day 295 : sunset flash

day 295 : Yesterday afternoon Ben and I drove out to Palm Springs where we're going to spend the next few days relaxing up until new years. The sunsets here are pretty spectacular so it's the perfect chance to try my off camera flash with the sunset... I was a little too late trying to set it up and we only caught the tail end of the sunset... so beware there may be another of these shots in a few days :)

day 294 : more delicious presents

day 294: Before settling down to watch a movie this evening, we decided to test out one of our other awesome presents, a popcorn maker from Allison and Mark. I was hoping to catch some popping in action, but we had some technical difficulties (I think I failed to follow directions properly) and I was attempting to catch flying kernels so I missed the photo op. The popcorn was still delicious... and I'm sure we'll do better next time :)

day 293 : night light

day 293: Last night while we were out getting frozen yogurt, I decided to try out a couple of my favorite Christmas presents, a new flash from my parents, and some wireless flash triggers from Ben (could I get any nerdier?) Yay for off camera flash. On the way home I got even nerdier playing with long exposures and trying to draw hearts. Yes... I'm that ridiculous.

days 287 - 292

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last couple of days. Ben and I have been having a rough week. On Saturday evening we lost our beloved Rita in a freak accident and I haven't really had the motivation to blog. We are going to miss her dearly and she was definitely an irreplaceable friend. I'm just so grateful that we had as much time with her as we did, and that she'll stay forever in our hearts and minds (and all of the photos will certainly help us remember her!) Here a couple of the most recent photos taken before she passed away. We'll miss you Rita!

Even with everything that's been going on, I've still managed to take at least my one picture a day. I figured I'd better start putting them up before I lose my audience... so I'm doing something a little bit different to get caught up... one post for all the photos for the last week or so.

Day 287:

Day 288: On Saturday we went to dinner to celebrate Allison passing her teaching credential tests. Congratulations Allison!


Day 289:

Day 290:

Day 291: Merry Christmas!


Day 292:

day 286 : tasty treats

day 286: This evening we got together with Meredith (who we haven't seen in forever!) to go to dinner, which is nice because we've been so busy I feel like we never get to see friends anymore. She brought us some amazingly tasty holiday treats. Thanks Meredith!!

day 285 : holiday cheer

day 285 : After finishing up the model on Wednesday afternoon it was time for some vegging out and movie watching. I plan to get as much rest as possible for the next two days :) I also got to work on some of our Christmas cards (don't worry if you haven't gotten one yet, they're on the way, promise!) in front of the tree. Oh how festive.

day 284 : workin' hard

day 284 : When there's a model to be built on a deadline, sleeping becomes a luxury and staying up late to get it done becomes a given. I had a model due on Wednesday which meant a very very long day of work on Tuesday. Thank goodness it's finished and now I can rest up for the holidays :)

day 283 : macro nose

day 283: I realized today that it's been an awfully long time since I posted a shot with my macro lens. I mainly use this lens for detail shots at weddings so it hasn't seen much use in the last couple of weeks. What better way to give it a workout than by shooting Rita's nose?

day 282 : an experiment in light

day 282: This afternoon my friend Crissy and I got together and brought along her husband Marcus and Ben to model for us while we experimented with off camera lighting. It was a super fun and informative little get together... and I think I have new favorite jumping photo. How hilarious is this one?

day 281 : polaroid fantastic

day 281: This evening we met up with Sam and Tai to have dinner and exchange early Christmas gifts since they'll be in Kansas and we'll be here... they gave Ben an awesome polaroid camera so now he has a new fun toy to play with (although at 10 shots per film package it's quite an expensive hobby) It's quite an entertaining gift... thanks guys!

day 280 : holiday craftiness

day 280: Since Ben and Mark are coming to my parents' house for Christmas this year and neither of them has ever had a personalized stocking at my parents' house... I figured it was time for me to get crafty and break out my embroidery needle. I'm not quite finished with them yet but this is what I've got so far. Yay for Christmas stockings!

day 279 : last of the light

day 279: With the total lack of evening light these days (darn you winter) it's hard to get inspired to get out and take photos after a long day of work. By the time I step outside it's usually totally black. Today I happened to step out a bit earlier and caught the very last of the sunset as I was walking to get a coffee. I can't wait for the days to get longer again!

