Sandavi Photographers

PappasHome

2010-03-06T16:01:00.001-08:00

Check out the latest page I just posted using Showit: PappasHome

Chasing Mickey

2009-09-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

OK folks, so I know it's been quite a while since our last post. All will be explained later but, long story short, were on a photographic hiatus due to the baby, jobs, and a potential move....more on that at another time. ;-)

...So we went to Disneyland today on a specific mission to get a maternity picture of Sandy with Mickey Mouse. This is all in a bigger scheme to get photos of the baby with Mickey as she grows. So we get to Main street and wait mickey out at a location that we know he will be at, we just didn't know when. Amazingly, he came out within 10 minutes and we were 3rd in line to meet him. Sandy set's up the pose we mickey and I was about to shoot when who steps in but Donald Duck. Normally this would be totally awesome to get the 2 biggest Disney characters with her, but that dam* duck ruined our plans! Still pleased with the photo and amazed to see Donald on Main street for only the 2nd time in 5 years.

We worked on plan B, to find him at his house in Toon Town. Long story short, those pictures just plain sucked. We then went on with another mission to get a Captain Jack pirate hat for tomorrow's pirate themed baby shower (?) and on our way we ran in to our favorite punk rock family. Cristy and John are friends from a great bygone era of mine and it is always great to see them and catch up.

On our way back up Main street we lucked right into meeting Mickey exactly where we left him. This time without Donald. Back in line we went and we we got the planned photo! 2.5 hours later and it happens to be the same actor in the costume because he remembered us. So now we have what is probably Sandy's last planned maternity shot and baby Zowie's first picture with Mickey.

Thankful!

2009-05-23T16:04:00.000-07:00

Sandy & I had been laying low for the last two weeks in a long, agonizing wait. A wait that tested our faith in ways that we have never been tested before.
Let me start by saying that we are a little old to be having a baby. It is known that older women tend to have more babies with birth defects, particularly with Downs Syndrome. So, at Sandy's age, it was suggested that she undergo testing and so we did. An initial blood test called a quad-screen showed an increased likelihood for this condition and so an advanced ultrasound was ordered. The baby showed some markers of the syndrome. On their own, these markers mean next to nothing, but combined with the other factors (age and quad results) did not look good for us. An amniocenteses was ordered and we were counseled with the question as to what we would do should the worse happen ( I will end speculation here and say that we would indeed have kept the baby). The results of an amnio can take up to three weeks, and so all we could do was that which I hate more than anything....Wait.
...and so wait we did. This was incredibly hard on Sandy but hard for me as well. I knew by the way my Glucose levels stayed high for no reason that I was stressed, but Sandy took it much harder. All the joy of having a baby were put aside while she worried about the outcome. The look on her face and in her eyes just broke my heart. She could hardly manage getting anything done as this was all she could think about. She even nearly decided to postpone finishing her last two college classes ever and forgo graduating. We both relied on faith more than ever before and walked to Church every evening to pray. We also received prayer from many friends and family members for which we are very grateful. Thankfully, Sandy was coaxed into sticking with her classes and finishing up by her friends, and so she did!
So finally, 11 days after the test, a voice message was left from her doctor to call her back. Let's just say it took Sandy some leg work to actually confirm the news, but at long last, the tests proved negative and showed that all is normal with our baby!!! and for those who don't already know, it's a girl!
We are still not completely out of the woods as there is one more issue to clear up, but at worst, it will be a treatable condition. More on that at a later date.
So, finally! Sandy and I are back to our normal selves and able to enjoy this pregnancy and move on with our lives and plans. For starters, we rushed to CSUF yesterday morning for Sandy to get her last minute cap & gown so that she could attend her graduation! not only that, but she graduated with honors! I am so proud of and for her. Now Sandy is finished with school and I get my wife back in the evenings ...at least until the baby is born, then she is shared for 18+ years! ;-)

So now we are having a very happy memorial day weekend.

...and a big shout out and thank you to those who gave their lives for the simple pleasures we enjoy in this country!!

Frank & Karol's wedding

2009-05-07T12:42:00.001-07:00

Recently Sandy & I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Frank & Karol, two friends of mine who I have known for many years from my Long Beach days.
Frank is from my home town of Cerritos but I didn’t know him until after high school. We had common friends and he was influential in inspiring me to move to Long Beach back in the early 90’s. My brother & I ended up in Belmont heights after finding an apartment referred by another common friend (go Cathee!) and we ended up with a couple of very cool neighbors, Karen and Karol. In these days, between our apartment, Karol’s, and our downstairs friends, we had some great parties and great times.
Frank & Karol didn’t actually hook-up until well after I moved away, but they have been an item for many years now and it’s about time that they tied the knot!
It was awesome to reconnect with the old Long Beach crew. I only wish the night were longer and that Sandy & I could have stayed longer, but with Sandy’s delicate state, partying is not always an option. ;-)
Cheers to Frank & Karol!

A new addition to our team.

2009-04-27T08:18:00.001-07:00

It was a case of denial and ignorance. Ignorance on my part in that I have been too absorbed in my own work & drama to notice that Sandy was growing ever so slowly, and Sandy had been swimming in the waters of denial for some time, never believing the facts until she saw the undeniable results of her sonogram the amazing fact that after all these years….we have a baby on the way!!!
She told me later that night after apologies for not telling me sooner. At our age, she has concerns and didn’t want to get our hopes up. This I could understand, but after realizing that her own mother gave birth to Sandy at the same age, this all sounds of little worry to me now and I just keep her focused on the prize at the end of the 9 month highway.
She wanted to wait until after the 1st trimester to clear before telling our families & friends, and after the results of the sonogram came in we found that she was farther along than expected…15 weeks! So now that we have cleared that milestone it’s on with the good news.
We couldn’t be more surprised and excited as we had all but put the idea of kids out of our heads, but here we are with a little pooper on the way and big, big changes on the horizon for us.
We do indeed feel blessed.

Thank you: The Bokeh Pot

2009-04-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

Thanks to The Bokeh Pot for featuring us in their latest post.
What is the Bokeh Pot? as stated in their blog:

In a nutshell, The Bokeh Pot was created to serve as a directory and event resource for the up-and-coming photographers of the wedding and portrait industry.

This blog was created with three basic goals in mind:

1. give a little extra exposure to all those talented wedding and portrait photographers who have been in business 2 years or less

2. provide a place where other photographers, new or well established, can easily find the like-minded in their own community, to help break down walls and build more friendships and support

3. provide a common place to find out about all the numerous photography related events happening

Crystal and Laura are on to a very cool and generous concept here. Please check them out, provide comments and show some love...

Smugs

2009-04-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

It's interesting how sometimes things just seem to come together for you.
In accumulating what I feel are the best services I can use, 3 great companies that I am either already a client of or intended to be a customer of, are working together to create an awesome solution for photographers. The companies involved are Showit Sites, Smugmug, and Bay Photo Lab.
I already use Showit Sites because I love their look, feel, and ease of use. David J. has yet another great software product here. If it wasn't for Showit Sites, Showit web, and especially his OSP forum, I don't know where I'd be in the photography world these days.
I have also been using Smugmug for that past two years primarily because I love their interface, but I never thought this would end up being a full-scale order fulfillment solution for me. I intended to use Pictage for this purpose when money & jobs were more abundant for me. While Pictage now offers a much more affordable solution for folks like me and may still be a better choice for some people, I was uncomfortable with their reputation for poor service & the spamming of your clients. While they apparently have addressed these issues and have some advantages over Smugmug, they are still a corporate entity that answers to stock holders first. While I have no issue with corporations at all, I always favor the underdog, especially when they are privately owned by people who genuinely care about their chosen specialty and their community of customers. Smugmug was already known for this and is running at maximum warp into building an even better resource for the professional wedding & portrait photographer community with their latest offering: Smugmug Pro.
Smugmug Pro offers the ability to integrate directly with Bay Photo Lab (yet another great, small company with a passion for their business and their customers!) and the professional features and offerings seem to be growing on a weekly basis. I was sold on SmugMug Pro based on three items: Printing is offered through Bay Photo Lab, unlimited storage! And the eventual ability of bay Photo to work seamlessly with Excel Picture frames to design & deliver orders online in one stop. Everything else they offer is gravy. As an added bonus, they are building on their community by starting SMUGS, a monthly regional meeting of fellow SmugMug users to meet, network & discuss business issues. I went to their 1st Southern California meeting in Hollywood last night at Robert Evans’ Studio in Hollywood. It was great to hear David J. speak about Showit’s new features and integration with Smugmug and Jeff Jochum & Don MacAskil of Smugmug share their stories & take questions. This was also a great meeting & networking opportunity in which I got to meet Jasmine Star, Dane Sanders, Robert Evans and also see some other new friends from the recent [b] school meetings such as Regis Chen, Ryel Hendrickson and Michelle Yam (who I shared a ride with and provided excellent company!...her site is coming soon. ;-)).
Jasmine Star will be involved with hosting Smug meetings in Orange County and so I have that to look forward to next month. To me, this is the most exciting thing going on in the photographic community these days and I am so glad to see these small companies doing so well and forming this awesome symbiotic relationship with each other.
Thanks to all who spoke at this meeting, to Robert Evans for opening his studio for this event.

