There’s no shortage of rental properties in Santa Cruz, and those with an ocean view are the most attractive to out-of-towners looking for the beach city experience. Of course all those potential customers are combing through photos on rental property websites, so if your photos are crap, you’re gonna get less business. The smart ones […]
View full post »
Tags: adam sah, beach, beach house, details, interiors, photography, professional, real estate, rental, santa cruz, sunny cove
The city of San Jose hired me to get a professional photo of the new-ish city hall. It’s a beautiful structure, and I’m sure there’s thousands of photos floating around of it, so I was flattered to have been chosen for the assignment. Of course I have a *little* experience shooting architecture, so I was […]
View full post »
Tags: Architecture, bracketed, building, california, city hall, cloudy, downtown, HDR, high dynamic range, photography, photos, san jose, structure, wide angle
Back in March, I shot ground-based interiors and exteriors for this client – it’s an amazing house set on 28 acres of property near Skyline Blvd. in Portola Valley. Of course the only way to get a shot of the whole property at once is from the air! I met with Cameron Rolfe, the owner […]
View full post »
Tags: aerial, altitude, aviation, bay helicoptours, cameron rolfe, chopper, flight, helicopter, photography, photos, portola valley, sky, tour, villa lauriston
My parents-in-law are selling their lovely property they’ve raised their kids in – it’s about 30 minutes out of Santa Cruz in the mountains, near a small town named Bonny Doon. It’s a large piece of land with expansive yard, beautiful garden, separate garage, storage, play area, and of course an amazing three story-ish house […]
View full post »
Tags: Architecture, bonny doon, home, homes, house, lloyd, mountains, photography, photos, property, real estate, residence, santa cruz
Newly opened in Palo Alto, right off University Ave., Baklava is a welcoming, open sidewalk/patio Mediterranean restaurant specializing in a blend of Turkish and Greek cuisine (and drinks). People may be familiar with a similarly-named restaurant in Mountain View, and this is the newest incarnation of that well-loved location. I met with the owner over […]
View full post »
Tags: action, baklava, daytime, details, emerson, Food, greek, illiano, interiors, kitchen, mediterranean, night, nighttime, palo alto, restaurant, turkish
Owen and Marie Jobson have done a fantastic job with their first restaurant, Blue Rock BBQ (San Jose). The interior, signage and and identity all indicate a corporate franchise – but alas, this is simply a well executed vision by two entrepreneurs who are passionate about southern cooking and bringing service back to the service […]
View full post »
Tags: architecture photography, barbeque, bay area, bay area architecture photographes, bay area restaurant photographers, bbq, best, blue rock, blue rock bbq, chris schmauch, Dining, entrepreneurs, good eye, goodeye, HDR, images, interiors and exteriors, jobson, marie, owen, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, restaurant, san jose, san jose restaurant photographers, san jose restaurant photography
I had a quick shoot today with Lee Duvall’s Medallion Steakhouse in Burlingame. She wanted some interiors of the restaurant that opened late last year – and since this is my specialty I was on the case. We managed to shoot a tasty-looking steak (it was wayyy too rare to eat unfortunately) and some crab […]
View full post »
Tags: bay area, bay area architecture photographers, bay area food photographers, bay area food photography, bay area restaurant photographers, bay area restaurant photography, best, burlingame, burlingame food photographers, burlingame food photography, burlingame restaurant photographers, chef, chris schmauch, details, Dining, dish, exteriors, Food, food photography, good eye, goodeye, HDR, high dynamic range, images, interiors, lee duvall, medallion, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, restaurant, santa cruz, steakhouse
My wife and I recently stayed at Mill Rose Inn, nestled near downtown Half Moon Bay. It may not boast an ocean view, but once you walk into the secluded gardens, you’re immersed in an oasis of comfort and class. You’ll feel like royalty occupying one of the six unique rooms – the design of […]
View full post »
Tags: antique, b&b, baldwin, bay area, bed, bed and breakfast, best, bordeaux rose*, botticelli room*, botticelli*, breakfast, briar rose*, burgundy rose*, chris schmauch, eve, flowers, good eye, goodeye, half moon bay, HDR, HMB, hotel, images, inn, intimate, mill, mill rose, mill rose inn, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, renaissance room*, renaissance*, room, rooms, rose, santa cruz, terry, Weddings
I shot Junnoon in 2008 a couple times. The first time was overall coverage of the place, my typical new-client-gets-a-little-bit-of-everything photography. A couple months later I took a few shots to promote their outside brunch dining area, which is really nice. Fast forward two years, and Priya, the COO, calls me up saying they’ve redesigned […]
View full post »
Tags: bar, bay area, bay area architecture photographers, bay area food photographers, bay area restaurant photographers, bay area restaurant photography, best, chris schmauch, cocktail photography, cocktails, detals, Dining, drink photography, drinking, drinks, food photography, good eye, goodeye, images, interior, junoon, lounge, palo alto, palo alto food photographers, palo alto restaurant photographers, People, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, restaurant, santa cruz, socializing
Nestled near the train station at the end of University Ave. in Palo Alto, MacArthur Park is a hidden gem among many fine dining experiences in the valley. On this rainy day I simply showed Faz Poursohi what his restaurant could look like through my eyes, vision and photography. I guess he was intrigued, as […]
View full post »
Tags: Architecture, banquet, bay area, bay area architecture photographers, bay area restaurant photographers, bay area restaurant photography, best, bus station, chris schmauch, Dining, facility, fancy, fine, good eye, goodeye, HDR, high dynamic range, images, interiors, mac arthur, macarthur park, palo alto, palo alto architecture photographers, palo alto interior photographers, palo alto restaurant photographers, park, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, restaurant, room, santa cruz, university
