What a wonderful Saturday getting the opportunity to photograph Cindy and Jose's wedding. It was held at Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills. They are off in Cancun enjoying their honeymoon, how lucky are they?! I definitely look forward to sharing more images with them of their beautiful day.

What an action packed Monday! We received tickets to see Dancing with Stars (which is filmed at CBS studios in West Hollywood). It was quite an experience! Yes, I know....My buddies give me a hard time for taking interest in the show. In my defense Brooke Burke is still on the show and promises of the super talented Julianne Hough's imminent return has kept my attention! We had awesome seats, directly across from the judges and right above Mark Cuban, David Charve and Leeza Gibbons. The set is much smaller than I anticipated but the lighting was spectacular. It always amazes how much lighting, camera, audio and video equipment goes into a production like Dancing With The Stars.

The show is extremely strict when it comes to photography. We had to check all cell phones and cameras before going throught the metal detectors. The show started at 5:00pm sharp and the contestants did a phenomenal job. I have to say, the dances are even more impressive in person and their talent is truly captivating. The crowds excitement is also amazing !

When the show was over we were fortunate enough to get into the press area. We also realized that my sister (Ginger) had forgotten to check her camera. We were able to get a few shots with some of the dancers. The quality is not the greatest but I will post them anyway.

The first image is of Sandra, Anita (my sister in law), Warren Sapp, Me and my sister Ginger:


The following is an image of Sandra, Me, Kym Johnson, Ginger and Anita:


The next picture is of Ginger, Anita, Cody Linley, Me and Sandra:


And the last picture is of Anita and Ginger rubbing Sandra's pregnant belly!


By the end of the show we were starving so we went to the Hamburger Hamlet located on the sunset strip. I ordered a the Caliente burger which was very tasty. It was in fact Caliente , if you ever decide to try it, be ready for some spicy serrano chiles! The restaraunt serves traditional American food with some dishes featuring a Cajun fries. We ended the night by running into D.J. A.M. who was also enjoying a late dinner.

It was quite an evening!

What a gloomy day! I'm working on album design and editing weddings and I figured it was time I finish posting images from last Saturday's Guitar Hero World Tour Release Party that took place in West Hollywood. It was awesome considering one of my favorite bands was performing - Smashing Pumpkins! I was stoked! Free drinks and great tasting food was just the beginning. My buddy Jimmy Hernandez and I ran across quite a few celebrities that we didn't initially recognize. The All American Rejects were messing around with guitar hero, cast members of the new 90210 were there (which I would not recognize as I haven't seen an episode), Mark McGrath, DJ Jazzy Jeff, as well as Oscar Martinez from the Office (Oscar Nunez).

There have been a lot of reviews about the Smashing Pumpkins performance. I've been a huge fan for a very long time and was a bit disappointed that they didn't play one of their old songs. They are definitely breaking away from their old stuff but then again that may not be all bad. I think it is important that bands evolve which in turn can come at the cost of losing fan base that doesn't like change and cannot appreciate stuff created after SP's 1993 and 1995 release. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see them perform some of their old stuff, it's always nice to reconnect with emotions elicited by music you love but I'm not about to hate just because they come out with stuff that is different.

The first picture is of the entrance to the Guitar Hero World Tour Release Party. Second Image is of me enjoying the free drinks. 3rd Image is of DJ Jazzy Jeff spinning. Shortly after you will find images of Mark McGrath, Ginger Reyes, Billy Corgan and the final image is of Jimmy H. and some people we met at the venue.

This clip was something I came across on you tube.


Lastly, this is a clip from one of the local news stations that covered the event.

Kcal9 News Coverage

On a side note, I cannot belive the Presidential election is days away. Hopefully I will have a chance to post a couple movie reviews and a couple weddings between my consultations, voting and album designs! I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Esther and Ernesto (or as their best man refers to them "Ernseter") did such a great job planning their wedding. Their ceremony and reception took place at the Hacienda in Orange County. It was such a great time! Their families were so gracious! I can't wait to share the amazing images we captured with them. In the meantime here are few shots, I hope you enjoy =).

So my buddy Jimmy (old college roommate) and I decided to get LASIK surgery. We've done a number of crazy things together (pledging Phi Psi, Row Run, Hermosa Beach Triathlon, Solvang Century, Sky Diving just to name a few) so we figured we would try this together. We go in to see the doctor who is going to perform the surgery. Of course I've been thinking of a million reasons why I should not get this done because I'm starting to chicken out. We grab a bite before heading to the surgery center and decide to give the Buddha a rub on the belly for good luck (you could see the fear in my eyes LOL).

We fill out the paper work, get the consultation stuff out of the way. I was getting pretty nervous when the doctor says he is not going to perform the surgery on me because he could tell I was tired. See, the night before I was up until 2am editing images and I never thought that I would have to be well rested for LASIK surgery. So all the time coming up with excuses why I should wait mixed with the anticipation was for nothing! LOL, all I had to do was stay up late. The truth is I did want to get it done but I am still a bit chicken. Hopefully closer toward the end of this year I will revisit LASIK. I guess the Buddha belly rub didn't give us luck this time.

What a great time! Corinne and Ron recently got married at a beautiful church in Temecula. The reception took place at Pala Casino which was a perfect venue for the couple. It was quite the party! The venue was beautiful and their guest were all over the dance floor! It was such a good time. Below are a few images from their wedding including pictures from the church as well as images of their first dance and the amazing Chocolate Fondue. MMMmmmm it look so good doesn't it. They even had a cool candy bar. Trendique Wedding and Events did an awesome job helping plan the event.

Congratulations Corinne and Ron!

How cool is this, we had the opportunity to photograph at the Rohrer Fine Art Gallery in Laguna Beach. The staff is super cool and the art pieces are unbelievable! If you are ever in the area be sure to stop by. They have some great pieces from Chagall, Renoir and some other amazing artists. It is like going to a museum. The painting by Chagall (done in 1978) is worth approximately $5 Million!!

It's great helping one of my good friends Tony Florez as often times working with him I realize you can't ever stop learning in photography. Tony and his wife Ashlee makes such an amazing husband and wife team.

The following are some behind the scene shots of the photo shoot (and the amazing Chagall painting).

OK, so it's been quite some time since I last updated this blog. Some of you probably did not notice but I switched my image sizes to be a bit bigger. I was trying to show more detail in images. What has happened since then is I just found out one of my bestest of friends works at this law firm where they still have 15" screens. Now I'm not sure if he is one of the very few or if there are a great deal more of you out there with the smaller screens. So herein lies my dilemma. Should I continue blogging with larger images or switch back smaller images. It's easier to jump to categories on the side bar for the people with 15" screens if the images are smaller. I know some people want to cut straight to photos vs. reading all the personal stuff. If you guys can please email me and let me know if your screen sizes are smaller than 17" so that I can keep that in mind. You can write to:

franksaldana
at
franksaldana.com

Anyway, I've been working on some exciting things. First off I have a ton of weddings I need to post so those are definitely on there way. By early tomorrow I should have some behind the scene shots of a Magazine photo shoot I'm helping my close buddy Tony Florez on.

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!!