Form submitted successfully, thank you.

Error submitting form, please try again.

GoodEye Photography + Design Blog bio picture

Welcome to the
GoodEye Photography + Design PhotoBlog!

Hey you. Yeah, you. Thanks for visiting my blog. Check here often for the latest and greatest photos by Chris Schmauch. I shoot weddings, food, architecture, families, events, models, products... well you get the point, I love it all!

Click on the "Categories" link up top to find posts related to certain types of photography. Most of my stuff is restaurant-related (architecture & food) or people-related (weddings, engagements, families, etc.)

Click the "portfolio" link to visit www.GoodEyePhotography.com, where you can order prints from over 130,000 photos in my always-expanding archive.

Oh, a little about me: I'm 32, happily married with two little girls, and am passionate about both Photography and Design (hence the business name). I'm a Nikon shooter, love both Macs and PCs, have that type of personality that gets along with anyone, am totally unflappable, and, well, I'm pretty good at what I do.

Visit often, and if you need to book me, don't hesitate to call: 408.431.4808!

P.S. Yelp me here. Facebook me here. Twitter me here.

Kaama Lounge Cocktails

Jared at Kaama Lounge whipped up some snazzy new cocktails to photograph today. The ones I tasted are as great on the palate as they are on the eyes! Feast your peepers on these, folks – my faves below. Or you can just check out all the photos from the shoot.

For you strobist people, I shot most of these with four speedlights – two SB-800s firing through a softbox camera left; one unmodified SB-800 firing directly behind/through the drinks (or gridded camera right and back for the martinis), and one SB-600 about 8′ away in the next booth – which is what’s creating the amazing background through the grid-like wall.

September 7, 2010 - 11:07 am Mig-L - Love that first shot. The structures of the sugar really look cool. Looks like the belt of Saturn.

Joseph George 70th Anniversary Party

I was honored to participate in the event celebrating Joseph George Wines’ 70th anniversary at Villa Montalvo, Saratoga. Only Joseph George could unite all the top vintners to participate in a single event – perhaps you may recognize some of the names: Duckhorn, Goldeneye, Paraduxx, DuMol, Far Niente, Flora Springs, Lewis, Melka Wines, Miner Family, Miura, Patz & Hall, Paul Hobbs, Portfolio, Pride Mountain, Robert Biale Vineyards, Robert Foley, Spottswoode, Switchback Ridge, Viader and more all brought their goods to be samples by the invited guests.

Le Papillon, who I’ve worked with many times over the years, were catering the event and hosted a special 5-course wine-paired dinner after the tasting event was over. Heidieh and her crew with Flower Affairs did an amazing job with the floral arrangements. Many of Silicon Valley’s elite were in attendance, thoroughly enjoying the fine wines, delectable appetizers and of course, the unparalleled beauty of the Montalvo estate.

I captured the event in my usual fashion – plenty of candids, posed groups, details, environmentals and food photos. I included some of my favorites in the slideshow below. If you’d like to browse ALL the edited photos, or perhaps order a print or two, please visit the following links: Details and Location, People, Food, Behind-the-Scenes.  If you like what you see, please leave a comment below!

Surprise, You’re 85!

Barbara Wales contacted me a month ago as she was planning a surprise 85th birthday for her husband, Robert. The ruse was she’d be escorting him to a fund raising event (which they frequent) at the beautiful, historic Saratoga Springs Picnic and Campground. There were even signs put up and greeters that all supported the cover story – heck, I almost turned around upon arriving thinking I was at the wrong place! Needless to say, Robert was completely surprised when he discovered the crowd of people at the edge of Cathedral Grove were actually over 150 of his friends! I was a little concerned about startling a man that’s been around the block so many times, but Robert was lively, enthusiastic, and a joy to meet.

Jeff Werner of Bay Area DJ rocked some classics for the crowd (real classics) and did an excellent job maintaining a natural pace as the event unfolded. One of my favorite parts of the night was the s’mores station – where young and old alike crowded around the blazing fire – many creating the marshmallow / graham cracker / chocolate combo for the very first time!

