Photos Published in "Elegant Bride"

A new issue of Elegant Bride just showed up on newstands and some of my photos are featured in it! The photos appear in the "Party Scene" section that features "faulous celebrations -- rehearsal dinners, welcome parties and more." Dana & Brad's rehearsal dinner had a western theme to it and took place at Reata Pass in Scottsdale. It was a fun hoe-down and I'm excited that their beautiful event was chronicled in Elegant Bride!

Christmas Eve

Last night my family celebrated Christmas. I think it was my favorite one so far. Mostly because my 6 year old nephew, Noah, was finally at the age where he really got into it. He was so cute and excited and helped everyone else open their presents. When he got a present open we would ask him what it was and he would often screech, "ANOTHER BOX!" It was SO cute. Of course there was an actual present IN the box but it was cute that he was so excited about the box itself.

Here's Noah before we sat down for dinner looking all cute and adult-ish with the freezer door open. All he kept asking for all through dinner was ice cream:


Here's my cute family sitting down for dinner at my parent's house:

From left to right - my dad, Noah, my mom, my brother-in-law Josh, my sister Natalie. The little diapered kid in the background is my youngest nephew Elijah. He still doesn't get what all the fuss is about so spent the majority of the evening watching Family Feud and playing in the back room.

Here's a close-up of one of the many highlights of the night--the honey-baked ham. SO yummy.


My mom admitted to going a little over the top with the gifts this year. They practially blocked our view of the trees at the beginning of the night:


Father & son ready to open presents:


We got Elijah to sit down and help open one gift. Hopefully next year he'll be more into it.


A couple of Noah's favorite gifts--a train set from Grandma & Grandpa and flash cards also from Grandma & Grandpa.


Noah is autistic and LOVES his flash cards. He is quite the wiz at learning his words from them. He must know hundreds by now and it is so cute how much he enjoys learning.


How many people does it take to assemble a toy?


Some of the other favorites of the night - my sister with her new steak knives:

Mom with some new earrings:


My dad with a tiny version of what my mom is going to allow him to buy for himself--a new motorcycle.


And the best reaction of the night caught on "film" - Josh opening a new wedding ring from my sis:


I got some great gifts as well. My favorite is a black video iPod from my parents - thanks mom & dad! I was totally surprised by it. Believe it or not, it is the very first iPod I've ever owned. Hard to believe, I know.

Finally, here's a bad attempt at a self-group portrait using my wide-angle lens:



Merry Christmas everyone!

Tom & Katie's Album

Merry Christmas Eve Eve everyone! I'm SO excited to spend time with family and open presents tomorrow night. That's right--we've always celebrated on Christmas Eve so I get to open presents in less than 24 hours :).

Anyhow, today I finished up an album design for Tom & Katie who got married in October. It's taken me awhile on this one because of the busy Fall season of weddings but I'm excited to have finished it in time for Christmas for Tom & Katie who are such a great couple. More album designs are soon to come since January will be a slower month wedding-wise.

Click here to view Tom & Katie's album. Keep in mind as you view the design and some of the photos look tiny, that the finished album is 14x10 inches in size--much larger!

Christmas Outreach

Today was a fun day. I went downtown to partner with my church and Crossroads Youth Intervention to spread some Christmas cheer to needy children and families. I was told that many of these children will get nothing for Christmas except what they received from us today.

Above is a line of people from the surrounding neighborhood patiently waiting in line to enter the event. Here's some more pictures of some of the 200 or more cute kids waiting in line:




This little boy wanted me to take a picture of his little lizard he was carrying around:


When kids entered they were given lunch:


There was live music, a bounce house, some arts & crafts for the kids to do, and a message about the love of God in Christ--given in both English and Spanish. When the kids left, they were each give a new toy to take home with them:


When I do this type of thing, I always end up feeling more blessed than those who are there to receive the blessing. It's amazing how that works.

PUG Christmas Party

Thursday night we had our first annual PUG (Pictage User Group) Christmas Party. I lead this network of local professional photographers here in Phoenix. We have been meeting monthly for a year now to network and learn from one another. I've made so many great friends through this group as well. It's truly such a blessing in my life. This month we all got together and brought our families and just celebrated. We had great food, Santa showed up, and we did a fun gift exchange.

