Last week we had the pleasure of photographing the annual conference of The American Associations of Museums held in Los Angeles.  Ryan Zynger of Zynger Events put together a successful event that impeccably mixed business and pleasure.  The conference kicked off with a hip party at Club Nokia at LA Live where cocktails music and dancing ensued.   Guests also could make their way to the Grammy Museum for a walk through musical legends memorabilia.
As everyone entered the conference Curator Bryson Strauss of L.A. Art Machine was set up with the “Wall of Ideas” project, which is a giant interactive painting wall.  Amazing L.A.Street Artist’s Mear One and Retna were on hand to paint with conference visitors!
The evenings were spent at the Getty Center, LACMA, California Science Center, African American Museum and others which kept the guests entertained all week.  Their keynote speakers  authors, Amy Tan (Joy Luck Club) and Julia Alvarez (How the García Girls Lost Their Accents) kept the audience captivated by their energy and well crafted personal stories.  And everyone enjoyed the up close and candid discussion with and the AAM president Ford Bell and Los Angeles’s most influential philanthropist and art collector, Eli Broad.

Everything from ballroom dancers, to celebrity impersonators, to Chinese Dragon Dancers and plate spinning were some of the sidelines which made for fun photography.

Guests of the event can view photos here:

We started a little earlier in the day to make sure we had time to document all the cool little details Amy brought down for her wedding. Many were purchased from the cool ‘sell your own product’ website Etsy. My favorite items were the super chic passport invitations complete with faux airline boarding pass. Really unique. And the Groom’s and Best Man’s personalized Black Converse were pretty damn cool.

Amy’s wedding gown was one of the coolest I’ve seen by designer Matthew Christopher.  The wedding ceremony was held on the resorts sky deck overlooking the ocean and it was just a beautiful day. I love it when a couple is just overwhelmed with emotion. Not that I like to see a grown man cry, but I guess it’s becasue I was exactly the same way when I saw my wife walk down the aisle. Now, almost 8 years later, tears are still shed. Tears of pain…I kid I kid! Love you honey!

So after the emotional ceremony, we flowed into portraits and tried to get as much as we could before the sun set. But either we were running really late or the sun set really early!  The wedding day flies by people! So take it all in and slow down.

The party got started at one of the restaurants on property. The decorations were out and it looked fantastic. We had a delicious dinner and the party was on. They hired a cigar roller which seemed to be a hit. Tom and I took them around the property at night for a few minutes because the place just looks so different and seems to come alive at night. I loved it! They ended the night by the wedding party jumping in the pool to “cool off” and it is forever captured on film.

The next day we did a really fun TTD and by the end, I got them rolling around in the surf and making out on the beach. I think the tourists liked the show!

A great time had by all.

The Viceroy is a cool location to shoot at and yes, you need permission to take pictures there. We then headed over to to the beach to catch the sunset and I got to hear a great story of how Ryan proposed to Jill right there on the beach in Santa Monica.

I flew in to Cancun, took a shuttle to the resort, and had a few hours before my first meeting with A+A. I checked into my room, grabbed lunch and scouted out locations I wanted to photograph before our meeting. I was getting really inspired by all the great spots I was seeing around the resort and I made a list in my head of all the places I wanted to shoot. I felt as if I had my very own lush tropical set that I could do anything I wanted with. So I met up with Andrew and Aneliese from Wales and my first impression was that they were really sweet and a bit shy. They both said they were a little nervous about the whole photo process and being in front of the camera all day. I assured them that I’d take great care of them and it turned out to be pretty funny because they both ended up being so natural in front of the camera and that made it really fun!

The wedding went off without a hitch. There was a bit of concern regarding the weather since they were getting married up on the sky deck with no cover if it began to rain. Luckily, it was just beautiful and they had a short and sweet ceremony overlooking the Caribbean Sea. We went around the property and I tried out some ideas which I think came out pretty good. Later at the reception we enjoyed a delicious dinner and then the rest of the evening was sort of a blur….  ;   ) . Don’t worry I won’t show the conga line photos here! LOL.

The day after the wedding we started to do our trash the dress and about 10 minutes before we began, dark clouds rolled in and it began to rain so we postponed to the following morning. I enjoyed myself at the resort, had some much needed R&R and some great meals. My favorite meal was at a restaurant called Tapas where I had a delicious 6 course dinner. Best part about it? No bill.I love all-inclusive!

So the next morning before I had to leave to come back home, we met at the beach and the weather was perfect. I loved how some of their family followed us around during the shoot and then when it came time to roll around in the surf they all cheered them on. I think we were the hit of the resort after that performance!

I’ve posted a few of my favorites from the wedding below as well as a slideshow at the end of this post.  I loved this experience and I can’t wait to go back next week for more. I love my job!

Gorgeous Dress and my 16-35L lens broke after this first frame! I had an array of lenses with me so I was more than covered, but I love this picture the best.

Looking cool rocking the Windsor knots in paradise!

Ladies…So cute and I loved the pink bridesmaid dresses.

Makes taking a long walk on a short pier look rather desirable!

Thanks Guys!

Click on Slideshow below for more.

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