Here’s a slideshow of some of my favorite photos from the evening set to a little Glen Miller Band orchestra music. If you’d like to see the rest of the photos, visit my main website here.

Amy + Arthur (Wedding)

Amy and Arthur Raynaud celebrated their vows with close family and friends today in Los Gatos – technically they got married back in April, so this was more of a make-good for the lack of a party the first time ’round. Great lovers of Depeche Mode, I chose a special song for their wedding slideshow. I feel the photos and music tell the tale of the day. Please leave a comment below. Oh, and if you want to sift through all of Arthur and Amy’s wedding photos, maybe order a print or two, mosey on over here. Peace!

September 12, 2010 - 7:10 pm caroline - amazing pictures Carolne

September 13, 2010 - 10:55 am Adrien - Excellent pictures, congratulations to all involved!

Chocolate Terrine, You Are In My Dreams (Food)

I did a shoot today at Le Papillon restaurant on behalf of South Bay Accent magazine. They wanted some shots of Le Papillon’s Chocolate Terrine made with Valrhona Guanaja 70 percent, Valrhona Jivara milk chocolate, and coconut oil. It’s not only visually stunning, but I’ll be damned if I was gonna leave without scarfing that thing down – or rather, politely ingesting it with actual silverware. I highly recommend trying one out at the end of your next date at Le Papillon – tell the owner Mike or Chef Scott Cooper GoodEye sent ya.

August 30, 2010 - 1:07 pm Mig-L - Hmmm. Chocolate. I love Chocolate. It's some real good stuff. I remember when I was young I asked my father if I could have some chocolate and he said no. Said it would keep me up all night long. But he never gave me chocolate. And so one day, I bought 120 lbs of Milk chocolate and I melted it and put it in the tub and I laid down in the tub and covered my whole body with chocolate so you could only see my eyes and when my father came into the bathroom I came out of the bathtub and said, "I am the chocolate monster, if you don't give chocolate to your son then I am going to eat you up while you sleep." and my father ran out of the bathroom with his pants around his ankles and tripped and hit his head on the banister by the stairs and forgot about the whole thing and once he woke up, the chocolate had solidified and I was stuck in the bathtub covered in chocolate and my dad got mad at me because I had wasted $2600 dollars from his credit card for all the chocolate that I bought and he let me sit in the tub until my mom came home and he never let me eat chocolate again.

Bling Nation + Paypal + Local Business = Awesomeness

I met up with my friend and business partner Joelle Cruz today to do a shoot for one of our new advertising clients – Bling Nation. This is a fast-growing, well funded company that has entered the financial processing arena – competing with credit & debit cards at the local business level. They’ve recently partnered with a little company named PayPal, so it’s just a matter of time before everyone’s “blinging” to pay for their coffee at the local shop. In a nutshell, the consumer puts a sticker (with a unique, embedded RFID inside) on their cell phone. To pay for an item, you simply tap your phone on the business’ bling thing and the receipt is texted to you. A small business can start using the Bling setup at no cost (for now) – and can even manage and track their customers’ usage and control promotions. On top of that, Bling charges half the amount as credit and debit card companies for processing transactions. Bling is only in Palo Alto for now, but they’ll be expanding dramatically in the coming months!

Joelle and I visited some of the local Palo Alto businesses to get shots of the owners and the Bling point-of-sale collateral. One of Bling’s promotions is they’re giving out their stickers to consumers pre-loaded with $20! You simply register it at the business you picked it up at and start spending right away. Check out the next issue of Made in Palo Alto magazine as we’ll be bundling these $20 bling tags in every issue…

This is Patama Roj, owner of Fraiche Yogurt in Palo Alto. I’d actually met her before when I took some photos of her place back in April. She’s promoting her baked goods right now, and as I pushed a sample into my mouth I can say that’s a growth business for Fraiche – man they are good!!

This is a cashier at Coupa Cafe on the Stanford University campus – he was kind enough to pose for a few shots even though he had no idea we were coming. He was a pretty photogenic guy, though, and was a good sport.

This is Jean Paul Coupal, owner of both Coupa Cafes in Palo Alto – this one on Ramona St. Note the Bling gear and the signature shamrock in the latte. Nice!

