Ricky Mia Photography's Blog

Naomi & Jerry's Engagement Session in Santa Barbara

2009-07-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

I had the honor of shooting the wedding for two really wonderful people, Naomi and Jerry. They're from LA and they got married at the Biltmore Four Seasons here in Santa Barbara. We shot their engagement session here in Santa Barbara, running around downtown, getting coffee, walking around in Chase Palm Park and winding up at Butteryfly Beach.

Here are a few favorites from their Engagement Session.

Kacey & Jake Scott's Wedding at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara, CA.

2009-07-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Life passes by so fast and then you realize you haven't updated your blog!! So...

I had the honor of covering the wedding of Kacey and Jake Scott from Texas! They were married at the beautiful church, All Saints by the Sea in Montecito and the reception was at the Biltmore Four Seasons. I met up with Kacey and Jake at the Biltmore with their planner Zohe Felici of Events of SB at the Biltmore a couple months prior to their wedding. They're such a great couple, too bad they aren't local so I could see them more often. Their families and friends were so amazing and fun. It was an absolute pleasure working with them. As usual, it was also a pleasure working with my cousin Carlo who flew in from NJ to help me out and Dana from FotoCielo.

Here are some favorites from their day.

Santa Barbara Portrait Session for Bella Spa - (Model) Brooke Hill

2009-02-09T16:39:00.000-08:00

I had the honor of shooting a model for Bella Spa of Santa Barbara a couple weeks ago. Monica of Bella Spa was putting together some advertising images and had Brooke Hill brave it out through a modeling session. Brooke was a pleasure to work with and really made my job a piece of cake!

Here are some of my favs from our shoot. I had a couple guys from FotoCielo come and assist so the last picture is of Kiel and Nick hard at work! I sat back and enjoyed my sweet tea while they were working it! haha

80's Glam Rock Party w/ Photobooth Santa Barbara at Q's

2009-01-25T14:09:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, our Photo Booth was hired for an amazing private 80's Glam Rock Party at Q's in downtown Santa Barbara. The party was thrown by the Queen of Theme parties, Vern Rodriguez. I've heard stories about her Prom Night Themed parties and the infamous Pirate Party that was on a boat out of the Santa Barbara Harbor!

This party was pretty amazing, with Hair stylists from 19 Blue for anyone wanting to give their bangs an extra shot of hairspray or if they wanted their hair as big as humanly possible. There were also face/body artists from Makeup by Tilley and Paiges Magical Facepainting for anyone wanting to finish off their KISS motif!

Q's had full on 80's jammin the whole time and the Photo Booth was pumping out hilarious pictures all night long. Everyone had so much fun!

Here are some pics from the night. You can also see more pics from the booth on the Photo Booth Santa Barbara Blog.

Playing for Change: Song Around the world "Stand by Me"

2009-01-22T01:35:00.000-08:00

I just think this is awesome and wanted to share. Take a few minutes and enjoy the song... Have a great day!

Santa Barbara Portrait Photography for Holly Newman

2009-01-18T23:32:00.000-08:00

Holly was such a pleasure to work with and what a great wardrobe too! We could have shot for days! Holly wanted to update her portfolio and I had the honor of being her photographer! We ran around Santa Barbara, went to the harbor and wound up at the beach.

Here are some of my favs.

Santa Barbara Portrait Photography for Andre Sheremetiev

2009-01-18T23:12:00.001-08:00

I've been shooting some fashion and model sessions lately and I had a chance to shoot Andre Sheremetiev the other day for an updated Modeling Portfolio Zed card. We had a lot of fun running around town, here are some favorites.

FotoCielo Wedding Studio & PhotoBooth Santa Barbara

2009-01-07T00:08:00.000-08:00

So Happy New Year everyone! This is going to be a great year! I wanted to share a couple new things going on with me. I've started 2 new business ventures for 2009 with my good buddy Tim Halberg.

