Month: August 2008

  • Post 2 of our mini getaway….and Matt and Michelle’s album!

     

     

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    One of the shops we walked by as we looked for a place to eat before the concert. Murphy’s is a cool town…

     

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    Okay more coming later but for now here is Matt and Michelle’s beautiful wedding presented in their Graphi Art Book

  • What we did for Mark’s 50th Birthday

    I am so behind in my blogging! Lots of work is chuning away here but it takes free time to post the work up so it comes in spurts, I know! I wanted to put up a few personal posts to just keep you lovely friends up on whats happening with us…I have 2 more personal ones coming but here is the first of 3. We do have a life…lol…I think!

    Recently I took Mark to The Ironstone Winery Ampitheatre in the Gold Country for his birthday. I bought tickets and gave them to him on his birthday which was back in May but the concert wasnt until the othe weekend. It was just the two of us and we so enjoyed just relaxing and not thinking about the business just a pit stop in the busy season to say Hello to each other! lol

    Anyway we saw The Steve Miller Band and Joe Cocker. It was awesome! We really enjoyed Joe Cocker. Steve did alot of new stuff and it kind of dragged the momentum of his set. HE really should of started with one of his major hits. But I can imagine artists get tired of being known for their old stuff but hey there were alot of us boomers there who wanted to reminisce! Anyway it was fun. I am posting some of the shots of the first day. And No we didnt break the rules and sneak a camera in so no shots of the bands, sorry. : (

    Here is one of our breakfast companions. He came out when I threw him a blueberry. He was totally into it1! Better be it was organic so it was good for him and better for him than some of the junk he probably gets from the balconies of previous visitors. So cute!! You cant believe how many were there it was quite funny to watch them all running here and there looking for the blueberries and the toasted oats I was sharing with them…

     

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    Here is Mark getting his shots

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    Tomorow I will post the othe half of our trip…also we have some albums that I just finished designing and are being prepared in Italy as we speak! Those will be posted up too so be sure to come and check those out!

     

  • A Living Will

    Last night my husband and I were sitting in the family
    room, and I said to him
     
    “I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine
    and fluids from a bottle to keep me alive. That would be no quality of life at all. If that ever happens, just pull the plug.”

    So he got up, unplugged the computer and threw out my wine.
     
    Click Here

  • Personal Blog

     

     

    Hey everyone!! How has your summer been?? 

    Sorry we have been so busy that we havent been visitng around. As most of you know it is that time of year when you rarely see you friendly local wedding photographer…lol!

    But seriously we realized we needed to get a grip on some things! We got SO busy that our business was taking over our lives. We love what we do but we love and need to have down time, too! So we made some modifications to our business.We set up some business hours (new concept for Mark!) and made some modifications to our wokflow. We set some realistic roll out time schedules… So with a realistic work flow and hiring editing help (our son Brian) we think we  will be able to work and breathe and enjoy life once again! It is not easy to keep work and home schedules from melding together so you have to be intentional!

    With that said we are soooooooooo grateful for the work we have and do not begrudge any of it. We just came to a realization recently that we needed to assess and lighten up Mark’s load so he wasnt carrying too much of the load and after tuning 50 this year we want to make sure he doesnt! So we will be giving ourselves an anual check up as a family and as business owners and even individuals!

     

     

    “Photography to the amateur is recreation.
    To the professional it is work, and hard work
    too, no matter how pleasurable it may be.”
                                              – Edward Weston

     

    God bless and hope you are all keeping cool and enjoying your summer! 

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  • Our Generation Engagement Session…sweet! @ The Seasons Placerville California



    Chris & Don will be married at the end of this month at the cute little Season Bed & Breakfast in Placerville. We got to meet them last year when we shot Evan and Audra’s wedding at The Flower Farm. Chris is Evan’s mom! So we’re looking forward to making new friends and seeing old ones at this wedding.

    It is going to be such a cool family affair – we can’t wait!

  • La Provence Restaurant in Roseville California, Mike and Danielle


    FOR BEST VIEWING, PRESS YOUR F11 KEY AND MAKE SURE YOUR SPEAKERS ARE ON
    Approx. length: 9 minutes

    When we first met Mike and Danielle,  Danielle was one of Susanna’s bridesmaids (Empire Mine) last year. When Mike popped the question Danielle called us and we made the arrangements! We did their awesome engagement session at a local park that they knew about and we were so excited when we saw this place. Their engagment session is on the side bar if you want to check it out. We find so many of our weddings are referrals from a bridesmaid or groomsman who was at another wedding we did. So it was so cool to find out that we were going to see David and Susanna again.
    Mike and Danielle chose La Provence Restaurant in Roseville – what a beautiful little French restaurant for their wedding! The inside of the restaurant is so beautiful, and the back patio where the ceremony took place was sooo cool!

    Mike, your groomsmen were such a blast and Danielle your bridesmaids were so much fun! The entire night was so beautiful.

