Wedding Photography Blog by Los Angeles Photographer Ian Grant

As Seen in: Brett Shady’s album The Devil to Pay

ian — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:02:57 +0000

A little while back I did an album shoot with the great Brett Shady who’s music is just fantastic. You might not have heard of him yet, but if you’re into like an alt-country/folk sort of thing you’re just going to love it. Almost a Ryan Adams in Cold Roses sort of way. Anyway, it’s quickly become one of my new favorite albums, and yours truly did the cover photo. How cool?! He’s got a sweet deal on it over via iTunes or Amazon, so it’s worth checking it out.

One of the photos even made Ameoba Music’s LA WEEKLY ad, super cool!

No related posts.

Griffith Park Observatory Engagement Photos – Molly and Sam

ian — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 23:29:41 +0000

We met Molly and Sam at Deepa and Bart’s engagement ceremony so when w heard these two were engaged themselves, we jumped at the chance to shoot photos for them. Molly and Sam are getting married in Israel, where Sam is from, and they wanted a guest book filled with pictures that reflected their LA life. We headed to Griffith’s Observatory, an LA landmark with a beautiful dome overlooking the city. We were able to catch some sunset shots and the light couldn’t have been better. Molly is an old pro at taking pictures and Sam didn’t do so bad himself. I love how cute these guys are! After the shoot, Ian and I hung around a bit to see some planets through the Observatory’s massive telescopes. Hello, Saturn! xoxo T

See more of our engagement photos on distinctphoto.com

Malibu Creek State Park Engagement Session – Deepa and Bart One of the [many] amazing weddings we have to look...
Malibu Engagement Photography – Stephanie and Michael Stephanie and Michael are LA locals getting married in Texas...
Venice Boardwalk Engagement Photography – Carey and David One thing that Tanya and I love is when couple’s...

Iceland Road Trip – Part Six

ian — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:34:51 +0000

The final days of my Iceland roadtrip were spent driving around the Snæfellsnes Peninsula on the Western coastline. For the first time on my trip I had a decent amount of rain which thankfully included really nice dramatic clouds [and not blinding swan-dive off road fog like usual].

I like this photo a lot, that was exactly what it felt like being there. Creepy and empty.

I really wanted to go visit this washed up fishing boat, but it was another long day of driving and frankly the idea of getting my car stuck out there wasn’t too exciting- that and it was a lot farther away than it looked. Still pretty cool looking.

As you can see I was driving around on some nice dirt roads for a bit, which in rain can be a real treat. I got going around a downhill turn too quick there one time and yea….a little too close to that cliff going sideways…phew, I’ve since blocked out that memory.

A crazy volcanic area with tons of mashed up rock with a beautiful greenish moss growing on it. This stuff goes on for miles in all directions- not a place you’d want to be at the time of explosion.

I stayed in a great little town called Grundarfjörður which had its own ‘huge’ supermarket [things that really mattered at this point in the trip] and a cozy hostel. I became good friends with a German girl there and we talked all night until we realized 10pm looks more like 6pm. She was busy walking all over Iceland and she was completely nuts, in a good way. I made sure to tell her where all the cold areas were. She thankfully didn’t have to worry about running over sheep at all times.

Right down the street is this pretty waterfall which overlooks an amazing mountain of sorts on the water. I came on a really foggy day though, so you don’t get to see it in the photos.

A sweet waterfall I climbed up to right off the road and down someone’s driveway [sorry!]. It was an amazing climb to get up there to the top, but a few too many close call fall to your deaths. I was also tired of close calls at this point in the trip. Tons of slugs and angry birds too!

On the other side of the peninsula the insane fog/rain was caught up in the mountains so it was streaming off across the road.

I’ve seen many a church, and Búðir is probably one of my favorites. These guys knew they couldn’t compete with the ocean muck, so they just painted it black. I just made that up, but Icelandic architecture is just awesome. We’ll put it this way, my car was painted white and it sure couldn’t compete- I hope the people at Thrifty had industrial car washers.

I hope you all liked the six parts of photos- that’s the end for me. I might do a little thing of videos because I have a ton of near miss sheep hits, and also have great footage of me trying to dig my car out of the sand in the middle of nowhere….yea…but till then good luck on your travels. Iceland was a real treat!

Iceland Road Trip – Part Two The next day I really needed to take it easy...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Three This part really centers on the eastern area of Iceland’s...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Five Getting to Seyðisfjörður up in the north-east was way too...