We both have successful wedding photography businesses and find that we have to refer couples out when we're not available. We solved this problem by putting together a team of 4 amazing photographers under one roof that we can refer to. Each photographer was hand picked for their photographic style, professionalism and fun personalities.

Meet the team of Fotocielo.

The other business we started is so great! We all know how much fun photo booths are, they're usually the biggest hit at any event! We've been asked so many times where to find one but couldn't find a high quality photo booth in the Santa Barbara area so we filled the need and built one! This past weekend both the PhotoBooth and FotoCielo were at the Santa Barbara Bridal Fair. Here are some pics from the event!

Here is a slideshow of images from the event.

Mission Wealth Management, LLC presents Carter Larsen - A Fundraiser for the Tea Fire Non-Profits

2008-12-14T02:14:00.000-08:00

I have the honor of covering a Fundraiser for the Tea Fire Non-Profits this weekend. Mission Wealth Management, LLC presents Carter Larsen at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito. The event will be Sunday, December 14, 2008, 3:00-5:00pm.

From the program:

We wish to thank the Santa Barbara Humane society and the American Red Cross Santa Barbara County Chapter (among many others) and the entire community of Santa barbara for all the support provided during and after the Tea Fire. It is great to see everyone come together in a time of need!

We would also like to thank, Carter Larsen for his generous support, the music Academy of the West for sharing their Hahn Hall as a perfect venue, Barlett, Pringle & Wolf, LLP., Charles Schwab and the Bank of Santa Barbara for supporting tonight's event, Consilience wines and Season's Catering, Ricky Mia Photography, the local media for spreading the word and for all of our valued clients who we appreciate ery much!

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everday life. ~Berthold Auerbach

This is going to be a beautiful event for a wonderful cause. I had the opportunity to meet Carter Larsen and was able to shoot some images while he rehearsed.

Here are some favorites.

Rolando, Sande, Sarah and Jordan - Mia Family Portraits

2008-12-05T13:52:00.001-08:00

Well it's about time I did family portraits for my brother's family and what a better time than the holidays! Rolando, Sande, Sarah and Jordan are the Santa Barbara Mias and I also have another brother and his family on the east coast in Baltimore. It means so much to me to have family so close, I don't know what I'd do without them.

I can't even say enough about my nieces and nephews. Rachel and Ben are on the east coast and Sarah and Jordan are close enough to take out and spoil. I love these kids more than anything!

Here are some favs!

Erin and Cameron - Engagement Session in Santa Barbara

2008-11-24T01:50:00.000-08:00

I had so much fun with Erin and Cameron the other weekend shooting their engagement session here in Santa Barbara. They're such a great couple and they brought their dog along on the session! As usual, it was a beautiful day with an awesome sunset. They're getting married next June at the Cabrillo Arts Pavilion on the beach. It's going to be a beautiful wedding!

Here are some favs from the session.

Santa Barbara Fires

2008-11-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

A fire started out here in Santa Barbara around 6pm and it's getting really bad. The Santa Ana winds are here which means really warm wind gusts up to 70 mph are coming over the mountain range and it's not helping the fire efforts. The fire has been going now for about 4 hours and it's reported that over 400 acres have been burned up.

I took a couple shots from the rear deck, pretty scary!

What's new with Delta's Jewel Van Valin

2008-11-08T01:54:00.000-08:00

I met Jewel a few years ago on a long flight to Maui and because of her, it was one of the best flights I've ever had! It's so great to see how things are coming along with her and her Plane Art! I've blogged about her before but Joel Hochberg created a documentary film about Jewel and it's featured on DarynKagan.com.

I even made it to the video, see if you can find me. I wanted to share so here it is.