Catching up & Frank & Carol's - E-session

2009-03-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since our last post, but not for lack of business.
There was a great turnout to the last [b] school GTG, including the Becker himself, and many more great folks who are linked on the image at Facebook

We also attended a day at the Pro Photo Expo in Pasadena. While this year's expo was at a greatly improved location at the Pasadena Convention center, the seminars just weren't as varied and dynamic as last year. Maybe am am comparing this unfairly against WPPI, but the offerings were just dull to me. Hopefully next year will have something better for me. The convention itself was pretty much the same as last year, but how many photo labs and album companies can one take in? I had enough of these at WPPI....but one thing I paid too little attention to at WPPI was Smugmug's partnership deal with Bay Photo Lab. I will post about this at another time. All I can say is that I am very excited about the ability to order prints directly from our site and offer a complete solution from upload, to print, to frame...or bind. Long story short...It's very exciting and you will start seeing the changes soon.

Today Sandy & I shot an E-session for our good friends Frank and Carol. I will need to write a detailed story about how I know these two when we post their wedding. We are very happy for these two and can't wait 'til their wedding day.
These two are long-time long Beach lovers and we wanted to shoot somewhere that was about the city. Well, we had way too much wind to deal with at the more urban sites that we had in mind, but we all agreed that the Queen Mary would be a great place to shoot at. The images are barely finished importing, but I knew I wanted to get one particular image up ASAP that we just love.

...so how do you like it? Please comment.
Click on the image to see it bigger.

WPPI 2009

2009-02-19T10:11:00.001-08:00

Sandy & I returned yesterday from our 1st trip to WPPI and this will not be our last...this will be a yearly pilgrimage.
For thise of you who don't know, WPPI is THE event for Wedding and Portrait Photographers International...in essence, it is a massive trade show/learning/networking/and gathering of the vibes for those of us in the photo industry.
I am so grateful that Sandy was able to get time off from work to spend more than two lousy days at this event and get to see the (almost) entire lecture series and trade show. Sadly, she got sick as soon as we got there, but she trooped along and came away as inspired as me. This would not have been the same for me without her. Thank you ACUSD!
Where do I begin in describing this? we saw so many amazing photographers and learned so much, it is all a blur of information overload. All I can do is say thank you too all the people who put this together and spoke. I will miss a ton of deserving folks in the remainder of this post, so I'll just want to thank everyone who spoke here & shared their knowledge and experience to us all.
The standout speaker for me was 1st and foremost Yervant. His lecture was purely inspirational. Sure, he was ultimately promoting his new album design collection with Graphi Studio but he put on an amazing show, with images accompanied by a live Russian violinist:

At the end of Yervant's presentation he premiered his latest fusion based slide show.
For thise of you who don't know, the term Fusion is a buzz word for the usage of photos and video in a wedding slide show presentation that is now allowed by the introduction of HD video into digital SLR cameras. A problem for photographers with video is that we often love to shoot in a vertical orientation. Video limits us to the standard horizontal format. Yervant circumvented this issue by 'inventing' vertical video by simply importing video into Photoshop, and rotating the video file 90 degrees...then showing the video along with still images...and still images morphing into video images. This must be seen to be understood, just let me say that our jaws dropped as this was the most amazing wedding imagery that I have ever seen and Yervant has latched-on to this "buzz word" and forged the trail for this new genre.
Running a razor close 2nd place for our favorite presentation was fellow Aussie photographer Jerry Ghionis. Jerry is a master speaker, teacher and entertainer. The dude is slick and funny with his presentation.
I'll just say that throughout everything we learned this week about posing, Jerry provided the icing on the cake by providing clever tricks and one-liners to loosen-up your photo subjects that I can't wait to put to use.
He's also a quite friendly guy:

I guess I am quite the photo nerd...I am almost constantly listening to podcasts & blog-stalking some of the top shooters in this business and it was amazing to see these people all around in one location. To see the likes of Yervant, Dennis Reggie, Joe Buissink, Bambi Cantrell, Mike Colon and tons more just walking around and easily approachable is awesome.
We only went to one party this year with Sandy being sick, but had a nice time atthe raging party that Becker threw down at the Real World suite in the Palms hotel.
I want to thank Becker for putting this on and not giving me grief for bringing an extra person, Sandy (long story). Becker's party was the hot ticket in town and speace was limited. I told Becker that Sandy wasn't coming before she got her time off and I think I ticked him off...Becker...if you read this I am so sorry and want to say thanks for being a gracious host.

When in Vegas, I always take time to visit my sis, Rhonda. Actually, we also brought along my mom & nephew to visit Rhonda & stay with her. due to the insnity of all the vents at WPPI, I sadly didn't have a lot of visitation time, but I did get these cute shots of her & her new baby girl ;-) The bitch needs a saddle! (the dog, not my sis!!!)

Some other highlights? watching Denni$ Reggie..the $50k photographer himself, give a demo at the microsoft booth:

Learning some posing techniques by the great Hanson Fong at the Canon booth:

..and briefly meeting with some very inspirational speakers...like Dane Sanders and Mike Larson, who must have thought it was so cool to see me in the front row of his presentation that he took a photo:

We are already looking forward to and planning for next year's WPPI.

WPPI!

2009-02-13T14:25:00.000-08:00

Sandy & I will be attending the WPPI show in Vegas this coming week. I am particularly excited that Sandy has taken some vacation time to stick around a few days as I was originally planning on doing most of this myself. We will be attending numerous platform discussions on everything you need to know to run a photography business and then some, while networking with thousands of other photographers.
I will be posting updates via Twitter and Facebook for this who care to follow.
Stay tuned...

Not on-board with Amtrak

2009-02-03T14:40:00.000-08:00

This is funny, but true... View on:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Amtrak Photographer

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Paul McCartney Appearance

Funny Political Videos
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Workin' the neighbors

2009-02-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

So this weekend we had no plans in store, photographically speaking. Yet we were anxious to play with a large softbox I recently purchased. We currently don't have a studio, but that's OK because our aim is to create location portraiture that with studio-like lighting. So, we wrangled our neighbor's kids and tortured them for an hour to get these results. They were very good sports and excellent models.

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3 Years

2009-01-21T20:10:00.000-08:00

Sandy & I Had our 3rd anniversary last week and went out this past weekend to where we have always gone to celebrate...the Santa Barbara wine country. Particularly, we LOVE to eat at the Hitching post. Their steak makes one understand why people give thanks and prayers for a good meal! Holy cow, this place rocks!
Here we are out in front:

We also love a particular courtyard spot in Solvang for photos & hope to do a proper shoot here with others one day...these are all in the same location..

This year's trip was shorter than we normally do, but worth every minute. Our next trip is to WPPI just after Valentine's day and we got a gentle reminder from a bear:

We also spent part of a day at Universal Studios to utilize the annual pass we paid for but never fully used. Here's a fun pic I took of Marilyn. ;-)

[b] School GTG

2009-01-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

I have been involved with the [b] School for some time now and getting involved in networking with other photographers and building our network of like-minded photogs trying to build a better business. This is proving to be more beneficial than the [b] school itself, but then I suspect that this is with the [b] man himself anticipated.
On Friday night (Jan 9th) I proposed a gathering at the Corner Bakery at the Block in Orange. While the turnout itself was not so good, the company was great and it is expected that this will be a regular event for us that will grow.
Besides Sand and I along with my friend Stafford, Jeff and Dana Sipper were there as they were from previous gatherings, as well as Amanda Lynn and Kerry Garrison. Amanda is a very talented shooter in her 1st full year of shooting on here own. She has had a great year and should be having a great second year and more. I had heard of Kerry Garrison before as a guest on a recent edition of the Pro Photo Show podcast,but had yet to follow-up and check out his web site and podcast called Camera Dojo...How could I have let this go? This is easily among the best resources for photographers at any level. I am already a fan and look forward to chatting with him again.
By the end of the night we decided to make this a regular meet-up since random meetings are just a pain to get everyone on the right schedule. These meetings are open to everyone and we hope that this grows into much larger numbers.