This is Jimmy Viglizzo, owner of Johnny V’s Sports Cafe on the Stanford Campus. Jimmy is a friendly guy and was excited to show off his Bling point-of-sale setup.

Lynn at University Cafe was kind enough to pose for us during the busy lunch hour, showing us her Bling setup. Another great coffee joint!

Lastly we ventured over to Antonio’s Nut House on California Ave. in Palo Alto. Bling works in bars too, as our friendly motorcycle dude demonstrated below.

Michelle Myers (Portrait)

Michelle Myers is one of the sweetest people I know – kind, compassionate, empathetic, and non-judgmental. I guess it makes sense that she’s chosen family therapy as a profession! She needed a decent headshot for her business, and since I was already at Santana Row that day shooting for Franco Uomo, I had her meet me there. Here’s a couple shots from the session. More are here.

Franco Uomo Clothing Details

One of the defining characteristics of Franco Uomo’s fine men’s clothing is the material used to make it. The colors, the subtle (and not so subtle) patterns, and most especially the luxurious texture. All these elements combine to create truly unique garments that keep discerning clients coming back time and again. We wanted to have a photo shoot specifically to capture the details that make Franco’s clothing so amazing. I wanted to do more than just get closeup detail shots – so we created little staged setups – enjoy them below!

August 28, 2010 - 5:01 pm Michelle Myers (Portrait) | GoodEye Photography + Design - [...] Franco Uomo Clothing Details [...]

Villa Lauriston (Aerial Photos)

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 of Bay Helicoptours, at 12pm sharp at the San Carlos Airport. While he was checking up on his flying roto-beast, I was getting my “basic” gear ready. Since the helicopter sports one bench seat for the two of us, and the fact that my side has a “missing” door, I had to K.I.S.S. with my stuff. I had my Nikon D300 paired with my 70-200/2.8 for the long-range closeups, the Nikon D3 with my trusty 28-70/2.8 and my Nikon D700 with my buddy’s ultra-wide 14-24/2.8 (which I ended up not really needing).

Because Villa Lauriston is way off the beaten path, my main concern was finding the place. Luckily we were flying low enough to get cell signal – so my trusty Apple iPad with Google maps led the way – which is a good thing because we initially overshot, so I was able to lead the “blue dot” back to the intended destination. Once successfully over the property, we circled around it at varying altitudes. We couldn’t slow down to less than about 40mph, probably because the winds coming over skyline would make us unstable, so it was more challenging than I expected to shoot. It was more like a series of fly-bys and pray-you-got-the-shot than carefully aligned compositions. The many tall trees prevented us from getting as low as I’d have liked, but I still think I got a great variety of photos of the beautiful property. My favorites are below, check out all the photos over here.

October 11, 2010 - 9:50 am PotD (Photo of the Day) – Conrad Family » GoodEye Photography + Design - [...] crouching down low to shoot a newly-crawling baby to see life from their point of view, or taking a ride in a helicopter to get the bird’s eye view, it’s our job as photographers to “see” [...]

Patrick + Mariela (Maternity)

Patrick and Mariela are expecting their first child in September, about six weeks away from our shoot. We met up around 7 in the evening and we immediately went off to a nearby park to take advantage of the golden setting sun. We had a good time shooting together – this was a maternity shoot of course, but I wanted to also highlight Patrick and Mariela as a couple. Enjoy my favorites from the shoot in the slideshow below – all photos can be viewed and ordered over here.

August 12, 2010 - 3:08 pm Stephanie M. - These pictures are SO beautiful! I am so happy for you guys. Congratulations to both of you and good luck!

August 12, 2010 - 3:13 pm Bianca Lopez - I think the Pictures came out so perfect ! these pictures are going to be a special memory you can keep for ever… Congratulations you guys are going to be grate parents!

August 12, 2010 - 3:14 pm Kara - Oh these turned out so good! I love the ones of you both laying on the grass. And the picture with the shoes on your belly is just adorable! And i really like the black and white solo! Such a beautiful couple..!

August 12, 2010 - 3:19 pm Jessica - The pictures are great. Such a cute couple you guys are :)

August 12, 2010 - 3:27 pm Denise Altomare - congrats!! Awesome pics .... enjoy!

