Copyright ©2001-2007 Don Ptashne

 

 

 

 

 

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Orange County Wedding Photographers and Commercial Headshot Engagement Photography

Thank you for you interest in my professional wedding photography and video services.  I take great pride in my work and I really enjoy working with couples to capture the most precious day of their lives. I do mainly photojournalistic wedding photography in the Orange County/Irvine areas.  I also do engagement photography and headshot photography for aspiring actors or models or for those looking for a really good photo of themselves for the online dating scene. You can use the above navigation to browse through my photography and video galleries along with finding out more information about prices, a brief bio, a resource page containing lots of information on the wedding industry and nearby locations for your weddings, and information on photography in general. On this site you’ll also find a collage of smaller images that tell a little bit of a story about each photo, the Orange County wedding locations where they were taken and some technical data for the photographers out there.  I would recommend to the first timers to view the gallery using the above links so that you can view the larger images. Other areas I serve are: the Los Angeles area, the San Diego and La Jolla areas, and the Santa Barbara area.   Please enjoy your stay here and I look forward as always to taking great pictures of you. Thank you for your interest in my photography and video services.

Don Ptashne
Orange County Photographer

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Below are some of the different photos I've taken in Orange County over the years. You'll find a little blurb next to each one including sometimes the type of camera that was used, lighting, the Orange County wedding locations where they were photographed, etc. The testimonials on the right are from past clients of mine. They do not always coincide with the photo to the left. Please click the following link if you want to see the main Orange County Photographers photo gallery.  

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ORANGE COUNTY PHOTOGRAPHER

TESTIMONIALS
Orange County Wedding Magazine Style Dip

This wedding photo was taken in Orange County, California at an Irvine wedding location. This couple was looking for more of a fashion magazine style wedding photoshoot. This is one of the images I took that day. I left the brides bouquet in full color and converted the rest of the image to black and white. This created the dramatic effect that I was looking for. The trees then took on a more infrared photo look making the overall image seem surreal. The wedding site was beautiful. This image was shot using a Canon 5D and a 24-70mm L-series lens in RAW format.

I am an Orange County wedding photographer, so if you are getting married then please check out my contact information above and send me a note. I take great pride as you'll see in my wedding photography and offer you the highest quality at a fair price.

Dear Don,

Thank you for being our wedding photographer. You took the most wonderful photos and I wanted you to know that Jim and I will honestly take care of and cherish these wedding pictures forever. We are eternally grateful for your creative talent as a wedding photographer. Because of you we now hold memories in our hands as both still wedding photos and the amazing wedding video that you crafted. This means a lot to us and it will certainly mean a lot to our kids in the future. May god be with you.

Sincerely,

Kimberly and Jim T.
Irvine

Riverside wedding photographer shooting a bride with her bouquet.
This wedding photo was shot at a Riverside wedding location. I shot this photo using only window light, and a reflector off to the brides right side to reflect the light back and to fill in the shadows on the right of her face. She had a beautiful bouquet which went well with her stunning looks for this composition. I did light photoshop on the eyes and really mild work on the brides face. The venue for this shot was actually taken at her parents house where she was getting ready in Orange County. This couple was referred to me by the brides wedding planner. This shot was taken using a Canon 5D with a 24-70mm L-series lens set at 66mm. This was a nice wedding portrait to compliment the bride and grooms wedding album.

Don,

You are awesome. We are so happy with the wedding and engagement photos you took. In all honesty we can't wait to refer you to our friends. And we have plenty who are getting married in the Orange County area in 2007. Please feel free to use us as a reference for any potential clients that you may have. We would both highly recommend you to anyone. The wedding photography was awesome, not to mention the fantastic job you did on our wedding video! Alright that's it for now. Can't wait to see you at one of our friends weddings.

John & Kelly R.
Riverside

Classic window light photo of an Orange County wedding photographer as she looks outside for the groom
Orange County Wedding Photographer
This is way more classic wedding photography going on in this image. Here the bride is looking out the window at a beautiful victorian style house in Irvine trying to catch a glimpse of the groom. Now as you may have guessed this was not really photojournalism, although it does have that look in a more classic way. I added a bit of diffuse glow to this image to really blow out the highlights in the window. Her Orange County style wedding dress (that's what she called it) compliments her figure. As a photographer I tried to make this image look soft and have a subtle feel.

What's up Don!

You took some incredible photos at our wedding and I had to write to say thank you. Please be sure to give us a bunch of your business cards so we can be sure to give them out to our friends. I'm really happy that we decided to go with you as our wedding photographer. Especially since we almost went with the other wedding photographer I had told you about, because he was a little less expensive than you were. Anyway I'm happy looking back on our decision and I hope you book many more weddings from ours. Thanks Don!

Charles C.
Orange County

Orange County wedding photo showing the bride and groom through a harp. Bride is wearing a beautiful dress.
Wedding Photographer in Orange County. In this photograph, which is obviously a posed photograph in case you thought you were looking at a photojournalistic shot, I posed the bride and groom together slightly facing the camera and I shot through the wedding harp. As you can see I left the wedding harp in full color and made the rest of the image black and white. This brings the attention to the harp which is framing the beautiful orange county wedding couple and shows of the brides bouquet. Again this image was taken using a Canon 5D with my trusty professional Canon L-series 24-70mm lens, shot at F5.6 for what it's worth. I don't do much formal work like this anymore since most people are looking for the photojournalist style. Please see more of the work from your Orange County wedding photographer.

Don!

You are the bomb! What incredible work! You should honestly be shooting wedding photography and video for the magazines and TV shows out there. Thanks for your patience in this whole charade! I know it got pretty hectic when the cake didn't show up for the reception on time, but other than that the wedding went off without a hitch. Thanks for the awesome wedding video and photos again Don. You're a great photographer.

