Visual Exposure | Blog bio picture

Welcome to Visual Exposure Photography!

Hi! My name is Michael Boardman and I am an International wedding photographer based out of Orange County, California.

I am a firm believer of the saying "if you love what you do, you will never have to work another day in your life". Photography is my passion and what I love to do. Photography has been a wonderful journey which allows me to explore and tell unique stories or creative expressions of the world around us.

Thank you for visiting my site!

The new wedding album smell

When I arrived at home the other day I found a large box sitting, tucked in the corner of my front porch. Hidden enough out of plain sight, but visible once you made it up the steps and to the door.. I took the box inside and immediately opened it. I was, as excited as a little kid on Christmas day, eagerly opening their presents from Santa! To my surprise it was the completed wedding album for a couple’s wedding I photographed a few months back.

The album is beautiful and arrived with matching hard cover sleeve, wrapped with the soft black leather that it donned. The quality is AMAZING! The album is well assembled and feels very sturdy in hand. The best part – the smell! That new album smell is fantastic! I wish they could bottle that up so I could wear it as cologne. I would be the envy of all my friends …. OK, It probably won’t work for me, but for this album, it works wonders! I just hope I don’t wear out that new album smell, before my client gets the book! :)

Andrea and Bill ordered a 10×10 sized wedding album, and I think they will be very elated with their choice and the final product.

Simple lettering on the front lower right portion of the cover portrays a classy and elegance tone..The sleeve is a perfect touch and helps keep dust away from your albums and helps protect the album. Also, the picture on the right with the book opens flat without putting additional stress on this hinge or spine of the album.The folks at Leather Craftsmen have really out done themselves. LC may be a little more expensive compared to other album binding companies, but they are well worth the quality and the longevity of the albums they produce.

Framing and Matting

The past couple of months (when I can find spare time), i’ve spent time working on my framing and mat cutting skills. Today, I have finally gotten around to finishing the mat cutting, framing and hanging of the pictures. I was so excited about it, I figured I would share some of the pictures that I framed from my last trip to Paris. These pictures bring back sooo many wonderful experiences from our trip, that I got a little teary eyed as I hung these on the walls. I am soo looking forward to visiting there again in the future!

This picture was taken at Chateau de Versailles – Pathway to Temple of Love monument.

This is one of two fountains located near the L’Obelisque at the Concorde in Paris France.

This picture was not taken in Paris, but rather of my friend’s Nissan GT-R which I photographed in Orange County! I just thought it was cool, so i framed it! :)

PRINT Information:

These prints are 12×18 in size printed on matte archival photo paper. The Mats are Acid-free archival quality and cut with 3 inch mat. I mounted these prints also on Acid-free mounting board using Acid-Free spray adhesive. Frames are from Aaron Brothers with UV coated glass for extra protection. I have taken every necessary precaution to mount and provide prints that will last and maintain quality through the years.

Thank you for visiting!

Michael

San Diego Photog Shootout | Portrait Photographer San Diego

What a wonderful day at the San Diego Photog Shootout located at San Dieguito Heritage Museum! I was a little hesitant to head out to this event since I really didn’t know what to expect and the fact that it’s been raining pretty hard for the past week. Since this was an outdoor event, I thought we would all be struggling with the muddy ground conditions or even intermittent showers. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the conditions, and extremely happy I decided to make it out. I met other wonderful photographers, awesome sets, cool classic cars and specially awesome models! Here are a few of my favorites from the day! I had a full memory card worth of shots, so it was difficult to pick and choose.

Here are JK and Lindsey! Wonderful look and chemistry!

One of my favorites of Lindsey! Very pretty!

What a cute expression!

What a cute looking couple (not that they are one)!

Here’s Megan and Mike!

Here’s Anna! I loved her expressions and look!

Here’s Sabrina! The modern day Rosie the Riveter look!

This is Taj (and Devon), but Devon wasnt pictured in this shot..

The organizers and leaders did a wonderful job! The models, the cars and just the overall experience of the day was wonderful!

After the shoot, we headed over to Garret Photography for food and to give us a chance to meet and talk with the other photographers that took part of the shoot. We were also privileged to listen to Roxanne from Pixel2Canvas talk about her wonderful products and Lawrence Chan’s (aka: Tofurious) discussion on photography business in general. His presentation was definitely mind-blowingly beneficial and his insight definitely makes you think! Thank you Lawrence!

This event was held in or near Solano Beach, CA, which took me about 50 minutes to drive down one way, stayed for about 7 hours, and came back with a wonderful feeling of accomplishment! I was able to meet several new friends (some even from Ladera Ranch), and to put faces to people who i’ve only communicated with over emails (I always love doing that)! In addition, we were fed at Garrett’s awesome studio and got to listen Lawrence preach on about business! What a wonderful day!!

I look forward to working with you all in the future!!

Kooza experience

Melody and I enjoyed a great date night, by first grabbing a bite to eat at Niko Niko sushi in Irvine, before heading over to watch Kooza by Cirque Du Soleil held at The Great Park in Irvine!