As Seen in: The Atlantic Magazine

ian — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 02:32:16 +0000

Apparently this last week I sold one of my photos from The Stanley Hotel [creepiness] to the magazine The Atlantic. I sort of remember the mag from back in my time living on the east coast and it being in every doctors office. Anyway, it was a hilarious little find especially because staying at the Stanley was a really exciting thing for Tanya and I. She was so creeped out that we had to sleep with the lights on. Tanya was not amused with the idea of The Shining playing 24/7 [all versions!] on the TV at all! Check it out below, mine is the one with the people sitting out on the porch. You can see all my Stanley Hotel stock photos on Alamy.

As Seen in: Southwest’s Spirit Magazine Every few months I sell a few stock photographs of...
As Seen in: Philadelphia Magazine How cool is this?! One of our favorites weddings this...
The Lodge at Torrey Pines Wedding Photography – Lana and Chris I have found one of the biggest connection Tanya and...

Iceland Road Trip – Part Five

ian — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:53:08 +0000

Getting to Seyðisfjörður up in the north-east was way too much of a pain in the butt [mostly because I decided to drive too far in one day, per the usual] but this photo below was basically the end of my day. Mountain pass to get down into the valley. I knew something was up when I started getting ice warnings on my car and then suddenly it was white out conditions with snow on either side and some of the thickest fog I’ve seen in a while. Pretty cool though, wouldn’t want to be doing that drive in the winter however…

Just outside Mývatn is a super geothermal area where there are bubbling pots of ooze and smoke stacks that smoke all day. You really don’t want to breath in that sulfur though, it stays in your lungs for hours. Around there you can feel the ground crunch around your feet as there’s literally zero water left in the soil. A little creepy but beautiful crystal clear blue sky- Iceland has some of the cleanest air in Europe, I mean outside the smoke pots I’d imagine.

Geothermal plant with florescent blue water. There were warnings all over the place not to jump in the water though, got to keep those over zealous tourists from killing themselves.

This little band of wilderness is called the Vatnsnes Peninsula home to many a seal colony. They were getting tested on by scientists while I was there, so needless to say Tanya’s brethren [her maiden name is Seal] weren’t very happy. Neither were the birds, I had probably a good 20 birds hovering around me at all times trying to peck out my photographer eyes.

I stayed in a little town called Osar which you have to drive out pretty far on this pretty hacked up road up and over all these hills. The hostel there is awesome, but don’t expect to do too much. It’s barren and so far from the main road. Apart from the birds trying to kill you, there’s not a whole lot there. I shared a room and was highly entertained by a couple French girls and I think I fell in love with one of them so it was ok in the end.

One more post in the tank, coming up soon! Some of my favorite photos too, these ones were just ok.

Iceland Road Trip – Part Two The next day I really needed to take it easy...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Four The one place I wish I spent more time in...
Iceland Road Trip – Part One This June I found myself having a nice little window...

Iceland Road Trip – Part Four

ian — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:00:26 +0000

The one place I wish I spent more time in was the Eastern Fjords of Iceland. It happened to be the day that I was going to pull a 6-7 hour drive [more like 9-10] north from Vik to Seyðisfjörður and I found myself stopping and running around every 2 minutes. There were a lot of dirt roads in this stretch, but nothing too bad…you just had to watch out for baby sheep.

One of my favorite fjords, good moody lighting too.

While this is a scenic spot in the Summer, I just can’t imagine living here in the winter. Something tells me they can’t leave their house for 10 months out of the year. Snow burial is most likely a major problem here.

Heading up into the highlands of the North I found a random abandoned nest out in the middle of a field.

Iceland Road Trip – Part Five Getting to Seyðisfjörður up in the north-east was way too...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Three This part really centers on the eastern area of Iceland’s...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Two The next day I really needed to take it easy...

Iceland Road Trip – Part Three

ian — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:00:05 +0000

This part really centers on the eastern area of Iceland’s ring road which is home to many a roadside glacier. It’s funny because as your driving along you pass a bend and are like ‘wow, that’s the most beautiful glacier I’ve ever seen!’ and then you drive a little further ‘Whoa! That one is even better!’ which goes on for a good couple hours. Flocks of swans flying parallel to your car with icecap mountains in the background helps too.