Thank you Jeff, Dana, Amanda, Stafford and Kerry for coming out.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

I want to thank all my family, friends and associates for all the gifts we have received this past year and wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
While this past year has not been terribly easy for me with Missing my Dad & developing diabetes, I am grateful for what I have in my life and hope you are too.

The holiday season has been a busy one, with Sandy's class schedule and catching-up on production from weddings & portrait shoots. I'll catch you up on the highlights the best way I can, in photos.

Before Thanksgiving, we had a great shoot with Corey and his lady. These two are hot and made the shoot even hotter!!!

We also had a nice Thanksgiving meal at My Bro's new house in Long Beach. Here we are with our Uncle Odell...

We only went to two Christmas parties this year, three if we count Jackie's B-day party (sorry Jackie, I don't have those photos up yet)We went to one thrown by Kiss Wedding books (Kiss-mas), which was a generous & fun party on their part, but I didn't bring my camera. We also set-up our studio at Brent and Noriko's party and got stuff like this...

...We also shot Tony & Aracelli for their Christmas card...

Christmas is only now beginning and we have much more to do, but I just wanted to take the time to catch-up on this blog and wish everyone a happy holiday season.

"we were ashamed"

2008-12-03T16:26:00.000-08:00

This is perhaps the most iconic image of the great depression, by a photographer I have always liked, Dorothea Lange. Thsi is the story as told by one of the children in the image.
This gives a great perspective on appreciating the things that you have in your life and not taking anything for granted.

From CNN.com:

MODESTO, California (CNN) -- The photograph became an icon of the Great Depression: a migrant mother with her children burying their faces in her shoulder. Katherine McIntosh was 4 years old when the photo was snapped. She said it brought shame -- and determination -- to her family.
Katherine McIntosh holds the photograph taken with her mother in 1936.

Katherine McIntosh holds the photograph taken with her mother in 1936.
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"I wanted to make sure I never lived like that again," says McIntosh, who turns 77 on Saturday. "We all worked hard and we all had good jobs and we all stayed with it. When we got a home, we stayed with it."

McIntosh is the girl to the left of her mother when you look at the photograph. The picture is best known as "Migrant Mother," a black-and-white photo taken in February or March 1936 by Dorothea Lange of Florence Owens Thompson, then 32, and her children.

Lange was traveling through Nipomo, California, taking photographs of migrant farm workers for the Resettlement Administration. At the time, Thompson had seven children who worked with her in the fields.

"She asked my mother if she could take her picture -- that ... her name would never be published, but it was to help the people in the plight that we were all in, the hard times," McIntosh says.

"So mother let her take the picture, because she thought it would help." Video Watch "we would go home and cry" »

The next morning, the photo was printed in a local paper, but by then the family had already moved on to another farm, McIntosh says.

"The picture came out in the paper to show the people what hard times was. People was starving in that camp. There was no food," she says. "We were ashamed of it. We didn't want no one to know who we were."

The photograph helped define the Great Depression, yet McIntosh says her mom didn't let it define her, although the picture "was always talked about in our family."

"It always stayed with her. She always wanted a better life, you know."

Her mother, she says, was a "very strong lady" who liked to have a good time and listen to music, especially the yodeler named Montana Slim. She laughs when she recalls her brothers bringing home a skinny greyhound pooch. "Mom, Montana Slim is outside," they said.
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Thompson rushed outside. The boys chuckled. They had named the dog after her favorite musician.

"She was the backbone of our family," McIntosh says of her mom. "We never had a lot, but she always made sure we had something. She didn't eat sometimes, but she made sure us children ate. That's one thing she did do."

Her memories of her youth are filled with about 50 percent good times, 50 percent hard times.

It was nearly impossible to get an education. Children worked the fields with their parents. As soon as they'd get settled at a school, it was time to pick up and move again.

Her mom would put newborns in cotton sacks and pull them along as she picked cotton. The older kids would stay in front, so mom could keep a close eye on them. "We would pick the cotton and pile it up in front of her, and she'd come along and pick it up and put it in her sack," McIntosh says.

They lived in tents or in a car. Local kids would tease them, telling them to clean up and bathe. "They'd tell you, 'Go home and take a bath.' You couldn't very well take a bath when you're out in a car [with] nowhere to go."

She adds, "We'd go home and cry."

McIntosh now cleans homes in the Modesto, California, area. She's proud of the living she's been able to make -- that she has a roof over her head and has been able to maintain a job all these years. She says her obsession to keep things clean started in her youth when her chore was to keep the family tent clean. There were two white sheets that she cleaned each day.

"Even today, when it comes to cleaning, I make sure things are clean. I can't stand dirty things," she says with a laugh.

With the nation sinking into tough economic times and analysts saying the current economic crisis is the worst since the Great Depression, McIntosh says if there's a lesson to be learned from her experience it is to save your money and don't overextend yourself. iReport: Are you worried about losing your job?

"People live from paycheck to paycheck, even people making good money," she says. "Do your best to make sure it doesn't happen again. Elect the people you think is going to do you good."

Her message for President-elect Barack Obama is simple: "Think of the middle-class people."
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She says she'll never forget the lessons of her hard-working mother, who died at the age of 80 in 1983. Her gravestone says: "Migrant Mother: A Legend of the strength of American motherhood."

"She was very strict, but very loving and caring. She cared for us all," McIntosh says.

Jaclyn & Gino!!!!

2008-11-04T10:33:00.000-08:00

I failed to mention in my previous post that I did not get out of the hospital until the morning of Jacklyn & Gino's wedding. Thankfully they had a late afternoon wedding, and what an eventful day it was!
Jacklyn & Gino have been together as long as I have known them and have been together longer than Sandy & I despite them being (NEARLY!) 1/2 our ages. They are an incredibly fun and ambitious couple and we had such a good time celebrating their wedding day as well as shooting it.
The original plan was for an outdoor wedding, but this got rained-out. The wedding and reception was at the Reef in Long Beach,who were able to relocate the wedding indoors. This turned-out to work quite well and the rest of the day went-off without a hitch.

Diabetese???

2008-11-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

If I ever had any doubts about my commitment to getting-in to professional wedding photography, they were wiped-out this past week in a very dramatic way..
Over the past few weeks (especially that last two) I had been feeling more and more tired and thirsty all the time. So much so that I was flaking on photographic commitments in favor of sleeping and zoning-out. I thought I was depressed or burnt-out on the idea of making this a business and escape from the 9-5 world. As last week progressed I simply could barely stay awake and focused. I thought I had some viral infection that I needed antibiotics for and would have to wait it out. I took Thursday off to simply sleep as I was so exhausted. I tried to see my Doc, but couldn't get an appointment until the following Monday (today). At 1st I thought I'd just wait it out, but I had a wedding to shoot on the following Saturday and it was becoming obvious that there was no way I could do this in my condition and that I had to see a doctor ASAP.

Long story short...I made Sandy take me to the hospital was quickly diagnosed ketoacidosis from diabetes (had no clue about this) and hospitalized for two nights. Had I waited any longer I might have ended-up in a diabetic coma or worse!

So now I'm dealing with the fact that I'll be packing insulin at least for the next several months...not pretty, but it could have been way worse. I can deal with this and hope to wean myself to at least a Type-2 state of diabetes (oral medication) at some later time and I am motivated to do this and eat waaay! healthier and exercise more regularly and more vigorously.

The staff at the hospital gave me excellent care and I am sooooooo grateful to have medical insurance. As I was feeling so much better by mid-Friday I begged the doctor to discharge me ASAP so that I could shoot Saturday's wedding. He assured me he would and followed-through, assuring me that I would be OK for this. I was very, very close to seeking a replacement photographer. I knew that a good shooter could have been found, but thank God I was able to make this myself. I asked a friend to act as an assistant whom I hoped would do a reasonable job with my technical direction, but he exceeded my expectations and allowed me time to sit and relax whenever I needed with (almost) full trust that he would get great candids for me. I concentrated on portraits before & after the ceremony as well as the ceremony and was free to shoot when & where I wished thanks to Sandy, and Chris!

The wedding went incredibly well despite a little rain and I am forever grateful to the couple, Jacklyn & Gino for choosing us. Being motivated to get better for this wedding may have saved my life.
See the next post about them.
Thank you all of my family & friends for the prayers & well-wishes.

Photographer William Claxton dies at 80

2008-10-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

William Claxton has always been an inspiration for me. He shot many of the most iconic images of my favorite jazz artists.