Jayson and Michelle's wedding at The Fossil Creek Ranch - Ada, Oklahoma

2008-10-30T01:41:00.001-07:00

Jayson and Michelle's wedding was the second wedding I assisted David with while I was in Oklahoma. This was a really fun wedding with lots of laughing, crying, more laughing and... oh yeah, more laughing! The wedding ceremony was in the town of Ada, Oklahoma. Michelle was beautiful and Jayson was a stud. She didn't know about it but Jayson planned a song to sing to her during the ceremony and he did an awesome job! Right after the ceremony, the whole wedding party jumped into a party trolley and headed to the reception, which was held at The Fossil Creek Ranch.

The Fossil Creek Ranch is a really cool converted barn. There was a tent for the reception of over 200 people and the place was beautiful. One fun fact from the wedding was that Blake Shelton was one of the groomsmen and he was also accompanied by Miranda Lambert. He gave one of the funniest speeches I've ever heard at a wedding and the whole place was cracking up! It was called... "Thanks a lot Michelle... by Blake Shelton", it still makes me laugh, just to think about it!

Anyway, here are some of my favs.

Lee and Nicole's Wedding - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

2008-10-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

I love being a wedding photographer, it's such an honor to be a part of one of the most important days in a couples life together! It's also so cool to see how no matter where you are in the world, weddings have the same key elements... families, friends, happy couples, beautiful brides and lots and lots of partying! haha

I was in Oklahoma to visit an awesome photographer, David Baxter and most importantly, to assist him with a couple weddings. Everyone at Lee and Nicole's wedding were so wonderful. Nicole was beautiful and Lee was tight and neat in his uniform. An honor guard was present and the roses on the cake were hand made... what a perfect day.

David is such a great guy and we have way too much fun when we shoot together. At one point, we were both out on the dance floor! haha I love being a wedding photographer!

Here are some of my favorites from Lee and Nicole's wedding at Coles Garden in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial

2008-10-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to visit my good friend David Baxter in Oklahoma City to assist him with two amazing weddings this past week. I had never been to OKC so I was looking forward to this trip. David is an awesome photographer in OKC with an amazing family. I had way too much fun out there and they took me in and made me a part of the family. Tessa and their two kids Kyle and Nikki were so great. Thank you guys for everything, you really made me feel at home!

While I was there, David took me all over the place. I wanted to see the OKC Bombing Memorial and he took me one day to see the tour and the site. The memorial was pretty amazing, they did a beautiful job. Two gates stand tall with a reflecting pool between them. The times on the gates represent the innocence of the city at 9:01 am and at 9:03 am, how everything was changed forever. Chairs arranged on a lawn to the side represent the lives lost. Arranged according to their locations in the building; large chairs represent adults and little chairs, the children. It's a moving experience and I recommend visiting the site if you ever get a chance.

Here are some pictures from the memorial.

Jim and Gary's Wedding at the Old Orange County Courthouse

2008-10-28T01:45:00.000-07:00

I had the honor of assisting Karen the other week for a wedding down in Santa Ana at the Old County Courthouse. Karen shoots with me all the time so helping her out is always a pleasure! It's so much fun being a 2nd shooter at weddings, there's no pressure and you can really take the time to try out new things!

Jim and Gary were an awesome couple. They've been together now for 18 years! The wedding was beautiful, packed with friends and family to cheer them on. The courthouse was really cool to shoot at... tons of old school character.

Here are some of my favs.

John and Paola's wedding in New York at the Monteverde at Oldstone Manor

2008-09-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

So what can I say... John is now a married man and he married someone so amazingly wonderful, Paola. John and I go wayyyy back, before we were born. Our parents were friends first and then we grew up together. He is one of my very best friends and I'm so happy for both of them. This is an awesome thing for him but not so good for me... you know what kind of razzing I'm going to get (have been getting) now that he's married!?!? I might be the last man standing in our group of friends... ouch!

