On Location: Wedding of the Year

Hash tag this, hash tag that, hash tag, hash tag, hash tag. The only hash tag that mattered was #weddingweekendactivated. If you have Instagram, please check it out. It was a weekend to remember for sure! People come all over the globe from the likes of Australia for this, high profile celebrity coming through. Everyone coming together for this special occasion of my very GREAT friends Aldrich Galimba and Jessica Nix. This moment has been long anticipated event for years.

These are not the official photographs of the wedding. Go visit Talia Studio for those. She has amazing photos. I just happened to bring my camera along for the ride, just like every other time. The only difference about this time, I have a new lens. A lot of my shots have been really tight, close due to my 50mm and 100mm lens, now I have a Canon 20mm f/2.8 lens. Pretty fun lens to have in the bag. Instead of editing my pictures through Lightroom 3, I upgraded to Lightroom 4. So much better than 3. So I played around with some photos, I know they're not perfect but it's the memory behind the photo that I enjoy.

Back to the weekend. It all started with the wedding rehearsal at St. Michael's church. I had work that day, but was lucky enough to leave early to meet up. Easy walk through. Took an hour, and yeah I snapped some pictures. Not too many.

Karl Strauss Brewery in Mira Mesa was the rehearsal dinner with had a bunch of family friends just enjoying ourselves. Then that's where I found out we had a celebrity within our presence. Country singer Zac Brown Band was among us. It's crazy, cause it wasn't the first time I've met the guy. I know him as Jason, the big guy who snores REALLY loud. Cool dude. I guess he's Jess' cousin. Out of all people, Aldrich had to tell me it was Zac Brown of the Zac Brown Band. NO SHIT!!!! Jess doesn't like telling he's a celebrity. She wants him to enjoy his vacation which I'm sure everyone would respect. It was great talking cameras among Jive and Zac Brown Band aka Jason. After hitting up beers after beers, it was time to round up the troops. The future bride and groom split their ways for the night to soon meet up the next day.

The groomsmen and groom stayed at a fresh spot off El Cajon Blvd called La Frette. It was like a condo that was haunted. It seemed old school with a couple flat screens. We just continued the guy's party there. People were starting to pass out. If you want to see pictures and videos of what happened, ask J Pang. Funny stuff. Time to get ready for the big day now!

The actual wedding day is here!! Saturday, October 27th, 2012. #weddingweekendactivated
It's a wedding. Beautiful. If you weren't there, you missed out. Me and Princess, I don't even know if that's her real name. We were secondary sponsors and had the honor to put the cord on the couple during the ceremony. I don't know what it signifies but its pretty important to the Filipino weddings. Weddings...they say "I do" family sheds tears and we're off the the reception.

The reception is where majority of the photos came from. Drunk-ness on my part. I took pictures, people stole my camera and took pictures. It was all fun. Open bar, great music, photo booth by TaliaStudio.com. We rocked the dance floor til midnight where things started to hit reality and no one couldn't party all night. Hahaa. Luckily I crashed at the Shearaton hotel with some other buddies. It's awesome to see so many familiar faces over the weekend. I know its hard to schedule everyone to see each other because of school, work, significant others, or because they live freaking in Texas or Oregon. But I'm glad to see my Oregon friends like Steph and Pete, Francis from Texas, and other the old school Escondido hommies. There are too many stories to tell on this entry. Let's just say we'll be talking about this for a while and it will be an anchor to many laughs and conversations.

I NEED TO PRINT these picture. If there is a certain picture I need to print, leave a comment. Cause honestly, I can't print all 250 photos. I'd like to take the top 50 to frame or add to a photo album. Maybe I should make a Costco hardbound photo book. I certainly have enough photos. I can't wait to see Talia's photos too!!! Leave some love for her at her site. Tell Amelia I said hi....shes too adorable not to hug.

This video is the montage that kinda messed up. I don't want to talk about it....here it is.
 
Al and Jess' Wedding Montage from Ryan Florido on Vimeo.



