Robert Valdes Photography

Here’s a few pics of Peter and Jennifer’s wedding at the Mission Santa Clara. This is a wonderful place for a wedding. The lighting is decent and there are plenty of angles that you can get.

DUDE, THE BACKLIGHT FLASH IS AWESOME FOR THE BRIDAL MARCH!!!!

Make sure the photographer you hire uses a BACKLIGHT FLASH!!!!

How’s this for no flash in a dark church!

Tech: 1600 iso, IS lens. f2.8 @ 1/30th

My style combines standard shot with photo journalistic shots like this one below. I can even get more creative if the bride wants!

Like I said, my style combines journalism with the standard poses. The standard posed and formal shots are very important because the Parents and family members always want them. I will give you some pretty darn good posed shots like the one below.

I bring alot of extra lighting and this is where my assistant comes in handy. I use strobes as well as my lightstick as a backlight. Here, I used the backlight flash to light up the brides veil.

I will always find the best light when doing outdoor stuff. I try and stick with all natural light outdoors with a little off camera flash if necessary.

Peter’s a nice guy. We got along great!

I like the low angle and use it often.

I think it is important to point out that very little processing was done to these images. I did color correction and that’s it! You can rest assured that your raw images will look good enough to use for any purpose. Going a step further by processing is simply icing on the cake!

Wente Vineyards is a very popular place to have your wedding in Northern California. It is not uncommon for me to shoot at least 3 weddings here in a season.

Angela & Rich got married here in 2008 and these are some of the wedding photos that I took.

These night time shots were taken at the The Mountain Terrace in Woodside California.

I absolutely love taking night shots when I photograph a wedding. My backlight flash or ‘light-stick’ as I call it, enables me to get shots that would otherwise be impossible. This is just one of the many benefits of using extra lighting when shooting a wedding. Using only camera flash generally produces adequate at best results. Ambient light is always the best, but when you mix in a little off camera lighting, you can get some AMAZING RESULTS. And interestingly enough, I still travel very lite! All my equipment fits in one bag, and my assistant carries the light stick[s] and any other strobes I may have that day.

Please take a look at my night wedding shots and let me know if you like them! I would love to hear from you.

The Ruby Hill Golf Club is a great place to have your wedding. The wedding photos that you can get there far exceed that of a standard hotel or wedding hall. This is the 6th time I have been to the Ruby Hill. I love shooting weddings there and can’t wait to go back. I’d like to share some of my favorites with you now. I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

We started off with some shots of the bride in the ready room.

The ceremony took place on the back patio.

The groom held his composure for most of the ceremony. But underneath his rugged exterior, a mountain of emotions were about to explode.

The ceremony ended with a passionate kiss.

We took some posed pictures after the ceremony

The reception in the lower ballroom is spacious with a huge dance floor.

Speaking of dancing, the bride and groom had a wonderful choreographed first dance.

here are some of the detail shots I got through out the day.

Before I left, I took the bride and groom for some of my famous wedding photographs both inside and outside the venue.

As you can see, my use of a ‘light-stick’ to back light the subject [and front light at various times] elevates my imagery to a higher level, vs imagery with simple on-camera flash. Morevoer, my assistant is invaluable in facilitating the use of the light-stick.

I strongly urge ALL brides to commission a wedding photographer who uses additional lighting off camera, vs. one who is only using on camera flash. Also beware of photographers who use no flash at all, relying on only ambient light, which means they have to use higher iso settings. The latter often results in poorly lit imagery and dark circles under the eyes.

Of course, natural light is always the best, and I always use the natural light to my advantage, whether by using it 100% or by augmenting the natural light with additional off camera lighting.

Ultimately, you will be the judge in deciding what type of imagery you prefer. Just keep in mind that with me as your photographer, you will have a virtual plethora of options available in terms of lighting and photography styles.

The fantabulous Silver Creek Country Club in San Jose, CA. It’s always nice to shoot here. The staff were extremely polite and informative.

It was a sunny day with a little overcast and smoke from the CA wildfires. I started with some candid and posed shots of the bride in the ‘ready room’.

The Father walked the bride down the aisle. It was a very poignant moment. The bride was actually crying the entire walk down the aisle.

The father gives the bride away. I shot this between two bridesmaids. If gives the shot a ‘fly on the wall’ feel.

The bride even cried during her vows.

Because the ceremony was delayed, and then went on forever, everything fell behind. They literally gave me 5 minutes to take a photo up on top of the waterfall.

The reception came out great! I got many detail shots, close ups, candids and a many of my trademark, ‘epic’s shots. I will share those with you in due course.

Please check back again for the reception shots.

I love details. I’m a detail freak. Let me take this opportunity to share with you some of my most recent detail shots. Some of which are in true black and white film.

WOW! Another great wedding. Anna and Vi got married at the Yank Sing restaurant which sits in the atrium of 101 Spear Street in San Francisco, CA. The entire wedding was at this one location. Here are some of my favorite pics of the event.

I get a kick out of these traditional Asian weddings and I really enjoy shooting them. I’m working on Anna and Vi’s wedding album and wedding video now and will update this blog with images as they become available.

The process of refining the final image is an integral part of my workflow. As an expert image designer, I have been exposed to PHOTOSHOP since version 1. My ability with the tool is maximum…the results of which you see in this RAW AND TWEAKED category which is the MOST VIEWED on the Blog.

I shot a small intimate wedding recently at this wonderful location in the Beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea location. The LaPlaya Hotel is just two blocks from the Ocean, which makes it a great location to have your wedding.

Interestingly, I do shoot quite a bit in the Monterey and Carmel areas, not as much as I would like…but when Brides discover that I [typically] do not charge a travel FEE to go to Monterey/Carmel, it helps their decision making. I strongly believe that additional fees tacked on to the prices are a deterrent. That is why I typically do not charge a travel fee for many places. The only time I ever charged a travel fee for Monterey was for a wedding at the same time as the Monterey Jazz Festival. Other than that, I’m ready and willing to go there to shoot your wedding!

I love Monterey Bay and Carmel-By-The-Sea and Carmel Valley Weddings! Below are two wedding photos that I took at the aforementioned La Playa Hotel in Carmel.

I had the pleasure of doing some Wedding Couple Engagement photos (a.k.a. E-Pics) at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, CA today. The engaged couple to be Married this May 2008 was Anna and Vi. They showed up on time and were ready for anything. My clients know that I work outside the box when it comes to e-Pics, and although I might get some standard ‘prom poses’ for prosperity sake, most of the images will be intrinsic as well as organic. We spent about an hour walking around the Palace of Fine Arts getting some great shots! I took about 100 or so images and below are some of my favorites. I’m looking forward to shooting Anna and Vi’s wedding this coming May 2008 at the Rincon Center in San Francisco at the Yank Sing which I have also worked at numerous times.