day 278 : blast from the past

day 278: This evening Ben and I went to meet up with a bunch of people that I used to work with at my last office. It was their holiday party and afterwards they all went out to a bar in Santa Monica. Little did we know there was a band...

day 277 : oh chistmas tree

day 277 : I told Allison I'd post a photo of our Christmas tree for her so she could see what it looks like... here you go :) It's fabulous isn't it?

day 276 : light up my life (or office)

day 276: My office has been suffering from total lack of lighting for some time now... which is especially troubling when trying to edit photos at night. The bright glow of an LCD display in a dark room can totally throw off the brightness of your images. Anyhow I finally made it to Ikea (oh how I love that store) and picked up a new lamp to add some brightness to my workspace. It's oh so lovely!

day 275 : roar

day 275: I feel quite lame that I'm posting two photos of Rita right after each other, but it happens to be the best photo I took today, and I think (like the other one) that it's quite funny.
So to make up for the fact that I am posting too many photos of my dog, I'm going to give you some good advice today: go see "Is He Dead?" on Broadway. Bridget's in it, it's awesome, and the New York Times agrees.

day 274 : on the promenade

day 274: Last night we went to the Santa Monica promenade to eat at my favorite restaurant Real Food Daily, where I unwittingly poisoned my friend Paul by feeding him nachos with fake cheese which were made out of cashews. I forgot he was allergic to nuts. Sorry Paul, I feel terrible!! Anyhow, once we left the disastrous dinner we went for a walk down the promenade, which is quite festive for the holidays. Yay for holiday lights!

day 273 : orna-mental

day 273: This evening after work Ben and I went to an ugly Christmas sweater design party. Everyone brought a sweater and we had piles and piles of felt, hot glue, and googly eyes to make the most ridiculous sweater possible. Ben's was pretty sweet.

day 272 : happy holidays from rita

day 272: I get a huge kick out of this photo and if you've met Rita you probably know why. She has a habit of staring people down... or rather looking expectantly at you... I think she's always asking if you'd maybe like to give her a treat. Or if you'd like your feet licked. In any case this is her signature pose. And her scarf says Happy Holidays. I'm quite entertained :)

day 271 : starbucks ad

day 271: Ok... the front facing logo was not intentional... sorry if this looks like an ad. Ben and I have been so busy we haven't actually had that much time to just hang out lately. This evening we went to get coffee and talk about what we're getting everyone for Christmas (yay!) and I took this photo... and then later realized that the logo was front and center. oops. Like starbucks needs more advertising...

day 270 : bird's eye kitchen

day 270: I was up on a stool last night putting groceries away in one of our high shelves when I looked down on the counter... and for some reason was quite entertained by the angle. It reminded me of a cooking show camera angle... although if cooking shows were done in far less nice of kitchens.

day 269 : up so very late

day 269: On Monday (sorry again for the late posting) both Ben and I were up late working on projects on our computers. This is Ben's oh my gosh it's 1 am and I'm so sad that my portfolio won't upload face. We went to sleep shortly after this and he uploaded it the next day. Nothing ever seems to go right at 1 am :)

day 268 : my favorite guy

day 268: This afternoon the family got together at mom & dad's to decorate the Christmas tree, one of my favorite family traditions! While we were there Valena and John stopped by and brought my favorite little guy... he didn't do much decorating but he did make a fabulous lego spaceship. And of course I had to take at least a couple photos of him. He's just so cute!

day 267 : another engagement

day 267: While we were in San Diego I got the chance to shoot some engagement photos for Rocky & Eddie who are going to be married in July in a fabulous destination wedding (super exciting... I can't wait!). This is one of my favorites... more as always later this week on my "official" blog :)

day 266 : still busy!

day 266: Sorry for the sporadic posting! I'm still taking the photos, I've just been so busy it's been hard to find the time to blog them on the day I take them! Friday we packed up to head down to San Diego again... this time for a Christmas party. Not much time for photos on that day!

day 265 : yay for Christmas!

day 265: Obviously I know it's not Christmas yet... it's not even December yet. But Ben and I put up our Christmas tree and I'm super excited for all of the festive decorations going up all around town. We still have the outside of our house to decorate as well. Yay for holiday decorations!

