Celebrity Chef: Guess Who?

It's that time the year when many of us are thinking about eating healthier and when St. Anthony Hospital hosts the annual heart-healthy Celebrity Chef event! This is my 2nd Celebrity Chef project to cover photography for and it was just as much fun as last year's with Dave Lieberman.

Can you guess who this year's celebrity chef was?


I'll give you a hint: he's male. =)


Hint #2: He's not American.


Recognize him yet? Part of his name is showing on the banner below...


Need a better picture, you say? Okay... here he is with a member of the audience who was lucky enough to be invited up front to help out a bit.


Okay, a bit more of the name in case you're still completely stumped.


Okay, if you haven't got it by now, I'm not sure even this next picture is going to help you. =)


Yep, Aussie chef Curtis Stone -- the TV star from Take Home Chef -- was here in OKC for two days of cooking fun! I just posted images from the first day's event with the OKC Junior League women here if you're interested in seeing more, or if you attended the event and are looking for pictures.

I should have the other two events up soon, so stay tuned!

Mr. K. Turns 1!

Here are a few from a recent session we did for 1 year old Mr. K and his beautiful family! It was a pretty cold day, but the sun was shining and we made the best of it!

This is what we would describe as a "lifestyle" session, where we join the family in doing something fun that they like to do, and we capture great images of it! We hope to do a lot more of these this year.

Added some grit and texture to this one... Love it!

He's a real climber already! Compared to our little "Storie" who is 1 as well, this guy is REALLY mobile! =)

Keep your eyes peeled for more lifestyle sessions to come! And if you have an idea in mind for your very own lifestyle session, let us know! We'd be delighted to help make it happen.

A Great Blog on Depression

I just read a very interesting blog by Tim Ferriss entitled, "Depression: How You Label Determines How You Feel." [Yes, I typed that correctly.] I highly recommend Tim's blog for a good read on positive lifestyle changes and miscellaneous other fun topics intertwined.

It was overall a great article, and timely considering Heath Ledger's untimely death. I was really struck by a few points he made:

1. "...perhaps the best indicator of happiness [is] frequency of eating with friends and family."
   
2. There are natural rhythms and cycles of life (energy, interests, etc.) and depression is a natural and necessary part of that natural cycle.
3. Being a more grateful person can totally change your outlook on life.
   

Those aren't the main three points he was making in his article, but I wanted to pass them along. Particularly at this time of the year, I know a lot of people struggle with being down.

Kurt & Katrina's Session

Here are some favorites from a recent session we did for Kurt and Katrina. We're excited to be doing their wedding in the very near future!

We were very fortunate to catch a warm day in January... Still, the fire felt good. =)

Gotta love that smooth light that we only get late in the day...

A little romantic moment in time caught and forever preserved!

This was a great idea (suggested by the couple) and I love it!

I always love the emotion a B&W image evokes...

Again, that smooth evening light. Like the waterfall in the background?

Kurt & Katrina (& family!) to see the rest of the proofs, click here!

Happy Wednesday! (Back when I used to work in an office, people used to call it "hump day" since it was mid-week and once you're past the "hump" you're almost to the weekend. Does anyone still call it that? Just a tangent...

Hey, quick note, if you missed Steve Jobs' 90-minute keynote speech at MacWorld last week, here's a great recap... and it's just 60 seconds long, posted here on Mahalo.com. Definitely worth watching.

Also, a quick question for you, our few honored readers. =) I see people caption over and under their photos. Does it make sense the way we caption our photos or would you prefer to see the captions under the photos? (I normally caption above them so you can read what it says before you see the photos, but I'd like your opinion! =) Leave me some comments so I know what you guys like best... Thanks a million! You know it makes our day when we get blog comments, so we look forward to hearing from at least a few of you blog-stalkers out there!

New Music!

We've updated a few songs on our website and thought we'd let you know with a blog post so you can go check it out! They're a few of our favorite songs right now, so I find myself just leaving the site up and listening to the songs. =)

We've added some new photos to the initial slide-show as well, but we have a lot more to add. I expected that the cold weather would have slowed things down a lot more, but we continue to be quite busy catching up on lots of things that the holidays postponed. So we hope to update more of our galleries and the initial slide show in the coming weeks... =)

Have a great week!

U2 3D :: Some Kind of a Cruel Joke?!

Okay, what's the deal here? I've been looking forward to the U2 3D Concert Movie for ages and here I just saw on their site that it's showing in Ponca City, Shawnee, Duncan, Lawton, Muskogee, Stillwater and Tulsa and NOT coming to OKC?!? What in the world are they thinking?


Guess we'll have to make a road trip out to the boonies to see it! =)

Rant over. Time to let the blood pressure come back down and watch a movie or something.

Print Sale! Large or Metallic Prints!

