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aloha! in case you were wondering, ohana means family. our ohana is made up of david, kim, april, rain, and kona the dog. welcome to our blog! we are san diego wedding photographers, but we put everything in here. san diego weddings, orange county weddings, hawaii weddings, destination weddings, road trips, and even friends with beach balls. come on in and share a little aloha. please leave comments as often as possible. we love hearing from our extended ohana. mahalo for stopping by!
if you'd like to contact us, here are all the deets:
our website: www.ohanaphotographers.com
email: david@ohanaphotographers.com
cell: 858-663-3283
OUR NEW BLOG www.ohanablog.com

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

brittany and zach's engagement session in coranado ca


errrrrrrttt! that's the sound of kim's little posting joy ride coming to a screetching halt. i turn my back for 2 seconds and she drops a couple posts faster than a crack fiend drops evidence in a footrace from the cops.
kim fans can just skip to the photos now if you like. i understand. (turning to wipe away my tears)
here's my version of brittany and zach. please forgive the crudity of this post. i didn't have time to draw up flow charts or timeline graphs to go along with the images :)
brittany and zach, let me begin by saying congratulations on your engagement, and thank you so much for asking us to shoot engagement photos for you. considering who will be shooting your wedding, receiving your request to photograph this fun and exciting moment in your lives really humbled us.
for everyone that's not a wedding photographer in southern california, i'll let you know why we feel the way we do about shooting for brittany and zach. brittany has been photographed by about 10 bizillion photographers from all over the planet, each of them awesome in their own way, many of them experts in the industry. zach has also been in some of those shoots, but i think his number is closer to 5 bizillion. basically what i'm saying is they could have asked any one of those photographers to do this session for them and they would have been thrilled to do it, but they asked us. a one in 10 bizillion opportunity. so we got that goin for us, which is nice. :)
and now, a quick history lesson.
i met brittany a couple years ago when i was at a photography workshop. brittany was one of the models (aka guinnea pigs for our newfound skills) at that workshop. we didn't get to talk much, but when it came time to shoot i really enjoyed working with brittany. she had a smile that could light up the whole oc, and a heart to match. when the workshop ended several of us agreed to "keep in touch" like every group does at the end of a journey together. i headed back home to be an average everyday normal guy and brittany continued being her awesome self. as agreed, many of us have kept in touch, even if only through email and twitter. life has a way of keeping everyone busy.
prior to doing this session, i had not seen brittany in-person for about two years. much has happened in those two years, including (but not limited to) two very awesome things. one: brittany cut off a huge lock of her silky long hair and gave it to LOCKS OF LOVE, and a very obvious two: her engagement to zach. going into our shoot i knew next to nothing about zach, but within minutes of meeting him i knew that he had a good heart. he had a kind way about him and a smile that let me know he was blessed in life. it wasn't until near the end of our session that i learned zach is the pastor of the youth group at his church. it suddenly all made sense. these two are perfect together. i am so happy that God brought them together. they are both wonderful people that deserve every bit of happiness life has to offer. if you'd like to know more about their love story just take a look at what brittany wrote about her noah (aka zach) on her blog.
that's all i have to say about that. now i'll show you all what i'm talkin about when i say that brittany and zach are awesome! here are a handful of shots from our fun afternoon in coronado.







see what i mean about her smile. that's love right there.













today's top story in zach's world :)




if you can dream it, you can do it!




dear diary, jackpot.




check that shopping cart rockin the blue steel



















i absolutely love this series with brittany's beach cruiser and the schweet longboard skateboard that her grandpa made for her.
these shots prove that brittany and zach are as fun as they are hot.




mmmmm, burger lounge. what? where am i? sorry guys, that place smelled soooo good.
back to you britt and zach :)




**sizzle**













i love how happy these two are together. i could literally take pictures of them all day long. sharing and shooting moments like this are the reasons why i love what i do so much.




hey... guys... you're fogging up my lens :)




remember that scene in wayne's world when garth's dream girl walks in and looks him in the eye and he gets knocked back against the jukebox. that's the look zach was going for.
nailed it.




