LOS ANGELES WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER - RUSTIN MICHAEL BLOG

Corona Del Mar Engagement Photography – Sonia & Sean

RUSTIN MICHAEL — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:52:28 +0000

A couple weeks ago I drove down to Corona Del Mar to meet Sonia and Sean who were in town for their engagement session. We met at Sean’s old apartment and went on walk along the coast which they made several times a week before relocating to the San Fransisco Bay area. Although the weather didn’t quite turn out as we had hoped we still had a great time and I was able to capture some great images Sonia and Sean. Here are some of my favorites from their shoot.

We made a quick stop at the Landkmark Steakhouse, where Sonia & Sean first met, before the end of the night

I am so excited to shoot their June wedding at Bel Air Bay Club!

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Wedding Photography – Rommel & Nina – 04/28/2012

RUSTIN MICHAEL — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:21:32 +0000

This past Saturday I shot Nina & Rommel’s wedding at the beautiful Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels also known as the LA Cathedral. I have been wanting to shoot at the LA Cathedral for a couple years, so, when we first met last Fall to talk about their wedding day, I was really excited because I loved them as a couple and their venue choice. I am so glad they choose me to be there for their special day!!!

Going into Nina and Rommel’s wedding day I was really nervous and excited. This is a common occurrence to me and nearly every other wedding photographer, since we understand the importance of what we are about to capture. Even the fact that Nina & Rommel favorited 90% of their engagement photos on their online gallery didn’t help to calm my nerves and give me better night sleep the night before.

There are some many great photos from this wedding, here are just some of my favorites!!

The day started off at the iconic Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles capturing the girls getting ready.

Nina is stunning!

Some details while the girls are getting ready

Nina and her girls working on the bustle her dress so I can shoot it.

Rommel getting ready for the day.

I love this next image captured by Justin who was assisting me at the wedding

Some portraits before leaving the hotel

Next we headed over to the LA Cathedral to shoot Rommel and his guys.

Once the guys were hidden away the girls arrived for photos

A few details of the flowers

Nina getting help with her cathedral length veil

I love this shot of Nina and her parents ready for the big day.

As I was down in front of the cathedral capturing the processional Jonathan (my intern/Nina’s cousin) captured this amazing image of Nina waiting to walk down the aisle.

Here is my view of Nina coming down the aisle. I am so glad I rented the Canon 300mm 2.8L IS for the ceremony.

Nina’s parents met her midway down the aisle.

Rommel coming to take his bride

The Canon 14mm 2.8L II also came in handy!

The final blessing

First kiss

Just Married!!!

A quick shot of the bridal party after the ceremony.

A short but amazing portrait session of Nina & Rommel.

The next two are from the first dance

The last few details.

Beverly Hills Wedding Photography – Alireza & Maryam – 04/12/2012

RUSTIN MICHAEL — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:21:37 +0000

Last Thursday I had the pleasure shooting Ali & Maryam’s intimate wedding and sit down reception at Hotel Bel Air for their closest family and friends. When I first met with Ali in my studio last month he told me that he and Maryam had originally planned to get married in Paris over the summer. But after thinking how it was more important to them to make sure their closest family and friends could attend the wedding, they decided to move their wedding up a few months and get married in Beverly Hills.

The day started with me getting photos of some of Ali’s details and him getting ready at his sister’s place.

All ready for the big day!

Next I headed over to Cristophe in Beverly Hills to get photos of Maryam getting ready.

I love this shot of Maryam’s brother when he saw his sister all ready for the big day.

Next we headed over the the Beverly Hills Court House for the civil ceremony. Sadly photos weren’t allowed inside as we waited to go into the chapel.

The ceremony was even shorter than I expected, 3.5 minutes. Also the chapel wasn’t quite what I had imagined before walking in there. None of this detracted from Ali & Maryam’s radiant love for each other.

I love this shot!

After the ceremony we headed over to Hotel Bel Air’s Swan Lake.

After saying hi to their guests I had a little chance to shoot some photos of Maryam and Ali.

Just a few more details.

Hermosa Beach Engagement Photography – Joshua & Shannon

RUSTIN MICHAEL — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:47:26 +0000

Last Friday I met up with Josh & Shannon and Hermosa Beach for their engagement session. Sadly the weather didn’t workout as well as we had hoped or planned but that didn’t stop us from having a great time. Josh and Shannon have beautiful wedding planned for August!

