Man Duties

With Ray away in training, the household has seemingly fallen apart. Serious challenge: 1 leaky dishwasher. When this ambitious blonde took charge, I managed to pull everything out except the power cord and shimmy the dishwasher from its mold as far as possible. I poked a flashlight around and assesed a very important thing: I know nothing about dishwashers. Google helped me find the right person, I then picked up the phone and called what's known as an "appliance specialist" who was happy to charge me money to assess what I already know "your dishwasher is not working properly." duhhhhhhh

I attempted to unplug the power cord from the dishwasher but I just couldn't. One too many licks to a battery as a kid. Eelectric shock isn't all its cracked up to be! I will just have to wait until the real professional shows up tomorrow. *sigh*

Reunite

In less than 2 weeks the Greer Ladies reunite for several days of adventure in the deep south of Tennessee, USA. The Greers are the most fearless blondes on the planet. They are, in short, the craziest women alive holding Visa cards. Denise, the leader of the Fuckawi tribe will attempt to use her innate sense of direction to lead her family to the source of goodness. Where the Fuckawi mom???

As a clan and individually, they have a reputation for terrifying the French. They unflinchingly battle small European men for inner-city parking, disrupt Joan of Arc's place of rest, bathe in Parisian Parliament fountains, purchase large quanities of Venetian purses, bypass boring statues such as David (in Florence), and communicate in languages they have no recollection of learning, including but not limited to Dutch, French, Italian, Armenian, and Spanish.

Tennessee beware! The ladies are underway...runnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Robika's e-session

I've waited to do this e-sesison for quite a while! We've been rained out, rescheduled and it spanned over months. It finally took place today at the Arboretum in Seattle. Conditions couldn't have been more perfect. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard and for so long- I had lotza fun.

Meet Erika & Robert! aka"Robika"


As is obvious, Erika, is an incredibly beautiful woman with a contagious laugh. She is also dangerously smart and witty. Love her to tears!


Robert is a blend of Superman and Vin Diesel. He has the fine balance of tough guy & sentimental man. He has great "man hair" too.





They are so excited to have their photos taken!!! YESSS!!!


We took it to the next level for some shots of Robert's mega manly Dodge Dart....I rode in the front seat for the 'real treatment.' The sound of the engine made my ears hum in just a few minutes-He stepped on the gas for a taste of what its like to race ! It was a beautiful sound....





They were nice enough to entertain an idea that I've had for months: a banana and a gorilla holding hands. Robert fits the part, eh?


Unfortunately, this guy in the corner wouldn't leave us alone. He kept whispering all this weird crap next to Erika's face. About the time I would press the shutter this drunk numnut stuck his head in the frame. He mumbled something like "I'm their lovechild" Its Capital Hill. No biggie.


They really are as nice as they look!

Thanks "Robika" for letting me go off the deep end in your e-session, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Stay tuned for their fabulous non-traditional wedding downtown on 10/13/07.

Something NEW!

There's something nostalgic about roller rinks! For most of us 80's kids out there, rollerskating was a part of the middle school phenomena! It became an intricate part our social life AND today its what sets us apart from the video game generation. We were 80's SKATERS baby!

Motofish turned me on to this re-live the 80's thing. I've had an idea for rollerskating pictures in my head for the longest time! Working with Greg & Chris gave me a sense of gumption to just GO for it. Thanks for the inspiration guys!

Meet Sarah + Scott, you might remember them from the Creature party I shot earlier in May. They had no quams with skating around for fun & goofing off.

Kids swarmed the set up area pelting them with questions ' are you from the newspaper? are you Nicole Richie? are you a celebrity? why are you taking photos? are you in a magazine? who are you?'

Although we had to slightly diss the kids in order to shoot, we chiled with the tikes afterwards and let them showoff. Overall, we had a great time, it tickled my funny bone! Neither Sarah or I had any clue Scott was SO talented! He gave us the big showdown! When he wasn't goosing Sarah's body he was skating by himself and weaving in and out of the crowd. They're a very down-to-earth & laughable couple!

Finally I shot most of these pictures skating backwards AND I didn't fall! Can I get a round of applause? That is, until the end! Scott snapped us on the way down to the ground. Those photos have been deleted *wink*

It was way too much fun. I could do it every Friday! Sarah & Scott, you were AWESOME!!!