as a general rule, you should never mess with a guy on a powder blue beach cruiser :)




what would a visit to coronado be without getting your toes in the sand?
i don't know, and i don't wanna know :)










again brittany and zach, thank you so much for driving all the way down (in gnarly traffic) to hang out with us in san diego for a bit. we had a shopping cart full of fun with you guys. if this session is any indication, i know you will both have a lifetime of happy memories together. congratulations.
we can't wait to see what images your awesome friends, the lovely jasmine star and the talented mr david jay, come up with at your wedding in october at strawberry farms in irvine. your wedding is going to be amazing!




brittany and zach's engagement teaser


we cruised down to coranado to shoot the super hot brittany and zach's engagement session. more to come later (: this short and to the point post is brought to you by kim. i'm on fire!



Sunday, May 24, 2009

playing with light, and kimberly and wesley


we recently headed out with some of our good photographer friends dexter, marissa, and phil, to play with a little light. dexter brought his friends from church, kimberly and wesley, to model for us. they said they're not professionals. these pictures april took say otherwise.




you're jokin me right?!?! hot hot hot!!!



















insane hotness...




ka-razy hotness
kimberly and wesley, thanks for being gamers and doing whatever we asked! if you haven't already guessed, this is another awesomely to-the-point post by KIM. i ain't got time for david's "jokes" or sap :)
i like my posts like i like my movies... funny, action packed, and filled with bad dialogue :)






Friday, May 22, 2009

hella good friday


as i woke up this morning to a brand new day, i heard someone squeal because they walked into some spiderwebs. it was too late to go back to sleep, so i ran some bathwater and yelled out "hey baby" to kim. we washed up and kim said the magic's in the makeup. i told her that she's so beautiful underneath it all that she could win a beauty contest. that's when we started making out :)
this whole post was just a made up story in my head, but there's no doubt that we are going to be feeling hella good when we see this band tonight in concert at the cricket wireless amphitheatre in san diego!




and since no post is complete without a still shot, here's an awesome scanned shot of us at the U2 popmart tour with our pals dave, billy and 2 girls.
can't wait to see them (minus the 2 girls) again at the U2 360 tour when it hits las vegas later this year!




here's rain and noah with their good friend john locke (aka terry o'quinn) in aloha stadium at the U2 vertigo world tour.




later that same night at aloha stadium, jack johnson thought he'd get a better look at U2 on the stage by standing next to me and rain.




this is us. we're going to see no doubt tonight!


Photobucket


Monday, May 18, 2009

do you know what today is? it's our anniversary!


