• Welcome!

    Hi there and welcome to the blog! I am James Willard of Bel Inizio Photography. Here I will be sharing my latest weddings, my personal works and even answering a few questions asked by my brides and fellow photographers. Oh and don’t be surprised if the cutest puppy in the world, Lulu, makes a few cameos as well. This year marks my fifth wedding season so buckle your seat belts and feel free to ask away!

    Bel Inizio is Italian for “beautiful beginning”. My lovely wife Bridgitte coined the name and the moment it rolled off her tongue, I knew it was the most elegant way to describe my wedding art. I love not only taking a step back to capture the day as unfolds, but capturing beautiful portraits as well. It’s all about telling a love story, about freezing a moment in a timeless state for generations to come. I’m also super laid back and want to be the happy super fun ambassador to the wedding as well. It’s all about the wedding day experience. The Bel Inizio experience. Are you a Bel Inizio bride?

    Be sure to bookmark this page and check back often for all the latest wedding goodness!

Jan 27 2012

Bel Inizio 2.0

Posted in Just Talk

So after 10 months of designing, testing, designing and more testing I’m finally D.O.N.E.. With help from the Wife and Friends I am finally heading towards a different light. I had been worried so much on how I presented my work and my style that it has consumed my soul.

Go ahead and check it out. Take a look that the new gallery’s that randomly change the order every time you click on them. It is like it has new images all the time. There you will find many, many images to look through. Portraits, Engagements and of course Weddings. Oh and lets not forget  the Lulu section. Yes Lulu my dog has a page. Why not. lol.

So my next thing i am working on is a personal site that i can show off my other loves of  photography. Street life, Music, Fashion and my fine art to name a few. But that is another 4 months away so stay tuned for that.

So go check it out and would love to here what you think.

www.belinizio.com

 

 

Posted in Just Talk
Oct 06 2011

Natalie’s Senior Session

Posted in Images, Portrait, Slideshow

Doing a shoot for a high school senior has to be one of my favorite shoots to do. Especially when there is a teenager that gets in to it like Natalie did. See I approach senior sessions like i would if i was doing a fashion shoot.  So as we started out on our session I was leading the pack (me, Natalie and Mom) down a steep trail on the way to our first location. As I took a few steps on the steep slope I had slipped a little bit. All of a sudden I heard the sound you never want to hear, especially when you’re about to slip again. The unpleasant sounds of a  rattlesnake. It was about 5 feet straight down the slope all coiled up and ready to strike. Thank God I caught myself. So now before I was able to take one single picture I already wanting to pack it in and go home and change my pants. But I didn’t and we moved on with our session. I’m so happy we did. As we got to the bottom of the hill and to the railroad tracks all of a sudden we hear the train approaching. So with out any warning I told Natalie to stand about 15 feet from the tracks and pose for some shots. Usually this is a bad idea because I have no way of talking her through some poses. She was no modeling experience at all and I don’t think she has even thought about how to pose or position herself for photos. So now with a very loud 200 ton freight train flying by we attempted to try and take some images while directing her with hand signals. Let me tell you she did it like she had been modeling for years. When that was done I knew the rest of our sessions was going to be incredible. Oh did I mention she loves photography as well. I told her to bring her camera a long as a prop and she might like to take a few images at the old train graveyard we went to the second half of our session.  So let it be a lesson to everyone. Don’t slip on a 5-foot rattlesnake; it could have ruined one incredible Senior Session.

I would like to Thank Natalie and Maureen (aka Mom) for letting me blog about this great senior session. Also I would like to wish Maureen a speedy recovery from Back surgery. I am praying for a speedy recovery

Posted in Images, Portrait, Slideshow
Jun 27 2011

Anna+Scott=About time

Posted in Images, Slideshow, Wedding Tags:

When I go and photograph a Wedding I always get to know the story behind the Couple. Well in this wedding I have known about it first hand. Anna (the Bride) and I have known each other for many years. Almost as long as I have been doing Weddings. I would see her almost every month when I would get my hair-did from her colleague and friend Catie. Just to see her and how excited she got about her upcoming wedding was so awesome. So as the date got closer I remember talking to her about what she wanted from me. Her exact words were, “You do what every you want James, I totally trust you”. Anna & Scott I hope that trust in me paid off with some great visual memories for you both to have for a long and happy life together.

Anna and Scott’s Wedding took place at Saint Michael’s Church in Livermore California. It was beautiful. The Reception took place at the incredible Casa Real at Ruby Hills Winery in Pleasanton California. This place is one awesome venue. It doesn’t get better than this. The Flower arrangements and bouquets were from Delford West Flowers. They were all so very nice with just the right amount of color in them.  So a party isn’t great until the music starts. The always fun and Incredible DJ Kevin Dennis of Fantasy Sound Event Services makes it all come together so perfectly. Oh and the lighting they do is out of control. Lets not forget to give the mother of the bride credit for the incredible alterations she did to create the awesome dress that Anna envisioned! Fine Alterations by Lynn Schmidt. With all the cast and characters with this wedding it all went so perfectly. It was a “Beautiful Beginning” to the start of their wonderful married lives together.