August 12, 2010 - 5:32 pm Heisel - Love the pictures! Cant wait to meet Laila!!!

August 12, 2010 - 5:35 pm Eldridge - Wow great pictures guys!! They turned out great. One question though: were you guys itching after those grass photos?!? haha See you at the shower.

August 12, 2010 - 6:00 pm Mariela - The pictures turned out great Chris!

August 12, 2010 - 6:07 pm Katreina Phillips - Ahhh! These are so wonderful. I've already started looking at little girl clothes. Can't wait to see you guys next month.

August 14, 2010 - 9:06 am Kimberly - I love how sexy these photos are!

August 14, 2010 - 9:47 am Charisse Makaawaawa - AWW THIS IS ROMANTIC AND BEAUTIFUL!! CONGRATS THE PHILIPS FAMILY!

August 14, 2010 - 9:52 am Rick - Congrats on the great pics! My favorite has to be the B&W.

August 14, 2010 - 10:27 am JE - These pictures are hot...congrats to you both and I'll see ya next weekend!

August 14, 2010 - 1:28 pm Rick - You both look great! Congrats on the newest member to the family!

August 14, 2010 - 2:34 pm Miss Miri - How cute! I love the lighting and the natural setting, looks peaceful and perfect - congratulations to you both!!

August 16, 2010 - 10:41 am Adela - Love the pictures!!! So cute!!!

August 16, 2010 - 10:42 am Stephanie Holiday - This is my first time seeing pictures to celebrate the birth before hand. What a great idea! The three of you are such an adorable family (I saw Laila on the ultrasound :)) I am sooo happy for you and your extended family.

August 16, 2010 - 10:56 am Christy - Congrats! Beautiful pics!!!

August 16, 2010 - 2:38 pm Joanne - These are lovely photos. Congratulations to you both!

August 17, 2010 - 9:45 am Heather Trumble - Congratulations guys, those are some really great shots, what wonderful memories!

August 17, 2010 - 6:05 pm Allen Phillips - Congrats. You guys look great. Glad to see your following our good looking family genes.

August 18, 2010 - 9:56 am cmurphysjsu@yahoo.com - Great pictures. Your going to look MUCH more tired in the after photos.

August 18, 2010 - 10:01 am Justin - Very Nice

August 18, 2010 - 10:09 am Jenn - The park setting looked great - Love the black and white ones especially. Can't wait to meet the little one!

August 18, 2010 - 11:01 am Muhammad - Congrats to both of you...

August 18, 2010 - 1:34 pm Carmen - LOVE the pics! My fav's are the black and white of Mariella and the hearts over Laila. Congratulations to you both.

August 18, 2010 - 2:06 pm Mack - Beautifu!! See you on the 21st. Congratulations.

August 20, 2010 - 1:17 pm Olivia - Very sweet photos...congrats!! :)

August 22, 2010 - 8:28 pm Freneau Hogan - These are a beautiful collection of memories. Thanks for sharing!

August 22, 2010 - 9:19 pm Eric - OK guys the The Lord has bless you two with this child now bless her by keeping her in the Lord. I love the pictures! The photographer you guys picked really knows what he is doing. Love you two Eric. I mean I love you three.

August 24, 2010 - 12:55 pm Nina - Beautiful pictures! Love the background theme music also. Good luck on the upcoming arrival of your bundle of joy...

August 25, 2010 - 3:22 pm jenn - loved the setting summer sun, fields, and trees. this is a great set of pix.

The Parkins (Family Portraits)

RJ is the brother of Lee, whose family I shot at the same time (their photos are here). We met at McKinley Park in Sacramento, California to get some shots of RJ and Kim’s 3-week old newborn, Presley and some family shots including RJ, his son Dallas and Kim. Presley definitely stole the show, even though she never really woke up. My wife saw these photos a few minutes ago and I think her ovaries just swelled up this baby is so cute! Enjoy my favorites in the slideshow below, and check out all the printable photos here.

August 11, 2010 - 7:26 am Mig - Very well done. I really like the photos of the hands etc.