From the L.A. Times:

Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
"I didn't want to stage my pictures," noted jazz photographer William Claxton once said. He died Saturday at age 80 of complications from congestive heart failure, according to his wife of 49 years, Peggy Moffitt Claxton.
William Claxton dies at 80; photographer helped make Chet Baker famous

"I didn't want to stage my pictures," noted jazz photographer William Claxton once said. He died Saturday at age 80 of complications from congestive heart failure, according to his wife of 49 years, Peggy Moffitt Claxton.
By Jon Thurber, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 13, 2008
William Claxton, the master photographer whose images of Chet Baker helped fuel the jazz trumpeter's stardom in the 1950s and whose fashion photographs of his wife modeling a topless swim suit were groundbreaking years later, has died. He was 80.

Claxton died from complications of congestive heart failure Saturday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his wife, actress and model Peggy Moffitt Claxton, told The Times.

* William Claxton's photographs helped define an era's pop culture
Photos: William Claxton's...

FOR THE RECORD:
Claxton obituary: The obituary of William Claxton in Monday's California section said he was taking the bus downtown to the Orpheum Theatre at age 2; it should have said 12. The obituary also said the Tiffany Club was on 7th Street. It was on 8th Street. —

In a career spanning more than a half century, Claxton also became well known for his work with celebrities including Frank Sinatra and Steve McQueen, who became a close personal friend; but he gained his foremost public recognition for his photographs of jazz performers including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Torme, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Stan Getz. But it was his photographs of Baker that helped teach him the true meaning of the word photogenic.

"I was up all night developing when the face appeared in the developing tray," Claxton told the Irish Times in 2005. "A tough demeanor and a good physique but an angelic face with pale white skin and, the craziest thing, one tooth missing -- he'd been in a fight. I thought, my God, that's Chet Baker."

Claxton observed that over the years he had taken photographs of some ordinary-looking guys whose faces would just pop out on film. He said that's what Baker had.

His 1951 photograph of Baker started a relationship that continued for the next five or six years as he chronicled Baker's rise to fame as one of the most visible jazz performers of the decade.

Claxton called photography "jazz for the eyes" and tried to capture the often dynamic tension between the artist, the instrument and the music.

"For the photographer, the camera is like a jazz musician's ax. It's the tool that you would like to be able to ignore, but you have to have it to convey your thoughts and whatever you want to express through it," Claxton told jazz writer Don Heckman some years ago.

Almost as much as the recordings themselves, the photographs reach into the essence of making music.

"That's where jazz and photography have always come together for me," Claxton told Heckman. "They're alike in their improvisation and their spontaneousness. They happen at the same moment that you're hearing something and you're seeing something, and you record it and it's frozen forever."

Born in Pasadena on Oct. 12, 1927, Claxton grew up in an upper middle-class family in La Cañada Flintridge. His mother was a musician and his older brother played piano; Claxton said he tried the keyboard but had no patience for it. He started collecting records, especially jazz, at an early age. At 2 years old, he was taking the bus to downtown Los Angeles to hear jazz greats, including Ellington, at the Orpheum Theatre.

Years later, he would go to jazz clubs and shoot photographs of up-and-coming musicians just for fun and to listen to the music. An incident that he recounted in the introduction to his book "Jazz: William Claxton" speaks of a more innocent time between celebrities and photographers.

Claxton recalled taking his old 4-by-5 Speed Graphic to photograph the legendary saxophonist Parker at the Tiffany Club on 7th Street in downtown L.A. He hung out with Parker until the place closed and then took him and some of his young fans to his parents' home in La Cañada Flintridge, where he improvised a studio in his bedroom and posed Parker with his fans in a formal portrait. He said that he had never seen Bird, whose life was cut short by drug problems, look happier.

Claxton started at UCLA but gave up college when Richard Bock, who was starting Pacific Jazz Records, hired him as a photographer. He created a vast array of memorable album covers for the label.

Toward the end of the 1950s, he started moving into fashion work. He married Moffitt, who was the muse of fashion designer Rudi Gernreich. In the early 1960s, they created the photographs of the topless bathing suit designed by Gernreich with Moffitt as the model.

"That was a big family decision," Claxton told Heckman. "Whew. Was I going to let my wife show her breasts in public? We hassled about it for a long time. Finally, we decided to employ nepotism. Only I could photograph it, we would have control of the pictures and Peggy would never model the suit in public. And it worked out OK. The pictures were tasteful, I thought, Peggy looked great, and it was historically a breakthrough for women, that they could feel free enough to show the beauty of their breasts."

Claxton also directed the film "Basic-Black," which is viewed by many as the first fashion video and is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

While taking assignments for Life magazine, he photographed Sinatra at a recording session at Capitol Records, Barbra Streisand in New York, and McQueen. All were notoriously tough assignments, stars distrustful of the media and reluctant to be photographed. But he gained their trust and developed a friendship with McQueen through their common love of sports cars, race cars and motorcycles.

His work is collected in an array of spectacular books, including "Jazz: William Claxton," "Young Chet," "Claxography," "Steve McQueen" and "Jazzlife."

Claxton is survived by his wife of 49 years; his son Christopher; sister Colleen Lewis of Eagle Rock; and several nieces and nephews.

A memorial gathering is being planned.

jon.thurber@latimes.com

Jaclyn & Gino's E-session

2008-10-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening we did an E-session for Jaclyn & Gino for their November wedding.
Sandy has known Jaclyn since she was a baby and is very excited to be photographing her wedding (...and so am I) Jaclyn and Gino are a fun couple and know that their wedding will be a blast.
Here are a few from Last night...

Melanie & Kevin's wedding at Cafe Hidalgo

2008-10-02T11:43:00.000-07:00

We recently shot an excellent wedding for our friends Melanie & Kevin at Cafe Hidalgo in Fullerton, CA.
You may remember these two from an earlier E-session.
Cafe Hidalgo is an excellent restaurant and wedding venue. The entire even was held in the courtyard, lending an old spanish atmosphere to this amazing day.
Congrats to you both.
A slideshow will be posted this week...stay tuned.

The groom seemed a little nervous before the ceremnony, even having a cigarette...

Then, he made an escape attempt, but was quickly subdued by his groomsmen.

I love this pic...

The groom finally wised-up and the cermoney went on smoothly.

They used an English theme to their table centerpieces.
I borrowed one of the props for the ring shot.

Disney stars & genetic engineering

2008-09-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

I almost believe this is true:

Disney Lab Unveils Its Latest Line Of Genetically Engineered Child Stars

Radio Poppers & new pics

2008-09-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back, I recieved my long-awaited Radio Popper flash kit.
I have been following Kevin King's posts on the OSP forums for at least a year now since he started promoting his then new product idea. What he has done is improve on Canon's great, but limited remote flash triggering system and convert the optical pulse signal into a radio signal. This stuff is much better explained on the Radio Popper web site, so I won't kill you with the details. The end result is I can now place my flashes anywhere I wish; behind walls, outside at sunset, anywhere! and shoot in TTL mode, meaning that lysdexic me doesn't have to worry about guide numbers and subject to distance rations and the like.
In a nutshell...these things kick ass! there are two things I don't like about them;
You'll have to start with a fresh battery before any wedding, or bring a screwdriver to change you battery due to the hokey housing that requires you to un-screw the cover to replace the flash. Also, you have to tape the receiving wire's "bead" in fromt of the flashes optical receiver, this is a must to place the bead here, but in my 1st wedding gig with these babies, I had to keep re-setting the placement to adjust for various light modifiers that I use. I found a cool solution to this problem, so my next gig should be easier.
That being said...I love these babies and cannot recommend them strongly enough.

I used them on two more recent shoots. One of which was for our friend's new baby (Amy & Jose-b)...here is our fave:

I also shot a portrait of a classmate for a project recently. I told him I wanted something urban, he delivered by showing me an abandoned restaurant in Mission Viejo that is cover in graffiti on the inside. I will defiantly use this place again.
Here are two faves so far:

[b]usine$$ [b]uilding

2008-09-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

Some of you who know me know that I am a fan of many photographers in the wedding industry as well as others. One shooter who's openness in sharing his business secrets with others is truly amazing has been building an online community for photographers called the [b] school. This is created by the one & only Becker. You will recall him from some of my previous posts (I'm gonna make you look for them ;-)). Anyhow, He has been building-up hype for this project with videos, links and general miscellanea about the business for the past year that has been very beneficial for me in building confidence in our capabilities. I have gotten to the point where I am almost angry if he misses a day of posting. Well, the [b] School is going live next month (Oct. 1st)and I HIGHLY suggest that any photographer, new or experienced, to sign up and give it a try. Please follow the link below for more information.