#weddingweekendactivated from Ryan Florido on Vimeo.

Joss' First Birthday

It's a sign that I'm getting old. I always thought I was a kid. WRONG!!! My friend's are getting married and they're having kids. I'm being called Uncle Remix now.

Joss had her first birthday. These photos were actually taken on June 30 of this year, but summer was busy. I'm playing catch up on photos.

Once again, I'm very fortunate to watch this precious angel grow up. I was there for her first photo shoot at home which you can see here. Now a year old, understanding her surroundings each day, learning to new things everyday, and watching her personality grow. Her parents are lucky. Ryan and Stine are great to her, spoiling her with nothing but love. I hang out with the couple pretty frequently and it's always a treat whenever Joss is around too. They are not scared to take baby Joss out. She'll be hanging out with the adults as we drink. She is always the center of attention and honestly, who can blame it. She is nothing but smiles with wandering eyes as she is entertained by smiles and loving friends.

Just like baby Cassius' birthday, the birthday celebrator was surrounded by family and friends. Of course we were drinking. That's how we celebrate, find any reason to drink. Joss had gifts galore, mostly Hello Kitty things. Notice the last picture of her Hello Kitty backpack...that was my gift. Hahaa. For a first year old party, it was fun. Alcohol, food, astro jump with a slide!!!! Yeah, there were other kids, but I'm not sure how parents feel about their kid online without permission, sooooo....they're not online. Plus, its all about Joss. 

If you're wondering whats up with the music...it's Joss' favorite song. Maybe it's cause of the lyrics or the beat...but she shakes her booty to it whenever she hears it.

Happy Birthday JOSS!!!!

Joss' First Birthday from Ryan Florido on Vimeo.

Setting Sail AUDIO!!

John Audio's deployment party is nothing but a haze in my memory. I remember being really hot and drinking a lot. Sloshball was intense while drinking Stone beer. Not bud light or 'water' but freakin' Stone Pale Ale. So after scoring my run, I was done. It was certainly a good time at Felicita Park. Good times none the less. Here are some of the pictures of that day.

Deployment Party for AUDIO!!! from Ryan Florido on Vimeo.

Bates Nut Farm...lookin' Ripe!

I love it when seasons change, summer to fall, winter to spring, whatever. It's always nice to see some change. The air is starting to get cooler, I'm riding my bike more. Things are looking a lot better for me.

For some news about myself, I'm switching hospitals. It's for the best. It took a while for me to understand the importance for the future. So now I have a better position with full benefit which I lacked on my previous position. People were always surprised to hear that I didn't have benefits working at a hospital, but now that's not a problem. I'll be working on the medical/oncology floor at the new Palomar West near the infamous Stone Brewery. So I need to buy a growler soon.

The pumpkin patch was amazing compared to last year. It was the hassle to get there last year. We went on the worst time possible, the weekend before Halloween and a Charger bye week. I felt like EVERYONE went all at once. Super BUSY!!! This was not the case.

The pumpkin patch was free from clutter of crying kids and overloaded parking lots. I found the pumpkin I was looking for, had plenty of time to take quality shots, I wasn't rushed. I couldn't ask for anything more. Actually, I take that back. The thing that probably bugged me were the over sized pumpkins. The over size pumpkins were rotten, lob sided, collapsing on itself. I didn't see a decent over sized pumpkin.

Me and my sister just goofed around with the pumpkins. I took some candid pictures of her during the search of a perfect pumpkin. I used my 50mm and 100mm. I think you can tell when I used my 100mm with the intense bokeh. I'm starting to usethe 100mm macro for more than just macro shots. Its a fun lens to shot with.

The question is, what should I carve my pumpkin? Any ideas? Shoot them to me. Leave a comment.

 
pumpkin patch from Ryan Florido on Vimeo.

Cassius' growing up!!!

