Fun night out!

Last night was so much fun! I went out on the town with two of my friends, Gretchen & Joe, and we had the greatest time. Joe used to be a chef (and I mean a real, real chef, like the kind that work at fancy restaurants) and so he knows so much about food, wine, and the like. So of course, we just followed his lead all night!

We started off by going to "The Temple Bar" in Harvard Square, and it was incredible! You want to know what we had? Of course you do. For appetizers, we had spicy pork riblets and "lomi lomi" salmon civiche. If you know me, you know that I hate seafood and fish of all kinds. But, since we were out with Joe, I decided that I'd try everything once. And I LOVED the salmon! It was yummy! For dinner, I had moroccan lamb steak, Joe had monkfish (which I also tried, and LOVED) and Gretchen had scallops, which were kind of odd to me. Oh, and we had some outstanding Mojitos, and a really great Shiraz.

After the Temple Bar, we went to "Rialto" which Joe said is regarded as one of the top 5 best restaurants in Boston, and it was definitely a classy place. We just wanted dessert, so we hung out in the bar area, which was good because I think if we wanted to go into the main dining room, they wouldn't have let us, on account of our jeans! We ended up having a cheese course with some awesome cheeses (none of them were too stinky) and an incredible bottle of Chardonnay. It was amazing.

We had so much fun, laughed a lot, and really got to know one another better, which I am always down for! This is a pic from Gretchen's camera. I can't believe we didn't take more pictures last night, but we were just too busy having so much dang fun!

I'm Here!

Wow, what a day. This is the view from my 21st floor room here in Cambridge, Mass. It is absolutely beautiful-the buildings in the foreground is MIT (some mom-and-pop trade school out here)

It seems like it took me forever to get from San Diego to Boston, but I've finally arrived, and it feels good. I've unpacked all my stuff (that's a habit I get from my dad- I do it as soon as I get in the door) and I'm sitting here in my beautiful hotel room...it's nice to relax...finally.

It was all just another normal trip, until I showed up to the San Diego airport. The line for United was longer than I had ever seen it before. Ever. And I travel a lot. The line was looooooooooong! Luckily, I had checked in online last night, so I was all set for that, and then I just had to wait in this super short line to give them my bags. That was good, because I definitely didn't show up early enough to have been able to wait in line and still make the flight!

I had to fly through Chicago O'Hare, which was nuts. There was about .5 mile visibility, which meant I didn't see the ground until about 5 seconds before we landed. That was fun. There were delays leaving due to weather, but eventually we got going, and I think the pilot "floored" it because we were only about an hour late to Boston, even though we left Chicago 2 hours late!

My friend Christy helped me book a car to take me from the airport to the Hotel, and it was so awesome! I had to go to where all the Limos and stuff were, and when I got there, there was a guy with a sweet SUV waiting for me, with a big sign that said "J. Youngren." I would have taken a picture of it, but I think that would have ruined the moment. It was sweet though.

Time for bed. Night night!

Sweet.

Off to Boston!

Well, I'm off to Boston for the week, and I'm really excited! I get to go out there on business, but I always look forward to going to this city because I've got a bunch of awesome friends there, who I don't get to see that often. It should be a pretty busy/fun/relaxing week all at the same time.

I'm bummed, though, because Erin was supposed to come with me, but it turned out that she has a bunch of exams this week and other things that she just can't get out of. So I'm going to miss her a ton!

If anybody in Boston wants to hang out, let me know!

Twenty Years of the Canon EOS System Leads to this Moment: Canon releases the EOS-1D Mark III Digital SLR!

I can't even begin to explain how exciting this is! If you've been around me the past few days, you know how bummed I've been that I ended up having to cancel my latest camera order due to the rebate expiring (long story). But today, all that "being bummed" is over. Canon has made my day - nay - my week by releasing the 1D Mark III!

A ton of people have been hypothesizing for months that Canon had something in the wings in the way of a replacement for the 1D Mark IIn, but nobody thought the news would come until early March, if it happened at all! Well, it happened today! Click here to read the press release from Canon's website.

This is so cool for so many reasons - this camera is by far one of the most advanced digital cameras to ever be produced, and will revolutionize the industry. I really want to get one, but we'll have to wait to see how the thing fairs when it hits the market. Hopefully they'll have it on demo at this year's WPPI in Vegas (which I can't wait for, by the way!)

If anybody has been wondering about a gift to get me, then wonder no more- get me a 1D MkIII!

Food, Rain, and Hot Tub- does it get any better?

