Happy Birthday Alee!!!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife! Today my better half turns another year older but she is still as amazing as the day I met her. Not only is she a wonderful wife but she is also a wonderful mother. Being a parent is a lot of work. Being the parent of twins is even more! Miraculously she manages to handle them all day all on her own. I'm not sure how but she does. The last few weeks have been tough because their top teeth are starting to come in. Needless to say they have been a little fussy. I think we have finally hit a wall where all the sleepless nights and constant attending is catching up with us. Both of us are beat and zombie like. For all of those who say it gets easier...no it does not. If anything it gets harder.

So to my hard working, amazing, awesome, wife....I love you and Happy Birthday! No one could do a better job than you have done. I am so proud of you and all that you do and all that you don't get to do for this family. We couldn't make it without you. You are my wife, my rock, my mamabear, and my world! I love you forever!

Family Pictures

Last month we had family pictures taken with the always brilliant Luke Cunningham. On Wednesday we got our disc of images from Luke and all I can say is he's done it again. The pictures came out wonderful and we could not be happier with the way they turned out. Alee can not stop looking at them! I was also reassured of something after looking through them and that is that god has blessed us with two of the most beautiful children in the world. I have also been blessed with an awesome wife who somehow manages to raise these two little guys all on her own while I'm at work. Enough can not be said for what she does. Simply put.. she is amazing. Thank you honey for all that you do!

With that said, here are a few pictures from our session.......

Thank you very much Luke!

For those of you who don't know who Luke is you can check out more of his work here...

http://www.1985lukephotography.com/#!

Luke's work speaks for itself and I have been a fan for quite a long time. He and his wife BreAnne are two of the nicest people I've ever met and you can tell from the first moment you meet them that they are genuinely good people. I can't say enough about how much of a joy it was to meet them and work with them as well. He has a style all his own, something I believe I am still trying to find in my own work as a photographer. If you ever have the chance to book a session with him, do so, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you again Luke and BreAnne for the great session and the beautiful pictures!

Love,
Mark, Alee, Easton, and Tyler

March is Exciting

March is shaping up to be a pretty good month. I have a bunch of new shoots coming up, two engagement shoots that should turn out to be a lot of fun. I also have a shower to shoot for a friend at the end of the month.

Planning for Frankie and Jessica's engagement and wedding has been under way and they seem to have all of their things in order. That makes things real easy for me. Now that I know what they are looking for in the shoots I can begin to do my part. I try not to get too tech crazy when it comes to equipment when I do any kind of shoot. I know my strengths and weaknesses so I try to just do what I do best. I can just relax and concentrate on taking good pictures and focus on composition. If all of my equipment is in good working order and I have back-ups just in case of an emergency I can be relaxed. I do not want to have to worry about whether or not my equipment is good enough or if I look professional enough. At the end of the day my work speaks for itself. My images book jobs not my equipment!

That being said....I do try to upgrade equipment every chance I can. Higher end equipment just flat out performs better. It does not make anyone a better photographer though. You still have to have that sense. You have to know when to anticipate that great shot. You also have to trust yourself and know what you are doing. If you are over thinking everything you are also sort of missing everything. I have a pretty good routine and I know when I can sneak away for a second if I need to swap batteries or just stop for a drink of water. I will admit that I hate flash units and wish I could shoot everything with natural light but let's face it, if you are going to shoot weddings you have to use a flash now and then, some times multiple flash units. I don't get lost in it though. If a shot looks good without it I will shoot it again with a little fill flash just to be sure. The one thing I have learned early on is that you can never take too many pictures. The more the better! Sometimes that perfect shot was the split second after you took your initial shot. Burst is your friend! I don't want to miss anything so I shoot like crazy, mostly during the reception, overall I load up cards.

Ok I'm sort of rambling now. The point of this blog was to say how excited I am for all the shoots that I have coming up! There it has now been said. Time for lunch!

Cheers,
Mark

Dinner and the Wall

Our new chalkboard wall received it's first markings from friends last night! As we had mentioned on our Facebook pages, we really did create a chalkboard wall at home that our friends can really write on. Last night we had some friends over for dinner and our wall got it's first posts (aside from the tic-tac-toe that Alee and I have been using it for). It was cool to see how people reacted to it. The best part was that our friends that we had dinner with last night are about the only 2 people that we know who are not on Facebook. They have been anti-FB all along. Needless to say our wall turned out to be quite a fun attraction and a great conversational piece.

Aside from photography I'm a pretty good cook, not to toot my own horn, just ask my wife.On the menu last night.....Top sirloin steaks, sauteed mushrooms in a red wine sauce, boiled potatoes of various crazy colors, and roasted bell peppers. Dinner was delicious along with the bottle of wine and Anchor Steam's our friends brought over. The best part of it all was that our little social experiment has started off just the way we wanted it to, less social time on the computer and more social time in person. We actually got to hang out and engage in  conversation. The boys also slept through the whole evening so aside from the routine of popping a head into the room to check on them, we were baby free in a sense last night. By the end of the night we were all stuffed and ready to wind things down and get ready for the weekend. Our guest departed and we called it a night and headed off to bed. 

Now it is time to get the day going. I'm already off to a later start than I wanted but that's life with kids who wake you up at 3 am. Off to the Almaden Creek Trail for a walk with the boys, and then a meeting with Jessica and Frankie to go over the details for their wedding. After that we have the rest of the day to do as we please! It's nice to have a day free from errands and such. Alright time to get moving! Get outside today people it is beautiful out.

Enjoy the day,

Mark

Welcome!

Hey everyone! I am going to be spending a little more time around here now. In the next few days I will be posting all my contact info and links to my Flickr and Shutterfly accounts. I will also start posting daily. Most likely my posts will be just random ramblings but there will also be updates on my photography and sneak peaks from my most recent shoots.

I have decided to take a 3 month break from Facebook as an experiment to see how it changes my daily routine and to see how in touch with my friends I actually am. Most of them sort of freaked out a bit when I first announced my plan. Almost instantly I began to see how much of our daily routine revolves around Facebook. Not just from a communication standpoint but also as a connection to our whole world.

Not so long ago people were still getting used to sending and receiving email and now it is almost impossible to get anyone to return an email, it's almost as obsolete as sending an actual letter. It seems the communication method of choice for a large portion of our society has become some form of Facebook message. Whether it is sending a personal message, writing on someones wall, or popping into the chat feature, most people prefer to communicate in this manner. I found it kind of disappointing that some of my good friends would actually prefer to keep up with me through pictures and text communication as opposed to joining my family and I for dinner or making a simple phone call to catch up.

I understand people are busy these days. I get it, really I do. But having a family with 2 new born children of my own, I do know it is possible to still get out a bit. Maybe it is just me preferring to have a face-to-face social connection every now and then. Either way, in the next 3 months I will get a first hand look at how social media impacts my means of communication as well as how it impacts my relationships with friends and family.

Mark