Bicep Pain

Today I worked for the fabulous & glamorous Stephanie Cristalli . She is beauty & joy, combined. What began as a 1 day gig, turned into a weekend extravaganza!!!! Hundreds and hundreds of people, thousands of pictures, nearly 40 gigs of wedding photos alone....my left bicep is dead. Add to that list of aches : eye twitch + cotton mouth.


Last but not least, Monday night is the big debut for Amy+ Philip & Yvonne + Mark. Yeehaw!

Very special things....

This is one of two glamorous weddings prepping for the public eye MONDAY Oct. 22nd....I can't wait to splurge the goodies....the pictures are romantic, whimsical, and tell a beautiful tale of lovebirds. :-)

Yvonne, Mark, Amy & Philip's pictures soon to debut...stay tuned for more!

E-session Katie & Dustin

Here's Katie & Dustin from Cornelius, OR. Their wedding will seal the envelope for us (wedding-wise) for 2007. I'm looking forward to it, but also sad that the fun is over and the year is quickly coming to a close. Still going strong after a boombastic year but when the thought of a free weekend comes to mind, I can smellll the margaritas & salsa already...

I'm curious to know if my people prefer to be photographed like models, with strobes, softboxes, flashes, reflectors and all that jazz OR be completely on their own wiithout direction from the photographer, OR if they prefer to have a mix.

What are your thoughts? I'm eager to for people to share! I prefer a mix, but what do YOU want? How do you want to view yourself in 10-20 years? As the photographer's interpretation? As yourself? Without makeup? In your favorite jammies?

Busy day

After finishing a bachelor's in college, I thought the hard part was over. Wrong.

Today involved:

• processing 5 gigs of JPEG images ranging from e-session,wedding, commercial & boudoir
• answering 2.65 hours of phone calls (mom's was the shortest)
• 8:20am-12am (minus a few breaks, 1 workout and a dinner break) of sitting at the computer
• receiving new couches & install new blanco lounge furniture
• cleaning the Monroe piercing (it looks good so far!)
• shower, brush teeth, get dressed
• put on a happy face

I loooooove what I do so much that I can't stop doing it. Time to outsource more stuff. :-)

Sneak Preview

Here's a sneak preview from Amy & Philip's album design.. the bride added every personal touch to their joyous August 25th wedding...I might add that Amy is a wedding photographer as well as a graphic artist. Naturally, before revealing a draft design, it will continue to go through a bazillion changes for airtight perfection! ha!

Jimmy & KK

A Tuesday photoshoot with 2 models! I dig Kaitlin's exotic Chinese+Euro look, in contrast to Jimmy's all-american Hollywood smile. Seems like everytime I shoot with Jimmy, his clothes fall off!! No doubt, its a treat, but I tease him about it. They invited me to tex-mex after the picture-taking where we cracked jokes and enjoyed good convo. I've never seen anyone finish a plate that large! Don't feed the models! For the curious ones who have asked about color lately: I shoot JPEG and set my Canon 5D to soak up the colors in-camera. Not much post-processing is needed other than basic skin retouch and levels bump, sometimes special effects are warranted. Without over-working images, I love the boutwell's PS actions: my fave is called "oh, snap." Also, up until recently I didn't process images using actions. I dug into photoshop after a workshop in April. For whatever reason I never cared much for PS until I witnessed the capabilities....a powerful tool!

20 yrs. old

I read an interesting article about Joss Stone. She recently fired the 4th manager in 5 years due to "diva" tendencies. One manager commented about their clashes in a business relationship, "creative brilliance is no guarantee of commercial acumen."

Ouch.

A big fan of her very adult & delicious pipes, I'm surprised that Joss is a brat. Its disappointing! Read the story here

Also a fan of Brit (minus the K-fed) who needs a daily dose of Dr. Phil in her life, I kind of miss her pizzazz! What she lacks for in the pipes, she makes up for in the dance moves & great re-invention ability. Puleeez come back Brit! Get your act together! Christina Aguilera is the better singer but now I'm rambling...this post is about Joss Stone getting too big for her britches........*tsk*tsk...

I love this photo of miss Stone taken by Bryan Adams. I dig the whispy hair & scrumptuous lighting. Rock on B. I can't find a web site for him! Anyone?

Cathy & Erwin's Album Design

I'm delighted to share a snazzy August 18th, wedding album design for C&E! These designs start with a basic layout and go through intense changes over the course of 6-12 hours. Its a consuming but exciting process. Once you sit down, you cannot walk away until finished! This is my favorite type of assignment: artistic, technical, and personal for each individual wedding. My good friends Cathy & Erwin flew in from Chi-town to have their wedding far and away at Lakedale resort, tucked deep in the San Juan Islands. A beautiful day, intimate ceremony, topped with a bangin' after-party. There's no other place we would've preferred to be that day. :-)

This is one of my fave spreads! Feels like the old west.

Erika & Robert 10.13.07

October is very much my favorite time of year to shoot, especially with the light dancing across a multitude of colors. The scenery seems to change daily until leaves covered the streets and leave the trees bare. I'm so happy to have been a part of Erika & Robert's very special occasion. Unique in every way possible, they tied the knot Saturday in the Smith Tower, downtown Seattle. Cheers to my good friends and very very fun clients: Robika! Ole!