I am changing web hosts to a much more reliable host. However, in the next 24 hours, email access might be a little unreliable for me, so if you do not hear from me, you can call me or try emailing again.
Thanks for your patience!
Archive for November, 2005
Eileen and Chris had a fantastic wedding at the Wine Country Farm in Dayton, Oregon. It is a beautiful place with great view. I love vineyard weddings in Oregon, it just adds that beautiful Oregon look to the images.
It was overcast weather with clouds most of the day except for two great times. During the wedding, rigth after Eileen and Chris kneeled down for prayer, the clouds parted and there was a ray of sun that came down on them and two eagles started flying right above. Some relatives in the crowd were crying as they were really touched by this. Later I have been told that some relatives (they are from Philippines) went to visit and pray at the grandparent’s grave and they are convinced that the eagles were the grandparents looking after the couple. It was very interesting!
Then right while the buffet line was going on, the sun came out with beautiful late afternoon light - I got some great shots of the food with the steam coming out, but then remembered the beautiful fields around and rushed to get a nice view from the vineyard. I am posting one of those photos here.
This is the moment I was talking about:
Beautiful sunlight:
More at my Portland wedding photographer website!
Every year I try to donate to Oregon food bank near Thanksgiving. There are so many people who work full time and still can’t afford food for their family, so as part of thanking for the things I am given, I try to help. A little reminder always helps for me, so I thought I would do the same here.
If you can afford to, please donate to your local food bank this Thanksgiving! Esp. after the Hurricanes, food prices have increased not to mention fuel prices that makes it harder for the needy. Think about how much you will spend on black Friday sales and even a tiny amount of that will make a difference for a lot of people!
Our food bank is:
http://www.oregonfoodbank.org/
Here is a link that has some state by state listing, but the best bet is to search Google with state name + food bank
make a difference! 
Please spend couples seconds and click on the food bank link above and make a small donation, even $10-25 whatever!
Did You Know
* One in four people in a soup kitchen line is a child.
* 30% of the families surveyed were forced to choose between buying food and paying for medical care or medicine.
* Nearly 15% of the total households served by the America’s Second Harvest Network reside in rural areas.
* Four million non-elderly low-income families said they had used a food pantry at least once during the past year.
The largest, and longest running study of hunger in America shows last year nearly half of the people using food-shelves were working, many at full time jobs
If you have sent me email in the last two weeks and have not received a response, it is likely that I have not received it. My hosting company Superb.net, possibly one of the most incompetent ones in the nation, has been having serious server and email problems.
The funny thing is I joined them due to their reliability even though they were relatively expensive. They had decent service for a while. Now it is all downhill. I will be changing hosts very soon so this should be fixed, but in the meantime, please email me again or call me!
I will be in the NW Wedding Showcase bridal show this weekend. I am a bit towards the back but I am glad I managed to get in. I normally do not do bridal shows as most of my clients find me with word of mouth but I want to see how this one will go - I am going to go low key, with a slideshow, some albums with a love seat/coffee table instead of a big fancy display. I am looking forward to talking with brides about their weddings!
So come and say hi!
I was in Canada for a seminar with great Australian photographer David Williams. I got some good ideas about album design and Aussie style portraits. David is a very good teacher but is also a great guy to hang out with too.
I just got back couples days ago. I was not feeling very well there - it was very cold and rainy and my sleeping arrangements were less than optimal. I used to do well even without much sleep but I am not 18 anymore I guess I got to see my oldest friend (of 25 years - I am 31 though I look younger apparently) and had some super sushi at Samurai Sushi at Davie Street (there is one on Cambie as well). I tried an Oyster Motoyaki - crazy stuff!!!
On the way back, I lost a lot of time - got stopped at the border for a random search, and then there was a big rain storm and I-5 was closed for about 2 hours to clear some debris. Came home exhausted to find my garage burglarized so I had to deal with that. What a pain as if I didn’t have many things to work on.
Here are some photos from Vancouver.
There are some places in the world that I really want to see - one of them is the Iguaçu (Iquassu) falls in Brazil. Being in Oregon I am a little bored with regular waterfalls, but these are just incredible.
Other places I would love to visit are:
- Machu Picchu
- Grand Canyon (esp. rafting!)
- Yellowstone
- Great Wall
- Taj Mahal
- Galapagos Islands
- Cuba
- Egypt (Pyramids and Nile)
- Pamukkale (Cotton Castle) in Turkey
- Antarctica
- Other Countries: Australia, Thailand, China, Japan, Argentina, Brazil
BTW, this is a cool list of best places:
http://travel.discovery.com/fansites/worldsbest/listing.html
This was a really fun wedding to shoot! The wedding had elements of both bride and groom’s heritage. There were lei’s for guests and wedding party (kids got candies woven into their lei!) and to the surprise of Steve, there was a bagpiper just as they shared first kiss as husband and wife!
The wedding was at the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, commonly referred as CPR. I have not been there since my days at Intel. The service was great and the ambience was very nice too!
Enjoy!
