I have been looking for a job for a while now because I needed something to support my habit of Photography... ( for now anyway)
The hardest part for me is that I just couldnt bear to give 40 hours of my week to a job that had nothing to do with my passion, and didnt further my desire to one day be self sufficent in Photography...
Then the most wonderful thing happened... Thursday night I recieved an email from Jeff Jochum (VP of sales and marketing at Pictage) saying that he was looking for an assistant and wondered if I would be interested...
Long story short, we met the next day and BAM! I went from submitting endless resumes to officially being employed. :) I am now Jeff's assistant and a Pictage employee...! its wierd to think about but it is so exciting...!!
It all happened so fast too... I got the email thursday night, we met on Friday at 5:15pm, I accepted the job by 5:25 pm and then by 5:45 he took me home to meet his wife Mel, mom Marie, and baby David J (....hmmm named after someone we know??? haha ). Anyway, I look forward to the many opportunities this will present! A BIG HUGE Thanks to everyone involved ;)! Yay!

Quotes...

I read these quotes today and I really liked them!

"All things being equal, people will do business with a friend; all things
being unequal, people will still do business with a friend."

I know as a consumer I would rather do business with a friend so it makes so much sense to develop yourself as a friend when you are on the other side of the fence as the one offering services. Not in a fake "pretend-to-be-everyone's-friend" mentality but a true friend who has thier best interest in mind. It's the whole lovecat frame of mind that seems to be popping up everywhere and proving its sucess.



"You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a
man is wise by his questions." - Naguib Mahfouz

I'm not very clever... always feel stupid when people ask deep questions because I very rarely can answer right away... I am a thinker so I need to mull over and process before I answer and often times the situation doesnt leave room for that, so I just look dumb... but thats ok :)! Anyway, this quote is so true because its all about knowing the RIGHT questions to ask...I hope I can one day offer others the benefit of asking the right questions so every converstaion I have will be a blessing to my fellow friend because they walk away with more than they came with...



"The secret of joy in work is contained in one word: excellence. To know how
to do something well is to enjoy it." - Pearl Buck

In my opinion, there is nothing that fuels the fire of excellence more than passion!

Celebration with France...

Last night, Sara France threw a magnificant Italy Party at her home in San Diego... She went ALL out and the place was soo adorable! She had cute lil' lights everywhere with tiki torches and a chef who made yummy italian food..plus the most amazing gelato and limoncello!!!

here is the darling hostess... She had this great little lounge area with pillows and netting. It truly was so well planned out!

Somewhere during the course of the evening we broke out the photobooth, but Sara made us put the laptop away...haha! :)
Here are a few of the lovely couples who graced the Photobooth...:)

Justin & Amelia Lyon... I absolutley LOVE this couple! I met Justin last week at the OC PUG and finally had the pleasure of meeting his ADORABLE wife... They truly are wonderful! I get to shoot with them on Saturday and I am so excited!

Then of course the infamous Jazzy & JD... They were just soo cute I couldnt help but take pictures of them while they were doing it :) Plus, this is probablly the first and ONLY time you will see a non-flattering pictures of Jasmine :)




Overall I really enjoyed meeting new people and catching up with friends... Thanks Sara for such a wonderful evening...You really went all out and it rocked! Like you said... "Go big or Go home" ...you definately went BIG!
It truly was a chance to celebrate life with friends! Thanks for bringing Italy to all of us!



( I think I dreamed about that yummy gelato last night!) :)

haha..hehe...

I finally got my computer today!! I had it shipped to my friends in Oregon and saved like $200 because there is no sales tax up there...so thats why it took so long...

I am so excited!! I got it just in time for a wedding I am doing next weekend, so I can actually show a SLIDESHOW! (hopefully...)

I also discovered photobooth and havent laughed this hard In a Loooong time! My roomate and I were literally CRYING becuase we were laughing so hard... I cant believe I am posting these hideous pictures but...eh...who cares?? :)


grrr...

Two headed dragon...



This one looks like that lady from Monsters Inc.




Our alien tribute...


Thats all folks...



LOL! ( Yup...STILL laughing!)
:)

It's finally out!!

I got a call from gown designer Marianne Lanting letting me know that the magazine (The Knot Weddings Fall/Winter 2006-2007) is FINALLY out! I have been frequenting the bookstore ALOT in hopes of finding it, but to no avail! So she called and told me that apparently the projected June release date was pushed back but they are out now! :) Yay!
theknot.com also has some of Mike's and my images up under her designer page. Plus, she told me she is redesigning the intro slideshow to her website and is using alot of my images, so I went to her website and its not up yet but this image popped up! I was so excited!! THEN she said she also submitted some of my images to a magazine called Sposa. I dont know which ones but we shall see :)
Marianne, you are SOOO awesome... Thanks for everything!!!

