Our E-session with Cameron Ingalls

So my good buddy and amazing photographer Cameron Ingalls, Inc and his sweet wife Anna, took their afternoon to bless us by shooting some sweet images of my wife and I. I am so inspired by Cam. He has been such a great friend over the last 4 years, and I feel his photography business inspires me. Its that mutual encouragement that brings us closer as friends and pushes us to become better servants to our clients. Rachel had been desiring for Cameron to take these shots for a while, and I asked C-dog earlier this year before the wedding if he was game. So I waited till the perfect day. I surprised Rachel and we had a sweet Anniversary day. Starting with a walk downtown for breakfast, followed by a beach/surf day, then we got ready for the e-session. After that, we headed out to dinner at a cool place called Naples, and had some good Italian Food. Rachel gave me an Apple Bluetooth headset, which stoked me out, its one of those few toys that help me work that I have not bought myself. We finished off the night by surprising Rachel with a night in a cool B&B spot. I had her close her eyes, and I drove around town in circles to disorient her. Then I carried her up the stairs as I gently laid her down on the couch, I asked her to open her eyes. For a second she didn’t recall where she was. Then it hit her, I could tell cause her eyes lit up and she made that high pitch excited noise. I love it when she does that. She just realized this was our honeymoon suite after our wedding night! So we had a nice romantic evening. I LOVE this place, and you have to check it out. So much more style and fun than a regular hotel in town. The Sanitarium Spa. That night it was 80 degrees and we slept with the windows open. It felt so amazing to have a warm breeze blow through the room on a quite money night. There was nobody else in the house. I love my wife more after that night and I love to surprise her. Then when we woke in the morning, they had OJ, Fresh omelets and croissants for us. Mmmm, does it get better than that! I have learned to keep dating your wife or husband. Its easy to get into a routine. That gets hard to do the longer your married, so you have to keep it a habit, I am thankful to say, that we do. I feel like it keeps our marriage young. With God’s help, I hope to forever have the youngest marriage, sweet, innocent, pure, fun, exciting and growing deeper every day. Thanks Cam, thanks to everyone who was so sweet to us and to all the props. So whenever we see the number 22, we pray for our marriage, and if your wedding is on the 22nd, say hi and we will pray for your marriage too!

Here are a few of our favs from his site!

My 2 year anniversary

This is my Beautiful Wife! :)

I am SO in love with my wife, and in the past 4 years, I have really learned more about love than I ever thought I would. I am going to post more on this on Tuesday, but I feel I have learned most that loving someone means that you choose to serve them before yourself, being patient, no matter what, kind no matter what, and holding no grudge no matter what. There is never a reason I can justify treating my wife with anything else than I treated her on the wedding day as we were in front of God and our friends. So when nobody is looking and I have every right to be upset, I still can’t treat her with disrespect, or choose to say or do something that isn’t building up our marriage. I firmly believe that we are either building up, or tearing down our marriages. I strive to build it up. I fail sometimes, but I learn and do better the next time. And that is a choice I have to make every day, even every second I am speaking or doing things. It’s a habit, and that’s what makes up my character. I think marriage exists not only to make us happy, but to make us better people. And the longer we are stubborn to that idea, the harder life is. The truth to making a marriage work is both people choosing to make that daily choice, together, holding each other accountable, and realizing that we are equally capable of being a selfish, stubborn human, but equally, with some help from God, we can treat each other with, patience, kindness, optimism, serving with in every thought, reaction, comment, word and action that we do or say. Anyone can get married, that’s the easy part, the hard part is having the same attitude you did when you were dating, years down the road in marriage. But also growing and seeking something deeper though, and that’s the pursuit, the beginning, there is so much more. I know I will look back in a few years and see this blog entry as a youthful perspective. I am so thankful for what I have learned. To all the couples we have worked with this year. Thanks for your inspiration, and to my parents, thanks for all your wisdom. To my wife, I LOVE you and am so blessed to have you. You are amazing and continue to humble me every day. Thanks for marrying me!

East coast to west coast

5.28 hours from New York to San Fran, starting with leaving manhattan
at 4:30am, I headed to Newark airport. We passed by an overturned
truck on the way just seconds after it overturned, as the whole semi
BURST into flames. While I was sitting in he taxi coming around the
hairpin turn, I had the window open, it was warm and humid this
morning. But piercing through the early dawn darkness was a blazing
orange fire, and from across 4 lanes of traffic as the cabby slowed
down and we watched the truck burn, I could feel the intense heat come
from the huge fire.

