Wondering why her face is on a book?…

Oh wait! I get it!

My brothers and I…

and of course, setting up the infamous facebook!

Mom and aunt getting warm by the…errrrr…fire? Like I said…we call my aunt Martha. She goes all out, even without a fireplace she makes sure there is one going nonstop.

Their tree, the angel is slightly squished, but she will get over it.

My dad loves Christmas…my mom hates Christmas. However, my dad does all the yard work, so he gets to control the outdoor decorations…and goes all out!

I love my house at Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful day with your families and loved ones!

My response? “umm dad, is that a serious statement?”

My dad “oh did you bring it home?”

Haha umm what kind of photographer would I be if I didn’t bring my camera home? Anyway, my Dad, brother and I watched the eclipse the other night. Being that while I brought my camera home, yet forgot my tripod and left my long lens, these were hand-held at 6400 iso with my 85mm 1.8. I still dig them though…they aren’t as fancy as the other ones I have seen, but I am ok with that. Photographing the moon is not my specialty, just in case anyone was wondering

I plan to get her a real drum set pretty soon…I know my aunt and uncle will LOVE that

She will repeat pretty much anything you say, however her most common word is no, or niet (that is how it is pronounced, not the actual spelling) which is no in Russian.

Getting warm by the fire!

Seriously could she be any cuter?

Ok, let me just say we were downtown at the German market. It was freezing, and super crowded. I wanted to cry to, however, its less acceptable when you are 22. Even so, there is just something about this photo I love. Her eyes, her expression, and those little tears forming…I just love it.

Tamara Lackey would be proud...I took this photo without looking through the camera, figured I would give it a shot, and I love it!

She really enjoyed riding the elevator and watching the christmas lights in the mall. I love the reflections here.

Last but not least, this is her PLEASE if you love me you will stop taking pictures. Please please please no more pictures? Please?

These last two were taken from my phone…my camera was put away (see photo above) it’s not iphone camera quality, but it was just to cute not to post. All the sudden we hear her slowly walking down the hall and she walks in wearing these…wrong feet and all. So preciously adorable!

So without further ado, I give you…a little bit of a tease!

And, a new edit on this photo…I prefer this edit much more, and love it in black and white! Gosh that little girl was so dang cute!

Helping miss Riley take a picture of Sarah! I am making a crazy looking face in this one…however…

Chase Jarvis is making a similar face in this shot with Jack…so it makes me feel slightly better!

Just a heads up. these were taken on the white seamless that was still set up from the day before, however, no lights, no reflectors, just Jack, me, and my camera.

Love his little expression!

This photo cracks me up! I love his expression and how much fun he is having! He totally dug the white seamless, if I hit the back, it makes noise!

Little bit serious for a moment!

And last but not least, a big smile, and adoring eyes that only Mom or Dad and bring out!

Happy Birthday lil guy! I hope you celebrated hard, and ate lots of yummy cake!! Glad your feeling all better!

To see more of this cutie, check out  Sarah’s blog! AKA Mom

Ok so let’s get down to the point of that little back story. Both Chase and Tamara were so incredibly down to Earth. They are two of the most genuinely nice people I have ever met, as are the rest of the creativelive crew members. And let me tell you something else, the people you saw while you sat glued to your computer chair watching the live feed, that is 100% them. They are the exact same people on camera as they are off. The people who write their blog posts, and give their presentations, totally them.  Now some people may not find that strange, but the last time I met someone I had deemed a celebrity in the photography world, that was not even anywhere near the case. This time it was. They are themselves, and don’t let anything stop them from being themselves, even thousands of people watching a live feed on the internet. I think that is awesome! I also think, and Tamara mentioned it, but I think it is so true, that it is part of what makes them so successful. Everyone tries so hard to be someone different, to do work like that photographer, to be as successful as so and so, and so on. However, the best thing we can do is be ourselves.

And some group shots, taken by the ever fabulous Nikko, who was bracing for his night of editing the day 3 footage. He did a dang good job for little to no sleep all weekend! So glad we got you to come out to dinner and hang that night Nikko!

“An artists only concern is to shoot for perfection, and on his own terms not anyone else’s.”

-JD Salinger

I am of course thankful for my family…for being there, loving me, and always supporting me. Oh and of course for backing off when I tell them that if they are not feeling like supporting me right now they need to back off

I am thankful for my amazing friends, that know me about as well as i know myself. They are always there for a chat about little things, big things, happy things, and sometimes sad things. Without them, who would I call on those days where my family doesn’t feel like being supportive?