Anyway, they had a beautiful wedding in upstate New York at the Monteverde at Oldstone Manor. It was a beautiful day and everything was perfect. Paola was an angel and John actually looked like a stud! I know I'm at weddings all the time and each and every one is amazing, but to be at a wedding where you know just about everyone there is another story. I saw friends and family that I haven't seen in a long long time. We screwed around before, during and after the ceremony and then we started drinking! haha

My whole family, minus two who couldn't make it, flew/drove out to the wedding and my cousin Carlo (NJ Wedding Photographer), my two brothers and I shot the wedding as "guests". There were Filipino traditions intertwined in the ceremony and John asked me to be one of the cord sponsors so I had to put my camera down, but not for long. I really tried to stay out of the way of the hired photographers but if I didn't and you're reading this blog, sorry.

There are a bunch, but here are some of my favs!

Heidi and Tim's Wedding at the Santa Barbara Ty Warner Sea Center

2008-09-15T17:33:00.001-07:00

I had the honor of shooting the wedding of Tim and Heidi Kolanko's wedding this past weekend at the Ty Warner Sea Center on the pier in Santa Barbara. I can't say enough about this wonderful couple and the amazing friends and family that were at the wedding. My team, (Karen and Kiel) and I were treated as if we were family, as if we all lived in the same house since we were little kids... not kidding! Like I said, I could go on, but I won't. :)

Tim and Heidi are from San Diego and had their wedding on the Santa Barbara pier at the Ty Warner Sea Center. They met up earlier at the Santa Barabra Court House for pictures and had their ceremony and reception right there on the pier. Heidi's hair was amazing, her jewelry was hand made just for her and Tim wore Vans, how awesome! The DJs were playing some killer tunes and how incredible to be dancing under two humpback whales! There were all kinds of sea life in tanks around the sea center. At one point I backed up into a tank and then realized it was full of sharks! It was an absolutely beautiful wedding and it was such an honor to be there.

Hair and Make up - Billy at Salon U
Venue - Ty Warner Sea Center
DJ - In The Mix Events
Caterers - Pure Joy Catering

Here are some favs from their day!

Fawni - Serious

2008-09-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

This is one of Stefanie's (AKA Fawni) latest releases, performed at a club in NY and in Germany. Enjoy!

Fawni in the recording studio

2008-09-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

Stefanie and Gil were in Los Angeles recording this past week and we've been trying to get together before they go back to Vienna, Austria. I covered Stefanie and Gil's wedding in Capri Italy back in May and that was the last time we all saw each other. They've been so busy but we had to make it happen somehow so when Stefanie said come to the studio, Melissa and I had to go. They are so awesome and it was so great to see them! I can't say enough good things about Stefanie and Gil.

I've never been to a recording studio and I was in heaven with the wall to wall electronics! The mixing board alone was so cool, I was like a kid in a candy store. Anyway, here are a couple pics of Stefanie from my iphone.

Cookie night!

2008-09-08T12:28:00.001-07:00

So, over the weekend I had dinner at my brother's house and afterwards we decided to have a cookie project! I love love love snicker doodle cookies so all in a team effort, we made cookies! We also got creative and made chocolate chip snicker doodles, sweet tart snicker doodles (yeah, I know.... can you say Jordan's brainchild!), marshmallow snicker doodles, oatmeal raisin snicker doodles and a few that were a combination of whatever was on the butcher block!

I must say though, Sande's oatmeal raisin snicker doodles were pretty freakin awesome! Here are some favs that also prove that my brother can now say he baked cookies!

Delta's Jewel Van Valin celebrates passengers through art!

2008-08-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with a wonderful friend of mine, Jewel Van Valin, a flight attendant at Delta Airlines. I had blogged about how wonderful she is and of the wonderful things she does on her flghts back in July of 2007 and was so happy to hear of her progress with her plane art! Jewel has partnered with Project S.N.A.P and she was written up in the LA Times. From the article, great things are in the future for her!

I've run into her at the Maui airport since my flight with her and without fail, she has a smile on her face. I went back in the archives and pulled up a few more pictures of Jewel, isn't she great!

Here is a copy of the article, borrowed from the LA Times website.

