Guess who's back??? Me...and I brought along Gabe - from a year ago. He's walking now! Things have been pretty busy at work so photography has a taken a back seat. Look at this good lookin guy! These were taken at the beautiful Japanese gardens here.

Hello World! Meet Kahlil

Not to forget Sienna who's taking tap classes

I don't think she's supposed to wear them outside.

Kahlil is Sienna's new brother. I got to hold him...I don't think I've ever held a baby that young before. I can't believe how big Sienna is now. Boy time flies, especially looking back at this blog. I messed up with the picture resizing and flickr has changed their hotlinking so this is what I came up with for now. More later :) zzzzz

Meet Alessandra!

Mateus is lookin mighty handsome these days. Look at that smile!

Karen, Anand, Mateus, and now, Alessandra - turning out to be quite a handsome family going on here! If you look back at the archives I have a few pics of them when Mateus was a baby. Look at him now with his smile that brightens up the room. I'm doing my photo rounds in SoCal. Next up: a guest that's new to the world (hopefully).

Someone is a Master now!

I have not updated this blog in like...forever. I'm back but without Internet for long so I'm going to post a few quickly. I can't take all the credit for this, since I took the pic but Anisa chose the layout and printed the announcement. Needless to say I am super proud :D

Bryana + Brian

Here are a couple of vertical shots of B+B. I've noticed that the more pictures I've taken, the less horizontal pictures I take. I love the top picture and would print it large and put it up somewhere on the wall but that's just me. I hear Costco has some good enlargements for cheap but I haven't tried it yet.

I've been renting the 70-200 lens for weddings but I'm starting to wish I had one for engagements. I'm going to have to invest in one in the future depending on my next gig or two. Unfortunately, they are super expensive and renting is not cheap either. The nice thing about lenses is that unlike cameras, they never really go obsolete. However, I am a big believer in having the right equipment. Speaking of which, this video has been circulating the photo blogs. My opinion after the video.

A lot of photographers have been siding with the photographer (naturally), but I'm going to have to go with Joe Brown with this one. I shot a few weddings using a low end Nikon d70s and go some great results with the right lenses, and Judge Brown knocks her for using entry level equipment, but bottom line is this woman isn't prepared for darker rooms. Not surprisingly, the pictures came out blurry etc. No one really cares about the equipment, true, as long as the pictures are awesome. In this case, they weren't. I don't think having professional equipment makes you take awesome pictures, but I've realized is that professional equipment is important (and expensive) because it's designed to take a beating and still work. For example, with the D3, I just focus on the pictures. I don't even think about the camera. All I know is it's going to do what I want it to do - no matter what the situation. If I drop it on concrete, I can pick it up and continue to shoot. Just my 2 cents. Also, buy insurance!

More Engagement Pics of B+B @ SD

Lookin lovely

Brian was all smiles despite being exhausted from a test (he's in med school!)

B was a good sport for doing this. Brian actually had his foot on the scale but it only came out to 120! No diet necessary for the wedding, that's for sure.

This was at the end of the night

Here are a few more pics from last weekend in San Diego. I only posted a few horizontal shots because it takes several steps to post here to embed the pics. Blogger is not too great with their built-in pictures feature. The pictures come out like small thumbnails and you click to make them bigger. Also, this resizer program I use makes the pictures a little blurry but the full res ones are razor sharp. Anyway, enough technical complaints.

I was asked by my friend Ty (who I will be shooting some engagement shots as well) to participate in his wedding ... by text message! And I mean a mass text message to several people. Haha I guess this is a sign of the digital times. Hey, why not...I can quickly text him back with "busy". But...I didn't so I said yes. So in October I'll be sporting a tux again.

Back to the photos. From what I've worked on so far they have been coming out very nice. Thanks to the D3 and shooting RAW, they only need very minor retouching. Also thanks to B+B for having great teeth and skin, which makes my retouching a LOT faster. More soon...but I'll send them the stuff first so there's at least something to be surprised about. Stay tuned.

Bryana + Brian Preview

Recreating this famous pose is harder than it looks!

I'm finally back and I brought along some goodies to share. I was in San Diego for a conference but luckily I managed to squeeze in some picture time with Brian and Bryana. Here is a preview of B and B's engagement pictures taken at the awesome Seaport Village in San Diego. The weather was gloomy but that's ok because the soft light made for some great pictures. I'll keep posting more soon.

Charlie

Some Doggies

Suzanne and Jennifer and their dogs. Charlie (chow chow) is getting up there in age so Suzy thought it would be nice to have some pictures. Being a big dog fan myself (thanks to Mochi and Cesar Millan the Dog Whisperer), I was excited to shoot these pictures. Some people seriously love their dogs - even more than other humans! Here are a few pics I've spruced up so far. It was a perfect day in Southern California to spend at the park. Then I get back to Texas and it's ccccold. There's a cold front coming in this week too. Going to be in the teens at night...yikes!

All is not bad though - I have hit the reset button so I'm ready to get back to work. I have a shiny new office (I'll take pics later) in a brand new building. The view is spectacular. I mean I can sit there and just stare. Surprisingly, I haven't gained any weight since my holiday binge. But I'm going to hit the gym again.

Lastly, big thumbs down to LAX. Monday was BUSY. I got to the airport an hour early and it was too late. The line went outside the sidewalk - I spent over an hour just getting to the security checkpoint. I had to pay $50 for a change of flight. It came with 2 "free" baggage check-ins. Whoop-dee.

Guess Who's Pregnant (again)?!!

Guess who's pregnant again?!

This was Sienna's idea to sit at a bench

Someone was extremely excited about feeding ducks

Today is the last SoCal day, sniff. The weather was perfect, roughly 79 degrees, sunny and clear. Let's see...DFW, 39. Ouch. I took some doggie pics the other day too but I haven't had a chance to get to the pictures yet. So I think I'll work on a few on the plane. This is it for Sienna for the next few months.

First Post of the New Decade!

This is how Sienna feeds ducks

Happy "twenty-ten" everyone! How better off to start off the new year than in sunny SoCal (73 degrees) taking pictures. And of course Sienna gets to be first...but she's about to share the attention in a few months ;) I'll post more soon. Later today I'm going to take some doggie pics. Speaking of doggie pics, you guys ever watch Dog Whisperer? Cesar Millan is awesome.

My only new years photo resolution is to take a photo trip somewhere where I round up my picture-lovin friends and head to a scenic place. That's going to be a tough task though getting everyone together. I'll try to take more pictures and be more active posting pics too.