Get ready for what I think may be one of the coolest and most unique engagement sessions ever!

Sean and Kelly are animators in the movie business. Sean has worked on many famous movies, like Shrek and Madagascar, and was even nominated for an Annie Award (equivalent to an Oscar in the animation world) earlier this year. They came to us with a very specific photo shoot in mind. They wanted a vintage themed engagement at Union Station, photographed in a way that they could later animate various characters into for their Save the Date Invitations. Are you kidding? How fun!

This shoot was incredible because there was so much collaboration. Kelly and Sean rented vintage costumes and Allie brought in the coat and steamer trunk from her personal collection. Each set-up required us to allow for space so that later they could draw in the characters. Kelly and Sean acted out the scenes while we directed, lit and photographed them. A technical note: in almost all of the shots we are using off-camera strobes that are hand-held and modified with an umbrella or a small Photoflex lightbox. This shoot is also a great example of what Allie and I specialize in: absolutely capturing our client’s unique individual and combined personalities with highly specific and planned engagement shoots.

Get this, their wedding is at the end of the year at a castle on the East Coast. The theme? We can’t tell you, let’s  just say that it may be Fairy Tale themed. Our Associate Ashleigh will be photographing it. Look for it on our blog at the end of the year!

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This is a really cool story. Colin works for the Dodgers in the executive offices as Tommy Lasorda’s Press Coordinator (how cool is that by the way!) In 2009 on Armed Forces Appreciation Day at Dodger Stadium, Colin was standing near the entrance when he saw Silvie and her friend. Silvie is a Captain (soon to be a Major) in the Army, having served 12 years, including a combat tour in Iraq.  Colin, seeing the ladies standing there, approached Silvie and her friend and said, “Excuse me ladies, but I have someone that would like to meet you two.” The next thing she knew she was in Tommy Lasorda’s office. Tommy looked at Silvie and said, “You’re a Captain!” You see, Tommy Lasorda is a U.S. Army Veteran, having served in the Army in the mid-1940’s at the end of World War II. They all took pictures and joked around,  and Colin gave Silvie his card so that she could send him the pictures from her camera to have Tommy sign them.

Silvie couldn’t wait. She emailed Colin in the third inning to thank him. From Silvie: “His response was genuinely sincere. He described how he has the “utmost respect for me and my comrades who live a life devoted to the service of others, devoted to the protection of our nation and our treasured ideals, devoted to virtues like dedication, commitment, sacrifice and duty.” Later in the email he said, “when I passed you in the lobby I just had a warm feeling about you. But more importantly your smile is captivatingly beautiful.” You can just imagine how charmed I was to get such a wonderful email! I immediately liked him a lot more!!” They went on a date the next week, in what Silvie describes as the most romantic night of her life. The rest is history.

What better place to photograph their engagement photos than the exact place where they met! This time though, the stadium was quiet, the crowd was absent and Silvie and Colin were the stars, having the entire stadium to themselves, except for the pigeons and sparrows!

The following two photos are particularly poignant for Colin and Silvie as this is the exact place that they met: the lobby of the executive offices at Dodger Stadium.

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A few weeks ago we photographed the engagement photos of DeAnna Pappas and her fiancé Steve. Most of us who watch TV will recognize DeAnna as The Bachelorette on ABC’s hit reality dating TV show. Although she ultimately did not find love on the tube, we can definitely agree, she has found love now! Seriously, look at these photos below. These two are in LOVE, and they are having a blast! DeAnna and Steve, thanks for making us laugh all day. We will see you soon on the golf course!

Photographed at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills on a wonderfully dramatic and stormy day where we had to dodge rain and a pesky park ranger. Featured on Green Wedding Shoes.

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Our Engagement Shoot of The Bachelorette, DeAnna Pappas, and her fiance Steve was recently featured on Green Wedding Shoes. You must read the post for one of the best Proposal stories ever. Stay tuned for our post of all of their beautiful engagement photos, coming very soon.

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Rachelle and Thom’s Mad Men Inspired Cinematic Engagement Shoot was photographed on location at the Neutra VDL Research House in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Built 75 years ago by architect Richard Neutra (who Time magazine once remarked as “second only to lordly Frank Lloyd Wright”), the VDL House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and sits directly across from the Silver Lake Reservoir. It is a glass house with huge outside sun louvers (which are amazing), water roofs (which are now dry), roof-top and balcony gardens and a third-story penthouse. The design of the house was radical at the time, and perfect today as the backdrop for Rachelle and Thom’s period-piece engagement shoot.

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Colleen and Roger are going to be married this summer at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles. So, they wanted an un-urban engagement that embodied everything they love about California: the weather, beach, ocean, etc. They choose Paradise Cove in Malibu and we were so lucky as this was one of the most beautiful days of the winter. It was the only clear-sky day within several days of rain.

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We are so honored that our 1960′s Hong Kong engagement session inspired by Wong Kar-wai’s movie  In the Mood for Love was featured today on the Junebug Weddings blog. Click the photo below to jump to Junebug Weddings. Thanks Christy and Blair! Click here to see our original post featuring all of the photos and their story.

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Jill and Mike at The Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills may be one of Callaway Gable’s hottest engagement shoots to date. Jill is an amazing actress and comedienne and Mike is an accomplished musician, and actor. As performers, they wanted an editorial engagement shoot that was dramatic, passionate and sexy. This was so much fun for us, and Allie was so in her element, directing and composing most of these shots. As an ex-model her experience is priceless when it comes to helping our clients relax and find their best angles. You can see below.

Technical stuff: all of these photos were photographed with a combination of several off-camera flashes that were modified with grids, snoots, gels to match the ambient light, an umbrella and my new favorite toy: the Protek Softlighter II. Post processing included minimal amounts of cross-processing to achieve that editorial look and feel.

Special thanks to the staff at The Avalon for letting us shoot in the room. Jill and Mike’s wedding is in a few weeks – we’ll see if we can top these photos!

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Jolt and Mustang, their nicknames for today’s post, met us down by the river on one of the hottest days this year. And what a great day it turned out to be! As soon as we started shooting, the clouds rolled in, and it cooled off, giving us an amazing backdrop. Allie and I had so much fun with these guys – just look at the photos! This is such a great example of owning your engagement session. While planning their engagement, Jolt and Mustang told us it was important to them to have photos which included their car, themselves, their humor and some train tracks. So, a few days ago they spent an afternoon and scouted locations and found the perfect spot, off a side street, down by the river on the east side of downtown Los Angeles. It couldn’t have been a more perfect location for an awesome engagement that has a little bit of everything: humor, sexy car shots, and train track love.

Just in case anyone is wondering what it looks like when you bring a few changes of clothes to a shoot and there is no changing room…

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It is no wonder that we have been in, at and around The Los Angeles Central Library for several of our recent engagement shoots and weddings. Downtown Los Angeles is simply the most photogenic and dramatic environment for outstanding photography in all of Southern California. Abby and Sudeep share a love of books, so this time we went inside for a bit and explored the library. The first few photos with the little chairs are from the children’s theatre on the second floor. So cool. Keeping with the downtown theme, their wedding at Vibiana is going to be so amazing: a traditional Indian wedding meets Tuscany – we can’t wait!

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