On a slightly related note regarding business building, I will be updating my site and plan to have it launched by November 9th. Why this date? This date marks 1 year since my Dad passed away.
This past year has been very difficult for me and my family and I chose to back-off of our photography to grieve & help out with family duties, but from here on I am ready to take-on more and get this ball rolling.
My dad was always a business entrepreneur and would be incredibly excited to see Sandy & I following our dream with our photography business.
It is in his honor that I will do whatever it takes to make this business a success and I will launch on November 9th to celebrate the my Dad's life and bring some light to an otherwise gloomy day.

Stay tuned...

Brent & Noriko's wedding

2008-08-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, Sandy & had had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of an old friend of mine, Brent to his amazing new wife Noriko. For me it was like shooting a family members wedding as I have been close to his family for many years.
This was a wedding of firsts for us. It was our first time using our new Radio poppers (I will post a review in another post), It was also our first time truly using off-camera flash, and it was our first time creating a slide show for the reception. Despite the challenges, it all went off incredibly well and it was a beautiful wedding at The French Estate in old-town Orange.
Much more can be said about how great Brent & Noriko's wedding was, but for me, pictures speak better than words.
More images will be posted online over the coming week, so for those interested, please post a comment here or send me an E-mail and I will send the link when the images are up.
This is a long show, so be please patient if the upload is slow. For all of Brent & Noriko's friends & family, I promise this will be worth the wait.

Here are some of my faves so far....

Mel & Kev's E-Session

2008-08-08T16:09:00.001-07:00

With 30-something days until Melanie and Kevin's wedding, I wanted to take the time to post the best of the E-session we shot for them a while back.

Jessica's Grad-Show

2008-07-31T08:53:00.001-07:00

This slide show was created via Animoto.com. The images are of our friend Jessica made for her graduation. Congratulations Jessica!

Lego versions of famous photographs

2008-07-29T16:05:00.001-07:00

If only I had thought to do this myself!
These images are so neat. Click on the image to see more.

Congrats to Suzette & Sean

2008-07-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

It's a pleasant relief to be a guest at a wedding every now & then to enjoy the fruits of the couple's labors and enjoy the day without the pressures of being the photographer. Although we we have loved to cover Suzette & Sean's wedding this past weekend as they are a handsome couple and had a perfectly planned wedding, it was nice to observe another photographer in action. The photography was left in the very capable hands of Katie Moos Photography and she did an outstanding job.
Trying hard to relax and NOT impose or get in her way, we kept to ourselves and our immediate friends and whatever else we simply could not let go.
So, from a guest's point of view, here's what we got:

The first dance must have been planned to happen at the peak of the golden hour.

The Ross Family are good friends of ours and, well...very interesting people...

This is the lovely couple who's wedding you will see in November:

And here they are in a more natural state...

See our images & VR work at the House of Brew's web site

2008-07-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

The new web site is up for the House of Brews in Huntington Harbor.
Their new site and menus feature the photographs made by me as well as new VR imagery created by Stafford and I.
Please take the time to visit the site and make a trip over there for great food & beers.

Sandavi Photographers featured on Canvas-on-demand's web site...

2008-07-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

In a previous post, I raved about a promotional offer from Canvas on Demand and the excellent service they gave me. The rave was well received as they have featured my comments and our image on their site.

See the post here and please leave a comment. ;-)

Photo (s) of the week - Jessica

2008-07-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

Last week we shot some new pics of Jessica for her graduation announcement and for our own selfish reasons as well because she is sooo photogenic, fun, and easy to work with.
I took the opportunity to work with the new beauty dish that I made courtesy of the Strobist.

As with my own shoot with Corey, there are way too many good images to work with. There may be better images yet, but here are two that I am liking so far...
________________________________________

President Bush surveys the damage of his leadership

2008-07-11T13:34:00.000-07:00

I am no lefty/liberal by any means, but some things are funny simply because they are true....

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

A busy 2 weeks

2008-07-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

...So It's been a while since my last post.
Besides mild laziness on my part, I have been preoccupied with car purchasing and selling.
I finally have a car that I like for the first time in at least 8 years. I bought an Chevy HHR with the sunburst orange color...it's awesome...

This was shot after packing up from shooting our friend Suze...

We also did a shoot for Becky's family while they were in town for the 4th...

...and I also shot my friend Corey for promotional purposes with some upcoming projects he is working on. These turned out great & I'll have more images up in another post.

Today were off shooting again & we'll be sharing these ASAP.

In praise of Canvas on Demand

2008-06-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

After the WPPI convention this year (which I did not attend :-( ), I ran across an ad in Rangefinder magazine from a company called Canvas on Demand offering a free 16x20 gallary wrap for only the cost of shipping.
This seemed to good to be true, but worth a shot as long as it's (nearly) free. I bit & took advantage of the offer with lukewarm expectations.
...And was I impressed with the result? Absolutely.
I work in tech/customer support by day and am sensitive to the level of respect and service that I get as a customer myself. I have dealt with some companies who's level of service was so poor, I would be fired if I worked like they did. With Canvas on Demand, I lagged in submitting my image, but I got friendly reminders that were well timed & non-obtrusive. As I got closer to the deadline, I failed to consider the aspect ratio of the image I submitted. For vertically oriented images, I compose full-frame, which creates issues if I need to print for standard sized images. Long story short...they caught this right away & E-mailed me back that they will print at 16x24 at no additional charge and virtually guaranteed a great image by saying " We just wanted to keep you very informed and ARE going to get started immediately. We will do a great job!"

And they did indeed do a great job.
I suppose than many labs can print this job as well as Canvas On Demand, but how many can give this level of service for free to only a prospective client? not many.
...and did I mention that they also gave me a $5 Starbucks gift card?

When the time comes to order another gallery wrap, guess where I'm going?

PicLens Rocks!

2008-06-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

PicLens is a very simple to use and FREE application that is absolutely amazing for viewing images by.
It installs as an applet into your browser for easy access and whenever a page you are viewing has images, opening PicLens will display only the images (or video) in it's interface for an amazing way to view the images in a very mac-like manner. I love it enough to use it for easily showing-off images on the fly. The experience needs to be seen to be understood, but here is a sample:

Just try it!!

Marisa's Graduation - Photo of the day

2008-06-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Sandy & I were asked to shoot "some quick portraits'' of our cousin Marisa before her high school graduation ceremony, along with here family and friends. Well, asking us to shoot some quick portraits is like asking a gormet chef to make a grilled-cheese sandwich. ;-)
Althoough we intended to use our strobes, the situation worked best for next to no lights at all...only fill-flash...but enough ablout us.
Marisa had a good turnout of family & friends to come see her graduate. The house was crowded with aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. If this is the turnout for a week-nite graduation, her celebration party next week will be very happening. We had a short time in which to get this done, but it all worked out well.
Congraduations Marisa.. we hope you like this image as much as we do....

Father's day blues

2008-06-15T23:44:00.000-07:00

...So this is/was my first Father's day without my Dad.
For the most part I did OK. Personally, I see dad's/moms day, Valentines day, etc, as merely hallmark holidays that are created to stimulate the pocketbooks of greeting card, candy, makers of cheap novelty items & restaurateurs. That being said, I know it means allot to my parents & for that I will always partake, but now with one less holiday obligation.
I visited my Mom 'cuz I thought this day would be harder on her, but each day is the same for her this year as she is adjusting to life without the person at her side for 50 years. ( a fact that I am very proud of). I had planned on taking her to a church service with Earl Warren at addleback Church, but Mom overslept & I lagged anyway...so this will happen next week.

Earlier in the day I had posted a reply to Becker's blog regarding his amazing version of spring cleaning in which he was practically giving away lots of neat stuff, including this purple chair that I look forward to using in our studio sometime soon:(photo by [b]ecker)

...So after vising with Mom, I get a call from Jessica Claire herself telling me to get this thing the hell out of the garage (...well, something like that), and so I did...but 1st I had to watch at least some of the Laker game. I'm a bad fan, 'cuz I thought they would loose...but an earlier prayer for my dad worked-out because the Lakers won!!!!!
It simply would have been a sacrilege for the Celtics to win the championship on our turf.
I asked Dad if he & Chick Hearn can see to it to not allow this to happen....and so it happened...The Lakers won!!!
Sure they will likely loose in Boston & their collectively arrogant fans will boast how great they are as they always do...but at least it won't be on our turf.

...And so the day ended in a manner that would make Dad happy....seeing that Mom is OK and chipping away at building a new business with other tasks completed not worthy of commenting on here, but I have been lagging on business building simply because it's been a tough year for me, but I will continue on, not only for Sandy & I, but in honor of Dad.