I am thankful for CreativeLive, for giving me one of the best weekends of my life, for filling my head with knowledge and offering free education across the globe. Without this past weekend I don’t know where I would be…I am also thankful for Tamara Lackey, who in the words of EpicDanger doesn’t suck at all. In fact, she is pretty amazing, and a wonderful person to have gotten to know. I am also thankful for my new friends that braved the internet live world with me this past weekend…I miss everyone already! Jesse Clements , Nikki McArthur , Alison Henrie , and Sarah (don’t know how to spell Sarah’s last name, and it isn’t on her blog..sorry girl! You rock the first name basis!) and last but not least Jim Catechi (Jim, get yourself a blog!)

I’m thankful for my amazing clients, who pretty much rock! Not to mention their amazing kids, who are not only adorable, but funny, silly, and a complete joy to be around, and to be able to capture for their family.

Last but not least, I am thankful for my life, health, and the amazing people I have been blessed enough to surround myself with.

Here is a sampling of those amazing clients…more to come from this session in the near future!

I love the way he is looking at his big sister like she is just the greatest thing in the world. <3

and how could you not love running to or from the water beach shots?

I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving..I will end this with a quote I read online that I love…

When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears ~ Anthony Robbins

1. The creator behind it.

2. The talent.

3. The internet.

4. A creative live crew.

4. Some camera guys.

all props on this photo go to Nikki, AKA EpicDanger. She rocked this shot so hard that I felt it was needed for the camera guy photo.

That’s it right? Uhh no. In fact that is just the tippy top of the iceberg. You mean the final videos that are uploaded for your downloading pleasure weren’t automatically that good? Seriously? That’s right folks, there is a ton of work that goes into creativeLIVE, and no offense, because the show could not go on without the talent, but the talent is just the icing on the cupcake. Which, come on we all know the icing is the best part, but there is a whole lot of work that needs to go into making that cake that the icing sits atop. So this post is for all the bakers, err I mean crew.

Now, some of these guys you may have seen if you watched the live feed, they were the ones frantically connecting cables, or micing (sp? wordpress is trying to change it to mincing, mining, mixing, icing, or dicing) people up, or you may have seen them crawl across the floor to fix a wire, or they came on camera to mention how angry their cat was at them. Now, talking about the cat doesn’t seem that important right? I mean come on, we want Tamara! However, the reason the cat was brought up, was because Nikko had been sitting behind a computer for about 5 days during the days prior and during the nights of the workshop. Yes, I said that correctly, 5 days/nights. So his cat is important….because his cat was MAD! Imagine what your cat would do if you didn’t come home for a few days…yupp, his cat probably did it. He just so happens to be the reason that if you missed the live feed, you were able to watch the rewatch and/or download the videos the SAME DAY as the workshop! This probably seems like a random post, but it is so important.

I’m going to throw out some names, see how many you recognize… Jon, Craig, Celeste, Sara, David, Melody, Adam. One or two maybe? Those are all the Creativelive crew right there. Why so many? Because that is how many are needed for the show to go on!

Now let’s try this one…we all know the chat hosts Kenna and Susan, who represent the internet, but did you know Arlene and Bruce were helping them speak for the internet? There were thousands of questions coming in, there is no way two people could handle it alone.

And last but not least, the ones that helped make sure you were not only able to watch this entire thing live on the internet, but also made sure you were able to download these after the fact. Teurth, Drew, Valerie, Chelsea, Bill, Nikko, Jacob, Miles, and Anthony. Yep, without them, it wouldn’t have mattered that Celeste made sure everyone was in their seat, Kenna and Susan were fielding internet questions, and that Chase had an amazing idea, or that Tamara Lackey was in Seattle. Without them, the only people who would have benefited from this weekend would be Jesse. Alison, Nikki, Jim, Sarah, and myself. However, because of them, you were all able to watch this live, Tamara was able to cover a lot more stuff, and you can now own a copy of the workshop forever. Do you know how long you will be able to benefit from this past weekend because of that? Let me tell you…forever and ever, and ever. So this goes out to all the people who work behind the scenes, thank you! You all worked incredibly hard, and I had no idea how much work went on behind the scenes when I watched the Jasmine Star workshop. You guys rock and the show would not be able to go on without you. So THANK YOU!

ps-if you missed the $99 downloads, $149 is still a ridiculously good deal for all the massive amount of amazing information that was thrown down this weekend. So get your rear over to the CreativeLIVE website and get yourself a copy if you think you might be even remotely interested in watching this amazing awesomeness again!