DALY FOCUS PHOTOGRAPHY

2010-02-02T14:42:00.001-08:00

Sal and Angelica's wedding was ridiculous! So much fun! It was just a little bit crazy -we parked the car and walked into the church literally 20ft ahead of the bridal party, which was a first. After the ceremony I'd have to say one of the coolest and most unique parts of the wedding was the RV they rented for the bridal party to roll around in. Oh and the fog machine on the dance floor was pretty fun too. By the end of the night, we felt like we left a group of old friends.

Here are some of the spoils. . .

2010-02-02T14:20:00.001-08:00

Sal and Angelica were so kind as to make the drive up from LA to Santa Ynez for an afternoon of wine tasting and engagement photos. Our stops included Gainey, Kalyra, and Sunstone before working our way down the pass to Goleta beach for the sunset, -there's nothing better than a beautiful day in SB and good vino!

. . . wedding pics on the way. . .

This is it? Marc and Jenelle got married!

2010-02-01T21:26:00.001-08:00

The Danes do it right for their weddings. Period. Jenelle and Marc were an absolute joy to shoot with the infamous J. Shipley.
Here are a few of my favorites from the day. . . hats off to Marc's brother lighting it up for MJ.

I must confess this post is from awhile back, however some have requested it be posted here in addition to facebook.

2010-01-26T12:55:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Carrie and I got to go wine tasting at Buttonwood and Qupé with the infamous Rich Sander. As we came over the pass I had to sneak a quick pic.

This is why people live in Santa Barbara.

2010-01-14T20:27:00.001-08:00

A bit ago Carrie and I had the chance to visit some good friends up in Portland for a little vacation, a wedding, and a whole lot of first class dining. (-Por Que No? Cricket Cafe, Wiffie Stand, Grilled Cheese trailer, Brie/Bacon/Basil/Marmalade Waffles, Banana Nutella Crepes, Reeves cocktails the list could on. . .)

However, the highlight was watching our friends, Chase and Mellisa work their magic as new parents with baby Aiden. It was truly mesmerizing to watch the little bugger be serenaded by Girl Talk or try and find his mother's voice in the room. I feel like I should have paid tuition for how much I learned. Here's a few of my snipes of the little man (who probably has a mustache by now) . . .

To get some priceless info on parenting and life check out Chase and Mellisa here, you'll be glad you did.

Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?

2009-12-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

I must apologize for falling behind in my blog. I started this blog "conversation" as a more up-to-date than my website kind of thing. However, Facebook has largely taken its place with its informal nature (and I hate to break it to all three blog readers, but I am very informal). In any case, to those of you who thought I pulled an Iverson and retired early. . . I didn't -After-all I have clearly arrived (informal sarcasm emphasis added mine).
I'll do my best to catch up on the posts and latest shenanigans amidst the craziness. . . even in the holiday season.
Keep the eggnog flowing.
~james

Posts without pics are lame, so here is a pic for kicks and giggles of the Mrs. and my cheese ball self.

Enchanted Forest Wedding!

2009-08-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago I had the opportunity to shoot Matt and Beth with Jeff Shipley, at the Enchanted Forest in Fallbrook. It was really in the middle of nowhere but definitely a special place -castle, lake, swans, and all. The time we had with the bridal party was so much fun! -The time with the groomsmen was priceless! There's just something about a group of guys that went to Christian colleges together -really a different breed in a wonderful way! (Coming from Westmont I will attest)

On a random side note, after seeing so many weddings, the unique things really stand out. So when Beth walked down the isle to Sigur Ros, I immediately wanted to jump in the middle and give her and Matt a hug -so classy!

Anyhow, here's what you came for. . .

Joe and Molly!

2009-08-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a few (plus a slideshow).

Peruvian Adventure

2009-06-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

Last week Carrie and I took a little hiatus and went to Peru for the week. It was quite a bit more adventure than vacation. We had a great time traveling together, however not many things went as smoothly as they could have. . .

(if you just wanted to look at pics you can check out the slideshow here)

Here's a brief rundown of the craziness amidst the week. . .

We got to LAX on Friday night around 10:30pm for our 1am flight, preceded to board on time and then wait on the tarmac for an hour (LA flight traffic at 2am?). This made us nearly miss our connection in El Salvador -thankfully they held the plane.

