NY Times Mag fawns over Flickr. (Thanks for the link Jess!)

Strobist in USA Today. I'm sure to have that "work, rest and play" lyric in my head the rest of the day.

I cut and sleeved negatives all weekend. Placing Robin's negs from Christmas 2006 on the lightbox to re-sleeve, the kitsch of their current home caught my eye; "Memories Enclosed....Handle With Care". It's so cute I don't know if I can take them out. They're still on the lightbox.

There's a new wedding photo contest in town. The prizes are good and entry fees won't break your bank. Submit your best photos here.

One of my goals this year is to beef up my strobe lighting bag of tricks. I've been doing more strobe/ambient balancing in my wedding work and am looking for ways to make it more accessible and easier to use on location, on the fly, in fast paced situations.

Enter Zack Arias. Zack is seemingly ubiquitious online. He has a website for headshots, another for music photography, one for his wedding work with Marc Climie, a separate url for his blog, a myspace and One Light, which is how I found him. One Light is an affodable (seriously. so many photogs charge thousands of bucks and make you fly somewhere for 3 days of marketing their products) workshop for intermediate and advanced photographers covering how to get the most photographic flexibility out of one light. Zack travels the country, stopping for a few days to meet with small groups of photogs in most major metropolitan cities along the way. He spends a full day (it's not uncommon to go up until or past midnight) teaching hands-on through a variety of set-ups with minimal gear.

His worshops are very, very popular. Registration for the 2008 Seattle date was never opened to the public because the waiting list grew so huge. There are 12 photogs per workshop and our waiting list held 80. Meghan, the registrar, gave us a 24 hour heads up that we could start sending payment / registering at 11am pacific yesterday, first come/first served style. I started to stress. The way I combat stress isn't through deep breathing and exercise. I prepare. I over prepare. I lined up the emails and counted down the seconds. My registration was sent at 11:00:01. Yes, I'm a total dork, but 42 others also managed to send theirs in the first 2 minutes.

This morning I get an email from Meghan with the subject "YOU MADE IT!!!!" Sweet baby jesus! Happy dances for everyone!

This week it's Havana on Capitol Hill. It can get a little crazy on the dance floor but the staff always have my back and my friend Quentin, the owner, is usually game for a shot of Hornitos. They have a small room upstairs with balcony that can be reserved for parties and I think you can still have Neapolitan pizza delivered from Via Tribunali across the street (they don't deliver otherwise).

Most women will agree their favorite part of Havana is the hot pink ladies' room, with its three sided cove of floor to ceiling mirrors providing an endless reflection of makeup application and ANTM poses.

Quentin just opened another bar called the Saint, complete with restaurant, in the old Wingdome space on East Olive & Bellevue now painted a beautiful shade of teal blue. The drink menu is magically delicious. I'm still dreaming about my Patron Silver, mint & cucumber martini.

The Club Directory photo is published every week in the music section of The Stranger.

I got to shoot promos for H is for Hellgate's new album. We had two locations picked out; one for rain and one for shine, but the thing with Seattle weather is that it rarely chooses just one (especially lately - snow in late April followed by an 84 degree day - wtf??) so we ended up hitting both Sun Liquor and Carkeek Park.

The band and I have a similar sense of humor and much of the shoot was spent bent over, hyperventilating. Here are some moments we managed to keep it somewhat together:

Special thanks to Sarah Murphy for assisting and Anna Banana from Pretty Parlor for lending some of her manland duds.

Kristi & Sam's adorable dancing nephews:

Not to be outdone, Sam's friends took over.

My vote is for the kids, but I have to give these guys credit!

Shawn from Das Llamas at the Rendezvous.

Kristi and Sam were married at Top of the Market, a beautiful event venue overlooking the sound nestled in Pike Place Market. It was a small, intimate affair with some unique touches.

I had never been to Hotel 1000 before, where Kristi got ready for the evening with her family and friends. Here she is taking a moment to relax before jumping into it all.

The lady has great taste in shoes:

Kristi looooves smurfs. Her handbag and matching wallet are testament. They used the same blue for their color scheme and favors.

Her friend from college applies liner as the ladies look on

She snuck up behind Sam in Post Alley:

Sam and his nephew broke it down to the Beastie Boy's Brass Monkey at the reception:

The boy took it from there!

These images were a ton of fun to revisit during the editing process. So much so that I'm not even done blogging them. Check back in a couple days for some disco dance action!

Thank you, Kristi and Sam for allowing me to be a part of your wedding day. I wish you a long, happy life together!

this little guy wasn't feeling so good the other day but let me grab a quick snap of him with his duckie before heading home.

H is for Hellgate logged a sweet post on their blog about our time together shooting promos last weekend. We got some really great stuff thanks in part to their lascivious minds. Check back in a few weeks to see them. Thanks to Sarah Murphy for her assistance. I think we've got a good thing going.

and yes, men can (and should) exfoliate too!

