More Workshop Images

I have a lot of things to catch up on but wanted to quickly post a few images from our beach session the other day. This model is Jasmine Star. She is a photographer too! She is awesome behind the camera and in front of it! (I like to be behind the camera!! haha) Check out her blog Here.

It was awesome working with All the models! Jasmine also brought her husband along on day two for some modeling. Jasmine and JD are two of the warmest people I have met. They are so great to be around! Great to photograph as well. Check them out!

I will be posting as much as I can this week, while I catch up with all of the important things to keep the ball rolling!

*TECHNICAL JARGON FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS*
I am now a JPEG Shooter! I have been going back and forth for quite a while and finally took the plunge last week. I can still see myself capturing RAW when needed, but for the majority of my shooting, I am shooting JPEG. Turns out that I LOVE the straight out of the camera files I am getting with JPEG. I setup 3 of my Custom Setting Banks on the Nikon D200 and started using the K scale for White Balance. I am loving the results. It sure beats fiddling with the Raw files on the computer! I would rather be shooting! Give it a try!!

All of these are straight out of the camera.

Mike Colon Workshop

We returned from Orange County last night. I am still on West Coast time, so I cannot fall asleep! Actually, I worked a charity event for the American Heart Association this evening. It was an awesome event and the images will be published in Whirl Magazine shortly. I will keep you posted when they are published. (This is exciting news!)

Anyways, I can't even begin to tell you all how great the workshop was. I met so many great people and made friends with them all! This experience was incredible and if you are a photographer or know one, TAKE THE COLÓN EXPERIENCE! It was fulfilling on so many levels. Making friends, networking, talking shop, learning, sharing, dining, laughing, etc... We even had a Texas Hold Em Tourney the last night. (I came in second :) ).

Mike is a genuine person. If I could sum him up in one word, it would be selfless (this is also true about his wife Julie). They opened up their home and lives to 13 strangers and made us feel as if we were old friends. It was incredible. The amount of knowledge & inspiration I gained, on the first day, was worth every penny. Getting to know Mike and learning from his experience was better than I could have imagined. What even made it better was the quality of people that attended the shop!

Over the next few days I will be posting about all of the wonderful people I met and hope to continue to work with in the future. I will link to all of their sites to give you a little insight into who they are. We are all in this together. We have many things in common, but two that stand out are that we love people and love weddings!

I will also post more images from the workshop in the next few days. I am going to try and get to bed so that we can go to the early church service tomorrow morning!

Meet Mike Colón


Here are the models:




I have many more of Brittany, but this was awesome! She jumped in the pool with her dress on for us. We had a blast!


Even Bridget Modeled a bit!


A headshot of me:


My headshot was taken by Melissa Rich. She is my first introduction! Melissa is a photographer in Colorado. She started in Las Vegas but picked up and moved to Colorado and is continuing to grow her business. She does fabulous work and expect to see her teaching workshops someday! Be sure to check out her site at:Lotus Photo

Here she is!

Headed to California!

Bridget and I are headed to California this weekend! Just Bridget and I, no kids... Wow, we don't even know what to do! Bridget is very nervous about leaving the boys, especially Bray Bray. I know that they will be fine and we will have some fun. Bridget's mother (AKA - MeeMaw) is coming in from Atlanta to watch them, so they will be in good hands. Please keep us all in your prayers while we travel and the boys are without us for a few days!

The reason for the trip is two-fold. I am attending a workshop hosted by Mike Colon. I have met Mike a few times and I can tell you that not only is he a fantastic photographer and businessman, but he is an incredible person. Mike is one of the most giving, open, honest and respected persons in the industry. He has been named as the youngest Nikon Legend Behind the Lense, is regularly featured in many publications, including having the honor of being the exclusive fashion photographer for Grace Ormonde's Wedding Style Magazine.

The workshop is called 4-Day Intensive Mike Colon Experience. It is filled with information, shooting, editing and networking. I am so excited! I will be sure to post about it and the images I capture.

The second reason for the trip is for Bridget to see California (Newport Beach) for the first time. It is time for her to kick back, relax, read, see the sites, etc... It acts as a little 2nd honeymoon for us too. When we were married we only went away for 2 nights, so this will be an experience that we both are looking forward to!

So we will be out of the office until Monday February 26th. We will have limited access to emails, but no access to voicemail. If you do contact us, please be patient and we will get back to you when we return.

Newport Beach, CA

Winter Fun

Actually we are Enjoying this Global Warming.... hahaha

Brayden has not seen much snow, and I don't think he likes it too much. He pretty much stands still and points at things. We put him on the sled and he did not like it very much. Christian on the other hand, enjoys it a lot! Damon loves it too, however he was not with us today. Hopefully I can get some shots of him enjoying the snow too.

Moments and Kids with Camera

Two weeks ago, I was fortunate to spend the day with two of my favorite photographers. Joe Buissink and Marcus Bell.

Marcus is an award winning photographer located in Brisbane, Queensland and has one of Australias leading photography studios. He is a very genuine guy, totally shoots from the heart and has an amazing business sense. A true artist to say the least. Marcus is one of those talented people that can work a picture up a lot in photoshop, but still makes it look real, just like a print from a negative. Awesome! Here is a pic of Marcus and Me:


Joe is a photographer based in Beverly Hills, CA. He still shoots 80% B&W film at his weddings. He has a master printer do all of his custom prints. Joe is all about the moment! He talks about how there is 'No perfect Image, Just Perfect Moments'. This idea is very apparent through all of his work. Very timeless. He is a wonderful guy to boot. Very caring, giving and passionate for what he does. He has shot numerous celebrity weddings such as, Christina Aguilera, Hillary Swank, Christina Applegate, Brendan Fraser, Jenny Garth, Jennifer Lopez & Jessica Simpson. He has very unique stories about each! Here is a picture of Joe and Me:


It was great hanging out with these guys and talking shop. I am going to start shooting a few rolls of B&W film again to mix it up a bit. There is something about film that I really miss. Shoot, take it to the lab and then pick it up. Editing is simple. Keep the few prints from the stack and move on. What a time saver! ahaha... Don't get me wrong, I LOVE digital, but I think there is a lot to be said about film as well.

On the theme of 'Perfect Moments', I thought this would be fun to post about. Once in a while the kids (Damon, Christian and Brayden) will get a hold of our Nikon Coolpix point & shoot camera and pretty much just hold the shutter down! It is quite funny when we upload the images to iPhoto and discover all of these little nuggets. Most of the pictures are out of focus and you can't even tell what the subject is, but once in a while there is a perfect moment in there! It will be a great progress meter to check against, once they are all award winning photographers! Check out this little slideshow. It is priceless. Click the picture (Brayden snapped this nugget! Also you will need Quicktime to view the show.)