Our pro lab has just announced a winter sale and we want to pass along the savings to you! So, starting now and running through the 1st week of February...

• Save 20% on large wall prints 20x24 and larger!
• Also, metallic prints 11x14 and larger will be on sale as well for the same price as normal prints, saving you the standard 20% upcharge for metallic prints!

Drop us an email or use our website contact form to let us know if you're interested. These large wall prints will probably never be this inexpensive again, so there's never been a better time to update those walls! =)

Photographik (again)

Woo hoo! We were just accepted by Photographik into their elite wedding photographer membership in addition to our portrait membership I was just telling you about!

We're the first members from Oklahoma, but that shouldn't last for very long as there are quite a few great photographers in Oklahoma. =)

It's only been two days since I last blogged about Photographik (with a link to our portrait profile) so I won't wax long-winded about it again.

Here's a link to our brand new Photographik wedding profile!

150 Miles per Gallon Hybrid!?

This is pretty cool. At the time I'm writing this, there have only been 300 views of this YouTube video talking about the next generation of Hybrid vehicles. I'll embed it here so you don't have to follow the link...

Pros: 150mpg, 40 mile electric-only range, very quiet, 87 mph
Cons: You have to plug it in every night, $9k premium to buy, 87 mph =)

I can't wait until they have these things running well and affordable. I've always been interested in alternative fuels and I'd love to have one, mainly for the fuel efficiency.

I'd love to have a more energy efficient home, too. Like if we could somehow hook up some wind- or solar-powered generators to our grid here and actually save some moolah. =) Yeah, that would be sweet.

Callie & Jeremy's Wedding: A Sneak Peek!

Even though I've already blogged three other posts today, I just couldn't resist any longer... Here's a sneak peek of some of our favorite detail shots from Callie & Jeremy's wedding in Ft. Worth, TX.

We caught some really great (and some really funny!) moments on camera and I can't wait to get the entire wedding online for the couple and their family and friends to enjoy! Hopefully this will hold you over for just a few more days... =)

I liked this little captured moment of one of the ushers handing out programs. Callie did the most amazing job of designing her invitations and programs!

Neither of them had seen their own wedding bands, so the wedding rings were a surprise when they exchanged vows and rings on stage. I borrowed them before the ceremony to get this shot.

Perfectly color-coordinated!

Wedding gifts!

Praying together after lighting the unity candle.

Congratulations, Callie and Jeremy! It really was an honor to be your wedding photographer. Thanks for entrusting your once-in-a-lifetime wedding photography to us!

Can't wait to see you guys next time you're up this way... We'll let you know just as soon as we have the rest of the photos up and ready to view. =)



**ADDED LATER:

The rest of the proofs are up and can be viewed by clicking here!

Photographik

Wow, I'm impressed. Photographik has done some really cool things to their already-cool site! If you've been reading our blog for a while, you might remember that they honored us with a membership to their "elite membership" of portrait photographers. We were pretty much blown away to be included with the likes of Becker, Dane Sanders, and others we have learned from and admired over the years.

We're currently the only Oklahoma photographers to be member of Photographik, but I expect that to be short-lived since there are so many great photographers here now.

In fact, I just saw some work by a relatively new photographer, Beth Jansen, here in Edmond and was pretty astounded at her style and quality of her work. We look forward to doing dinner with her soon to get to know her better. Check out her work to see some pretty cool child & baby portraiture.

Okay, back to Photographik... when I heard about their recent updates, I logged in and added some recent pictures to our Photographik profile. Check it out and let us know what you think!


For anybody out of state, Photographik is a great way to find a great local photographer! Or you can contact us to see if we're going to be in your area any time soon to do portraits. We've traveled to Colorado and plan to travel to Pennsylvania and Florida to do portraits and weddings, so it's not out of the question even though we're all the way out here in God's country, AKA Oklahoma. (That "God's country" reference is to get to my family living in the Caribbean who always call it "God's country." We all know that Oklahoma is the real God's country, right? he he! =)

Three posts in one day! Wow, that's a record, I think. I hope I don't lose any readers by posting too much now. =) Have a great weekend!

New Proofing System for 2008

It's official! We have our new proofing system installed and ready to rock for 2008!

If you're one of our customers who had frustrating issues with Pictage's proofing and ordering system, please let me know and I'll set you up with a new gallery in our new proofing/ordering system.

It's SO smooth... you're gonna love it.

Here are a few screenshots from the new system...




Credit card processing is being added hopefully this week and that will be the final, finishing touches to the functionality of it.

A big thank you to the wonderful people at PickPic for hooking us up with the best proofing/ordering/shopping cart system on earth!

Break-in!

Yesterday, our neighbor's home was broken into. It's a sickening feeling to have your home violated like that and I could tell they were pretty shaken up about it even though nothing of importance or great value was taken.

