This post is part 3 of a 3-part series. Read part 1 – Read part 2 - Read part 3

This fabulous couple’s wedding reception was held at 515 in Santa Cruz. Talk about a challenge for these photographers! It was dark in there. I couldn’t have gotten the shots I did without the Lightscoop, a small, inexpensive piece of equipment that made it possible to shoot in those dim rooms without the awful results that happen with forward-facing flash.

The newlyweds treated us to an hauntingly sweet duet, with Peter playing the guitar and both of them singing. They claimed that this duet would replace their first dance, but then they gave us a sort of first dance anyway, and everyone was utterly charmed by them for the hundredth time that day. Here are 32 (!!) photos of the first evening of their married lives.

As a special bonus, I’ve included another behind-the-scenes Red Bat shot, about halfway down in this post. It’s Patrick, helping to test the lighting in the area where we expected the first dance to be. By dancing with an invisible partner. Because at Red Bat Photography, we know how to use our imaginations.

Hooray for Crystal and Peter!!

Last month, Santa Cruz NEXT had a little party at Surf City Billiards, and it was the first time either of the Red Bats had seen the place since it became a billiards hall. We were impressed. I found myself wanting to ask people to drape themselves over the tables for some of the shots, but instead I settled for urging people to “Look cool!” They did look cool.

Here’s the Santa Cruz NEXT blog post about that evening.

Take a closer look at the guy in the middle in the next-to-last photo and the woman on the right in the last photo. Don’t they look like they deserve a lifetime of marital bliss? You have just experienced Red Bat foreshadowing. Stay tuned…

UPDATE: Find out what happened to Crystal and Peter by clicking here!

I’ve got a pretty swell camera at my disposal, but sometimes cellphone pics are just the thing. For example, when my arms are tired and my nice camera seems so heavy. Or when I’m in a crowded bar and there isn’t room to maneuver a big lens. I could get a smaller camera, a point-and-shoot that would fit into my pocket. But the truth is, I love the way cellphone pics look. They have a way of simplifying the scene that I find quite refreshing. They also add an extra element of surprise: I never know what they will look like on my computer screen.

Below is a gallery of 50 cellphone pics from the past month or so, ending with a dinner the Red Bats attended to celebrate the commencement of the Year of the Ox. Click on the right side of the photo to move forward, and on the left side to move back.

And in these times of economic restraint, don’t forget to love the camera on your phone, if you’ve got one. If you don’t have a camera phone, love the cheapest digital camera you can find. Because making do with fewer pixels is just so chic right now.

CLICK RIGHT SIDE OF PHOTO BELOW TO SEE MORE!

Remember that night in the middle of December when the moon was like a beacon in the sky? On December 13th, the moon was closer to the earth than it had been since 1993. A year rife with angst and drama for me, I might add, as that was the year I graduated from high school and was wondering what the hell I was going to do with my life.

Well, the moon found me in a much better place this year than it did then, and I’m thankful for that. I spent the evening in San Jose at a coffee shop watching my girlfriend’s friend play guitar. I brought my camera of course, and thought I’d share some of the results with you. There was certainly a little bit of magic in the air that night…

I bumped up the blacks in this a bit to enhance the flower-shaped debris field flung out from the impact crater on the lower right.

This is Malachi Hernandez. Remember that name. He and his scarf are gonna be HUGE in 2009.