Shopping Day!

Yes, 'shopping day'...

As you may know if you have ever been to our house, my wife is a total pro decorator and treasure hunter. Our kids had a sleep-over at their cousins' on Saturday night so I agreed to hit the junk piles- scratch that, flea markets- with her on Sunday morning.

She was easy on me- we didn't leave before sunrise like she usually does... I got to sleep-in until 7 or so!!

Flea markets are serious stuff for her- I had to fuel up with Starbucks in order to keep up- it's kinda like walking somewhere with the kids- they have to practically jog to keep up with you.

So I was out on my jog around these booths with old crap from all over the world while Jeni was chatting with her junk buddies and scanning each booth like a lion scanning for gazelle. She can scan a whole booth of stuff in about 3.4 seconds... and move on to the next one.

Actually, I love old stuff and there was a bunch of very cool things to check out and photograph of course!! I just brought my little point-n-shoot so I wouldn't scare the vendors.

These old metal balls were from France- the couple that ran this booth were French- there were people from all over the world there!!
There is lots of fun costume jewelry... I loved the shape and arrangement of these mannequins:

This guy had some super cool stuff, Jeni loved these old wooden bowling pins- he knocked them over so we could experience the unique sound of real wood pins falling over. It took me back to the old days sitting in a smoke filled bowling alley playing as a child. This wasn't a regular occurrence growing up, but we did it a few times.

The owner of the booth informed us that the decorators from Anthro were recently at his house picking up stuff for a new location coming to the OC- Jeni hopes it's in Fullerton!!After the flea market in Santa Monica, we went to a shop on Melrose after getting a famous 'Pinks' hot dog. Then we headed for Venice to check out another shop called Bountiful. Jeni was short of breath at this place- so much cool, unique stuff. This shot was taken out back were the only stuff we could afford was located..... For me, the junkier and more worn, the better! We got a few frames from down South and split.
As we left this shop, we saw Paris Hilton in a photo shoot- right in front of the store and the store next door. It was cool, they had the camera on a tripod right there in the street with a computer and a bunch of people standing around it criticizing each shot.... I love weddings!!

(although a shoot like that would be blast to do!)

We returned home with only a few things... and I got a plant as my reward for being a good sport!

Total Tally:
flea markets- 2
antique shops- 3
miles travelled- 80
venti coffees- 2
photos-75

Ebony and JR

Our wedding was in San Diego on Saturday- the location was great to photograph, the weather was perfect and the couple were a joy! The ceremony was at the San Diego Mission- I couldn't stop shooting the place!

The history can be seen and felt everywhere: in the worn Tera cotta tile floor, the weathered old wooden doors, the patina on the door handles, the hand hewn beams in the ceiling, the hand painted details, and just the overall feel you get being in the midst of these old surroundings.

the floor in the church:Ebony, as you can see, has the most amazing smile... you can't help but smile when you see her laugh!
The front of the church as Ebony went in t0 be married:
The reception was out on Harbor Island- this was taken right on the side of the road! I was about two rocks from the water and was just freakin' out on the shots we were getting!
It was a long day- I left my house at 8am (gave plenty of time for traffic!) and returned at about 1am- but I had a blast with Ebony and JR and am so pleased with the images we got!

See more on their slideshow!!

Gia's Here!

Gia is the new daughter of Ryan and Catherine, past wedding clients of mine. We did a pregnancy shoot a few months ago and I have been itching to meet this girl ever since!

It is the coolest thing to get called for every important event in someone's life. I am so gratefull to be able to provide such an important service to people.

Wow, getting a little too mushy?? Sorry, it's how I feel.

Ryan and Catherine are just the cutest couple, I had a blast at their wedding and actually won an award for an image I made of them. I think it did well because they are so dang nice to look at!!

The shoot today went very well, Gia was a little trooper- she's a natural model!

The other great thing was the amazing light in their home. they have windows on the whole south side of the their house which lights up the sheer blinds to create a ginormous soft-box!

Cool funktified effect created in Adobe's new Lightroom (it's still in the beta version):
That's the cool light I was talking about, coming from the left (it makes it too easy).
This is up in the nursery. I was shooting the cute little door hanger that said 'Shh, Baby's Sleeping' and got the idea to shoot their little private moment of joy through the doorway to give the shot a more private, intimate feel.
I love this little moment. You can tell Mom is heaven! She and Ryan are just amazing with her, I can tell that Gia is their whole world and know that she will become an amazing person due to their love.

My Bro's on the News!

My younger brother, Jon, started BikePortland.org less than two years ago after moving to Portland and finding that there were a huge number of cyclists and not much online info about bikes in the big city. Now he owns/runs the most popular bicycle site on the planet!!

