I had been thinking it would be nice to have a small camera and a waterproof case so I can join couples on hikes and dives at destination weddings and capture some shots for which my usual equipment wouldn’t allow. So, rather than dragging my usual photo gear along, I chose to try out a Canon G12 compact camera, with which I was pretty impressed. (And the underwater case was really fun.)

The holiday began by spending five nights on Caye Caulker, which is a tiny little tropical paradise, where time never seems to move.

Santa visited on Christmas Day.

Sea kayaking on Christmas.

Mangroves on the uninhabited side of the island.

This is an area of the island called “The Split”. There’s a bar at the end where you can sip drinks while fish swim around your feet, or you can do some decent snorkeling along this wall.

After Caye Caulker, it was time to head inland for a few days to visit the San Ignatio area.

The Parrot’s Nest Lodge-one of the coolest places I’ve ever stayed.

An afternoon in a hammock in the jungle.

Parrot’s Nest Cabin

From San Ignatio, it’s easy to set up a day trip into Guatemala to visit Tikal, and the wonderful owner at the Parrot’s Nest arranged the whole trip for several of the guests, who were all just really genuinely nice people.

If I remember correctly, this crocodile’s name was Paola.

Tikal.

Hey, look! It’s me, climbing a ruin in the pouring rain without falling off the side! It was raining so hard I couldn’t keep my eyes open for the picture.

Leafcutter ants

These wild turkeys are reportedly seen almost nowhere other than Tikal.

This is the part where I climbed a pyramid and held onto the side for dear life while trying to take a photo.

Back to the Parrot’s Nest to relax for a day before heading back to the island.

Back to Caye Caulker for New Year’s Eve.

Snorkling in Ho Chan Marine Reserve and Shark and Sting Ray Alley near the island.

Sharks!

New Year’s Day on Caye Caullker

Now someone needs to get married in Belize so I can go shoot it. Or maybe I should move there and start my own destination wedding company. Hmmmm…

Check out these babies.

Selina and her daughter had matching pink shoes. Super cute.

Almost time…

Peter and Selina are one of those couples that are so overcome with emotion for each other that they make everyone in the room cry.

Love this.

When Peter originally proposed to Selina, he didn’t get down on one knee, so this time he kneeled to finish the ceremony.

After the ceremony, we walked around the pier for some shots of Peter and Selina.

The whole family.

During the toasts, this person randomly ripped open a crack in the tent and peered through at us, which I thought was both creepy and pretty cool looking.

It’s really difficult not to post all the photos I have of this guy dancing.

Congratulations to Peter and Selina on sticking by each other through these first ten years, and on creating such a beautiful, loving family. You, and your children, are some very lucky people to have each other. Hope to see you for another awesome party after the next ten!!

Cynthia and Charles were married at St. Brendan’s Church in Los Angeles, which is amazing. I had the very talented Jeanette Sanchez second shooting with me. Here are some of the images we captured of their special day.

Cynthia had the most unique bouquet I had ever seen. How awesome is that?

We arrived at La Venta right at sunset, and grabbed some quick photos of them with the views of Los Angeles and the ocean before we ran out of light.

Here’s Cynthia freshening up before their grand entrance as husband and wife.

Cynthia’s brother was her “man of honor” and he gave a very touching toast to the newly married couple.

I love this one.

Cynthia’s dad gave this toast, and Charles’s reaction is priceless.

Their first dance as husband and wife.

This shot of Charles dancing with his mom is one of my favorites of the night.

Charles and Cynthia had one of the most fun dancing sessions I had attended in a while. I admit that I was actually dragged out there to dance with some guests for a while, but I did manage to snap photos at the same time.

Congratulations to you both and thank you so much for spending such a special day with us!

Tiffany and Adam held their wedding ceremony at their church, and then celebrated with their guests at The Jonathan Beach Club in Santa Monica.

Here’s Tiffany, looking gorgeous!

Adam, watching his bride walk up the aisle.

We shot a few photos of the newly married couple on the beach before heading into the reception at the Jonathan Club.

During the final dance of the evening, one of Tiffany and Adam’s guests poured beer on their heads!

Congratulations to you both, and thank you for sharing your day with us!

The area around the Promenade has lots of great architectural details, which gave us many background options.

I love these next two images. Both were taken on the street near the Promenade.

After we finished with the Promenade area, we drove up the coast a bit and found a nice beach spot for some last shots before sunset.

I’ll be posting some shots from the wedding next week!

Congratulations to you both!

Here are some shots from their session!

This next one is my favorite.

I love this one.

I love these photos from their engagement session, and can’t wait for the wedding!

After spending some time up near Heather and Phil’s house, we headed down the hill and got some shots on the Sunset Strip, near the Comedy Store.

Wedding photos will be posted soon!!

Basically, the couple who own the home in which the museum is located have dedicated their lives to collecting bunny memorabilia, and have the world’s largest bunny collection. I read about it on Hidden Los Angeles, which is an endless source of new things to do in L.A.

Here’re a few shots of the many, many bunny items inside the house.

Hope you all are having a great spring day, and a fantastic Easter, if you celebrate the holiday!

And, now, here are some shots from their gorgeous wedding day!

When Alison and I were originally emailing back and forth about her wedding plans, for some reason we brought up the subject of trains. Alison mentioned that Mike loved trains, and that he had, in fact, carved a woodblock image of a train, and she attached a picture of it. It was really amazingly good. He is actually so good at this, that he created this entire book for the wedding ceremony.

There were at least five large dogs at Mike and Alison’s wedding. Love this.

The guests liked these hats so much, that many of them wore them all night.

Congratulations to you both! Thank you so much for allowing us to photograph such a special day.

My son is currently obsessed with Japan, probably by way of anime, so we spent some time in Little Tokyo, which is his new favorite spot in Los Angeles. Here are a few shots of our afternoon.

This photo is for my good friend, Jennie, who is a little bit obsessed with Hello Kitty.

My son, on a little Tokyo street.

Ceiling of the Little Tokyo shopping center, where we had our ramen.

Solo red leaf. Red is my favorite color, and I love that it looks like a heart. I’m cheesy like that.

If you haven’t yet donated to help with the difficulties in Japan, don’t forget to text REDCROSS to 90999 in order to donate $10 to earthquake/tsunami relief. It’s a very worthwhile cause.

I hope you all had an amazing weekend. Don’t forget to donate, if you’re able, and to appreciate how comfortable our lives are at this moment.