Currently working on...

Selling my Nikon D80 and 2 lenses!

I'm movin' on to bigger and better things. This is it D80--you've been good to me! Now it's time for you to find a new home. 

Thanks!

Japanese BBQ

These BBQ's are by far the most delicious BBQ's ever. Its officially called Yakiniku, yaki = grilled, niku = meat. A Grilled Meat Party! If you've never been to one before, let me know and we'll do a Yakiniku party next summer.

My family has thrown a few of these parties and they are always a hit! We had the pleasure of having the Clegg's over and showing them what a Japanese BBQ is all about. If you've yet to experience Yakiniku, do it the right way and join us next summer!

 My cute dog Kuma and Deej get along very well. Maybe its because Deej feeds Kuma grapes...

A Picnic for Two

Who doesn't love a fun picnic on a warm Sunday afternoon?

Scott's Proposal

Two fun things to do the weekend before Halloween:

1. Golf in the pitch black dark with ridiculously cool glow-in-the-dark golf balls...
2. ...and get ENGAGED!

This was a really spontaneous shoot. Scott asked my hubs to help out by having him sing and play the guitar right after he proposes on the golf course, and afterwards serenade them with his mad cello skills as they sat on his porch and sipped some hot cocoa (CUTE!). Scott asked his brother to be sitting in the tree with a spotlight so when Emma hits her final shot and bends down and grabs the box that was placed in the hole, they'd be all lit up while Scott proposes. We were planning on this all week, and just a couple hours before it was going to happen, we had the genius idea for me to come along and be the creeper in the trees snapping photos. So I did. 

Deej and I hid behind a nearby tree as we were waiting for the couple. They golfed all the way down to the hole, and holy COW, the anticipation was crazy just seeing them get closer...We couldn't see Scott and Emma, but we would see little green glowing golf balls getting closer and closer to us. They finally got to where they were putting, and Emma made her last shot, bent down and that was our cue. 

Oh, so along with 'photographer', I was the stand-in for DJ's music stand--so picture this: Scott's brother is in the tree straddling a big branch above us holding a huge spotlight on the couple, DJ is in his tux and has his goofy head light on so he can see his music, I'm standing next to him holding the music in one hand for him to read, I've got my Nikon hanging around my neck so with my other hand I guess a focus point, pick up my camera, look through the viewfinder to see its not even close to focused, re-hang my camera and refocus, bring it up to my eye to shoot, still not focused, try again, and thought, "Heck, this is close enough!" and shot away. So these images are definitely not technically perfect, but oh. my. gosh. I was so twitterpated just watching the two love birds! I love those special moments and being able to capture it for them to look back on. 

Congratulations, Emma and Scott! I couldn't be happier for you two. Thanks for letting me and Deej be a part of your special night.

For ojiichan and obaachan

I miss it already!! I am so glad I was able to go over to Japan this last week to visit my relatives there. It is a very rare occasion to be able to see all of them in one trip with one family living in Tokyo and the others in the Aichi-ken Prefecture. We took Deej with us this time to introduce him to the family (He's so cute--he's been studying his butt off in his Japanese class and also doing Rosetta Stone at home. Gosh I love him!) It was wonderful to see all my aunts and uncles and cousins. I am so grateful for all of them who came and sacrificed their time to have a little wedding dinner with DJ and me.

I wish I had hired a photographer to come with us to capture everything (Heather, that means you, lady!) because from the looks of most of my photos, I wasn't there--My eye was GLUED to my Nikon the whole trip. But still, all these photos make for great memories! Here's a little glimpse at what we did in the land of the sun:

I'd like to introduce you to my Ojiichan. My grandpa that I love so much. He is so amazing. 86 and still going strong! He takes care of my grandma every single day (she was diagnosed with dementia about 7 years ago or so) and still finds time to manage all his gardens, which brings me to one of my favorite things about him. He makes the most delicious breakfasts. That might sound funny, but his Japanese breakfasts aren't the simple milk and cereal in a bowl. We eat toast, salad, sausages, yogurt, fish, seaweed, pumpkin, grapes, fig, Japanese pears, sweet beans...Its definitely weird, but it is ridiculously good. And most of the veggies and fruits come from my grandpa's garden. He is a gardening god!