He recently posted a story about a couple of young cyclists getting beat up while riding in one of the tougher neighborhoods in Portland. Comments about similar incidences were coming in like ants to a Skittle.

The local ABC news affiliate monitors his site for good stories and noticed how concerned people were getting about this post. A reporter was at Jon's house within 48 hours of posting about the girls, interviewing him for the 11 o'clock news!

Check it out here: http://www.katu.com/news/5277051.html

I was stoked for Jon about getting on the news, of course my older brother and I had to rag on him a little... but he is sincerely proud that his creation, Bike Portland.org, is getting so many important issues in front of so many people. And I am so proud of him too.

Here's Jon with his family from Christmas:


Way to go Jonny!!!

George and Terry at the Montage

Sunday we had perfect weather for a wedding at The Montage Resort in Laguna. It was pretty windy but it totally died down just for the ceremony!! It was amazing!

EMP had the 'Dream Team' there to cover the event in all it's beauty- Brandon and Stefanie were with me to get it all.

I started in Terry's room to get some detail shots and to record the girls prepping for the big moment. I knew right away Terry had style when I saw her dress and the pearl necklace- very elegant attire for an elegant and classic looking girl.

The flowers were done by Enchanted Florist- just amazing!:

The necklace (which later got changed to a beautiful diamond one):

I love the color of the rooms at The Montage, it works so well with the soft light from the sliding glass door for images like:

This was taken from about twenty five feet up to get a cool view never before seen at the Montage (that I know about!):
Right after the ceremony Terry was pretty excited about her ring!:
Under the natural rock arch (Terry was a trooper getting across the rough terrain with high heels!):
To make a perfect day even better, Alex and Jeff from Elysium were there along with Jeannie and her crew from Details Details. And the party went off due to the musical mastery of Peter at Vive Inc.

To see more images check out a little slideshow, click here.

Trees are Good

As some of you know, I am a bit of a nature boy. I love gardening and enjoy being surrounded by nature. I recently found a company that collects and distributes cardboard boxes- what a cool idea, reusing them uses way less resources as compared to recycling them! Check them out here.


At their site, I found a plethora of cool links to environmental sites, one being www.treesaregood.com. Great site to learn all about planning, planting, and maintaining trees in your yard or the office. There are many great reasons to plant big trees.

The best reason for me is using a deciduous (leaves fall off in Autumn) tree in front of a south-facing window because we have huge window (9 feet by 9 feet) on the front of our house- south-facing. In summer the leaves shade the house to help keep it cool and in the winter the leaves fall off to allow the sun to warm us up! Sometimes it actually gets too hot in here in winter... even with some tinting on the windows!

I find trees and plants very relaxing to be around- I think because there are no hard lines just natural, curvy, lines. Fluttering leaves is very calming as well- like watching a water fall.

Check out the site and plant some trees!!! you'll be glad you did!

Out and About in Guadalajara

Our wedding this past Saturday was in Guadalajara and we were there for a few days so we (My assistant Brandon and I) had a chance to walk around the neighborhood we stayed in as well as the Historical Center downtown.

Love the bright colors:Our first stop after checking in at the hotel was at a taqueria... awesome tacos for fifty cents each- we had a plateful along with a 'Coca' then continued on our walk about. There were some very nice houses with manicured yards and clean paint along side more run-down houses... a little like a middle-class neighborhood in the US.

The day after the wedding we were able to go downtown. The buildings were incredible- huge Spanish style cathedrals and other buildings. Many people were out enjoying the nice evening. Family seems to be very important in this culture. In the main plaza downtown there was an enormous fountain, lights on all the large buildings, people hanging out everywhere, lots of little markets and shops- coffee, frozen yogurt, donuts, food, etc.

While taking in the sights we were bombarded with sounds: a preacher on a super-loud PA system, whistles, horns, people talking and laughing, tour buses motoring by, music, etc. It was a lot to take in...

A very nice young lady approached us as we were shooting things like garbage cans and the cobblestones to tell us the location of street performers... we went to check it out... As soon as one of the clowns saw my flash go off he immediately invited be into the center of a circle of 200 or so people! He must have been pretty funny because all the Spanish speakers were busting up when the clown would speak and point at me!! I know some Spanish but not when it's coming at me at 100 miles an hour! We were there for about a half hour until the show was over..... after our photo was taken the clown handed me his card and asked if I could send him some photos for his site.... cool!

We had a blast and got some cool shots:
The main Cathedral downtown:
After Brandon and I joined the circus!
Check out the slideshow.