Photographing Shannen and Pedro’s wedding day began long before we took photos (below) at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco. We began with an amazing engagement shoot down south at ‘Lovers Point’ in Monterey, CA. This is my favorite photo from said shoot, here I geled the strobe orange then color matched it to their skin tone, and in turn that allowed the blues, along with the approaching night to become overly saturated.

Shannen had a wonderful group of friends who were all excited for the day and were a pleasure to photograph.

Here we took a formal photo in the master suite.

Pedro’s father helped his son get ready for the day by putting on a new bracelet. Gifts were being exchanged in both Pedro’s room and Shannen’s room, everybody was excited for the day to unfold.

and like clock work the guys were ready to loosen up and have a good time from the jump.

Maid of honor Mischelle helped zip up the dress while mom put on her daughters jewelry.

Saint Peter and Pauls Church was grand to say the least, the pictures say it all. I have viewed the church from my favorite North Beach restaurant, Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe, from across Washington Square for years, I am glad I can say I have photographed a wedding here.

This photo was taken using a mirror to create a visual reflection on the lower half of the image, I recall Pedro taking an interest in this unique custom image and was probably thinking ‘what is he doing’…

The church was absolutely beautiful, our team of photographers covered every square inch inside and out. Rings by: Tiffany & Co. and Bulgari.

The entire wedding party greeted the newly weds as they left the church and entered their new lives as one.

The wedding party in two Mercedes shuttle vans headed to the Palace of Fine Arts for formal portraits.

Tip: If you’re a photographer taking pictures at the PoFA know that there are only two or three green doors that are solid, the rest have a peep hole cut out that may be visually distracting.

It’s great when a couple is daring enough to climb the planter boxes in their wedding attire, this is an iconic PoFA’s background!

We were all really excited to create this image, my assistants helped me pull the veil towards the camera while another aimed the strobe, the wind did the rest.

Pedro and Shannen had quite the team of photographers and videographers covering their special day. Vinny Minton is one of a few cinematographers who I highly recommend. -Fun fact: Vinny was a professional sponsored inline skater back in the day who had his own line of skates and was in numerous X-Games style skate videos. We both covered all three of the Golden State Warriors championship parades on inline hockey style skates!

the city view looked grand from Crissy Field.

then it was back to the hotel…

Wedding coordinator: Le Reve Event

Here we had the wedding party pose for a Vogue style portrait, connecting everybody is the key.

Here we used the windows natural light and for the rest of the portraits we used an off camera strobe for a custom and dramatic effect.

For the below two photos we used a tungsten balanced constant light to match the warm tones of the reception room.

Cake by: Kimberly Bugler of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.

After taking formal photos in the lobby we headed up to the top floor where all of the wedding guests were enjoying cocktail hour in the Starlight Room.

then it was time for the formal entrance…

and speeches…

Pedro’s father had a emotional yet light hearted speech which put a smile on the couples faces.

We quickly went up to the couples master suite balcony to create a dramatic skyline photo just before nightfall.

Tip: Want to create a warm light that only is focused on the couple, take two exposures, one without strobe and one with and blend the two in Photoshop. Below is the first and second exposure and under that is the final image.