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Subject:Palos Verdes Engagement Photography: Nicole and Joel
Time:11:08 pm
Tanya and I both feel really blessed to have as many fun couples to photograph with this year as we do. Nicole and Joel are both very much part of that group! Not only are they great to be around, but their wedding is at one of our favorite venues Firestone Vineyards up by Santa Barbara! We also get to work again with our favorite planner, Joy Proctor of Joy de Vive Wedding Planning. If you remember from our previous Firestone post, the venue is simply tops, so there's going to be some amazing photos to come!

For their engagement session, we decided to shoot out on the Palos Verdes peninsula. As luck would have it, Southern California's June gloom had officially set in, but we decided to give it a go anyway and I really think the pictures speak for themselves. Nicole and Joel are a fantastic carefree couple, and we can't wait to shoot their wedding in a few months!


Rancho Palos Verdes Engagement Photos, E-Session by Ian Grant


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Subject:Day One: Mendocino Road Trip
Time:08:10 pm
As some of you may have followed, my friend Nick and I were able to escape for the weekend and go camping up in Mendocino County of California. On day one we drove overnight up to Fort Bragg from LA and stayed the night at Mackerricher State Park along the beach. During the day we explored Mackerricher and saw some baby seals and later on we headed down to Jug Handle State Reserve which I'd highly recommend. Just the peninsula area overlooking the water was worth it alone.
While it was coastal cloudy in the morning, the later in the day it got, the more rain started coming in which seriously hampered a lot of picture taking. By the end of the night it was downpouring and everything covering us got soaked. Thankfully after some serious time spent we were able to get a fire going which made everything better. The highlight without a doubt was seeing 6 Banana Slugs which are the largest slugs in the world!
I'll be posting day two's photos in the next couple days, hope you enjoy!


Mendocino County California - Mackerricher State Park


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Subject:This About Sums Up my Weekend...
Time:03:32 pm

Mendocino Coastline


It was a very cold and rainy camping adventure on the Mendocino coastline [this is me as I'm about to get pulled out to sea by a freak wave].
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Subject:Death Trip 2009
Time:12:54 am
This weekend my friend Nick and I are heading off on one of our absuredly long roadtrips again! This time we are traveling from Los Angeles to a little coastal town called Fort Bragg in Mendocino County [about 3/4 up the California coastline]. We're going to be camping at Mackericher State Park right next to the Pacific with potential wolves waiting for our tired bodies. From there we're taking Highway 1 down to Salt Point State Park and camping there as well. Bookmark this page as I'll be uploading camera phone photos from the road, I'll have to keep a running tally of how many miles we do. Till then you can look at a picture of Riley and see how much he already misses me.

For a small sampling of previous 'death-trips' as we call them please see:
2007: The Channel Island Deathtrip
2007: The Petrified Desert Deathtrip [camera-phone updates]
2008: The Oregone Deathtrip [also camera-phone updates]

We're probably going to be on the road and posting from roughly 2am'ish Thursday - 3pm Sunday.



Please visit IanGrantPhotography.com for awesome camera phone updates through the weekend!


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Subject:Big Moves! Giant Prints!
Time:12:58 am

Big Sur California Photograph



So, if I didn't mention it already- Tanya and I packed up our pets, garden, and photo supplies and moved quite literally two doors down [approx. 20 feet north]. What this means is a] an OFFICE! b] a new home for Riley the dog [uh, the office] and c] more space than we know what to do with! We've been living in a pretty small space for the last few years and when a new place opened up, we decided to make the change. We're both kind of pack rats and this was revealed in the move, so now we're able to spread out a bit and really get rid of that overall claustrophobic feeling. With that, it's also gives us tons of space for beautiful landscapes on the wall! We fit one wall with some great images from my last Ireland trip and the other from Harris Beach State Park, and yet another with some vintage Salton Sea photos in white frames. What was left was the biggest wall right behind our couches. What better way to fill it then a giant 60x40 canvas of a blue Big Sur photograph! I'm pretty psyched as I don't think I've ever seen any of my photos this big, but I'll have to report back on how it looks. I'm a little scared/nervous though, this is going to be so cool!
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Subject:Malibu Engagement Photography: Nayla and Matt
Time:01:36 pm
How cute are these guys? Hiking and general outdoorsy stuff are some of Matt and Nayla's favorite activities, so it only made sense for us to head off to Point Dume State Beach for their e-session. Point Dume [somewhat near El Matador, one of our special spots] is one of their favorite getaways, so it was nice to be able to see a new great location in LA. There are tons of little amazing hideaways in LA, Point Dume is definitely one of them...it's also home to the final scene in Planet of the Apes with the Statue of Liberty!

