Welcome to our new Blog. Thank you, Wayne, for inspiring us to finally do this!
We will be showing you our adventures as portrait photographers and also will post shots of our adventures outside the realm of portraiture. Todd is also an Assistant Golf Coach for UC Davis, so you'll see golf shots as well.
Check out our website:
Todd & Barbara Photography
I can't wait for Saturday! It is not only Todd's and my anniversary, but it is Gennie and Eric's wedding day! Here are some engagement photos we took a few weeks ago out at Gennie's parents' ranch. We had a lot of fun getting to know them - and Gennie's dad, Henry, who had already picked out some spots for the shoot before we arrived. He has quite a beautiful garden around the house and some prize-winning flowers that he took to the Woodland Fair. Gennie grew up out here on the ranch, so it was nice getting some pictures around her home.
Last weekend we had the pleasure of photographing Debbie and Rick's wedding in Brentwood..that is, the northern California Brentwood. What a happy event that was!
There is a Look of Love!
The wedding took place at the beautiful home of their good friends, Ken and Linda. There were over 100 very special friends and family members present. I've never seen a group that was so supportive of a couple getting married. Debbie and Rick have 4 grown children between them and they now make a beautiful, complete family. You could just see the love and acceptance between the kids and their parents. It was a "beautiful thing to behold".
The wedding cake was made by 2 cousins and the top was a bride, a groom and...a motorcycle!
In fact, an exact replica of Rick's Harley! And I must say, the cake was delicious! I'm all for chocolate wedding cakes! Hmm...maybe Todd can make me a chocolate cake like that for our anniversary...with a chocolate ganache frosting and then chocolate ganache mixed with whipped cream for the filling...oh whoops..I digress...I'm supposed to be writing about the wedding!
Our famous Davis Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu team of seven traveled down to Los Angeles to compete in the American National Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament. And once again Mia Matalon won a Gold medal and then a Silver in the Open Division. Michael Quigley, the owner of Elite Instinct Studios, won Gold in his division. Mauro Ayres, the instructor, won a Bronze in his Black Belt division. You can read all about it by clicking on Michael's name, above. The rest of the team did very well and they are now back in training to prepare for their next competition. To have a team of seven come home with 4 medals in a National competition is quite a feat! We are all very proud of them.
Today we drove back to Tunnels after brunch. Jan and Joy fixed a delicious brunch of fresh fruit salad, scrambled eggs, bacon (that Todd barbequed), and blueberry pancakes.
We all had a great time snorkeling at Tunnels. Todd's underwater camera was not working, so we knew we'd see great fishes. We saw the most beautiful school of large fish ever (of course). It would have made a beautiful picture. There were at least 50 fish in the school, right in front of us. They were beautiful. They were "grazing" on algae on the coral. They looked like beautiful leaves blowing in the breeze as the current swept over them. This is one time when a picture would have said it all.
We drove back to Kapa'a, showered and dressed in time to drive to the airport to pick up Art, my other brother. Joy was very excited to see her hubby, since they had been apart for a month. Art had been on an expedition to Banks Island, then on a lecturing tour. So for tomorrow, we will all be together. Hopefully, Davy will be able to spend time with us too, tomorow.
Jan, Tom, Art and Joy at the airport.
We had dinner (again) at Hamura's, then drove home to sleep. Joy, Jan, Art, and Tom eating their Saimin Bowls.
Finally! I have caught up on my blogs and it actually IS Saturday! Keith called and we are set for a trip up to his reserve at 2:00pm. He will be with the movie directors, scouting the location for a new movie. And we all will be tagging along. We will be met at the gate by the Sheriff, a friend of Keith's, who is a real character. So that will be fun.
Davy is going to meet up with Sean and Isa, down at Hanalei. He is disappointed he won't be able to go with Keith, but the timing just isn't working out. He and Sean might do a little surfing at Hanalei bay.
Correction: We drove Davy and the 2 surfboards to the Retreat House where the wedding people are staying. Davy decided to just remain at the retreat, so we left the surfboards with him there, since he is staying there for the next 2 days. What a good choice that was! When Todd and I got to Hanalei bay, there were absolutely NO waves!! It was calm like a pond! So I called Davy and told him the news, so we made the right decision.
