I found your camera

I just came across this cool blog that a guy in Winnipeg created to reunite people with their lost camera's and memories. I think it is pretty cool as I have lost photographs before and I have found camera's. It is pretty heart breaking when you loose something and especially if it is a camera with precious memories. So if you have found a camera or photos that belong to someone else and are interested in reuniting them with their owner check out this site! And if you have lost a camera this may be your lucky break!

I found your camera

To laugh

It has been a long week, and a bit rough around the edges. So I have been MIA. Today Don and I are taking the day off and just getting some things done around the house, the list is long.

You should check out this site called garfield minus garfield. Don heard of it from our friend John Gruber over at Daring Fireball. I think it was the first time we laughed all week.

Enjoy, there are some really funny ones. I will have some fun stuff to post next week I promise, I am heading out with the wonderful Ryan Estes tomorrow to second shoot for him on a wedding, should be a good time.

Have a great weekend!

Snow Day, finally.

It has been such a strange winter, we really haven't had much of one! I always feel like a little kid when it snows, I wake up all excited to see how much we got. Since I work at home now I don't have to go through the agonizing disappointment when calling the snow closure line to find out that schools are still open, I don't have to go anywhere if I don't want to.

I took a few images on our walk with Alma this morning, this is our tree.

It has beautiful red berries.

A little patriotic.

More tree, I couldn't decide which one I like more.

Don with Alma. She was so frisky this morning, eating snow and bounding around.

I hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy the snow today, before its all gone. I wish we would get some that would actually stay around for a while.

Alex & Sam's first birthday

This past weekend was full of Korean tradition! Not related at all and total coincidence. Sunday morning after my wonderful day at Rich & Yun-Jin's Korean wedding I got to photograph Alex & Sam's first birthday celebration. It was so cute to see them in their little Korean outfits. They had the same type of alter setup I had just seen for the first time the night before. I do not know what it is called however, maybe someone does?

On to the photographs.

Meet Sam on the left and Alex on the right.

They weren't quite sure what to think and Alex was really interested in tasting everything!

A little detail from their outfits.

Just too darn cute.

break time, getting photos taken is hard work. Little ones need to be re-energized.

Fun shot with Mom.

Such a sweet moment between Sam and Mom and Dad. I just love both of these images.

Cake!
On a side note it was really funny how differently Sam and Alex approached their birthday cake.
Sam totally devoured her piece and it was all over the place while Alex very selectively chose pieces to eat off the cake and her piece still resembled cake when she was done.

Such a pleasure it was, and I can vouch that the cake was out of this world yummy.

Enjoy your Slideshow!

Rich & Yun-Jin's Wedding

Get comfortable, this is a long one. What a day I had Saturday with Rich and Yun-Jin. We had an amazing beautiful day, all week we thought it was going to rain. Ryan Estes joined me for the day, and wow wait until you see some of his photos. He should have some posted on his blog soon. We had such a blast. Rich and Yun-Jin gave us four hours with just them for photos! How crazy is that? That never happens. We took full advantage and have the photos to show for it. We went all over the city, Belmont Plateau, the whispering wall at the Civil War memorial, Penn's Landing, Old City, and FDR park. Plus a pit stop at Cosi for coffee. I could chat all day, but you need to see these images!

Yun-Jin beautiful just getting ready.

It was easy to get fantastic photos of her.

First stop Belmont Platueau. It is a little Philly secret, amazing skyline view.

Beautiful day, Beautiful couple, Beautiful photo.

Off to the Civil War Memorial and my signature fisheye photos.

Full of flare on the whispering bench.

More beautiful scenery at Penn's Landing.

We found amazing light in Old City at Head House Square.

See why I have had such a hard time editing the photos down for this post?

I LOVE this, they were just so much fun and so playful. Yun-Jin was awesome for braving the cold, you would never know it was only about 35 degrees out!

My favorite street in Old City.

On to FDR park. Such great flare all day!

Our limo driver Chris is the one who suggested FDR park, I have never photographed here before. He picked a fantastic location.

I love it, they were so happy all day.

The ceremony and reception was at August Moon in Norristown.
Rich sneaking a peek at Yun-Jin during one of the prayers.
One side note, the whole ceremony was in Korean so Ryan and I were on our toes the whole time so as not to miss one moment.

After the traditional ceremony we went into a separate room for the Korean ceremony Pae baek. Where they were dressed in bright colored robes, traditional Korean wedding outfits.

You will see more photos of this in the slideshow. This was my first experience with a Korean wedding and it was just amazing. I loved learning a little about another culture, although everything was spoken in Korean. During the Pae baek the bride and groom bow to the grooms parents introducing the bride into the new family. The grooms parents then toss dates and walnuts for the bride and groom to catch, this symbolizes catching prosperity and offspring. Then other family members offer good wishes to the bride and groom. At the end they share the date, which is what they are doing in the photo below. Then the groom carries the bride on his back around the room, I forget why though. You will see more photos in the slideshow.

