Vacation

Bay and Cayse with Santa "Would you like a cast

Oh my gosh! It has been so crazy around here with Christmas cards, shoots, print orders, etc. We need to take well deserved break from it all..... so we are.

We will be out of the office from December 23rd until January 2nd, 2007 (wow, it's here!).

The trip is going to be to El Dorado Hills (between Sacramento and Tahoe) where my uncle lives on a huge property with a few houses all the family gets to stay in- It's going to be great!

This will be the first time I will be with my other two brothers since we have all become photographers. My older brother Jeremy has been a hobbiest for 15 years or so (he's the one that got me interested way back.... now he's asking me for advice!) and my younger brother, Jonathan, has recently gotten in to it for his news site: www.bikeportland.org (the biggest bicycle site on the planet!). Jon has been getting some killer photos lately as you will see on his site. And Jer gets some great stuff too. I can't wait to have a little shoot out with them- there is so much to shoot there- lots of good nature and some cool old towns like Placerville.

The kids love it up there too! All the Maus cousins will be together to go nuts! They also love the horses and the wildlife.

I hope you all have a great holiday too!! Fun and Safe!

Cheers!
joel

Art Gallery

So I've got all these images from different trips just sitting on my hard drives.... I thought I would share some with the masses.

I've got photos from our trip to Italy in June '06, Yosemite in May '05, Nevis, West Indies in February '05, images from my first serious photo trip- solo drive to Alaska in '99, and some other random shots.

I will be updating the gallery as I get more images- like from Guadalaraja in January '07 (we are going there for a wedding but are staying 5 days to check it out and photo).

Click here then enter Artofemp and let me know what you think of them.

Cheers!

The New Guy

Ryan and Nikki got married in 2003- the early days! They were great to work with and I also shot Nikki's brother's wedding in 2004.

Sydney was Nikki and Ryan's first child- I got to shoot her just days after her birth... and now she's a big sister!!

Sydney:
With her new bro:


Who says you need a studio for shots like these?? This was on the couch in front of a window with reflectors bouncing some light back...
Sid is the best big sis!!
This shoot was so fun! It was nice to see them all again and I was honored that they call me for every important event in their lives- love you guys!

Funny story: Nikki's dad took up photography after her wedding and has been totally into it ever since. He makes some great photos- I saw a few at their house during the shoot. They have to sneak the shoots with me so as to not make him feel bad.

I love it: when Dad gets a good shot and shows the familly, they say "Great shot, Dad, but it's not a 'Joel' shot!"

Mandy and Dave

The news last week said it may rain this past Saturday so my engagement shoot with Mandy and Dave was up-in-the-air. What a crazy thing: the weatherman was wrong! The skies were blue and the temp was perfect! Jeni (my wife) was my assistant so Bay and Cayse just played on the rocks- they love any chance they get to go to the beach.

We shot in an undisclosed (top secret) beach in Laguna- Dave proposed there!! I love it when we shoot in a place with some meaning. They were so great to shoot- they were up for anything! Even standing on a rock in front of the waves! They got a little soaked once but they were troopers so we continued...

Straight from the camera as they walked:

I love the long shadows of afternoons in winter:
This cool light is from a reflector- they are a pain in the neck but you can't get this light any other way!!
These rocks were very cool with the diagonal lines- I usually have to tip the camera to get a dynamic image with diagonal lines. This was Photoshopped a little- dodging with the history brush in 'Multipy' mode and I used two curve adjustment layers as well- one for the subject and one for the rock.
They were cracking up because I couldn't stop shooting! I get a little excited sometimes as you know, if you have ever been in front of my camera. This shot was on the stairs on our way back to the cars- I just loved the lines of the stairs and the backlight. They were such pros- we shot about six frames here in about 15 seconds and got this great moment.

Christmas Cards

I have been doing many family shoots for the past month or two for Christmas cards and photo gifts. People still call to ask if there is time enough to do a shoot and get prints by Christmas.... With digital technology we can do a shoot, upload to the online gallery that night for customers to order and have prints the in the next day or two..... I love it!

