Dan n Chloe

We had a blast this past weekend with our friends up in in tahoe.
After hiking around and such. I can't belied how beautiful and warn
last weekend was. Almost 70 in tahoe! Felt like a summer/ fall day.

Beautiful lake tahoe

What a day for a hike!

Jason & Krystal- San Diego, CA

Brain and Karelisa- SLO, CA

Midwest Speaking Tour

I'll be speaking in the midwest At Pictage PUG's Thanks to the other sponsors as well, ShootQ, Kiss wedding books, and California Sunbounce,

I'm going to be giving a mini session of my upcoming WPPI Platform presentation "Leadership & Influence" I'll also be going to talk a little bit about some of the other topics I've been covering in my recent talks around the country.

-"Shoot Right the First time"
-"Simple Business so you don't have to do the Business"
-"Work Hard, Play Hard"

Here are the Dates!:

December 1: Nashville, TN.
December 2: Knoxsville/Chattenooga
December 3: Chattenooga (FULL DAY WORKSHOP)
December 4: Ashville/Raliegh, NC
December 5: Atlanta, GA


These topic and a little shooting demo are in the works. I'm honored to be connecting with photographers in these cities, so if your in or around these cities and these dates and want to sign up contact the Pictage PUG leader or, email me for more infoseminars@mikelarson.com.

Matt and Lacey- SLO, CA

Couples like you two make my job easy :) cant wait till your wedding next summer!

Arnold and Mona Rehersal : Tahoe, CA

I loved the light at this time and wanted to post some of these. Mona & Arnold, you guys are beautiful.

Photo of the Week: San Luis Obispo - Bishops Peak

Highlighted on my mikelarsonphoto.com website (which needs updating) I have been selling these prints.  This is from last spring.  Bishops is part of the "7 sisters" which runs all the way into Morro bay.  

Arnold and mona wedding

Mona & Arnold were a sweet couple we met a few months back. I was amped to be working with them. The Fabulous Event Designers up in Tahoe: Karin, Kerry & Rebecah from BLUE SKY Events took such good care of them and planned a fabulous destination wedding for the Bay Area Couple. Located in Lake Tahoe, on the south shore, The Edgewood Resort is home to an very photogenic location. Here are a quick pic at some of my fav's. The lighting and the whole event was perfect. Thanks guys for an amazing day. Check out some of the images I posted on my facebook profile.

Josh Garrels Concert

My wife found this concert online and brougt me here. For those of you
who don't know, Josh is one of my fav artists. Check out his website http://www.joshgarrels.com
. You can listen to his music or buy albums. He's on the iTunes as
well.

Rearview mirror a taxi in nyc...

Riding to dinner...

Cute wife + 3 year anniversary

I am so in love with my wife, I think she is more beautiful and I
love serving her more than I did when we were married. This week we
celebrate our 3 years of the most amazing marraige ever...

New York City (Casual Portrait Session) Bryan & Maggie

I LOVE NYC. We met Bryan and Maggie at the Apple Store on 5th. We headed out in Central Park and got lost for a few hours.  Bryan has a natural smile, and he loves photography, so while normally I don't chat about the technical side too much, it was fun to chat about what I was doing while I was shooting.  Maggie was super fun and able to have so much fun with Bryan.  Here are some of the AMAZING color that we captured...

I love my 85 1.2 lens!

Why sit when you can stand.  The fall colors make for fires amazing backdrops

Bryan & Maggie are so in love, Rachel and I were talking about how simple, fun and real their relationship is.  That totally comes out in the photos.  

These areas remind me of Europe.  I love shooting over there and NYC reminds me of that.  Maybe thats why I love it so much.

Maggie, a bride to be...

Central Park offers some cool rocks to get some aerial shots, mixing up the portraiture.

"Bo" bridge, the famous, the beautifully simple...

Taking a moment to watch the sunset, these shoots are not all about running around and shooting, but about just "being" and hanging out.

The Brooklyn Bridge & the coolest walkway across the East River.  Right at sunset when the light is perfect.

Grand Central Station, a 2 second exposure.  Life stands still, reminding me of how we need to take the time to spend our time with what is most important.