Today was one of those days that was completely random and unexpected from start to finish, but in a totally good way. This morning, I went and grabbed an awesome breakfast with my buddy Mark Brewer at one of our favorite spots - Mimi's Cafe. If you've never been to Mimi's, then you are missing out. Don't go there for lunch or dinner, go there for breakfast, because if there's one thing these folks know how to do, it's breakfast. I always get the 5-Alarm Santa Fe omlette with a buttermilk spice muffin and a glass of OJ (gotta love the vitamin C). Try it, you won't be disappointed. Well, unless you don't like spicy stuff. Then you'd probably be disappointed.

Mimi's was packed today, and everybody was cramming up the front room because it was pouring outside, although my friends from Oregon & Washington would probably call it a "mild drizzle." So while we waited for our table, we decided to head across the street to Best Buy and see what kind of trouble we could cause. There were these two kids (think mini versions of Joe & Silent Bob) there, sitting in the video game section on office chairs that they had rolled over, just sitting and playing "Guitar Hero." When we asked the kids how long they'd been there for they said "Aw dude we come here ever weekend and play all day, for like 10 hours." Wow.

Anyway, breakfast was amazing, as usual. But after breakfast, we decided to go and sit in the hot tub, and drink some tasty beverages and enjoy the rain. Our buddy Josh came over too, and we sat in there for like 3 hours. It was so incredibly relaxing, just hanging out with good dudes. I seriously love my friends, they are awesome.

Then we came inside and just layed around and watched old episodes of Reno 911 and drifted in and out of sleep...seriously amazing rainy day!

Brittany & Michael

I got to spend this afternoon with Brittany & Michael in La Jolla, and we had an absolute blast! I'm shooting their wedding in July up near San Francisco, and I seriously can't wait - they are so much fun!

They are both from the bay area and were down for the weekend visiting friends, so I was able to steal them away today for the afternoon for a little engagement shoot. These two were up for anything- from climbing all over rocks to standing out in the water and being pelted with the chilly ocean water....so great :)

Brittany is actually on a drug for multiple sclerosis that my company, Biogen Idec (my "real job") makes, so it's kind of like my two worlds colliding in their wedding. I don't know, maybe I'm weird, but I think that it's pretty darn cool. It always makes me so excited when I meet someone that's really benefiting from something that I have a small part in...kind of cool.

Click here for a little slideshow of some of my favorite shots from our day!

Watching water boil...

Today at work, I was doing an experiment which required me to boil some water. Now, I didn't really have a lot to do today (if my boss is reading this, then "I was extremely busy") so I decided to just sit there and wait for the water to boil. I literally just watched it boil, which is something that I've never done before, nor do I plan on making it a habit.

But it really got me thinking. I feel like so much of the time I become so busy with all the "things" that I have to do throughout my day, that I forget to just take time out for me, just to sit quietly and wait. Routinely, I always feel like there is something that I could/should be doing, and as such I neglect the things that are most important.

I'm not saying that I never have fun, and that all I do is work. I'm just saying that sometimes, I just need to sit down, relax, and read a book, or write in my journal, or any number of things...do you ever feel that way? I think that's what I'm going to do right now.

I'm no scientist, but sometimes, I think we all just need to watch some water boil...

Save the Date cards!

I've recently had a ton of couples ask about doing save the date cards with their engagement pictures, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite ones that I've done so far! This is a really cool way to 1) let everybody know about the wedding date and 2) share some of the fun pictures!

I try to design these things in such a way that they fit the personality of the couple, which makes things pretty fun and interesting :)

My Best friend's Wedding!

Yesterday was, in a word, amazing. Two of my closest friends, Dave and Jenny, got married yesterday in La Jolla, and I can truly say that I've never seen two people more excited, happy, and ready to get married!

Dave's dad performed the ceremony, and he did an incredible job. I don't know how he got through it! I'll admit, I definitely shed a few tears (but if you know me, that's probably no surprise!)

My friend Shyla was their photographer, and she did such an amazing job! It was really wierd for me to be at a wedding without my camera, and going in to the day, I was much more nervous than I ever am shooting a wedding. I guess holding a camera give me a confidence boost, or something. Anyway, I did grab my camera twice - once for Dave & Jenny's portrait session, which Shyla and I double-teamed (which was a BLAST), and then once after the reception for a little photo session down on the beach at the Hotel Del Coronado, where Dave & Jenny spent their first night.

Here's some pictures from the day! More to come soon! Shyla will probably be posting some on her blog soon as well, so check that out!