Wedding Reception Venue Hunt

For those who don't know, I am engaged! It's old news and I am so late at blogging about it, I apologize. Time for a short version:

I proposed the week before Christmas in San Francisco at the new Union Square Ice Skating Rink


I swear, I was so beyond nervous. I think most guys can relate to the actual day of having to propose. If you would have asked me any day before 'The Big Day' I would have told you it will be a piece of cake. My nerves were not even getting to me because of having to ask her, but just me psyching myself out that somehow she already knew or would find out before I actually knelt down and popped the question. On top of that I had never been ice skating - talk about nerve-racking! Would I even be able to stand up or make it a foot away from the platform? Long, stressful nights thinking about all the "what if's". Out of everything, my greatest fear of all was opening the little box and seeing no ring inside. Let me just say that my greatest fear came true..

Fourty-five minutes before we even hit the ice rink I was fumbling around with the box in my pocket and thinking of a million and one ways to lead into the big question. During that time is when I must have knocked the ring out of its position, leaving it sitting freely in the box.

As soon as we got on to the ice I did a little small talk, knelt down, popped the question and opened the box -- no ring! I felt my heart skip a beat. Luckily Valerie saw it drop to the ice.

That little hitch wasn't quite as I planned it, but still well worth all the planning and coordinating to get everyone and everything just right. It was amazing to have both of our families there in the city which we love.

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Now that I've explained the engagement I can get to tonight. We've been planning and looking for reception venues...

Brandon Aguiar - Photographer

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Motivation..

Pretty simple blog tonight:

What motivates you to do what ever it is you want to do?


Comment below!

Brandon Aguiar - Photographer

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Inspiration in 'InStyle'

First I want to apologize for not blogging lately. I've been meaning to but every time I get around to doing it I have something else that distracts me away.

I look at magazines a lot as I've found that they are awesome places to look for photographers and inspirational ideas. Magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, etc. I am sure you know the list.

A couple weeks ago was no different -- sitting in my room looking through an InStyle magazine I found we had sitting around the house. Low and behold I find an amazing photographer you all need to check out. I absolutely was drawn to his images when I first saw them in the magazine. I quickly jotted down his name and went to his website...

Simply said...WOW.

I know you're wondering who he is! His name is Andrew Southam and he is an L.A based photographer. You can check his site and work out here

Please let me know what you think about his stuff. As one person said to me his images have a definite urban feel to them which I love!

Brandon Aguiar - Photographer

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Late Night Session

Last night friend and photographer, Scot Woodman and I went out for a late night modeling session we had been planning. We brought along Lindsay Heather who did an amazing job modeling despite it being so cold! What a night - we started around 10pm and didn't get done until almost 1am in the morning! A great shoot, and some fun times!

** You can view more images via my MySpace

Brandon Aguiar - Photographer

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Senior Shoot

So I had a senior shoot this past weekend with Carlin. As you'll see, we had a great time and got some awesome shots. She brought along her friend Miranda who also did a fantastic job. You both did amazing and it was great meeting the two of you!

Brandon Aguiar - Photographer

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A Fun Senior

So I had a senior portrait session today with Ashley. As you can see from the photos, she totally rocked it. I had such a hard time limiting myself to six photos for this post! I absolutely love meeting new people, and she was no exception. You did an amazing job Ashley!

Brandon Aguiar - Photographer

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Perfectionism - Good or Bad?

I think this topic can have both a positive side and a negative side. First, I think to people that are a part of 'the arts', being a perfectionist comes natural. We are never happy with our work, and if we are it's only for a short time. We always are striving to do better and make everything, well - PERFECT. The funny thing is is that making your work perfect NEVER comes, does it? In one sense being a perfectionist continually pushes you to do more, and produce better. Who wouldn't want to produce better work?

The flip side to being a perfectionist is that it can severely limit you from where you want to go with your work. If you continually are doubting you can produce that quality, "perfect work", you may never take action! I think we get in a rut of being our own worse critic. And I would say 99% of the things we see wrong in our work no client would ever be able to pick out.

I say just do it! Don't let being a perfectionist limit you to thinking you may never be good enough. A key inspiration and role-model to me, Mike Colon, says jump into whatever you want to do with both feet and THEN figure out how your going to back up that commitment. Those are definitely words to live by.

Use your perfectionism in a positive way to grow you in your work instead of hinder you!

Brandon Aguiar - Photographer

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