Bulldog of the Year

Meet Matzoball, Adam Sandler's comical canine.

Traffic Jam

After a tasty lunch Sunday afternoon I lost all desire to blog, just slap me, I know!! Ray and I had lunch with Photo Elan yesterday- they're mega-talented wedding photographers, but maintain a mysterious profile.

How do you like this pic of Brian & his son Cole, totally adds to the mystery!


Without a doubt, the PACE of life these days exceeds the holidays! I can't believe it! Its certainly better than tweedling your thumbs! Today: 35 miles away from home after selling my old car to its new owner, a traffic jam brewed on the freeway! Fiddlesticks! I have no patience for traffic.


Turned off the freeway and doddled in a Kirkland park for a wee bit.

Also worked on some production shopping for Motofish. They're doing a 70's theme at the next shoot (destined to be the best yet).


Where do we find stuff? Second-hand shops, 99cent stores and fabric stores!



And for those of the blog readers, you know who you are, that requested more pics of me on the blog, here they are!!! Cheezball warning!

And yes, I sort of have a butt-chin, I know. But that's what makes me fabulous and funny. :-D

Back to Seattle

Playing catch up this week with blogging & work! If you've sent me an email and I haven't returned it yet, I'm working on it! Promise! Friday morning it was back to the grind in Seattle, we should be caught up by next Tuesday.

Rewind to earlier this week...

This is Barbara & Melissa, they're southeast US photogs, super talented.

This is the one & only Stripling workshop ELEVATOR pic!

Finally, here are a few outtakes of group excercises working with lighting techniques & obstacles. The most interesting thing was how Susan used unexpected scenes to create her fabulous one-of-a-kind portraits.

Last day in Pensacola: on the way back to the hotel to catch my cab for the airport, it began to POUR! Fat drops of Florida rain soaked the streets, the umbrellas and it sent everyone running for cover, except me! I was the only one silly enough to be USED to the rain (gee I wonder why) and it paid off! I jabbered away on my cell phone with Ray and suddenly spotted a wet & sandy $100 bill. Its my lucky day!

I had lunch with Lisa from Visual Style Photography in Grand Rapids the next day, she and I have a scary amount of things in common! I loved chillin with her going to and from the workshop, drinking Maragaritas and learning about her business in Michigan. I love meeting photographers from across he US, so many different stories and walks of life to learn about! She's a tough chick with a big heart and tons of talent~ She's also getting married this year and I wish I could attend her wedding (I'm booked that day). Stay tuned for more posts...

Susan Stripling Workshop in Florida

Susan Stripling is an amazing photographer! Along with 19 other photographers I attended her beach wedding workshop in Pensacola Beach~ It was such an intensive day, 7am-11pm non-stop talk about shop, shooting, and lighting! It was a fantastic workshop and I'm so inspired and energized by learning the names, businesses, and the people behind amazing such images! Here are a few highlights, these are not photoshopped, I could pee my pants knowing they're not in tip-top shape!! Normally the computer is strapped to my fingertips, but this week I decided against bringing a laptop to absorb Susan's teachings! If you're a photographer considering destination weddings; I highly recommend talking to Susan! She's coming to the West Coast (San Fran) this August!

Fabulous E-sessions

Meet Cathy + Erwin from Chicago!

They flew in late Friday evening and conducted the most intensive wedding planning weekend ever known to human beings! It including engagement video, e-session with April, wedding site visititation, etc.

I think they slept for all of 15 minutes in 48 hours! Their glam wedding is in the San Juan's this summer, yee-haw!


I love the lighting & architecture in Tacoma! Cathy & Erwin radiate very happy wedding vibes!

And after all that beautiful sunshine and walks on the beach, it rained!!! Hey, I aim to please!

Meet Allison + Doug

She warms up to the camera reeaaally well. It was so easy, I could've photographed this couple with my eyes closed. We had a little bite of lunch before the shooting began and totally had a blast shooting- its great meeting people you can imagine yourself friends with!

A little bit of creativity here...



What a whirlwind weekend, my legs are sore! There were a few other shoots on Sunday afternoon, but I'm unable to share them,because its top secret Mother's Day stuff. Overall, what a fantastic weekend, so many cool people to work with and lots of talking. It was a real nail-biter for weather conditions, but weather-shmeather, its all in the bag!

This might be the last blog post until Thursday because I'm out of town (out of sight out of mind!) at the Susan Stripling workshop. Check her out: www.susanstripling.com Phenomenal photographer!

Casting Call for Pampered Pets

Pampered Pets needed!

Motofish is looking for pampered animals & pets for an upcoming PAID (as in we pay you) photo shoot!

How pampered: Jewelry, special clothing, painted nails, baskets, purses, etc. its all welcome!

Requirements: 1-3 hours of your time

Compensation to owners: please inquire! Date: TBD, within the next2-4 weeks timeframe.

Where: Studio in Redmond Number of submissions: We need approximately 10-20 dog submissions!

How to submit: Please include a picture of you AND your animal AND your contact info and send to: april@motofishimages.com

Snohomish County

adam + rebecka 04.21.07

This cake topper is one of my favorites of all time!!! It ties for cuteness with Melodie Rivera's starfish topper!

Its been almost a year since the last time we shot a wedding in Snohomish county. Here are a few quick posts from Rebecka & Adam's country wedding at French Creek estates. Ray and I thoroughly enjoyed shooting with these two lovebirds, they were ALL about the photos!!! I just LOVE when we have both the willingness & time from couples to perform. Yay Becka & Adam!!

House Boat

Its Friday! I'm finally back at home after a very, very busy work week. I can't be the only one who's looking forward to the weekend, right?

Assisted on a cool gig with Alex Hayden, on a 2 day Houseboat project for This Old House magazine!!! The resident's identity will be kept under wraps for the homeowner's protection. The houseboat value is upward in the million(s), I guestimate the size about 1000 sqft.

No need to mow the lawn...my favorite part of the houseboat was the plexiglass hole in the floorboard. That yellow spot is actually a log, part of the floating foundation of the house.Its a neat 'glass bottom' view.

Mr. Important!

A Hasselblad film body with a digital Leaf back, it produces super huge file sizes perfect for magazines, large ads and billboards. Food & Prop Stylist Molly unpacks her props into the kitchen. I love observing how stylists turn the average house and into a masterpiece! National magazines demand perfection down to the smallest detail.
A little Pacific Northwest eye-candy.

Alex specializes in food, interiors, and product photography, he has a signature 'white wash' look. His work is clean, airy, fresh, and pretty. Feels like a breezy summer day. Don't know how else to explain it! Here you can see a screen shot of the interior photo from his computer screen.

He uses grids, levelers and all sorts of tools to ensure the lines for interiors, tangents and general aestetics are 100% correct. Setting up the shot takes a few hours. As a portrait photographer shooting fleeting moments, I WISH I had the time to set up shots. Would be a cinch! Life would be easy!

Remarkably, commercial photogs say they wouldn't want to do what I do: perform under fire. But I hear the same story from wedding photogs: they lack patience to set up and deal with magazines and Art Directors. Every so often there's a person who can manage both, but for the most part photographers are better off specializing in specific genre. Last snap of the day here's Alex using a spot metering for a sunset exposure of the house.

Assisting commercially + doing production + casting models is way satisfying in addition to shooting weddings. Anything that keeps me in close contact with the best photography professionals is invaluable! I love that Alex, Chris, Remy, and Greg don't view me as competition and openly share their experiences with me, good and bad. Not everyone agrees that I should be assisting in a different field than my specialty; some photogs think I need to hyper-focus on weddings. IMO by learning about others, you explore the evolution of your business model.