Finally Made It...

Back to Santa Barbara! :)

After traveling from SB to LA to Houston and then spending the night on the floor in Houston airport I turned around and came back home.

Literally about 10 minutes before I was to board for my flight down to Mexico I talked to the bride whose engagement pictures I was shooting this weekend (I'm keeping her name private for the time being) and heard the terrible news that her dad had passed away the night before. He was already in the hospital and this was somewhat expected, but just not now. So of course, she was flying back to the states immediately so rather than head down to Mexico I just talked to customer service at Continental and they got me on a flight back home. It was a tough trip back home. I was REALLY tired (probably only slept about 2 hours), I was dirty, and I was so heartbroken for this girl. (not a great combination!)

Katie and I are really praying for this whole situation, for healing and peace for this bride and her family. If you're the praying type, I know she would totally appreciate your prayers. If you're not, just send good feelings or thoughts her way, and I know those will be felt and appreciated as well.

Thanks guys. :)

Stuck!!

So you know how they say Houston is kinda like the Guanajuato of Texas? :)

I was supposed to have landed in Mexico hours ago, but due to thunderstorms in Houston we've been delayed multiple times and been stuck on the runways several times. First before flying from LA to Houston we were stuck on the runway for about an hour and then once we landed in Houston the lightning was so bad they wouldn't let ground crews come to our plan so we had to sit and wait out the storm for about 45 mins before we could get to our gate.

Then we were delayed several times trying to leave for Guanajuato and finally we got on the plan and then....again waited. Finally the captain came on and said the airport in Guanajuato closes at midnight and at this point we wouldn't make it there in time so we had to go back to the gate and reschedule for sometime tomorrow. Luckily, I'm able to get on the first flight out tomorrrow morning, but unfortunately because of the storms all the hotels in the area are booked up and so I'm chillin with about 100 other people in a room by gate E1 in the Houston airport! :) I'm kinda lucky cause I got a cot (it's kinda broken actually, but I guess it's better than nothing!) :) Jesus slept in a manager so I guess I'll count myself grateful to have a cot. :)

I've definetly been grateful to have my iPod around for today! The airport has been SO loud with all the people around so the ability to drown it out and listen to music has been a lifesaver!

It's almost 1AM, but I'm really not tired. It's more one of those I'm actually really tired, but not sleepy kinda things! :)

I guess I'll go and cruise around the net since I haven't been on all day and then try to get a few hours of sleep before I have to be back at the gate at around 7:30AM.

I'll try to keep ya'll updated when I get to Mexico! :)

Our way home from Yosemite....and off again tomorrow morning! :)

After we finished shooting Chris and Christina's wedding in Yosemite Valley we left to go home which turned out to be a bit of an adventure actually because going into the valley we were running pretty low on gas and their aren't any gas stations in Yosemite Valley. The way that I always have driven in the nearest station is 30 some miles away and that's on very windy roads which we would have been going mostly uphill on to get back out of so we were a bit nervous. Luckily we found out we could exit the park another way that would get us to a station much quicker (about 15 miles) and the roads were nearly as windy, which was an added benefit cause Katie gets car sick SUPER easily.

We were kinda blessed to have been low on fuel because the new way out of the park was SO beautiful! I had to stop and take a few pictures from time to time because it was so pretty. I'm sure we'll end up in Yosemite at some point this year and we'll definetly take this new way in and out of the park cause it's so much better.

Here's a few pics from the trip home....


We did find gas on our way home. About the most expensive gas I've ever bought!! This actually made me feel much better about paying $3.00 a gallon in Santa Barbara! :)



Pretty view of a river right by the hellishly expensive gas station.



Definetly much more of a scenic view than the other way.



Our 2006 Honda Civic rockin it on the mountain roads. :)



This was a crazy old sign outside of a crazy small town (I think it was Mariposa). I just thought it looked cool and photo worthy. :)



I'm always a sucker for a good shot of trees. I don't know why, but of any still life subject, trees are one of my most favorite to shoot. They're just kinda cool if you ask me!



Ok these weren't anywhere near Yosemite.... they're actually in our front lawn, but the light on them was really pretty when we got home, so I just snapped a quick picture. :)



I can't believe it, but I'm already leaving home AGAIN for the third time this month tomorrow morning. I'm headed down to Guanajuato Mexico to shoot an engagement session with Gloria and Mario. I'm so excited to be going down, but also really sad that Katie won't be joining me for the trip. It'll be a lot of fun and I'm so blessed to be able to travel to such awesome places, but I'm always bummed when I have to leave Katie. I guess that's a good sign though in a marriage when you're super sad to leave your partner. :)

I'm not sure what sorta internet access I'll have when I'm down there, but I'm hoping I'll be able to connect up at least a few times when I'm down there and keep you all updated on what's going on. I'm getting back late Saturday night so if nothing else, I'll have more then! :)

Be blessed! :)

~chris

Tori and Geoff and a LOT of snow. :)

So before we shot our stellar wedding on Saturday in Yosemite we had the pleasure of meeting up with Tori and Geoff whose wedding we're shooting this July. They're living up in Washington, but flew down to meet Katie and I at a camp near Bass Lake, CA where they fell in love and got engaged. It was such a meaningful place for them, it was just so cool to hear them talk about it! I'm so glad we did the engagement session there!

