Holiday Deadlines!

Hey guys!

Just a reminder of the holiday deadlines for ordering reprints:

December 7th: Cutoff date for STANDARD shipping
December 12th: Cutoff date for PRIORITY shipping
December 14th: Cutoff date for OVERNIGHT shipping (Also Erin's birthday!)

If you're waiting for your images to be placed online, rest assured that we're working very hard to get them online as quickly as possible! If you were a guest at any of the weddings or events we've done recently, click here to go to the Pictage website, and then search for the couple's name so you can pre-register to view the images as soon as they go online!

Christmas time :)

Oh yes, the decorating has begun! Erin and I went to get a tree yesterday, and before I knew it Erin had all the boxes out and we were decorating the whole place for Christmas! I took a few pics yesterday, but that was before Christmas exploded at our house! I'm going to have to snap some more pics tomorrow to give you the full effect of Christmas at the Youngren's. For now, our cute little star ornaments will have to suffice. They have our name on them, which is awesome!

Jordanna & John | Engagement

Erin and I shot Jordanna & John's engagement session a few weeks ago down at Liberty Station, which is one of my favorite places in San Diego to shoot, so we had a ton of fun! Their wedding is coming up in January at the Dana (also one of my favorite spots) and I can hardly wait.

When John and Jordanna came in to meet us for the first time, I was so excited because John is also a big camera guy, and so after we talked all about their wedding we grabbed all my gear and started playing with it! I'm such a dork, and I love all the fun gear we get to use. Erin just makes fun of me :)

Anyway, here's some of my favorites from their session- we had AMAZING light, and great weather. They didn't want sunset pictures, so we went the other route and did sunrise pictures! Thanks for being good sports guys and meeting up with us so early in the morning!

One of their first dates was to Starbucks, so we had to show some love to the 'bucks!

Awesome light!

Liberty Station is filled with all kinds of spots like this - I just love these kinds of textures.

Long, dark hallway + small spot of light + awesome couple = happy Jeff!

We were trying to get a shot with an airplane flying overhead, but the planes weren't cooperating. Maybe I'll use photoshop to put one in.

Again, amazing light, cool textures!

I climbed on top of a building to get this one - how beautiful are her eyes? Wow!

He digs her. So much :)

See you guys soon!

Kelly & Flip | Kelly Rockin' it!

I'm going through and putting the finishing touches on Kelly & Flips wedding from a few weeks ago up in San Juan Capistrano, and I just had to post up some images from the time I got to spend with Kelly one on one. She was absolutely a breathtaking bride, and she is so much stinkin' fun! Don't you think her dress fits her so well?

One of my favorite times during the wedding day is the time I get to spend one on one with the bride photographing her - there's something so magical and amazing about brides that make them so much fun to take pictures of. In the south and back east it's a big thing doing bridal portraits weeks before the wedding, but for some reason it's not big out here in California at all...maybe I'll have to change that!! Stay tuned for more from Kelly & Flip's wedding!

Isn't her dress so vintage?

And of course, I couldn't tease you and not put up at least one image of Kelly & Flip! How hot are they? Amazing!!!!

Dave & Jenny | Baby's on the Way

I love these two! Dave and Jenny are some of the most awesome people I know, and as soon as I found out they were going to have a baby I was immediately ecstatic because that means I get to be an uncle! Well, an unofficial one, at least. Dave is one of my best friends, and we're so blessed to have both Dave and Jenny in our lives.

Anyway, Jenny is due sometime this week, so every time the phone rings I think it's them calling to tell me they're speeding to the hospital :) Anyways, here's some fun pictures!

One of Dave's many talents: looking pregnant :)

I ADORE this picture! Can't you just see how much they love each other, and how ready they are to welcome a new little one into the world to love as well? They are going to be such amazing parents :)

Right before snapping this one, all I said was "Just think about it - in less than a week you'll be parents, how cool is that." Dave gave her a big ol' squeeze.