Photographer's Funniest Wedding Moments

I found these on a forum for wedding photographers. Someone suggested post a photog's worst wedding experience/nightmare story. These are true stories from wedding photographers. I had such a laugh for some of them, and sitting on the edge of my seat for others. Thankfully, no brides or grooms were hurt in the making of the experiences.
:- )
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The bride was about to walk down the aisle when I realized I only had four frames left before my Compact Flash card was full. {to change cards}I opened the little door on my camera and pushed the eject button hard in my rush... only to have it FLYinto the HOLY WATER behind me. It was only in there for about 1/16th of a second, but then I was shaking the entire time the bride came down the aisle until I was 100% certain the card was dry and I could re-insert it to make sure I hadn't just lost 4Gb of images! They were all there. Phew -anonymous-
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I was shooting a Corporate party here in Tucson with another photographer. The company was Luis Vuitton and it was their top sales people and the big wigs. About 500 people split into groups and I went to one area to shoots groups coming through that were doing team building things.So 2 mins into I squat to take a photo and I rip my jeans from the zipper to the back. Luckily I had on underwear. -anonymous-
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The bride had given us tickets to the Tennessee Aquarium to enjoy on Sunday after her wedding. I wanted to make sure that ALL of the film I shot for all three events would not overheat in my car since it was over 90 that day in the shade...as a lab worker, I've seen what baking your film can do to your images... I put the film in a ziplock bag in a cooler full of ice...When we returned to my car, the bag had leaked and all 30+ rolls of film -both 35mm and medium format - were completely submerged in water. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown for the entire 3 hour drive back to ATL!!!!! I was crying the whole way home...I knew I had to keep the film submerged and not let it dry out!I had a darkroom at my house and having the experience of working in labs for 16 years, I knew that what I needed to do was to first separate all the film by speed and color/B&W. Then I strung extra wires all around the room and began - in pitch black darkness - to unroll every roll of film and hang it up with pins on the end. The next day I rolled every roll back up gently in light tight boxes according to the types and took it to work with me to load into film magazines to put into the C-41 processor.Luckily I came out with only damage on about four frames of film out of those 30+ rolls!!!!!To this day, no one but my mom and my coworkers at the lab knew about this.
anonymous-
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I was photographing a bride getting ready and it was dragging on a bit so I said "I'm going to go downstairs, drop my bag, takes some shots of Groom, and I'll be back in about 15 minutes. Ok? Just wait for me to put your dress on." Oh sure, great, no problem, take your time says Bride. Well, I come back and start photographing again and somehow the bride doesn't see me even though I'm standing no more than 2-3 feet in front of her. She's in a panic and screams, "Where's the ****ing photographer?!" I flash a big smile,wave, and say, "Here I am." She was absolutely mortified and started apologizing profusely. I told her it was fine and not to worry about it. Later at the reception her brother said "Are you the ****ing photographer?" and then smiled and explained how bad his sister felt. I just laughed it all off. I'm actually thinking of getting a t-shirt printed up that says "Where's the ****ing photographer?" because it's become a fun buzzphrase for anyone who knows me. anonymous-

Photography Funnies

This is Chris making a phone call to his wife, Happy B-day Shannon! Their first child is due in SIX days!!! check out the bling! See his left wrist, note: ROLEX. No more talk about Cliff bars!! Daniel could've had a moped for what the rolex's are worth these days...

Chris shot some product snaps for Swedish Medical Center, in fact, this new Swedish Medical tablet was designed by 7 microsofties. The featured product, a wireless tablet (like a one sided laptop) does incredible things! Swedish is the only provider nationwide with wireless access to prescription info, patient files with the most recent info available! The doctor scribbles down his assessment the info is saved to file and accessible by secured Internet providers. The tablet was designed to eliminate the need for paper records. Seems like everything is going digital one way or the other! The only thing that's constant is change!



the set up was a cinch, nice bay windows creating a feathery, airy feel. Umbrella to the hard left to fill shadows. 5D, 1/30 f/2 using the 50mm 1.2 lens. Snaps were beautiful!

final shots of the day included snapping photos of Ruth, an older but sharp-as-a-tack delightful woman. She has an amazingly keen memory, going back to 1941when she purchased her pieces. She recalled where and how much it was back then. She told us a brief story about some of her furniture collected around the world being smuggled in from China and purchased for $200!
Cool stories, personally I love folks who've been around the block! Could listen to their experiences for hours...
expensive water from starbucks. make installments. rent to own!
In a clamshell: Happy Monday everyone! You're dying to know, what did April do today? Save kittens from tall branches, rescue sea otters, and grind tortillas from scratch? Hardly. We just took a few great pictures! Worked with Christopher Cumming today on 3 different sets in various locations around Seattle. It poured majority of the day. Thankfully the shots were all scheduled INDOORS! Typical Northwest weather! Nothing new about rain clouds unzipping millions of water droplets on the Emerald City. How I'd love to be somewhere warmer. Oh wait! Tomorrow I will be!! Greg, Laurie and I are headed to Valencia, CA to shoot product. Really, Greg's masterminding the entire project, shooting and doing all the work. I am just there to make sure he doesn't get mugged. (ha!)