Here is a card I just finished working on- I have been shooting this great family for the last three years and enjoy seeing the kids get older and older. They are great to work with too!!


Let me know what you think of this layout, it will be on the cover of a 5x7 folded greating card (I am doing so many of these this year but they all get a custom layout).

Give me a call if you would like to do a shoot!!

cool video

I just watched such a cool video- I had never seen it before- hope you haven't either.

I found the link on Toni Marano's blog.

Click here for the video and let me know what you thought of it.

newly discovered trick

Hey there, a new trick I just discovered... as usual, out of necessity.

Any PS guru will tell you that layers are the most powerful tool in PS- especially adjustment layers. I think layers were first introduced in version 2.0???

Find adjustment layers by clicking the small half black, half white circle at the bottom of the layers pallet.

My problem: my assistant is in the way.... again!! just playin'. We only had the small diffusion panel at the time and I accidentally got him in the shot:). I didn't want to crop the image to get rid of him... not sure why! I have a tough time cropping an image- I crop in the camera exactly what I want in the frame so..... I might crop .001% of my images.

Beginning image:
I use the healing tool most often (press J) but I find that when I need to get rid of something that touches the edge of the image the healer doesn't work so great- you can never really get rid of traces of the intruding object... so I use the rubber stamp tool (S) to cover it up then heal it to smooth the sharp edge if there is one.

I did the stamping part and was trying to heal out the uneven lines and shapes.... wasn't working?? It was hard to see the areas that weren't smoothing so I created a levels adjustment layer (click the black and white circle thingy I spoke of earlier and choose levels from the drop down menu). As adjustment layers don't effect the underlying image, I can do whatever I want without jacking up the image I want. I slid the blacks triangle toward the middle and the whites triangle too. This increased contrast so I could see exactly what areas were not smooth (see the clumpiness on the right?).

I then selected my image layer and did the healing.... when done, trash the adj. layer and you're all set!!
Happy turkey killin'. Or are you going soft and plan on buying a pre-killed one? Argh, Argh, Argh!!

surf contest

It's been awhile, but I have seen my Godson Nick at a surf contest or two. It's been a looonnnngg time- he's totally pro- and taller than me I think! He's surfed his whole life- lives a block from the beach in Sunset. He is now on the legendary Huntington High Surf Team- he's in his Junior year.

It is just crazy what a man he has become- I left a high school party (yes, I was in high school at the time) at 3am to see him in the hospital after he was born- I had to borrow an old beater VW bug to get there, but I got there!

When he was just two or three I actually lived with he and his mom and dad for a bit- we used to wrestle around and play all the time all over the house. He was the only child I was ever really close to besides my own. I remember when he said my name for the first time: "By uncle Dole!" when I was leaving one day- that was the coolest!

So here's this guy I knew better as a little baby, kickin' butt on the waves. See for yourself:

He is the coolest guy- respectful and humble- I am so proud and honored to be his Goddad!

See a slideshow here.

a new way to tell a story

I saw this in NY a couple of weeks ago at the Photo Plus Expo. Brian Storm showed it along with others in his lecture.

Check it out here.

The photographer, Ed Kashi, must've planned this beforehand to shoot the sequences as he did. Very cool idea!!

Leave a comment if you have seen or have thought of other cool ways to tell a story with photos.

update

UPDATE: Courtney and Bryan just sent me an email after seeing their slideshow:

JOEL!!!!

The photos are beyond amazing!!! We cannot wait to see the rest!!!

with many, many thanks,
Courtney and Bryan

LOVE IT!!!
.........I love my job.

Courtney and Brian

Such a cool wedding on Saturday- the couple was so great to work with, the coordinator was great as always (Jill Watson), the guests were all so cool, and the location (Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niquel) and the weather were perfect too. Courtney looked amazing- thanks to Mom and Dad's genes but also to Richard Dalton (hair) and Liza Coggins (makeup). Richard was Princess Di's personal daily stylist for 10 years! I love this shot and had to get it out to share:
Courtney was waiting in the crying room in the church. She was watching guests being seated and anticipating the upcoming ceremony.

