the modern picture blog

little mia . east bay photographer

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:17:09 +0000

i went to spend a lovely summer evening with wonderful friends and to see little mia. it’d been about nine months since i’d seen her and in a toddler’s life that’s a long time. it was great to see how much she’d grown, was talking, and had become open to people she couldn’t remember (like me). i decided to do a little five-minute impromptu photo session of her, how could i resist this adorable face? if you want to see how much she’s changed and grown, here’s her about a year and a half ago.

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summer sale!

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:50:21 +0000

yep, we’re having our first ever summer sale! details below.

share with family / friends / colleagues if you think they’d be interested. book early to guarantee a spot before the sale is up.
email melissa at melissa@themodernpicture.com

marina del ray portrait photography . michele, mike & katie

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:41:35 +0000

the love these two share for their little bundle of joy is just precious. So of course it had to be documented and we’re so glad we got the opportunity to do so.

michele and mike – we’re so happy for you two and can’t wait to see little katie grow! thanks for trusting in us and allowing us a glimpse into your new world.
m&M

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liz & jeremy . val du vino winery wedding . murphys ca

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 04:54:14 +0000

it was a special weekend in the quaint town of murphys, where wine tasting is abundant and the golden hills and old oaks become one. it was a weekend filled with lots of laughter, special moments, and love. i am so grateful to have been a part of it all. my brother married his sweetheart liz at the beautiful val du vino winery and this is what we captured of this memorable day.

liz and jer, we wish you many years of love and happiness. we are truly blessed to now call you both family. thank you for trusting in us to capture your day and sharing your special moments with us.

much love and appreciation,
m&m

liz and jeremy decided to see each other before the ceremony. it was such a special and intimate first look. we are always excited when clients opt for this option but it was especially great for them. seeing one another before the ceremony and having a moment to themselves allowed them to calm their nerves and relax in the comfort of each other. it also gave us a great opportunity to capture some beautiful candid moments.

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megan & brett . coronado ca

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 23:42:17 +0000

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anya & justin . trentadue winery wedding . geyserville ca

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 06:25:14 +0000

it was a perfect day, a perfect june wedding day at trentadue. thanks guys for letting us be a part of it.

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christy & dennis . private residence wedding . morgan hill ca

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:36:35 +0000

christy and dennis, it was such an honor to document your wedding day and witness the love you share with each other and your beautiful families. I wish you nothing but the best for your future together and hope you enjoy these photographic memories.

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liz & jeremy . engagement photography . east bay ca

admin — Tue, 25 May 2010 22:45:11 +0000

this post is special because this is my little brother. Yes, my little (well not so little anymore, although he’ll always be my little) brother is engaged to be married. I couldn’t be happier for him and his bride to be, liz. they share a deep love and are truly good to each other. I am fortunate enough to witness and be a part of this time in my brother’s life, happy to have found that one special person to share his world with.

jeremy, thanks for being a good sport during the photo shoot. i know you hate having the camera in your face, but see how good you look? i hope this prepared you for the big day (yes, I’ll be doing the photography)! liz, thanks for helping to make it all happen, i’m so excited to officially welcome you to the family.

their big day is just around the corner, i can’t wait.

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tracy & damon . mission basilica san diego de alcala wedding . san diego ca

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:33:23 +0000

tracy and damon were a delight to photograph on their special day. tracy was all smiles and her yellow bouquet matched her bubbly spirit. we especially loved the location they chose for their ceremony. we’ve never shot at the mission basilica before, coined as “california’s first mission,” and it was an amazing location for a wedding and photos. If you are looking for a traditional california mission for your ceremony, you have to check this location out.

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jenniffer & winston . darlington house wedding . la jolla ca

admin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:56:38 +0000

we met up with jenniffer and her girls at tina marie and co. while they got beautified. we then headed to the empress hotel for the rest of the getting ready and some special family moments. the beach just down the street from darlington house was the perfect spot for their ceremony. it doesn’t get much better than this for a southern california wedding.

jenniffer and winston, thank you for sharing in this special day with us. we wish you nothing but the best for your future together.

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kristina & allan . grand tradition estate wedding . fallbrook ca

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:33:35 +0000

we’ve been at this location a few times recently. we’re always happy to work there, the grounds are always immaculate and the venue has some great options for a wedding. Here are some details from kristina and allan’s colorful affair.

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minnie in the desert

admin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:46:13 +0000

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kaely & jake . engagement photography at the grand tradition . fallbrook ca

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:44:35 +0000

it was a perfect day to have some fun with photos and the grand tradition estate was the perfect backdrop. thanks kaely and jake for playing along with us we hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed taking them.

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album design . viansa winery . sonoma wedding photography

admin — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:37:28 +0000

this is how we design albums, clean, modern, thoroughly telling a story. each album we create is custom designed, by us. we strive to tell our couple’s unique stories and show the beauty of their day.

viansa winery is such a beautiful venue. we put this album together to show the amazing backdrops this unique location offers. the location was not only gorgeous with lots of variety but it epitomizes california wine country.

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east bay portrait photography . janet & vincent

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:29:37 +0000

janet won.
a photo shoot that is. during the holiday season i auctioned off a portrait session to benefit the san francisco food bank. janet won and her beau vincent got to be a part of it all too. here is the cute couple on a lovely january afternoon.