By Bob Pool
July 22, 2008
It didn’t take long for Jewel Van Valin’s cross-country art project to take off.

Passengers flying in the difficult days after 9/11 were anxious and irritable because of tightened security and fewer flight amenities. The Delta Airlines flight attendant wanted to do something about it.

So Van Valin reached back to an earlier time – her kindergarten years – and pulled out the Crayolas.

“I just put the mats on their trays and threw a crayon down, and the passengers immediately got it,” she said.

For six years, travelers on Van Valin’s planes have sketched their way over the continent and the Pacific, creating thousands of fanciful, vividly colored crayon drawings on the backs of beverage cart covers.

Van Valin has kept them all. And now she’s looking for a place for her unusual collection to land.

“Many of these are very good. They should be on display. A broader audience should see them. Behind every one of these pictures is a story,” she said.

Toward the end of each flight, Van Valin and other crew members tape passengers’ drawings to the aircraft’s bulkhead so everyone on board can see them. She also maintains a revolving display of the pictures in Delta’s employee lounge at Los Angeles International Airport.

But she’s still trying to find a permanent home for the artwork at LAX.

A few weeks ago, Delta staffers staged a guerrilla gallery in the terminal’s corridors, posting passenger drawings on walls and support columns between Gates 56 and 59. They took down the unauthorized artwork at day’s end, however, so it would not be confiscated and destroyed by airport officials.

Travelers’ reaction to the impromptu show was enthusiastic. The sketches helped brighten the attitudes of passengers soured by “the hassles of going through security,” said Ken Gomez, a flight attendant manager for the airline.

For Van Valin, the drawing project was an antidote to the fears and hassles of post-9/11 air travel.

“In the past, people would laugh and enjoy flying, but 9/11 changed a tremendous amount of things,” said the 54-year-old, a veteran of three decades of flying. “It’s not as fun now as it used to be.”

The idea for the artwork came to Van Valin as she distributed paper place mats to passengers when cutbacks had ended Delta’s use of linen tray cloths.

“The first gentleman I put down a paper mat for stared at it and then rolled his eyes,” she said. “The look on his face told me: ‘This needs a crayon.’ So the next week I came back with crayons. The passengers laughed and started drawing right away.”

As the sketches were completed, Van Valin posted them to the aircraft’s interior walls. When she ran out of tape, she used Band-Aids. Soon, as the plane sped along at 35,000 feet, passengers were moving about the cabin, checking out the pictures and commenting on subject matter and artistic style.

“They were interacting, talking to one another,” explaining what their drawings depicted, Van Valin said. “Crayons are nonthreatening. The pictures tell a lot about a person.”

Some passengers sign their pictures. Others write their phone numbers on the back when they learn that Van Valin keeps each sketch and displays many of them at the employee lounge. She even remembers which flight some were aboard and what seat they were in. She said passengers draw whatever strikes their fancy.

“This woman is an actual artist, Barbara Psimis of Florida,” she said, pointing to a delicately drawn koi on view at the Delta lounge.

“Tamara Weston, in her early teens, drew a boarding pass and a Delta plane. This psychedelic sunset was done by Jacquetta White; she was about 15,” Van Valin said.

A 78-year-old, Hansel Stripling, depicted God looking down from heaven on a Delta jetliner, Van Valin said. An elderly Chinese woman, Hong Pu, sketched a scene from her hometown village. Alice Choy, a fashion-design school graduate, drew a self-portrait depicting her in cap and gown, surrounded by flowers. A boy of about 13, Joe Conigliaro, was returning home from Disneyland, so he drew stick-figure depictions of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters.

Passengers never forget Van Valin’s flight – or their artwork.

“Mine was a little doodle of Honolulu with lots of colorful buildings and the ocean around it,” recalled Julie Smith, a middle school math and science teacher who lives in Rancho Palos Verdes. “It was a flight to Maui. I set my book down and started doodling and pretty soon it was time to land.”