From El Salvador, we arrived in Lima around 3pm with a layover long enough to need to grab a hotel, which was fine because we were a wreck anyway. We passed out at 6 and woke up at 2am the next day to catch our 5am flight to Cusco. Everything was going fine until the decent into Cusco when we find out that the airport is closed! So we circled the airport for an hour until we got the go ahead to land. We began our decent and as soon as the plane touched the top of the cloud cover the pilot for some reason decided he couldn't land, so we flew all the way back to Lima.

Upon arriving to Lima (again) we found planes taking off for Cusco immediately -but found ourselves stuck in the airport for another 3 hours. Eventually we found our turn to fly back to Cusco (and land) only to find that our luggage had been sent back to LAX! So we went through all the red tape, filled out the paper work and took off to bum around Cusco and Pisac (neighboring town) hoping our stuff would show up before our llama trek the through the Andes.

Thankfully by God's grace our things arrived Sunday afternoon, just in time for us to begin our trek early Monday morning.

We began our llama trek at 5am on Monday driving to the base camp from which we would hike. The trek took us 3 days and 3 nights over one of the oldest and original Inkan trails. We typically hiked 7 hours a day, usually 5 before lunch and then we'd crash after dinner.

The next couple pics are the view from our tent at the first campsite at 13,000ft -where I was pretty much worthless (for some reason my body prefers breathing oxygen and Carrie's didn't seem to care too much).

As we hiked, our porter, horseman, cook, -and llamas, schlepped our gear ahead of us to the next site and had everything waiting for us. Everyday, they would pack and unpack our tents, cook our food, bring us tea in our sleeping bags, and hot water to warm and wash up. Until the last couple hours on the last day of the hike we saw no other tourists, just local Peruvians that farmed in the mountains.

On the second day of the trek we reached 15,400ft and then began our decent. (-The oxygen tasted better with each step down.)

Carrie's baby alpaca.

After the trek things got just a little hectic as we made our way to Machupicchu. Seeing as how there weren't too many ATM's in the wilderness and we needed to pay/tip our guides, we were running quite low on cash -actually we had 14 soles ($4.50) and 10 soles of that we needed for bus fares to get back to Cusco at night. At this point my credit and ATM card were not working (in all the times I've left the country this is the only time I've had any problems with cards). So I preceded to call Washington Mutual with the remaining 4 soles. After explaining to the Wamu lady that we were stranded in the freaking jungle, I was put on hold to watch 2.50 soles melt away. After hanging up, ready to eat the poor internet cafe girl for lunch (who tried to overcharge me), I spent one more sole on the internet and sent out a mass email explaining the dire situation (with all the sensitive material one should never send out).

Then we waited. (with our .50 sole/17cents that was left over)

We decided to try the ATM one more time, and praise Jesus, the card worked and we were able to eat!

After this extravaganza Carrie and I were able to tour around Cusco for our final day peacefully. All in all, though it might sound like our trip was nothing but shenanigans, Carrie and I did have a great time and really enjoyed the Peruvian people. We would definitely do it over again if we had the choice and realize we were lucky to be in a place like Peru at all.

2009-06-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I got to shoot with Jessica Fairchild Conrad at Motecito Covenant for Rebecca and Joe's wedding. It was a super fun time hanging out with the boys before the ceremony and shooting photos. It was great to see the anticipation in Joe before he saw his bride walk down the isle. There's just something really cool about being with someone before their whole life radically changes.

Malibou Lake Mountain Club Wedding

2009-05-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago Rooney and I got to shoot Alyssa and Micha's wedding at Malibou Lake Mountain Club in Agoura Hills. It was a pretty long day shooting from 9-11:30 but we had a raucous time on the dance floor with everyone and it was super fun to be able to enjoy such a special day with so many old (and new) friends. Here are a few from the day. . .

Jesusita Fire

2009-05-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

As everyone knows at this point a small harmless "Little Jesus" fire was started last Tuesday afternoon in Santa Barbara. It didn't seem like the 150 acre fire was much to think about, however come Wednesday afternoon the sundowner winds picked up and really caused some problems. Even by Thursday afternoon I didn't think the fire would have much affect on Carrie and I, even as we sat and ate dinner at our apartment and watched (the 1st pic is the view from our apt -it really did look closer than it was). However, come 1:30am the SB Sheriff was knocking on our door with a mandatory evacuation (we're still waiting for the reverse 911 call that we signed up for). Carrie and I took 15 min and packed up the valuables and headed out. All in all, we were only "Jesusita refugees" for 2 nights and it really put things in perspective. Packing your valuables in 25 min makes you realize how much extra stuff you have and for us being refugees meant sleeping in a different bed, showering somewhere else, and eating out an additional night.Even when things are stressful or scary, we've got it pretty darn good.

