In Case You Were Wondering...

...this is what AWESOME looks like.

Image taken by one of my best friends in the whole world, Matt Paddack.

Somewhere in middle America.

I just got into Omaha. I'm shooting a wedding here this weekend which should be really cool. Today was a long one. I woke up this morning, packed up the car and headed back home only to re-pack, get in the car and go to the airport. We then had a layover in Denver which lasted a bit longer than it should have because our flight was delayed. But we made it.

I'm excited to go scope out some locations tomorrow. I figure since I shoot at the beach all the time in California I need to find a corn field to shoot in here. How sweet would that be? The only bummer is its FREEZING here. Not the Orange County, "its-so-cold-I'm-gonna-wear-Uggs-with-my-shorts-instead-of-sandals" freezing. Its actually freezing, like 32 degrees, freezing. The good news is its supposed to get up to a balmy 50 degrees on Saturday.

Check back Sunday for some images from the wedding.

I realized that the only one not pictured from our trip in my last post was Sean Flannigan. So I dug up a picture of him taken by the one and only Nate Kaiser from The Image Is Found.

Mammoth Man Trip

A few weeks ago Fred Egan and Nick Onken and I were eating apple pie at a cafe in Beverly Hills and we decided we needed to get out of town and head up to the mountains for some Man time and snowboarding. So we called up some of our friends, rented a dope cabin and put together the trip. Roll call...

Nick Onken
Fred Egan
Justin Lyon
Kyle Barnes
Sean Flannigan
Nate Kaiser
Matt Sloan
Kenny Brady
and Me

I'm sure I'll be snagging images from everyone else's blogs in the coming week but here are a few to get us started. We all just gave every one the images we took of each other so these images were taken by me, Nate, Justin or Fred.
Someone commented and asked for a picture of the wall of snow next to our driveway... its huge.


Me and Justin

Matt, me and Justin

Justin, Nick, me, Fred, Kenny

A sweet pic of Nate through my goggles.

Me.

Me again.

A couple of Justin.


Kyle killing it.

Boring

We're having a blast up here and I have plenty to blog about but the internet is sketchy so I can't upload anything. I promise more interesting stuff will come.

Almost there.

We're about 90 miles from Mammoth and it already looks like this and we just heard that they've got 6 feet of fresh snow in the past week. I can't wait to get on the mountain.

Edited to add: Wow! The last leg of the trip was insane. The mountains are covered in snow. Its a pretty amazing sight. So freaking amazing. They really did get 6 feet of snow, and it shows... the snow is seriously 15 feet high on either side of the driveway.

We spent the afternoon, killing it on the mountain. The snow was incredible but man, was it work. My legs were on FIRE at the end of every run. Tomorrow should be a little easier. We'll probably take a group picture at some time during the trip. I'll introduce the guys then. Its kind of funny how many MacBook Pros are laying around the cabin.

Mammoth Man Trip '08

I'm off to Mammoth for four days of much needed R&R with me and 8 other photographers to be named later. Its kind of a joke how much camera gear is in my house right now. I'm sure we'll have a few images to show for our time on the mountain but for now here's an image Justin took on our last pic up to Mammoth.

Danielle and Paul

The info for the workshop is just below this post. Check it out!

I don't know why I've never blogged this wedding. Probably the same reason I haven't blogged 30 weddings from last year. Anyway, Danielle and Paul had a great wedding with tons of awesome details and one of my favorite planners... Angel Swanson! Anyone who's worked with Angel has fallen in love with her. She's amazing. Here are a few favorites from the day!


I love this bridesmaids shot.









A sweet ring shot:

And here are a few I blogged a while back... I shot some high speed black and white film that night and these are my favorites from that roll. How amazing is black and white film?!

Workshop Update

We released the seats for the April 20-23 workshop this afternoon and have had a bunch of signups already. If you're interested in the workshop send us an email at info (at) thelabworkshop.com and we'll send you an email with the link to register.

Another exciting thing is that we have several awesome companies coming on board to sponsor the workshop. This means not only are you getting a sweet workshop but there will also be some rad give-aways from these amazing companies and some exclusive discounts on products that make our lives easier and our businesses more successful and profitable. I can't give specifics just yet but you'll be hearing about these very soon!

I promise a "real" blog with pictures tomorrow.

theLAB

For the next few day this will stay on top. Future posts will go beneath it.




Fred Egan: Portraits
Amy Coffey: Kids
Michael Norwood: Weddings

We're three photographers who love what we do and want to share it with others. Come hang out with us and learn how we work, how we shoot, how we interact with clients. Come be stretched technically and inspired creatively. Change the way you think and look at your photography and leave with the knowledge you need to continue growing and some killer images to add to your portfolio.

WHEN: April 20-23, 2008
We'll get together Sunday night to meet, eat and get to know each other. Monday morning everything begins with some classroom time covering marketing and the technical side of shooting. After lunch we'll head out for a live shoot and then to dinner. Tuesday we'll cover post-processing and the artistic side of shooting. After lunch we'll head out for another live shoot and then to dinner. Wednesday's schedule looks the same... classroom time, lunch and the workshop concludes with the last live shoot.

WHERE: Glen Rose, TX... a little town outside Dallas with a lot of charm and a million places to shoot. You'll stay at a charming lodge on the bank of the Brazos River.

COST: $1500

Tuition includes 3 days of in-depth training with Fred, Amy and Michael, lodging and all meals, 3 live shoots, one on one portfolio critique.

We'll cover the technical and artistic aspects of shooting (camera settings, composition, seeing the light, being inspired, working with clients during the shoot), workflow (from raw files to finished product), post-processing, marketing, getting published.

Space is limited so reserve your spot soon! Email info (at) thelabworkshop.com

(photos by Nick Onken, Curt Coffey and Trever Hoehne respectively.)

Kathy and Sam

I was looking through some of my engagement shoots from last fall. It was kind of rainy here today so I thought I'd post a nice sunny beach shoot. Here are a couple favorites from the shoot.

Something Different

Every now and then I'll get a call about shooting something totally different. Monday I went and shot some images for a sweet little preschool owned by a friend of one of my brides. She needed some images for some new marketing pieces. These aren't terribly exciting but it was fun to shoot something different.

Patriotism and Capitolism

Isn't that what President's Day is all about? Remembering those who've served our country and furniture sales? Well, being that it's President's Day, I thought I'd put up a few pictures in the spirit of the day from a recent trip to New York.

Patriotism:

Capitolism: Pier 17 is a big mall on the bank of the East River in Manhattan.

Hope you guys have a good day off!

Scott Tennant

Scott is one of the guitarists the make up the LA Guitar Quartet. Scott is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarists (if not the greatest) in the world. He would never tell you that but others would. A few weeks ago he called me and asked if I would shoot some images for him. He has a book coming out and is working on a solo project and needed some images. Here are a few images from his shoot.

Juno

I don't get to watch many movies in the theater. Before we had Makenzie, Cyndie and I went to the movies all the time. Now... not so much. So when I go I want to make it count. This one counted. Not since "Garden State" have I so wholeheartedly loved a movie. It was hysterical and even touching at times. I can't overstate how wonderful this film was. Go see it! And if you have any pull with the Academy, pull some strings and make sure it gets the Oscar for Best Picture.

Cort and Ashley

Here are a few favorites from their engagement session last week! I can't wait for their wedding this summer at the St. Regis.