Luckily they were able to borrow some snow shoes for us the 4 of us because there was a good deal of snow on the ground at the site where they wanted to shoot. The snow shoes were definetly a bit tricky getting used to. I think we all had at least one moment where we ended up on our butts! :) Holding two cameras and trying not to fall too badly was quite a task, but I somehow managed to do allright. :)

These guys were so fun to hang out with though. After the wedding we went out and grabbed some dinner and just talked to them about their relationship and their wedding and it was really just great to connect with them. It made both of us just look forward all the more to their wedding.

It's strange and I know I've said this before, but I got into wedding photography because of well....the photography aspect, but as I go on, it's really the relationships I've built with my clients that drive and motivate me to keep going. Tori and Geoff are just one example of that.

Speaking of photography however, here's just a few shots from their day. :)




This was a prime example of a moment after Katie totally eating it in the snow. :) She'll be upset with me for posting this, but it's funny enough that I had to do it anyways. :) I'm just glad she didn't get the camera wet. :)









This was one of Katie's killer shots from the evening. :)

Chris and Christina in Yosemite!

WOW! What a crazy weekend! On Friday Katie and I drove up towards the Sierra mountains to shoot an engagement session on Friday and a wedding on Saturday.

The engagement session with Tori and Geoff was great! I've barely gone through the images, and I'll post a couple up tomorrow.

After meeting with Tori and Geoff Katie and I drove into Yosemite Valley and got ready for what turned out to be an amazing wedding with Chris and Christina! These guys couldn't have lucked out with have a more beautiful day. They were telling us that 2 weeks ago there was 3 feet of snow on the ground, but the temps have been nice and warm and so when were were there for the wedding it was beautiful, just enough snow to make everything look wintery, but it was melted enough that we never had to walk on it. Plus the temps were perfect, about 60 for most of the day. The day on the whole just couldn't have been better. :)

Here's a few of our favorites:

Christina and her 8 bridesmaids got ready right in the Valley. I'm sure they were probably the only ones with hair curlers in Yosemite this weekend! :)



The early morning light illuminating her dress in the window.



You could tell how happy Christina was to be getting married in Yosemite. Her family has come down here at least twice a year for as long as she can remember.



Chris and Christina literally moments after exiting the church after the ceremony. They were smiling at their wedding party who was trailing them.



Their massive 10 person wedding party hanging out on the bridge. :)



Chris and his guys chillin in front of half dome.



Chris and Christina were so great in front of the camera. The nice part about shooting in Yosemite is it's tough to take a bad picture there! We "just happened" to catch this great waterfall in the background for this shot! :)



The chapel where they got married is in the background behind the bridge.







Christina was just so beautiful on her day. She had no problem playing up for the camera. :)



Love the nice beautiful light towards the end of the day in the Valley. Amazing.

Made it Home!

We just got back to warm and sunny Santa Barbara last night! We were supposed to get in on Monday afternoon, but Sunday night I came down with a terrible case of the flu. I seriously don't think I've ever been that sick before! Super kudos to Katie for taking care of me and staying up most of the night! (Another great reason why I whole heartedly support marriage!) :) After several calls totalling to about 3 hours on the phone with United Airlines to reschedule our flight we were finally able to get in last night. As much of a bummer it was to be sick it was nice to stay with Katie's parent's Beth and Bill an extra day! :)

Being sick wasn't so bad as well cause I was able to catch up on a lot of e-mails which was great. Plus, Katie was so sweet and rented me two of my favorite old school movies (Lethal Weapon 4 and Grumpy Old Men) which I got to enjoy on Bill and Beth's 91" big screen projector TV. (which is pretty much like having your own movie theater!) :) No complaints from me. :)

On another topic I feel like I had a bit of a reality check this morning in the car. I was driving downtown and thinking about all the things I've got going on in my life, upcoming shoots, travel arrangements I need to make, phone calls I need to return, etc etc and then I listened to a great interview on NPR's "Fresh Air". The interviewer was talking with Navy Cmdr. Richard Jadick who was a military doctor in the Battle of Fallujah. He just came out with a memoir called "On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story." It was pretty nuts listening to the interview and how he talked about treating wounded soliders.

He described at one point how he would handle catagorizing the soliders who came in. There were 1.) The wounded who would live regardless of what medical attention they did or didn't receive, 2.) Those who would die within three minutes if they didn't get medical attention and 3.) whose who would require more than 3 minutes of time to treat. He said often those that needed 3 minutes of time or more couldn't be treated because the time that it would take to treat them would be too much given the number of other soliders there were to treat who would die if he took the time required to treat them.

He also talked about what it was like often treating the insurgents who would come in and because he was a doctor under the hippocratic oath he had to treat any person, enemy or not who entered his area. Perhaps, the most compelling thing he shared was how difficult it was to choose who would have to go back into the battlefield and who had to go home, and how the Marines who would come in wounded always wanted to go back into the battlefield and rejoin their fellow soliders.