    Mike and Danielle, thank you for letting us be a part of your day. We wish a long, healthy, happy blessed marriage!
     
     

  • Westminster Presbyterian Church & The Library Galleria in Sacramento, California!



    FOR BEST VIEWING, PRESS YOUR F11 KEY AND MAKE SURE YOUR SPEAKERS ARE ON
    Approx. length: 10 minutes.

    Bobbi & Bryan were married at the Westminster Presbyterian church with a gorgeous reception at The Library Galleria. What a beautiful day!

    I particularly love how brides show their personalities and taste through the choices they make when they choose everything from their dress to their choice of what to serve their guests at their reception. It is always different and unique and beautiful. Bobbi clued us in on a special surprise she had for planned for Bryan at the end of the ceremony! (I won’t spoil it – you just have to watch the slideshow…) Lets just say I found it hard to fight the tears back while shooting! 

    After some wonderful bride and groom photo time we all jumped into the limo bus and headed to the Library Galleria for the reception which was absolutely stunning! The room was ablaze with color, amazing food and lots and lots of love. The toasts gave us a wonderful glimpse into each of them and it was hard not to wish you could be their best friends, too. The entire night was so much fun! Watch for the favors they made themselves too cute!

    We wish you a long, happy and healthy blessed marriage!


  • Okay this choked me up!!

     

     

    In honor of all our cats we have had over the years this video says it all!

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiGKWoJi5qM&feature=related

     

    This video is also really cool too!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D85yrIgA4Nk&feature=related

     

  • I knew the day was coming but it still hurts…

     We just had to put our cat Lacy to sleep tonight.

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    She had lymphoma and we didnt know it. We knew she had a thyroid problem but it tuned out to be alot more than that..It was pretty invasive so if there is a good thing out of this is that I am glad she is out of pain. The last month of her life she had a hard time breathing. I just couldnt stand to see her labor like that, so we got her in today and had her checked out. When he called us back with the test results he was willing to do alot of things but we just felt it was just prolonging the ineveitable.It was hard to tell the Dr. to not try to prolong her life.We had her for 14 years. But we just couldnt see putting her though all the treatments with no promises that it would actually help her at all.

    Some of you might remember we recently had to put down our other cat Betty. That was hard too. She was a sweet girl. I dont think I will be looking to get any more cats. We have our 2 dogs Sydney and Josie and I am NOT looking forward to the day we say goodbye to them! This is the sad part of being a pet owner. 

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       It has been a hard summer. Its a long time to have a friend. This is going to be the first time I havent had a cat in the house since I was a very young girl. So I guess I should be used to loss.I dont think it will really hit me until get up tomorrow and she wont be sitting in her chair on the deck waiting for someone to get up and feed her and give her her thryroid pill. She was a beautiful, smart, independant little friend. I will miss her…

    Sorry for the sad post but I wanted to give Lacy and Betty a bit of a tribute of always giving us unconditional love all the days of their lives….

    I was just putting up a post and saw that Kerri beat me to the punch so rather than delete mine I copied it here:
    Today was a tough day…we had to say goodbye to Lacy, our cat for the last 14 years.

    We
    got Lacy 14 years ago when she was a new kitten.She used to ride with
    me every morning in my car on the way to my law office. In fact she
    would sit on my shoulders for most of the ride. When I got to work, she
    would come hang at the office, mostly sleeping in my briefcase.

    That
    started her habit of always finding unique places to sleep. We were
    always finding her sleeping in a box, corner or someplace interesting.
    lately she took up in one of our chairs out on the back deck – prob
    because it was sunny and it felt good. 
     
       

    I wish I had more pictures of her during the early years. What we
    have was shot with film and are in boxes somewhere. (You know how
    plumbers have leaky pipes? Well, all our film pics are so
    unorganized…) Since we started shooting digital I know we have a ton
    of pet pics somewhere – Kerri prob has more of them on her computer but
    here are a couple I found from earlier this year.

    Lacy
    started looking ill earlier this year. We’ve had several visits to the
    vet – at first they thought is was a thyroid problem but today he felt
    the growth and wanted to take an x-ray to see what it was. He called
    this afternoon to let us know she had a growth inside her taking up her
    entire right lung and pushing her other organs out of place which
    explains why she had such a hard time breathing. The prognosis for her
    was not good at all, so the decision was made to put her down before
    she started REALLY hurting. at 14 years of age it’s the equivalent of
    80 human years.

    Earlier this year we lost our other cat, Betty
    so this is the first time in our marriage and the first time in Kerri’s
    life that she has not had a cat in her house.

    Every night i
    could count on her jumping up into my chair to nuzzle against me – her
    way of saying “hey” for the day and checking in.

    This is the
    part of owning a pet that people never talk about but it is the reality
    that most of us will outlive our pets. She certainly gave a lot to us
    over the last 14 years.

    We’ll miss her a lot.

    Thank you Lacy for being a part of our life.