(Industry press release) San Francisco, CA, Feb 3, 2010 - WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced Maurice Ramirez has been selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for Photography!

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Maurice Ramirez is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that Maurice Ramirez is among the very best photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/maurice-ramirez

We're really growing, and you can too!

(Photo by Tue Nam)

 Requirements:

• Positive, responsible attitude

• Photoshop and Lightroom proficient.

• Valid DMV, insurance, local to Emeryville (Northern Ca East Bay Area)

• Part-time availability, 12-15 hours/week

Learn a TON!:

• Order fulfillment

• Blogsite updates

• Lightroom RAW workflow

• Photoshop retouching

• Equipment and studio maintenance

• Product shipping and equipment/rental deliveries

• Contact, client, studio associate management

• Approaching subjects

• Booking clients

• Some travel required as you may be accompanying me to weddings, shoot locations, conferences, etc.

Compensation:

College credit and valuable hands-on, real-world training in equipment, lighting, interaction, marketing, post-production, ethical business, copyright, licensing, and other photography-related topics. Learn what you *really* need to know to run a successful photo business today!

This is a non-shooting position. Possible upgrade to paid Assistant position once trained.

My friend Carol is one of the most intelligent and inspiring people I know. She is marketing her Chic Meets Geek, a mult-faceted brand mainly about connecting people from differents sides of the fashion and tech industries. She also happens to be very pretty subject so while we talked about life and business in general, I made a variety of simple but poppy headshots to use on her blog.

While photographing a fun and sweet newly-engaged couple, Lili and Caelen, I got to check out a really cool bar in a lively neighborhood. They love living in SF and so chose to start their engagement shoot at Alamo Square park and in front of the postcard-famous "Painted Ladies". Afterwards we walked down the block to the bar where they originally met, Bar 821.

I love the feeling of getting dropped off at SFO.

People chitchat excitedly, having arrived from or departing to interesting places. Cheerful travelers outnumber the haggard commuters. Then there's the varied broken light and architectural features.

Traveling is also Tina and Pedro's favorite activity so we shot here again. With her beautiful organza dress, it was a little challenging but we managed to stay discrete. While I noticed suspicious stares from male security, we also got impressed smiles from all the women. This shoot was a lot of fun and very interesting for me.

I always try to find the personal angle. Everyone has endearing and unique memories, traits, and relationships and those things are what I want to convey most of all.

Gena and Nathan were referred to me via talented fellow Alameda photographer Anna Myers (thanks Anna!) and so I shot their wedding a short while ago. They dated in high school and these days work as youth pastors at Calvary Christian Church in Alameda. So it was extremely meaningful to them that we go back to their favorite Alameda locations as a newly-married couple.

First we went to the abandoned train tracks around the Fruitvale Avenue Railroad Bridge vertical lift draw bridge. The operator surprised us by lowering it for us to walk across. This is a pretty rare thing and I've never seen the structure lowered. Ours will certainly be the only photos of a bride on it, since vehicles and pedestrains are never allowed. Being open to the water below, that was pretty scary!

Afterwards, we went down to a dock on the Oakland Estuary that they often go together on breaks. Then back to Christian Calvary, where I had a lot of fun photographing them in the very bus that they drive on their mission road trips.

 A fun session with this lovely family in Alameda's tree-filled Lincoln Park. Met them the first time at my Park St. studio over a year ago and they came back again, this time for family holiday portraits. Fall colors, family sessions, and great light. I love this time of year.

Mauricio, 5, is really into the Oakland Raiders and wants to be their quarterback. So of course I had them just doing that.

If you're looking for personal, creative, and timeless photos of your family for the holiday season, drop us a line. There's not much time left! Christmas rush delivery cut-off is Dec 18th.

Brides: What's the most important part of your photographer's job?

My answer: That I make you feel completely at ease, so that you can fully experience the day. The best photos happen when you're having fun.

Cindy's a contagious smiler, and Aaron's the eldest of three brothers. Together they were present, stress-free, and enjoyed very moment together.

There were a lot of familiar faces there including recent past brides Anna and Aileen. Its somehow really fulfilling seeing former clients at weddings. Thanks again, ladies.

This venue photographs especially well with the late fall temps and colors. I'm inspired mostly by client personality and interaction, but unique details factor in too. Here I liked her organza dress and dahlia theme.

Normally I would never shoot a ring-in-a-flower, but made an exception that day.

I really enjoyed the team:

1. Makeup and Hair: Aimee Lam, makeupbyaimee.com. I'm still fascinated when MUA's airbrush.

2. Photo Assistant: Caroline Ikeji

3. Day-of coordinator: Alanna Grossnickle, Martinelli Events and Garre Winery

4. Videographer: Andy Hirsch, blue-moon-productions.com

5. DJ: Edwin Fabian, Spintronix

The three brothers.

Doubletree hallway + Muse on repeat  =

Cindy's sister Anna, reversing roles from only a couple months ago...

Good stuff from the Spintronix DJ.

My cameras have been getting soaked quite a bit lately...

Still haven't outgrown my love of electronica and Tiesto is one of my favorite DJ's. He's been rated the #1 dj in the world for many years now. So when I was assigned to shoot him for a local publication I jumped. Nina got to go as my "assistant", heh.