Thomas and Rachel!!

It's rare I have this much fun when I'm soaking wet. :)

As most of my friends know I'm not a big fan of swiming in the ocean, but I had such a great time shooting with Thomas and Rachel late last week...in waist deep water. :) When Thomas told me they wanted to go shoot down at the beach I don't think either of us were thinking the tide would be as high as it was, (basically all the way up to the Biltmore wall for those of you from SB.) We all just smiled tossed off our shoes and got in! Thomas and Rachel were such good sports with getting wet I couldn't believe it. They just charged right in! I think I definetly speak for all of us when I say we had a blast! :)

Mariaelena And Jared!

WOW!! WOW!! WOW!!

Katie and I just finished the several hour treck back from Palo Alto to Santa Barbara and I'm still on a bit of an adrenaline rush from the wedding last night. This was probably one of the most rewarding ones we've shot all year I think. The best part was when we got to show Mariaelena and Jared the slideshow. As soon as the first image came on the screen tears welled up in her eyes. After about 10 images she came over to me and gave me a huge hug and through her tears she told that seeing the images from her wedding in the slideshow was "the best part of her wedding day!" She I couldn't believe it! That just about made my month!

Even though I just met them for the first time that morning, I really feel like they are close friends of ours now and that's such a great feeling. It's such a privilege to be trusted to capture someone's wedding day and when a bride rewards you by crying at the slideshow it's one of the best feelings ever! (at least for a wedding photographer!) :)

Here's a few images from the weekend...

Thanks for Visiting....Come Again! :)

Wow! As the owners of most websites do, I periodically check our webstats to see how many people are coming to our site. The trend this year has been a steady increase month by month. This month we broke our previous "record" of unique visitors by 25%.

Which prompted me to go check out our site. (I admit I hadn't even been there for a while!) I realized our galllery section was SOOO old! Almost all from last year. So, I went through and updated it and I'm really pleased with the results.

Go check it out at


www.chrishumphreys.com


Just click on the gallery section.

Enjoy!

As a teaser, I'll let you know as well that this is a "temporary" fix in our minds. We've got some plans for the upcoming weeks/months that will TOTALLY change the way the gallery section on our site works. Stay tuned! :)

~chris

Easy Ways to Take Better Pictures!

Thanks so much to Judy Braun for bugging me for so long to actually get my act together and get this organized!

Over the last few months, I've gotten quite a few resquests to teach some sort of a class and I'm happy to announce that it is finally going to happen later this month. So for those of you who are in the Santa Barbara area read on!

This 3 hour class is designed for photographers of all skill levels; we will cover topics ranging from exposure, composition, lighting, to basic techniques as and will discuss topics that come up from your questions.

The goal of the class is simple...to help ANYONE, no matter what their skill level or experience, to take better pictures! Regardless of whether you have a point and click film camera or a digital SLR, if you take your camera out once a week or once a year, my goal is that you will leave the class with a few practical tips that will help you end up with better images!

If you've always wished you could take better pictures of your kids, or wondereed why your pictures at family outings never come out quite the way you had hoped, then this class if for YOU! :) If you've been shooting for years or been too scared to take your camera out of the box this class is for YOU! :) Basically, ANYONE who wants to just sharpen their skills is more than welcome to come. On that note, if you have friends or know people who might be interested feel free to pass this along to them as well.

The class is tentatively scheduled for the morning of September 24th. Please respond by sending an e-mail to chris@chrishumphreys.com to let me know if you are interested. There will be a $25 fee for the class.

Also, let me know if you would like to take the class, but can't make it on September 24th. If a lot of people want to take the class, but aren't available on that date, we will try rescheduling the class for early November.

Happy Birthday DJ!

Gosh, sorry I haven't posted on here for a while! I've been so busy with a bunch of small stuff!

A few days ago though, I got the AWESOME honor of helping throw David Jay a birthday party at Bogarts, our local hangout place. I really didn't do nearly as much work as most of the other people in the group, Dane, Sarah, Amy, Deyl, and Tim were the main players. I just cheered 'em on. :)

For those who don't know, David is one of the most talented photographers I've ever met. This wouldn't be THAT impressive if it weren't also for the fact that he's one of the smartest business people I've ever come across. This wouldn't even be all that cool, if it weren't ALSO for the fact that he's one of the nicest people I've ever known. The combination of all three of these traits and you see why David is quickly becoming one of the best wedding photographers in the United States. If you haven't checked out his stuff go to www.davidjay.com to see it. (He's also got probably the coolest website I've ever seen!) Whenever I think I'm good and need a good dose of reality, I check his stuff out and it puts me in my place!

The night was amazing. His mom sent us all this stuff from his childhood, Ninja books as well as a bunch of magic stuff, all things that he was into as a kid. I think the highlight was a video that he made when he was real young. Something about a magic gene. I'm not sure, I was laughing too hard through most of it! :)

Here's some pics from the night. If you look hard you'll see me in the first one. My buddy Dane took that one.

Notice the Krispy Creme cake. Espessially fitting for DJ. I think everytime I'm over at his apartment he's got at least one box sitting there in his kitchen!