as kim and i celebrate our anniversary today (may 18th) i am reminded of the day we met. i don't think i've ever told that story online. we always love hearing how our couples met, so i think it only fair to share how kim and i met. i'll try to give the abridged version, but i do not know what that word means :)
(taking deep breath)
kim and i are both san diego natives that grew up within 10 miles of each other, but we had to travel 2560 miles away from home to meet.
i was on active duty for the Navy at the time and serving on Oahu (tough job but someone had to do it). it was a thursday and i had just finished a long day flying when my friend doug asked if i wanted to go to waikiki with him to celebrate his girlfriend's birthday. i didn't say yes right away. i NEVER went out partying during the week. i told him to ask me again before he left because i was already tired and i knew going out to waikiki with doug meant that we would be drinking until 4am, not getting any sleep, and having to go back to work at 6am (half-dead). as 9pm rolled around doug came knocking on my door. with a sigh, and the thoughts of knowing what punishment i was about to inflict upon myself, i told him i would go. afterall, i was his wingman, and a wingman never says no.
what doug failed to tell me was that his girlfriend worked in a bank and the party was being thrown by her co-workers at a club called studebakers in restaurant row. it was an awesome club, if you were 45 or older. we, being barely legal, stood out like ron burgundy's trousers when he was talking to veronica corningstone. and yes, people were impressed :)
i made the best of it. at least the dj was playing some cool 80's music. as the party went on i noticed one of "the co-workers" just sitting in a booth all by herself not talking with anyone and not having a very good time. doug and his girlfriend were out on the dancefloor, and everyone else seemed to be having fun in their own way. i felt bad for her, so i did what any self-respecting person would do, i asked her if she'd like to dance. i honestly don't know if she had ever been asked to dance before because she looked at me as if i were speaking german, so i asked again. her face lit up and out of the booth she sprang. we danced for probably about 20 minutes and that's when i saw this incredibly beautiful woman standing at a table next to the dancefloor staring at me. she had the kind of beauty that demands your attention. with every turn i peeked back to see if she was still there. she was. she didn't make a move or say a word. she just stood, looking at me. at some point after that, doug's girlfriend and the co-worker said they were tired and went to sit down. it was then that i walked over to where the beautiful stranger had been only to find an empty table. she was gone. my eyes quickly searched the room. a sea of faces surrounded me, but not the face i was in search of. how could i have been so stupid? i should have walked over to her the first moment i saw her. it was in the following moments that God taught me that there is a perfect place and a perfect time for everything and that it was not up to me to decide when, where, or how things would happen in my life. just as i started walking back to doug's booth i saw her again. i had a lifetime of bad pick-up lines at my disposal, but i found myself speechless in the face of her beauty. the only thing i could do was hold out my hand as if to ask her to dance. she grabbed my hand and followed me out onto the dancefloor. who knew that the best pick-up line was to say nothing at all? it was some time during that first dance that i collected my thoughts and asked her name. kim, she said, as i tried to keep myself from saying something stupid and ruining any chance i had to get to know her. funny thing is, i didn't. every word i said to her was just, right. for the rest of the night we did not leave each others side. we decided to leave studebakers and walk to another nearby club called the blue zebra. the music was infinitely better. all night long we danced and laughed and talked about the things we love. we were like old friends that had been apart for a lifetime and were finally getting back together. one thing i remember talking about was the totally random music that we both like (i.e. U2, nwa, white zombie, depeche mode, and the smiths). the world around me vanished when i was with her. her words were all i could hear. her face was all i could see. she was perfect in every way.
as 4am approached doug came up to us and said it was time to go back to base to get ready for work. i told doug that i could not leave. kim was the girl i had asked God to lead me to for my whole life. i was not leaving her for anything. doug knew that i had to stay, so he left me there and drove back to our base at barbers point. kim and i continued to talk and as the club closed we took a cab back to her hotel, the outrigger reef on the beach in waikiki. we went up to her room and proceeded to accidentally wake all her friends (patti, bryan, scott, & ed) that were on vacation with her, thus earning me a nickname that shall not be named. after waking everyone up we decided to let them get back to sleep so we headed back outside where we walked on the white sandy beach of hawaii from the outrigger reef on the beach all the way down to the statue of duke kahanamoku. we stayed up all night talking, swimming, evading hotel security, and... :)
it wasn't until the sun came up that reality hit me and made me realize i would be in deep doo doo if i didn't show up at morning muster. i called doug and he came all the way back from ewa beach to pick me up. as i waited for doug, i asked for kim's number and held her as we said a long good bye.
a little over a year after first meeting kim i got out of active duty and went home to san diego. i reconnected with kim and less than a year later we were married.
just when you thought this story couldn't get any more amazing, it does.
at the time when we met, i NEVER went to clubs during the week because i always had to fly early in the morning. this was the first time i had gone out to a club on a thursday night AND it was to a club that i had never been to or would have ever gone to on my own.
the reason kim came to studebakers the night we met was because she had come to oahu with some friends on vacation and they were wandering around lost, looking for an entirely different club. upon seeing studebakers kim, and her best friend patti, said they were tired of looking for the other club and decided to go in to studebakers. approximately 23 seconds after kim and patti walked in they realized the club was not very good, but as they turned to walk out patti saw him (dancing with the co-worker) and said "look at that cute guy," and then kim said to patti, "he's the one." (patti confirmed this story to me months later.) upon sayin those words kim ordered herself a long beach ice tea and stood next to the dancefloor staring at me while dream weaver played in her head.
that was all it took.
now, i'd like to have you believe that i just have that kind of skill on the dancefloor, or that my attire was so sophisticated that kim couldn't help but stare. in all honesty, i am not even close to being a backup dancer for britney, and i was not wearing assless chaps (that night), nor do i speak italian, spanish, australian or any other cool language that makes the ladies swoon. i'm just a simple man (kim would say a "very" simple man) that God or fate or destiny or whatever you believe in, put me in the right place at the right time to meet the right person. i spent my entire young adulthood searching for the woman i would marry and love for the rest of my life. i had no clue that when i wasn't looking for her at all she'd find me. thank God she did.
i have always believed in lifelong love. my grandparents taught me that. they were married for 73 years. after 73 years they still held hands, they still kissed, they still called each other honey, and they still loved each other as much as they did the day they were married. my grandma passed away last september. my grandpa is still with us fortunately. every time i see him i am reminded what true love is. his heart is lost without her and it hurts me to see him miss her so much. i feel blessed to have witnessed love like theirs. kim and i have a long way to go to reach 73 years but since the day we met i have chosen to let life lead the way and not try to force things. i know that God has a plan for us all. all we need to do is have patience and love every minute that we are granted on this beautiful world together. i do.
kim, i still do.




