This summer there were no major adventures in a foreign country for me. Not even a short trip to the Central Valley to visit friends. I didn’t step foot into an airport. Never drove more than an hour to get anywhere. This year I did something I’ve never done since moving to So Cal permanently 7 years ago: I spent my entire summer in sunny Southern California. What did I do? I shot weddings nearly every weekend and covered a couple of concerts. When I wasn’t shooting or editing images on my computer, I was out fishing with friends and family. That’s really it. Quite simple. Summer of 2009 will go down as the most productive summer ever. I did tons of photography and spent quality time with those I care about most.
Don’t get me wrong. I still have the urge to get out of town (state and country). That’s what the summer of 2010 is for.
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Weddings - Since June I have shot 13 weddings and engagement sessions. I’ve met some great couples along the way and have spent some incredible nights with their family and closest friends. I am thankful that they’ve all chosen me to document an important day in their family history.
Self portrait @ Stacy and James’s home. Pictures from their wedding will be posted this upcoming week.
Dana and Malcolm’s wedding @ The Smog Shoppe. These were the only 2 weddings where I got shots of myself. If you didn’t know what I looked like before, now you do:) Long haired Asian sometimes in glasses.
Fishing - We did all sorts of fishing. Pier fishing, kayak fishing, coastal fishing on a boat, lake fishing from the banks. We almost went offshore, deep sea fishing. It was too warm to fly fish and we’re not in Canada so we couldn’t go ice fishing. That about covers every major type of fishing we did and didn’t do.
We fished off the pier at Belmont Shores a few times. On any given night there are over 100 people out there with their families. One night someone even brought out a play pen for their little kid. Pier fishing is great for kids because it’s fairly easy to catch something. And if their parents don’t have a fishing license, no problem. In California you don’t need a fishing license if you’re fishing from a public pier.
My nephew’s first time fishing
El Dorado Park in Long Beach has 2 small ponds and a big lake. The ponds don’t have any fish. Unfortunately we fished in one of those for nearly two hours. It was my first time there and I didn’t know where I was going. On a positive note, the pond’s huge sidewalk gave Samani enough room to practice casting without snagging his line onto any trees or shrubs. We moved to the big lake after Armand (Samani’s dad) stopped by and pointed us in the right direction.
Samani had swim lessons at 11:30 AM so at around 11:00 AM we decided to cast one last time and then head home to change for swimming. On that very last cast Samani caught his first fish, a 20″ catfish! Catching a fish the size of your entire leg on your first outing? Not too shabby…
I also had the opportunity to go to Catalina a few times. On our last trip there, we caught close to 20 fish. Below is a photo shot by Ortenzio of our surf perch. All you need to catch perch in Catalina is a small hook (#4) and some squid. Get your line on the outer edges of the kelp and you’ll reel them in all day.
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Music + miscellaneous