Blue Like Jazz...

I love to read, but I generally never read fiction or "stories" for pleasure. Instead I prefer to read practical and tangible information that is immediately or futuristicly applicable. So when my friend Steve recommended this book I was slightly skeptical due to its journalistic/story nature but because of his passionate recommendation I picked up the book. Armed with my trusty 3-color pen I began to "read" (reading generally entails writing for me...lots of notes and underlining)...
initially I felt like I was reading a picture book because the author is from my hometown so every street, coffee shop or neighborhood he mentioned was accompanied by my vivid mental recollection of my own visit or experience with that particular place. Then, 1/3 of the way through the book I was deeply thankful for the recommendation because as I read the author's non-religious thoughts on spirituality I experienced a new level of freedom in my relationship with God...One that didn't have to be put in a box and defined by the same characteristics similar any one other person. In modified words of the author it almost "gave me permission to be human and to interact with God without all of the mind-melt that comes with growing up in a religious family" or attending a religious school. It is so easy to get caught up in a Christian-bubble that doesn't allow room for different schools of thought, but in my time spent reading this book I feel a new and exciting freedom to embrace fresh new perspectives
Its a great book for affirming different perspectives as well as causing one to stretch themselves and abandon preconceived beliefs that there is only ONE way to think!.... Thanks Steve, I should listen to you more often ;)

Your Wedding Professionals...

What happens when two wedding photographers, a videographer and a coordinator cram in a photobooth?

This!!...plus ALOT of laughter!
I had the awesome privilige of shooting with the fabulous David Jay yesterday in Santa Monica... and I must admit I had a great time and I learned alot! I got to see how he puts his slideshows together too!
Anyway, they had this portable photobooth there for the guests to take pictures of themselves and put one copy in the guest book and keep the other. It was sooo cool! I want this at MY wedding someday!
So Deej, Brett and Trisha ( The awesomest wedding coordinator EVER) and I, climbed inside and had a lil' fun! DJ and Brett each went in individually alot and I swear they each have STACKS of these things :) It was soooo entertaining! I was feeling too uncreative last night so I refused to get in by myself...besides, why would I want pictures of myself when I could stand out side and laugh at those two guys?!!?
It was soooo great!!! Plus I made a new friend with the wedding coordinator...she was FANTASTIC! We kept teasing how it was so sad we had to leave eachother after having so much fun and laughingly called it our "one-night stand". Its okay though...I got her #! ;) haha!


Thanks again Deej...you ARE the bestest!!!

Laugh with me...:)

OK so I think I seriously need to move... I walked out to my car today and guess what?!...Haha...yeah...it happened again! My dear darling car was broken into...
I honestly just laughed... ALOT! There is seriously NOTHING left to take so they simply rummaged through my glovebox and such. Good thing its so easy to slim-jim the lock, instead of having to bust the windows! Whats funny is I get a break on my insurance because apparently San Dimas is a "safe" place to live...HAHA
So, lets pray for a new car for Shyla ( One with airconditioning and an alarm!)
:)

My "other" job... :)

I had the opportunity to paint a mural for a preschool room this week! A church out in Norco heard of me through the grapvine because I have done kids' murals before so they asked if I would come do thier new preschool room. They didnt want a "tradiotnal mural" where the entire wall was covered... They just wanted me to design some characters to liven up the room abit...
So...Here are a few pics from my adventures in painting...

In the beginning...

Let's add some color!...





A special thanks to the wonderful interns at Country Life Church (Melissa, Megan, and Brad) They took such good care of me every day I was there!

My new TOY!

Lookie Lookie... I have been waiting for this for a while and the day has finally arrived! I JUST ordered my MacBook pro! I am sooo excited! No more crashing PC's for me :) And no more getting in trouble from DJ for not showing slideshows at my weddings! Plus, I ordered a .mac account too so I can finally buy ShowIt and do slideshows with the server space!!
I am so excited!!!!!

:)

Jump in my Car!

I have been whining the past few weeks because everywhere I go is like 45 minutes and I dont have airconditioning in my car!! The weather has been sooooo hot ( it's typically 80 degrees by 7am at my house.) I literally have to lay my seat back a little and drive at a 45 degree angle so I do get all sweaty but it's seriously TORTURE because since my CD player was stolen I not only dont have airconditioning but I dont have music either!! Ahhh! Can we just fast forward through August PLEASE... so I dont have to take 12 showers a day and bring extra clothes with me everwhere I go?? :)
Honestly though I cant really complain because it is a car and it runs, so I truly am thankful!! I just needed a quick venting... :)

Anyway, my friend just showed me this video tonight so I thought I would share it with ya'all! haha...

Jump in my car!

