Month: November 2007

  • Vizcaya Sacramento Wedding Album

     

    Karen and Eric were married on 07/07/07 at the beautiful Vizcaya Hotel in Sacramento.

    We just finished their album design and it’s being sent off to GraphiStudio in Italy to print and bind for them. 

    Here is the final album preview. Enjoy!


    Next Up:

    We just finished a couple albums that are off to clients for approval. Brian has started editing the engagement sessions from this month, and I just started on the images from Dane and Stephanie.

    Whew! It’s been a busy month – we shot our last wedding of this year, edited several weddings, designed several albums and did three engagement sessions.

    We can’t wait to get all this processing done so we can take some time off next month!

    Stay tuned!

  • Pioneer Church and Semas Ranch- Loomis California


    This slideshow is around 12 minutes long, and will take a few minutes to load, but it’s worth it!
    Start it downloading and grab a cup of coffee and enjoy… (Make sure your speakers are on!)
     
    How fun to do a church and a real working ranch for a wedding venue! Kyle and Kristi were married last month at the beautiful Pioneer Church in Auburn with a fantabulous reception at the Semus Ranch after. The weather was gorgeous that day, and there were so many little nooks and crannies to take them to at the ranch it was hard to decide where to go!
     
    Kristy and her dress were just beautiful and the veil amazing.
     
    If the groom and his family look familiar that’s because you saw them in another one of our weddings this year. His sister Kara was married in July at the Flower Farm in Loomis, California. It is such a pleasure to get to see people again at our other weddings! These guys have been pretty special to us and Kristi’s family was so sweet and full of life- we loved everybody there! When did you ever see a live mariachi band and not have a blast?!!
     
    Have a long a blessed marriage you guys!
     
     
     

  • Roger and Amy’s Wedding

     
    Mark and Brian had the wonderful opportunity to meet and shoot Roger and Amy’s wedding. They were married in their lovely back yard last month.
    It was dark and stormy the night before, so when we got up that morning they weren’t sure if the wedding would be inside or outside, but the skies brightened up just in time for their wedding. They were surrounded by their friends and family in a very special intimate ceremony.
     
    Alex and Julia ( their kids) did their parts of the ceremony helping create their new family. It was so cool to see the pumpkins and flowers that she mentioned that she loved. So Mark and Brian made sure to get those for her. Roger spent alot of time getting their yard ready for the wedding so it was great that they actually got to do that.
     
    Roger and Amy, thank you for letting us be there on your big day! Your music choices fit perfectly…. 
     
    Kudo’s to Brian for his shooting and post processing of this wedding – great job!
     
    Enjoy a long and happy life!!
     

  • H A P P Y T H A N K S G I V I N G !!

     

     H A P P Y   T H A N K S G I V I N G !!!!

     

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    We found this really cute little pumpking patch vignette when we took Jayden for his first Pumpkin Patch trip. We couldnt believe the sign in the left corner so we got to gether for a quick photo cause I just knew I would be able to use it someday. I just love it cause it says it all for us and our business! ha!

    Have a wonderful and blessed day!

     

     

  • Okay that last entry was just too creepy for me! And yes I would have FREAKED had I woke up and seen that thing on my wall! So much for Creepy Crawlies! We had such a fun day yesterday. We had Dave Kelly and Jayden and some very close friends over for a Pre Thanksgiving get together snce we wont be able to spend the actual day with them. I had the tail end of the flu hanging on and boy was it hard to decide whether to call and cancel or just soldier through. I ended up cooking up a storm and driniking lots of cranberry juice. I cant believe I made several dishes and stayed up long enough to chat and even watch a movie before we called it a night.

    I made:

    Emeril’s Bacon and Jalapeno Corn Bread 
    My Thanksgiving Casserole
    Spinach and Penne Pasta with toasted pine nuts and cranberries soaked in port

    My friend Donna made a big cast iron skillet of blackerry cobbler and brought some real vanilla ice cream WOW was it good!!

