Timur and Lauren met through mutual friends.  Timur is running for Harbor Commissioner as well for the City of Port Hueneme.  These two embody laid back, California style living.  Living at the beach, each having found their passion in their professional lives, giving them plenty of time to enjoy outdoor living with simple pleasures.  Riding their bikes to their favorite restaurants in the Channel Islands Harbor or just catching the last moment of sun as it hits the ocean before night.  Next year, they will gather family and friends together, on this same beach, and commit their lives together, cause it's much better when they are together!

Click HERE to view a slide show of their engagement.

Friends

  Lori and Allesandro

Lori is co owner/operator of Vie Spa in Camarillo

I was shooting Lori and Allesandro's wedding in February and met Joy and Justin.  They were dancing, having fun, drinking wine.  Told them if they ever got married, I would love to be their photographer.  Well...they did...and I did and it was amazing!  So glad to be part of their day at McCormick Ranch in Camarillo.  Kelly Segre came along to second shoot with me.  We had fun doing what we love!!  Thanks, Joy and Justin!  Hope married life is as beautiful as it started out!  HERE is there photo slide show.
xo,  Ronnie

Favorite moments

Taking a moment to ponder my summer.  Moments are rare right now.  First year shooting weddings just on my own.  Found lots of really wonderful people and hopefully, more in the future, just like them.  Enclosed are two shots from wedding that I shot this summer.  Santa Barbara.  My hometown.  Canary Hotel and Santa Barbara City College, where  I went to school.  Moments that fall in between.  Santa Barbara light+incredible.  xo, Ronnie

Will have to get up later today and photograph a wedding.  Soo happy!  It's in Santa Barbara.  For real Santa Barbara.  Not just the Biltmore or Bacara which I love to shoot at.  Don't get me wrong.  They are the old Butterfly Lane(swam to old platform) and Haskells Pier (summer afternoons after summer school at Dos Pueblos) in my mind.  Mesa Lane.  Beach. = Beach Boys lived there... Mission=Fiesta and gift store that sells St. Christophers and had live animals at the Christmas mangers.  Courthouse= danced there, walked my dog there at night after library visits with my Dad.  ( Keeps my birth certificate safe there)  Montecito=got married there, partied there.  The real deal.  Can't wait!!  Met up with friends from high school.  Bishop Garcia Diego to be exact and some even as far back as San Roque.  We met at Goleta Beach,(lay out after work, ran to from Fairview) which now has a nice restaurant.  Will have to miss the actual reunion at El Capitan Beach tomorrow,(ooh the surf there in the winter, but the locals not so friendly)  since I'm shooting, but it's okay!   Know that these people will understand!

Endless Summer

The Bishop from Oxnard with Peter and Velia

Bard Mansion, Port Hueneme Base

So glad to have almost caught up with all my weddings, but that means, summer is winding down and this makes me a little sad..Yes, I will have time to clean my studio and walk with my dog, but leaves me wondering about my future...I make my living photographing people and that makes me happy, but for some reason, weddings seem to take place mostly during the summer months.  I will be so glad to share the many things that I have witnessed, but the opportunity to catch up means I will not be shooting as much, or maybe, I headed to a new adventure?

Santa Clara Church, Oxnard, California

Here are some images from a special wedding that I had the honor of photographing in July.  Velia and Peter are  both law students and their passion for life and sense of adventure, along with their subtle sense of humor, tie them together.  xo, Ronnie

Reconnecting

Today was a great day!  It's a summer Saturday and somehow found it wedding-less.  I'm shooting one tomorrow and had one last night, so life is good!
Met up with a former couple that I had photographed their wedding for eight years ago, at the Adamson House in Malibu.  We had reconnected again through Facebook and I found out they were headed through Ventura to camp for the weekend.  We spent some time at the beach, with their 3 year old daughter.  It felt so right to photograph them now, eight years later, with a family.  Life, for one moment, stood still.  As I was there when they became husband and wife, many years ago, once again, we were on a beach honoring their commitment to each other, now as a family.  They are wonderful people.  So honored to once again be a part of their lives as they shared their time with their  daughter.  Kind people. Amazing parents.  And well, quite easy on the eyes.  Will check with them to see if I could post a couple of photos, but even without an image, there is one in my heart.

Ventura Engagement

My kids attended Pierpont School in Ventura.  We had recently transplanted our family here from Santa Barbara and once I spotted this public school, right on the beach, I knew it was a perfect fit for our beach oriented family.

