Jacqui and Ben - Part III

What a wonderful way to end the year! I'm back in Los Angeles, Mark returns from Thailand tomorrow after a five week backpack/diving trip and I have my entire family coming into town for Christmas! The presents are done, the lights are up and my brother and I decorated a live oriental spruce I bought! I'm so thrilled to have had such an amazing 2009 that I can't wait to see what 2010 brings to me! One thing I know - I have seen and down some amazing things in my life, but nothing will ever compare to the pure joy I've had with my brides this year! Thank you to all for giving me the opportunity to work with you ~ it has been an amazing honor!!!! Enjoy the final post of Jacqui and Ben ~ it's a great note to end on for my 2009 weddings ~

Jacqui and Ben Hotel Del Coronado Beach Wedding Part Deux

As promised, here are more photos from Jacqui and Ben's wedding. I'm having such a great time going through the pics and I've got to say - It's so hard to choose which ones to post!!!!

Jacqui and Ben - Hotel Del Coronado Beach Wedding Part 1

Jacqui doesn't just light up a room - she owns it! Ben is her rock and perfect partner ~ together they are charmed! Determinded to have their beach ceremony, both had faith that the rain would stop - and they really didn't care if it didn't!

Call it the luck of the Brave and the Beautiful ~ the rain stopped right before the ceremony!!! Their families watched Jacqui walk down the beach stairs with her father and cross the sand to Ben. As soon as they were man and wife and received their congratulations ~ well the rain started up again ~ perfect timing right? ....that's just how they roll!!! And can I tell you ~ Jacqui and Ben are rock stars! The rain stopped momentarily and we all made our way in the crazy weather for photos on the beach. With the help of Ben's brother, James (thank you again!!!), we pulled off a fantastic shoot! Jacqui is exquisite and Ben is so handsome - both were great ~ ready to scramble up the rocks or stand in the pouring rain for photos! How lucky am I?

There's more to come but here is a preview ~

J & R Fabulous San Diego Wedding

Long time no blog! Well ~ shame on me but it's been crazy and I have tons to blog about! Firstly - I moved from San Diego back to Los Angeles last month after spending sometime in New York! New York in Fall is Fabulous ~ I love spending time there, walking the streets, eating from the street vendors or dining on fine french food! Love it!!! Next, I've been working some great weddings as well as reintroducing myself to the fun side of L.A. and all my friends! Promise not to get backed up again!!! Enjoy J&R's Wedding pics!

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Jacqueline is a force of nature and Robert holds her heart - meeting them at a coffee house in Oceanside I knew right away that I had to do their wedding! J and R are amazing - loving and kind, inclusive and powerful in their love. Their wedding was at a family's friends home in the hills. It was a relaxing, thoughtful and singularly wild celebration. One of the most fun weddings ever!!!

Enjoy!

SEO: Wedding Photographers

Today it's all about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how it can work for my wedding photography business in San Diego. See...I'm learning that one of my big problems is the fact I have no web "presence." I mean if my mom can't find me on the web how do brides do it?! I'm a "nobody" - and this week I'm beginning to get why!

The way I understand it, properly utilized SEO techniques help search engines find you (with Page 1 Google being the brass ring)! It also seems that Google has a mysterious algorithm that many have studied, but very few have mastered. (Google keeps it all under lock and key).

I foresee a lot of trial and error in my future...it's so very important for marketing to maximize your web presence....and to think I knew nothing about this last week!!! Sidenote: I feel I've been very productive this past year...I've spent seven months developing my photobiz.com website...adding photo content, writing my "about me" section, naming my tabs and so forth (still have yet to get the pricing up...hmmmm....). I've also been working on my post-production workflow and manipulation of my wedding images in Photoshop and Lightroom. I'm learning HTML for my blogposts...I'm thinking I've been working very hard - now I ask, "Am I working smart?"

I was feeling pretty great last week - booking jobs, getting great feedback from my brides, going to seminars and SmugMug meetings. I've gotten into social networking and am now the proud owner of a Twitter account, Facebook page and blog.

Then I hit a wall where I had no knowledge. SEO - Search Engine Optimization How did SEO enter into everything and become my prime fascination this past week? Blame it on the awesome wedding photographer and all around smart-cookie, Jasmine Star, and her O.C. Smugmug meetings! I attended my first meeting last week and was introduced to SEO by SmugMug Co-Founder, Chris "Baldy" MacAskill. Brilliant!!! Thanks to Jasmine Star and Chris, I know now that SEO exists and there are tools I can use to maximize my web presence! There's also Lawrence Chan aka "Tofurious" who has worked the past two years on SEO research and let me tell you...Twitter is blowin' up with his SEO workshop tour for wedding photographers! (Check it out at www.tofurious.com). Tofurious is quickly gaining a reputation for SEO genius - and though I don't seem to be in any of the cities for his tour - I hold out hope that I might be able to make the one in New York! Inspired, I got off my butt and finally verified www.andreascottphotography.com at Google - and today I added my site to DMOZ a website catalog that I'm hoping will at least get me to page 56 of google in my "San Diego Wedding Photographer" search someday. Starting small but learning. I believe I am utilizing the "organic" SEO technique...or at least that's what I'm reading. I'm also learning about keywords, metadata, the importance of using keywords in your titles, how unimportant metadata tags are if not included in the body of your text, adding alt codes to your photos....and how to identify monthly site traffic. I'm trying to make smart decisions on the content of my blog... checking out the source code on some of my favorite wedding photographer websites to see how they do it - and on and on...