James W.
Orange County

Irvine wedding photographer shooting a wedding shot through a classic car window.
This intimate photojournalism type of photography was shot in the Irvine, Orange County area location. I shot through a really old antique car window to get a shot of the bride and groom smooching. I like the reflection of leaves in the back window of the classic limousine car. Perhaps this image looks a little peeping Tomish, but I liked it and more important the bride and groom also loved it. This one went in their wedding album. As far as the editing goes, I just did a little desaturation to the image to make it look half black and white and half color. I felt this contributed to the wedding photographs antique feel. You can only barely catch the top of the brides dress here. This shot was taken after the wedding reception at a park in Orange County. Shot with a 5D and a professional L-series lens.

...the bride and groom sent me a link to the online photo slideshow you did of their wedding. You are a fantastic wedding photographer! I will keep you in mind when my kids get married.

Susan A.
Laguna Hills

Orange County wedding photographer grabs a snap of these two love birds getting air borne.
Orange County Engagement Photographer I grabbed this shot of the soon to be bride and groom jumping and getting airborne on Laguna Beach. This couple wanted a spontaneous fun engagement photoshoot and that's exactly what they got. Most engagement photographers stick to the traditional stuff. I try to work around that a little and think outside the box. What I like about this picture is that it really captures the action of these two love birds letting loose. They were actually really good jumpers too. The seagulls in the background there add to that frozen action shot as well. This shot was taken using a Canon 20D with a 24-70 lens.

Don,

Just wanted to send you a quick email to let you know how much we like the engagement and wedding photography and video you did for my wife and I. I hope you are available for other events that my family has. I would love to work with you again. It was a pleasure! Both of our moms started crying when they looked through the wedding album for the first, second and even third times.

Yours Truly,

Marco C.

Orange County wedding photographer shooting a couple on Laguna Beach in Laguna Hills Estates area.
Orange County Engagement Photographer This is the same couple as above getting cozy on the sand on Laguna Beach. The weather was nice that day, it would have been perfect for their Orange County wedding. This photo really capture the essence of joy and happiness that this couple shares. There wasn't too much color in this photo so I just did away with it all together. Anyway black and white photography is all the rave these days. I suppose it will never go out of style, kind of like jeans. Photoshop wise I just increased the brightness and contrast by using photoshop's curves feature in certain locations. I wanted to make this shot pop. I like the slightly over-exposed look we have here.

Dearest Don,

We know that we are so fortunate to have found you to shoot our engagement and wedding photos and also for our wedding video. It was great to have one person handle all three elements. That was just less to deal with for us and made our lives that much easier at the time. Doing the engagement session with you first really helped us to get relaxed and helped us stay calm on our actual wedding day. Anyway Don, you are a nice person and wonderful photographer and videographer. All the best!

Sincerely,

The Mercer's
Newport Beach

Headshot from Orange County photographers at the park
Orange County Headshot Photographer
This is a head shot that I took in the Anaheim, Orange County area. As a headshot photographer I learned that getting good natural lighting is key taking great portraits. In this shot the sun went slightly behind a big old puff of clouds that softened the natural-light in a similar way that a soft box would soften the light. This gave us nice all around good photo lighting for an even exposure and great overall headshot of this model/actor. This photo was taken with a Canon 20D and a 70-200mm 2.8 Canon L-series professional lens. That's one of the best and arguably essential portrait photography lenses that should be in every photographer's bag. At $1,700 just for the lens it is on the expensive side unless you do photography for a living.

Don,

You did it again! Another great headshot/portrait session with you. My modeling agent and my theatrical agent both loved the headshots that you did for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can just feel I'm going to go out on a lot of calls now. Your an awesome headshot photographer Don.

Amy M.
Costa Mesa

Headshot photographer in Orange County takes a great photo of the man himself!
As a headshot photographer in the Orange County/Irvine area, I strive to capture the depth of a persons soul. I hope that doesn't sound too cheesy, but if you look at the photo to the left, you can get a good idea of where this guy's at. Do you follow what I'm saying? That's what I want. This is something I think most of us photographers are shooting for, and when you capture it everyone is happy and now that actor or model is getting gigs. If it happens to be an Orange County online dating photo then that person is now getting a lot of opportunities to choose the person online they think might be the best fit for them. Not much photoshop on this shot. The image was shot using a Canon 5D and my 70-200mm L.

Don,

You really got some great shots man! Amy was right to refer me to you. You are a gifted headshot photographer and if I ever get married you bet I'll be looking you up. Thanks again man, you hit the nail on the head with these photos.

Peace,

Tony B.
Laguna Niguel

Fashion wedding photographer takes this photo in the OC, Orange County
Traditional posed formal wedding photo here for this Orange County wedding. The bride is wearing a really nice Orange County wedding dress. I like this shot although posed to accents their wedding rings and the groom's love for the bride. As you can see this photo is primarily black and white with the brides bouquet left in a desaturated color. This photo has a naturally soft feel in the smoothness of the image and the soft touch of the hands showing off their wedding bands. This Orange County wedding site is much more beautiful than many other Orange County wedding sites. This couple got a good mix of formal, fashion and photojournalistic wedding photography. This image of course is more on the formal side of photography.

Your wedding photography made me gasp in anticipation as I turned each page through my wedding album. I certainly didn't expect anything like that. My eyes honestly started tearing up going through the album. You made my wedding photography magical to say the least and I thank you for that! I'm glad I set my sites on you. You're shots are absolutely gorgeous Don. Or should I say Don the magical photographer!

Much Love,

Tracy N.
Newport Beach

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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