Smith, who is in her 40s, agreed that air travel is less enjoyable than it used to be. On her return flight from Hawaii, takeoff was delayed when someone found a suspicious backpack aboard the aircraft. “We went back to the gate, and they pretty much tore the plane’s bathrooms apart looking,” she said.

Leland Horn, an aerospace engineering manager from Colorado Springs, vividly remembers his flight with Van Valin several years ago. His drawing depicted a lighthouse and a bicycle, among other things.

“I’ve traveled all over the world and never had an experience quite like that one,” said Horn, 51. “When she handed us the crayons, we were kind of all looking at each other. She sort of in a teasing manner goaded us into participating. It only took 10 minutes before we were all drawing and we were busy until the descent into Salt Lake City. The time went by so fast it seemed we had just taken off from L.A. It was a good experience.”

All four members of Dan Lawrence’s family sketched their way over the Pacific on a Hawaii trip in April.

“It helped take your mind off the flight,” said Lawrence, a 44-year-old San Dimas graphic artist who drew a dragon for Van Valin.

Delta Airlines President Ed Bastian said he has seen some of the artworks and was impressed by the thought that went into them. “They were sharing times of joy and times of sadness,” he said.

Bastian said he “very much” supports the idea of the drawings being publicly displayed at LAX.

And that may be possible, according to officials of Los Angeles World Airports, the city department that operates LAX. Several past dust-ups over public art in the terminals forced the city to take a cautious approach to LAX displays, said airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles.

Airport officials said they are willing to work with Van Valin to create a gallery, but that there can be no more impromptu displays of what she calls “Just Plane Art.”

Taping pictures to the walls at LAX won’t fly.

Wedding - Gina and Amos - Four Seasons Biltmore, Santa Barbara, CA

2008-08-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

I had the last minute privilege of 2nd shooting the wedding of Gina and Amos Hartston for Melissa Musgrove at the Biltmore Four Seasons last weekend. I've known Melissa over the years through various photography organizations and was thrilled to finally get a chance to work with her and her husband Paul.

Gina and Amos had a beautiful wedding with all the things that make me love being a wedding photographer, a beautiful couple, awesome family and friends, a stellar setting and a perfect Santa Barbara day.

Here are a few of my favs.

The Mia family vacation to Sedona, AZ!

2008-08-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

I just got back from our family vacation about a week ago. It was so awesome having everyone together in one place. My brother from Maryland came out with his family, the Santa Barbara Mia's and my folks in Henderson all got together in Sedona, AZ. This was the first time for everyone to be in Sedona and we had a blast!

Five cameras (shocking huh?) and thousands of pictures later, I finally put something together for my blog! I'm going to try to briefly narrate our whole trip according to the pictures...... ready?

...awesome mountains, mountains, mountains everywhere, Javelina piglets dressed in funny clothes everywhere, Mom dressed the same way as the Javelinas hahaha, Ro being Ro, Ro and Rey being.... something, cool Indian ruins everywhere, Ben and Jordan being tourists, more awesome Indian ruins with a full family portrait in front of them taken on our Pink Jeep Tour... yes I said Pink Jeep, ruins framing Rey, Mom and Hip Hop Dad, Sande and Jordan at the Grand Canyon, Marcia and Ben at the Grand Canyon, Rachel capturing a "vision" at the Grand Canyon, "Indiana Ro" at The Grand Canyon!, way cool tree, Mom and Sarah toasting on our Train ride, Dad smooching Sande on the cheek, Ro and his narcolepsy with Jordan abusing dad, awesome ride on the train, group picture hanging off the train, Bald Eagle sighting as we whiz by on the train, cool skies under a bridge from the train, Happy Birthday Sande!, Golf-Golf-Golf, Dad after a 30ft put!?!, Ro's awesome photography skills and finally brotherly love!

So there's our trip in a nutshell!

One last Sarah Happy Dance for the fun of it!