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sunrise

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:46:52 +0000

there’s nothing quite like waking up with the sun, watching the glow wrap itself around the horizon. the warmth creep among the shapes of the day, bending and twisting into color and form. these quiet moments in time, in life, are irreplaceable. as photographers, we see the world in terms of light. the light transforming throughout the day, the magic hour of light, the way light shapes a person’s face. light is our language and love is what we get to talk about. here’s a little photo love from us on this sunday afternoon.

mushroom statues & sparkling wine . napa valley photography

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:08:30 +0000

can i just say how much i love living in california? i’m a spoiled californian—spoiled with our weather, spoiled with our environmental diversity, spoiled with our food and wine, spoiled with our culture. so, i took advantage of all these luxuries by spending a lovely afternoon in the napa valley with a dear friend drinking sparkling wine, eating scrumptious food, and enjoying the wintery but not too cool day and gorgeous scenery.

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it’s a new year

admin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:24:39 +0000

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 2010 is here and in a follow-up to yesterday’s post where i discussed family as priority here are a few pictures of our girls, minnie and maggie. we took a hike one day while on vacation and brought along the camera, these are a few of our favorite frames from the day.

We’re wishing everyone a wonderful 2010!

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reflections . a year gone by

admin — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:59:07 +0000

we’re still on vacation so please forgive our lack of activity on the blog.

when i woke up this morning, i realized this is the last day of the year and had to express my thoughts about the close of another year. I can’t believe this day is already here! where did 2009 go?

in reflecting on this year it has been challenging, joyous, and filled with growth and development. we have made huge strides with our business but i am excited because we have even bigger plans for 2010. we have faced some personal challenges which haven’t been easy but going through them has given us more resolve about how we want to focus our attention and time in 2010. some of the most crucial decisions we’ve made is that our relationship and time together as a family is priority, a balanced and healthy life is essential and our continued passion for our work is completely necessary. without these elements, we feel life doesn’t work very well.

one of things that we sometimes do together (although michael mostly does on his own) but which really brings balance, health, and passion for our environment is cycling. michael is an avid cyclist, it has been a major part of his life for twenty years and a couple of years ago he got me on the bike too. we pretty much don’t go anywhere without one of his bikes. so of course we’ve had it on our vacation. this is michael on christmas eve (of course i’m behind the camera, taking the pictures).

tonight we plan to bring in the new year with food, drinks, games and dear friends. we wish everyone a safe and happy celebration and feel free to share your reflections on 2009 in the comments box : )

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on vacation

admin — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:17:48 +0000

it’s not just that i’m a bad blogger or haven’t been able to keep up with things, it’s that we’re on vacation. with limited internet access. i ran out of time before we left to put up a post about leaving and being inaccessible, so here it is now. i’ll try to post some pictures next week but for now words will have to do.

happy holidays y’all!!!

bay area portrait photography . everybody loves baby charlie

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:17:37 +0000

and what’s not to love? how cute is this little guy?

we have had the privilege of photographing both of these lovely sisters’ weddings and now we are fortunate enough to see their family grow once again with the first child/grandchild of the family, charlie. (you may remember lena’s wedding from earlier this year) charlie is so loved that the entire family came from near and far to celebrate his life and document it with a special family portrait session.adorablethe proud parents the overjoyed grandparentstotal sweetnessand more sweetnessi know charlie is on the verge of crying here but thought it was too cute not to showi absolutely love his little expressive face hereand all these faces toowhat a handsome family they make
thanks guys for sharing this special time in your lives with us. it’s truly an honor to be a part of your family story and create meaningful photographic memories for you.

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a little photo warmth on this cool december day

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:28:52 +0000

we are officially in the month of december and I am officially missing the balmy fall california days. so here’s a fall sunset to warm things up on this cool friday.

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east bay portrait photography . devon & aaron

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:03:22 +0000

you may remember devon and aaron as they made an earlier appearance on our blog with their beautiful wedding. when I heard that they were expecting their first child, a little girl, I was elated for them and couldn’t wait to see a pregnant devon. it’s such an honor that they openly trusted in me to capture this special time in their lives.

devon and aaron, i wish you nothing but health and happiness and can’t wait to meet the little one.

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california portrait photography . julie

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:15:46 +0000

this year has been filled with tremendous growth for us as a photographic team and for me individually. this shoot was another step towards my own creative goals. i had an amazing amount of fun this day. julie let me style her from head to toe—choosing her attire and doing her hair and makeup—and then i got to pick out the gorgeous locations to use as my backdrops. i wanted to embrace the amazing northern california fall season and create a feeling of rustic beauty and warmth.

julie was awesome to work with and i feel blessed to call her a friend. i have had the fortune of knowing her since before she was even in grade school and it is amazing to see the bright and beautiful woman she has become. thank you julie for sharing this day with me, it was none other than fabulous.

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maggie = smiles

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:25:56 +0000

today is dreary, cold, wet, and dark outside and I’m trying to stave off feeling that way on the inside too. one thing that always keeps me smiling is maggie, my biggest but youngest chihuahua. as i’ve mentioned before we are animal lovers and especially dog lovers. we don’t have children and our dogs have always been the closest thing to that for us. they have the biggest hearts and an unending capacity to love. they’re always excited to see you when you walk in the door and always ready and willing to cuddle up with you. i love my girls in a way that i don’t love anyone else and today is a day to remind myself of that.

i took this picture of michael holding maggie about a month ago. not only does it make me laugh and bring a huge smile to my face but it is so maggie. she is totally trusting of us and completely pliable in our hands and i love that about her.