What a night!

Congrats Bret and Sara!

Gosh, seemed like just a few weeks ago I was shooting these guy's engagement pictures! (actually, it was a few weeks ago!) :)

Whoever says you can't plan a wedding well in four months needed to see Bret and Sara's yesterday! It was so beautiful and in the perfect location too! The wedding and reception was at the Fullerton Arboretum, with beautiful trees, flowers, bridges, and everythnig else that would make the perfect setting for a wedding.

Bret, quite the ladies man, hanging with the bridesmaids.... :)



The lighting the whole day was just perfect. That mixed in with the setting of the arboretum, plus the fact that Bret and Sara are just a beautiful couple in general made for some great moments! Check it out!

Look at us!

Look at this shot that Brad our second shooter at a wedding grabbed a few weeks ago.

I think Katie and I make a great team! What do you think?! :)



Brad grabbed this shot earlier in the day too!



This was the shot that I was taking at the time....

Hangin with Kate!

Got to hang with Kate Retzer, a "friend of a friend" who is quickly just turning into a "friend." :) She wanted a few senior pictures, so we headed up the hill to Westmont, where the light just always seems to be perfect. Thanks for hanging and chating Kate! Can't wait to do it again! (maybe this time without the camera!)




On the drive home, I saw a BEAUTIFUL sunset in the rear view mirror. I immediately pulled over and ran up to a good spot and grabbed a few shots of it. I hope I never get sick of photography to the point where I don't bother grabbing some shots of a wonderful sunset.

ANOTHER Engagement Session!

Well, as if shooting a wedding yesterday wasn't enough, I got the chance to shoot another engagement session with another great couple day. This has been my third engagement session in the last nine days!

It's actually times like these that I'm really relieved! Relieved, that even though I've been super busy lately, and it seems I've been shooting (or at least editing!) non-stop, I'm not sick of my job yet at all! In fact, I'm more stoked about it than ever! Yesterday, I got to have a blast shooting with Trevor and Jenna at their wedding, this morning after church I was blessed to meet with another super cool couple, Heather and Phil to talk about their wedding for next May, and then tonight I got to shoot with Rose and Brad! And even after all that, I'm not even close to tired of doing this! (Actually, I am a bit tired....just not of my job!)

I get to meet so many cool people, hear so amazing stories about of the different journeys that couples have been on, and be a part of such important events in people's lives. Next to the head product taster for Krispy Creme, I think I probably have one of the best jobs in the world! :)

Thanks Rose and Brad, you guys were a ton of fun today!

Trevor and Jenna's Wedding!

Wow! What a weekend!! Yesterday Kim (my awesome assistant!) shot an absolutely beautiful wedding here in Carpinteria. And it couldn't have been for a nicer couple. Jenna, being from Ohio had a great midwest flare about here that I rarely get to see now that I live out here. It made me remember how much I love the midwest! I've actually known Trevor for a couple of years now, and he's one of the most gentle guys I've ever met! (As well as a killer frisbee player!)

Ok, so I'll admit it. I'm a sucker for good details. I love it when people plan out little details that most of the people at a wedding would never even know about, but it's still special to them anyways. The bridesmaids were telling me how Jenna went way out of her way to try to find a bunch of matching sandals for her bridesmaides with these little flowers on them. SO COOL!



Speaking of details, I thought this shot of Jenna's necklace was pretty sweet...



The church we were shooting in had a cool balcony so I had my assitant go up there when Jenna and her dad were walking down the isle. I love this great shot she got from up there! Way to go Kim! (That's yours truly crouching up front by the way!)



After the ceremony I caught this shot of Jenna looking over her shoulder as she was going around the corner of the church. I love capturing little moments like this...



We stayed around long enough to grab some shots of the two of them before they headed off to the reception.





The flower girl at this wedding was SOOOO photogenic! Probably one of the most photogenic kids I've ever been around....EVER! She really enjoyed the day, particularly when they announced her at the start of the reception! :)



The reception was next to the beach and we were all blessed to see a great sunset as we enjoyed the party.



Congrats Jenna and Trevor! You're wedding was SOOO beautiful! I was so blessed to be a part of it!

~chris

Paige and Jon!

Got the awesome chance to shoot with some neighbors of mine last night! These guys are on the fast track of engagement, they're getting married just short of 4 months after they got engaged! I'm super stoked for you guys! I'm so glad I get to shoot your wedding! It's gonna be a blast!

Megan and Josh!

Got to hang out with a wonderful couple last night. Josh and Megan are getting married next July and it was a blast to shoot some pics with them and then grab some dinner and chat afterwards. Megan and I have been friends for a while from back when I was in college and helped her out with some photos for the yearbook.






Josh is a big time surfer so they thought it would be fun to get some shots on the water. I think the water was a bit cold for Megan, but the pictures turned out great! :)

Katie the Superstar....

So it's official. My fiancee Katie is a superstar. :)



When I was working today, I found this image from our last wedding a few weeks ago. That's my buddy Brad on the left and yours truly on the right. The bride was a good subject, but we thought Katie was even better. :)