Kennedy and Jane are amazing. They are the warm souls that make you happier for just being in the same room as them. Curious to see if Doug would actually pursue the adventure, surfing during an engagement shoot in Bolinas was mentioned by Kennedy early on in a meeting, and the rest is history. A full wetsuit was dawned by the couple, and the photographer – with manual film cameras in hand, to document the love-birds on a perfect Northern California day.

Ashley & Jacob eloped to a secretive rock in Carmel overlooking “The Meadows” beach and the Pacific Ocean…

Anna & Mike enjoyed a wonderful seaside wedding celebration  at the Darling House in Santa Cruz. An intimate affair, their cherished family and friends attended this laid back day of celebration, complete with a live band brought in from Sacramento and a delicious dinner buffet. Much more from the happy couple, following the photographs below:

The Happy Couple

Anna: Medical Social Worker specializing in Geriatric Care. Mike: Geologist specializing in water resources for power plants in California.

Story

Anna and Mike knew each other for many years before eventually dating. Anna was close friends with Mike’s little sister, Kelly. Being four years younger, Mike thought that both Kelly and Anna could not be more annoying. At that time Mike was in college and had more important things to do than pay attention to his high school sisters friends. However, after several years went by Mike and Anna became reacquainted several times through events that Kelly had organized. After one such event, they spent a day with all their friends at a Beer tasting festival. By the end of the day Mike and Anna knew that they had some chemistry together. Bonding over local California Beers, they began to feel an instant connection. The day culminated with karaoke at a local dive bar and the love match was made!

Proposal

After 2 1/2 years of dating, Mike decided to propose to Anna. During much of the time that they were dating Mike was in graduate school, spending many hours working on his thesis. As the thesis began to come to a close Mike implied in the papers dedication page that he was proposing to Anna, writing, “If we can make it through this, we can make it through anything.” One Friday after work Mike was showing Anna the final edits for the paper and had her read the dedication page. After she finished reading it, he got down on one knee and asked for her hand in marriage. She said, “Yes!” They went to their favorite brewery to celebrate the engagement that night.

Most Important

The most important thing for us was having a wedding where we would truly get to spend time with family and friends the whole night without being tied to traditional wedding conventions.  The spot that was chosen enabled us to create a wedding that was truly unique. We did not go with a classic wedding vendor, because we had our own unique vision for our wedding that wedding vendors were unable to create. For example, we chose to do a standing reception so that the evening would flow as one big party and we could continue to socialize with guests the whole party. Instead of a formal sit down dinner, the food was passed appetizers with food stations throughout the wedding. Guests were encouraged to mingle with one another with high boy tables and non-reserved large sitting tables. The wedding was small and intimate so guests were able to bond around food stations, on the dance floor, or around heat lamps. It was special for us to look around and see so many people who had never met before enjoying one another and making new friends.

Special Touches

Everything about the wedding encouraged family participation. The wedding embraced a vintage garden party beach theme. Nothing had to be perfectly matched so that allowed for a lot of flexibility and creativity. Anna’s friend, Genevieve, designed and made the wedding invitations. Genevieve (genevievewalker.com) has her own wedding business designing wedding invitations and maps, and it was such a gift having her do the invitations.  Mike’s aunt, a retired art teacher, made all the signs for the wedding. Mike’s sister, Kelly, designed the guest book and arranged the guest table. All the decorations were a family effort. Even the set up of the wedding was done by very helpful men in the family! It was truly a family event, which made everything about it so special. It brought together everyone to participate.

Biggest Challenge

The biggest challenge was trying to visualize the flow of the evening. Since the wedding did not go through a traditional wedding vendor or have a formal sit down dinner a lot of the logistics of the day and coordination of vendors was our responsibility. Perhaps a wedding coordinate would have been helpful, but in the end it really felt like our event that we created from beginning to end!

Favorite Moment

The best moment for the wedding was having our favorite band from Sacramento, The Golden Cadillac’s, play at the wedding. When we got to dance to them live and see all our loved ones around us dancing and having a good time, we knew we succeeded in having the perfect party. Our goal was to have an unforgettable party and we succeeded.