Erin, Jenny, Nicole, and Richelle hanging out before we grabbed a sweet lunch at Wahoo's after Dave & Jenny's session. Richelle was down visiting from the bay area, and Nicole is a good friend from Hume Lake, and she's now down in San Diego on staff at Shadow Mountain. What a cool group of girls :)

You've gotta love CNN

I'm sure you're all probably aware of all the hubub about some of the dangerous chemicals that Apple is using in their headphones, but you've got to check this video out on CNN. First of all, Dr. Sanjay Gupta routinely says/does the most hilarious things and this video is no exception, and I love it! The best part of the whole video is in the closing 10 seconds when Baxter (The anchor) says "For now, don't eat your iPhones." Classic CNN reporting :) Ok, I have to go listen to my iPod now, have a great day!

Click here to watch

Special thanks to Fake Steve for pointing this one out. Oh, and the best part? You can enter to win an Ipod directly on CNN's site after you watch the video about how the headphones can kill* you:

*Note: Don't panic, I don't think that there's anything to be concerned about. Carry on, peaceful citizens :)

Freedom! Finally!!!

I'm so excited right now because as of this moment, I finally have my e-mail Inbox completely empty. I seriously can't remember the last time it was empty, and it is such a great feeling! I get so many e-mails each day that it's really quite hard stay on top of all of them, but now that I've caught completely up, I'm confident I can return e-mails quicker than ever.

So from now on I'm going to do two things:

1) I'm checking my e-mail once a day. I got this idea from the 4HWW and I've been implementing this practice for about the last month, and it has really made me much more effective and efficient in responding to client e-mails. Seriously, if you check your e-mail more than two times a day, you have no idea how much more productive you can be by checking it less. It's counter-intuitive, I know, but trust me, it's amazing.

2) Responses in 24-48 hours. When I'm in town and not traveling, I'll be getting back to you within 24-48 hours, but hopefully quicker. One thing I always appreciate and I know my clients appreciate as well is timely responses, and so that's super high priority for me. If you need a response quicker than this, just give me a call and I'll help you out!

It's funny because we just shot our last wedding of the season last weekend (which was AMAZING by the way), and I feel more busy than ever! Now we get the sweet task of going through the close to 15,000 images we shot in between the beginning of October and now! I can't wait to share some of this stuff, I seriously think that we've shot some of my favorite images of all time in the last month and a half!

Just for proof:

Wondeful Friday Night

So, I'm sitting here on the couch, feet up on the coffee table and watching the Discovery Channel with my cat. When I was in college I would call this a super lame night, but right about now I call it absolute paradise! We've had such a busy wedding season, and it's been a ton of work (and it's not over yet!) and so it's sometimes nice just to slow down, stop, and relax.

We've got our last wedding of the year tomorrow, which is Angela and Ken's wedding up at the French Estate in Orange County and I'm so excited for it because Angela is a super talented and creative designer and I just know the wedding is going to be beautiful! I'm also excited because they're bringing in a video crew and the wedding is actually going to be broadcast live on the internet! Sweet!

Anyways, this is how I like to prepare for every wedding - the night before I really like to sit and focus, and just chill out. Usually Erin and I will go out on a date, or make a yummy dinner and curl up for a movie, or something like that.

A question I actually get asked a lot by other photographers is what I do to prepare for weddings. So this would be my biggest suggestion - just relax and get in the right frame of mind. I spend time making sure all my gear is all set- batteries charged, memory cards formatted, lenses & sensors cleaned, and then I have everything all ready to go for the morning. Then I usually sit and reflect on the time I've gotten to spend with the couple up to this point, check out their engagement pictures and remember that time together, and really focus on thinking about the things that make this couple special, and how I'm going to tell their love story in the morning. I know it sounds TOTALLY sappy, but I'm a sappy guy.

Anyways, I've got to get back to relaxing :) Speaking of, check out this video that I just grabbed of of Dane's blog. Think about it.