    It was a great day and evening….so now that the network is back up we are hot and heavy back into work mode. Its funny how it was down all day almost as if we were supposed to take the day off! haha….

    I am feeling much better today and hoping this thing is completely gone!

    Hmmmm now what to make for lunch??

     

     

  • Brian and I are up late tonight working and messing around – I was upgrading our network router, which means that what the box says is a simple task turns into a longer than usual project since we have a larger office network here. Nothing is simple.

    Brian comes out and tells me there is a bug on the wall in the bathroom that I have to go see. So I follow him in. After seeing it, we both turn into a couple of little boys trying to find out the best way to light it and get pictures. I pulled out my macro and he’s fiddling with the video light.

    This guy was getting a little disturbed by the huge lens that was getting closer and closer to him, so after this shot he tried to scurry away, but he has been delivered to his final resting place. (PETA – leave me alone…) I coulld only image the noise I would have heard had Kerri discovered it on the wall when she got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom….

     

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    So now the computers are fixed and I’m off to bed.

    This week we will have the slideshow up from Amy and Roger and hopefully for Kristi & Kyle.

    And in a week or so we’ll post pictures of the latest addition to our family…

  •  We just went to see this movie today…it is a beautiful movie. Go see it if you can this weekend!  

     

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    A NOTE FROM MY FRIEND DEAN

    “Just a word of encouragement to go see the movie Bella this weekend.  If you have already seen it you know how well done and beautiful it is.  Please if you have seen it encourage others to go and embrace the message of hope and adoption over abortion and regret.  If it is not in your area I hope you will look for it on DVD in the future and encourage others now to see it.”

     

  • My New Favorite Pass Time!

    I am feeling all domestic now that things are cooling off and the weddings have wound down….So okay what do I end up doing? Watching the Food Network TV Shows while I am designing albums! But you can only watch for so long then you gotta get some of that for yourself!

    I have let alot of recipes kinda steep in my brain lately taking note of what goes good with what and tonight I wandered into the kitchen thinking UGH another night of WHAT TO MAKE for dinner syndrome!

    So folks, I just made and ate a yummy recipe that I threw together and I feel like I ate a mini Thanksgiving Day Dinner without all the work and mess and defintiely within alot less time!!!!

    I wish I had taken a picture… DUH! but we were so hungry that we just dug in and ate it all!

    No fear tho I just quickly jotted down the recipe if it sounds good to you feel free to make it your own!

    I have to say my favorite cooks are, Ina Garten ( Barefoot Contessa), Paula Deen and Sandra Lee. I have picked up some tips and great ideas from them! I love Paula’s down home cooking and she is a HOOT! Sandra Lee’s semi homemade ideas are such TIMESAVERS…and Ina is just a laid back easy to follow great cook that I just really love to watch.

    So I took Sandra’s guiltless idea of using pre made items to help make cooking quicker and easier.

    I grabbed a fully cooked turkey breast ( the kind in the plastic boat that is all hot and ready to eat that you can find under the heat lamps at the big grocery stores. That is the semi homemade part.

    I pulled out my cast iron skillets and all the items below and made a very tasty dish!

    I think I will call this:

    Thanksgiving Casserole

    Here is what you need:

    Turkey breast pre cooked from the grocery store

    Extra Virgin Olive Oil

    Hot water

    3-4 stalks celery

    1 onion

    1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary

    1 tsp fresh chopped basil

    1-2 tbs. corn starch

    1 cup chicken stock 

    salt and pepper

    2- 3 cups cooked pasta noodles I used a small bag I bought from Trader Joes that is short and flat  

    1 cup peas

    Here is what you do with it: 

    Start a pot of water for pasta 

    Oil the bottom of a heavy pan with 4 Tbs EVOO ( Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

    Chop celery and onion

    Sautee in oil and cook until the onions are nicely transparent but the celery is still crunchy or whatever your taste is

    Add 1 tsp each of fresh chopped basil and rosemary this is where your kitchen starts to smell really good!

