Karie-Ann and Chris wedding day. Wedding photography a different perspective.

My cousin Chris married his beautiful fiancé Karie-Ann this weekend. I went but not as the photographer as a guest. It was great they didn't even ask me to shoot it, I did however take the camera and lights. I begged them after dinner for 5 minutes of there time to pull is off.



When I got there, I wanted this photo of them together with the Holy Cross Abbey in the background. I'm ordering a big print for them as a gift. Shoosh don't tell them!


After the ceremony I shot some quick pics on the Fuji X100 of my twin Mikes family and his adorable daughter Inara. She was a a bit camera shy at the beginning but warmed up to me making funny faces and giggling at her.


Roan even showed what a good big brother he is.


The rest of the pics I took at the reception. Less then 100 photos all day on two cameras at a wedding is probably some kind of record. But then again I wasn't 1st shooter or 2nd or even 10th. I was there only as a guest to enjoy the event. I even got into a debate with Athena about which side is best to photograph on her. Look how pretty she is. This side won.


You can see the rest of the pics on Facebook as my family wants to see them and I'm only going to put a few here.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness.... An adventure in DSLR cleaning.

My friends Rob and Dan are big sticklers for cleaning their gear. If Dan's not shooting something he's cleaning a lens almost OCD-ish but look how clean this images are. Rob can tell you tales of being sprayed with champaign after a Cardinals win and taking weeks to clean his camera.

Me, I like to clean everything when it gets to the point of bothering me. You know, when I'm spending to much time in Photoshop cleaning up dust spots or removing hair. This behavor is changing and I'm getting so sick of it that today I pulled out my hodge-podge sensor cleaner stuff and did my best to clean up my D3.

It's not the easiest camera to clean plus I'm horrible at removing dust bunnies and the more I swipe the more they populate. I soon had enough - Aaarrrgghhhhh!!!! ( Charlie Brown style screams)

I haven't worked in the past month( long story, involving Alien invasion to overthrow earth porting through my foot ) so taking it to a shop to get cleaned is out of the question.

I started looking on the intrawebs about cleaning and remembered the success I had when Rob showed me how to clean my sensor and that I needed better cleaning equipment.

Thought bubble: isn't it funny how photographers will cheap on everything but lenses, light and bodies? "but we're resourceful! We utilize things laying around!!" = BS!

So off to Denver Pro Photo to pick up some real cleaning supplies.

It took 20 min to clean my sensor and all my lenses once I got back and had the right stuff. Cost me two hours of time being cheap to learn this lesson.

So here's a bit of fatherly advise I have been told a time or two. "Get the right tool for the job! It'll make your life easier." lesson learned.







Now with this stuff, maybe I'll be cleaning my gear more often? I know I'll be spending less time in PS - bonus!!!

Kauai Anniversary Vacation part 1

Yesterday was the first day of my 10 year Anniversary vacation with my lovely wife Athena. We decided to take a trip to the garden island of Kauai. The flight here is truly ridiculous. Almost six hours in a seat with nothing to look at except blue sky, white clouds and blue water.




It takes it's toll on a person.



I couldn't imagine flying here from the east coast that's three extra hours of traveling. I guess the road to paradise has got to be grueling because once you get here it's.... Well paradise!

After some much needed sleep we met up our long time friends Dan and Marta who moved here a year and a half ago. They either are the craziest people we know or the smartest. In 2009, they sold all their belongings left their family and moved to an isolated island in the pacific to follow their dreams and leave the lifestyle of consumption. Marta will tell you tales about how it's hard here.. The island will spit you out if your not kind to her. They've seen several people move here expecting to make it and end up with broken dreams and life's broken apart like a shipwreck on the rocks.

They have made some hard changes from having excess money and buying comforts everyday to growing their own food at organic farms and working hard at accepting the their new lifes, so far the island is welcoming them.






Yesterday they took Athena and I to the local farmers market where we met some of their friends and got a bounty of great fruit which we get to start eating today!!!! FRESH HAWAIIAN PINEAPPLE




Here's some of the other fruit we got....


Marta knows all about food and writes several articles for weekly newspapers and local blog/websites. Dan has recently started a new chapter of his life as a photo tour guide taking people around the island stoping at great hidden spots so the tourist have amazing photos to go back home with.


After the farmers market we went to the beach to go snorkeling but the waves were really choppy and we decided to go to another beach. Athena and Marta laid on the beach while Dan and I ran around shooting photos of the waves crashing against the black lava rocks.









As you can see this place is amazing and I can't wait to see what the rest of our time her will bring.

Mahalo