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oops! I mean http://blog.boniimages.com/

Finally done! Now comes the hard part.

After 3 ½ long months and countless hours getting the business ready, our new wedding/portrait and events portfolio sites are up and ready for business!

I want to take a moment to thank a few people. I want to thank Suzanne Sease (Suzannesease.com) for her invaluable help with creating a new brand, creating a marketing focus for the year, and for her blatant honestly. I want to thank Cali and J at Livebooks for their abundant talents and knowledge. I want to thank all the beautiful people who have allowed us the honor of taking their photographs, and Dalton Gaudin (daltongaudin.com) our new go-to videographer guru for his super duper video skills, and creating a “kick ass” promo video. An extra special THANK YOU goes out to Emily, for putting up with all our demands on her time, and going along with all our crazy ideas; thank you lady.

When you have a chance, please take a look at our new WEDDING/PORTRAIT site and our EVENTS site. Please let us know what you think (good, bad or any improvements we can make).

Xoxox

Ashton & Stephanie

Bubbles and String

When I get an image stuck in my head it usually stays there until I flush it out. This time I saw purple bubbles and string. The details become clear when I start setting them free.


The next image rolling around in my head are elephants and a Sambo's diner...I'm in trouble!

Our promo video for our new site

Sorry! The link to our promo video on our last post didn't show. Do over!

Here it is.

Our article in Photo Technique magazine

I decided to put my 10 years of photography experience on paper and see if any magazines would be interested in what I had to say. The angle I chose was, “How nightclub photography can enhance a portfolio.”

When Paul Schranz (the editor of Photo Technique Magazine) contacted me the first thing I said was, “Who the hell is this!?” When he finally convinced me of who he was by describing the photographs I had sent in detail, I knew he wasn’t kidding on who he was. The first thing I did was apologize for cussing at him, then I took on the assignment. After many edits and expansions I think I finally had an article I was happy with. I think the toughest thing about the assignment was which photos I wanted to show.

I also want to take this moment to thank all the boys at Nitevibe: Sam, Daniel, and Bennett. Thank you for teaching me what you know and for letting me be as crazy as I wanted.

To see the complete article click HERE.

Next blog will be the release of our new and improved website. I’m so excited! We have a new brand, a new direction, a new marketing schem, and a portfolio that’s hopefully best presents our work. I can’t wait to show you guys! Here is the promo video we got back from our video guru Dalton Gaudin(daltongaudin.com)

This one time, at Pier 39…

This past weekend was extra fun. Ashton and I travelled back to San Francisco to shoot the “Meet Us” video for our new website. That meant getting up at 6:30am and getting home at 11:30pm, and spending the hours in between being completely crazy. While Ashton can do anything (or nothing at all for that matter) in front of a camera, I have horrible stage fright, and freeze up completely if someone is filming me. My place is behind the camera, not in front of it!

Our cameraman du jour (Dalton Gaudin) was amazing though, and made the task of spitting complete sentences out so easy, even I managed to look good. I think. We started the shoot at Circolo; a rather posh restaurant/ultralounge in Potrero Hill. Great atmosphere and talent made things go very smoothly.

I must say that being inside a nighttime hangout during the day was surreal, and surprisingly clean. We stopped for a super yummy Asian-fusion lunch at Fang’s (upscale sister restaurant to House of Nanking), then made our way to Pier 39.

I swear; none of the tourists who were there that day had ever seen a bride before! People kept staring at our brave bride as we worked our way down the pier to the carousel. Of course the red furry boots and pink kitty-cat umbrella might have had something to do with the odd looks…

After working our magic on the waterfront, we hopped across the Bay to Emeryville, where we took over the instant-photo booth and kicked all the children out of the ball-pit at the public market. As a quick aside, I’m sure that one particular woman is trying, at this very moment, to find out which German reality TV show we were filming… At the end of the day I felt that the video shoot was a success, even with my Kevin Costner-like performance, and we had yet more amazing photos to add to our collection. Maybe I’ll move to LA and become a movie star now…

More to come about our new site.

A car full of circus clowns!

In November, I visited Emily again and FINALLY got around to the second part of her photo layout. Honestly, I never get tired of taking pictures of her; she is so unique! As usual, wherever we went to take pictures, other people were taking pictures of us. By the time I’m done with her, she’s going to be famous around SF.

So… The last time I shot Emily (as Buttons the raver) the photos were crazy, colorful and fun, but this time the flavor was definitely more low-key and serious. We mixed things up with a combination of street clothes and costumes, and revisited Hippy Hill as well as digging up a couple new locations. I even put Emily behind bars at one point!! For her own good, of course.

Shooting Emily is like packing your car full of circus clowns; open the door and watch all the different personalities come rushing out. She can be anything I need her to be, and do it in style. Honestly, the photos I take don’t really do her justice. As much as I like them, they only capture the visual aspect of Miss Emily and omit her contagious laugh and the way she capers down the street. I want to be like her when I grow up!

To see the rest of the photos click here.

Hollywood Undead

I had the honor to shoot this band for a print ad and there concert. These guys are amazing and there a great bunch of guys!

I did my research before the shoot and they are blowing up! They recently got signed with A&M. They have over 34 million hits on there Myspace. People are tattooing their lyrics on their bodies. They have tons of stuff selling on Ebay and there all over the web. They had over 20K people at there concert!

I think the nicest cat was Funny man (that’s his stripper name and the tall guy singing on the mic). He told me his real name but I forgot :( He was kind enough to give us there latest CDs (I would have been happy with a ripped one) and a T-Shirt at the concert. Kind and appreciative is what rock stars should be.

Having spent most of the day and into the evening with these guys they lead a fun and exciting lifestyle. It's a dream come true. They've earned it.

Click here to see the rest of the photos

Obrigado!

I shot Adrianne & Amits wedding at the Bellevue club in Lake Merritt last week. What a great day! I had the area scouted out for the post ceremony shots but didn’t realize how beautiful this building is!

I never had to leave the building for anything. It had so many beautiful spots; 20 foot ceilings, rolling stair cases, a mezzanine, a swimming pool, and a gorgeous balcony that’s connected to their suite.

I don’t think I’ve met such a happy couple. These two people really know how to live and enjoy the moment.

I’m blessed to have been the photographer for there special day. Obrigado to them.

Click here to see the rest of the photos.

Whose dad are you?

I've photographed many Halloween parties in the past 10 years, and it was quite refreshing to shoot my 11 year old daughter's halloween dance for her school.

There were no drunks, sleazy women, and club drama to deal with, just some mild emo. Who doesn't like that?!

The kids kept asking, "Whose dad are you?" I told them Bloody Marys. Adorable isn't she? My wife did an awesome job "uglying" her up.

My favorite costume (next to my daughters) was the robot dancing Charlie Chaplin LOL! Click to see the complete gallery