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

Kimma and Keith. Talk about your long hauls to the altar! These two have been through a lot, and by a lot I mean A LOT. Trials, tribulations and maybe even a tibia or two.

It’s not my story tell, so I’m not going to tell it, but I will say that I’ve never met a couple who’ve been through so much on their journey to marriage. But they did it with class, humor, and, dare I say, a fair helping of sass. We like sass.

If you’ve been Red Bat fans for a while, you’ll recognize Kimma and Keith from their engagement session late last year at Seabright Beach. As the year went by and the wedding got closer, we kept in touch about this and that. Many hilarious emails were sent thither and yon, to and fro, touching on subjects as varied as orangutans, rocking chairs with spikes, Rebecca’s looming skills (formidable!) and limited edition Iron Maiden nose hair trimmers. Suffice to say, we think they’re pretty awesome.

The wedding took place in the courtyard of the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center in lovely San Rafael, and the reception was held in their (huge) ballroom. And in keeping with the tradition of odd places to get ready, Kimma and the girls got gussied up in the children’s library while Keith and his party got ready in the day care room.

The pictures below are a very small sampling of the many, MANY photos we took of Kimma and Keith. This first set includes a few photos from the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. More to come!

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

I’m taking a brief break from the excitement of WEDDING SEASON to share some photos from a wedding that happened back in July. If you read this blog regularly, you may remember Alicia and Lawrence. Click here to see photos from their engagement session. These two got married at Crystal Springs Golf Course, which turned out to be quite a lovely place for a ceremony. What the Crystal Springs website says is true: because the place has a great view and is right next to a wildlife preserve, it feels far from cities and highways. With the gazebo and the creeping mist over the valley, the venue felt very romantic.

The getting ready part happened at the reception site, at Wedgewood Banquet Facility, right next to the golf course. Alicia put her dress on in a locker room for women golfers. (I love the odd places brides are often required to use for getting ready.)

The photos below are from the first part of the wedding day. I’ll share some more later. Once again, I was struck by the difference between the bride’s preparations and the groom’s. While Alicia was having to be carefully laced into a dress, unable to move far enough to get a glass of water for herself, Lawrence was playing games on his phone with his groomsmen. But as you can see from looking at the photos, Alicia’s preparations were worth it- she looked stunning! Actually, they are both beautiful, but Alicia blew everyone away with how pretty she looked in her dress. (And she was sweet to everyone the entire time, too.)

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

Future wedding clients, be warned: I WILL follow you everywhere I possibly can on your wedding day. (Don’t worry, it won’t be creepy or anything.) I especially like to ride in the car with the bride because it’s such a perfect opportunity to use my wide-angle lens. And lots of interesting stuff happens in the car on a wedding day.

The most fun thing to take pictures of at a wedding? Definitely the dancing. First dances get me all choked up, and then when everyone’s had a glass of champagne and starts dancing as a group, we photographers start clicking like mad, not having any idea what we’re getting pictures of but knowing it will be highly entertaining to look at in the days to come.

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

The story of my trip to Joshua Tree this spring is being told in a very disjointed fashion on this blog. I’ve given you a tiny preview that didn’t show the park at all, and an image from a Wal-Mart parking lot. Now I’m going to show you a handful of images from the drive home, none of which are from inside the park itself.

Behind the scenes, of course, the photos from that journey are being made into a fabulous multimedia production. Which you will be able to acquire, if you want it, eventually.

Most of the pictures below were taken from inside a moving RV, so any smears or splotches you see are probably bug guts on the windows. The top picture is from the end of our first restaurant meal after we emerged from the park. This was at a Thai restaurant in the town of Joshua Tree. After spending five days in a windy desert, it felt very strange to eat in a restaurant.

Which one of these fortunes do you think I got? You can post your guesses in the comments. The first person to get it right wins a copy of the Joshua Tree trip dvd when I’m done with it. Which will be soon, I promise!