Last weekend, Debbie, Jason, and I took a little road trip outside of Fresno for an adventure to places unknown. Despite no real plan on what or where we were going to shoot I would say that things couldn’t have turned out much better.  Started off at an old barn just off the road and wrapped things up in somebody’s front yard. thank you to the landscaper for keeping things pretty and to the homeowner for not telling us to leave and only looking at us with a strange look of why two people were gettin’ all hot and steamy in front of their house ;) good times indeed!  here’s a few of my favorites from their engagement session, InJoy.

We found an awesome little spot with some buttery backlight golden goodness to go along with it.  Jason and Debbie kicked up the heat with these next few shots!

We ended the day with a killer sunset, couldn’t be a happier photographer.  Their wedding will kick things off in January, can’t wait!

contact derek | facebook fan page | subscribe by email | view more engagement pics

contact derek | facebook fan page | subscribe by email | view more engagement pics

Tiffany and Kraig came all the way from Alaska JUST so we could shoot their engagement session!!  OK… not really JUST for me, but they are from Alaska :)  Now I need to talk them into getting me up there to shoot another session.  Any takers on wanting to shoot in Alaska?

We had such a blast on this shoot.  The first shot that you see above was straight out of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean music video (at least that’s what it seemed like).  We were walking down the dark, scary ally’s of Clovis, when we see this cloud of smoke and hear a motorcycle revving in the distance. So we hurry up, track the guy down ask for a few minutes of his time and voila! the kick-ass picture is complete.  Thank you random motorcycle guy!

Enough talking for now, here’s a few more of their pics…

LOVE Tiffany’s laugh in this next picture… and Kraig’s shiny bald head in the picture above, hehe.

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Photography has taken me many places and has opened my eyes to an entirely new world of beauty, not only in physical locations but the love and respect between two people. Ashley and Jeremy is exactly that kind of couple.

We took a nice little drive all the way through Sequoia National Park from Exeter around to Sanger. Needless to say we didn’t get to the location we wanted to shoot at until the sun was already down, but we made the best of it and still had an awesome experience!

Their wedding is just around the corner so you will see more of them soon!

Exeter is full of these awesome murals all over town.  Be sure to stop by and check it out if you’re in the area!

Last but not least, we got a few shots in Sequoia National Park.

What happens when you run out of light to shoot in… you make it!

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Sara and Brandon have some awesome chemistry together and were such a blast to work with and get to know on a more intimate level. Brandon and I actually work together at Provost & Pritchard Engineering but it was the first time I really got to see Sara’s great personality. They have some fun and unique stuff planned for their wedding next year in at The Victorian Gardens in Kingsburg that I can’t wait to see the images we can create. For now, InJoy their engagement sesh.

This may be a scene straight out of 8 Seconds, you tell me.

Soo HOT!

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Nina and Vinnie’s engagement session was quite unique and interesting to say the least.  We got took some goofy pictures, fun pictures, drama pictures, laughed at each other, got rained on, ate some delicious pizza and hot wings, got dressed up, took some more pictures, took a trauma access elevator to the top of a hospital, took more pictures on the helipad, then had some bombskizzle tea at teazers! I would say we we made a pretty awesome kick ass team for the day!

We started out at the crazy looking spaceship that is Fresno’s City Hall.  The 4 dimensions (nina+vinnie, cloud reflection, building, and sky) in the image above made this one of my many favorites from the day’s session. Nina and Vinnie call this their “Asian Pose”, haha!

We took cover as we hid from the downpour and still got some sweet pics. They said they don’t photograph well and aren’t photogenic.  I think the following two images help prove otherwise!!  You two are smokin’ hot!

Since nina is a nurse, we were able to get on the helipad for just a few minutes before we ran out of light and had to head back down, but made the best of it!  I was hoping that we would have had a helicopter to play with but i guess some random photographer on top of a hospital building with no railing crawling around on a helicopter was some wort of liability issue… ehh, ohh well, we got to shoot on a helipad, heck yes!!

P.S. Quote of the session… “Awww, we’re your first asians. How sweet!” ~Nina :)

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When it came to planning Kara and Justin‘s engagement session, we weren’t exactly sure what we were going to do… until i found out that they love to go to the movies!  So, how much more appropriate than to shoot in a theater!?  I had to pull quite a few string to make it happen, but it all worked out and we got some killer images to prove it.  Kara and Justin are two amazing, gorgeous people inside and out made for each other.  There are soo many more awesome pics but here’s a few of my favorites.  InJoy!

This next shot kind of reminds me of a scene in Twilight with Bella and Edward for some reason, NOT that I like those chic flick vampire love story movies or anything (unlike my wife who has a major love crush on Robert Pattinson), pshh!

We made our way up to the forest for a few shots ;)

How stinkin’ cool is this tree!? Oh yeah… Kara and Justin, you guys look pretty cool too!

What’s a movie if it’s not in 3D?  I told them to pretend they were watching the funniest movie they have ever seen and Justin starts laughing out loud, REALLY LOUD, which got us all laughing.  I wish i had a video of this one because it was hilarious, haha!  I wont be forgetting this shot anytime soon!

The end.

Thank you to Laura for getting us into the top secret theater location to shoot and to Alecks Lara for being my light boy and sharin’ a beer with me!

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Brooke has been one of my sisters best friends since elementary school and when i got the opportunity to shoot her and Jessie’s engagement and wedding, i jumped at the chance!  They’re both such unique individuals i wanted to create an image that worked specifically for them and i came up with the concept shot above and was able to pull it off, barely!  It was pitch black that night and could barely see anything i was doing, AH.  This one might actually be a fun one to walk you through a before and after to see what we were working with… any interest in a little behind the scenes?

We kicked things off at Spinners Records for a few fun shots of goofing around before heading out to the country.  HUGE thanks to Don for letting us shoot in his store!

“I wear my sunglasses at night… when it’s sunny”!

If you didn’t guess it already by his rockstar good looks, Jessie is an amazing musician so I wasn’t about to NOT incorporate at least one shot with a guitar.

Let’s end it with a little bit o’ passion!

contact derek | facebook fan page | subscribe by email | view more engagement pics

contact derek | facebook fan page | subscribe by email | view more engagement pics

contact derek | facebook fan page | subscribe by email | view more engagement pics