Advice

Our advice to others is be as creative as you want to be with your wedding! We loved that our wedding was truly unique and did not have to follow the traditional format of many other weddings. We brought in all our own vendors, picked all our staff, and got to enjoy all parts of the wedding. We loved that we were able to create our own traditions and focus on what mattered the most to us, which was spending quality time with the people at the wedding.

Wedding Resources

Wedding Wire, The Knot, and Pinterest were the most helpful resources for wedding planning.

Vendors

• Dress: La Soie Bridal in Sacramento, CA.
• Hair: Lorita Brown from Luxe Salon in Sacramento, CA.
• Make-up: Erin from Lavish Salon in Santa Cruz, CA.
• Band: The Golden Cadillac’s from Sacramento, CA.
• Catering: Andrea at Culinary Lifestyles in Santa Cruz, CA
• Cake: Freedom Bakery & Confections in Watsonville, CA
• Rentals: Alexis Party Rentals
• Flowers: Santa Cruz Floral, Santa Cruz, CA.
• Caramel Corn: Marini’s Candies, Santa Cruz, CA
• Photographers: Douglas Despres from Helios Images

Shores of Cape Cod: A Destination Photographic Workshop

Get your film cameras ready. Get your digital cameras ready. Make sure your sandals fit. And circle the weekend of June 1st 2014… Doug & Katherine are hosting their inaugural destination photography workshop for Helios Images on the weekend of June 1st, 2014.

You will spend Friday night through Sunday afternoon/evening immersed in this photographic environment, soaking in the beauty of this historical peninsula on the coast New England.

Addressing fine art landscape, portrait and street photography, Doug and Katherine will focus on composition, light, and mood to merge your emotions with your craft. We aim to discover your natural photography voice, and to amplify it through technical and conceptual instruction. From the towering dunes atop White Crest Beach, local characters found around the downtown Chatham, sunrises and sunsets along the National Seashore, we will enjoy capturing Cape Cod in all it’s beauty. We will create photographs on the beaches during the most beautiful golden and pastel toned parts of the days, while leaving the middle and and ends for the little towns as well as discussing and sharing our imagery with among each other.  We will also be covering auxiliary lighting, post production, approaching and easing portrait subjects on the street, finding your style, and posting your imagery to websites, blogs, and social media outlets. Of course, we’ll also be keeping our eyes out for the famous lobster rolls, clams, oysters, and ice creams of the area too…

Those of you who yearn for the feel, the three dimensionality, and wide exposure latitude of film… we salute you. We adore film capture ourselves, and it’s what we’re known for – 100% of our personal work is captured with film. We will be shooting this style, and at the same time, welcoming those of you who will be capturing digitally. We are well versed in both, with many years of professional experience, and are happy to help with all of our support.

There is an intimate space of ten spots available for this workshop. We will provide the first and last meals of the workshop, snacks and drinks, multi-day instruction, reading materials. Meals, transportation, photographic equipment, modest parking fees and lodging are the responsibility of the student. Laptops, car pools and group meals among the students are encouraged!

An early itinerary outline is as follows, which is subject to change by student voting during the workshop:

Friday

• Unofficial but highly recommended
• Early welcome dinner provided by Helios Images
• short Helios Images slideshow
• Workshop overview
• Q&A session

Saturday

• Dawn / Sunrise / Golden Hour photography at Nauset Beach or Rock Harbor Beach
• Midday photography throughout the town of Chatham
• Late Afternoon / Sunset / Twilight photography at Rock Harbor Beach – lobster rolls available in parking lot / or Nauset Beach
• Downloads and Post production / editing / archiving / uploads to blogs and websites / advanced flash exercises

Sunday

• Dawn / Sunrise / Golden Hour photography at White Crest Beach
• Individual meetings with Douglas Despres and selection of work for group slideshow
• Group lunch provided by Helios Images
• Group slideshow and discussion of work

Investment: 495

Reservation requires full payment. There are no refunds. If class has fewer than five attendees, credit will be given for a future Helios Images photographic workshop.