My grandpa has been doing archery for a long time. It was really interesting seeing how ritualistic it was. They would walk in a single file line, always keeping their feet shuffling on the floor as they walked to their position. Then they would take their wide stance, look at their target, and pause for a moment to think. They would slowly raise their bows and arrows. It was so intricate, all the way down to the movement of the fingers. 

I'm so grateful for my grandpa. He's done so much for me and has been such a blessing in my life. I can't wait to go back to see him again!

More to come from my trip to Japan :) Stay tuned...

Landvatter Boys

I thought I'd post a little mini session I shot and get one more thing off of my To-Do list before Deej and I head out to Japan. So here ya go!

Sayonara~!

Jeff & Caitlin

I had high hopes for this wedding when I walked out the door to head to the temple. I saw blue skies and light fluffy clouds. You could just taste the fresh September air. We got lucky once again!...or so I thought...

I definitely spoke too soon. The wind picked up and blew that beautiful sky away and replaced it with some rain clouds. Bu-uh-mer. Not only was it about to start raining, but everything was pushed back almost 2 hours with some misunderstandings. 'Time crunch' was definitely an understatement for that day. We were lucky enough to get the fam & friends photos, but that's when our luck ran out. Unfortunately we weren't able to get anything of the couple alone because of the downpour, but we kept our heads high and went on to the next rendezvous point--La Caille! Once we arrived, the weather got much better. It was still very overcast and dark, but the rain was nice enough to hold on for a few hours so we could get some shots of the newly weds. Here's a sneek peak at some of my favorites...

Not bad for a rainy day, eh?

À la prochaine...

So the last post was mostly from my few days in Gordes and Roussillon in Southern France. Our next destination that my dad let me pick was Marseille and then finally, Cassis. My images are definitely not up to par with my dad's landscapes, but I did my best to make him proud (we make a great duo--his thing is landscape photography, mine is portraits).

I absolutely miss this trip. It was one of the greatest adventures I've been on. I loved being somewhere totally new and foreign to me, and it was fun getting some one-on-one bonding time with my poppa.

Thanks again, daddio! Love you!

 This was my lovely get-up every day: Film camera around the neck and digital in hand/on my handy dandy tripod.

Also, above you'll see our quaint little hallway to our room in Roussillon.

 Our view from dinner each night.

 Here we are in good ol' Marseille!

I love all the vibrant colors in these towns!

This man was our entertainment while we enjoyed some delicious french pizza on the patio. 

...kinda reminded me of the kidnapper from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, no?...

I LOVE FRANCE!

 Yes. This is a pile of rubbish (as my husband would call it). Piles of rubbish, everywhere! And some piles were well over 5'2, aka, me! I guess the garbage men were on strike or something.

 We arrived to the beautiful Cassis right around sunset. Perfect golden lighting on the hills!

 I can't get enough of the cute little ally ways.

This is the port where our hotel was.

 This has to be my #1 favorite shot of the entire trip. I think its because this is the only shot that really got to me on an artists level. What I mean is, the story behind this bike is, in a way, inspirational. Its the bike of the artist who works in this building--coincidentally enough, he is also a photographer and this is his photo gallery. He said one day he rode his bike to work, locked it up, and somehow lost the key so he was never able to detach the bike. I guess vines started growing and it completely took over the bicycle. Soon enough, it became a tourist attraction, leaving people to think this was a purposeful piece of artwork. He said a while later that he had found the key to his bike, but decided that this new piece of art was worth more than the bike--being a new popular landmark, it brought in tourists to his gallery and was good for business! I thought it was interesting that the simple act of losing a key created  not only success for his photography, but something beautiful by leaving this bike stationary. Pretty neat! So after hearing this story, I decided to grab my camera from the hotel and snap a shot or two.

Above is the view from our hotel window, and below, our hotel! :)

Can't wait to go back someday!