Do you like my haircut?

I went in for a haircut the other day, and I asked Gretchen to style it so that Erin would laugh when I got home. This is what she came up with:

Do you like my faux hawk? For those of you who are wondering, the moment I walked in the door Erin cracked up! Success!!!

Christmas 2007 Recap

Christmas 2007 with the Youngrens was AWESOME! Christmas is definitely my favorite time of year, with all the decorations and food and presents and time with family, it's just the best. This year, Erin and I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day here in San Diego with my side of the family, and my little brother Dan flew in from Indiana to join us. While I didn't take a ton of pictures, I did take some, so let me share them with you!

Leading up to Christmas, I had been putting Gracie's Santa hat on her every morning while I was getting ready for about 2 minutes, so she could get used to it for Christmas. As you can see from the following pictures, she was still not used to it, come Christmas morning. She does look awfully cute, though.

Erin and I spent the morning at our place opening gifts to each other, and then headed up to my folks' place in Rancho Santa Fe for the rest of the day.

Ok, check this out. My buddy Jeff of La Vida Creations gave me a hot tip for making omlettes, and I decided to give it a try Christmas morning for brunch with the family. At things like this, I always end up making omlettes made to order, and even with my mom's 6 burner viking range, I can't keep up and it's insanity making omlettes for everyone and have them all done at the same time. So Jeff tells me the other day at the San Diego PUG Christmas party his little secret.

You take all the goodies you want in your omlette, and throw them into a sandwich baggie:

Then I cracked three eggs into each of the baggies, and wrote with sharpie peoples names, and then had everybody squish up the ingredients:

Then you toss them in boiling water for 15 minutes. Jeff says 13 minutes, but I found 15 minutes to work best with 3 eggs.

Then, 15 minutes later, they're all done at the same time!!! And they're cooked PERFECTLY! It was a HUGE hit, you have to try it. Trust me!! Thank you so much Jeff!!!

My Dad and I. Can you see where I get the goofyness from?

Again, goofyness.

My little brother Dan, who drinks 14 cups of tea a day. How crazy is that! He's about to graduate from the University of Indiana with 3 majors and 2 minors and a 4.0. Yes, he is the smart brother.

The beautiful Christmas tree, with all kinds of good stuff beneath it!

Erin, Dan, and I holding some gifts from Grandma in Minnesota. Thanks Grandma! (She's an avid blog reader)

Yes, we torture our cats. This is Misty who put up pretty well with the Santa hat. She's weird though. Side story with misty: after the San Diego fires, which burned within about a mile of my parents home, Misty showed up at the back door. So my parents took her in, and despite their best efforts, they couldn't find her owner! She smelled like smoke and hadn't eaten in 10 days. Now she's a happy Santa cat.

Her and my Dad get along well. They're good buddies.

This is Santa Gaby. Super pissed.

Misty sleeping under the tree, in the middle of all the craziness.

Gaby, in the other room because she was pissed about the Santa Hat!

The last picture of the day, right before the wine started flowing and the food started coming in crazy quantities!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Some fun blog changes!

After re-doing the look of the blog a few months back, I finally got around to actually developing the navigation bar for the blog! I just implemented it, and I'm really excited because now it should make the browsing experience on the blog much easier and more productive.

A few things to note:

Categories: I've added the ability to quickly view only posts from certain categories, like Engagements, or Weddings.

Websites: Before this nav bar, once you were on the blog there was no way for you to navigate to the main website, which is a bummer! So that's all fixed in there too. You can select between the blog home page, our main website/portfolio and Pictage.com, who handles all our proofing and reprints.

Subscribe: Now you can select if you'd like to subscribe to the RSS feed in a reader (like Google Reader, or Bloglines or something), or better yet, subscribe via e-mail! E-mail subscribers will receive the entire contents of each post delivered to their e-mail Inbox! SWEET!

If any of you have any problems with the new navigation bar, could you leave a note in the comments letting me know? Thanks!