It’s really pretty amazing and at one point you find yourself driving directly towards the biggest glacier you’ve ever seen [literally the biggest in Europe] while 2 other huge ones are on either side of you. If I had a 4×4 I would’ve been able to get closer, but frankly at this point in my journey I wasn’t going to put my car through too much more. Some of the roads to the glaciers were a little too hard core for my little beast of a car. After my car stuck incident my survival instincts [Tanya's voice in my head saying 'Ian bad! Death!'] was in full swing.

Once you get out of that dark and creepy area, you start getting into nice grasslands with sheep and numerous jumping reindeer warning signs. Something I should mention for people thinking about doing this trip as well is make sure your perfectly ok with peeing on the side of the road. You might go hours without seeing a store, much less a gas station, so keep that in mind. I peed on the side of the road probably 20 times on this trip, no lie. Tanya would not have liked this little adventure at all. Also, there are hardly no trees. Early settlers cut them down and now because it’s on the arctic circle it takes like 50 years for them to grow back.

There were swans everywhere in Iceland, and these guys set up shop with a nice view. They didn’t seem to mind me too much and I didn’t get pecked to death like every other bird in Iceland. It was clearly mating season.

Past Höfn there is a tunnel where you go through a mountain and end up on the other side where the really amazing views continue. Tanya and I had just gone to New Zealand the past December [which is known for dramatic landscapes] and Iceland seriously blew it out of the water. It’s strange that Iceland isn’t more touristy, maybe people just like bathrooms on their trips and are boycotting…dunno.

Very cool and amazingly isolated area. I think I pulled over at this point and was just like ‘wow, this is unbelievable’. Then I hoped my car started up as I hadn’t seen anyone in awhile.

This began one of the best parts of the trip. Once you get past the eastern fjords [I'll cover those in part four] you get to another dirt stretch where baby sheep were all gathering in the road just waiting to be made into lamb chops. It hangs out in the valley for awhile and then suddenly you realize, oh this is going to be a mountain pass. On a dirt road. With no real guardrails to protect you from certain death. It eventually pulls you up into glacial territory where you realize had this not be Summer this would be a scary scary drive.

Iceland Road Trip – Part Two The next day I really needed to take it easy...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Four The one place I wish I spent more time in...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Six The final days of my Iceland roadtrip were spent driving...

Iceland Road Trip – Part Two

ian — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:00:02 +0000

The next day I really needed to take it easy [after eventful car crash/stuck in mud] so I did what any person would do. Go see icebergs! But first I had to go see some awesome waterfalls and play with my new variable ND filter [essentially lets less light in so I can take long exposures in the daylight].

This first waterfall is named Seljalandsfoss [foss being Icelandic for waterfall...you see it a lot in a country with 10,000 waterfalls]. You can actually walk behind the waterfall, but I was getting my gear soaked enough and didn’t need a camera failure a couple days into the trip…

This was my favorite waterfall, and the one I was most looking forward to seeing. Its name is Skógafoss and is actually near the volcano that blew up recently. There was tons of ash in the area which then covered me and everything I owned. Thankfully this place was unbelievable and made the two hours of coughing and sneezing worthwhile. I was actually perched up on a swan dive on either side ledge for the bottom photo. It was muddy, slippery, and home to angry mating birds too.

This is the coastline of the town Vik. I stayed in the hostel there for a few days and it was pretty cozy. They happen to live underneath the Katla volcano, which is bad news for them the next time it goes off [any day now]. A lot of the volcanoes are under glaciers, so an eruption means flood death for anyone who can’t get out fast enough. There’s an evacuation route in place for everyone in town to be able to get out within 3 hours of an eruption. This is 2 hours and 50 minutes too slow.

This iceberg land is one of Iceland’s prized treasures called Jökulsárlón. Most of the names I’m throwing out are really easy ones, I’m trying not to do the long strange character drawn out ones. Anyway, on the way to Jökulsárlón my car decided it was going to stall while getting gas, so I had to drive all the way up from Vik without stopping as if I broke down on the way the likelihood of me camping in my car in that spot for a few days was pretty good. I only had Ritz crackers and Ramen which wasn’t really going to get me that far in that lava land desert [see photos from part one]. I came back on the same route the next day, so you’ll see those amazing glacier photos in the next part.

The icebergs come from the glacier Vatnajökull [kull being glacier] which is the largest glacier in Iceland and takes up 8% of the country. It’s also considered the largest icecap in Europe and home to many a volcano waiting to explode, naturally. It’s really a sight to be seen. Here are some of my favorite photos- I seriously had to cut out a lot.