August 11, 2010 - 9:18 pm Mark Leng - These pictures are great! You all look beautiful!

August 12, 2010 - 4:16 pm kathy parkins - Great pics!! The girls are such cuties!!!

August 12, 2010 - 5:06 pm sara - I already gushed on Kim's FB page when i saw them but the pictures are beautiful! You did a wonderful job!

August 12, 2010 - 5:22 pm Margie Ball - Great pictures! Enjoyed them very much!

August 12, 2010 - 5:26 pm Liz Hicks - beautiful!!! Kim your family is gorgeous... these pictures are fantastic!

August 12, 2010 - 5:29 pm Amy budd - Beautiful pictures!, I love the ones with big brother holding her!!

August 12, 2010 - 5:33 pm CissyLaLa - I love all of the pictures of Kim and RJ's family. You are such a talented photographer.

August 12, 2010 - 5:34 pm Stephanie - Beautiful pictures!

August 12, 2010 - 5:42 pm nick - nice pictures, great job.

August 12, 2010 - 5:46 pm Chin-Lu Hoffmann - Fabulous pics! Kim, you look awesome!!!!!!! Presley is so beautiful! :)

August 12, 2010 - 6:54 pm Julie Coppenger - Beautiful pictures, beautiful baby...muah!

August 12, 2010 - 6:59 pm Stacey Ball - Sooo love the pictures! Might have to get some done myself for the Ball family!

August 12, 2010 - 7:59 pm Priscilla Vassallo - These pictures are fabulous!!! Love them all!

August 12, 2010 - 9:41 pm Sarah Tabacco - Beautiful pictures of a beautiful family!

August 12, 2010 - 9:58 pm Chad - Excellent!! You guy look great!

August 12, 2010 - 10:00 pm Vanessa Tagala Pewitt - The special moments that you captured through your photography will give Kim & our family memories that will last a lifetime.

August 12, 2010 - 11:04 pm Danielle Rinck - Kim Leytem's family portraits are just gorgeous! The camera captures better shots than the human eye can! It is amazing. You are such an artist!

August 13, 2010 - 7:19 am Don Parkins..(GrandPa) - Very Beautiful...you make me so proud!

August 13, 2010 - 7:50 am Suzanne Rennard - OH! found it! lol! haha! the PICS were beautiful and AMAZING KIM! I wanted to cry ;)

August 13, 2010 - 12:19 pm Erin Thomas - Wow your photographer did a great job with your eyes as well as their blue eyes. The shots look great and the contrast with the pond in the back looks wonderful!! So excited for your family.

August 13, 2010 - 4:35 pm Rich Matranga - Beautiful and unique!

August 13, 2010 - 4:38 pm Bettie Matranga - The pictures turned out great! The hard part is choosing which ones to enlarge.

August 13, 2010 - 7:44 pm Dawn - McKinley Park never looked so beautiful!

August 13, 2010 - 8:08 pm CNB - These photos are lovely. They really capture the tininess of baby Presley well.

August 14, 2010 - 8:15 am Danette - Beautiful shots. Love the black and whites. She is a tiny bundle.

August 14, 2010 - 1:40 pm Paul - Great pictures of a great family!

August 14, 2010 - 3:50 pm Donald - Beautiful photos of my great granddaughter.

August 14, 2010 - 11:02 pm Shaun - The photos look great!

August 20, 2010 - 10:53 am Randee - Absolutely gorgeous photos! What a beautiful family!

August 20, 2010 - 4:54 pm Jen - Beautiful pictures! xoxo

The Kahles (Family Portraits)

Lee and I last saw each other back in middle school – but thanks to Facebook, we’ve reconnected. When I told her I was headed up her way for another gig, she expressed interest in getting some family portraits done. We met up at 2pm at their place in Sacramento – and we were all extremely thankful for the mild summer we’d been having as it was in the low 80s! Even so, I did my usual lighting thing and was able to keep them out of the sun. The girls are so cute, and I did my best to capture their individual personalities. Enjoy some of my favorites in the slideshow below. All the edited files from the shoot can be viewed and ordered over here.