I do want to thank my awesome assistants at this wedding. I had Dan O’Hara. He himself is an incredible Filmmaker and runs the very successful O’hara Films. Well he has been asking me for sometime now if he could come out and be my second shooter. Well this one Wedding fell into an opening in his schedule he had. What a great time we had.   I also brought in another Assistant Galen Ducey. From the start I fed him to the Guy’s. But from what I heard he fit right in. Thanks guys. I couldn’t have done it with out you.

Posted in Images, Slideshow, Wedding
Jun 18 2011

Yeeeee Haaaaa!

Posted in Images, Personal, Photography Questions, Slideshow

I am asked almost every Meeting I have “What do you like to Photograph when your not doing Weddings?” I have so many things I love to shoot. I love to go out and photograph the world and things that people look past everyday and let them see the art behind it. I love to go to the City and talk to the Homeless and hear their stories and photographing them as Humans and not fixtures you try to avoid. I love to shoot my Lulu. It was 6 years ago I was hired to shoot for the Livermore Rodeo. I did this for 3 or 4 years and loved every minute of it.  I liked it so much that I still go back and photograph it. But since I wasn’t on the clock and didn’t have a schedule to go by. I am now able to go capture the preparation these Athletes and Warriors from the PRCA go through right before they mount a bareback horse or a 2000 pound bull.

When I arrived back behind the scenes, there is an eerie calmness. The place is full of people and not much talking. The sounds of the crowd from across the arena and the announcers voice fill the air. Then you hear a loud clanging and it gets louder and louder. These are the Horses for the bareback riding heading into their shoots.  Now the Cowboys go to there shoots to get ready to ride. Well try to ride. These horses are no way willing to let them, no matter what it takes. Right before they get on I noticed many kneel and pray. After seeing this many of times, I don’t blame them. So now they begin to get on. The saying “you can cut the tension with a knife” This is that moment. As they do they get a look in there eyes, a focused. Nervous stare. If you were in front of this stare they would look right through you. Now it’s time, He’s ready. His helping cowboys talking Him up with “Do this” and “Make this one count, Son”.  The rider raises his one free hand and gives the Cowboy manning the gate the nod that he is ready to go. Once that gate opens the horse is on the opening instantly. The horse moves fast and abrupt in an explosive manner. There is no way you can anticipate what this  horse will do next. 8 Seconds for the rider must seem forever, if you make it that long. On this day there wasn’t many. So now remember the horse isn’t going to stop and let you off. You have to jump off.  This is all for an 8 second ride that must seem like eternity.  This is what I love to do. Photography has let me experience so many things. Most people will never get to see. This is just one of those things. I would truly like to give a huge thank you to the Livermore Rodeo for giving me this awesome opportunity.

Posted in Images, Personal, Photography Questions, Slideshow
Jun 13 2011

Im going to be your Mama and say “I told you so”

Posted in Just Talk, Personal, Wedding Questions

Below is a letter I received from Mary from San Francisco. Mary was a bridesmaid at a wedding I Photographed in 2008.  So in October of 2010 Mary and I had a meeting together and we talked about Bel Inizio photographing her wedding. I felt that our meeting went great and was looking totally forward in shooting her wedding. So a week after our meeting Mary had informed me that they were NOT going to be using Bel Inizio for there wedding. She had said that they had decided that they were going to cut cost and let her cousin do the photography.  I guess her cousin was a student that took photography in college and did some great work. But like I inform everyone,  “Being a photographer and being a Seasoned Professional Wedding Photographer are two different things.”  So go and read Mary’s letter she sent me.

Hello James and Bel Inizio,

This is Mary C******. You may not remember me but I was in the Bridal party at J**** & H**** Wedding in 2008 and I had a meeting with you in October about you photographing my wedding that I just had a few months back. Well we had decided to have my cousin photograph our wedding instead of Bel Inizio. I would have to say that this was the WORST decision that I have ever made during the planning of our wedding. I know now I should have booked you right there on the spot at our meeting and not have worried about saving a few bucks.  I have to be serious when I tell you that I thought that anyone with any knowledge of photography and any skill with a camera could have given me what I wanted on my wedding day. I guess after watching you work and making it look so effortlessly I thought that with a little direction I could have him pull it off. Well that couldn’t be anywhere close to the truth.  I cannot believe that after spending $50,000 on my wedding the only memories I have of that day is a few awful images and a dress I have in my closet collecting dust. I am now your biggest fan and will tell the world about Bel Inizio and what a mistake it will be not to have you photographing there most important day. I also want to give you a sincere apology for thinking that a person calling themselves photographers could do what you do. James you are a true artist in weddings and the real deal and I am so jealous I never got the Bel Inizio Experience I so deserved.

 

Sincerely, Your number one fan,

Mary C******

 

Well Mary and I have became great friends and I am now in line to photographing 3 of her friends Weddings as well as becoming Mary’s Family Photographer. So don’t do what Mary did. Invest in the Memories of your once in a life time moment and have the Bel Inizio Photography experience you truly deserve.

Posted in Just Talk, Personal, Wedding Questions

« Older posts

© 2011 Bel Inizio Photography ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | ProPhoto3 by NetRivet Sites

wordpress com stats plugin

F a c e b o o k
T w i t t e r