couldn't help myself....

I'm out of the blogosphere this week. Visit www.aprilgreer.com and email me if you need something ASAP.

We'll be in touch soon...just busy, busy, busy!

Much love to my blogstalkers.

April is a smiley, personable, and vivacious seattle wedding photographer. For the full effect on seattle's newest fashion & lifestyle photographer visit her website.

"When it comes to humility,I'm the greatest."

BULLWINKLE

"If I had humility, I'd be perfect."
TED TURNER

Two indicators of roughin' it:

• bad breath (Hhhhhhoooowww do you DOooo)


• lack of humility (Me, Me, Me, Me, moi, moi, mine all mine)

It wigs me out to observe artists boast about the latest & greatest DVD's, slideshows, newest work, biggest camera, most lucrative budget, ridiculously expensive products without recognizing how much its ruining our industry. How did marketing get lost in a cycle of elitist habits?

I read a blog post a while back by a photographer who shall remain nameless. Obviously talented, Mr. Nameless seems like a cool guy, nice website, great work. Except that he tells people how famous he is, repeatedly, in his blog. Its all so pretty and wedding-ish until these tarty ego tidbits smear the overall voice. The other day I went off on a tangent to Ray (my fiance) about not liking the ego in this industry, how bad its getting, when he said something really interesting. He just dumped a 'ray-ism' on me. Ray told me: 'Just be the humble professional.'
No offense meant to bust out decent & talented photogs, but for heaven's sake when did photographers become totally self-centered? My passion is photography in every way, but someone hit me with a frying pan if get too cocky.

Does this sound humbly professional to you? "I showed Chris my work and he made my day by asking, “Wow, am I sitting next to someone famous?” I am not putting down less expensive photographers, or people that don’t have the budget to spend more. It is just that I feel, (and have been told numerous times) that my images and experience speak for themselves."

Wedding Statistics

Stumbled across these today...thought-provoking!

Across the US during the engagement period, couples buy:
$4 billion in furniture
$3 billion in house wares
$400 million in tableware (salad forks?)

June is the most popular month for weddings
35% of weddings occur in the summer
$22,000 is the average amount spent on a traditional American wedding
$93,750 in dollars of an average Japanese wedding

Wedding Locations:
Las Vegas (100,000 weddings/year)
Hawaii (25,000 wedding/year)

The BRIDE:
Four out of five brides are employed.

Timing:
16% of weddings are in the morning.

Details: 67% of women continue to wear the same fragrance they wore on their wedding day

WEDDING COSTS BY CATEGORY

Reception 28.3%
Consultant 15.0% (if hired)
Wedding Rings 11.5%
Bridal Gown 6.1%
Groom's attire 0.8%

Honeymoon
Couples spend an average of $4,000 on their honeymoon.
That's three times as much as the average U.S. adult spends on a vacation.
The length of an average honeymoon is seven days.

Transportation Used for Honeymoon
76.2% Airplane
2.7% Railroad ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Motofish Photo Shoot 01/27

~FIESTA!~

The sun covered every angle of Seattle today, what a great day for a photo shoot! This one in particular, had a Quincinera theme, In case you don't know: its a 15th birthday celebration for young ladies in Latino culture...Its similar to the traditional American sweet 16. The resulting images will eventually be marketed to stock agencies. What I'm learning about the Greg & Chris, founders of Motofish, is that choas is a beatiful thing!! At least 25 people were on set today at the El Centro De La Raza in Beacon Hill. Overall, it was successful and tons of fun.

See the video below for the inside scoop...

I just want to give mad props to my blog readers out there! Thanks for keeping in touch! if you want to see more of this or that, lemme know!

Gettin Snappy.

<--check out this photo shoot-->

Julie works her makeup magic with April Brimer.

G-money setting up a great shot with William. The Big Pro is a 7 foot wide umbrella. Ha ha...this one's for the muffin pics and cliff bars.