Happy Father's day, Dad
we miss you.

...and many thanks to [b]ecker & Jessica for the chair.
You rawk!

King Kong - RIP

2008-06-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

I had never been to Universal Studios before, but yesterday I finally agreed to go so that I could see the new Simpson's ride (which is sooo cool). I felt like such a tourist with my camera in my hand all day, but what the heck, it's fun. We took the tram tour & saw the classic attractions that they are most known for. I didn't care to take many pictures here because our seat had obstructed views. I did go ahead & shoot King Kong because I just wanted to see what I could pull off in these near-dark conditions. I knew I wanted to use the flash (the crappy on-camera one) to stop some motion, but this would also illuminate the backs of people's heads. So what, I was just playing and not planning to ever share these pictures publicly.
Imagine my surprise this morning when I find out that a lot of what we saw on this tour has been destroyed, including the King Kong exhibit! There is so much history in these buildings, it is so sad to see that these are gone. Sure, they will be re-built, but to have just seen these for the first time on the day before this happened makes it so much sadder.
So here is my picture of the day for 6/1/08. King Kong, I hardly knew yee...

...and on a more fun & positive note, here is Sandy & I with America's greatest family:

Photo of the day 5/29/08

2008-05-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

This image was shot at Medieval Times in Buena park on birthday outing for our friend Linda.
This guy looks just like my friend Brent, who's wedding we will be shooting soon.
Anyway, I like this picture and love this horse. So there you go!

New feature - Photo of the day

2008-05-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

I read a story recently about a guy who shot a Polaroid a day for over 22 years, until his death. This made me think that I should endeavor to do something similar, so here goes.

I have decided to start a feature here, a photo of the day.
This will be a nealy daily feature in which I pick a random image to show.
These could be old pics, new pics, old pics with a new technique, new pics with an old technique, etc.

Today I have pick 3 images, why? because the 1st image reminded me to start this very project 'cuz the picture is just cute. The second image was shot at the same party, celebrating our friend Jackie's college graduation and who's wedding we''ll be shooting later this year. It's a cute image too & I cannot leave this out after showing the image of her nieces at the same party.
Congraduations, Jackie....were looking forward to the wedding.

Jackie getting her drink on.

Testing a new toy

2008-05-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite sites to visit isThe Strobist, a blog about minimalist lighting using only camera strobes (as opposed to more expensive, less portable studio lights).
The blof features many how-to articles on how to achieve various techniques on a budget. This is a must see site for anyone involved in photography at all.
One article that I read recently detailed how to build your own 'Beauty dish' for $15 with items purchased from Home Depot. This immediately made a fan of me and I was hooked into doing this myself. I won't go into the hardware specifics, you can read them here. I'll just say that despite some minor variances, I pulle dthis off very well and am loving the results.
I took this to a friend's party recently to test it out...while this is simply too dorky to carry around by hand, and not terribly professional looking, it does a great job & I will definately keep using this for portraits...here is what it looks like....

...and here are some images shot with it so far...

The bears in a Guns-n-Roses vibe

Sandy lookin' cute

Me, lookin heavily photoshopped...

...Cute girl and unknown musician friend ;-)

Little Owen chows down..

Would you eat this man's cooking?

What's in that bottle?

Lament for the independant record stores

2008-04-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

In reading a friends post on Myspace, I discovered a film that I must see called "Need that Record!" This is about the demise of the great American independent record store.
We grew-up around a record store in Cerritos called Best records. I didn't work there very long myself, but if I could have ever made a survivable career out of working in a record store, well, I might still be hip!
Best records was much like the store depicted in the movie "High Fidelity" but with more interesting characters. Those days are long gone...long live the independents!!!

Ah! the good ol' days. Guess which loser am !? ....

Beth's Post-Easter Easter Picnic

2008-04-17T10:47:00.001-07:00

This past Sunday, Sandy & I went to her friend Beth's 20-something'ed annual after-Easter, Easter Picnic. She has this at the same park every year. Beth also has an amazingly huge Santa Claus collection that take weeks for her to set-up at Christmas time...and all the books she has around the house serves to verify that she is nuts!!!! ;-)

Beth has a great family and circle of friends....so why not put them all in a circle and take a VR shot, right?
Thanks to Stafford...we got this done. Click here to view the VR

Start saving your money now for my B-day...Christmas...Retirement?

2008-04-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

A few things I would like for your viewing pleasure...

The World's Most Extreme Photography Equipment

Posted Tuesday, 8 April 2008 by Lars Hasvoll Bakke in Technology, Photography

There are several categories of camera gear available: there's the sensible, the desirable and then there's the stuff that you'd never even imagined. Here's a selection of equipment that most definitely belongs in the latter category.

http://www.crestock.com/blog/technology/the-worlds-most-extreme-photography-equipment-117.aspx

Thank you, Kevin & Melanie

2008-04-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

Last July, Sandy & had enjoyed a fun engagement photo shoot for Kevin & Melanie for a their as-yet unplanned wedding.
They have since settled on a date in August & we are soooo looking forward to this as it will be a fun group in a fun location at the Cafe Hidalgo in Fullerton, Ca.

I was recently checking my web-site stats & discovered their page on weddingannouncer.com with a very kind recollection of the day we shot these images.
If I could hire Melanie or her sister to do our sales & publicity, our business would really take off.
Here is Mel's story in here own words:

"Late this afternoon, Kevin and I had our engagement pictures taken by our friends Sandy and Dave. They far surpassed my expectations in every way. Dave, the more technical one, would make sure the lighting was just right for every new scene. Sandy...Sandy has an eye. She not only had a ton of ideas about where and how she wanted to shoot but she noticed little things and got them corrected to her liking.

I can't even tell you how many pictures they took. Usually I do not enjoy getting my picture taken but tonight was actually fun. Part of that had to do with with Kevin and his silly antics but a lot of it had to do with how comfortable I felt with Sandy and Dave.

Another cool thing is that Dave really wanted to do the shoot at the Orange Circle. I have a fondness for that historic downtown area and thought it was a great idea. Later, we all had dinner at the District Lounge and Dave put the pictures on his laptop and showed us right there. Some of them are great and almost all of them are far better than we've ever had of ourselves. He's putting them on Flickr later this week and I'll show everyone then.

*squee!* I can't wait!"

See more here

Thank you, Melanie

We can't wait.

List of fellow OSP photographer blogs

2008-04-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

I love the Open Source Photography forum.
A group of photographers are helping each other out by sharing links to each other's blogs.
More will come, but here is what I have for now.
Thanks to all...

A Traveling Wedding Photographer
Croft & Campbell Photography
Felipe Pereira Photography
Stina Plant Photogrpahy
Stevie Photography
Highlands NC wedding photographer
Bruce Erik Steffine
Image Jolie by Jenny
Blue Mountain Photo Works
Jamie Delaine
Washington D.C. Wedding Photographer
Expose the Moment
Candy’s Photography
Rich Smith Photography
Kari Douma Photography
Wisconsin Wedding Photography
DiGiorgio Photography
Milssa Powell Photography
Sandavi Photographers
Lisa Lorraine Photography
Ashley Bartoletti Photography
Lindsay Banderbeek Photography
Patrick Warneka Photography
Kathy Puckett Photography
Chayil Marie Branda

Real Estate & VR Photography

2008-04-01T07:56:00.001-07:00

Since a chance request to photograph the House of Brews, we have been thrown into a whole new realm of photography that I never fully considered doing before, and I really like it.
I photographed a home for a friend of ours as a result of this. These are not fully finished yet, but are looking pretty good so far.
Coincidentally, since this time I have also been introduced to VR photography. This is what you see in virtual real estate photography ads in which you can pan & zoom withing the image & see a whole room and walk through to other rooms. VR can be used for much more exciting things than real estate & we can't wait to show what we have planned in the works.
We will be creating VR for the House of Brews within the month and hopefully be getting the ball rolling on other ideas that I hope will be getting a ton of attention.
...Special thanks to Stafford at 360by180 for getting me hooked on this stuff.

Trash the dress!!

2008-03-18T23:45:00.000-07:00

I attended a "trash the dress"session this past weekend down by the train station in San Juan Capistrano. This was a collaboration with make-up artists, new brides willing to get into places thay wouldn't dream of getting into on their wedding day, and photographers to nag 'em on & shoot it all.
My primary intent was to socialize & network with fellow OSP'ers, but the shots I made will end-up in our portfolio and so was well worth the effort.
Thanks to all who participated orchestrated this event. I can't wait 'til the next one.

I am still editing these images, but you can see more here as I get them posted.