Iceland Road Trip – Part Six The final days of my Iceland roadtrip were spent driving...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Three This part really centers on the eastern area of Iceland’s...
Iceland Road Trip – Part One This June I found myself having a nice little window...

Iceland Road Trip – Part One

ian — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:41:41 +0000

This June I found myself having a nice little window of time where I could get away and after reviewing my ‘places I want to go‘ list from every year, Iceland kept being on the top of the list. The two days of decent prices to go over there just happened to work as well, so two weeks ahead of time I got tickets from Los Angeles to Reykjavík on Iceland Air. Sweet!

First things first, though I saved some money on airfare [It cost around $800 vs. similar dates being $1800] renting a car for a week wasn’t cheap. Though I understood later that it is impossible to not trash your car in Iceland hence the cost, the fact that the cheapest car to rent was $600 for a week seemed absurd. I had read that getting a 4×4 was a smart move, but dropping close to $1k for a week rental was out of the question.

So after arriving at 7am I figured I’d head off to the world famous Blue Lagoon. More people come here each year than residents in Iceland. Sadly it was freezing out and insanely windy. Not the most exciting time to be throwing your clothes off and jumping in 100 degree water. I got some photos though.

From there, I decided to do Iceland’s ‘Golden Road’ or whatever they call it. Essentially most people that go to Iceland just stay in the city, but this is a somewhat local excursion to see the sights. Since I hadn’t slept in probably 30 hours, I thought- why not? It was my first real experience with some good dirt roads too. My car seemed to hold up pretty well all things considering. Not having a GPS was kind of a bummer, TomTom doesn’t make Iceland maps yet.

Gullfoss Waterfall was really great, but unbelievably windy. I almost fell off the side there. A hint of what was to come for the entire trip. Seriously.

The remnants from the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption were still obvious, the amount of dirt and junk in the air was insane. My allergies were out of control! In certain areas I would step on the grass and a little poof would come up on every step. The first night I spent in Selfoss a renegade ash cloud decided to hang out over the town [it was like a huge downpour storm cloud!] and I came out to a car full of caked on gunk. Volcanic ash isn’t good to breathe in either, it’s full of glass and all sorts of lung/airplane shutting down goodness.

I hung out with these horses for a little while and fed them grass. If you look down in the background, that’s where I got my car stuck pretty much far enough away for no one to notice I was missing. One of those moments in your life where you’re like ‘wow, what was I thinking?’. Thankfully some family just happened to find me after I tried digging out for 45 minutes and they couldn’t help, but found some weathered Icelandic farmers to come drag my beat up car out. Aye…

The main road around Iceland is called the ‘Ring Road’ or Hwy 1. It really gives you a great mostly coastal view of Iceland. Some stretches were downright scary though. This is a very volcanic area down in south-central Iceland near Vik. There were times where I wouldn’t see another car for a good 45 minutes. Also most of the roads in Iceland were elevated with no shoulder, so the slightest miscalculation and you were rolling down a ditch…for nobody to find you. Ever. Icelandic driving was white knuckle all the way.

Iceland Road Trip – Part Four The one place I wish I spent more time in...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Three This part really centers on the eastern area of Iceland’s...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Six The final days of my Iceland roadtrip were spent driving...

Tres Hermanas Winery Wedding – Jen and John

ian — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:00:02 +0000

We met Jen and John just a few short weeks before their wedding and we immediately had a great connection. Jen and John love animals, the outdoors, and most of all, each other. You can see from the way they hold each other that they will always take great care of each other – in fact, Jen knew John was the guy for her when he nursed her back to health after an illness.

This kind of love and caring shined through on their wedding day. After getting ready at Mirabelle Inn in Solvang, Jen and John were married at the Tres Hermanas Winery under a beautiful tree. The details, coordinated by Joy de Vivre, were extra sweet, from a hay bale “sofa” for guests to relax, to rock candy favors. I especially loved the cake topper! Flowers from Florette and a delicious dinner from Pure Joy Catering rounded out the day. Jen and John, thanks for being so wonderful!

You can see more of our wedding photography work at www.distinctphoto.com

Photography: Ian Grant Photography
Planning: Joy de Vivre
Florist: Florette
Officiant: Miriam Lindbec
Venue: Tres Hermanas Winery

Firestone Winery Wedding Details Shoot A couple weeks ago Tanya, myself, and my wedding biz...
Firestone Winery Vineyard Mesa Wedding Photography – Jany and David We see a lot of wedding venues every year, and...
Firestone Winery Vineyard Mesa – Jany and David Jany and David – August 1st, 2009 Photography by: Ian...