I also joined askdane.com for the Tofurious interview on SEO where he gave this down and dirty tip that I pass to you: add a link to your website at the bottom of your blog as well as your email address because it's all about letting the people find you. Great tip Tofurious!!! And now I slowly build my blog hoping the people will come!!?!! Wait for it....wait for it...(hope this works!).... andrea@andreascottphotography.com View my work at here

(Ugh...I need to make these buttons don't I?) another early am self portrait

me and my man © Andrea Midori Scott

Golden Lighting

Great light is the key to any great photo, knowing how to manipulate that light to make a good photo takes time and practice. I woke up early on Sunday morning and walked into my livingroom half-asleep, ready to make coffee and sit at my computer for some good old fashioned post processing. Blinded by light in my livingroom, I stood for a moment as my green eyes slowly adjusted to the most golden light I've ever seen. Sunrise was greeting me and all around me was this rich, sexy gold toned light - as if I had walked into a room full of treasure! My first thought was, "awesome" I kid you not!

So now I'm thinking, this would make for great portrait lighting - too bad there's not one person in San Diego that I call friend who would be awake at 6:00! "Well, that leaves only you!" "Ugh." "Tripod in car". " Go get it! "Get your keys, go to your car and get your tripod!" "Wake up and show up." I run my half-dressed and barefoot self down three flights of stairs...asleep for the most part! Grabbing the tripod (and trying to move a bit faster) I finally make my way back up the three flights of stairs, set up the tripod and silently praise my brilliance in not washing my face last night! I still have eyeliner and mascara on....you know....in that sexy-kinda-bedroom-way. So I start shooting and lemme tell you....Not Pretty...the most golden glowing light from the heavens couldn't help my poor sleepy self! I can barely smile!!!! It's as if my mouth wasn't even awake yet! I did manage to get a couple of photos....and just so you can see how my Sunday am shoot turned out, here you go:

So go out and try your camera at dawn or dusk and work that light!

Stilt Walkers

As promised, here are some photos of the stilt walkers from Sunday's Summer Sol event. Derrick Gilday of Mango and Dango has the grace and fluidity while walking on stilts that I lack in just my flip flops! They also have this great performance circus coming to town in November that I can't wait to enjoy! Check out www.ZirkUbu.com for more information ~

For Charity

Young Audiences of San Diego is an organization dedicated to teaching through the arts. I was approached to photograph their Summer Sol event at Liberty Point and couldn't have been more excited! Thank you Pam Brown of dezinegirl creative studio (Pam did my awesome biz cards!) for introducing me to this wonderful organization!

They had stilt walkers, Brazilian dancers and drummers - a wonderful dinner and auction that brought the community out for the children, recognizing the importance of the creative arts on our schools.

Here is a quick pic of one of the circus performers...reminds me to stay on my toes! I'll post some other fun pics tomorrow!

young

Day at the Beach

I'm back and forth between Los Angeles and San Diego right now and sometimes I feel I don't get enough of either city! It's great when I get a chance to relax with my friends ~ which I had time to do last weekend! Mark and I biked down to Ocean Beach to join our friends...we were a bit late in our arrival and missed all the water action but we did get there in time to sit, relax and watch the fog roll in! After a lazy bike ride up the river we made it back home and lounged around for the rest of the day ~ pretty much doing nothing until we headed out for Thai with our friends Jen and Galen. Dinner was fantastic!

Here is a shot of Amanda at the beach...let me tell you...she is an awesome hooper and can do 2 hoops at once with the grace of a ballerina!

Amanda and Joe relaxing ~ such a cute married couple!

Hotel Del Coronado Beach Wedding - Details

Just a few more wedding detail photos on Tom and Noel's beautiful Hotel Del Coronado Wedding! Simple, elegant, fresh ~ a handful of friends and family joining Tom and Noel for their special day ~

Beach Wedding Hotel Del Coronado - Tom and Noel

What an amazing day at the Hotel Del! It started off perfectly cloudy (great for photos!) and then the haze burned off giving us a beautiful San Diego day!

A special thank you to Kelly and her crew at Mint Weddings and Farrah Lauren at the Hotel Del Coronado for all their wonderful work!

The lobby is gorgeous with it's dark polished wood and gleaming lights!

Noel added a beautiful and whimsical little seahorse to the back of her dress which I just loved!

I couldn't resist getting the dress with the turret in the background!

It's a flip flop San Diego beach wedding! My favorite!

Tom and his girls ~

High fives all around ~