Tip: This was practically in the dark. This is actually brighter than what I saw with with my eyes at the time..... You might be tempted to use a flash because it was so dark but that would totally spoil the mood.

I used my 50mm 1.4 lens because it is the fastest lens I have. It is the least expensive in my arsenal but I seem to use it the most! I used it at f1.4 to get as much light as possible. Also, I had to use 640ISO to make the shot- yep, it may be a bit noisy but I would rather have the noise than no shot at all. Anyway, in a moody shot like this the noise adds to the feel.

Another rule broken: I shot handheld at 1/20th of a second: a couple other shots were blurry due to camera shake but I got a couple that were tack sharp. Also, I shot in manual exposure- all the dark area would fool the camera into over-exposing her face..... manual is key.

See a slideshow of the first half (the whole wedding show will be up soon) of the wedding at www.emausphoto.com/slideshows, enter dudley.

NEW YORK CITY!

I am having a great time in NYC. I got in last night and took my first ever NYC taxi ride from JFK to Manhattan- at rush hour!! If you have never been- everything they say about them is true.... and I thought Italians were crazy!! I got to the hotel and talked to my friend Victor and we planned to meet at an art show opening in SOHO. I then took my first subway ride- solo- down to the party. We then met up with some people from GraphiStudio (my album company) at a bar then went to a party at another photographer's studio... then we crashed.
Today was the first day of the show- very cool. I love seeing world class photographers talk about their work- Steve McCurry was the last guy I saw today (you know, he shot the Afghan lady with super green eyes and a brown hood on... it was on the cover of Natl. Geographic about 20 years ago), his travel stuff is just amazing! I sat next to his assistant and intern.. they were young but so into photo- I love it!!
I then went to the largest photo store on the planet- B&H- but only spent $7.50!!!
After that I just walked around the city for a few hours- Times Square, 5th Avenue, Rockefeller Center... and back. Probably about 5 miles...
This was right outside the convention center between seminars:

What, the pigeons in NY can't read!:

Of course I've got to shoot the bikes- there are so may cool older bikes and the messengers are awesome!!:

Rockefeller center is just beautiful at night!:

I saw this at an old church right on 5th Avenue. I was alone on my walkabout so this really made me ponder life, politics, and the war. Each ribbon has the name of a fallen soldier in Iraq... this was only half of them!!

happy halloween

So much to shoot today!!
It started at 7:30 this morning before school:

Caysen:
Bailey: Then we went to the parade at school and I shot all the kids in both classes..... so funny to see all the little guys in costumes!!

Later, we will be going trick-or-treating around the block=== more photos still!!!

love it!

amazing support

I received an email today that made me feel proud to be associated with such amazing people. However, these feelings were bittersweet due to the circumstances:

To all WPJA Members,

As some of you already know, we have lost a member of the WPJA family due to an automobile accident. Michelle Otto, of Texas, was returning home from a wedding when her life was cut short.

We are all shocked and deeply grieved here about the loss of this very special individual. Our most heartfelt condolences have been sent to Michelle's family.

I would like to personally thank all WPJA members who have offered their support to Michelle's family. I am extremely proud of these members who took the initiative to give their time to help with her business and current clients. To me, this proves that we truly are a family here at the WPJA.

The following came to me from the family of Michelle:

"We have been contacted by several photographers with your organization who have offered to assist and we are going to accept that help. Thank you for an organization that instills that kind of care within its members. We are blessed by your compassion."

Our thoughts and prayers are with them in this time of mourning.

David Roberts
WPJA

I just read over the posts on the WPJA forum and was elated to see how many amazing people there are in the world. I felt a sense of security knowing that there are so many beautiful people around us everyday, everywhere. Humans are still human.