This is Hanalei Bay through my sunglasses. Not a wave in sight!
We met up with Joy, Jan and Tom in Hanalei and traveled on to Keith's reserve in one car. There we met Keke and Logan, who are scouting for the new movie "Predators", and we packed into two trucks to drive up the mountain, with Keith as our guide. I got to sit in the nice, air conditioned Tundra truck with Carl, the Sheriff. everyone else had to sit in the back of the truck. Needless to say, my trip was very luxurious, with a good supply of gum, peanuts and popcorn, and no mosquitos. In fact, I stayed in the truck the whole trip! everyone else jumped out at every stop to go with Keith and the 2 scouts to see more detail. Carl and I sat and talked about everything under the sun, especially the Bible! He used to be a pastor and he knows so much about the Bible, I learned alot!
This is the rear view of a feral pig. This is what the hunters come here for.
We are waiting for Keith to come to open his gate.
Logan, Keith and Joy looking around for details.
This is Keith's valley.
You can see that the road is not traveled very often.
Today Joy and Jan left at 4:00 am to go on a boat trip to the Napali coast and snorkeling off Niihau island. The rest of us slept in 'til at least 7:00 and then went for a swim in the pool, then had breakfast. We watched from our balcony as a man cooked bacon on the barbeque. We called down to him to ask him how to do it, then as soon as he was finished, Todd took our bacon down and we ended up with perfectly cooked, crispy bacon to have with our grilled pineapple and eggs.
We met Joy and Jan at 3:00 in the afternoon at the Kauai Coffee Company. They had had a wonderful trip at sea, saw schools of dolphins, and beautiful fish.
Look! Jan and Tom discovered a leaf just for them! It says "Tom loves Jan '09". What a surprise (don't let them know that we had been there days earlier)
We drove up to Waimea Canyon for the beatiful views and then on up to Koke'e State Park to the Kalalau Valley Lookout to watch the sunset. It was cold and raining, so some of us sat in our cars to warm up while Todd and Davy kept watching and photographing. When the sun started to set, we could see the sky clear up so we all dashed back up to see the sunset. It was still cold, about 60 degrees (we, of course were dressed for 80 degrees), but worth the wait.
The Kalalau Valley on the Napali coast. This is the view from the lookout.
and then the beautiful sunset.
It was dark when we drove down into Waimea (of course), and we still hadn't had our picnic dinner (which Tom and I had fixed in the morning), so we finally found a spot with a picnic table and lights...at the Waimea High School! There was a football practice going on, so we had some entertainment while we ate!
Right down the street was the Waimea Foreign Church. Keith had taken us there last trip, so we knew all about it. It used to be called the Foreign Church in the 1850's because the services were held in English. It was very beautiful in the moonlight, so Todd and Davy took some shots. You can click on the link to learn more. The Waimea Foreign Church in the moonlight.
Today we drove up to Princeville to visit Noreen and Steve. We had met Noreen back in January and we really had a fun visit with her then. So we were looking forward to meeting her husband, Steve, this trip. He is great fun, too! They took us to the best snorkeling place- Tunnels- and we all had a great time there. There were 2 turtles to follow, and many beautiful fish. Todd took some wonderful pictures. We all got sunburned because we were having too much fun out there in the clear water. Then Steve treated us all to Subway sandwiches which we took back to their place to enjoy. Noreen loaned us 2 surfboards so Davy and Tom can do a little surfing later.
We met Isa and Sean, the bride and groom, who are getting married on Monday. Davy is here to photograph part of their wedding (and he is a guest- Sean is a good friend). It was amazing that, with all the people at the beach at Tunnels, Davy could actually find them. On the way home we stopped by the beautiful "retreat" where the wedding party is staying. It is a perfect spot for their reception.
We had a delicious barbequed chicken dinner and played "Apples to Apples". It is a really neat game.
We are a husband/wife team. We love to photograph families, Seniors, babies, Maternity, and Weddings. We live in Davis, California with our 2 dogs (well, now we have no dogs--first time in our lives). We have 2 grown sons, Michael and David.
