Trading Spaces!

How funny is THIS! I'm walking Katie out to her car this morning (cause I'm such a great husband!) and we look down the street and the TV show Trading Spaces is filming 2 doors down from us!! I don't think I was really supposed to take pictures of them, but I was extra sneaky and grabbed a few! :)

Maybe I'll see if these people want to come and help fix up our place when they're done with fixing their neighbors!

Katie and I don't have a TV, but maybe we'll try to find out when it's gonna air and go to a friend's house to watch! :) It was really funny though cause a few years ago I was home for the holidays and my mom was TOTALLY into this show and I kinda mocked her for being so into it and then I started watching it and then I kinda got hooked too! (that's why we don't have TV.... we would get addicted to too many shows!) :) I haven't watched it in years, and I don't think it's as popular as it used to be, but I thought it was so funny they were filming two doors down from us!!

Website and E-mail....

Hey gang, I'm switching web server companies and so if you send me an e-mail or try to access my website you may get some wierd messages. We were having quite a few problems with our other hosting server (lightning servers....yeah....I don't defiently don't recommend them!) and this new one will be WAY better.

Should be up very soon!

One Red Paper Clip...

Ok this has absolutely NOTHING to do with wedding photography.....or even photography in general, but I thought it was stinkin cool so I had to post it up!

I'm always a fan of creativity, and I think that the power of creativity, coupled with the the community of the internet will bring a ceaseless stream of good ideas. This is definetly one of them.



This guy Kyle McDonald decided he wanted to try trading one red paper clip for bigger and better things until he eventually got a house. So he traded the paperclip for a pen. The pen for an E.T. shaped doorknob, the doorknob for a BBQ, etc etc. As of today he is up to one year's free frent in a house in Phoenix, AZ. Pretty amazing huh?!

You can check out his website HERE

Greydon and Lynn!

Last week I met with another couple in from out of town. They were one of the first couples to book for 2007 so while I was so excited to get to know them a bit, I was really bummed that I was going to have to wait a YEAR until I get to shoot their wedding!

After we were done shooting, Katie and I went out with Lynn and Greydon as well as Greydon's parents for dinner at Palazzios. It turns out Greydon's dad owns a landscaping company that has done tons of work throughout Santa Barbara including one of the parks that I often take people to shoot engagement sessions at. (They've also done lots of estates in Montecieto, as well as parts of Westmont, and most of State Street.) It was really amazing hearing some of the stories from 30 years of working here in Santa Barbara, different floods that have damaged the area, how they got started, etc. It was actually really inspiring, hearing just a little bit about the path one man's business has taken over the course of 30 years. I feel like my own business has so many stories and learned lessons after just 2 years! I can't imagine what it'll be like after 30! :)

Anyways, here are just a few of the 680 images we captured from the shoot! :)

Ginger and Brian! :)

As you may have noticed, I haven't been posting too many wedding pics up here...cause we haven't had any yet! :) Things are actually looking great for this year, we have at the moment about 17 weddings booked for the season at the moment, but oddly they all come after April 30th......which is coming up soon with Ginger and Brian's wedding! They made the treck down from San Fransisco to Santa Barbara to hang out a little bit, shoot some engagement pictures, and talk about the details of their wedding. It sounds absolutely phenominal I can't wait. They're getting married in a redwood forrest, and the wedding party and all the guests are being brought up by train up to the site! It sounds like it's going to be amazing and I can't wait to see it!

Exodus!

WOW!

What a wild week it's been! I shot the engagement session with Shannon and Trevor last Saturday got on a plane flew to Chicago had a couple of intense days of shooting for Exodus came back and shot another engagement session and life has FINALLY settled down....for the moment! :)

This was my third time shooting for Exodus and everytime I do I'm completely blown away by what this organization does. They help refugees who have fled persecution from their home country and have come here to seek a better life. However, their lives in their home countries were much different from what life is like here in America. They need help learning American culture and how to function in America. From things as simple as how to turn on a light switch, to how to use a yellow pages, to how to shop in a groccery store.





So Exodus helps place American volunteers into these people's lives to not only help them get started here with learning the essentials, but ultimately to befriend them because often these people have left their communities and come here knowing nobody, and often not even speaking English.



It was really amazing to me to see the Americans interacting with the refugee familes. Not only to see the adults becoming friends, but the children of both families becoming friends as well.





By far one of my favorite things to shoot when it comes to refugees are their faces. With weddings, you can often say SO much about the joy a bride is feeling just by capturing the expression on her face.



The same is true for refugees. When you really look into their eyes you can see their stories. You see their past. It's truly a sight to behold.









One little side story....

One of the towns we were shooting quite a bit in was Wheaton, IL. I actually grew up in Wheaton until I was in the 5th grade when my family moved to another suburb. It's not often I'm in Wheaton so during on our breaks while we were shooting, I asked Julie (my AMAZING guide from Exodus) if we could stop by and see some the old house I lived at which we did. We were driving around the neighborhood and I remembered this super old candy store that was really tiny. I asked Julie (who when to Wheaton College) if she knew about it and was like "Oh yeah, the popcorn shop!" We drove by it and went into it and it is truly an amazing store!! :) They basically built a itzy bitzy little candy store in an alley between two buildings. I totally remember my parents taking me there after my little league baseball games! So funny! We saw the owner and talked to him a bit. He told us it was built in 1921!! UNREAL! I love living in Southern California, but cool little things like this you'll really only see in small towns in the midwest! :)




All in all, I can't wait till the next time I can go back and shoot for Exodus again. Hopefully sometime this fall maybe if I can find a break in the wedding schedule. Oh yeah, speaking of weddings, when I finish editing through the engagment session from Saturday I'll throw a couple up here. Stay tuned! :)

See ya!

Just arrived!

A super busy last couple days! I JUST arrived in Chicago for a SUPER quick trip to help shoot some images for an amazing organization called Exodus. We'll start shooting in a couple hours, but I wanted to quickly update you guys to the last couple days! :)

My wife Katie's parents were in town for a few days this last weekend to help celebrate Katie's sister, Annie's 20th birthday!! :) It was the first time we've seen both of her parents since the wedding in December, and we had a GREAT time. When all 4 of them are together in one place they are QUITE the group. :) I'm so grateful to have married into such a COOL family! Katie's parents and her sister are amazing people and I learn so much from all ofthem.

I also shot a really neat engagement session at the Santa Barbara Courthouse on Saturday. The courthouse is a place I've only shot at one other time, but it's an awesome spot that I will definetly have to come back to. Shanon and Trevor were an awesome couple and I'm so glad they suggested shooting there!