Here are a few of my favorites from their shoot.

I love when there are fun lines to play with

Some more images after a quick wardrobe change.

Sadly there were no blue skies, instead we had the grey sky acting like a giant softbox.

Neighborhood Church Gourley Family Session

RUSTIN MICHAEL — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 01:59:12 +0000

Several weeks ago I met up with Justin & Melisa and their twin boys at Neighborhood Church in Rancho Palos Verdes to shoot their family session. I don’t do many family sessions since I would rather specialize in weddings and other types of photography, but when I have a special request from former clients or friends I usually can find a few hours to fit in their session. Justin & Melisa are some of my favorite past clients! I still am in love with the photos from their engagement session!

Since shooting their engagement session Justin and I, having a bunch in common, have become fast friends. Justin being a talented photographer himself, has assisted me on several of my shoots. It is always great to have him there to be an extra set of eyes or shooting at another angle. I guess I can forgive him from making the switch from Canon to Nikon!

Here are a few of my favorites from their shoot!

“Absentia” Updates

RUSTIN MICHAEL — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:26:12 +0000

With the VOD release of “Absentia” tomorrow and the DVD release coming March 13th, I thought I would give you an update on our 2011 festival run and how you can watch it in your own home. If you are new to this blog, “Absentia” is an independent psychological thriller feature film that I had a chance to work on as the Director of Photography. You can check out my previous posts about “Absentia” here on my blog.

Festival Wrap Up
Above you can see our final festival poster. We had a great festival run picking up several nominations and awards including a my first nomination for Best Cinematography! Several festivals had to add extra screenings since our shows would sell out fast, even weeks before the festival started. It was also fun trying to translate tweets and other comments from people that saw “Absentia” in Europe, Indonesia, French Canada, and other countries. Check out below for a list of awards.

BEST HORROR FEATURE – Shriekfest
BEST OF FESTIVAL (Feature Film) – Sacramento Horror Film Festival
BEST FEATURE FILM – Maelstrom Int’l Fantastic Film Festival
FIRST PLACE – Rhode Island Int’l Horror Film Festival
BEST HORROR FEATURE – Freak Show Horror Film Festival
BEST HORROR FEATURE – Phoenix Film Festival
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE – Sonoma Int’l Film Festival
BEST HORROR FEATURE – Shockerfest
BEST HORROR FEATURE – Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival
BEST DIRECTOR – Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival
BEST SCREENPLAY – Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival
BEST SCREENPLAY – New Orleans Horror Film Festival
BEST THRILL AWARD – Thriller! Chiller!
DIRECTOR’S CHOICE AWARD – A Night of Horror, Sydney Australia
BEST FEATURE – Tabloid Witch Awards
BEST ACTRESS (Courtney Bell & Katie Parker) – Tabloid Witch Awards
BEST ACTOR (Dave Levine) – Tabloid Witch Awards
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Morgan Peter Brown) – Tabloid Witch Awards
BEST SOUND (Richard Ragon) – Tabloid Witch Awards
BEST SOUND – Blue Whiskey Int’l Film Festival
HONORABLE MENTION – Fargo Film Festival

Release Info
The Absentia image above is what you are going to want to look for, if you are in North America, when you are trying to find Absentia on VOD and DVD. Please check out the links below and spend a few dollars to catch “Absentia” in your home. Every sale helps!

VOD Release – February 7th
Amazon Instant Video
iTunes
VUDU
Constellation.tv
BLOCKBUSTER On Demand
Andriod Market
All cable carriers – check with your carrier
AT&T U-Verse
Verizon Fios

DVD Release – March 13th
Amazon
Best Buy
Target
Wal-Mart
NetFlix
BLOCKBUSTER
Barnes & Noble

March 27th
RedBox - should be in every RedBox across the country

Summer 2012
Showtime
NetFlix Streaming

International release info will be added as available. So far “Absentia” will definitely be available in the UK and Japan.

Also make sure to like “Absentia” on Facebook and if you see the film please review it on IMDB and/or Amazon.

My Latest Photography Project

RUSTIN MICHAEL — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:15:27 +0000

I have been wanting to go to 2 screens for long time, so right before the end of 2011 I added another 24″ Dell LCD monitor to my desktop! It’s great having the extra screen space when editing images in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop and just about doing anything else on the computer. I don’t know why I waited so long! With one monitor my screen resolution was 1920 x 1200 but with two monitors now have I have 3840 x 1200 to work with.