David Roberts started WPJA a few years ago. He is a well respected press photography veteran as well as a great wedding photographer.

Way to go David!!

wedding dress event

Amy's Guide, the newsletter is always full of good wedding planning news and advice: www.amysguide.com.

The most recent issue contained sales and events. If you haven't gotten your dress yet, you might want to check out this event:

Brides Against Breast Cancer returns to Los Angeles!
Friday, November 10, 10 am - 8 pm
Saturday, November 11, 10 am - 6 pm
FREE ADMISSION
Hyatt West Hollywood, 8401 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood
100% of proceeds from this event enable the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation to grant wishes.
Every wedding dress is at least 50% off, most priced between $89 - $799*
Original Values up to $4,000
Sizes 4 - 24, arranged by size to make it easy!
http://www.bridesagainstbreastcancer.org/

There are other sales and events accross the country- check www.amysguide.com for more info.

Thanks Amy!

Shilo Eatin' Sand

I had the great pleasure in shooting a new baby last weekend. Shilo is the daughter of past wedding clients Ian and Sara. They had such a cool wedding in San Diego a few years ago. Shilo is just plain CRAZY cute!

Daddy kinda likes his little girl.... KINDA?
she makes Mommy smile a lot too!

Shilo is so lucky to have parents that love her so so much. And even though they are new to the Mommy and Daddy thing , they are total pros!!
I love it, Sara just emailed me:

"Okay they are AMAZING! Seriously I started to cry when I saw my little baby. I don't know how we are going to pick and choose!

Thank you SO much Joel for capturing so many special moments and for capturing the true happiness that Ian and I feel when we are with our baby girl. You have an amazing gift... and well, you definitely have lifetime clients in us.

Thank you again...

Sara"

New Slideshow

Finally, I have a slideshow together for Robert and Kim's wedding at the Hyatt in Huntington Beach last month.....
-check it here-
They were so cool to work with and they had the beautiful venue decorated with such great style! I can't wait to shoot at the Hyatt again!
Rob and Kim were even up for more shots after the wedding- it ended at 4pm and we went out to the sand and shot around the hotel too- so cool!

let me know what you think!

horsie pics

Had a shoot last Sunday- I know a little slow posting- at a ranch in Murieta. It was such a cool place, very relaxing and soothing. I hope to get the kids out for a horsie ride soon. The weather was just perfect: it was a little cloudy when I got there, then, as the sun went down the clouds broke up and this awesome light was coming through the trees and spots of blue skies were showing through.
The kids were a riot- each with their unique personalities. The youngest broke the record for the time it takes to smile or laugh at me.... she was a hard ball for sure.

Click here and enter 'martin' in the box.

So here's the tip as this is a 'tips and tricks' blog: don't pop open reflectors around horses... especially if a seven year old is holding the reigns!! Horses don't like them so much and may bolt- I learned that one the hard way!

just about to hit the hay

I just came in to shut down my computer- I'll get an early start tomorrow... and found a great email I thought I should share:

"Joel surpassed every expectation we both had.. He is gifted with an eye for beauty and art in all photos. Our Wedding Day story has been told in such a complete and detailed way. Our children will someday be able to share our photos with their children, and so on through the family, and the beauty of that day will forever be recorded exactely how we PICTURED it.... Joel is the absolute best!!!!!! We have been blessed to have crossed paths....... Paul and Christine Loret "

How cool is that? I should print this on a billboard or something.

I guess I will sleep well tonight!

san diego slideshow

check out my latest slideshow from a wedding earlier this month at the Hotel Del Coronado. leave feedback please.

OLD MAN MOUNTIAN WON!!

YES!!