I’m Going to Iceland

ian — Tue, 25 May 2010 05:40:53 +0000

So it looks like I’m going to have a couple weeks in-between weddings, so I did what any normal person would do and booked a ticket to Iceland. In a week-and-a-half. It’s going to be awesome and I’m going to drive the ring road [the link takes you to a great NY Times article] and basically run around and do Ian approved things for a week. Right now it’s daylight about 20-22 hours a day since it’s so high up around the arctic circle. Tanya isn’t coming this time though, she has to do normal people things. I’ll post more info soon, but I’m off next Thursday!

ICELAND V2 from Gunnar Konradsson on Vimeo.

ICELAND from Gunnar Konradsson on Vimeo.

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Iceland Road Trip – Part Three This part really centers on the eastern area of Iceland’s...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Four The one place I wish I spent more time in...
Iceland Road Trip – Part Five Getting to Seyðisfjörður up in the north-east was way too...

Venice Boardwalk Engagement Photography – Carey and David

ian — Sun, 16 May 2010 19:58:23 +0000

One thing that Tanya and I love is when couple’s choose locations for their engagement sessions that are really special to them. Carey and David are getting married at the Beach Club in Malibu but for their engagement session they wanted to show off their love for Los Angeles with a more urban photo shoot.

We met over in Venice Beach and had fun shooting with all of the textures and personalities of the boardwalk. Then Carey and David pulled out their beach cruiser bikes and we rode around on the bike path. All was well until mid-photo shoot, sitting precariously, camera in face, a very angry seagull dropped a tater-tot directly on my head. I wasn’t happy until I realized it was only a tater-tot…could be worse right? Nonetheless we persevered.

We decided to head over to Abbott Kinney in Venice and see if we could find the elusive food trucks that stop over there. Carey and David are food truck connoisseurs and they introduced us to the totally awesome world of mobile food. We hit the jackpot on Abbott Kinney – three trucks showed up so we had a bunch of food to choose from. Today it was the Nom Nom Truck, Baby’s Baddass Burgers and our choice, Dogtown Dogs. It was a delicious way to end the shoot! If you live in LA, check out the food truck live location map!

You can see more of our engagement photography at distinctphoto.com.

Venice Engagement Photography – Michelle and Nick When you meet certain people you instantly can tell why...
Malibu Engagement Photography – Stephanie and Michael Stephanie and Michael are LA locals getting married in Texas...
Union Station Engagement Photography – Heather and Bryce Heather and I go way back, back to the old...

Venice Engagement Photography – Michelle and Nick

ian — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:05:32 +0000

When you meet certain people you instantly can tell why they are together- Michelle and Nick are that way. They both have the goofiest personalities around each other and Michelle has a dead-pan hilarious sense of humor. You really get to know them quickly as it seems no topic is out of bounds [which we love] and since Michelle lived in the Abbot Kinney area of Venice for awhile, we got the no holes barred tour…and we thought we knew the area!

The best part is they were completely natural in front of the camera. For some people it can take some time to get used to having a big camera in front of you, but these guys hammed it up from the get go. They wanted a bit more urban of an engagement shoot as we’re going to be shooting their wedding up at the Upper Las Virgenes Open Preserve, one of our favorite locations in LA. Urban for the engagement / Open fields for the wedding. Hope you enjoy the photos, they’re some of our favorite this year!

You can see more of our engagement photography at distinctphoto.com.

Venice Boardwalk Engagement Photography – Carey and David One thing that Tanya and I love is when couple’s...
Union Station Engagement Photography – Heather and Bryce Heather and I go way back, back to the old...
Malibu Engagement Photography – Stephanie and Michael Stephanie and Michael are LA locals getting married in Texas...

Union Station Engagement Photography – Heather and Bryce

ian — Sat, 08 May 2010 18:19:34 +0000

Heather and I go way back, back to the old Livejournal internet days when I had more time to travel around the country and shoot trees and rocks and stuff. She, like a lot of my old friends, has kept in touch through all this time and low and behold she’s going to be getting married this year! In the Galapagos no less! My first thoughts upon hearing this was a] wow, they have really big turtles there & b] I don’t even know how you get to the Galapagos! Before all this madness Heather and Bryce were going to be in LA for a short time, and what vacation would be complete without getting some engagement photos done!