Amazing. Suddenly, all the things that I were worried about in my day didn't seem to stand much ground compared to what these guys were going through. It also made me a feel a little bad about sorry for myself that I was sick with the flu! Here are guys who have gunshot wounds and are begging to go back into battle and I think I've got it bad cause I've got a stomach bug!

Anyways, just thought I would share that. It's really put a bit of a different spin on my day thinking of how the reality of my day is so different from the reality of so many other people's days. Anyone who knows me knows I'm really not for this war that we're in, but regardless of that, I have the utmost respect for the people who go out and fight in it, particularly when I'm driving my nice car down a California freeway or sitting in front of my state of the art computer or complaining about how my hi tech cameras and lenses weigh too much! Just food for thought!!

You can listen to the interview HERE

Leigh and Jason: First wedding of the year!

Wow! What an action packed couple of days! On Friday we got up around 4AM to make an early 6AM flight to Denver, CO and spent the day in Denver with Katie's mom and that evening met with some amazing Colorado photographers, Jenna Walker and her crazy husband Matt and James Christianson and his incredibly cute (and VERY pregnant) wife Charlene. Both Jenna and James are INCREDIBLY gifted photographers and it was so awesome for Katie and I to be able to meet up with them and talk about all three of our businesses. James was the only one smart enough to bring his camera so if I can grab a picture from our dinner I'll post it up!

Colorado photographers, be sure to check out James and Jenna's fstopworkshop. It'll be a great place to learn from two amazingly gifted photographers, not just some of the technical tricks to creating great images, but some of the important lessons that will help you expand your businesses. This is a great opportunity!

Then on Saturday was Leigh and Jason's wedding. Both of them are two of the most genuine people I've ever met. It was really such an honor to be a part of both of their wedding.

Here's a few of the highlights!

Leigh's mom was SO sweet! You could totally tell she was so incredibly excited to see her oldest daughter getting married!



Leigh was so relaxed the entire time getting ready. It was so fun getting to capture her enjoying her day!



The boys having a fun moment before the ceremony.



The church was incredibly dark, but super neat, it's an exact replica of an old cathedral in England. Leigh is super into England and spent a semester there in college so that was sentimental to her to get married there.



Leigh's flowers against the backdrop of church. I normally take pictures of the bouquet in more "vibrant" light, but it was fun to take the opportunity do something a bit different this time around.



Leigh and her girls in prayer before the ceremony.




Loved the light coming in behind Leigh just a few moments before the ceremony.



Leigh and her Dad coming down the aisle.



I just loved the lighting coming in during the ceremony. Catching a bit of flare, particularly when it's so dark is always sweet! :)



This was such a cool emotional moment, right after the ceremony when Leigh's dad came up and gave his daughter a huge hug.



Leigh already so gorgeous, combined with some great side light made for a great portrait.



The grounds of the Colorado Springs School where the reception was held made for some exceptional images of both Leigh and Jason. These guys were so cool to brave the cold! Hopefully the images made it well worth the while! :)







Leigh and Jason ripping it up on the dance floor. :)



And them leaving the reception,showered with a rice toss. I think I was still shaking some rice out of my hair this morning when I got out of bed. :)



Leigh and Jason, I hope you both have a terrific honeymoon in Canada! We can't wait to show you your album pre-design when you get back! :)

To see a slideshow of more images from Leigh and Jason's wedding Click Here

Reddoor Rocks! :)

So as some of you know, we've been totally revamping all of our logo branding stuff the last few months and we've been using the coolest company, Reddoor Creative. We've had the best time getting to know Tim and Erik who own the company. We couldn't be happier with how things are going with them.

One thing that has really surprised me about the process is that in talking with them and answering their questions, Katie and I have had to really think about what our core values as a company are and why we exist and do what we do. It's been an amazing process that we've grown so much going through!

We just got some sample business cards in from them that we'll be taking out to Colorado for our wedding this weekend. These aren't final, but we're so excited about the direction we're heading.



We can't wait to show you all the final product in a few weeks. I've had tons of photographers asking for info on who is doing our branding and so I thought this would be a great time to give a shout out to Erik and Tim! You'll be hearing much more about them in the next few weeks as we finaliaze our designs....

We bought a 5D! :)

We just added to our already killer line of cameras! :) With Katie now shooting with me at every wedding (she was shooting only at some our weddings this last year), we really needed to get her a decent camera. She had been shooting with my 10D, which a few years ago was a great camera, but is lagging behind the current technology quite a bit. :) So, she'll inherit my 20D which is amazing and I'll be shooting full time now with my Mark II N and our brand spankin new 5D!

The images out of this camera are amazing! So sharp and amazing color, not to mention REALLY low noise levels at high ISO. (for those of you who don't speak "photo nerd language"...which by the way is the offical term....that basically means the pictures look clean even when you're shooting in low light! :)

We have our first wedding this year out in Colorado this weekend so I'm super excited to use it out there and really see how it does. :)

Here are a few test shots:

A nice lemon from the tree in our yard. :)



Some pretty flowers.... :)



And of course my official model, Katie. :) (for the record she didn't ask for this position, it was just granted to her.) :)