We caught some really amazing sunset light and found a very inquisitive lady-bug in our little adventure. Overall we got some of my favorite engagement photos yet this year, and I've been looking forward to sharing them with you!


Malibu California Engagement Photography by Ian Grant

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See them larger at our Wedding Photography Blog
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Subject:Los Angeles Headshots: Rhianna
Time:04:20 pm
Recently I've been shooting lots of headshots in the area, and it's always a fun exercise to try and get the best portraits out of the client. One of my more recent actresses was a girl named Rhianna who just moved out here to LA. I heard back from her within a week and turns out she's already booking gigs from her shots. Good luck!

For more of our images see our Los Angeles Headshots gallery


LA Headshots

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Subject:we're back live
Time:01:00 pm
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/i-make-videos
kittie + puppy cam: watch them try to break through the screen!
live as of 1pm pst
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Subject:We're Moving in on the Internets
Time:05:24 pm
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/i-make-videos

...or at least our new apartment. Streaming all day today, maybe tomorrow.
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Subject:UCLA Engagement Photography - Stephanie and Max
Time:01:10 pm
Stephanie and Max are such a great couple and a real treat to be around! I've been really excited about shooting their wedding as they booked us partly on the fact that I'm a landscape photographer and the landscape up where they're getting hitched [in Fillmore, CA] is fantastic. Very old west and rustic. I think the photos we're going to be able to get up there are going to be amazing, so we're setting aside a little chunk of time to get some really great portraits. With that said, we met the other day over at UCLA to get some engagement photos- they both met at the college and we thought we'd take advantage of its great architecture and spacious campus. Enjoy!


Westwood Engagement Photos


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Subject:Los Angeles Engagement Session - Jesse and Miranda
Time:07:34 pm
Our clients Jesse and Miranda have their hearts set on doing a nice modern style wedding so when it came time for their engagement session what better place to shoot than the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los Angeles. If you haven't visited the concert hall yet, you can spend easily a good hour just walking around the place without even stepping foot inside. It's a piece of architectural amazement and I think we really took advantage. We're going to be shooting their wedding in August up by San Francisco and are really looking forward to it!


Los Angeles Engagement Session


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Subject:Thanks Katie and Mike!
Time:03:23 pm
Our wedding client Katie [you might remember our entry about their awesome wedding idea] just wrote a really sweet entry about working with us in her blog. All the pieces of their crazy 'around the world' wedding are coming together and they're gearing up for a very soon departure! We're going to be catching them at the end of their journey in Philadelphia and maybe if we can time it right up in San Francisco/Napa. Just the other day they secured the prime piece of the trip puzzle- a reservation at The French Laundry, one of the most famous restaurants in the world!

Check out their nice words about working with us.
Thanks Katie and Mike!
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Subject:Los Angeles Wedding Photography - Molly and Bill
Time:01:36 pm
You might remember Molly and Bill from our amazing engagement session last December! A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of shooting Molly and Bill's wedding. Bill is the associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Granada Hills, which you might recognize from the weddings of Karen and Dan and Rachelle and AJ. Molly and Bill had a huge turnout at their wedding - 400 or so guests! Every person we talked to had nothing but wonderful things to say about this couple.

Molly and Bill's love for one another is a tangible thing; you can feel it in the way they look at each other and hold each other. Bill got teary-eyed when Molly walked down the aisle, and their first kiss was met with a standing ovation. During a memorable toast, Molly's friend and old roommate talked about their courtship. Bill wooed Molly in the way every woman should be wooed, her friend said. She made everyone laugh by saying that Molly had a type of tourette's during the first stages of their relationship - randomly shouting out, "I love Bill!"

After the toasts and a sweet first dance, the party continued. The DJ had the girls voguing to Madonna and the guys strutting their stuff. The community showed their support with each family bringing a wedding cake for the couple. They cut into a three tiered cake made by a church member and her granddaughter. To show their respect for the community that had supported them through their relationship, the garter and toss bouquet were presented to the pastor and his wife. The whole wedding was filled with personal touches and you could feel what a close knit community Molly and Bill bring together.

