Archive for August, 2010

Seattle, Washington: creativeLive + Jasmine Star Part 2

August 27th, 2010

Laura and Billy’s wedding at Theo Chocolate is going to be so sweet (pun intended)! I finally got preview of the venue in all its pre-wedding disarray as we prepared for our first look. The chocolate warehouse has such a cool classic vibe to it- its going to be so great for Laura and Billy’s big [...]
 

Laura and Billy’s wedding at Theo Chocolate is going to be so sweet (pun intended)! I finally got preview of the venue in all its pre-wedding disarray as we prepared for our first look. The chocolate warehouse has such a cool classic vibe to it- its going to be so great for Laura and Billy’s big day!

Seattle Creativelive Jasmine star Wedding theo chocolate

The florals are to die for. Laura’s bouquet is real deal, I’m thinking it weighs in at about 5 lbs… thats almost a baby. Just sayin.

Seattle Creativelive Jasmine star Wedding bella florals flowers bouquet

Billy and Laura did their first look and OH-EM-GEE, I have never been so touched before. As Billy introduced himself on camera with Chase Jarvis, I caught Laura sneaking by the door getting in position. I honestly got chills and tuned into that little girl at every wedding who thinks the bride is a princess. She looked that good. When it was time, Laura came through the door, smiling ear to ear, and that was the end for me. The rock in my throat, the blurry teary eyes, the goosebumps up and down my arms? Yep, all there.

On my wedding day I did the first look, so I can give a testimonial on what a great concept it is. I chose to do a first look for one reason. Light. I got married outside in late November and I was afraid of loosing lights for all our portraits. Well, it was worth so much more than the light. For all of my Sex and the City fans, it solidified its me and you. Having a moment to take everything in without guest and without coordinators was invaluable. I knew at that point nothing could go wrong, even if my shoe got stuck in the mud, even if my flower girl didn’t trow a single petal, even if the wind was so fierce it overpowered all the sound of the entire ceremony (all of which really did happen). It was me and my husband.

first look wedding bride groomCourtesy of my good friend Love Ala (formerly Modern Type).

For more about the first look from the male perspective, visit Jasmine Star’s blog.

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Seattle, Washington: creativeLIVE + Jasmine Star Part 1

August 26th, 2010

Last night my husband asked me “What is wrong with you? You aren’t like this when you’re at home.” What he was referring to was my strung-together-never-ending-sentences-slash-conversation-with-myself… you get the picture I’m sure. Maybe it had something to do with being back in a city I haven’t seen it 14 years. Maybe it had something [...]
 

Last night my husband asked me “What is wrong with you? You aren’t like this when you’re at home.” What he was referring to was my strung-together-never-ending-sentences-slash-conversation-with-myself… you get the picture I’m sure. Maybe it had something to do with being back in a city I haven’t seen it 14 years. Maybe it had something to do with the 1st day of this amazing course that is being viewed by thousands of people around the world. And maybe, just a small maybe. I was channeling some of Jasmine’s energy. If you watched us online yesterday then you know what I’m talking about. If you weren’t watching, let me back up. I’m in Seattle attending a wedding photography course provided by an amazing company called creativeLIVE and hosted by the ever talented and world famous wedding photographer, Jasmine Star. Yesterday was the fist day in studio and it was a completely surreal experience- and not to mention FUN!  J* is totally down to earth, and between her insightful perspectives on branding and staying in control she makes Jersey Shore references. Love it. Here are some behind the scene shots from Day 1.

Sachin Khona and myself checking the #askjasmine Twitter feed on the iPad… Clearly, property of Chase Jarvis.

Seattle CreativeLive Jasmine Star Sachin Khona Stephanie Miller

The other J* groupies: Nate Perkes, Audrey Smit, and Victoria De Martigny with some of the fabulous creativeLIVE crew!

