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Author Archives: Chris Schmauch

Four Seasons Silicon Valley Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony (Palo Alto Event Photography)

I’ve covered the annual tree-lighting ceremony at the Four Seasons hotel in East Palo Alto several times over the last few years – they do such a great job of having lots of activities for little kids, plus yummy drinks and snacks for the adults. Santa arrived in an Escalade (what no Prius Santa?), and […]

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Chef Marco Fossati (Creative Portraits) at Quattro, Four Seasons Hotel, East Palo Alto

Chef Marco Fossati was the original Executive Chef for Quattro when the restaurant first opened with the new Four Seasons Hotel in East Palo Alto five years ago. He then left for his home country, Italy, for a couple years – but now he’s back! Doug, The Marketing Director at Four Seasons, wanted some creative […]

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Joe + Christine (Engagement Photography)

I’ve been trying to get all my new brides-to-be excited about engagement sessions – they’re great practice for the big day, but in a low-stress, easygoing environment. There’s no dress, no bridesmaids, and certainly no mothers making unreasonable demands. It’s just me and the couple, exploring what poses and angles are the most flattering, and […]

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The Barca-Halls (Family Photography)

This is the most athletic family I’ve captured in quite some time – in fact, five of them are gymnasts! I’m thinking the whole family could go on the road with their own circus act with the talent they’ve got under one roof. With 14 people to capture, I had my work cut out for […]

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Eleanor + Jeff = Romio > Gloria > Domonic (Family Photography)

I’ve been friends with Jeff and Eleanor since freshman year in college. Eleanor was one of my art major friends, and Jeff was one of my engineering major friends. It’s pretty cool that those two circles eventually merged to create this wonderful, dynamic family. They have three fantastic kids, and I really enjoyed spending some […]

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The Tates (Family Photography)

The Tates (and extended family) have been coming together every year to stay at a house in Pajaro Dunes (Watsonville) for the past 38 years. That’s a commitment! Of course the family gets bigger every year with new kids and marriages adding to the crowd. This year they hired GoodEye to capture some family photos […]

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Kimberly + Bryan (Engagement Photography)

Wow. What a smokin’ session. It didn’t matter that it was raining, cold and windy – Kim & Bryan heated up the west coast and I had a blast capturing their sweet interactions. We met at Lighthouse field, which was a new location for me, although I’ve driven past it a thousand times. Then after […]

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Carrie + Steven = Maya > Ryan (Family Photography)

Carrie and Steven are good friends of recent family photography clients of mine here in Santa Cruz, so I was happy to capture some precious moments between them and their little rugrats, Maya and Ryan. It was chilly out, but we had blue skies and puffy white clouds floating above – and these guys really […]

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Michelle + George = Wyland (Family Photography)

Wyland is such a cute little kid, and so well behaved during our one-hour family photography session at Natural Bridges beach in Santa Cruz. The weather has been rainy on and off, but we lucked out this evening with some dramatic clouds and almost no wind. Here’s some of my favorite photos below, there’s 89 […]

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Jason and Kelley (Engagement)

I got to try out a new photo location when Jason and Kelley showed me “3 Mile” near their house. It’s 3 miles from downtown Santa Cruz, hence the oh-so-clever name. It’s got railroad tracks, a field of brussels sprouts, cliffs, a little lake, some awesome rock formations, and of course the ocean and beach. […]

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Estatements (Jewelry Photography)

Connie, the owner of the year-old Estatements boutique in Los Altos, needed some new photos of products for some local advertising outlets. I can’t say jewelry is my specialty, but I gave it my best shot. We had several themes to assemble, so it was fun to try to get everything to work together. Connie […]

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Protected: Michael + Angela = Jackson

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Meg + Ryan = Jack > Sophia (Family Photography)

I can kind-of credit Meg and Ryan with being responsible for my transition from photo-enthusiast to paid-professional. I was a guest at their wedding in 2005, and I took some photos of the event with my first dSLR, the Nikon D70. It turns out they liked those photos more than those of their hired wedding […]

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Diane (Portrait)

Diane wanted a few photos of her taken at her house here in Santa Cruz. It’s a lovely property up in the mountains, and we had fun exploring around for different places to shoot, inside and outside. It can be hard for people to loosen up as having a big camera focused just on you […]

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Photo of the Day (PotD) – Thanks to our Veterans

PotD: 2010.11.11 Date Taken: 2010.07.04 Photo Specs: Nikon D700 + 28-70/2.8 lens @ 70mm, 1/3,200 sec, f/4, ISO 200 Lighting Specs: Ambient light – hard sunlight Why it’s cool & how I got it: This is a simple snapshot taken during the Chester,CA (Lake Almanor) 4th of July parade this  summer. We go every year […]

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Eileen + Mark = AJ + Luke + Elli (Family Portraits)

I met Eileen, her husband and three children at Wilder Ranch tonight – and something about them seemed really familiar. Then I looked at the two boys, and had a vision of them running down the hill towards me, and then it clicked – I’d shot Eileen’s husband’s sister’s wedding last year. Duh!! With that […]

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The Queen Family (Portraits)

The Queen family drove over from Gilroy to get their professional family photos done at the beach. They’d already had to take one rain check (literally, because of rain!), so Marcia was concerned about the weather as it was yucky in Gilroy. But as is often the case, the weather in Santa Cruz was the […]

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Kyoto Palace (Food, Chef)

I met Dale Yoshihara, the owner of Kyoto Palace in Campbell, about 5 years ago when I was working for The Wave Magazine. He was still happy with the photos I took back then, but I knew (and Explore Publishing knew) that I could do better with five solid years of photography under my belt […]

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The Thompsons (Family Portraits)

I first met David and his boys at Frederick Street Park by my house, and as dads will do, we got to talking. Actually, dads tend to ignore each other (and their kids), preferring the company of their smartphones – but in this case we struck up a conversation and found out we had a […]

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Protected: Scott + Trang (Engagement)

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