Josh and Jon attended their entire elementary years, kindergarten through 5th grade, them making lifelong friends as well as myself.  This area will always hold a place in my heart, both good and bad, as some of you may know, but that's been the yin and yang of my life.

Last year, a very pretty bride contacted me to photograph her wedding.  Jeannine and David Shellenberger had fallen in love, and wanted me to photograph their wedding at Eucalyptus Lane.  When I met with Jeannine, a stunning blond, she smiled at me with recognition.  I had no clue as to who she was until she spoke of her mother, Jennifer Loudermilk, who was one of the village of people who helped me raise my boys at Pierpont School.  I was thrilled to be a part of their wedding and my son, Josh assisted me.  I loved seeing Josh's former kindergarten teacher at the wedding.

This year, Jeannine's brother, Jacob, contacted me and asked if I would be interested in photographing his wedding.  Only problem was, it would take place in Arizona.  I was honored to be asked and chosen to be a part of this wonderful family once again.  Jacob and Georgianna have been living in different states.  Georgianna lives in Arizona while Jacob lives here.  That is going to change soon.  In honor of the fact that Ventura was a part of their story, they had their engagement session here, amongst the antique stores and the ability to still walk to the beach in the evening.

HERE is their engagement slide show:  Enjoy!

Montecito

So my sister, Theresa Hayes, just emailed me about her day.  Theresa is a wonderful nurse, although you would much rather run into her in a grocery store,  rather than at her "day" job, which is an intensive care nurse at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.  Apparently she ran into friend of mine.   At the Montecito Vons, yes, where Oprah is known to shop. I almost said, old friend, but I do consider her a friend for life, as she was one of the first people whom I trusted the care of my oldest son, Josh. 

Theresa had commented on how my parents raised us.  Her, being forcibly put into a Register Nursing program and to me, forced to do, nada.  My Mom passed away shortly after high school and  I graduated being able to do whatever the h*** I wanted to.  And she was grateful.  Sometimes, I wish I had been forced into a profession that is honorable, but generates a nice, steady income, such as nursing, but the reality of what she does on a day to day basis.  Not sure I could do it.  People die in intensive care.  Maybe, not on her watch.  Some do recover and their families bring them home.  But what she has to deal with on a daily/weekly  basis?  Just makes me grateful for the things I get to see.  I get to do something honorable, too.  Document people's lives and somehow,  been able to provide for my family, and now, myself.  And I love it!!  Did my parents know something about us that we didn't quite see in ourselves?

Montecito to Santa Barbara, shot from the sky while flying with Danielle Quinn, Avex Marketing Director, in her cute Cessna.

Santa Barbara.

My hometown.  Born at St. Francis, which is now shut down, youngest of a family of eight, we were a large family of fish in a small town....Everyone knew one another.  Stores closed at 8pm and you played tennis in the street in front of your home,   Tomorrow, I go back to my hometown to shoot a wedding.  The actual ceremony will be at SBCC, where I attended college.  It perches above the Pacific Ocean.  Once, long ago,I remember walking back from an accounting class to where my car was parked.  Wondering in my head, why I was taking business classes when all I wanted to do was be a photographer?  I could see my shadow, falling on the soil ahead of me;  there was no pavement.  Could picture me photographing someone while they were walking and I was documenting.  Tomorrow, that image takes place.  Will be where I'm supposed to be, doing what I was meant to be doing.  Feeling overwhelms  me.  Will have to share this with the couple.  And be grateful that my business administration and marketing classes, that I took on that very soil, have actually taken me to that place where I WANT TO BE!!

2am on Sunday

Really is 2am on a Sunday.  Just shot wedding for Christine and Mark at The Secret Garden.  Soo beautiful!  Forgot to ask them if I could share their images or not, so, guess that will have to wait.  Also shot this week for Native Daughters of the Golden West.  Brought back memories from my growing up in Santa Barbara and Fiesta.   Started shooting seniors for 2011 at Visual Photography this week as well.  Went really well.  Glad people come to have that moment captured.  So much changes after high school!  For me, it was a good thing.  My mom got really sick and passed away, right after I graduated.  She wasn't able to attend my graduation from Bishop High in Santa Barbara, but I have recently discovered people on Facebook that went there and now we can just be ourselves and support each other, even if just over the internet.  Even, at 2am!!!