Website Update - Two New Galleries

Click on the images below to visit their galleries:

The Royal Presideo Santa Barbara

Stearns Wharf, Santa Barbara Pier

Featured on the Hip Blog: GreyLikesWeddings.com

Click Here To Check It Out:  greylikesweddings.com

Angie & Jessie

Calista's 1st Birthday with Big Sister Kaitlyn!

Featured in "Visual Poetry" by Chris Orwig

Chris is a dear friend of mine so anything I say would probably sound like a plug, but I must say Visual Poetry really is a beautiful book. I first met Chris as a student while attending Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara & immediately put him in my top echelon of instructors for his ability to teach the difficult subject I was taking, Flash. I remember one of his analogies for explaining the way designing website menu navigation goes to different portfolios on a website is like one of those Russion Babushka dolls of decreasing sizes placed one inside the other. I was sure learning Flash would make me feel like trying to run through a coliseum of stairs. And it did, but I got through it with the first working website for our business.

In Visual Poetry, Chris not only creates an inspiring workshop book, but really inspires one with the photo assignments by adding the thoughts & photographs from various Legends like Joyce Tenneson:
PHOTO BELOW BY JOYCE TENNESON from "Light Warriors" Series:

PHOTO BELOW BY JOHN SEXTON from "Places of Power" Series:

PHOTO BELOW BY DOUGLAS KIRKLAND from "An Evening With Marilyn Monroe" Series:

and images of Chris’ own during his session with 9-Time World Champion Surfer, Kelly Slater:

my images from the book below:

Amazon Link to it.

Heather + Josh

When Heather first met Josh, she said to her friend, "Now that is a guy I could marry." And the rest is history. Heather and Josh had an amazing celebration of their marriage at the beautiful Firestone Vineyard in Santa Ynez, and we were very honored they chose us to document the day for them. When we met them for the first time for their engagement session we immediately hit it off. They are two peas in a pod (as are Michael and I) and both with a zest for life and an entrepreneurial spirit. Our kind of people! :) They had their wedding at the beautiful Firestone Vineyard fantastically coordinated by Debbie Hews. The food, music, flowers and ambiance of their event was absolutely stunning - which is less than a shock because Heather certainly has a knack for detail. An amazing event - an amazing couple. We had a blast working with our videographer friend, Russell Fowler who's simply amazing at what he does.
Catering - Pure Joy, Challah Bread - Our Daily Bread, After Party - Corque Hotel in Solvang

Michelle + Rob

Anna & I had the privilege of our wonderful couple, Rob & Michelle flying us out to photograph their New York Wedding at some of the coolest locations in the city. We started out shooting Rob & his groomsmen at The Hotel Gansevoort, which has been a place I've wanted to visit since getting this really cool book last time we were here called, Hip Hotels: New York. Next we were off to The Carlyle Hotel to take some getting-ready & creative images with our beautiful bride, Michelle. The only problem with shooting in places like this is not being able to enjoy hours more having fun & being creative! But, that is not the nature of the beast... For the wedding must go on! We took a cab to the Upper East Side to photograph their wedding ceremony at a beautiful church called, St. Thomas More. Catholic churches are great to photograph in for their symbolism & old-world aesthetics. The wonderful day of shooting continued as we headed over to Central Park for some creative images on the bridge & at Belvedere Castle. Afterwords, we arrived at our final location with a view across the water. We took some final images during "magic hour," with the sun falling behind the horizon & giving way to twinkling skyscrapers.

I'm in a commercial!! (by Anna)

I acted (semi-acted I should say. I don't say anything :) in this local traffic solutions commercial about a month ago. My friend Jamie was originally going to be doing my part but was out of town, so she recommended me! (Thanks Jamie!) Anyway, I think it turned out SUPER great and many thanks to Daniel Girard for letting me be apart of this really fun and great project! Now, everyone ride your bike to work tomorrow! :)

HELLO WONDERFUL PEOPLE SURFING OUR BLOG...

...All blog posts below are soon to be transferred to our new blog currently under construction.  Thanks for visiting, have a happy New Year!

Published in - "100 Techniques for Professional Wedding Photographers" (Michael)

Bill Hurter, editor of Rangefinder mag & author of many books included an image of mine in his new book, "100 Techniques for Professional Wedding Photographers," to illustrate unique ways to expose for images. You can get your hands on one here at barnesandnoble.com.

Bill Hurter is amazing to me as he's authored over 30 books, I hope to someday do one! He's done some really cool stuff in his life including shooting on Capital Hill during the Watergate Hearings & being a stringer for the L.A. Dodgers! I've been blessed to have my images in two of his books; the other being - "The Best of Photographic Lighting 2nd Edition." You can check out a pretty sweet preview of it here.


It's just so amazing to me cause when I was a student at Brooks Institute, I owned and loved his book: The Best of Wedding Photojournalism: Techniques and Images from the Pros, and never thought I'd be lucky enough to be in one of them!!!

