It’s hard to believe that this is my first post that features a beloved session. In the next few days i will post more on what this whole beloved movement is. But this post is specific to the story of Joel and Autumn.

So last Friday I went to see my former room mate Tiago play at Bella Vista, which is a gourmet Brazilian Pizza place. I have been thinking of going with a few friends to check it out, but since I only made the decision to go the day before I didn’t have a chance to get this group together. He has been playing there for months so i decided to go by myself.

When i got there i ran into my friend Joel, I hadn’t seen him in months. Joel is the coolest guy, the first time I met him when i was visiting California. So all of a sudden Joel pulls out a deck of cards and started doing tricks. The tricks I’m talking about were not the kiddy tricks, his tricks were more like “pick an ace” as he’s fanning the cards and it would always be an ace. One time he did a trick and made a person pull out a card in an imaginary deck, and place it facing up and when replaced the imaginary deck with a real one. Once he opened the real one the only card turned up was the card the guy had imagined.

So what does this have to do about a beloved session? well nothing and everything. In this post I’ll focus on the nothing, he’s just cool.

Autumn I met maybe a year and a half later at a friend’s house, and I have to say that that night I was blown away by her voice. It was the highlight of the night, and we were at the house of musicians and there was a lot of playing and singing that night.

Back to the present… as we were catching I told him about the beloved sessions and that It’s an experience so i told him “I have to do one of these sessions with you two”. this week has been crazy for me but i was going to make this work. well it turns out that she would be getting into town the following day (Sunday), so we set up the shoot and we were all pretty excited.

So the next step was location, and we decided to do it at Memorial Park in Pasadena, CA where he had proposed. Now everyone tells me that Pasadena is Beautiful (with what i’ve seen so far it’s true). I hardly ever went there because the drive from Huntington Beach where I used to live was so painfully long. I used to say “I don’t do Pasadena” But now all that is changed I’m much closer. So what did I say? “Perfect.” I wanted the location to be more than a pretty backdrop, but a place of deep meaning to the two of them.

It was a perfect Sunny California day, blue skys and sun. Autumn looked beautiful and i was glad to be there. I am not going to be able to be there to celebrate the day of their wedding, so I find myself honored to be able to celebrate their love.

Last but not least i want to end with a slideshow, I tend to favor local artists when it comes to the music for the slideshow.  But when i was reminded during the session that Joel had written Autumn a song and had a recording I insisted that it be the soundtrack for their slideshow.  I was told several times that it is very rough, but i told him that it didn’t matter, because this song has a greater significance to their relationship than a random song. Oh and it is him singing.

Joel and Autumn, I will miss you guys here in Cali. I can’t wait to hear the story of your wedding.

Jr.

P.S. I mentioned some things at the beginning which i wanted to promote as well

Tiago Costa Music (listen to him)
Bella Vista Brazilian Gourmet Pizza (Eat their food)