The problem was that all my previous background images were made for a single 1920 x 1200 screen, so recently I went through some photos I have shot in recent years to re-crop them as panoramic images. Some of my backgrounds for one screen worked great changing the crop but others didn’t, so I have been trying to shoot some personal images recently for new backgrounds. I know there are plenty of places you can download some amazing images for 1, 2, and more screens but I am a photographer and want to be able to say “yes” when a prospective client in my studio asks if I shot the image they are seeing on my desktop background.

Here are 3 recent favorites and one old image re-cropped as a pano. To see bigger and sharper versions of these photos and others go here.

The first two were shot yesterday evening during sunset at Kenneth Hahn State Park. Both were multiple image captures stitched together in Photoshop.

One from Emerald Bay in Laguna Beach.

This one was from several years ago on my Canon 5D while taking a drive up the coast.

Griffith Park Engagement Photography – Rommel & Nina

RUSTIN MICHAEL — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:55:32 +0000

This past Sunday I met up with Nina & Rommel at Griffith Park for their engagement session. It was our third attempt at trying to make this shoot happen, after the previous 2 attempts didn’t work out for various reasons. I am so glad we waited because the weather on Sunday was near perfect. My former client and friend, Justin came along to assist with the shoot. Keep reading below to see some of my favorites from the shoot.

We began our session by meeting in the park near the Merry-go-Round. There was beautiful light coming from over the hill. I just loved how it was hitting the trees, grass, and Nina & Rommel.

Nina and Rommel are so much fun. Without my direction Rommel kept cracking jokes making Nina laugh creating several great moments throughout the day.

After a little while we headed up the Griffith Park Observatory. Being a weekend and an extremely beautiful clear day made it hard to find angles without large crowds of people while shooting there. We did manage to find a few places that worked well.

I love the high-key look on this photo.

While on the roof of the observatory I noticed the shadows the sun was creating hitting the Observatory architecture.

I am really looking forward to Nina & Rommel’s wedding in April. They are such a fun couple and I am thankful they have chosen to me to capture their wedding day.

Kiss Wedding Books – Linen Albums

RUSTIN MICHAEL — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:56:52 +0000

I posted previously on my blog about KISS wedding books, my preferred album vendor. KISS continues to impress me with their service, ease of ordering, and quality. Last year I delivered several KISS albums to my clients and I am looking forward to doing the same in 2012. My previous post focused on KISS leather bound books, in this post I am going to highlight KISS linen bound albums.

The image below contains 3 KISS albums, a black 12″ x 12″ leather bound, a white 10″ x 10″ leather bound, and a 8″ x 8″ linen bound album. I offer linen and leather albums in those 3 sizes.

Here is a different view showing their thickness. The black leather album contains 42 pages, the white leather album contains 46 pages, and the red linen album contains 20 pages.

As you can see in the image below the binding is a little different between a linen bound and a leather bound album. The linen bound albums don’t have a board between each print, instead the prints are just glued together back-to-back allowing the pages to flex easily when going through the album. With the leather bound album the prints are glued to the board so the book is much thicker, heavier, and more solid.

Here is another view of a linen bound album.

Both the linen and leather bound albums are offered in the same color. These are my linen swatches.

I have been really happy with the linen and leather albums made by KISS that I have in my studio and the ones I have delivered to my clients. I encourage all my clients to go with a leather bound album if it fits in their wedding photography budget. I like to offer linen bound albums as parent books and guest signature books. I also offer a linen bound wedding album with my lowest package that includes an album. Whether you chose to go with a linen or leather album, I know you will enjoy it for years to come!

Here are some of my favorite 2-page spreads from some of my amazing couples!

Justin & Melisa’s guest signature album. I designed the pages with extra space so wedding guests can leave a note to the happy couple!

A few from Ryan & Lisa’s amazing Stone Manor Malibu wedding.

A few from Brandi & Court’s amazing Vibiana wedding. Their album ended up being 58 pages!

If you want to see more you will have to come into my studio to see the samples in person.

37 Seconds

RUSTIN MICHAEL — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:24:12 +0000

Earlier this evening while driving to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show I stopped off an exit and captured this 37 second exposure.