John W. Farrand Photography Blog

Well, this was a BIG wedding and was A LOT of fun!

I was asked to do something a little different for this wedding… video!  Even though most of my adult professional life (well, pretty much all of it), has been dedicated to video work.. when it came to weddings, photography was really where I focused.  One of the main reasons I moved back to Bakersfield in 2006 was to start a wedding video business.  As life would have it, that didn’t happen!  I decided to professionally photograph weddings instead.  This little video was sort of an experiment.  Beyond being an experiment, [the wedding] was an EXPERIENCE.  This was the biggest wedding Melissa and I have attended, and wow, was it amazing!  The DJ Bino Bates was hands down, the best wedding DJ we’ve experienced!

Wedding Ceremony and Reception DJ
Bino Bates (Bino’s Entertainment/Let The Music Play)
Wedding Photography:
Ashley dePoncier Photography

Architecture is something I’ve admired for most of my life.  When I was first learning the basics of photography, shooting buildings and rooms and furniture was what I started with.  Well, rooms and dogs, but the dogs are a different story.  When I shot film, every shot had to count.  I’ve always had a passion for graphic design, and specifically visual balance.  So when you’re not looking to waste your precious frames of celluloid, you wait for that shot to happen.  The best way for me to find or create balance in photographs was to shoot buildings, and just wait for what I wanted to see.

I got connected with some from Kaiser Bakersfield, who needed Architectural Photos of all the locations in town.  We shot all 9 locations in one exhausting, but therapeutic Saturday afternoon, so no people!

This turned out to be amazingly fun for me.  It took me back to my basics, and I wanted to share some of these with you.  Who knew Architectural Photography would be therapeutic?  Now, I might just need to take some pictures of dogs.

In the past, I’ve been reluctant to show some of the other projects I work on, but I’ve decided it should be fun to show some of my other work on here.

This particular shoot came up by chance, as do a lot of projects/interests in life.  :)  David Balderas is the lead singer of “Houdini Logic,” a local heavy metal band here in Bakersfield.  One of the nicest, funniest guys I’ve met!  I’ve known him personally for a little while now, and he asked me if I’ve ever shot a band.  “Well.. not really, but I’m game if you are!”

So this is what we came up with.. enjoy!

I may be showing a few more “personal projects” from now on, just so people might know what else we’ve been up to.

The Stockdale Country Club is just one of those places where you’d like to hang out for awhile, really.  The staff there is amazingly helpful, and the grounds are indescribably beautiful.  I’ll post more on Ron and Cathy’s wedding in a separate post, but their reception was a blast!  Their photobooth turned out perfectly!  These images are a blast from the past.. this was my first photobooth ever.. from August 2009!