On the way to dinner we went on another subway, and I grabbed this shot while they had a chance to be alone and share sweet nothings and be themselves.

Maggie, the model on the runway, Bryan, watching her woman closely, crossing Times Square.  This shot was fun, but took a couple of runs to get perfect due to light, traffic and the crowds of people.

Such a fun day,  I think we spent 9 hours shooting and then eating dinner.  That FLEW by.  I am stoked with what we got and looking forward until we meet again.  It was a pleasure sharing and hearing about your family and your heart for your relationship and your wedding.

The end. (for now)

New York City Workshop - KISS "Get Simple"

Kevin Swan & I today taught the "KISS - GET SIMPLE" workshop in Manhattan, Downtown New York City. We had a great group of photographers and it was sweet. New York is always a fun spot to work, eat, shoot, and hang out so it made for a great setting to be able to do this seminar. Thanks guys for a good day...

Rachie at Grand Central!

This is the first time my wife has been here. She looks so cute and
she has been really sweet today helping out with the shoot.

Riverside Connecticut Wedding & New England Area

Good morning, its monday, and Normally I'm somewhere near the beach in California, but across the this is perfect town USA, which reminds me of my hometown, Danville CA. This literally feels like 200 years ago.  

Looking into the Long Island Sound, its so beautiful here.

There was this patch of leaves and Rachel and I parked our car and laid down, snapped a shot and moved on.  In cali the vineyards will change color like this, but we don't get that much color change as out here.  Its crazy, they pile leaf piles as high as people and 20 feet long.  Thats their saturday chore.  While the little kids play in the middle of it. I must admit, i did drive through a couple leaf piles, it was just too tempting...

Looking up, the color looks as if the trees are on fire!

Rachel picked out her favorite leafs and arranged them on the hood of the car.

They call this the Sugar Maple tree leaf.  So I tried to see for myself.  It didn't taste like sugar or maple, I wonder why they call it that.

Driving along the the roads, getting lost was super fun, cause you would see this all day long.

They typical house, here, no curbs, fences, just amazing colors, smiles, kids & dogs playing everywhere, as if Rachel and I didn't want a dog enough, this may have been the clincher!

We are heading to NYC now, its been a sweet weekend up here, I'll be positing some of the best wedding images from the weekend, Here are two of my fav's...

Scott & Courtney were such an amazing couple, and the sweetest people ever. It was such a pleasure to serve them and their whole family this weekend. Thanks guys...

Perfectville

These town roads are so beautiful...

Darin and Libby: Pismo Beach CA.

Darin & Libby were a fun couple, Darin is the most laid back guy, very cool, collected and fun to hang out with.  Libby is an animal trainer and is amazingly talented.  She trained a hawk to be part of the ceremony, yeah, read on...

The day started off right with Darin making the perfect todo list for his morning routine.  

Libby getting ready with the final touches as her bridesmaids make her laugh...

And the cute little flower girl who was "watering" her flowers with sand moments before this shot, was being silly and loving every second of it.  Its funny how much little girls like their dresses.  Its almost programmed into most every girl.

They had their ceremony on a bluff in the sand.  Atop a dune, surrounded by cool trees, this was an amazing spot to have a ceremony.  The evening color was sweet!

This is the amazing part.  She had trained the Hawk, "Lupus" to fly in between their arms and deliver the rings to the officiant.  It was a surprise to everyone, (except us :)!) Needless to say, this is the most original ring delivery I have ever seen!  I was mucho impressed and was glad my Canon shot at 8 frames per second.  I max out the buffer all the time and did 2 seconds after this shot.

What I loved about this ceremony setup was how they were up high, on a dune, which made for a very untraditional look to the ceremony, I think it was easier to photograph yet, very original and I was able to get some cool shots...

What a stud with his beautiful new wife. Notice his confident stride and the way he makes her laugh.  Its gonna be a good marriage.

First Dance, it was a great reception and Darin was a gentleman with his new wife.  

