My Little Girl

The other day my wife left to run some errands so the kids and I were just hanging around the house. Cam feel asleep on the couch and Paige was coloring on a piece of paper at the kitchen table. I was sitting across from her reading emails and such on my laptop and when I looked up to check on her she was asleep at the table! Amazing.

I feel so blessed to have such great kids, an awesome supportive wife, a job I love and great friends to share it all with.



Here's Paige coloring before she crashed.


Tonight is the Seattle PUG meeting at the Macaroni Grill at Alderwood Mall! I can't wait to see everyone there!

Collin's Photo Shoot

This last weekend I had Collin and his parents over to the studio for a portrait session. Here's one of my favorite images from the set. He's so cute!

Seattle Bride Magazine - After Party Dinner

Hey everyone! That was fun! Let's do it again!

This last Thursday was Seattle Bride Magazine's Best of 2006 party downtown Seattle. It was a blast. I'm so glad I attended this year! :D

The party was chock full of all kinds of wedding professionals. I had the pleasure of meeting lots of talented individuals and I look forward to building relationships with them this year.

Well, as fate would have it, at the end of the night it was mostly photographers left to close the place up. So, myself, Me Ra Koh, Brian Townsend, Bleu, Ginger, Charlane Chase, Susie Hamidi and Janet Klinger went out for dinner over at Sazerac. (Great restaurant in the Monaco hotel.) We had a great time! Here's a few photos I snapped at dinner and one we had the waiter take of all of us.


Brian laughing it up.



Charlane


Me Ra


Susie (I love this photo of you Susie!)


All of us!

Meanwhile, Dani Weiss and the West Seattle Gang were having their own dinner party over in West Seattle. Next time guys, we'll have to plan that better and get everyone together at one table!

Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Ad

This month Grace Ormonde's Wedding Style Fall/Winter 2006 issue hits the streets. I'm so excited! Know why? Because I'm one of 15 exclusive advertising photographers in Wedding Style magazine for 2006. Check the blog later this month for a peek at the ad I'm running. Until then, go buy the magazine and see it in print. It should be on newstands in a week or so.

Melissa and Marty

Ok, so that was about the most fun I think a photographer can have at a wedding. I had the pleasure of photographing Melissa and Marty's wedding this last Saturday at Holy Family Catholic church in Kirkland and let me tell you, this family is awesome!

We had a great time! Melissa was radiant and Marty, well he cleans up pretty nice too. :D Just kidding Marty. Here's a few photos from the day. I'll have a slideshow up pretty quick. It's been very difficult to pick my favorite images! They're all good!








The ceremony was beautiful in the sanctuary. We had all this diffused natural light streaming in from the gigantic skylight above the altar.


Susie Hamidi shot second with me and what a joy it was to shoot together. Thanks Susie! Let's do it again! Oh, wait, we are. Next week... Well good!

June PUG Meeting: June 29th

Hey Gang!

So, I've changed up the meeting space for the PUG group. This month, (and hopefully from now on if we like the place) we'll bee meeting at the Macaroni Grill in Alderwood Mall. It looks like a cool place and the bonus is they have a banquet room for us all to be loud in.

Check out the PUG website for all the details.

If you're going to attend, please do me a favor and email me or go to the PUG site I linked to above and fill out the sign up form. Thanks!

This month we're going to hear all about Susie Hamidi Photography. She's an awesome person and I'm very proud to call her my friend and colleague. Susie and I are shooting 3 weddings together this year. The first one is this Saturday and I can't wait! Check out Susie's work at her website: www.susieHamidi.com

I had the pleasure of flying down to sunny California and spending the week with Mike Colón at his 4-day intensive workshop in Newport Beach and I want to share my experience with all of you. Mike is an incredible person and a great photographer. I feel very blessed to call him my friend. I'll share some cool tricks he taught me and some words of wisdom about marketing.

On the Pictage side of things, we'll cover the new event cards that are being released, check out the new Album Designer 2.0 and I'll explain the new sponsorship program.

So, mark your calendar and plan on attending! Bring a friend even! It's going to be great fun.

---

THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2006
6:00PM

Location:
Romano's Macaroni Grill - Alderwood Mall
3000 184th St., #922
Lynnwood, WA 98037
425.368.2875

Local Agenda:

* Studio Spotlight with Susie Hamidi Photography
* The Mike Colon Experience - Newport Beach 4-day Intensive Workshop Review

Pictage Agenda:

* Event Card Release
* Album Designer 2.0
* Sponsorship Program
* Marketing Tip - Selling w/ Event Cards

---

Nikon Releases new D2Xs Camera Body

Check it out! Nikon released a new D2X camera body today! This one is designated D2Xs and includes a few new features and updates over the previous D2X model.




Summary of D2Xs improvements

* Electronic viewfinder masking when using High Speed Crop
* Colour Matrix Metering II adapted for use in High Speed Crop
* New wide angle TFT monitor
* New longer life battery
* New Black and White mode
* Adobe RGB Colour space available in all three Colour Modes
* Additional Custom Curve options
* Extra 1/3 step ISO boost settings
* Refinements to Auto focus performance
* New in camera Trim function
* Modified Auto ISO control
* Extra options for the Function Button
* Extended continuous shooting
* New Menu GUI color scheme
* Image Comment, number of characters increased.
* Save/Load settings between multiple D2Xs cameras, additional settings in EXIF
* Simplified settings management
* Image Authentication system compatible
* Battery warning during Mirror Up
* Additional GPS information
* Modified USB portwith new USB Cable Clip included

The High-speed crop mode mask is pretty nifty. I'd love to have that on my D2X. Here's a photo of what that new feature looks like.



Check out DPReview.com's review for all the details.