The really alarming thing was how easy it was for the intruder to just kick the front door in! I think Kevin Ogle did a special on the evening news a while back about it, but I couldn't find it after searching the KFOR website for a while.

The gist of the report was that a lot of builders are using inadequate materials for the safety of your home, specifically, inadequate screws for the deadbolt plate. You really might want to check this out on your home. My neighbor's door kicked in really easily, splintering the door casing because the screws didn't reach the stud in the wall.

So, I immediately went to our hardware store and bought some nice beefy screws to replace ours. (If you decide to do this yourself, you'll probably want to get the #8 screw in whatever length you like.) I just had to take a picture of the ridiculous difference between the existing screws and the screws that SHOULD be fastening your deadbolt receiver plate if you want any security.

Here's a picture I took with my little point-and-shoot...


This isn't a joke, those really are the tiny little screws that our builder had holding our deadbolt receiver plate in place! They were just under 1 inch long. Compared to the new 3-inch replacement screws, they're a joke.

Anyway, that was my project last night and thought I'd pass it along in case any of you might benefit from it.

Be safe...

Ed Pierce Seminar Coming to OKC Again... Finally!

Hey, everyone... Hope you're having a great Friday!

I know that we have some aspiring photographers who keep up with our blog, so I thought I'd pass along some info that might just change your life as it relates to photography.

Holly and I went to a PhotoVision seminar a few years ago and it really helped us make a big leap from where we were to a higher level of photography, so we're always excited to let people know about his seminars and training materials.

Here's a link to his newest seminars: Captivated by the Light. I'm sure it promises to be a good one and Holly & I both plan to attend, along with several photographer friends. You can't beat the price of $49 (there are promo codes out there to reduce the cost even more if you look for them) and he offers a lot of additional training material for sale at the trade show there, too. The OKC date is Feb. 11 at 6:30pm.

If you make it, please look for us and say hello. Hope to see you there! Hey, if you'd be interested in grabbing a bite to eat before the seminar, let us know! Don't go hungry, you won't enjoy it. =)

The Wedge, take 2

Tonight was date night, after our shoot at the Adams' home. (What a beautiful home!) Ever since I ate at The Wedge several weeks ago I've been wanting to take Holly there and tonight was the perfect opportunity.

I have two favorites there...

The Italian Stalion pizza with the addition of capers and prosciutto is absolutely amazing. You can definitely taste the freshness of their pizzas. Everything is made fresh on location, unbelievably.

My second new favorite is their gelato. Oh my goodness... I didn't really feel like eating dessert after polishing off an entire flatbread appetizer and most of a pizza, but the waiter decided to give us "just a taste" of their delicious mocha caramel crunch gelato. Words can hardly describe... The "taste" was actually a good-sized bowl and it was SO good that I couldn't stop tasting it. I cleaned the bowl off nicely. =)

So, there you have my latest recommendations! I think it's great that gelato is mainstreaming. Even Johnnie's Charcoal Broiler has gelato now (the one near The Village on... is it Britton?). I used to be a huge frozen custard fan, but I may like gelato even better now. Especially after a treat like we had at The Wedge tonight.

Anyway, I know it's completely off the subject of photography, but it's fun to talk about other random things sometimes.

We're *on* the Yellow Pages =)

I hope 2008 has been going well for you! I really thought we'd have slowed down enough by now to be taking lots of time off to relax and enjoy the girls, the newspaper, blogs, cable and update the photos on our website, but we're still really busy!

The last few days of nice weather have given us the opportunity to do several photo sessions, so it's really been encouraging to have a good amount of business even during what should be our slow season.

We had a small, pleasant surprise recently... One of our photos made it to the cover of the AT&T Edmond/Guthrie Yellow Pages! I'm not sure how many people still actually use the Yellow Pages, but we're honored to have our company noted right there on the cover.


We did a whole set of Edmond photos for the Chamber to use in an upcoming member directory, and our friends at the Chamber told us that they're being requested for use all the time.

The next best thing after making a nice photograph has to be knowing that the customers love them and are using them a lot. =)

Happy New Year!!

The ball just dropped and it's officially 2008! Happy New Year!!!

Can you believe that it's been eight years since the big y2k scare? (It's been so long, my spell checker didn't like it. =) Seven years since 9/11? Man, how the time does fly.

I heard a great quote in 2007 that I think is so true... Not sure who deserves the credit for it, but here it is: "The days are long, but the years are short." So true with kids, and at almost every stage of life, really!

Our prayer is that this year we'll again have the opportunities to be invited into the lives of a handful of wonderful people (our customers) to capture the best seasons of life as they happen. It's really ironic how often we find ourselves blessed just getting to know and work with our customers. What a wonderful job! We are so grateful to be your photographers and we look forward to a great 2008!