day 264 : hola paul

day 264: We've had a ridiculously busy couple of weeks... traveling, houseguests.... and now even more houseguests. This time it's Paul, who we of course took out to mexican food as soon as he arrived. Mmm mexican food.

day 263 : pinky sky

day 263: Walking from a shop to my car around 5 this afternoon I caught a fleeting glimpse of color in the gloomy November sky... just long enough to take a photo before the sun sank and it faded to gray. What lovely puffy pink clouds...

day 262 : warm welcome

day 262: Just a couple of weeks ago we visited Chris and Tara in New York and now it's our turn to play host. I think they got quite a typical welcome to our home when Rita jumped on the couch and attacked their feet. It's hospitality by foot licking, her specialty. Chris asked me to remind him NOT to wear flip flops tomorrow :)

day 261 : baby face

day 261: On Sunday before hopping back on our plane home I went over to take some portraits of baby Ella. Isn't she adorable? Just like a little cabbage patch doll :)

day 260 : bloch

day 260: On Saturday Ben and I went to the Nelson Atkins museum of art in Kansas City to take some photos of the new Bloch building addition. It is made up of channel glass and lit from the inside at night so that it glows (pretty cool). It just happened to be a special event night with luminaries lining the pathways through the outdoor sculpture gardens. There were tons of people out and it was actually a really neat event.

day 259 : dog-napping

day 259: There is about to be a dog-napping in Kansas City. Kate & Jon's new dog Charlie is definitely going to be smuggled in my suitcase. Look at that face... wouldn't you steal her too? Oh Charlie... so ridiculously cute!

day 258 : happy thanksgiving!

day 258: Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We had quite a feast of wonderful food, great friends, and of course the best part... an amazing family. I have so very much to be thankful for! Happy Thanksgiving mom, dad, Chris & Allison... I'm sad I couldn't be there... but I'll see you at Christmas!!

day 257 : crazy travel

day 257: When we went to France last month our flight was canceled out of LA... what are the chances we'd be scheduled on ANOTHER canceled flight? Well whatever the chances are that's what happened. We were supposed to fly out on Thursday morning but got a call on Wednesday night saying our flight was canceled. We were lucky to have just enough time to catch the last red-eye on Wednesday (getting to the airport was quite a frantic experience) so that we were in town in time for Thanksgiving! What a crazy day!

day 256 : catching up!

day 256: Sorry for the couple day break in the blogging... we're out of town for Thanksgiving and I didn't get a chance to post before we got on the plane. Time to get caught up :)

day 255 : beach engagement

day 255: Today was a ridiculously foggy day and I was worried I'd have trouble shooting an engagement session on the beach, but the light actually ended up being quite pretty. Here's one of my favorites from the shoot, I'll be posting more on my wedding photography blog later this week!

day 254 : yay for presents

day 254: Yesterday afternoon Allison and I met up in Orange County for a marathon Christmas shopping session. I love shopping for presents but by the end of the day we were pretty wiped out. A crowded mall can really take it out of you.

day 253 : cuter than cute!

day 253: This morning I photographed a first birthday party for an incredibly cute little baby girl. It was a traditional Korean birthday complete with the Korean dress (hanbok) and she was pretty much the cutest thing ever. Here's one of my favorite pictures from the day.

day 252 : it's alive!

day 252: Well while we were in France my 50mm 1.8 lens went kaput. It just plain stopped focusing one day. I was about to buy a new lens to replace it when I decided to give it one last shot and test out my old one. And wouldn't you know it works!! Here's our fridge... a test shot with the 1.8 goodness. Those magnets in the back are only about 1/4" away and are out of focus. Oh how I love the shallow depth of field :)

day 251 : clementine season

day 251: mmm-mm tasty! Ben and I are attempting to take down an entire box on our own. Unless you want to come over and eat one. We have lots. Seriously. Want an orange?

day 250 : so cal fall

day 250: I still can't believe the temperature difference between here and New York, or here and France, or pretty much here and anywhere else right now. It's supposed to be fall but it was about 82 degrees today according to the weather channel. It was downright toasty outside at lunch!