I stopped by the High Dive early on Saturday night to catch the end of KEXP's live benefit remote for the local show, Audioasis. I picked a good week to go because Lisa Wood was up from Portland to host and she brought the Dimes, high school pals with some of my ladies, with her.

The Club Directory is published weekly in the Stranger.

 

Ann Wood just added two new caketoppers to her shop.

eve & thurston: darla & monty:

Ann handmakes her caketoppers from vintage fabrics and can custom make yours if you'd like something to match your style. Robin and I had her craft a pair of cotton lovebirds in autumn shades for our wedding and they now have a prominent place in our living room. The birds are respositionable and held in place by a light magnet in the base of the topper. Or, you can stand them directly on top of your cake - free-basing, if you will. Ha! i'm such a dork.

She'll be adding new non-caketopper singles to her etsy shop this Friday at 12pm (Pacific). They get gobbled up quick so act fast if you want one.

Our birdies, photo by Bradley Hanson:

Two lovely pouches of goodness came in the mail today from Pillows for the People; Beatrice and Evangeline.

They were handmade by an old friend of mine who recently came back into view. I met Parisa at a youth group in high school and we clicked, being the only other tolerable people there. She introduced me to Morrissey, took me to her favorite thrift stores and invited me over to jump on her trampoline. She even came with me to see Material Issue at Metropolis, my first all ages show. Parisa was (and still is) a f***ing rad lady!

These days she's in NYC making dreamy lavender pillows (for the people!) out of fabric adorned with various patterns, illustrations and icons like Frida Kahlo and the Moz. Be sure to check out her blog for the latest PftP shenanigans.

Thanks Parisa!

As some of you know, I've cut back on my musical involvement to focus more on planning my (now past) wedding and the photography business. My lady Amy B moved to LA about a month ago and Nick followed a couple weeks later taking Night Canopy with them. I miss them so much but it's a good move for both of them, and a long time coming.

Amy is still playing with Whalebones and is in town right now for a Sunday show at the Cha Cha. She's also playing Night Canopy material solo tomorrow night at the Rendezvous and Saturday at Twenty20 for the opening of James Bertram's polaroid show. Please come out and hear some of the beautiful new material she's been writing.

I borrowed a kaleidoscope-like filter to toy around with. It's too small for any of my lenses so I have to hold it in front at just the right angle for the right variation and least amount of glare.

Here it is focused on a doe eyed Ozz Franca painting I bought Robin for Valentines Day two years ago.

In addition to their wedding, Natalie & Jake hired me to shoot engagement portraits with the intention of making a guest book out of them for the reception. For engagement sessions, I recommend starting at a location with some personal significance. They suggested the West 5 Lounge & Restaurant, where they put in many hours when they both lived in West Seattle.

We started the day with some mimosas. Here they are during one of their funny-face-offs.

Cuddling in the back booth.

The weather looked promising so we drove over the Olympic Sculpture Park. They have these swinging pods in the Pavilion that you can climb into and test your propensity toward motion sickness.

I had them lie on the ground and peek through the hole in the bottom.

We got lucky with the train passing by. I kept yelling "hold still! slow shutter!".

I had such a great time with these two and can't wait to meet their friends and family!

It wasn't long before the drunk guy in the corner at the Monkey Pub started flexing his meat.

The opening band, 9 LB Beaver, convinced me to stay for a few songs by promising an appearance by the singer's "uncle", retired pro wrestler Ric Flair, aka "Nature Boy". We got this instead:

The singer closed the show by bashing his own head with a folding chair.

The Club Directory is published each week in the music section of the Stranger.

Just wanted to send a big thanks to Jessica of Fig & Plum, a blog documenting her knitting, cooking and various creative endeavors. She has apparently been a big advocate of my work on the east coast and helped me book a Rhode Island wedding for early September with a super rad lady. Thanks Jess!

My first maternity portrait took place in the employee lounge of Annie's Affordable Art 8 years ago. I came in to frame a live image I shot of Elliott Smith and the pregnant lady behind the counter asked if I owned a Polaroid. She wanted to take photos of her belly as a gift for her husband. I went home, grabbed the Sun 600 LMS my parents bought me for Christmas in 6th grade, stopped by Ballard Camera for film and returned just in time for her 10 minute break. She was shy and insisted her face not be included in the composition. She pulled up her sweater, arched her back and cradled both hands beneath her belly button. We looked at each other, then around at the ripped couch, strewn newspapers and half filled coffee mugs that littered the small back room and laughed so hard that I too was holding my belly.

My last maternity portrait session took place a few weeks ago in a house in the Central District and we laughed just as hard. The two ladies below are cousins, due around the same time and so much fun to shoot. I'd love to do some more maternity portraits... or perhaps you have a non pregnant belly you'd love to show off?

 

Pretty Parlor updated their website!