Adventures in Second Shooting...

Here's what a dork I am....
Yesterday I shot another wedding with Jessica Claire and it was so great...TOTALLY the type of wedding I would want because it was a lot of people but still very intimate and it wasn't held at a "wedding Factory" (You, know, those places where EVERYONE and their mom gets married) It was in this elaborate backyard in Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego...sooooo wonderful! Jess has all the pics so you'll have to check out her blog for the pics :)

Anyway, on with my dork-ness... So I didn't get the memo that the wedding was outside & I showed up in the quid-essential black pants, black shirt and black shoes and etc but it was still 97 degrees at 4:30pm when the ceremony started...YUCK! I had sunscreen dripping down my sunglasses during the hour long ceremony, it was nasty! Anyway, little did I know that as I was sweating my shirt was getting more and more stretched out (its a thin cotton fitted one) and the more stretched out it got the more SEE-THROUGH it got!! Completely see through! As in 'look at my bra' see-through I was mortified! Jess said she had a shirt in her car so I ran out and it ended up being a long sleeved see through coverlet with a DEEP scoop neck so it didn't even cover what I needed covered but it helped a little bit...

But wait... that's not all! By the time it was dark and everyone was dancing I had this 'great idea' to run upstairs and shoot a wide-angle night shot from the balcony. I ran up and all the lights were out but I knew my way because the bride got ready up there. So I navigated my way through the dark room quite hastily and attempted to make my way through the open door when WHAM! I smacked my face into the screen knocking it clean off with a loud crash (luckily no-one heard it because the music was so loud) but my nose hurt and my face was black from smashing into the screen! I went and told the owner and she just laughed...the screen pops in and out for easy access so I didn't break it, I just made a fool of myself!


So...Yeah, I am a dork, but I sure do love my job! :)

Excellence...

"We are what we repeatedly do... Excellence then is not an act but a habit." -Aristotle

I read this quote yesterday and I was really struck by the truth of the matter. We as Christians are called to a higher standard that takes a daily conscience effort to strive for. By no means are we perfect or called to be perfect but I do believe we are asked to set ourselves apart, go that extra mile, take that extra step etc... to model lives that are examples (during times of success AND failure)in order to make an impact in our world. This, in turn, takes a daily discipline to create a habit out of excellence. They say it takes 28 consecutive days to form a habit and only 7 days to break it... thus illustrating the daily conscience effort needed to truly live a life of a higher standard in order to effectively make a difference

I saw this idea as an important foundation in life as well as business...
I have had the privilege of working with Master Colon and watching how he runs his business as well as how he lives his life. He is one of the most integrous men I have ever met who models this adage very well. He doesn't cut corners but rather upholds a habit of excellence that he executes on a daily basis and God obviously blesses him for it! I am thankful for his example and I pray that I never lose sight of that when in a lazy moment it would be easier to do a few acts versus nurturing a habit. Thanks, Mike,for showing me what true success is...

So lets all strive for excellence in all we do, I am confident that if we make it a habit in life and in business, success will follow :)

Weekend Warriors...

Phew... what a fun weekend! I had planned to drive up to Santa Barbara today to meet with the guy who is designing my website and also a Bride and Groom whose wedding I will be shooting up here next month, but what was only supposed to be a day trip turned into a weekend trip... (You really dont have to twist my arm too hard to spend time in SB!...haha).
JT, Bruce, Amy,Janey,and I were definately weekend warriors...
Yesterday we celebrated Kristin's Birthday at the Palace Grill with this really cool magician guy and then headed back to the Bat Cave (a.k.a DJ's's Place) but I cant divulge the happenings there b/c the owner is out of town... ;)

Today we went Kayaking in the ocean... Amy and I got pretty sea sick so we ended up jumping off our kayak into the water but Amy was scared of sharks so you should have seen her jump in and bolt IMMEDIATELY out! ...very entertaining! Afterwards we went to Sushi for dinner and then to play pool at a sports bar where we all shot new avatars...you must visit the forum to see them. :) Chad and Rick of Chadrick Photography joined us as well and I havent laughed so hard in a loooong time... It was ALOT of fun :)

We have once again congregated to the bat cave and we are all "geeking out"...(Translation: 4 laptops bearing a glowing apple, and utter silence except the sound of fingers typing.)
Here are a few photos from the weekend...






We never listened to our mommas when they told us not to play with our food :)



This was JT's attempt at a simple photo minute using Bar room lighting!...haha The only problem was that it was too loud and we got in trouble for sitting on the pool table...

JT was the ladies man this evening...

Aw yes... girls with guns...




I almost beat him... haha... yeah right!



Thanks to the hostess with the mostess Amy Nave for shackin' me up! I had so much fun!!! I love you guys!