This shot was taken at 1/25th of a second, with my 85 1/.2.  The ISO was 1600, and I did shoot in color, but I liked the B+W better.  I LOVE pushing my camera to the limits, and it took 18 shots to get this one.  8 frames per second rocks my world.  7,000 images later, this wedding was a hit and we left proud of what we shot.  Thanks Darin & Libby, you guys were great.  Have a wonderful honeymoon!

Connecticut...

Wow...

Good morning, leaving Cali...

There is something cool about flying out over the water. Maybe it's my
fascination with wanting to be a pilot. But it's sweet to leave land
and get an arial shot of where u just were.

Today I am heading out to Scott & Courtney's wedding in conneticut.
Well get to see our friends Anna & Keone who we had the opportunity to
photograph their wedding last summer.

Then it's off to NYC to visit friends, do an engagement session and
celebrate my 3 year anniversary. I'll post some sweet new England
shots in the next few days. Have a wonderful, warm day...

Birthday Bash at the Studio

This post is a few days old, but...


First off, I wanted to thank all the sweet people who came out and made my birthday sweet. Best of all it was great to see everyone at the same time. We had a Wii Tournament and a Photobooth up, there was a ton of people going through. I was cracking up looking at the images later on. My favorite thing about the photobooth is how it really lets people be themselves in front of the camera, I love my shy friends shots that I now have forever. Its cool to see their personalities come out behind the curtains! Anyways, birthdays are always a wierd thing sometimes, they come up fast, i remember years back, looking forward SOOOO much for my birthday cause of gifts and the party and stuff, but now, gifts are nifty and sweet, but i just love bringing together everyone who I have not seen in a while, its like thanksgiving, everyone adjusts their busy schedule, and makes time to be available for friends and family. Which sometimes is easy to put all the ambient todo tasks that take up way more hours than need be, (and then becomes a habit of us as a society, thus making the times together even more special, because they are more rare) above spending more time being available and not distracted or multitasking when we are with friends. Anyways, the important thing here is I have amazing friends and I love you guys. Thanks for coming and I hope you enjoyed the night. To those who beat me in Wii tennis(I won't say how many!), this is just the beginning, cause your going to get a rematch sometime soon! Laura, your rap song was killer, Shaun, you won the award for driving the farthest, and Rachel thanks for being so sweet with putting it all together. Beau, you, Missy, and all of us guys win the award for most people in the photobooth, and Claire & Gayle, thanks for the food!

Mom, thanks for the amazing hand made card you sent me, I scanned it in for the world to see. Your the sweetest mom. Dad, I love you too!

Dave and Krista- Lake Tahoe: CA

Water shots are so fun. Tahoe water is beautiful and blue, Dave & Krista jumped in and we got some sweet shots.

Sam & Casey -Paso Robles Inn: CA

These guys had a fantastic ceremony and reception at El Paso Robles Inn. The guys were stoked cause there was old car expo across the street too which was a sweet backdrop

Step It Up Seminar Group - Las Vegas : NV

Photo of the Week

Darin and Libby- SLO, CA

Darin & Libby getting married this weekend had their session a month back.  I'm amped for their wedding, we had fun with their '50 ford pickup.  

David and Krista- Lake Tahoe, CA

We met David & Krista up at Tahoe and it was a beautiful day.   What a couple.  

Yea, it was a tough fight, but David had a good heart and let her hang on for a while...

One of my favorite things about this couple is how they just really were real, they had fun and I felt like they had the "dating" flare.  I think thats so cool when couples show that.  I am always inspired hanging around newlyweds and always enjoy flirting and being silly with my wife.  David & Kristin, you guys inspire more people than you know!

The water was pretty nice, I went in and its so amazing how blue it is.  You can see 50 feet down!  I'm reminded of the Caribbean and Hawaii.

photo of the Week

Erin and Leon Oday- Ragged Point, Big Sur, CA

The 10.22.08 KISS Workshop in NYC!

We are announcing the 2008 KISS And the winner of the free Seat I'm giving away for the NYC KISS workshop on 10.22.08 is mike steelman Congrats man! Hope to see you there, as for the rest of you guys, check out more details on KISS's BLOG. Thanks for all your comments and inquiries on the Blog post earlier.