Jared and Kim -Ellwood!

2009-04-14T21:53:00.001-07:00

So last weekend I got to meet Kim and Jared who were in town for the day to shoot their engagement session. Kim and Jared were both super easy and natural -which made my job ridiculously easy! Anyhow, I had never been to Ellwood and thought it might be a fun place to explore. Thankfully they were both willing to climb around on all kinds of trees and in long grass to get some shots (Jared even had a smile glued to his face the entire time).
-And as for the random horse shot. . .we saw some people riding in the water down off the bluffs that I proceeded to chase down to see if we could poach a ride (while all my lenses happened to fall out into the sand). When I finally caught up they wouldn't let Kim and Jared ride off into the sunset like Napoleon Dynamite, as I had envisioned in my head, but they were at least willing to let them take one for a stroll.

A break between rain showers

2009-02-16T19:58:00.000-08:00

So, after I spent all morning doing my taxes on my day off, I escaped downtown in between rain showers thankfully before my brain exploded to find decent size sets rolling underneath the Santa Barbara pier. Luckily I had my camera with me so I ran out and found a great spot on the pier right above the break. After snapping a few shots I realized I was shooting a buddy of mine (Bailey Platt) along with some other guys. Santa Barbara is definitely a small town. Anyhow, here are a couple shots. (Thanks to Bails, Morgan, and Charlie with the awesome beard for killing it)

Molly and Joe

2009-02-09T17:36:00.001-08:00

Over Christmas break (for us teachers) I got a chance to shoot my wife's "little sister" Molly and her fiance Joe in Sacramento at Lou Howard Park. The light was beautiful and we had a ton of laughs playing in the leaves rolling around in the grass.

Alyssa and Micha

2009-02-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

Last week I had the privilege of shooting my good friend Alyssa's engagement. Alyssa and I got to know each other as we traveled through Europe with Westmont College in 2003, ironically enough this trip is where she was to meet her future husband -Michael.

So on Super Bowl Sunday Alyssa and Micha came up to trek around sunny SB, take some photos, and play around in the sand. As warm as it was though the water was frigid! -they were both quite the troopers! (Afterward we did get to warm up with some bread pudding from The Palace)

I can't wait to shoot their big day in Agoura Hills in April!

A few spots along the road

2009-02-04T16:20:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd post few other pics from my travels. . .

Cork, Ireland

Vatican

Taize, France

Cinque Terra, Italy

Zermatt, Switzerland (Matterhorn)

Piazza San Marco, Venice

Parthenon, Greece

London Tube

Lausanne, Switzerland

Grindelwald, Switzerland

Coventry, England

Arno River, Florence

Cinque Terra, Italy

Eiffel Tower

Potsdamer Platz, Berlin

Venice

And so it begins. . .

2009-01-09T21:13:00.000-08:00

Thanks for checking out the new blog. This is the story of our new endeavor -Daly Focus Photography (with some extra odds and ends).

A bit about Daly Focus Photography. . .
Daly Focus was an accident that started with the sale of a $2 gift card that I printed from my travels in Europe in 2003. That photo came back to bite me in 2008 with the proposal to shoot a wedding. That proposal led to Daly Focus Photography.

A bit about my background. . .
I am an artist. My background has been first and foremost as a painter and printmaker. My goal has always been to challenge and further my creativity. A good friend told me that anyone can use a computer, not everyone has the ability to be creative.
Creativity has since been my goal.

My passion to compose drawings and paintings led to prints, t-shirts, logo designs, ceramics, and photos.
However, part of what I have found and still find so attractive about photography is the ability to create a composition instantly. With my background in the studio arts I am accustomed to investing weeks and months into compositions, but there is something that makes my soul smile when I am able to compose and capture a complete moment with the squeeze of a finger and the snap of a shutter (that may sound cheesy but after laboring and painting over numerous canvases it is the truth). On the other hand the creative challenge has been to maintain strong compositions in the midst of fleeting moments.

A bit about me. . .
I have always loved the process of creation. My passion for art and creativity runs deep.

I have the amazing privilege of doing what I love for a living: I get to teach high school students how to draw, paint, and even surf -although I admit I do a fair share of drinking ocean water with my students.

I get to live in Santa Barbara with my wonderful wife (who also happens to work with children, though with Autism).

I have a B.A. in Visual Art from Westmont College and a Masters in Education from UCSB.