Gary Fong's Clean-Collage

2008-03-18T23:39:00.000-07:00

I have a new toy from Gary Fong called Clean-Collage that is a simple Photoshop plug-in that is very handy for assembling collages for the web such as what you see above.
I have modified what it can do and will be using images from this as promotional materials.
Perhaps I can make enough money with this software to buy rabbits, veggies and a wilderness tent to wait-out the coming depression ;-)

What do you think?

Cool group project

2008-03-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

I discovered the Photo freeze project on Dane Sanders' blog & love any project that involves confusing the public.
Check this out:

Holy cow! I'm on Jessica Claire's Blog

2008-03-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

..As previously mentioned, I went to Becker's Happy hour gathering, which was a true gift.
I met Becker before & was grate enough that not only did he remember me, but Sandy's name as well. He hasn't even met Sandy & he knows her name.....well this dude should run for political office 'cuz only politicians & high-level business execs have this skill...IMHO...Maybe this is why he gets the $20 grand gigs, eh?
.....anyway, at this gathering I briefly met his gal, Jessica Claire, who is quite an amazing Rock-star photog herself. I was glad to simply say hi to her.
anyway...I'm in the pic linked above.

[b] will be hosting more of these gatherings & I can't wait for the next.

The [b] school will be announced & on-line soon. whatever the cost, if you are a photog living in So-Cal, this is a great gift.
...more on this at some random other time

New sandavi logo!!!

2008-03-13T13:46:00.001-07:00

I have had our logo finalized by my old friend and amazing graphic designer, Biff.

Back when I was seeking a name for our photography business, I wanted something that invoked a sense of simple elegance, which is what I feel represents our photography style.
I then thought-up the name Sandavi, which is simply a cute blend of Sandy and David, but also sounds somewhat like a very familiar wine brand. This sounded good enough for Sandy & I so it stuck. Coincidentally, a Sandavi is also a term used in classical music composition for "which has a very particular part to play in the mystical unfoldment of the melody"

So, many, many months later, I knew we needed a clever logo and that I wanted the look & feel of wine label imagery, but this still leaves the canvas wide-open for interpretation. It finally dawned on me...why not incorporate musical elemants into the logo?
So, I came up with most of the font used in the final layout, but I suck at graphic design and am fortunate to have had Biff help me polish it up and add the rest.
These colors will also be utilized in our web site & promotional materials.

Biff has an amazing house with a Tiki and Egyptian motif that looks more like the Indiana Jones ride at disneyland than a house.
Check-out these pics of his fireplace.
Or, check-out these pics from one of his parties

Thanks Biff!!!

Happy hour with the [b] school

2008-03-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I mentioned my lunch with Becker. He is starting a new sort of mentoring program for fellow photographers call the [b] school to share & exchange photo & business information. Recently he hosted a happy hour session at the Irvine Spectrum where a group of 'togs got together to meet & greet each other.
This was/is an awesome opportunity & is very inspirational to share ideas with like-minded photographers. It was enough to have already met Becker, but to have the chance to meet him again, see Dane Sanders there, and briefly shoot the sh*t with the amazing Jessica Claire is priceless.
I met some other great 'togs there as well. The pictures above are by Matthew Saville.
more pics can be seen here. Thanks Matt

Seen in the image above is Stafford, whom I have known for quite some time, but have recently had the fortune of a chance meeting in which we have a mutual interest that we are pursuing.
360 x 180 panoramic images. We have some amazing ideas & plans in store for tis technology.
It will take some time to get this moving & I want to keep it under wraps for now....so stay tuned.

Our House of Brews images were a hit with the owners & these will soon be on their new web site.
On the business side, some more wedding opportunities fell our way in which we are excited about. Our studio is slowly but surely becoming a reality, an I have had a new logo designed which we are very excited about...see the next post

House of Brews

2008-03-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

This weekend was spent mainly around the house as Sandy is swamped with school work & I have many business building projects to do myself.
The weekend of the 25th I was at the western states convention of the Professional Photographers of California.
This was a great experience and I have a lot to absorb from this. No pics, but pics would be boring anyway.
I have also cleared space in the garage and will be building a simple studio, so free shoots may be available soon as we get our process dialed in.
Yesterday, Sandy & I went to the House of Brews in Huntington Harbor to shoot interior shots for their web site and marketing brochures. The owners are old friends of Sandy's as well as the sister of her (and my) Brother-n-law.
Thanks to Carmen & Sarah for the opportunity.
More pics here

Dotie's B-day

2008-02-10T14:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we celebrated my Aunt Dottie's birthday with nearly her entire family. I lost count of how many grand and great grandchildren her and Odell have, but they do have a lot!!

Dottie (and of course Odell) was a rock to our family when we were going through terrible times before & after my dad's passing. We will always be grateful for this.

Happy Birthday, Dottie...and many, many more to you.
more pics can be found here.

Congrats to Mark Miller

2008-02-10T10:18:00.000-08:00

Mark Miller is an old friend of ours who has been having some well earned success lately. He is an artist/illustrator who has had his work featured on an Grant Lee Phillips album cover, a small line of bags sold at Urban Outfitters and a few Op/Ed pieces in the New York Times. This one is his 2nd in a week.
Check out his web site here:
http://www.markallenmiller.com./portfolio.html

Gratitude

2008-02-05T16:20:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to Vegas to see George Straight.
This is the 2nd time we went as GS seems to like playing in Vegas on super bowl weekend.
Those who know me know that I'm not much of a country music fan (especially anything post '77/willie/waylon, etc.)..but one thing I like about him is is genuine respect for his fans. You can see it in his face that he really enjoys performing. One thing he seems to do at every show is take the time at the end of the concert to shake hands with literally everyone within reaching distance of the stage. This was at a stage "in the round" and this took him a good 10 minutes while the music played-on, and he circled the entire stage, not missing a hand at all.
This is an "attitude of gratitude'' I aspire to in my own dealings with people and is a quality that seeds many rewards. Sandy does this in her own ways that have great rewards as well, as she so clearly pointed out to me while playing slots earlier that day.
I sunk a whopping $15 into the machine & got exactly what I expected, nothing! I let this re-affirm why I don't gamble, because I 'Know' I'll never win.
Sandy sunk in $10 and did OK for a while, maintaining 250 credits on a 25 cent machine. I thought I'd let her play to 200 before asking her to cash-out & call it a day, but she never got to 200 and probably would not have listened to me anyway. I didn't want her to lose & got worried that my 'bad luck' might keep her winnings down. So I made a point to stand well away from her. This seemed to work, in that my 'negative gambling vibe' seemed to cool-down her winnings while I watched close by. Not long after this, lo-and behold, she scores a 3200 credit jackpot. that's $800!!
So later Sandy reminds me about what I should know by now, but have not been applying as well as I like...If you expect a poor outcome, you get one. If you expect a good outcome, keep a positive attitude and share gratitude, success will come.
This works for George & Sandy, and has worked for me when actively applied, I just need to maintain this state of gratitude in of my dealings in life.

2nd Birthday

2008-02-01T19:27:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to a 2nd birthday party for the daughter of of friends Cassie & Tyler, who's wedding we also shot last year. The pictures were too cute to not post....
More can be found on our Flickr site

Backup, Backup, Backup and the Linksys NSLU2

2008-01-30T13:26:00.000-08:00

last month I suffered an unfortunate incident in which an external hard drive died with 200 GB of very important data on it.
The disk was not spinning at all, so I had to send the drive to a specialist to recover the data as this drive was dead to the world.
The good news is they were able to save the data....for nearly $1400!!!! and this did not include a replacement drive.
Lesson learned - back up all data to DVD 1st, better yet, make two copies and save the 2nd disk in a safe place at another physical location.
...So the data is back. While resolving never to do this again, I did some research into Network Attached Storage devices (NAS). I was looking for a relatively simple, economical RAID solution. There are many solutions out there, but I discovered that the Linksys NSLU2 device has had some interesting possibilities and snagged one up with my Christmas money.
The NSLU2 with out-of-the-box settings is simple enough to configure, but be aware that this does not support FAT and NTFS formatted hard drives very well at all. An unadvertised fact is that this requires the Linux Ext3 file system to operate. This is fine by me, but I wish I had known this before had all of my recovered data save to an NTFS formatted drive (Doh!!!). I needed a 2nd hard drive anyway for this project, so I installed this and formatted the drive as required. The native firmware for this device does not offer RAID support, but I did not buy the NSLU2 for it's native firmware. The beauty of the NSLU2 is that the firmware that can be upgraded by 3rd party developers to do all this and so much more. Developers can then vastly increase the device's native capabilities.
For now, I have settled on a particular distribution call uNSLUng. There is a online community that support this and all other flavors here.
In a nutshell:
Unslung is one of the streams of replacement firmware for the NSLU2.

