Iridescence Bridal by Judy Lee. Clos La Chance Winery. San Martin

Last year at Preston Castle Judy generously provided the wardrobe for our models. She is the talented creative force behind made-to-order dress boutique Iridescence Bridal. Over the last year, Judy has been quietly working on a new line of dresses aimed at the bridal market. When she asked me to help launch the brand I said yes of course!

In mid June, Chyna Darner and I got together with Monica Kau of Signature Bloom, Tiffany Chiang of Design Her Image, Sophie Lai of Simply Perfect, and Van Hsieh of Ocean Blue Video to photograph Judy's upcoming collection. Clos La Chance winery graciously offered their property to us for the shoot. We spent the day working on images for Judy's catalog, website, and marketing materials Thanks to our models - Seema, Sarah, and Kenny.

Here are a few moments I caught as we worked.

Preston Castle Sessions. Ione, CA

Earlier this year we saw the awesome results some friends of ours (TinyWater, Orbie Pullen, and Chung Li) had at Preston Castle, a decommissioned juvenile "rehabilitation" center for boys built in the late 1800's along the Sierra foothills. To say a few of us were envious would be putting it mildly; we loved the distressed setting and the juxtaposition of wedding dresses in a less than pristine location. So, what did we do? We unabashedly produced a shoot for ourselves to branch out and experiment. In deference to our friends, we tried not to create an exact copy and decided to go for an evening and night shoot instead.

The ladies from Beauty Mark Ink, Judy of Iridescence Bridal Couture, Christine of Outburst Flowers, and Andrew of StudioMSV joined with Chyna Darner, Jennifer Low, Laena Brandenburg, Nicole Smith, Supasit "Joe" Srisawathsak, and myself last Saturday in Ione, CA. Our beautiful models were Natasha Levitan, Kaycee Phillips, and Rizza-Belen Diaz - all from ModelMayhem. Clark's Corner Coffee House was incredibly accomodating and set aside some room for us as a makeshift salon. Thank you Megan and Andrea!

OK, this is not one huge wedding vendor ad, I promise! After a very pleasant 2 hour drive where I was tempted several times to pull over and buy some fresh cherries and strawberries, we pulled up to a charming cafe painted bright yellow :) Check out the Frigidaire plate, it was attached to a huge old walk-in wooden refrigerator. Located in a ranching community, the cafe had a wooden wall displaying the actual cattle brands of local ranchers - how cool is that? I had just seen Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay the night before and had the image of Doogie Howser's "NPH" brand fresh in my mind. BTW, the cafe is open till midnight, that's right midnight!!!, serves coffee, beer, AND wine, and offers wireless internet, nice!

Off to the castle... We arrived a bit later than anticipated but had free roam. I would totally go back to do a shoot there with a special couple. There are so many wonderful locations in and around the main building. Other photographers were present, but the place was huge and we were always able to find a wonderful spot to work. No more words, on to a small selection of images.