Once again we had the pleasure of photographing our good friend Ian Blackburn’s 2009 Malibu Wine Classic benefiting the National Children’s Charity Childhelp presented by Learn About Wine Saturday August 29th at the Malibu Civic Center.

The event was completely sold out and everyone enjoyed a great gathering showcasing the Central Coast with the most highly regarded wineries from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles and Ventura Counties such as: Rosenthal Malibu Estate, Calcareous, Santa Barbara Winery/Lafond Winery, Foley to name a few. As well as, some of the top Malibu and Los Angeles area restaurants from the surrounding area like; Water Grill, Saddle Peak Lodge, Michael’s Restaurant, Joe’s Pizza of Bleeker Street.

Here are all the photos from the event that gives you a wonderful idea how great this event really was. Enjoy!

Last night I went to a Pictage User Group meeting (PUG-silly) and got to meet the wonderful Joe Buissink! What a charming man, and a great photographer. To say he’s probably one of the top 10 wedding shooters in the world is no exaggeration. He has the kind of career many of us envy, with many celebrity weddings to his credit. But he is about a lot more than just weddings.

He showed us images from a book he is doing called “Autism Heros“, which is about families living with autism.

Mr. Buissink has two autistic boys of his own, and to say that this project is close to his heart is an understatement-it IS his heart. The images were beautiful and moving. You could see his passion for this project as well as his own devotion to his children. His desire and need to give something back was very inspiring.

It was also interesting to me how doing something other than just weddings keeps the fire burning to keep on doing weddings. No one want to get stuck in a rut with any project, and weddings can be repetitive. By doing something totally different, you come back to your work with a fresh eye. And that is what every bride and groom wants, a photographer with a fresh perspective.

So thank you for an enjoyable evening, Pictage and Mr. Buissink. Hope to do it again soon.