This model was from Argentina, lovely accent, foxy flavor.

The lighting set was incredible.

Macs are much less intuitive than PC's.

Smells like mischief!

Here are a few stills from today's shoot with C-dog, G-money, T-bone, and fabulous local talent from SEATTLE. I love this city!! At the bus stop, on the streets, regardless of where you go or what you drive, there's always an interesting soul to connect with. I wish I could post a few shots from the shoot, but I can't post until there's clearance from the big dawgs....in the meantime here's a few to chew on...not the greatest pics, I know, but its dark in there!.

Phrase of the day: Jump in feet first and swim to the top. SEE THE VIDEO BELOW!

Commercial Photo Shoot

This was a great shoot, lots of fun people on board! Go Motofish!

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
Albert Camus

I found myself daydreaming about my family's vacation over the holidays. Although its beautiful and sunny in Seattle today, what I wouldn't give to be back at the same place this photo was taken! This time, with a glass of wine, a good book, and sunlight. If only for an hour...daydreaming is the great escape!

Identify the object in this picture.
Is it: a) a blueberry muffin b) a donkey c) a figurative illustrative of April ?

You guessed it! its' letter "c" ! A picture of ME! How lovely!
Today, I acted as a stand in on set for hipster photographer Christopher Cumming (www.christophercumming.com) He repeatedly and mercilessly asked me to stand in front of the camera as a "model" to ensure the lighting was correct for several portraits of important business people. When I peeked over his shoulder at the pictures he took of me (test pictures), I experienced a kind of gag reflex. In fact, it dawned on me that I couldn't talk myself out of it anymore. There was no rationalizing, 'oh, its just water retention' or 'the shirt shrunk in the dryer.'
IT IS SO MUCH WORSE THAN I IMAGINED!!!
I have a nice, plump, unyielding, muffin top!
Eeeewwww!!!!! My first reaction was to steal the camera, book to the nearest body of water where I'd toss the camera in, hoping that it would it sink and instantly become water-logged beyond digital capture. However, this is against moral human standards. So I just let him take the picture.

Let me add: in the coming days I will not be available. I will be at the gym, night, day, in my sleep and awake trying to get rid of THIS GIRL'S MUFFIN! Enough already of being mistaken for a hobbit!! I work out at the gym, seriously, 5 times a week, do resistance training, eat chicken, veggies and sugar-free everything AND live with a dysfuntional thyroid (yes, its true) and I'm getting nowhere except further down muffin-lane!!! Gag me with a spoon!!!

I will now end this post and head for my new home, the gym. I will make friends with the weights and become one with the treadmill.

Until then...

Wesa & Carl

"Its not about the pomp & circumstance..." Carl said today about planning a wedding. Not more than 5 weeks away, I don't sense a stressed fiber between the two of them. Not. At. All. Its simply beautiful!! With family & friends helping out with every aspect of the wedding, it couldn't be better. They chose Seattle Center for an engagement session with the perks of park + city. Something about the park revved my creativity into little jumping beans this afternoon! Wesa & Carl were so in tune with each other, I snapped over 900 photos in 2 hours.

Funny sidenote: Ray is bad with names. Really awful. Its a gamble to trust him with anything besides historical facts, much less a grocery list. Initially, when we're hired by a new couple, he needs little code names (until he gets to know them better). His code name for Wesa & Carl is 'Liv & Aragon' because Wesa has an amazing resemblance to Liv Tyler and Carl reminds me of Aragon from Lord of the Rings. Long hair, good looking, etc. They're just a few weeks away from tying the knot and I can't wait!!! Their warm spirits compliment each other like peanut butter & jelly. Shooting photos of them made me feel all giddy behind the camera. Enjoy!

ouch.