please excuse the crudity of these old photos. it's 2am and i have neither the time or will power to improve their quality :)
here's patti and kim on the trip when we met. looks like i showed up just in time.




tomfoolery aside, singapore is an awesome city to visit. obviously this is before i met kim and straightened up my act.




check the white vans. so fresh and so clean clean.




here's patti and kim the day after they met me. notice the smiles.




this is kim and i heading out on our first date after i got back to san diego. she's so HOT!!
















here's a couple from our engagement session. if you look closely you can see the world in my eyes :)







this was just moments after we were announced husband and wife.



















this is what happens whenever an article of kim's clothing is flung into a crowd of single men. our friend dave was the (lucky?) recipient of kim's garter. i couldn't tell if he was screaming for joy, or if he was sustaining bodily injury, so i hopped on top of the pile to check. i can't be totally sure, but amidst all the noise, i may have heard the faint sounds of bones cracking.







kim made sure everyone had a good time at our reception. everyone.




ymca, still works.




doug's take on the dollar dance.







this is where things got really fun. doug (and some dude in red boardshorts that we didn't even know) got into the caterer's cool whip supply.
the night was about to jump up a notch.







apparently i didn't have enough product in my hair. doug took care of that for me with a little cool whip.




good job crasher dude, and doug.




good job indeed




before the night was over, i had more drinks poured over my head than i could count, i was stripped of all clothing from the waist up, and i had cool whip in 4 of 6 orifices.
in other words, it was an awesome night.
kim and i both said we'd get married again just to have another reception. this reception was at marina village. it was so much fun that there were people coming over from other wedding receptions at marina village to party at ours.




with my rag-top down so my hair can blow :)
we closed our reception with everyone singing 40. everyone still standing was invited back to our hotel room so they would have a safe place to stay the night (and sober up) kim and i hopped in our rented chrysler sebring convertible and drove around pb and belmont park for a bit then went home to prepare for our honeymoon in oahu that was starting the next morning at 6am. no sleep til...north shore.




we were stoked that our photographer met us over on oahu to get some honeymoon photos for us.




this was our favorite honeymoon bar at the outrigger reef on the beach. where else can you go topless at a bar and nobody says anything?
back scrather!




when we got back home we suited up again and did a bridal session in balboa park.










when choosing an anniversary gift for your new bride, you may want to save this one for a few years. i had this sign flown around cabrillo national monument and the old point loma light house (where i asked kim to marry me) for our 1st anniversary. how do you top that?
seriously.
how do you top that?
i need some ideas for next year.




last time i was on navy reserve duty in oahu i gave kim a call and told her i was walking on the beach in waikiki. i then asked her to log on to the duke cam for a little surprise. here's what she saw.
through the magic of al gore's internet and my trusty mobile phone, i asked kim to marry me again. of course she said yes, so as soon as we get the time and funds together we are going to throw one rad reception (with a little ceremony). we'll keep you posted.




this was our gift last year from april.




april surprised us again this year with another awesome drawing. thank you april!





if that's not enough, here's a quick slideshow for ya