Enjoy the slideshow!

The commercial

I just found this online, and I guess this will be a public service announcement that will play in theaters. Anyway this is the secret commercial I told you about in January that Don did the shooting boards for. We were tucked away in the back of the room during filming. Pretty cool. I assume there will be more versions at some point. Enjoy!

The Business Of Being Born

I attended a screening of Ricki Lake's documentary The Business Of Being Born. I want to encourage every woman whether you are pregnant or not to see this film. It is coming out on February 27th on DVD, you can rent it or buy it.

It is amazing to me the tactics that hospitals use when delivering a baby, and how uninformed women are about their rights. I have not had any children myself so I can not comment on the experience of birthing a child but as a baby that was born at home I have always had an understanding of the benefit of not being born in a hospital. Not that I remember anything about being born at home but all my life I have had a clear understanding from my mother about the whole experience. She did not have a great experience when she gave birth to my brother in the hospital so when I came along my parents made the decision to have a midwife and give birth to me at home. My mom always talks about how wonderful it was to have me at home, she was up and walking making tea an hour or so later. There is something really comforting about that. At the hospital they really don't want you to get out of your bed.

My head is so full of information right now and parts of this film just brought me to tears, happy and sad. Did you know that you as a woman and mother of your child have the right to tell the doctors and nurses that your baby will not leave your room? People take this for granted and accept it when the nurse takes the baby away to the nursery, why is that? They just don't know that they have that right.

All the women who had their children at home in this film talked about how hard it was and how rewarding it was to have their child at home, the bonding and experience of it could not be matched and they would have not had the same experience being all drugged up in the hospital. Once the hospital has an IV in you it is so easy for them to drug you up and your head is not in a rational place to have any say so. I can go on and on, I am obviously so moved and upset by watching this, I don't even know where to begin. But whatever you decide to do when having your child make sure it is your choice, know your rights, and make sure your partner and family know your rights and what you want. When you are in the heat of the moment it is hard to stick to what you think is right and the doctors have a way with threating the life of your child to get you to do what is convenient for them.

If you are about to have a child, or plan to in the future watch this film and make sure your husband or partner watches it too. I think it is really important. The film is not about trying to get every woman to have their children at home, it is about educating women on their choices.

Here is the house I was born in, I was born in Santa Fe New Mexico.
My placenta was planted under a tree in the back yard.

Rich and Yun-Jin's Engagement Shoot

Last night I met up with Rich and Yun-Jin for our night engagement shoot. Their wedding is next weekend so we wanted to make sure to get our e-shoot done before hand. We had a fantastic dinner at the Korean restaurant Paladium and got to know each other. Then we jumped right in to the photo shoot.

I was so excited to do some night shooting!

They were naturals.

They often duck into little alleyways for a quick kiss, so our starting point was perfect.

I love these two images of them.

You can't go wrong with a night shot and City Hall in the background.They were smiles all night.We stopped off at their future apartment at the end of the shoot.
Great high ceilings, and original marble floors.

They were such a pleasure to photograph! I can not wait until the wedding next Saturday.

Be sure to check out the slideshow, there are so many awesome shots.

break time

I think you need to end each day with a really good laugh. If you didn't catch the fued between Conan Obrien, Jon Steward and Steven Colbert a few days ago then you really missed out!

But I will share.

Joan & Richard's 50th Anniversary

Saturday evening I went out to document a very special occasion for this family. Joan and Richard's 50th Anniversary. All of their children flew in from across the country to be here for them on this momentous occasion! They have six children, and even more grandchildren. This was a full house and it was certainly spilling over with love.

Here they are fifty years ago and then today. Don't they look fabulous!

Each of the grandchildren received a wonderful snow globes with a photo from their grandparents wedding day.

This is a clearer photo of the image in the snow globe, I love it.
Such a classy couple.

You can't get through the night without one of the grandchildren climbing into the furniture.

Here they are, all of Joan and Richard's children.

The children with their families.

I gave you the teaser shot of the grandchildren yesterday, still cracks me up just look in the post below this one.

One big happy family!

You were all great, I hope the rest of the evening was just as fun.

Here is your slideshow

Classic kid group shot

I photographed a really sweet 50th Anniversary party on Saturday evening and going through the images quickly tonight this image of the grand-kids got my eye and it cracks me up. So typical I think. I will certainly be posting more images from this event but I had to put this one up tonight.

The grand-kids group shot was a must have, the two little ones were less than thrilled but the show must go on! Better to document the moment than not have them in the shot at all. I personally LOVE this image.
This was a super family and I will have more to post about them later.