What an amazing display of airobatics (that’s what i call air-acrobatics), contortionists, high flying and death defying stunts! The costumes, colors and stage setup (similar to other Cirque shows) of the show were amazing! We got to enjoy the show from secition 102/104 located in the main aisle! We even had a couple of characters interacting with us by basically sitting on our laps and giving us hugs (that was pretty cool)! The story of the show flowed nicely where they incorporated the acrobatics, high flying tricks, with other comedic aspects of the show.

One of my favorite parts of the show had to the be the three female contortionists! The ladies are fantastic and I couldn’t believe my eyes on their flexibility and ability to bend their bodies in unnatural ways, while trying to balance their weight on another weirdly bent partner. Simply amazing!

Another cool part of the show were the Two Guys in the Wheel of Circular Cages (I dont know the actual name of this contraption, so I made it up) of Death (the “of Death” was added to make it sound cooler)!!! These guys were very talented! There was a close call, however, with one of the performers where he tripped over a jump rope, while running on the outer part of the circle.. Seriously, not only are they spinning on this contraption, but both guys get out on the exterior portion of the wheel, and to top it off, they’re jump roping while running.. CRAZY!!! Luckily the mis-step was nothing serious, and the guy was able to recover gracefully. Phew!

The themes, costumes, stunts, comedy and music of this show made it a wonderful experience! Melody and I would definately watch it again!

Something new on the Horizon

A couple of days ago, there were reports from the different news outlets (Engadget, Fox News and WSJ) about an event that Apple is holding on January 27th, 2010 with a tag line of “Come see our latest creation“. Located at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco @ 10:00am .. What could Apple be unveiling? Could it be their fabled yet highly anticipated iSlate or iTablet? Ohh, i hope so.. I have been saving my pennies for such an event!

Rumors have the following being unveiled:

  • New Tablet announcement
  • iPhone OS 4.0
  • iLife 2010
  • iWork

Whatever it is, I always get excited to see what Apple brings to the table.

UPDATE: Here’s additional information from BoyGeniusReport:

  • There will be multi-touch gestures OS-wide. (Would make sense for that as the rumored OS for the iTablet is close if not the same as the iPhone)
  • “A few new ways” to run applications in the background — multitasking.
  • Many graphical and UI changes to make navigating through the OS easier and more efficient. We haven’t had this broken down, but we can only hope for improved notifications, a refreshed homescreen, etc.
  • The update will supposedly be available for only the iPhone 3G and 3GS, but will “put them ahead in the smartphone market because it will make them more like full-fledged computers” more than any other phone to date. Everyone is “really excited.”
  • The last piece of information is the most vague, but apparently there will be some brand new syncing ability for the contacts and calendar applications.

Sweet! I can’t wait to see all the goodness they announce!

Morning Clouds!!

(taken with my iPhone)

What a beautiful array of morning clouds covering the city! For some strange reason I find myself always staring at clouds and intrigued by their unique formations, colors they generate with each sunrise or sunset and how they effortlessly glide through the air without a care in the world. This morning I just had to stop to take a picture.

I wish I could take a the rest of the day off to stare and study clouds, but there’s too much on my plate and too many loose ends.

Thank you for stopping by!

Christmas Eve Festivities

Christmas eve (as I mentioned in my last post) was spent with Melody and I hosting a family dinner. Melody’s family represented and all were able to attend.. My parents on the other hand, missed out due to my mom being really sick with a flu or cold.

For dinner, we had the Boeuf Bourguignon (that I made from scratch), Kare Kare (filipino stew made with peanut sauce), eggrolls, a variety of appetizers from cheese to artichoke dip.

For dessert, Melody made this raspberry cake (was actually more of a corn bread type dessert), which turned out amazing! We had no problem cleaning that up!

After dinner, Melody’s niece and nephews couldn’t wait for Santa to bring the rest of the presents, so we ended up opening presents. You know it’s very difficult to tell kids to not open presents when they’re all stacked up under the tree!

Here’s a couple shots I took of Mia! She was so excited to open her presents!

Here are the Donnie and Mason playing their PSP’s..

Mia and daddy playing with Mia’s new toy!

Mia playing with her shopping cart, which she really enjoyed! we were surprised!

After dinner, we rested and prepped ourselves for midnight mass!! Woo Hoo!

On Christmas day, Melody and I plan to take our leftovers to my parents house to continue the celebration.

It was a wonderful Christmas, and I want to thank Melody and her family for making it special.

Pre-Christmas Eve Festivities

Ahh, Christmas is upon us once again. I love and always look forward to this holiday due to the loving and generous mood that it puts us in as human beings. Of course, I wouldn’t be totally honest if I didn’t mention the receiving of gifts that Santa or friends and loved ones give to us. That’s one of my favorite parts! But aside from the gift giving, it always warms my heart knowing we can surround ourselves with family or close friends to share in the holiday season. I truly enjoy the time we get to share with our families even if only for one night. I am truly blessed for my family, Melody and my friends! You are the greatest!