Other Amazing Experiences to Look Out for While You’re Here

Four Seas Ice Cream - among the top ice cream in the COUNTRY, Sunset at Rock Harbor – we will be attacking this one on Saturday, Bicycling beachside – bring one for any relaxing excursions, SEAFOOD – lobster, clams, oysters, fish, shrimp…, Pairpoint Glass Making Company – watch artisan glass sculpted right in front of you…

Those of you out there close to us or following our blog know that I have two adorable nieces on my sister’s side… Being in Massachusetts, their family went gathering for apples and pumpkins with me in tow with a camera, and “Grampa” and “Grandma Debbie.”

Seeing the joy that comes when kids are romping around the orchard is worth the chilly temps of a New England October…

Susan and Dom planned their entire Big Sur wedding from Australia, where they live in Melbourne. Adorned with a grizzly bear theme, and peaceful blue, grey and pink tones in front of a flowing river, their wedding was wrapped with love. They asked Doug to cover it solo, and met up in Alameda at favorite cafe to swap stories and laughs as they confirmed their decision to go with us for photography… Look below for a heartfelt true story of how they met, straight from Susan and Dom themselves.

From Susan and Dom:

“31 July 2009. Dom was in Homer, Alaska, high on life after a trip to McNeil River Game Sanctuary to see grizzly bears in the wild. Susan had travelled North to Homer from San Francisco via the Dempster and Alaska Highways on a great American road trip. At 11pm (when the sun sets in Alaska that time of year) there was an incredible moon rising over the mountains and glaciers opposite the town. Susan and Dom ended up in the same place looking over the bay taking photographs of the moon. “Do you want to see some cool photos of bears??” Dom asked Susan and luckily, she said “Yes!”

After 7 weeks of seeing incredible wildlife, hiking on glaciers, visiting wilderness cabins, cruising through the islands and travelling through Alaska, Canada, and the “lower 48″ they arrived in Millbrae, San Francisco knowing they were meant for each other. They said a fond farewell but four months later Susan, via Africa, arrived in Melbourne for the start of a life together in Australia.

Two years later Dom proposed to Susan in a lodge overlooking the ocean in a rainforest in Apollo Bay and luckily again she said “Yes”. In the meantime there had been more travel together, moving houses together, starting a garden together and finding jobs, “settling down” and loving every single minute of it. Now they’re getting married in Big Sur and they hope you’ll join them for the celebration.”

Since Katherine is a singer and musician, I naturally started hanging around the music scene a few years ago while we still lived in Boston. I quickly realized that black and white film and the documentary approach were a perfect pairing for music photography. After covering the rock scene a bit, and meeting some great people and seeing images published, there was opportunity to photograph classical musicians.

One of the biggest assignments from this time was to photograph the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2008 press materials. Allowed all access, I found myself eventually getting permission to sit on the stage itself, while the orchestra played during a big annual gala performance. This was at the beautiful Sanders Theatre of Harvard University, so it was a shoot that I won’t soon forget…

A weekend photographic workshop in San Francisco led by documentary photographer Thatcher Cook…

A visit from the roots of Helios Images…

For a while, we’ve (Doug, admittedly) been floating around the fuzzy world of wedding photography. Now, with a spark from a one of the original great photographic artists we admire, a new category is hatched. Inspiration.

The European masters of 19th century documentary photography have long held the torch for our approach to subjects and scenes within our work.

Upon seeing a little post from the esteemed Magnum photo agency on Facebook, we reconnected with Josef Koudelka, and proudly present you with a little video snippet by Vogue of what lit up our EKG. Thank you JK.

• http://www.vogue.it/en/vogue-starscelebsmodels/vogue-masters/2012/07/josef-koudelka

Fumi and Karen came to us via our beloved friends and clients Meena and Aristides. They infused their wedding with a TON of lovely handmade DIY projects and welcomed their guests from around the world with a perfect day on the grounds of the Interlaken Inn in Connecticut.

For the whole story, tune in to Fumi and Karen’s words below the blog images to read all about their magical tale…

The Happy Couple

Karen: former banker turned media professional  :  Fumi: social entrepreneur running TABLE FOR TWO USA

Our Story

It seems everyone has a different story surrounding how we met!  I think we all agree on the following.