Since they are both avid travelers [Heather is in various worldly locations on a daily basis] it was only fitting to take them to one of my favorite LA locations, Union Station. If you’re only in LA for the weekend, my recommendations would be to see the beaches and Marina because I’m partial like that, but also to check out Union Station. It’s a fully working train station, but the architecture is just amazing in there, really unlike anywhere else I’ve been. Congrats guys!

You can see more of our engagement photography at distinctphoto.com.

Venice Engagement Photography – Michelle and Nick When you meet certain people you instantly can tell why...
Venice Boardwalk Engagement Photography – Carey and David One thing that Tanya and I love is when couple’s...
Malibu Engagement Photography – Stephanie and Michael Stephanie and Michael are LA locals getting married in Texas...

The Lodge at Torrey Pines Wedding Photography – Lana and Chris

ian — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:14:22 +0000

I have found one of the biggest connection Tanya and I have with our clients is their love of the outdoors and nature. Lana and Chris are no exception and are some of the warmest and most inviting people you’ll meet. Having a rustic and outdoorsy feel to their wedding was important to them, so The Lodge at Torrey Pines was a perfect spot. We absolutely loved the old wooded lodge feel to the hotel and it really lent itself well to both outdoor and indoor photos [see their portraits, they're kind of awesome].

Lana and Chris’ ceremony took place at the UCSD Immaculata Church in San Diego, perched high above the city. After a beautiful ceremony which concluded with a vivid sunset drive back to the Lodge, the night continued with elegantly crafted details, a candle lit dinner, and a great time had by all.

La Jolla and Torrey Pines have quickly become some of our favorite areas to shoot, not just for engagements/weddings but landscapes as well. There’s something special about the coastline there complete with sea cliffs, tidepools, and, you know, a world famous golf course. It seems like we’re headed down that way for more and more weddings, so all the better for us!

You can see more of our wedding photography work at www.distinctphoto.com

Photography: Ian Grant Photography
Planning: Platinum Weddings by Kerrie
Florist: Flower Allie
Cake: Edelweiss European Bakery
DJ: Vive Entertainment, Inc.

Firestone Vineyard Wedding Photography – Nicole and Joel Tanya and I had been looking forward to Nicole and...
Firestone Winery Vineyard Mesa Wedding Photography – Jany and David We see a lot of wedding venues every year, and...
Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Wedding Photography – Tom and Chrissy We just finished up another Calabasas wedding photography shoot up...

Things Ian Likes – April 2010 Edition

ian — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:54:27 +0000

So this is my new thing, Tanya loves to make fun of me because I go through periods of being obsessed about things and then research them to death and then she laughs at me. It’s pretty funny, so maybe every so often I’ll do a big review about the current things I’m obsessed about and you can chuckle to yourself and maybe benefit from techie awesomeness.

Nike+ Sportband / Nike+ Shoes

Tanya and I have been in workout mode lately for some odd reason. First we picked up Nike+ Sportband pedometers which are awesome because we have this little pooch who has excessive energy and if you don’t take him for epic walks then everyone in the house knows about it. So this Nike+ arm band connects with this little sensor in your shoe basically tells you how far you’ve walked, how long, how many calories you’ve burned, etc. The best part really though is the online interface where it keeps all the stats up for you and can join all these challenges. The best way to keep me motivated and most guys in general I think is to have stats. Lots and lots of stats. That way you don’t feel like you’re wasting a whole lot of time messing around and you can see the direct result of all this time you’ve wasted. That’s my two cents anyway. Nike has built up an amazing site around these things and you can buy their special ‘+’ shoes that fits the little sensor directly under your shoe cushion. Very cool little product and we both love it.

Nike+ Sport Band
Price: —

0 used & new available from —

Schwinn 431 Elliptical

So while we like this whole pedometer thing, we’ve been doing that for a good long while now and really not seeing a whole lot of results. Granted, if we did more running instead of walking [this is mostly the dogs fault, running is not one of his stronger skills- stopping and smelling is] we’d probably see more results, but anyway we decided to pick up an Elliptical. I did my research before we decided on one, and this was what the consensus seemed to be from the experts. It is a chunk of change however, $800 to be exact, but we’ve plopped this thing directly next to our couch, so instead of sitting and watching TV now we can watch our favorite DVR shows! The machine is great and the both of us have been using it every day and working up disgusting sweats that only our pet collection should ever see.

