Edmond Chamber of Commerce's Newest Members!

Although we live within the city limits of Oklahoma City (it's a huge city at over 600 square miles), our mailing address is Edmond, Oklahoma, and that's where we do the majority of our living. Our business has recently grown to the point where we felt it was worthwhile to invest in a membership with the Edmond Chamber of Commerce to continue to grow local relationships.


The really cool thing is that we've already booked some photography work for the Chamber. So, this Friday, we'll be covering the annual Chamber Awards banquet and ceremonies! With any kind of small business, every little investment needs to pay off somehow and I can see how our Chamber membership may very well be one of those investments we should have made earlier.

If you live in a town large enough to have a Chamber of Commerce, you owe it to yourself and your business to look into a membership!

A Life Without Regrets

I love quotable quotes and this video is filled with a few personal favorites of mine. Inspiration comes in many forms, but the most inspiring to me are quotes like these and the example of others who have followed their dreams. All of us have dreams. Holly and I feel really blessed to be able to follow so many of our dreams so early in our lives. We've lived in Australia, we now have 2 kids, and we work with some of the nicest people doing something that we thoroughly enjoy (photography). I hope you find the courage to follow yours!



I think my favorite quote from this clip is the one that basically says, "You'll regret the things you didn't do more than the things you did." I'm all about living without regrets.

Credit to Scarlett for posting this earlier. (Scarlett is a photographer and active blogger in Jacksonville, Florida.)

Celebrity Chef: Dave Lieberman

Photography is fun just in an of itself, but when you get to work with really great and nice people, it just makes it that much more enjoyable. Last week Saint Anthony Hospital hosted Dave Lieberman, one of the Food Networks' celebrity chefs. I have to admit that I've never seen him on TV (I don't think we get the Food Network) and I've never really been interested in watching people "cook" on TV. But meeting Dave Lieberman last week, I can see why people watch his show. He's such a fun person to be around!

St. Anthony Hospital asked me to cover all three Celebrity Chef events that they put on and it was a real pleasure. These pictures are from the first night, at Will Rogers Theater, with the Junior League in attendance. I asked Dave if he ever got nervous speaking in front of so many people, but he said he never does any more. "Even in front of all those ladies and single gals?" (Dave's still single.) Nope, didn't bother him at all. He's one cool cucumber.















I have yet to retouch the other two events, but if I see any really cool shots, I'll put up another post with more pictures.

Headshots for Famous Artist, Allison Sangree

Okay, you caught me, we share the same last name. In fact, this is my own Mom, if you couldn't tell from the resemblance. =) Last time Mom came down to visit, we talked her into starting a blog for her art website (check it out, it's just a simple, fledgling website, but she does great paintings!) and she's been blogging ever since! Isn't she beautiful?!


Headshots are a really common need in the photography world. We do headshots for a few favorites, but by and large they're really better done in a studio where you can control everything including the Oklahoma wind.

Announcing Baby Astoria!

Our new bundle of joy we are calling "Storie" has arrived! We're so grateful for a healthy and very happy baby and Momma. It couldn't have gone better, except maybe for Holly getting pinkeye and a sinus infection afterwards, but of all the things that could have gone wrong, we feel very blessed.

Here's the latest picture of Astoria, taken on her 1st day of life in the real world. =)


I'll spare you all the juicy details, but if you're just dying to hear them, check out our blog for the Sangree kids. Wow, "kids!" Feels like we're real parents now that we have more than just one. =)

Baby #2 Pending

Holly and I are just a little bit relieved that the expected 10 inches of snowfall missed us this weekend. It would have been a lot of fun, but Holly's about to start labor and it would be nice to be able to get to the hospital. =)

Well, we will keep you posted! Thanks for allowing us to take some maternity leave. We've booked March and are booking in April now, so let us know if you'd like us to put you on the calendar!

The Burnett Family Portraits

It was great to spend time with the Burnett Family again this season. We took their pictures for the first time last year, so it was truly a pleasure to have them back and to see how much their boys had grown. I guess seeing kids grow up is one of the simple pleasures of family photography.

Here are some of our favorites from the session that we did. As you can tell, the colors were still really nice since we took them in the Fall. I've just waited until now to post since we don't have any nice colors any more. =)






We got the more formal pictures out of the way so we could have some real fun!




Growing up with brothers ourselves, I think photographing boys playing together is among our favorite things to photograph. We love catching the emotion and fun that you can see in their faces in that last photo above. That's got to be the picture of brotherly fun.

Private Lessons

Today I (Christian) gave my first private "lesson" in photography. I met Mr. Olson at a wedding a couple of weeks ago where we spent a few minutes talking about cameras, etc. He seemed like a really genuine and nice guy and so I offered to help him with his new camera and some photography pointers if he was interested.

We met at the new Starbucks at 15th and Bryant in that new Spring Creek shopping center (or right across the street from it. Is that called Spring Creek, too?) to go over his experience and skill level so we'd know where to go from here.

Honestly, I was a bit nervous about how it would go since we'd never really done this before, but it was a great time! Talking about photography, cameras, composition, etc. the time flew and before we knew it, we both had weddings to run to.

One funny thing: turns out his wife's neice and my wife's cousin are best friends. As we were looking through photos that he had taken in his really beautiful garden, I recognized Camilla and we figured out the connection. It's a small world!

So, we're counting our first private lesson a success and looking forward to doing more of this, as the need arises. When you're doing what you love (or talking about it), it doesn't feel so much like work. =)

Another Custom Christmas Card

I meant to include this other Christmas card as well in my last post about custom cards, but I posted it away from home and couldn't access our archives to show you. Now it's New Year's Day and I actually have a minute to post it for you. =)


This is a really neat card idea. The Wadley's actually came up with this wording themselves and chose the two pictures for this 5x6 picture-card. We printed it on metallic paper and it made the colors, especially the reds, really striking. You can click on the photo below to see a larger image of it.


Hope y'all are enjoying the New Year!