My friend and former UCSC colleague Stacey works for the Homeless Services Center in Santa Cruz, a place that provides crucial assistance to many families and individuals in this area. You can visit their website by clicking here. Last October she got in touch with me to ask if I’d be willing to take some photos for various purposes. This included getting one photo of a donor and a family to be made into a promotional banner on the side of the Rebele Family Shelter building. I was thrilled to be asked, and happy to volunteer for a cause I believe in very strongly.

If you care about this cause too, and you have time, energy, talent, and/or money to offer in support of homeless individuals and families, there are many ways to help. Here’s a link to the Homeless Services Center “How to Help” page. You can also check out their blog for upcoming events and opportunities.

The next big event: United Way is bringing the highly successful Project Homeless Connect to Santa Cruz. It’s a one day community-wide event that provides housing, support, and quality of life resources to homeless individuals in the community. It happens on March 30, and you can learn more by clicking here.

And now, about the photos. We had to do the shoot twice to get one picture in which everyone was in focus. (This was entirely the fault of the photographer.) Fortunately, the family and the donor were all very patient and easy to work with. The final choice was the last photo below- for the banner, their designer worked some Photoshop magic to erase the background and make the photo look good in a very large size. You’ll also see some photos from a third shoot, meant to be used for newspaper ads encouraging people to give to the Homeless Services Center during the holiday season.

I really enjoyed taking these photos, and having the chance to meet these families, especially the kids. And I was very impressed with the Rebele Family Shelter itself, where staff members and volunteers put an enormous amount of work and love into helping families during important times of transition in their lives. If they ask for photographic assistance again, this Red Bat will definitely say yes.

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

Receptions are always a lot of fun.  Usually because the scariness and nervousness of the ceremony itself is over and done with, people are feeling celebratory and relaxed, and yes, alcohol is being served.

Here are a few shots of the final chapter of Liz and Gary’s wedding.  Lots of very happy people enjoying the company of new family members.

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

Another thing that was great about Liz and Gary’s wedding was that Gary’s side of the family had (mostly) come over from the U.K. to attend.  It was nice to discuss the fickleness of March weather in London with Gary’s sister, which is a topic that doesn’t usually come up in most weddings we shoot.

The fact that almost everyone had cameras was also something to be happy about.  Some photographers are annoyed by masses of people with point and shoot cameras, but how can it be bad for friends and family to want to take pictures of loved ones?  As a fan of photography, there’s not really any way that I can protest this.  Sometimes it means that we need to do a bit more maneuvering, or shout things like “look over here for a moment!”, but that’s a small price to pay.  After all, the wedding is about the families and friends, NOT the photographers.

Having other people taking photos also helps in some ways – it’s sometimes easier to get the close-up, unguarded shots of the happy couple if their attention is elsewhere!

Anyway – this particular wedding took place on the beach at dusk, and was a very quick ceremony, punctuated with bikers and joggers on the path directly behind the ceremony site.  Some of them kept right on going, some of them stopped to watch.  I think I would probably have stopped to watch, too.

The officiant was unique as well – her stole was festooned with a variety of colorful patches – one for each wedding she’d taken part in.   I think one of them was an ear of corn, and I’m kind of sad that I didn’t get the story behind that one.

On to the photos!

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!!