Channing at Old Man Mountain (I shot the bike last month) won the contest put on by Shimano!! Read about the shoot here. I knew that bike was the cream of the crop- Way to go Channing!!!

robert and kim

I figured I should be posting more of my shoots- weddings- for all y'all to check out. Yesterday was a cool one, at the Hyatt in Huntington beach. I worked Lisa Simpson (coordinator) for the first time (I have met her in the past at meetings, etc. but have never worked with her). Alex and Jeff were also there from Elysium Productions- the BEST videographers in the OC! Michele is the catering manager at the hotel (I shot her wedding in Aug.) and is just the nicest person. All these great people made for quite an enjoyable day!! The weather was perfect and the location is great too, so good shots were pretty easy to come by.....

loved this display of art- had to use it!

this was at the 'convention center' have you ever seen a cooler 'convention center'???

After the reception (it ended it at 4pm) we went down to the water for a few.....

Robert and Kim are genuinely great people and were such fun!!! Thanks guys!!

burn it

this post isn't really about one specific tip, just an overall idea about improving an image.
I took this shot about six weeks ago at the Turnip Rose in Costa Mesa. It was hard shooting in this room because it was 9:30 in the morning and the sun was blazing in the east facing window.

I liked the composition and the Bride's expression in the original shot but the color and exposure were terrible due to the fact that the sun was coming halfway up her dress and blowin it out while her face was underexposed.... What to do??

I started by using the sponge tool (grouped with the dodge and burn tools) to desaturate the blue on her dress. I then used a levels adjustment layer to darken the background (move the middle slider right to taste). I then used the mask to reveal the Bride. Her face was still underexposed so I used a curve layer mask to remedy that problem.

After the overall corrections, I used the burn tool to darken different parts of the background to fine-tune the look.

The last thing I did was use a texture layer (a photo of a huge metal door I took in Italy). I drug this over my image and changed the blending mode 'till I liked the effect. You can change the blending mode by selecting the layer in the layers pallet and changing the blending mode from normal to ??? I usually highlight it and scroll through them with the arrow keys. The other way to change it is to double click on the layer in the layers pallet and change the blending mode in the layer properties dialog box.

Burn, baby burn~

Last Kiss

Yes, me and Zach Braff go way back......

No, really, here is the true story:
Some really good friends of ours took us to the premier of the Last Kiss last night- so cool. We had an amazing dinner at Asia de Cuba at the Mondrian Hotel on Sunset. What a smooth place- the decor in the lobby was the coolest I have seen- very eclectic: old tree stumps for stools, yet very simple and clean, rustic old chairs right next to clean aluminum ones, nice warm tones- very relaxed and comforting.
And yes our table overlooked all of LA! The food was sooo good!!

Excuse the point and shoot images.... it is kinda cool sometimes to be forced to work with the limited features of a P&S...

A shot of Jeni and I on the way to the theater:
Sorry no photos of Zach!!

The movie was very good- felt very real (the lighting made parts of it look like a home movie- it gave a very 'real' feel) and makes you think about what marriage means... The best line said to Zach's character by his fiance's dad after he got busted cheating: Zach says "I'll do anything to make it up to her and show you that I am not going to mess up again". The Dad says "There is one thing you can do...... just do what it takes."

That's totally it in a marriage- just do what it takes- it's so simple! (sounding!)

We were freaked out seeing all the stars. Not only was the cast of The Last Kiss there, but so where all the Scrubs cast members!!! That is the one show we love to watch and they were all right there. Zach almost bumped into me! I talked to Neil Flynn (the Janitor), he is just like his character- so funny and cool! Turk was there too!!! I just wanted to give him a big handshake and a hug!! They were all so cool to each other- I'll bet it would be a great time on the set of Scrubs.

Then us nobodies were arguing about whether a guy there was the bad guy in Ghost. So I asked him: he cut me off and said in a I-get-that-all-the-time voice 'yessss'. Trying to recover I then asked if he worked on The Last Kiss: "Yes, I directed it." What a total jack-ass I felt like. His name is Tony Goldwynn and I felt like someone was going to come up behind me and throw me out!! I tried to recover again by telling him how much I liked the film and how it made me feel a closer connection to my wife of eight years. I think that did it... or maybe he was just very gracious. He was very nice.