Seattle CreativeLive Jasmine Star Nate Perkes Audrey Smit Victoria de Martigney

The STAR herself. Seriously, she’s the kind of person you are intimidated to meet, but once you do you want to be her best friend… and shopping buddy.

Seattle CreativeLive Jasmine Star Stephane Miller

Our wonderful bride and groom, Laura and Billy surprised us with Best of Seattle care packages! Being a former Seattle resident, I took a trip down memory lane as I smelled the scent of the fresh ground coffee and tasted the goodness of my Nonni’s biscotti. Mmmm Mmmmm good!Seattle CreativeLive Jasmine Star Laura and Billy

I am so very grateful to be a part of this experience. Everyone involved has been so wonderful and supportive and I know opportunities like this are far and few in between. Hopefully one day I can pass the baton to the newbies as well. Check back for more behind the scene updates!

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Soon to be married…

August 17th, 2010

When it comes to friends and business, theres always a little funny awkwardness. You know that whole I don’t know how to ask, or should I ask, or maybe if I joke about enough she’ll get the point kind of awkwardness. Well with my friends Danielle and Jair, I didn’t give them a chance to be [...]
 

When it comes to friends and business, theres always a little funny awkwardness. You know that whole I don’t know how to ask, or should I ask, or maybe if I joke about enough she’ll get the point kind of awkwardness. Well with my friends Danielle and Jair, I didn’t give them a chance to be awkward. I basically told them I was taking their engagement photos. In a nice way of course! This couple is so in love and so excited to be together that I know their pictures will be ravishing. Here’s a little sample of the excitement.

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Blog about it update…

August 13th, 2010

Just wanted to update you all on the Blackberry Torch… LOVE IT. Yesterday Jeff and I went to go “check it out” and we liked it so much that we got 2 (one for him of course)! Here’s my first picture from the Torch taken at yesterday’s golf lesson… This was my best shot ever… [...]
 

Just wanted to update you all on the Blackberry Torch… LOVE IT. Yesterday Jeff and I went to go “check it out” and we liked it so much that we got 2 (one for him of course)!

Here’s my first picture from the Torch taken at yesterday’s golf lesson…

This was my best shot ever… second stroke and on the green. Crazy.

Don’t worry, this is my last post about the phone. Back to photo stuff soon. :)

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Love and Life. Rediscovered and Redefined.

August 12th, 2010

I am so grateful for each and every day. I’m grateful for the experiences and the people I encounter each day. I think I’m in love with life. Actually I know it. But I haven’t always known it. You know how people say they are onto another chapter in their life? Well I feel like I’m [...]
 

I am so grateful for each and every day. I’m grateful for the experiences and the people I encounter each day. I think I’m in love with life. Actually I know it. But I haven’t always known it.

You know how people say they are onto another chapter in their life? Well I feel like I’m opening a whole new book. An upbeat book about a fearless journey and finding beauty in everything.

I can’t really say I was living before. As I mentioned in another post, I wasn’t a risk taker — I wasn’t even a chance taker. I was stuck in the monotony of eat-sleep-work, repeat. Booooring. I don’t know why but I was afraid to live, afraid to have adventures and new experiences. Now I realize I was even holding back from love.  According to my newfound outlook of things, living and loving are synonymous. So if you aren’t doing one, then you aren’t doing the other. I vow to myself to live life to its fullest and love every moment of it.

What about you? Are you living? Are you surrounding yourself with love?

While you contemplate I leave you with a creative display of love, love, love, love…

Courtesy of jabba312

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Blog about it: Get to know me a little better

August 11th, 2010

I’m constantly coming up with these one-liners in my head. The latest? Blog about it. Its sort of a play on talk about it, cry about it, tell me about it, all rolled into in one cozy spot on my blog. Basically, I plan to use it as my personal space to rant and rave. On the [...]
 

