Southern California Wedding Photographer - John Riedy

What follows is a mini-photo essay of Easter 2008 for the Riedy family.  It’s a cautionary tale, really, of what can happen when blood-sugar levels reach dangerous proportions.  We started the festivities around 7 am at our house with a trail of Cadbury eggs (my all-time FAVORITE candy) down to two candy-laden and toy-laden Easter baskets for our boys, Cole and Jack.  At this point, everyone’s pretty happy.  Blood sugar levels are normal…

Jack’s preeeettty stoked over his new massive bubble wand (blood sugar has elevated slightly)…

Next we head to Fairbanks Ranch Country Club for brunch, balloon animals, the Easter Bunny (or one of his proxies), a little time on the driving range, and, of course, an egg hunt…

HERE we begin to see the early effects of ESS, or Excess Sugar Syndrome…

Next we headed to my parents’ house for a much needed nap for Jack and another egg hunt.  Note to self: sub woofers are not good places to hide eggs.  From there we went to my cousin’s house for a HUGE family dinner and, yes, ANOTHER egg hunt!  ESS is seriously taking hold…

One of the highlights of the day was reconnecting with Preston, who I had known from about 20 years ago when he lived at my cousin’s house.  It turns out we now live about 10 minutes from each other and our families totally hit it off that day.  His kids, Ava and Kellen, are unbelievably photogenic and I became slightly obsessed with shooting them.  I’m definitely planning on a “real” shoot with Ava sometime soon, though we got some pretty sweet happy snaps…

By 7pm, Jack’s descent into ESS madness was complete…

Sunset Cliffs
Point Loma, CA
March 20, 2008

Well, maybe impromptu isn’t the word, but last minute certainly is.  I received a call from Lauren about four hours before these photos were taken.  Due to “circumstances” beyond their control, Lauren and Jacob had driven in from Vegas for their engagement shoot, but found themselves without a photographer.  Having set aside the afternoon to watch a bit o’ hoops, I happened to be available (though I did end up missing a cliff hanger of a Duke game…yikes!).  It turned out to be my lucky day as they were both a pleasure to work with and, as you can plainly see, very photogenic.  Here are a couple of my favorites…

March 16-17, 2008
Fairbanks Ranch Country Club

A few days ago I had the honor of photographing the 2008 John Lynch Celebrity Classic golf tournament. John Lynch, you may know, is a nine-time Pro Bowl safety currently playing for the Denver Broncos, who grew up in the San Diego area and consequently focusses much of his charitable work (and he does a LOT) here in San Diego. He also happens to be my cousin. The beneficiary of this year’s tournament is the scholarship assistance program at Cathedral High School. I don’t know how much money was raised, but I guarantee it was a LOT. John is truly one of the “good guys” in the NFL and that was reflected in the caliber of “celebrities” who took time to attend. You’ll see many in the photos below. Former Charger, Junior Seau, was honored with a Leadership Award and gave an impassioned speech imploring those in attendance, the members of his own foundation board in particular, to “do more”. When it came time for the live auction, Junior teamed up with David Wells to create an impromptu auction item of a night on the town with Junior, David, John, and Lorenzo Neal. After cajoling the bids up over $10,000, Junior decided that they would turn it into a double item and promptly raised well over $20,000 for the John Lynch Foundation and Cathedral High School in about 5 minutes. The night ended with yet another appearance by the ubiquitous Irish Tenors (the third time I’ve seen them in a week!). They coaxed John Lynch Jr. on stage and let’s just say, he may be a future Hall of Famer, but he’ll never be an Irish Tenor.

It was a great night followed by a great St. Patrick’s Day on Monday for the golf tournament. I had a great time documenting the event. Throughout both days I couldn’t help but think how proud my (and John’s) grandma, Jean Lynch, would have been of her grandson (John, not me. Okay, maybe me too, but really this one was all about John). Enjoy some of the photos…

For more information on the John Lynch Foundation, click here.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I believe the saying goes.  So I wasn’t surprised when, as I was photographing my friend Steffan Tubbs’ family portrait, his son Nathan took literally someone’s joking suggestion that everyone take off their shirts.  Nathan obliged.  He’s not a shy little guy.  Not a big shock when you consider that his dad has a a morning news talk radio program on 850 KOA in Denver.  I had a fantastic time photographing a HUGE family portrait of about 40 people, but this more “candid” shot was by far my favorite of the shoot.  His dad is the guy in the yellow shirt just above Nathan’s head.

Saturday night I was a guest (woohoo, a GUEST! For once, I wasn’t the photographer!!!) at the annual American Ireland Fund black tie dinner.  My dad is one of the “Irish 50″ (even though he’s German) and every year he buys a table at the gala event.  It’s a great excuse to drag out the monkey suit, swipe at it for an hour to get off all the cat hair, and support a very worthy cause.  There might have been a glass of fermented grape juice involved (or two), my memory is a tad bit fuzzy.  Nonetheless, it was a great night.  At the dinner, we had the pleasure of watching the three Irish Tenors perform all the classics of Irish folk music.  Sounds cool, huh?  Maybe, but it wasn’t half as cool as watching and listening to them sing at a private home in Rancho Santa Fe the next day with a group of about 50 people.  This time I did bring my camera.  Hearing them up close and personal was truly amazing.  They may not be Pavorati, but these guys can SING.  Many thanks to host John Lynch (who happens to be my uncle and the father of future Hall o’ Fame safety John Lynch of the Denver Broncos).  Here are a couple of quick snaps I made…

They even brought their  “fiddler”, who, although she looks as Irish as the Rose of Tralee, she’s actually as American as apple pie…