This year was a tradition breaker for me.. My family’s normal tradition is to eat our big family meal on Christmas Eve at my parents house and consisted of my mom cooking (or ordering something from Honeybaked), play games, sit around and watch TV or finish up on some last minute wrapping. Then around midnight head off to our church and attend midnight mass with other churchgoers as we celebrate the birth of Christ. Then, after church (around 1:00am) we start to open our presents! Yes, Santa makes a visit to our house during that hour we’re away at church and drops off our gifts! Im smart I know how he works!

The first tradition breaker this year, was my parents were missing from the festivities, due to my mom’s cold. It was nothing too serious, just a cold or flu, and nothing like the Swine flu that’s been going around, thank goodness, but it was enough to take her out of the action. The second tradition breaker is Melody and I actually hosted the family gathering at our new place. Granted our new place isn’t very big, but we did a pretty good job of hosting 11 people on Melody’s side of the family. Third tradition breaker is, I actually cooked a main entree’ for dinner… from scratch…! YES, from scratch!!

Rewind back to Wednesday, December 23, 2009:
I made Boeuf Bourguignon for the very first time!! This has been a secret family recipe, that was handed down from generations of …. ok, im kidding!! I am not a cook, nor do I play one on TV. And I don’t a have generations of great cooks, or at least it stopped once I was born. Melody had purchased the Julia Child cook book (Mastering the Art of French Cooking) and suggested I try my hand at a recipe.. Of course, she chose Boeuf after seeing Julie and Julia.

Here’s the finished product of the Boeuf Bourguignon just as I removed it from its 2.5 hour simmering slumber within the oven. The onions and mushrooms were prepared separately, i just combined everything prior to taking the picture!

Here’s how clean I keep my cooking workspace as I make my masterpieces.. ok, i lie! I wanted to take a picture so I spent alot of time cleaning up while the goods were simmering in the oven!

Uhh, notice the time of 3:23 am.. Again, this is AM and I am just finishing up with the Boeuf!! I made this the night before Christmas Eve, in case I messed something up and had to re-buy all of the ingredients again and re-cook.. Like I said, im not a cook and since this was my first time making this, I wasn’t sure what the results were going to be!

In all, the Boeuf Bourguignon turned out wonderful! I wish I could take credit for it, but it was ALL Julia Child, I simply followed the excruciating recipe and 3 hour (total) cooking time! The experience however was a good one and I think I am beginning to embrace my inner Julia Child. I look forward to visiting the many pages of her cook book and will enjoy attempting to pursue the recipes of which exceed my cooking skills and knowledge. I however, look forward to the challenge!

Thank you!

Visual Exposure!

Breller Family | {Orange County Portrait Photographer}

My friend Lin, who is a food stylist extraordinaire, asked me to do a last minute photography session with her family about a week ago. Their family is spread out throughout California, and this was an opportunity where they would all be together in one place for the holidays. After the shoot, her brother and fiance actually left to go snowboarding in Mammoth, lucky them!!! I wish I could have snuck in the back of their car with my snowboarding gear!! They wouldn’t have noticed!! Either way, we ended up in a park in Irvine near Lin’s parents house..blogbrel001

Lin, her husband Mike and family.. Soooo cute!!

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Lin’s brother Victor and sister in law Shannon..

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Lin and Mike!

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I caught this little moment between the two love birds!!

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The shoot was very quick and kind of cut short due to the cold weather! I think it may have reached the low 50’s.. Hey! that’s cold for SoCal!! :)

Either way, thank you for checking out my site!

Christmas Lights = FAIL!!

Ahh, the spirit of Christmas!!!

I am really excited to be spending our very first Christmas at our new place. Mel and I have been doing our best to decorate in between our busy schedules, so things are slowly coming together, even if it is two weeks to Christmas.. Mel was awesome enough to get our fake-real tree from the garage last week and setup before I even got home from one of my family shoots…

So, as a way to help out with the decorating, I stepped up and decided to finally put the lights up outside.. So today, we drove to Target got 4 sets of lights with the confidence that this would be enough lights to cover all of our front porch area and pillars..

Hmm, well, much to my surprise, the 4 sets of lights were not enough to cover the doorway, as you can see below from my camera phone:

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It looks pretty pitiful, huh! Since i’m not one to NOT finish something i started, we decided to go back to Target to find the same exact lights only to find out they no longer had the lights we purchased.. Surprisingly, none of the four stores we visited tonight had our lights.. We visited Target (in RSM), Walgreens, CVS and Lowe’s. We finally made our way down to another Target to find the same exact lights.. Just to make sure, we purchased 4 additional sets just to make sure we had enough lights..

By the time we got home, i was too tired to finish the lights so i shall tackle this chore tomorrow and hopefully post a better picture!

UPDATE: Avast! Victory is ours!!! We found more matching lights to finish off the other pillar!! WooHoo!