Docu-style portraits are my growing pains at 26. Besides keeping me on my toes while shooting, this style of portraiture is like a thinking-outside-the-box excercise. Totally hurts my brain to break the traditional portrait standards, but it works wonders. The brain-pain is similar to the pain athletes experience when lactic acid releases into the muscles (except without the obvious physical benefits). Improvement through excercising (brain or bod) is inevitable!

A good pain so to speak.

Docu-sessions keep my mind's eye in tip-top shape. Why? Because there are NO RULES! No more comfort of umbrellas, remote flash, or even reflectors. Too much to fiddle with and totally out of the question with kids. Wide open aperture, speedy focusing, lots of battery power, fast handywork, and a spare poncho. Forget the cheezy backgrounds and ditch the props. This style is about letting kids be KIDS. Yee-haw!! These kids were FUN!!!! I loved their sense of adventure at the creek and the ability to forget the camera. Throughout the photo shoot, mom kept yelling "that's okay! we can wash it!" Bless her heart. I love these photos-

I'd like to begin a weekly feature spotlighting Seattle's most talented wedding professionals. I'm introducing them here on my blog!

She's profiled on Junebug weddings and mySeattleWedding.com.

Please welcome:

LISA Yamasaki from MONA LISA EVENTS!

First let's start off with some cute images through Lisa's planning efforts: Photo credits to Paul Joseph Brown, Red Fish Blue Fish, and lisa's assistants...

THE SCOOP ON MONA LISA EVENTS

Lisa's introduction to the wedding industry:
The wedding bug bit me when I was 19 and worked during the summer as an assistant for a wedding photographer. I loved that I was helping to make the bride and groom enjoy their day. After college, I started my career in event planning with nonprofit organizations, planning their fundraising auctions, 5K walks, etc. Woodland Park Zoo allowed me to coordinate their 100+ yearly weddings in their gardens and venues and I assisted friends and family with their weddings. Weddings are my passion!

Why wedding planning??
This might seem crazy to some people, but if given the choice, I’d rather be planning and/or hosting the party or celebration, than attending one! Event planning is something that comes naturally to me and I believe you should do what you love – and I feel so blessed that I’ve been able to do just that.

What is Mona Lisa Events to be exact?
I launched Mona Lisa Events in September of 2005. I provide complete, custom and day-of planning services for couples. My goal with each client is to make the planning process as stress free and fun as possible. I think a couple’s engagement should be an exciting and blissful time, so my services allow clients to make all the fun and big decisions, while I handle all the legwork that it takes to make it happen.

They say "roll with the punches, but what can you bring to the table?"

I’ve been called Grace Under Fire! When the pressure is on, I can remain calm and get the job done with a smile on my face – and that’s a must-have trait in this business! You’ve got to be an active listener and communicator – you need to get an understanding of your client’s style and personality so that you can help them along the way with ideas they’ll love and to match them with other wedding professionals they’ll feel comfortable with and excited about, i.e. photographers, DJ’s, etc.

Your expert opinion about our industry's ever-changing trends:

I’m noticing more and more that Seattle is becoming a hot spot for destination weddings. I’m currently working with several couples from out of state and out of the country who are coming to Seattle and tying the knot with a large guest count in tow. I think this is really exciting because I think Seattle and it’s surrounding areas have so much to offer: gorgeous venues, temperate weather, and talented wedding professionals who are on the cutting edge of wedding trends.

For brides out there who need to get their mind on the honeymoon: Visit Lisa's website: www.monalisaevents.biz

email her for more info at lisa@monalisaevents.biz

sidenote: I worked with Lisa in June of 2006 at a very classy home-styled wedding in Redmond. I was very impressed with her ability to accomodate my assistant and I with meals exactly as the bride & groom were eating. She set a high standard of professionalism and smiled the entire way through. It was the hottest day you can imagine, seriously it was a hot day with little shade, anything could've gone wrong. But everything was PERFECT. Lisa was a DOLL to work with! The guests and the bride & groom ENJOYED their wedding. It was a pinnacle moment when everything just clicked!