The Party Has Moved!

My blog is dead. Long live the blog!

This blog is dead. Unfortunately, this blog and I never bonded. It was always too slow to post and I hated how the images were so small. So, I created a new, improved blog that you'll find at www.mirelesblog.com. It has everything I wanted in a blog. :-) I'm doing my best to keep it updated with the latest and greatest in the world of John.

See you there!

John

Glacier National Park

I'm just catching up with some blogging here. First a shot from the drive up to Glacier. Nothing like a classic Montana barn in a field.



After the wedding in Montana, we headed off to nearby Glacier National Park. On our first day there, I took a short hike to a waterfall. Normally, that's not a big deal, but Glacier is in grizzly country. You gotta be careful. The key is to make lots of noise so that you don't surprise a grizzly when you come around a corner. Otherwise, you might end up like this guy in the LA Times story: Grizzly Attack in Glacier.

I just did a lot of loud talking to myself as a hiked along. Seemed to work seeing as how I didn't get attacked...





The next day, Jen and I went for a hike with with a couple we met that's visiting from Britain. The day started off nice, but quickly got colder. Then it started raining. As we started hiking, things seem to lighten up a bit, but then the rain turned to ice and the ice turned to snow. Before long, we were headed into a dark cloud and snow started piling up. The final straw was a bolt of lightening immediately followed by a blast of thunder. Snow and grizzlies are one thing, but getting fried by lightening is another. So we turned around and I went back to shooting more photos - closer to the car.





As we drove along the Road to the Sun Highway, the wind was insane. At one point, the wind kicked up water from the lake and turned into a rainstorm that headed up and sideways. And blew me sideways too. My camera got a good cleaning.

This shot was taken from a popular vantage point. When I pulled up, I saw the light lined up perfectly. But the clouds were moving so fast that the lighting would only last a few seconds. I ran with my camera and set the focus and exposure as I jetted across the street. I got several shots, but only the first one was what I wanted. All I need is one though.



Glacier is an amazing place. The Many Glacier Lodge however is not. It probably was pretty ritzy at one time. Now, it's owned by the park service and run by a concessionaire. Their sole motivation is to run it as cheaply as they can - and it shows. The food was horrible and the rooms were worse than a bad motel on the Vegas interstate. Sorry no photos. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Playing in the Pool

Well, it was a warm day here in San Diego. I was working around the house (actually, painting a new canvas backdrop for the studio) when I heard the sounds of our next door neighbor's little girl splashing in a pool. To my ears, that's the sound of photographic gold. :-)

So I grabbed my camera and joined in the fun. Stella was a bit shy at first, but she warmed up pretty quickly.




Finally, I had mom and dad jump in too.



To see more of my kids photography, check out www.ventanakids.com.

Marriage in Montana

In the past six weeks, we've been to Japan, Jamaica and now Montana. Honestly, this was the wedding I was looking forward to the most. I love the mountains and there's no better setting than Glacier National Park with it's craggy peaks and high mountain lakes. Kristen and Alfred chose Polebridge, a one horse hamlet just on the edge of the park. Talk about isolated - it's 20 miles from the Canadian border and about an hour up a dirt road. The only bathroom in town is an old red outhouse situated amidst the old unpainted wood buildings.



Here's the pole in Polebridge.



The wedding party was a tough crowd. One of the bridesmaids had a black eye. She claimed that she didn't know how she got it, but I think it was the wedding rings that they were using as brass knuckles. ;-)



The ceremony was held in between a stand of pine trees, a broad field and a glassy creek. Beautiful.







The ceremony was short but emotional nonetheless.











This was the outside of little cabin where Kristen got ready. Great light. Great bride!







This shot was taken around 10:30 in the evening. Around here in San Diego, it would have long been dark. Instead, the twilight just wanted to linger forever. Which is kind of how I felt about Montana...



To view more work by San Diego wedding and portrait photographer John Mireles, please visit ventanaphotography.com.

Greetings from Montana!

Jen and I flew into Kalispell Montana yesterday. It's just outside of Glacier National Park which is right on the border of Canada. It's absolutely gorgeous up here. Yesterday was the summer solstice and it didn't get dark until after 10:00!

I'll be shooting a wedding tomorrow in a little town called Polebridge. It's an hour and half up a beat up dirt road. There's no cell service, no internet and not even electricity so needless to say I won't be posting from there. I'm looking forward to it though. The mountains are my element!

Here's a little postcard from Montana. I just had to stop for this one:



I was doing a little testing of a new lighting system that I bought so I asked this guy if he'd pose for my camera. I was going to snap a shot of Jen, but when this guy came out to his bike, I figured what the heck. Jen hates posing for the camera so she was relieved. We asked the guy about the bar and he suggested that we might not want to go in there. It's a little rough...



John

Jake & Jamie - From Del Mar to Downtown

Well, I've been a slacker-blogger. It's not because there's nothing going on. Instead, I've just been biting into too many projects and I just haven't had the time to blog. I'm going to try to catch up though. :-)

Jake and Jamie first met in high school and then started dating in college. They've got a lot of friends and aren't afraid to party.


The ceremony took place at Seagrove Park in Del Mar. Adrianne Smith did the flowers. Her work is always clean and elegant and today was no different.











After the ceremony, everyone headed downtown to the The Witherby which is a new venue right off of Market street in the Gaslamp District. As Jamie and Jake did their entrance, their guests threw flowers from the second floor.







Jake and Jamie knew their guests well and were thinking of them at the end of the night. Everyone needs some water and Advil after a long night of partying.

Erin & Christian - Rancho Santa Fe

Talk about a perfect San Diego day. Not to hot, just right with lots of blue sky. The wedding and preparations took place at Rancho Valencia Resort in Rancho Santa Fe. Rancho Valencia is a beautiful location and very private. I've shot my largest wedding ever here and my smallest wedding ever here as well. Either way, it's one of my favorite locations to photograph a wedding.

The wedding planning and coordination was handled by Mary Noble. When it comes to expertly coordinating a wedding, nobody in San Diego does better. Best of all, she's easy to work with so the day was fun and smooth. :-)



Flowers and decorations were handled by Kathy Wright.








To view more work by San Diego wedding photographer John Mireles, please visit ventanaphotography.com.