August 11, 2010 - 5:41 pm Georgia Schaaf - What beautiful pictures of teh Kahle family. Great shots and so real. My favorite one is Lee with Brynee! Love from your Kindergarten teacher.

August 11, 2010 - 6:25 pm Keeley - Absolutely beautiful. Love the variation in shots.

August 11, 2010 - 6:40 pm kathy - VERY NICE

August 11, 2010 - 8:18 pm Mark Leng - Love the pictures, fabulous job!

August 11, 2010 - 8:22 pm Katie - I love McKinley Park! You guys are all so cute and Bryn and Devyn are little angels!!

August 11, 2010 - 8:56 pm Alicia - Loved the pictures, they are great!!!

August 11, 2010 - 8:57 pm Mike F. - I love the black and whites and the girls are precious! Great photos!

August 11, 2010 - 9:19 pm Siobhan - Thanks for sharing the pictures, they all came out beautiful.

August 11, 2010 - 9:27 pm Allison - Beautiful pics!

August 11, 2010 - 9:28 pm Sara - These pictures are FABULOUS!!!

August 11, 2010 - 9:29 pm Alfredo - Great pics guys, I enjoyed the slide show.

August 11, 2010 - 9:31 pm erica rix - Beautiful pictures. Great job capturing the essence of the Khales! :)

August 11, 2010 - 10:32 pm Shawn O. - Great Pictures. Chris takes incredible pictures only made easier by the good looks of the Kahle family.

August 11, 2010 - 11:39 pm Lyra - I loved these pics Lee. Your family is just beautiful.

August 12, 2010 - 12:51 am Jef - Awesome pics, you guys look great. When do we get one for the fridge?

August 12, 2010 - 12:51 am Alma Souksamlane - What great pictures and the girls are sooo cute! Awesome job, Good Eye!!

August 12, 2010 - 2:17 am Leah Agnor - awesome photos! my favorite is the one of the girls watching you kiss. cute!

August 12, 2010 - 7:09 am Angel Guilloz - These photos are breath taking ~ what would expect from such a beautiful family ~ Wonderful photography!!!

August 12, 2010 - 7:22 am Hazel Guaraglia - beautiful beautiful photos - love the lighting

August 12, 2010 - 8:20 am jonna filiau - Such beautiful family pictures. Sure to be treasured.

August 12, 2010 - 11:33 am Tawni Tyler - These are all beautiful!! I absolutely LOVE them! What an adorable family! LOVE you guys!!

August 12, 2010 - 12:54 pm Terri Kahle - Fabulous pictures!

August 12, 2010 - 11:11 pm Molly - Beautiful pictures!!

August 13, 2010 - 9:10 am Margie - Pictures are so sharp with beautiful backgrounds & poses. Very nice!

August 13, 2010 - 10:34 am Karen - Wonderful photography! You guys look great and so happy!! Loves!

August 13, 2010 - 10:51 am kathy parkins - Great pictures!! The girls are sooo cute too!

August 16, 2010 - 11:25 am Luz - Thanks for sharing the great family pix!

New Employees at Four Seasons Palo Alto (Headshots / Portraits)

Cassie at Four Seasons over in Palo Alto called me earlier this week as they have some new hires that need some headshots. Most everyone is ambivalent to loathsome when it comes to getting their picture taken, so I try to make it quick, painless, and maybe even a little fun. I’m not a comedian, but I like to talk to people and love the challenge of getting people to open up. There’s almost always an opportunity to capture their true selves – if I’m on top of my game, and have my trigger finger ready. Here’s a few of my favorites from the quick shoot this afternoon of Claudio Villani (Wine Director), Chef Edward Higgins (Chef de Cuisine) and Rich Poskanzer (Assistant Director of Food and Beverage). Click here for all the pics.

Franco Uomo Fashion @ Santana Row (Men’s Clothing)

Franco has a bunch of new clothes to show off, and since he’s already located at beautiful Santana Row, it stands to reason that we’d do our fashion shoot here. Every alley is a gem, with beautiful textured wood and vibrant paint. It’s tough to take a bad photo with all the wonderful backdrops to work with. Here’s a few of my favorites from the shoot – the first several photos showing the prep and background work for the shoot. Thanks to Erandeny Torres for her hair/makeup work, Angelina for all that shoe-taping and wardrobe adjusting – and of course Franco, as this is all his vision to begin with. If you’re interested in seeing all 400+ photos from the shoot, venture on over here.