Great night!

old man mountain

My brother- Jon, the bike guy in Portland- used to work for a custom frame builder when he lived in Santa Barbara: Channing at Old Man Mountain. I did a shoot for them a year or so ago and they liked what we got so they called a few weeks ago to shoot their newest creation: 'Frequent Flyer' commuter/ citybike. The images will be submitted to Shimano as their contest entry. The winner of the contest will have built a custom bike around a new groupo (a set of bike components) for urban bicycle commuters.

The groupo features disc brakes, an internal hub three speed, and the front hub generates power for a little headlight.... so cool.

Channing's creation totally blew me away- this guy has a passion for building frames like I have for making photographs. I could go on and on but all you non-bike geeks will just be bored.... if you're not already.

We were discussing the goal of the shoot: what feel the images would have, what we were going to show off, etc. When they mentioned the bike had a bit of a vintage airplane flair. I instantly thought of the Fullerton Airport as the location... and that was that. One problem: how in the world would some regular guys like us get access to shoot at the airport since 9/11?

We weren't sure where to go and decided on a little flight school office. The guy there was the coolest in the world. It is rare these days to find someone that will help you out not expecting anything in return. He said he welcomed the interruption as he was studying for some big test...

He took us to their hanger and to our surprise there was a classic Beech Bonanza. I didn't know what I was looking at other than it was a super clean and very cool older plane (notice the 'V' tail wings). Turns out it is a classic- Channing knows all about it- and every other plane. We got schooled about them all- he grew up around planes: His great grandfather was Lindberg's mechanic, yes, Charles. Channing's Great Gramps helped build the Spirit of St. Louis!!!! Hi grandfather had an airstrip right on the sand in SB- where the Biltmore is now..... so crazy!!

The flight school guy was totally trippin' out when he found all this out- as was I.

Here are a few of our faves:check the little pulley where the brake cable goes by the seatpost.....

yes, those are little custom teardrop 'hub caps' with a one-of-a-kind security nut (the circle with two little holes) so no one can steal the wheel.

Channing fashioned these bars from a solid brick of aluminum!!

I love this stuff- Not only am I extremely fortunate to shoot what I love for a living: weddings- Photo has also given me so many amazing experiences like this... someone pinch me!

under exposed jpeg

finally a post about photoshop!! sorry, it has been awhile, hasn't it.

so I first heard about this technique a few years ago at a seminar but never really started using it- just too stuck in my favorite little world of curves--- for everything: over, under, color shift, you name it!!

I have found that to greatly reduce the noise in bringing back an image from the dead. the best way is to copy the image layer (ctrl. J) and change the blending mode of the new layer to 'screen' then do a final curve (see, still get to use my old pal, Curvey) to fine tune it.
If the image is very dark simply keep hitting control J until it looks close (do this after you change the blending mode and before the curve).

If the image is just a little under: lower the opacity of the screened layer copy to lessen the effect.

I recently changed my 'underexposed' action to include this technique instead of the major curve correction and it is pretty amazing some of the shots that get saved.

check it out....

extra credit

Last week one of my couples was gracious enough to participate in my demo DVD. This is going to be the demo to top all demo's!! Alex and Julie Hill over at Elysium Productions are the coolest- they love helping people grow their business and find sucess. They have been so kind as to help produce it- and lucky me, they are the best in the business! Alex actually came over with his HD camera to get some footage of Zipporah and Oliver ( wedding was a couple of weeks ago) looking through their album and saying amazing things about their experience with me. I could've sat there all night listening to all the cool things they said.

After that we all headed to Salt Creek to get some footage of me shooting them- yes they got back in their suit and dress for me!! I took a few real shots while Alex was getting video- here's one:

Thanks guys, so much, for all your help. I am so lucky to be surrounded by such great people. Zippy and Ollie: Good luck in Chicago!! Talk soon!

Jared Bauman Rocks!!