Here's fellow photographer, Jefferson Todd taking his self-portrait with Santa:


Thanks to everyone involved in the PUG for a great 1st year!

Haines & Michelle's Maternity Photos

Tonight I spent some time with my friends Haines and Michelle and shot their maternity photos! It was exciting for a number of reasons. For starters, this was my first ever maternity shoot so it was fun to shoot friends. Also, Michelle is a talented photographer who assisted me for over a year while she started up her own business and she was SO excited to do this shoot. She was giddy and so cute the whole time. Michelle is such a great person and always good for entertainment value--I always have a smile on my face around her. Haines is great as well. It's amazing how well they fit together. They're one of those "made for each other couples." Anyhow, they are expecting their first child in February. It's a boy! And his name will be Tate. It will be fun to meet him soon. ANYHOW...I'll stop talking now and share some of my favorite shots from tonight.

We started out in Haines and Michelle's home:



I can't believe what a beautiful pregnant woman Michelle is. She is glowing:


We then drove down to Freestone Park, one of my favorite spots for portraits, and had some fun shooting there. Although the grass is kinda dead, it was such a beautiful night and we got some great shots.








Thanks for dinner guys! I'm so glad you're in my life!

Two weddings named "Most Beautiful of 2006"

The November/December issue of the Wedding Chronicle, a local publication, has been out for about a month now but I just got my hands on a few issues. The issue focused on "The Most Beautiful Weddings of 2006" and two of my weddings were featured!!

Dana and Brad got married on April 1st at The Sanctuary and Jenna & Frank wed on May 20th at The Silverleaf Club. They were both amazingly beautiful and seeing them featured in the Wedding Chronicle brings back a lot of memories.

It was fun to look through the other weddings chosen in the publication and see many of my friends who are amazing photographers featured as well. Congratuations Michelle Meyer, Tracy Kreck, Michell Jonas, Rebecca Bouck, Stuart Thurlkill, Byron Medina & Jared Platt!

Jacob & Justin

Tonight I did portraits of Jacob and Justin - two very cute brothers. Jacob, the younger of the two, is at that age where he tries his hardest but hasn't mastered the natural smile. So it was a little tough to coax it out of him. But we got some great shots nonetheless.

Justin is a great older brother and was always trying to help out. He was very sweet with Jacob. Here are a few of my favorite shots:




Justin got into the shoot by making suggestions for poses and spots to take photos. These last two were his ideas--pretty good :)



Fun! Thanks guys!

Protesting December

I am in protest. Against December. It shouldn't be December already! How is it possible that Christmas is just weeks away? Time is just going too fast. It's been hard for me to adjust and get in the Christmas mood this year for some reason. Christmas is like my favorite time of year so that's one of the reasons I'm bummed because I just want this time to go slow so I can savor it.

All of my friends and most of the rest of the country have had their Christmas decorations up since the Saturday after Thanksgiving. But I finally got mine up last night! Yay! Thanks dad for your help! This is my Charlie Brown country tree:


It's cute and little and is helping me somewhat to adjust. Here's some of my favorite ornaments:


Mr. Moose:


A reminder of the real reason for the season:


Button-legged snowman:


I haven't done one ounce of shopping yet. Thankfully my sister is like my wife in that she's doing a lot of shopping on my behalf. She's sweet--she'll call me up from the store and tell me she found something for our mom or dad and ask if I want to get it for them :).

I want to make sure I stop and slow down and reflect this year and soak it all in. It's hard with so many things on my TO DO list but I'm going to try.

One thing that always helps me to get into the Christmas spirit is my absolute favorite Christmas song- "Welcome to Our World" by Chris Rice. You need to definitely look it up on iTunes and listen to it and buy it. The lyrics are awesome. Jesus is amazing for all he has done for us!!

I hope you are able to enjoy all the joys of this season. And if there's anything else you think of that will help me with my adjustment to December--feel free to share!