Now as I sit here on Santa cruz shooting the groom surfing with his
friends, brother and dad, I can't help but be totally relaxed here.
And as the warm sun hits my face as I fire away with my camera abd my
400mm lens shooting shawn and the guys. This shot is looking south
towards monterey. I LOVE California and can't wait to shoot this
wedding today!

Leaving NYC

I can't believe how many amazing sunsets I see from the air! This is
above New York as we left in the United Boeing 757, nonstop from NYC
to SFO. I had a great time at photoplus and thanks to www.pictage.com

and www.californiasunbounce.com they took great care of me. I am
looking forward to photographing my buddy Shawn Dollars wedding today
in Santa Cruz.

Gary Fong?!?

Just ran into Gary Fong in the streets of manhattan, on 42nd & 8th. He
is a big wedding photographer from back in the day, anyways I hardly
ever run into people here, so crazy. Gary has great light sphere
products that diffuse light and mount on the camera flash. Check out www.garyfong.com

. This was an accidental picture I took, but I thought it was good
enough proof to post, I'm no paparatzi though, so its a horriy cropped
or really artistic image, you decide.

Setting up for PhotoPlus 2007

Today before our PDN http://www.pdnonline.com shoot I took a little
tour of the Pictage and Apple booths the day before the conference and
trade show

Speaking at the Pictage PUG group Washington DC/Maryland

I just have to say how honored i was, and how impressed i was at the Washington DC / Baltimore Maryland Pictage PUG last night, there were a ton of people there, they all were so friendly, hanging out with each other, talking, sharing info, laughing, and a bunch of us went to dinner before, thanks to Jessica Del Vecchio for setting up the dinner! There was so much energy and so many great people. Thanks again and see some of you in NYC for photo plus!

This image was thanks to Pam Long

Hanging out with the Revolution workshop in NYC

This afternoon I met up with TJ Cameron, Chris Plus Lynn Jaska &
& Jason Groupp here in Brooklyn over lunch before we headed out to
help them with their <a href="http://www.revolutionworkshop.com">
workshop shoot</a> for a little bit.

Good morning New York

Red-eyed and stoked. Some people hate taking the red eye flight, but
I love it. I can sleep on the plane, so that part is no big deal, but
waking up for a sunrise from the air is something we dont see every
day. To top it off, when flying across the country, I hate wasting a
day in the air, I'd rather spend that time in my time warp sleep,
waking up in another city somewhere ready to grab a warm breakfast
with friends in a new city. I do miss my wife back home, so I got to
send a shot out to her and my family who read my blog here. See you
guys on Saturday morning!!

Friends...

I should have posted this awhile ago, But Jefferson Todd and Colin Michael came into town and we hung out for the afternoon. they checked out my new studio going in and gave me some advice and ideas. Its always great to hear from other photographers who have great input, but these guys are down to earth and cool. Check out their blogs!

Coolest Friends - Birthday surprise

Yesterday, my friends surprised me with a camping trip to the beach this weekend for my birthday. I have been traveling SO much lately and its SO nice to spend some time around the Central Coast of California. It was warm, with offshore winds and the sweet smell of fall was in the air. We hung out and (unfortunately no surf!) but we did play a huge game of Frisbee golf which lasted a few hours, then bbq’d some great food and had a campfire. Later, Bryan broke out the guitars and he and I played till late. It is such a blessing to have such great friends who can get away. Life is so busy and I get so caught up myself in the 'business' and daily task list. It is so refreshing to get away, I ALWAYS forget how simple life is when there are no computers, cell phones and chores waiting around the house. Camping is so organic and for me at least, it brings me back to nature, and cleanses me from any stress.

Leaving paradise

I think I love this place even more, the day we have to leave.
Sitting on the beach near zippers(a sweet surf spot, see 8.3.07 blog
post), with my amazingly cute wife, we tried to figure out when we
can get back down here next. We have some new friends here and so
many friends we want to bring down! Hopefully soon, those of you who
have said you want to come, such as... (ahem, "DAN"), will come! I'm
gonna blog more about the details of the trip in the next few days!
But now we are headed back to California to home, a place we have
spent only about 3 months in this year so far. We have logged a lot
of miles this year, and its been great, but its so good when we are
home though!

Downtown Cabo

This early morning shot of the post hurricane weather and
thunderstorms that we had the last 3 days has been making the sky SO
incredibly beautiful. This shot is taken from Pedregal, the "city on
the hill" overlooking the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez. Its such a
blesing to be here!