49ers Patrick Willis and Alex Smith (Portraits, Charity)

Morton’s the Steakhouse (San Jose) is partnering up with the San Francisco 49ers for their upcoming “Celebrity Servers” event. It’s a fund-raising effort to benefit different charities that each celebrity chooses to represent. If you’d like to be served by Alex Smith or Patrick Willis and have the opportunity to bid on signed sports memorabilia at the auction, seats will set you back at least $250 (price not set). But that’s a small price to pay to not only rub elbows with some of the 49ers finest, but also increase your karma by benefiting the charities.

Patrick and Alex were totally cool, we had fun during our 20-minute shoot. I didn’t ask them to do anything crazy – they’re bigger than me so I didn’t want to push my luck. Here’s a few photos from this morning’s shoot below, the rest can be seen here.

July 29, 2010 - 7:24 am Miguel Valenzuela - I have this feeling you didn't take that last photo. Of course, Chris bot 2.0 with his lightning speed tires could have.

Rachel + Thom (Wedding Album)

Rachel and Thom had a lovely little wedding in San Jose earlier this year. I designed the album below from their favorites… enjoy!

Hint: click the “Fullscreen” icon to really see the album!

[issuu layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml showflipbtn=true autoflip=true autofliptime=6000 pagenumber=2 documentid=100723001521-f7793220323e4189bf872b115c0a6de6 docname=rachel-thom-wedding-album username=goodeye loadinginfotext=Rachel%20%26%20Thom%20-%20Bride%20%26%20Groom%20Wedding%20Album%20-%20Proof01 showhtmllink=true tag=wedding width=900 height=600 unit=px]

The Kemlings (Family Portraits)

Kurt Kemling is a good friend of mine (even though we’ve only met a couple times) – it’s weird how you can get to know someone without ever spending time with them. He’s also a professional photographer that I admire, with two adorable girls near my own girls’ age, as well as a wife named Beckie (mine’s Becky). Needless to say, we’ve been meaning to have our families meet up so we could “shoot” each other. Because we’re both busy, we set up a day two months ahead of time – today the day finally arrived, and it was SO much fun! Not only are the Kemlings fun to hang out with, they make some great photos. Here’s a few of my favorites of Kurt’s family. All of them can be viewed here.

#1 “Best of Yelp”

I just happened to be looking for something on Yelp today and noticed that the Yelp Folks were headlining their “Best Of” businesses on their main page. It defaulted to the Santa Cruz area as that’s where I live, and out of curiosity I clicked on the “Professional Services” category. My jaw dropped when I saw that GoodEye Photography + Design held the #1 spot – not only among photographers, but among all businesses in the “professional services” category. Sweet! All credit goes to the clients that have taken the time to write about their experiences with me, of course, and for that I’m eternally humbled and grateful. I don’t know how long the page will be up, so I took the screenshot above as proof 🙂

July 23, 2010 - 4:53 pm Marina Popova - You rock Chris! :)

From Alabama to California (Family Portraits)

I got a call from a nice lady from Alabama whose family was coming together to celebrate her 70th birthday by spending the weekend together in a rented beach house in Santa Cruz, California. She wanted a group photo of the whole family on the beach, for which I was much obliged. At 5:30pm I met the family at their house and we all walked down to Twin Lakes beach together. Of course it was packed, so we had to walk down a little further to find a spot near the shore to get some unobstructed photos. Of course as I was warming up for the first shot, the waves decided to come in and soak everyone’s feet! That got me a couple of great candids, though, and we quickly got the main group shot done. I suggested letting the kids play around for a bit so I could capture some more candids, and the kids were eager to play in the surf. I got quite a few good shots, they were all the more fun because the kids were still dressed in their semi-formal attire. Luckily I finished up the shoot without soaking my gear. Here’s a few of my favorites below – all of them can be found here.

July 23, 2010 - 3:41 pm Lisa D - These are soo awesome. I bet they loved them!