Cassius, son of Brandon and Bethany Garcia. The future of hip hop/sports/anything good and pure, a true reflection of the Garcias. Bethany decided to take a mini vacation to the West coast while Brandon did training for the military. It was amazing to see Bethany and Cassius, seeing the size I last saw him. You can see him here the first day he was born.

Cassius' personality is definitely present. You can already know he is going to be a tidy and clean person by his attitude toward his messy birthday cake. He'd prefer to play with it while in the the cover than feel the sticky frosting.

It was a true treat to see all the family, bother from the Jordan and Garcia side. Family and friends are always present. Was there alcohol here? YES!!! Even though we weren't technically allowed to have it present as park rangers did a walk around making sure we didn't have it.

I know these pictures are late, but looking back at them reminds me how hot Escondido can be. Overwhelmed by mid 90 degree heat is never fun, but we made the most out of it. The heat was so bad, I felt as if we were the only group in the park.

I look forward on seeing this young boy grow up. Escondido misses the Garcia Family. WHAT UP PARADOX!!!

 
Cassius' first birthday in Escondido from Ryan Florido on Vimeo.

It's coming!!!

At the end of the month will be the wedding of the year (at least for me). My good friends Aldrich Galimba and Jessica Nix are going to be married by the end of the month. A long anticipated event for sure. I've known the couple for a while, I even took over their old room from Jessica's condo. It was a true pleasure to photography them as a couple. We decided to go to Balboa Park to do some photos. It was a busy Sunday. Actually, the first Sunday of the NFL season.

 I love my camera. However, I wanted to do wider shots. I kinda stuck with my 50mm. It's the widest lens I have at the moment. Not very wide at all. It's considered a standard length lens. Great for portraits and "walk around lens" so things aren't distorted by the lens. But after working with some ultra wide angle lens, I can appreciate them. They can make anything look cool. During this trip with the future Galimba couple, I wanted to work on separation and do some wides. I didn't want to get too close. I think pretty satisfied with my work. I find it hard to be blown away. I know my strengths and try to work on my weaknesses. Let's just hope I keep on improving. It was fun shooting at Balboa, so we ended our day at one of the coolest bars in San Diego (IMO). West Coast Tavern in North Park is a hip spot. It was kind of dead, so we took advantage of the lack of seating and did our own little impromptu photo shoot. I really like how you can see "North Park" sign on some of the photos. I feel like I captured them at their true element, enjoying each other's company over a drink. I feel like they can do that all day if they had a chance. It's hard to find Aldrich being photo ready, so when I captured his smile, not a fake obligated smile, but a genuine smile means a lot to me and I'm sure to Jess too. CHEERS to the couple. The reason for the white boards were for the table arrangements at the wedding.

Happy Birthday Jess!!!

I have not been updating any pictures to my blog lately. I literally have gigs of photos I need to edit and post. From baby Joss' birthday, wedding with TaliaStudio, fun at the park, to fun projects to keep photography fun. It's been too damn hot to edit pictures. So when it starts cooling down is when I'll find the energy to hit the digital darkroom. Happy Birthday to everyone's friend, Jess Nix, soon to be Galimba. It was her 26th birthday. Someone is getting old. It's funny cause she shares the same birthday with another good friend of mine, Mister Pete Roq from Portland, Oregon. Last minute effort, we made him a youtube video as seen below. Mean while in Escondido, we always find a reason to drink. Of course, we'll drink to a birthday! Jess wanted to head to Churchill's. Everyone was giving her excuses on reasons why we couldn't make it out. Excuses from "I'm still at work" to "I have to meet with family". Funny thing is that she believed us. She got a little butt hurt, but by the time she hit the Tavern, she was all smiles. Here are some of the cool pictures from the night. Tuesday $2 shots. So we all drank a little bit. Feel free to download pictures and put them onto your Facebook if you have one. Click here to download pictures. Cause I know people love uploading pictures to Facebook. Hahaaa.

JessWoWW's Tavern Birthday Celebration from Ryan Florido on Vimeo.

Cheers!!