I’ve been tracking all our elliptical workouts using the iPhone/iPod Touch app called RunKeeper. It’s great, free, and easy to input all your workout stats quickly. The elliptical even has a little iPhone stand thing where I just keep it on a day to day basis so I can enter in stuff on a fly. Everything is kept on RunKeeper’s website so on any given day I can go check in and see how long I’ve worked out, how many calories, etc. Pretty excellent.

Schwinn 431 Elliptical Trainer
Price: —

1 used & new available from USD 799.99

The Schwinn 420 is a bit cheaper and has similar features as well.

Schwinn 420 Elliptical Trainer
Price: USD 597.00

2 used & new available from USD 597.00

Withings WiFi Scale

This is seriously the coolest thing I’ve seen in awhile. So with all this workout stuff, you really want to start seeing direct results right? We actually had a scale we bought like two weeks prior to me finding this, but when I started researching this I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. So this scale is pretty insane. Basically you stand on it and it first automatically recognizes who you are [after you set it up on your computer]. After that it takes your weight, measures your fat and lean mass content, and then comes up with your body mass index. Most fancy scales already do this, but the unique thing about the Withings is it then sends all your info over your home Wifi to their server where it is all plotted on a graph along with however many users you have. So I can go in there and see Tanya and my graphs, and you can set weight objectives, etc. and all tracked over time. Stat heaven! They’re also constantly updating the features, like they just made it so you can sync with Google Health and also created a iPhone App [free] that you can see all your results in real time. So hopefully we’ll get to see all this hard work [I mean it's mostly to keep in shape] in true awesome graph form over time!

Withings Wifi Body Scale
Price: USD 159.00

2 used & new available from USD 159.00

Marina del Rey Tanya and I love to go for walks, and since...

Palm Springs Newborn Photography – Mason

ian — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:23:32 +0000

How adorable is this little guy? Mason was just a few days old when we first met him out near Palm Springs, California. As you can tell by some of the photos he already has quite the personality! There’s something really special about photographing babies this small- it seems like they grow exponentially by the day.

Manhattan Beach Newborn Photography – Madeline We had such a blast shooting Katie and Patrick’s wedding...
Newborn babies! Our new favorite photo subjects! A new goal for 2010 [it's coming up!] is to...
Venice Engagement Photography – Michelle and Nick When you meet certain people you instantly can tell why...

Wedding in Paris

ian — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:01:21 +0000

We’re really excited. We just booked a French wedding so next May we’re headed back to Paris to go live on baguettes again- I’m thinking another roadtrip might be in the works as well. This time instead of Bretagne and Normandie, maybe down south?

PS: Does anyone recognize the above cafe? I make sure to stop every time I’m in Paris.

Tres Hermanas Winery Wedding – Jen and John We met Jen and John just a few short weeks...
Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Wedding Photography – Tom and Chrissy We just finished up another Calabasas wedding photography shoot up...
Firestone Vineyard Wedding Photography – Nicole and Joel Tanya and I had been looking forward to Nicole and...

Malibu Creek State Park Engagement Session – Deepa and Bart

ian — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:34:11 +0000

One of the [many] amazing weddings we have to look forward to this year is that of Deepa and Bart. They’re going to be getting married at the fantastic old California style Adamson House overlooking the ocean. I think since the first time we saw it [ironically while we were out shooting landscapes] we thought it would be an awesome venue, and it’s right by the pier in Malibu. Anyway, back to Deepa and Bart- our first connection to them was through Tanya as they were going to be having a traditional Indian engagement ceremony down in Irvine and wanted us to shoot it. Sadly it was last August and I was tramping through Switzerland at the time. So off Tanya and a friend went to shoot it and I was incredibly jealous when I got back and was editing through the photos- such vibrant colors with lots of reds and teals! Their wedding is coming up in early May and we can’t wait. Since they’re real nature people like us we chose to do their engagement session over in Malibu Creek State Park up in the Santa Monica Mountain Preserve. It’s a great place to get away from Los Angeles, especially now when everything is beautifully green. I hope you enjoy the photos!

You can see more of our wedding and engagement photography at distinctphoto.com

Malibu Engagement Photography – Stephanie and Michael Stephanie and Michael are LA locals getting married in Texas...
Griffith Park Observatory Engagement Photos – Molly and Sam We met Molly and Sam at Deepa and Bart’s engagement...
Venice Engagement Photography – Michelle and Nick When you meet certain people you instantly can tell why...