Here are the details for the workshop:
Oct 22nd, in Manhattan, just before Photo Plus. We're still trying to iron out a location. Kevin Swan will talk about branding and albums. Mike Larson will talk about character, leadership and how that effects everything, and then lead a photo shoot with a bride in downtown Manhattan!

The cost will be $140 per person, with a max of only 12 people.
The seminar will be all day and include lunch.
If you want to book, or have questions, email Kevin@KissWeddingBooks.com

There will be the option of One on One Mentor Sessions as well, if your interested please email either Mike or Kevin, or you can decide later at the Workshop if you want to switch.

If your interested in signing up for the Workshop, Click here

Photo of the Week

One of the most beautiful drives in the world, Highway 1 has some incredible views. Julia Pheiffer Burns State Park has this waterfall that goes into the ocean. Its 20 miles south of Big Sur. If you take the 101 south, take the 1, mileage wise its the same, but it may take an hour longer, but its therapeutic and relaxing.

KISS workshop seat to be announced...

KISS workshop seat to be announced on Tuesday morning. I'm traveling this weekend and while shooting do not have access to my blog, so I will be posting on tuesday when I get back into town. Have a great weekend!

-Mike

Sent from my Iphone

Aldo and Nicole- Maui, HI

My Cousin got married in Maui last week and I had the honor of shooting it. It was a sweet ceremony South of Kehei. Its kinda crazy to see your little cousin get married, but it was really special and she looked so beautiful. Here is a selection of my favorite shots from the wedding. Nicole you looked amazing and Aldo, same to you, Contgrats guys!

KISS get simple:Upcoming NYC workshop on October 22nd!

To all my photographer friends out there, I'm pumped about this and hope those of you on the east coast will be able to make this new event in NYC! Not only do we have our Step it up workshop coming up in Las Vegas Nevada with BLR life studios, on October 6-7th in a few weeks, (i guess there is one seat left) email here if your interested. We are also hosting another workshop with KISS. We are doing a series on "Get Simple". Its been great, the last one we had 25 photographers and we spent a day in the fast paced packed workshop with a shooting session to cap things off. Here is a shot from the session.

KISS get simple: NYC workshop on October 22nd!

The details:
We will be in New York City, Manhattan
Date: October 22nd, 2008, 8:30am - 5:00pm.
What: Mike, Kevin & Shaun are talking..
Mike:Get Simple, intensive workshop covering how to get your business simple and grow fast, how to be a better leader, shooting more effectively, and also, most importantly how to simplify your business so your business supports you to serve your clients better, and not burdening you with unorganized back end. Our clients depend on us to be there available for them. Get a plan for 2009 and succeed.
Kevin: Simple branding and albums? Good credentials. I was a creative director of an ad agency, and was in marketing for almost 15 years before launching into photography. Kevin inspires me quite a bit in his push to have a better business, and taking care of clients in a simple way. I learn so much from him.

Cost: $145
Sign ups: limited to the first 12 people.

email here if your interested.


if your interested, email me, or check out the KISS blog for more info!

Jason and Krystal- San Diego, CA

Krystal & Jason, a sweet, sweet couple who I had the honor of photographing their wedding. Here are just a few of the images from the day. It was such an intimate beautiful ceremony. The location was superb and the people, (family and friends) were all such a pleasure, from what I heard from the speeches, these two are amazing people and had such sweet comments to say. Enjoy...

Photo of the Week

Maui Sunset

There is something crazy about the sunset here in the South Pacific. The clouds that form throughout the day, dump warm rain showers, then later they light up as they evaporate away. In the morning its as clear as a bell outside, you can see for miles. The colors here are straight out of the camera.

Nicole & Aldo

My cousin is getting married today and here are some shots we got to take yesterday. I am so excited for her, it's going to be a beautiful wedding here on Maui! It's sweet to have the family all together, it seems like that never happens enough. Here is Nicole and Aldo, her groom to be...
Congratulations you guys!

Good morning from Maui

It is such a blessing to be out here. I LOVE Hawaii and am looking
forward to a few days of rest from this non stop summer/fall schedule.
Surfing, spearfishing, chilling, hiking. Anyways September is the most
calm and empty month here. The weather and waves are the best at this
time. Have a wonderful day..