Photography by Ian Grant Photography / Distinctphoto.com

Los Angeles Wedding Photography, Granada Hils
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Subject:LA > IRE
Time:02:17 am
have you noticed how cheap airfare is lately? anyone want to go to ireland with me for $388?
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Subject:Lame Entry
Time:12:11 am
2005 no more! I have an updated livejournal profile! [not really worth your time looking]

update// oh god it's so awesome.
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Subject:Salvation Mountain and my Friend Leonard
Time:12:33 pm

Salvation Mountain

Salvation Mountain

Salvation Mountain

Salvation Mountain

Salvation Mountain



This last weekend my friend Valeri and I went down to the Salton Sea for the third edition of the yearly trip. It's been one of my favorite places in California to go visit because it's in a way a photographer's paradise. There's tons of junk, abandoned houses, interesting and crazy people, and migratory birds. One of my favorite places to visit [I'll post the rest of the trip photos later] is Salvation Mountain. I love to take people because in a way you can't really describe the place to people- it's just something to be experienced. Granted, I really love eccentric old people so that has something to do with it, but the fact that this guy named Leonard decided to set up camp and paint a hillside for 20 years is just so awesome to me. By hillside, I mean anything in the area including his cars, motorcycle, mailbox, etc. Last time I went I was so bummed out he wasn't there, but this year he was so we got the full out tour and the whole bit. If you ever want a really awesome inspiring day tour, go check this place out before it gets too hot out there. Slab City is also right near there which is a crazy place in its own right.

x-posted larger on iangrantphotography.com
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Time:02:11 am




I know I haven't posted Jesse and Miranda's amazing e-session yet, but I thought I'd share with you the awesome postcard design we made for them. They wanted a great modern style postcard to share with their family and announce their engagement to the world! We pulled out our favorite images and designed this up for them, a ton of fun for us as designing postcards is probably one of my favorite things in the world to do. One of the benefits to being our clients is you also get our world famous holiday postcards every year. More e-session photos to come!

x-posted larger to iangrantphotography.com
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Subject:Figure Study - Fields in Calabasas
Time:01:57 am
Figure Study - Calabasas


Every once in awhile it's nice to go out and try something new and challenging, and this last week was a great opportunity to do this. I have a great friend who I love shooting with and once a year we go do a set of figure studies in and around the outlying LA area. I like the challenge of it as it's a good test for me in keeping the person I'm working with comfortable as well as well as incorporating the environment, lighting, etc. Also, since I'm a lifelong student of photography, I've been seeing people like Edward Weston's work for many years now and realize the amount of time and patience that goes into it. I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks they're some of his best work.

Anyway enough blabbing. I have a few of my favorites from the session behind the cut- if you're not comfortable with the human form then don't click below.
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Subject:Torrey Pines Engagement Photography - Kristin and Dimitri
Time:01:02 pm
On Saturday, Tanya and I headed down to San Diego to shoot an engagement for a really cute couple Kristin and Dimitri. We were really excited to work with them, as apart from them being really awesome and full of energy, they invited us to come shoot at one of our favorite spots- Torrey Pines State Reserve. Last time I was down there was around this time of year and I got some really great stock images of the area. If you ever want to get away from the city life, this is the place to do it as you get great foggy ocean waves and fantastic sea cliffs. Kristin and Dimitri put us to the test on slippery rocks and we bonded over love of the Salton Sea. I seriously need to stop my sales pitch for going there to everyone. Here are some of the pics, hope you enjoy!

See larger versions at the Wedding Photography Blog


Torrey Pines Engagement Session


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Subject:I'm trying to like it...tryyyyying.
Time:10:13 pm
I'm trying to discover the wonders of twittering. If you want to listen to the unenlightening things I have to say my username is: doisneau
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[icon] Ian's Green Journal
View:Recent Entries.
View:Archive.
View:Friends.
View:User Info.
View:Website (Ian Grant Photo Blog: Headshot, Wedding and Landscape Photography).
View:The New Blog. Distinctphoto.com. iTravelStockPhoto.com. RoomkeeperSociety.com. Facebook.
You're looking at the latest 20 entries.
Missed some entries? Then simply jump back 20 entries