I’m constantly coming up with these one-liners in my head. The latest? Blog about it. Its sort of a play on talk about it, cry about it, tell me about it, all rolled into in one cozy spot on my blog. Basically, I plan to use it as my personal space to rant and rave. On the agenda today: my use of -ness at the end of words, my current obsession with the Kelly Moore bags and the new Blackberry Torch.

  • For those who are unaware, -ness can be added to just about any adjective. Adding -ness to any word makes that word sound more exciting, profound and poetic. You’ll see it all over the blog. Don’t hate.
  • Today I have been on Kelly Moore’s site about 3,675 times admiring the mustard hobo. I even added a link on the blog (look to your right). Yellows and golds are my favorite colors and I pretty much want anything that comes in those colors. Well it just so happens that I’m in need of a new purse that doubles as a camera bag and I have a birthday coming up next month… I’ll tell ya’ll all about it when it arrives. :)
  • I used the B word on my blog and I’ll do it again… BLACKBERRY, BLACKBERRY,  BLACKBERRY!!! I currently have an iphone, not the 4, not the s, just an OG iphone 3G and I can’t wait to get rid of it!! Me and Blackberrys go way back, back to the Pearl. I reluctantly jumped on the iphone bandwagon and it was fun for a while, but I don’t know how professional it looks when my emails have misspelled and irrelevant words. Not to mention somehow I ALWAYS hit send before I’m done writing a message. Grrrr. It frustrates me just to talk about it. For years I have been waiting for Blackberry to come out with a touch screen phone with a real QWERTY keypad. Well, my friends tomorrow my wish will come true.

Until next time…

I may need to make a t-shirt out of this one!

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WPPI. [b] school. CREATIVELIVE. JASMINE STAR. AMAZINGNESS.

August 10th, 2010

This blog post could also be titled Blessings by the Boatload, but lets be honest those names got your attention right? They sure got my attention when they showed up in my inbox over the past couple of weeks! A few weeks ago I submitted a video to be considered for a wedding photography course [...]
 

This blog post could also be titled Blessings by the Boatload, but lets be honest those names got your attention right? They sure got my attention when they showed up in my inbox over the past couple of weeks! A few weeks ago I submitted a video to be considered for a wedding photography course held by creativeLIVE with the world famous Jasmine Star in Seattle. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m not a risk taker not even for the littlest stuff. I hate rejection and the old me had 2,000 excuses of why I shouldn’t take a risk before I even knew what the risk was. You know, like the good old washing my hair or expecting a phone call lines. Or my favorite, I have to work on my thesis. That one was good for about 2 years! Well the thesis is done, the hair is squeaky clean and all the other bad excuses have run their course as well. I’m not even kidding myself anymore. That little voice in my head said you need to be in Seattle. So I made my 60 second video and sealed it with an EEK! Seriously, when I sent it to @jasminestar I included a caption that said “Here it is. Eek!” Here is is? Eek? Rejection road here I come. Well to make a long story short, 120 amazingly talented people from around the world entered the contest. Six were chosen. I was one of them. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Of 120 people, I was chosen? I’ve never won anything except a DARE tote bag in the 5th grade (I was rockin’ the most red on DARE day, thank you very much).

But it gets better…

Last night I found a message in my Facebook inbox from Becker at the [b] school informing me I won a seat at the WPPI Road Trip in Irvine. WHAT THE WHAT?? This can’t be for real. Oh, its for real. Two major events, one stellar week. Its going to be bananas. So what did I learn? Taking risks, even if they were small risks, is the only way to make things happen. Now that I’m running my own business, I need to put myself out there… and rejection? I spit on rejection. Rejection is a state of mind, and only I decide if I’m good enough. Amazingness is in full effect. I can’t wait until Sunday so I can go give thanks in person.

Thanks again to creativeLIVE, Jasmine Star, [b] school, WPPI Road Trip and my buddy Mapu of Mapuana Photo who called me at 8:30 on a Monday morning to congratulate me!

And for your viewing pleasure my video submission for the creativeLIVE course…

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