So yesterday I had a wedding at Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego (very cool place). I gave myself three hours to get there thinking that traffic might be bad. Traffic turned out to be worse than bad- it was horrendous!!! I was on and off the freeway trying to 'swoop' but other's had the same idea and all the streets around the 5 were clogged. My assistant, Stefanie, was a good sport- she didn't even puke due to my erratic driving.

I realized when it took us two hours to get to Dana Point I was not going to make it to the wedding on time- the worst feeling in the world!!!

I was totally freaking out and started calling some photographers in SD that I know to see if they could cover me. Only voicemails!!

As I was driving over the pass (Ortega Highway) to escape the interstate 5 parking lot I lost reception on the cell phone! It was like stepping back in time 10 years- I have no idea how we ever made it without mobile phones! I felt totally helpless and we were stuck behind the slowest car/ driver ever to exist!

When reception was restored I had Jeni (my wife) calling photographers (she was home) out of the blue. She got Jared Bauman's cell from another helpful photographer and told him the deal (I called his office line earlier but just got v.mail). He had no idea who we were but was just the coolest- I could've been some Joe Schmoe for all he knew but he totally wanted to help, he was calling other shooters and giving us numbers too. He couldn't do it because he had some appointments in the OC and was getting ready to head north...

When we couldn't find anyone to help he made some changes to his plans and headed to the hotel to cover for us!!!

So, Jared is now our big hero guy- Jeni and I are so amazed by his kindness and generosity!

I got there about an hour late and of course the girls were running late too, but Jared was there covering the getting ready portion of the day (he did a damn fine job by the way- he is a great shooter!)- it all ended up great as the coordinator Emily Smiley and the Bride were very understanding- Emily actually asked for some brochures and cards after seeing the images on my slideshow!!

A great end to a day that started out so horribly.

I am so fortunate to know all the photographers I do. Wedding shooters are the greatest people (maybe we are so happy and helpful because we get to do what we love for work!), they/we are all ready to help when need be- and we are all competitors!! I was on Jared's turf and he was still amazing!

Other helpful photographers who didn't even know us were Kristen Peelle (thanks for all the numbers) and Lauren Dillon- she was in San Francisco at an event but gave us some numbers of other shooters. She then called back with more!! you guys are the best- thanks so much!!!

Thanks Jared, you are the man! I am indebted to you always.

shut up!!

I finally won a first place on WPJA!!!!! I have been a member of the Wedding Photojournalists Assoc. for a few years now and have placed many times, including a second place and a third place, but the elusive first place has never been captured. There are so many amazing photographers competeing from around the world, I honestly never thought I would win a first place...


This shot was taken right after the ceremony- this little girl and her sister would not stop spinning, they loved the way the dress flared out... lucky for me I got a few shots off before she stopped... I loved shooting the flags- they were all over the place (Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda).

JUDGES COMMENTS: This is an example of a picture that says what words cannot. But, I guess I’ll give it a try. This picture is all about energy. The photographer found the motion of the legs, the twirl of the white dress, in contrast to the earth-bound black legs in the background and the ceremonial severity of a line of flags. The result is that the dancing legs are even lighter, faster than they would be if the background were of other dancers.

free photoshop tutorials

I recently noticed a bunch of video podcasts in iTunes that subscribed to a some time back. Of course these were a surprise because I forgot that I subscribed!! I love having no memory- it's like getting Christmas presents from myself and not knowing what they are!!!

OK, I will get on with it.... the guy's website is www.photowalkthrough.com and has some pretty cool tutorials. Like any lesson, there will be some stuff you already know about but there will also be new ideas and techniques you can add to your arsenal.

Check it, watch it, try it.

new hats

bay and cayse got cool new hats from the OP Pro (or whatever they're calling it these days) and love wearing them... they are just too damn cute...

pizza party

Last night was our first night enjoying the Italian pizza oven my step-dad built... There were quite a few people there and I had to leave early so I didn't get to eat as much as I had hoped..... I got a few slices of the Italian style margehrita (sp) pizza (tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil....