What troopers! We started photographing down by the beach and ended up taking a bit of a hike to capture all their images. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad Theresa and Dan were having a great time. The following are some images from their recent engagement session.

What a great time! I just finished up with Eunice and Erick's engagement session and I'm off to another event. The funny thing is yesterday I was working a wedding at the Huntington Beach Hyatt Regency and Eunice just happened to be there....what are the chances? Eunice and Erick are such a great couple! They are naturals. I can't wait to photograph their wedding in just over a month.

Wow, what a crazy week! For those couples who have had a bit of a delay in getting a response I apologize. My internet went down for a couple days! I have Charter Communications and have never experienced an outage that lasted so long. It made me realize how much I depend on a fast internet connection.

I also wanted to wish our baby girl a happy 2nd birthday! Time really flies when you are having fun. We celebrated her birthday by going RVing to our favorite spot. Close friends and family showed up to to celebrate.

There are some additional exciting times lined up. Tomorrow I will be photographing a wedding with a close friend Tony Florez. After the reception it is off for a late doctors appointment where Sandra and I will be finding out whether we will be having a boy or girl. I am so excited I can barely contain it!!! I will be sure to blog about the experience.

I hope everyone is having a great Friday!

What an amazing time this weekend was! Shawn and Adriana got married at the beautiful Hidden Valley Golf Course in sunny Norco. The wedding was beautiful and both Adriana and Shawn decided to meet just before the ceremony so that we had extra time to photograph the two love birds =). They make such a beautiful team and their son Ace was so much fun! They couldn't pull the little guy off the dance floor. The food was fabulous, Villa Amalfi Restaraunt did a great job as did the event coordinator Vicki Padgett. I hope you enjoy their images!

They met in high school but ended up going to different colleges. Ashley attended UCLA and Patrick attended UC Irvine, yet both would return up north during summers to work as life guards where they grew up. They both have such a positive attitude and are so much fun to be around. It was truly a pleasure photographing their engagement session. We found some amazing backgrounds in Irvine and the time flew by so fast! Here are a few images from their engagement session.

I'm in the middle of editing a couple weddings and a few engagement sessions. It seems like my trip to Maui was soo long ago. I can't tell you how much I miss the view we had from the nook area of the Kapalua Villa we stood in. I can't wait to go back. Be sure to shoot me an email or call me to if your wedding is going to take place in Maui!

Sorry for the delay. The raffle turned out to be a bit more challenging. Some visitors put their bridal info coupons in our box instead of filling out the index cards. We had to be fair and include them so we had to transfer their information onto index cards one by one. It was a lot of hard work but we are glad we did. The results are in. Click on the video below to check it out and THANKS for all your patience!!

Just thought I would check in to let everyone know we will be posting results of raffle shortly. Please check back soon!

Wow what an amazing bridal fair! It was a pleasure meeting so many brides. Randy, Mikey, Sandra and Jessica were such an awesome team. They are troopers! For the hundreds of brides that dropped by our booth, thank you for taking the time to meet with us. As promised, we will be having our raffel tonight and posting the winners late this evening. If you don't get a chance to log in late, be sure to check the posting tomorrow morning to find out if you are a winner of the 5 free engagement sessions and the 2 free ipod nanos!!




















Here is a picture of the group winding down, enjoying a few drinks and some tasty sushi at Kabuki in Huntington Beach.
















Don't forget to check back for the Raffle winners! Well I'm off to photograph an engagement session. I will log in later tonight!

Well, I'm back from Maui and back in the Studio. It was truly an amazing trip. I have a lot to blog about as I've worked a number of photo shoots, weddings and still have not recapped about my Vegas trip. In the meantime I am returning calls on the stack of inquiries I've received as well as responding to emails. For some reason my emails all got trapped in my outbox. This has happened to me while traveling internationally but never within the United States.

***Please not that some of my current clients may receive delayed emails.

I will leave you with an image of me ziplining off the top of the highest point in Maui (West Maui Mountains).

We recently had fun photographing The Big Bounce Orchestra in Downtown Los Angeles. Our goal is to not only be exceptional Orange County Wedding Photographers but to also extend our style of photography into fashion and event photography.

The Big Bounce Orchestra members include Andrea and Drew, Greg, Amos, Russel and Hubie.

We hope you enjoy the images we captured of this band.

Sarah and Kevin married at St. Phillip the Apostle in Pasadena, their reception followed at the Sheraton in Pasadena. The day turned out to be perfect. The weather reports claimed it was going to rain yet the weather held up until everyone was at the cocktail hour in the Sheraton. The following are images from their wedding. Take a look at their cool cake topper. It is so appropriate! They are very active and enjoy hiking, running, camping and a ton of other outdoor activities.

For the first time we have decided to offer a promotion for appointments scheduled in the month of January. If you are a bride and are getting married in Riverside County or Orange County, log on to our website and fill out the contact us form and we will send you our special promotion. Be sure to include "Blog" in the comments section as well as the best time to contact you. There are limited appointments so don't delay!

www.franksaldana.com/

Have a great day!

Blogging makes me realize how quickly time flies. It is easy to get caught up in editing images along with other aspects of the business. Before you know it a week has gone by since the last post!

Since Sarah and Kevin's wedding is less than a week away, I figured I would post some of their engagement images. I will be sure to follow up shortly with some images of their wedding. Sarah and Kevin love to go camping, running and hiking. We figured it was important to reflect this in their engagement images so we went to the local mountains and created some great images that capture what they love about the mountains....nature.

Have a great day!

As some of you know my MacBook Pro recently died. The hard drive failed and I lost some data...or so I thought. Before my hard drive failed I was doing my routine backup (with Leopard's new Time Machine) but the huge life saver was my external 3.75 Terabyte Storage Device. Time Machine burns through hard drive space like nothing I've ever used. Fortunately I had the space to allow Time Machine to run the backups automatically without limiting the number of backups it runs.

Photographers know the key to safeguarding files is redundancy. I've had enough drives fail on me to know that it is not if a hard drive will fail but when. With that I set out in purchasing a storage device that would work for me, yet I didn't see much geared toward wedding photographers. The system I have is the perfect setup and I couldn't be happier with it.

I would now like introduce my new website designed for photographers. The website is called PhotogSolutions. The site is currently dedicated to Turnkey Storage Devices. It is now easy for other photographers to log in and purchase a device that will provide invaluable peace of mind. The XP-5 allows clients to purchase 3.75 Terabytes of storage for $1,999. BH Photo Video sells a comparable system, the CalDigit 3.75 Terabyte Array for $2,849.95 (price as of 1/4/08). This price does not include a 6ft eSata cable and does not come with the cool LCD readouts (which have an alarm that can be programmed to go off if the drives get too hot) . This is over an $800 savings! The following is an image of the storage device:

*****WARNING the following is somewhat technical...it may put you to sleep if you are not into computer hardware. Read at your own risk =)***********

The drives can be swapped in and out. The top 2 drives in the enclosure are striped together as one (Main Drive). The second two are striped together (Backup 1). The last drive is dedicated solely to 2 programs...time machine and Photoshop (as a scratch disk). Time Machine is set to backup and notify me when the last drive is almost full. I keep an eye on it so there is always enough room for the scratch disk.

The Main Drive has all my client files on it. It is backed up to Backup 1 every couple days. I have special software designed to run the backup which I usually perform when leaving the studio in the evening. I also have an extra 2 drives in separate trays (Backup 2) which I keep in a safe and swap out with Backup 1 weekly or after adding and event. This way if my Main Drives fail I have Backup 1 which I could just plug in and hit the ground running. If God forbid there was a fire and I was to lose my entire storage device with the 5 drives I would have a Backup in a safe.

Don't put off safeguarding your information. You never know when your hard drive is going to go. The following is a link to the new website:

www.PhotogSolutions.com

We also have an 8TB system which is on sale for under $4,000.

Bobby Crosby Wedding - The following is a picture of Me, Tony Florez, Gina Crosby and Bobby Crosby (#7 of Oakland A's) taken the day after their wedding. Gina and Bobby were such an awesome couple to meet. Their family and friends were all such great people. I can't speak highly enough about them. They did a wonderful job in planning and selecting such a magnificent location for their wedding.

We were able to get some awesome images in different parts of Rome. I didn't realize how much I missed Italy until I actually got there. My first trip to Italy was over 8 years ago on a study abroad program. I fell in love with all the beautiful architecture. Everywhere you look there is art and rich history behind so many different monuments. Here are some random pictures taken during the trip:

I really like the first picture of the Colosseum at night. It is truly amazing when you think about how many men fought to the death here. The second image was taken from inside of the Vatican

The first image above was taken inside a church. The statues seen throughout Europe always blow my mind. I photographed the door above because of the detail in these heavy doors. It is so rare to see these type of doors back at home. The 3rd image is of a cast that reminds me of Florence, a city I visited quite often while studying abroad.

The first image is actually part of an iron gate. I thought the dog like animal was a neat detail. The second image is the wood grain of a tree which had been split by lightning. The last image was taken from inside the Vatican. For the first time I was able to visit the tomb of the different Popes which had given their lives to the Catholicism.

Next trip out of town looks like it will be to photograph a wedding in Maui. I can't wait to spend a couple extra days in paradise!!

Ok, so here is the long awaited ring tone program: Itoner. This program is made by a company named Ambrosia who has other cool programs for Mac users.

During this time of year I reflect back on how much my photography has improved. I’m so blessed to be in an industry with such great photographers. I’m also very appreciative of having cultivated great friendships with some of the best photographers in the wedding industry. I’ve decided to start an annual blog post thanking those that have had an impact on my photography. This year I would like to give a huge thanks to the following photographers:

Tony Florez
Mike Colon
Ray Santana
Joe Photo
Becker

What better way than to show my appreciation to those who have influenced my career than with a product that I think will have an impact for me next year. Recently, I discovered the coolest workout partner for those with iPhones or iPods the Timex iControl. allows you to wirelessly control the volume, fast forward or rewind your iPhone or iPod with this watch. While jogging/cycling/lifting this thing comes in handy. Just keep in mind that when you plug in the white square to the bottom of your iPhone that you must select “no” when it asks if you want to go into airport mode and voila you are up and running.

By the way, check back tomorrow as I will be posting a program that can be used to change the ringtone on your iPhone without having to pay for the iTunes .99 cents per ringtone.

Well today is my last day in Rome photographing a wedding with a great photographer friend of mine. A person who has helped inspire my work and whom I've known for many years. It has been such an enjoyable trip. I will post images of the trip tomorrow. It is 3:48pm in LA on Sunday, 12:49am in Rome on Monday. I'm exhausted and have to rest up for the 14+ hours it will take to get back home.

Note to Clients: I apologize for any delays in getting back to you. We have been working non stop to bring home some phenomenal images. I have not had the time I expected to return calls and respond right away. My first full day back in the office will be on Tuesday and I will be sure to catch up on all inquiries and emails.

Take Care!!

Ciao!!

Just trying to wrap up a few things here in the studio before I head out for Italy this Thursday. I thought I would post a few images from a recent fashion shoot. I will post more of fashion shoot imates as well as some engagement images. Oh and before I forget, I'm hoping to launch that new site with tools for photographers in the next week!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Wow, it's already been 2 weeks since my last post. Soon I will commit to blogging daily M-F. I will keep my review short regarding American Gangster. I think Denzel is such a great actor, the intensity he brings to the screen is captivating. He does a superb job playing Frank Lucas, a drug lord smuggling drugs from Vietnam (via US Military) to NY. He accomplishes a tight drug network that not even the Italian drug bosses had. The movie had less action than I anticipated and it was a bit long. I would rate the movie an 8.5 out of 10.

Ok, I've got some big news. In the next couple weeks I plan to announce a new website we will launch with a product that will help photographers. A post will follow shortly.

After a week of non stop album design, I'm heading out to enjoy the weekend! First stop is the movie theater to catch a late showing of American Gangster. I will post a review as soon as I get an opportunity. I hope everyone is off the clock with big plans underway.

It's 2:00am and I can't stop digging into the new operating system apple just released. It is really unbelievable! There are so many upgraded features to help you get organized. There are also features that allow you to utilize your desktop as if it were 4 different quadrants (program is called spaces). You can designate certain applications to be in certain quadrants i.e. you could place communication projects like mail and your browsers in quadrant 1, the next quadrant can contain Photoshop and other image editing applications. 3rd quadrant could have a video you are editing...and so on. Other features include email templates and a new finder feature which lets you see files in a gallery view with larger previews and a cool feature that lets you hit the space bar for a nice sized preview of what file you are looking at. The file could even be word documents, excel documents, pdfs etc. My favorite feature is the time machine which lets you go back in time retreving documents you might have thrown away or lost. This information can be backed up to an external drive which can really save you if someone ever steals your notebook or if your drive was to ever crash.

If anyone is still deciding whether or not to purchase Leopard my advice is buy it. It is one of my best buys for 2007!

My favorite part of the year is here! I love the holidays. I will be posting some engagement sessions shortly. In the meantime here are some images of Madison and Sandra at the pumpkin patch.



















Here is a picture of Sandra taking home our little pumpkin followed by an image of her and my beautiful niece Jade.

Ok, by the end of our trip the exhaustion was kicking in. We had been to countless ruins and were not sure if we could make it up the the Acropolis of Athens. We checked into the Athens Athaneum Hotel which was exactly what we needed. We took a nap and got ready to lug around our stuff to visit the Acropolis. We are so glad we did! The site is under construction as they are trying to renovate the ruins. I usually hate when historic sites are rebuilt because I feel like I am paying to see a replica not the real thing. Well, for the first time I actually think it is a GREAT thing! The reason for this is because they are using a new material to reinforce and support the existing structure (instead of trying to make it all seem like the same material). This new material is a different color which allows you to differentiate between the original stone and the new material.

There are also images of things we saw on our way to get the metro heading to the Acropolis.

Here are some images from Nafplion and our last day on the Seven Seas Voyager. The food was great, the staff was awesome and the ship itself is better than any other cruise ship we've ever heard of. They had caviar, filet, lobster fine wine...boy I'm going to miss it. They even had a cool cigar lounge.

The images include the tender we took to the city as well other random images.