Feature in The Knot Southern California

Michael and I had the privilege of shooting Lisa + Jerry's wedding at The Bacara Resort and Spa last year, and The Knot Southern California just published it in this quarters issue! Lisa + Jerry's wedding is also going to be featured in The Knot's national publication coming up soon as well! We are super excited!

The E-Myth (By Anna)

I'm starting to get a bit annoyed at myself because we have an over abundance of great pictures to put up. As I write this I'm watching Michael edit through a wedding that we'll be submitting to magazines and I'm excited to get these dang photo's up on the blog! Goodness.


Anyway, in the meantime I thought I'd post a book I just finished reading this morning. Its a book many of you have already read and can attest to its greatness! "The E-Myth Revisited" is an extremely eye opening book. It brings up a few points:

1. Your business should be built with the idea that it can eventually be sold. If your business can't survive without YOU then you need to rethink things

2. Your business should be built with as a Franchise Prototype and with a Turn Key Mentality. Meaning, create a system that is so seamless that it could be a franchise all over the country/world. Think McDonalds!

3. This book, in the end, brought up many deep and thought provoking points about how our business is also a training ground for our life. It was great!

My new goals is to go through the last few business related books I've read (I'll NOT be including "The Da Vinci Code" or "Twilight") and really apply what I've learned to our business. I feel that I caught a bug for reading this year. But I should be spending more time implementing what I've learned - rather than rushing off to another book. (Which is my tendency! I'm aching to reading, "Think and Grow Rich" now!)

Whose read "The E-Myth?" What did you get out of?

Photo Booth Fun!

(Michelle and I hamming it up for the camera!)


(I have no idea what I was doing in this shot...)


(Me with my "handsome" darling!)



(Ahhhh...My favorite thing!)


The very last wedding of the year was very special for a few reasons.

1. Mary & Aaron Owen were married. They are such a unique and sweet couple and we really enjoyed photographing their wedding. They are so fun to photograph! We did a photo shoot with them awhile back where she was dressed up in a traditional Japanese Kimono. SO cool!

2. Michelle of Mint Julep Inc was chosen to be featured on an episode of, "Whose Wedding is it Anyways?" It was really fun to have the camera crews following her around! She is so uber talented - its no wonder that they chose her for this exclusive opportunity!

3. Michelle hired Sean Azul to set up a photo booth at the wedding! It was super fun and these pictures are a few of the shots that we took together. Thanks Sean!

Who Moved My Cheese?

I can't believe I never posted about this book! I read it in September and thought that I posted about it but I guess I never did.

Okay, this book is awesome! Here are the two things I love about it:

1. I read the entire thing in the bath tub. It took like a half an hour!
2. It has a great message that is super life changing. (Change being the key word!)

Anyway, if you haven't read it - READ IT! The only down side is that even though its super short they don't give you a discount on the lack of paper used. Its still the same price as a normal hardback book. :)

This book spoke to me simply because things in life CHANGE - and to be ready for it and accepting of it is important to learn.

What has changed in you life that you had to adapt to quickly or perish?

Grateful..

I've been thinking a lot lately about how many things we (I) take for granted everyday. They are mostly simple things that in the not so far distant past these things were considered high luxuries.

1. Running hot water. This seems simple, but how many centuries have past with out this simple luxury? I love taking baths at night and this was something that required heating water in pots and carrying to a bath tub only a hundred years ago

2. Abundance of food. This is also something that we take for granted in America - but there is a ton of food here! So much so, that our problem is not eating to little, but eating too much! But I'm soooo grateful that I've never known hunger or starvation in my life.

3. Warm home. Having heat and being able to keep warm at all times - even while traveling is awesome. I used to read "The Little House on the Prairie" books when I was little and they lived in non insulated log cabins and "dug-outs" which are basically a man made cave dug out of a hill. Sounds fun, right?

4. Modern medicine and science. The fact that humans are living as long as we are and avoiding a lot of pain and suffering is really nice. I haven't had too much experience with this first hand. Well, I take that back - I recently had 2 root canals and my wisdom teeth taken out so that would have been murder without Novocaine! When Michael and I were on the east coast and seeing many historical sites it came to our attention that many of our forefathers had serious ailments that they just suffered through on a day to day basis. Uggh!

5. Weather in California. Since I grew up here I take this for granted in a major way. A big wake up call to that was last year in December when we shot a wedding in Canada! It was FREEZING!! It was 20 degrees and they said that it was a heat wave. Yikes! It was fun to see snow though...

6. Indoor plumbing. My grandma grew up in Utah and during the winter they would have to use the restroom outdoors in an outhouse. They also used the Sears Catalog for toilet paper. Need I say more...

Well, here are just a few things. They are simple but without those things our lives would be a lot more tedious, complicated and painful. Most people in our country enjoy these conveniences (besides living in California that is) and it is truly wonderful. I am actually thinking of more things right now like modern travel, telephone, internet etc. but I think y'all get the point. Tis the season to have gratitude!

What are you grateful for?