place to shoot. Then outside for some urban scenes then back to the park for the ceremony. After the ceremony we grabbed a few skyline shots and called it a day, they were hungry and ready for a drink.

Check it out… Below are a few of my favorites then a small slideshow, let me know what you think drop a comment.

My birthday was last Wednesday, October 10th! There are more wedding photographers with October birthdays than you can shake a stick at! A few of them were at my party too. I threw a little house warming/incognito birthday party and we had a great time! Thank you to everyone that made it out. Below are a couple photo collages. A side from the awesome red velvet Angel’s ball and bat cake, my favorite part of the night was playing the beer cap game. Each person got to draw a cap and I called out random winners. We gave away Starbucks and Apple gift cards along with a couple fine art prints from Europe.
Photographer Birthday love list:
- Your’s Turely
- Chenin Boutwell
- Michael Hedden
- Becker
- Aaron Delesie
- Sara France
- Jules Bianchi
- and more….

Some people from above: Alex and Julie Hill, Jon Mayer, Brooke, Michelle and Jeannie Savage, Grace and Amiee, Peter Papadopoulos, Jason Jass, Becker, Doug and Chenin Boutwell, Michael and Emi Hedden, Jessica Claire and Mom, Maurice and Amy Wright, Rach and the kids, Mae and Michael, Lillie Ann, Shannon Avery and a few non-industry peeps!

During my summer travels I skipped a few wedding posts so I’ve decided post the album design when they are finished. Here is the first! Check out spread numbers 03, 15, and 19 they are my favorites. Although 16 and 17 are close in the running. Click on the cover photo below to view the album layout. This cover should look awesome on the Graphi Metal cover. Normally deep, heavy tones look good on the metal.
Casey and Rudy’s wedding was on Friday, July 6th in Beaver Creek, Colorado which is close to Vail. We had an awesome time with them and Colorado is just absolutely beautiful! The ceremony looked straight up toward these massive mountains. All the resorts had great architecture. My favorite place was the Beaver Creek Lodge, the decor was very unique. Very funky and sheik but with a lodgey twist!

Well it’s been a week since my last post, yikes! I have been tied up with this stupid move… It’s almost behind me so I will catch up on some posts this week from the last two weddings and the rest of the Chicago trip. If anyone needs a bunch of boxes I got them coming out my ears!