We met at a restaurant/bar called Havana Central, at a networking event.  Karen was taking a 3 month break from her job and spending the evening with her friend Ayano.  Fumi was at the bar from 4pm, having his first official TABLE FOR TWO USA meeting with co-founder Dan Goldstein.  It was the night the Yankees won the World Series, and we both remember “Empire State of Mind” blasting in the bar.

Fumi’s original plan was to pop the question during their trip to India for Karen’s cousin’s wedding.  He didn’t think it was appropriate to do this before the wedding, so he waited until the last 3 days of their trip.  But Bobby, our driver and guide, was with us most of the day, and Fumi also couldn’t find a ring.

So he waited until the next stop, Japan, where they were spending the New Year.  They stayed with Karen’s family during most of the trip, but Fumi booked a room at a hotel they had stayed at for Karen’s sister’s wedding the year before.  It was shortly after New Year’s, and Fumi had yet to give Karen her Christmas gift.  The present was disguised as a belated gift.  Karen took the large box, and inside was a slightly smaller box.  She took it out and opened it, and found yet another box inside.  The boxes started getting smaller and smaller, and Karen began  noticing this might be a special gift.  When she opened the final box, Fumi took it and went down on one knee.  It was on the bed so it wasn’t very stable, but as soon as he popped the question Karen screamed and yelled and cried all at the same time.

1) Many of the guests were involved in the wedding.

- Fumi’s brother served as the officiant
- Karen’s childhood friend Shanti sang the first dance, “What A Wonderful World.”
- Fumi’s friends Yaz and Aki were the DJs (for both the ceremony and reception)
- The invitations, all the signs, tablecloth wrap, table numbers, escort cards, bride & groom chair decorations, etc. were hand-made by Karen’s two sisters, Eling and Ji-lin.
- Fumi’s oldest nephew was the usher (and later, a self-proclaimed “butler” during the reception), the younger nephew was the ring bearer, and his niece was the flower girl.

2) The singing of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” at the end of the ceremony

3) The grand entrance to the reception with the famous Chicago Bulls’ intro song (Fumi is a huge basketball fan)

4) All the performances and surprises, including Eling and Ji-lin (Karen’s sisters)’s Xanadu song & dance and the Chaiya Chaiya dance by the bride’s girls.

Our Biggest Challenge

We had guests coming in from all over the world (Kenya, South Sudan, Mali, India, and at least a couple dozen from Japan), and it was somewhat challenging coordinating everyone’s schedules and rooming situations.

Our Favorite Moment

Fumi’s favorite moment was the Xanadu song & dance by Karen’s sisters.  I don’t know what it was, but it capped off a great evening and was a great segue into the second half of the reception (i.e. the partying).

Our Advice

I’ve heard this many times but now that we’ve gone through it, it makes sense: it’s not worth stressing over the little details.  You should just try to take everything in and appreciate the moment, being surrounded by all your family and close friends.  There’s really no feeling like it.

Favorite Vendors

If you ever want to host an event (a wedding or anything else) in or around New York and need a DJ, Old Soulz (http://old-soulz.com/) is a great choice.

And Doug and Katherine (photographers) were amazing too!

And I’m sure Butler Justin would be up for another wedding.

Wedding Links

• Venue – Interlaken Inn - http://www.interlakeninn.com/
• Photography – Helios Images - www.heliosimages.com
• Music (DJ) – Old Soulz - http://old-soulz.com/
• Cake – Sweet Williams - http://www.sweet-williams.com/
• Wax Napkin Seal – DIY by Karen’s sister Ji-lin and her friends in Japan
• Invitations - DIY by Karen’s sisters Ji-lin Hsu and Eling Hsu
• Officiant - Fumiaki Tosu, groom’s older brother
• Dress – White by Vera Wang
• Make up – Karen’s sister Ji-lin Hsu
• Hair – Imagine Hair Salon - http://imaginefamilysalon.com/
• Hair Flower & Flowers – Country Gardeners (Jo Ann) - http://www.countrygardenersflorist.com/
• Bride’s Shoes – Seychelles - http://seychellesfootwear.com/
• Groom’s Shoes - Marco Vittorio
• Groom’s Tie – Hugo Boss - http://www.hugoboss.com/
• Groom’s non profit work link - http://www.tablefor2.org/tft_usa/