A couple months ago I took pictures of the awesome Fitzpatrick Family. Mommy was very pregnant at the time, so a few days ago I got “the call!” The world welcomes Morgan Fitzpatrick!! . . .


Hanging out with big sister . . .

Having a face-to-face with Dad . . .

Mommy’s smile . . .

I wanted to do something other than the usual ‘baby feet in the adult hands’ shot. . . so we came up with the ‘baby foot in Daddy’s eye’ shot! What do you think?

See you in a few months, Morgan!
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Back with Hannah Huntington!! (You can see her 3 week pictures here.) All the stars were truly aligned for this photo shoot – Hannah literally had a permanent smile for the entire time. Future model? We’ll see . . .

She wanted to do an outfit change . . .


Kiss from Mommy . . .

See you next time!
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Here is Cooper again, this time at 3 months! He is definitely getting cuter (He was already a 10 on the cute scale). I like to believe that Cooper is smiling for me, but it probably has more to do with Grandma behind my shoulder.

This entire session was shot using the 50mm f/1.4 lens from Nikon.


He didn’t last too long for his modeling shoot this time. . .


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The following is an article by Steve Hoffmann of Hoffmann Photographer on the subject of Infrared Wedding Photography.

I was inspired to learn infrared wedding photography after seeing the images in the book Infrared Wedding Photography by Patrick and Barbara Rice and ALSO the infrared wedding images from Scott A Nelson. Check them out – very inspiring! Capturing infrared wedding images with film cameras was complicated. Using bracketing and screw-on filters, you literally shot ‘blind’ and then hoped for the best when you brought the film to the lab to have it processed. Not to mention that weddings are a huge time crunch. Screwing on/off filters to your lenses and setting up the bracketing was a great waste of time.

After I switched to digital cameras the process for infrared wedding photography became one step easier. The opaque IR filter #87 was still required over the front of the lens (which means you are still shooting blindly) but you were able to see the result immediately on the back of the camera. This eliminated waiting for the proof sheets from the lab. That was a pretty big leap in a positive direction!

It was not long before private parties began rebuilding old model digital cameras and putting the IR filter directly inside the camera. The converted Nikon bodies (D1x, D50, D70) with the built-in IR filter have been the easiest and most effective way giving the user the ability to COMPLETELY see through the lens AND have immediate results on the back of the camera. Awesome!

Last year I had an old Nikon D1X camera converted for my infrared wedding photography. It is a little bit heavy compared to the converted D70 that is more recently available. You can see that the results are as great as film ever was for infrared and 100x easier and more time efficient.

BTW, the true infrared look can NOT be duplicated in Photoshop. As many times as I have seen a ‘recipe’ online for creating ‘realistic digital infrared’ through Photoshop, it has NEVER been even close. The major reason for this is that infrared light reflects off of every single thing in your scene differently! How can you possibly accomodate for that in Photoshop? Check out this angel walking through the trees . . .


Infrared wedding photography takes a little bit of practice, but if you are already shooting in manual then you will catch on extremely quick. There are not many wedding photographers shooting in infrared. This is a great opportunity to create a small but effective selling point for potential clients.

Thank you for taking the time to learn with me. It is my hope that this article on infrared wedding photography will make you a better photographer.
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I always let my clients choose the location of their engagement pictures – ANYWHERE they want to. This has taken me to lots of great places for photo shoots, i.e. Zuma Beach Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Cal State Long Beach, UC Irvine, Disneyland, Union Station Los Angeles, Ghetty Center, etc. Usually it is a spot that has meaning in their relationship. My couple Jen and Matt took it to the next level and flew me to their city – San Francisco! It turned out to be a normal SF day – cold and rainy. It definitely did not stop us from getting AWESOME pictures . . .

Somewhere down by fisherman’s wharf . . .

It started raining so hard we had to move inside for a break . . .

After the rain slowed down we hit some more great SF locations . . .



and at night it started POURING buckets again . . .there is nothing like taking a shower and dancing in Union Square . . .

Way to go Jen and Matt! Congratulations! I am looking forward to your wedding this summer at Occasions Laguna Beach.
Destination Wedding Photographer