It is designed to allow you to expand the capabilities of your NSLU2, without losing the standard product functionality and still retain full compatibility with stock Linksys firmware.

This can be configured as a media server for music, Tivo streams, a PBX box and so much more. My only need is for a mirrored RAID file server, and so this is what I am currently working on.
Presently, I am manually backing-up gigs and gigs files to DVD. When this is done, the work begins.

On another Linksys front:

I have a large Epson 7600 printer in our garage which I have been printing through an old PC connected to the printer (Also in the garage)
My experience with this has been horrible. I spoke with another user who only prints from the local printer (copying files to the PC, then printing, not printing through a shared printer) It is my experience that Epson printers just plain suck as network printers and I found myself taking a large chunk of time to get a simple job printed.
I hated having a junk PC taking space and eating power for such a simple task that really didn't work well for me. What I needed was a print server. Although I'd prefer a wireless device, i settled on a wired Linksys unit, the PSUS4.
After a few issues caused by user negligence (RTFM!) I got the device working and couldn't be happier. So far, network printing is a breeze.

The two above devices now take-up very little space in the garage and consume far less power. They take up less power than a flashlight and the NSLU2 is capable of running as a full-fledged Linux server. ...Whatta Bawgin!!

( I also have a wrt54 router updated with DDRT firmware that increases the router capabilities many times over what the device was designed to give out of the box. I have increased the wireless signal strength well enough to get a great signal on the other side of my house, going through many walls. )

...So it took up quite a chunk of change to get this far, but now I know I will never encounter data loss again. As the business grows, so will the potential for loss, lawsuits, and a much larger financial loss. Better now than later, so for that I am grateful.

There are other devices out there that accomplish the same task, but for my money, Linksys devices are great and allow 3rd party developers to make them capable of so much more.
These are great examples of what open-source software provide. The idea that you can take a device designed for one purpose, allow outside software developers to re-write the firmware and provide new features and capabilities, all for free (no paid upgrades, no licensing!) is amazing. I am a reluctant Windows user who for various reason will not go Mac. The concept of force upgrades that must be paid for and licensed is just not fair to the end user. I know that vendors need to make $$$ to survive, but at some point it just reaks of extortion, IMHO

My dream is for Adobe products to be fully ported into Linux, So that I can finally be rid of all licensing BS besides that which Adobe provides. better one nuisance than many.

I should post more about open source software. I have no idea how many readers that I attract would be interested in this, so any feedback is appreciated.

peace-out

Family

2008-01-22T14:55:00.001-08:00

We had cousins visit from Texas this past weekend.

My father's nieces, Kathy and Laurie, along with her husband, Allen (did I spell those names right?) Spent a few short days out here.
Kathy has not been to California since 1969!
It is great to reconnect with extended family, especially since the passing of my Dad, who was dearly missed during this visit.
The photo above was made at the home of Dottie & Odell (Aunt & uncle).
Laurie brought the battered remains of a 3rd generation family album. I scanned some of the photos for sharing.

This one is my favorite. It's my great uncle George and his buddies, who used to jam on the front porch, hill-billy style!!! According to stories, he as a real Mayberry type of charactor. I love this photo & will eventually give a fll restoration to it in Photoshop.
It was great to see 'yall again & we look forward to visiting sometime in the near future.

Our 2nd anniversary

2008-01-17T21:53:00.000-08:00

This past Monday Sandy & I celebrated our 2nd anniversary.
As part of our honeymoon, we went to the Santa Barbara wine country to visit the sites and locations of one of our favorite movies, Sideways. As cheesy as this sounds, we loved the area & discovered the Hitching Post restaurant be cause of this. They have the BEST fillet mignon ever, great wine and a nice atmosphere despite the crowdiness. We have gone back twice on each anniversary now and may make this an annual tradition.
We didn't have to to catch more than one winery, which was Fess Parker's. This is a neat place that is also in the movie, but the samples were rather disappointing, IMHO.
After the hitching post, we went to the Firestone Brewery and I found the best beer I have ever had, Liberty Pale Alet. It was an IPA even better than their regular IPA.
We also went window shopping in Solvang & I bought Sandy the really cute coat you see in the picture.
The following morning we went to mass at the Santa Ynez mission , where I shot the photo before moving on back home. It was a relatively simple weekend away from home and a nice way to spend our 'versary together. We may do the same next year, but I promised Sandy a Disney cruise by the time of our 5th anniversary & I hope to accomplish this early. ..stay tuned.

Lunch with the [b]ecker : part 2

2008-01-11T16:13:00.000-08:00

..So I met with Becker today and all I can say is wow!.
This guy is as real as he presents himself online and chock-full of advice and ideas.

He is so cool to avail himself to anybody the way he does for his ''Buy me lunch" program.

We met at Javier's at the Irvine Spectrum (great place! I will go here again).

I somehow managed to get all of my discussion topics addressed without hardly bringing them up myself. I suppose he has a gift for answering one question from a broad prospective and managing to answer related topics at the same time.
In addition to learning more about his history and how he got as far as he is today, I learned a lot about simple networking and sharing techniques that I will be applying from this point on.

Thanks Becker for "paying it forward" to me. I'll be doing the same myself.

Christmas with the Brandons / Congrats to Brent and Noriko

2008-01-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

....So among other photos from the holidays that I need to post-up, I have uploaded pics from our post-Christmas visit to the Brandons on my flickr site.
The best news to come out of this was Brent's announcement that he and Noriko had just got engaged earlier that day.

Brent is an amazing musician, bartender, and general good guy who currently playing with a group call Plan B.
I have known him and his family for years and regard them as a sort of 2nd family. it is great to see little Brent all get all growed-up. ;-) and see him find such a cool gal.
We wish Brent and Noriko the best.

Phase 1 - complete

2008-01-09T16:15:00.001-08:00

This is a collection of some favorite images from our humble beginnings until now
Thank you to all of our friends and family who allowed us to photograph them and share in their great moments.
We started out with next to nothing in regards to our equipment, confidence and expectations.
We have come a long way and have great expectations for the future.

This is a random collection from our Flickr site. I will add a best of 2007 post later this week.

x

Cubensis - 20 years and still going

2008-01-07T23:29:00.001-08:00

-4, Craig Marshall and Cubensis, sandavi.

This is a repost from my now former blog. I feel this deserves a spot here:

Last weekend I almost literally dragged Sandy to see a band whom I embarrassed to say I have seen for nearly the entire span of their 20 year history. (Am I embarrassed to be a deadhead, or about my age? you decide)

Cubensis is a Grateful Dead tribute band who have made a sideline career for themselves playing at least 1 show per week on a consistent basis for 20 years. They celebrated that fact at the Galaxy Theater last week to a packed house of the most hippies I have seen in over 10 years.It was great to see people whom I haven't seen in as many years almost all back together.
I used to see these guys play most every Tuesday nite and this was such a big part of my life. Things have changed for me quite a lot since then (definitely for the better) but I love to get a dose of them whenever I can, and there was no way I would miss this celebration with (almost) all of their former band members.
This Band was started by Craig Marshall and friends and has created it's own enigmatic history not unlike that of the Dead themselves.
To Craig and everyone who has been of part of Cubensis, Thank you for a real good time.

Lunch with the [b]ecker

2008-01-07T23:08:00.000-08:00

...So In my downtime I like to look over photo blogs. This is a great way for me to see what other photographers are up to and get in inspiration. One of these blogs is by a photographer known as the [b]ecker.
This guy is an rock star among wedding photographers and lives here in Orange County. He is up to some new projects for the year, one of which is the [b] school, a site in which he hopes to help aspiring wedding pro's learn their craft. One side project of this is called ''buy me lunch" In which he selects anybody willing and able to spend an hour or so over lunch and talk shop. I happened to be the 1st to replay and, being that I was also fairly local to him, I got selected!!
For me, this is like a basketball rookie getting to hang with a seasoned MVP.
The meeting will take place later this week at a secure, undisclosed location. I'll post an update about it this weekend.

The Cleptomaniacs

2008-01-07T14:42:00.001-08:00

IMG_1639, originally uploaded by sandavi.

The Cleptomaniacs are a band that Sandy & I have been enjoying in our neighborhood for a few years now.
We have heard their rehearsals and observed them evolving into what can well be a successful band. They have played at 2 of our parties, but we never saw them on stage until last Friday nite.
The boys rocked and I look forward to seeing them on stage again.

More pics can be seen here:
http://flickr.com/photos/sandavi/sets/72157603657271231/show/