    Put your pasta into the water to get them started.

    Put your frozen peas in the microwave and heat up

    Place the whole turkey breast on top of the celery onion mixture and cover with heavy lid let it heat the turkey through. After you heat it through take the lid off and let it sizzle on both sides letting the turkey absorb the rosemary and sage and onion flavor.

    Take the turkey out and cut into bite size pieces set those aside and keep warm I didnt even use all my turkey so I cut about half and saved the other half for another dish later.

    Now make a gravy with the turkey celery onion stock using the corn starch, and bullion and salt and pepper.

    To do this:

    Make a mixtue of the hot water and bullion and add to the pan drippings from the turkey, oil, onion and celery.
    S
    tir it all in there with the skin that is stuck to the bottom get it all up off there.
    Then make a mixture of the corn starch and water I used about 1 cup of hot water with 1 Tbs of corn starch and stirred it until there were no lumps.
    Then I added that to the onion celery mixture still bubbling on the stove. This is going to be your gravy keep it stirring. Add any water you might need to keep it from being too thick. Do it a little at a time so you dont over water it and have to add more cornstarch.. Just keep a good watch on it. You will know when it has the consistency of gravy.  

    Drain your pasta and set aside

    Cut the turkey into pieces and add to the gravy add the peas that have cooked in the microwave  

    Fold it all together into a casserole dish and serve quickly 

    Add some crunchy french bread spread with butter season with some Italian seasonings

    Whala! To make it more Italian you could top it off with Parmesan Cheese as you serve it!

    I think I will add Paula’s Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle to this meal next time for the dessert!

    http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_29116,00.html

    Now go get the recipe! It looks YUMMY!!

    Enjoy!!!

    Kerri

    Print this off and check it out! It took me less than 30 min to make this and wow it was so good!

     

  • Jayden is going hi tech!

    Sitting here at 3:45 am with insomnia…nothing much new there. But its not fun
    when you need to get as much rest as you can because you are sick! We all
    left here today to shoot a fun engagement session and as we were all in the car
    we were noticing that we all had sore throats and sneezy.  I had a stomach ache
    and Mark had a headache.By the time we got home Mark was running a pretty
    good fever. Darn it! I hope we get through this quickly. I gotta get my Jayden
    fix at least 3 times a week!. Here are a few from his recent visit that I just love.
    He loves Grandma’s laptop!!
    He knows he can see Noggin and Gummi Bear on it and has to watch it several
    times before he is satisfied!

    These are not staged he actually loves looking in on his favorite friends.

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    Woah his hand looks all weird here.
    low light and an impatient camera operator
    I didnt want to miss these shots so no time
    for flash or tripod which would have helped

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    Being very patient while Grandma finds another song

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    Mesmerized!

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    Grandma loves you JJ!!!

    Can anyone tell me how to get my post to scooch to the left?
    < this space between my post and the custom module is driving
    me crazy!
    I hate when you have to scroll to the right to read all the text!
    Help?

    Edit: Okay got it figured it out. The album below for David and Sheri is a landscape
    album so it is making this whole page a wider than normal page. Anything I post on this
    page is going to go wide.  Go figure!

     

  • Sacramento Temple

    David & Sheri!



     

    David and Sheri are such a sweet, laid back couple! We have been fortunate in that we seem to attract these kinds of brides and grooms! We love dealing with people who want to enjoy their wedding day and understand that the photography is soooo important to them. They just go about enjoying each other and their day and we just document and capture just about everything we see. The day goes by in such a blur that unless you get to see it through photographs and video it is difficult to see those moments that slipped by while you were looking the other way. Video is wonderful and I would love to be able to offer it one day but I love how the photograph captures a moment and cherishes it. Every wedding has those moments and we love capturing them. David and Sheri we so enjoyed getting to capture your day and wish you a loooong and happy marriage!

     

    Enjoy your wedding album!

     

    Mark and Kerri