250 gigs in a month!

So my general practice when it comes to storing my data is to put things on to 250 gig Lacie drives. I choose 250 gig cause I usually fill that up in about 2-3 months and then when I'm done I buy another one. (I also back up everything that hasn't been uploaded to Pictage to another backup hard drive as well). I figure that if a drive is going to fail, it probably won't fail in the first 2-3 months that I'm using it, and so far I've never had a problem. Last month though, I had so many weddings as well as being up at camp that I went through my whole 250 gig hard drive in about 4 weeks!!

I went to Mac Mechanic where I usually get these drives and they were all out of 'em!! So was pretty much every other place in Santa Barbara. So I had to settle for a 160 gig drive instead. :( Bummer, but hopefully that will last me at least a month cause this month isn't as busy as last month was.

I still remember when (like 10 years ago) my parents upgraded our computer hard drive to a 2 gigabite drive and my dad was laughing saying we would NEVER fill that much storage space up! I generally shoot about 18-20 gigs of images at a wedding and all of my cards are 2 gig cards. Can't believe how things change that fast!!

Fun in Hawaii!!

So as I said in my last post, Katie and I had a last couple days of a much needed vacation. We went to a Luau (their word for party) which had it's fun moments, but was kinda cheesy. We also went snorkling at Hanauma Bay which was incredible. The last time we were in Maui and we went snorkling which was my first time ever and I was blown away at how cool it was so I definetly wanted to go this time out there and I'm so glad we did. I really don't know why I get such a kick out of how close the fish come to you. I seriously almost could have touched them. SO COOL! :) I wanted to get an underwater camera, but they way overpiced 'em so I didn't. :( Next time I go out there I'm gonna figure out a way to take my Canon Mark II N underwater. That would be sweet. :)

We got back into LAX at like 5:30 Tuesday morning and then came back up to SB and just crashed the rest of the day. Sorry for those of you who I'm a little behind on with e-mails, I'm trying really hard to get caught back up and I shouldn't be too far from getting a bunch of weddings from July released as well, so thanks so much for your patience!!

Here's a few pics from our last couple days in Hawaii! :)




The dancers at the Luau were AMAZING.





This guy was seriously unreal with all the things he did with fire. He touched it to his tongue! Of course, Katie still freaks out when I pass my finger through a candle flame! :)

Ahola Kevin and Tiff! :)

Katie and I got into Honolulu very late on Thursday night and have been having a blast here in Hawaii!! After taking a great little visit to the beach Friday morning we shot Kevin and Tiff's rehearsal and dinner and then their wedding yesterday. It was so fun to be shooting here, Kevin and Tiff were amazing, and the setting here was just gorgeous.

We had such a blast getting the "getting ready shots." Tiff and her girls were so relaxed and SO FUNNY! Plus Tiff looked so beautiful. That always makes things easy! :)




Tiff made all her jewlery herself!! Amazing!




Kevin was so excited to be finally getting married. Tiff and Kevin have been dating since their freshman year of college!



The ceremony was right next to the beach and the wind was crazy! Tiff's vail was flying all over the place!







Now that the wedding is over, Katie and I have the next few days to relax and have fun! It's been such a crazy last couple months that this is a much desired break from the action! :) We'll be flying back to SB late Monday night. :)

I'm gonna miss Matt and Jess!

I'm SUPER bummed right now cause two of my best friends are moving! :( Matt and his wife Jessica are moving up to the Portland area in a few days. To make matters worse, I've barely been around the last few weeks to hang out with them. They're moving on the 12th, and I'm leaving today and won't be back till the 8th and then I'm leaving again on the 11th for a wedding on the 12th and then another on the 13th, and then I get back and of course that's when I basically stop traveling for a little while (right after he and Jess leave!) Matt and I were both in each other's wedding parties, and we've been friends since our Freshman year in college and this year we've started playing racquetball once or twice a week (Matt always wins cause I pretty much suck). I'm really gonna miss him and Jess a lot! (which means I'll just have to pursue more weddings in the Portland area so that I have an excuse to go visit!) :)

They were so great too, cause they got engaged right around the time I was getting into wedding photography and they let me do their engagement session which was the first one I ever did! I think I shot it with the Westmont yearbook's 10D and my only lens that I had at the time. I told them the other day that I wanted to do another shoot with them as a going away gift and so we did another "engagement session" type shoot even though they've been married over two years! :) This time they brought their little puppy Oliver which made the shoot even more interesting! :)

End of Camp....

Ok so I guess I should explain the last post a bit more....but actually now that I think about it there isn't much more to explain! That was pretty much it! A few of us at camp went up to Soquel, which is this amazing ranch type property that the camp owns up in the Sierra Mountains. We got up there to set up for a group of kids who were going to be up there with us. When we got there there where a bunch of stray cows in a meadow and Goulet (which was his camp name....nobody goes by real names up at camp....my camp name is Snowball...long story which I won't go into now). Anyway, Goulet starts chasing the cows and of course I decide to follow him and so we chase this one cow which was the most incredibly massive cow I've ever seen up a small which has a fence at the top. When he got to the top and realized he was trapped the cow came CHARGING back down the hill right at us which promoted us to quite literally run for our lives. :) I'll never forget running out of the forest and coming around a corner towards our video guy who was jogging towards us with the video camera and yelling "RUUUUUUUNNNN" right as the bull comes out behind us. The video guy's face was CLASSIC as he turns on a dime and heads back towards the ranch. We had a good laugh about that one and luckily nobody was hurt. :)

The rest of camp was super fun. I'm definetly glad I'm back home and with Katie though. Even though I was really distracted by being so busy while I was up there I still really missed her a lot. And I'm VERY excited to be leaving in a few hours for Hawaii! The last few months have been so crazy and July particularly was nuts! I definetly spent more time on the road this last month than I did here in Santa Barbara and Hawaii will be such a nice time to relax with Katie and catch up. Of course, we'll be working on Saturday shooting Kevin and Tiff's wedding, but seriously I know this wedding is going to be so much fun it really won't seem like work! Kevin and Tiff are two of the coolest and most laid back people and I can't wait to hang out with them on their incredible day! :)

Anyways, here are few shots from the last couple days while I was up at camp....

This was the kids hiking up Fresno Dome.



We took them mountain climbing as well and so for the 4th time that week I got to put on a harness and strap my cameras on and go climbing so I could get a good shot! :) Someone asked me when the last time I hard to use a carabiner for a wedding was. I started to get inspired....just kidding. :)




While I was up there I offered to do some shots of the director's kids (cause they're so cute!) :) This is Sasha, Nick, and Jake. :)





The last few days we were up at Mammoth Pools which was amazing! It's a pretty big lake, but because it's so isolated we were seriously like the only boats on the lake!