David Kinch’s Manresa is a Los Gatos fine dining icon; anyone who calls themselves a “foodie” in the Bay Area has visited the Michelin-rated restaurant at least once. David’s menu is constantly changing, depending on whatever’s “growing in the garden.” The restaurant is not huge, but boasts an intimate, classy atmosphere (dare I call it […]
View full post »
Tags: atmosphere, bay area, bay area architecture photographers, bay area restaurant photographers, bay area restaurant photography, best, chris schmauch, classy, david, david kinch, Dining, fine, good eye, goodeye, HDR, high dynamic range, images, interior, interiors, kinch, los gatos, los gatos architecture photographers, los gatos restaurant photographers, michelin, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, rated, restaurant, santa cruz
Nestled on 28 acres of extremely private property in Portola Valley is a living relic from the roaring ’20s, and its name is Villa Lauriston. I won’t go into the history of the house as there are books published about it, but it was literally built from the ground it majestically sits upon. All the […]
View full post »
Tags: 1920s, 26 million, 28 acres, alpine, Architecture, bay area, best, chris schmauch, details, estate, exclusive, expansive, fountains, good eye, goodeye, hills, images, lauriston, mansion, norio, palo alto, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, pond, portola, portola valley, property, redwoods, santa cruz, sugano, valley, villa, vineyard
I always have a tough time shooting the interiors of really dark places – not that’s it’s a technical challenge, it’s just that it’s so easy to bring out details that you really don’t want to see in a dark place. For example, when someone paints their ceiling black, it’s because there’s nothing up there […]
View full post »
Tags: Architecture, bay area, best, chris schmauch, environmental, good eye, goodeye, HDR, high dynamic range, images, interior, kaama, kaama lounge, lounge, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, restaurant, san jose, santa cruz
After opening their first San Francisco restaurant in 2009 (see photos here), Beautifull! wasted no time in opening their second SF location this week. They claim to offer “The best prepared fresh food in the world,” and having sampled the goods I won’t debate that statement. Alas, the food will show up in a separate […]
View full post »
Tags: Architecture, bay area, bay area archi, bay area restaurant photographers, bay area restaurant photography, beautifull, best, chris schmauch, Dining, Food, good eye, goodeye, HDR, high dynamic range, images, interior, new, opening, organic, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, restaurant, san francisco, san francisco restaurant photographers, san francisco restaurant photography, santa cruz
Angelica McCoy, owner of La Choza Day Spa in San Jose, needed some new interior photos taken for her spa’s website – nothing too fancy, but of course I went with 5 bracketed shots to create the HDR photos you see here. Even though a decent single exposure would cover the dynamic range of these […]
View full post »
Tags: Architecture, bay area, best, chris schmauch, colorful, day spa, good eye, goodeye, green, HDR, high dynamic range, images, intense, interiors, la choza, paint, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, purple, san jose, santa cruz, spa, walls
Shot down this morning to California Billiard Club near El Camino Real and Highway 85 in Mountain View. This place is easy to miss given the city’s denial of decent signage, but it’s actually a quite large venue capable of holding parties of 600! Chris Swart, one of the new owners, explained how pool halls […]
View full post »
Tags: bay area, ben farmer, best, billiards, cabilliardclub, california, california billiard club, chris schmauch, chris swart, club, corporate events, entertaintment, family, fun, going out, good eye, goodeye, images, mountain view, parties, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, play, pool, santa cruz, tables
My good friend John Price asked me to take a few shots of their holiday decorations for ye olde corporate office. Of course I couldn’t take simple snapshots – I had to take 7-shot bracketed exposures, blend them to create high dynamic range files, and process those files into tonemapped 16-bit TIFFs then enhance with […]
View full post »
Tags: Architecture, bay area, best, chris schmauch, christmas, decorations, fairmont, good eye, goodeye, holiday, images, interiors, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, san jose, the grill on the alley
Here’s a few new interiors of The Grill on the Alley in Dowtown San Jose. I shot 7 bracketed exposures for each HDR image. Also, a couple food pics. Full gallery here.
View full post »
Tags: Architecture, bay area, best, chris schmauch, Dining, downtown, fine, good eye, goodeye, grill, images, interior, photo, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, restaurant, san jose, the grill, the grill on the alley
Nice guy named Liam owns both these well-known local Irish bars. Molly Magee’s is in Mountain View, Fibbar Magee’s is in Sunnyvale. They are very similar in execution, here’s a few photos from the shoot. I did do some HDR processing on some of the shots as they are very dark inside, but the flip […]
View full post »
Tags: bar, bay area, best, chris schmauch, fibbar magee’s, good eye, goodeye, images, irish, liam, molly magee’s, mountain view, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, pub, sunnyvale
I had the opportunity to meet up with former head Google Chef Charlie Ayers and photograph some of his key menu items for his website/menu. Things appeared to be shaping up at the new restaurant opening any day now in the Town & Country shopping center in Palo Alto (near Embarcadero & El Camino). Charlie […]
View full post »
Tags: bay area, best, calafia, charlie ayers, chris schmauch, Food, good eye, goodeye, google, images, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, pics, restaurant