Paul & Echo | Engagement

Erin and I got to hang out with Paul and Echo the other day down in Coronado for a SWEET engagement session, and we really had a fantastic time. Paul is a trainer/instructor at the gym that I *sometimes* go to (I'll make a New Year's resolution, Paul) and I'd always heard about Echo from him, but never met her, aside from the little picture in his office of her. When I heard that he has popped the question, I was absolutely ecstatic, and then we he asked Erin and I to photograph them, I was thrilled!

Erin and I really enjoyed getting to know Echo a little bit, and we both agree that Paul is one lucky dude! They are basically the cutest couple ever, and I am so excited for them. Here's some favorites from the day:

I loved Echo's eyes; isn't she absolutely radiant? I am such a sucker for eyes! I asked Echo to look deeply into my lens, as if she was looking at Paul. Can't you just feel the emotion?

I really like this one that Erin snapped because you can only see their eye lashes, and it just makes you imagine what's going on. Plus Echo's smile is real cute in it.

Like I said, obsessed with eyes.

Random strange alley in Coronado + Awesome Light + Garage painted with a cool green + Gorgeous Couple = happy Jeff.

This is one of those images that I would ordinarily throw out because I didn't nail the focus. But sometimes it's those images that just bring out so much emotion, and make you feel so good. I love the way that Echo is just resting on Paul's chest. She seems so comforted, and I think that speaks volumes to the way that Paul makes her feel :)

How good looking are they?

I was laying in the middle of the street on my stomach shooting for this one. This was right before Echo noticed me in the street and started cracking up. Take note, future brides and grooms - I tend to lay in the street and in dirty places. A lot. It's the reason that Erin makes me wear black to weddings now.

And, Erin snapped my favorite shot of the day (again). Look at the way she is looking at him. The way Erin shot over Paul's shoulder, through the trees, and into the dark corner is incredible. For all you photographer types, this is straight out of the camera :)

While I was on an adjacent sand dune shooting the image on the left, Erin was grabbing the one on the right - she has such an eye for detail. Love it!

Hot!

The Hotel Del Coronado was lit up so nicely for Christmas - it made the most picturesque backdrop.

I just adore this last image, I just love everything about it :)

Thanks you guys for such a fun afternoon! Let's grab dinner or drinks soon!

Okay, I'll admit it...

I'm a total perfectionist! I was sitting around today spending some time editing images from some recent sessions, and I found myself thinking - "Wow! I love these images, I can't wait to blog them!" And then I asked myself, "Self, why don't you just blog them now?" Well, because they're not done!

I find that's how it always goes, though, and that's why I never end up blogging the stuff we do, because I'll finish editing a wedding, and then it's one thing after the other with reprints, albums, canvas prints, and before I know it, time has just flown by!

So, that said, I'm going to try blogging some favorites from each session right off the bat! Wish me luck!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Jeff, Erin, and Gracie! Have a wonderful day everyone!!

Paige & Dan | Engagement

We recently got to shoot Paige & Dan's engagement pictures, and it was such a blast! We always encourage the couples we work with to think outside the box when it comes to their e-session, and Paige and Dan were so creative! We had a wonderful time just walking around, and having so much fun together, and I think Mission Beach is one of my new favorite places to shoot!

These two were naturals in front of the camera - I don't think either of them can take a bad picture. Of course, Dan does spend his days at work in front of a camera, so that explains it a bit!

The love they share between them is so amazing and tender, can't you just see it in the pictures? Enough of my blabbing - check out some favorites! I posted a BUNCH of favorites because I'm really trying to get back in the habit of blogging more images, more frequently!

Little known fact: Paige LOVES coke from the soda fountain, not so much from a can :)

I just love this shot that Erin grabbed from above...

Can't you just feel the emotion? He loooooooves her!

Dan looks so dang good in a suit! And can you tell how much Paige loves him in a suit?

Probably my favorite shot of the day; Erin snapped this one while I was trying to convince the carousel worker to turn on the lights even though it was still daytime :) How studly does Dan look?

We wanted to have a relaxed formal look...I just think it looks like they just stepped out of the symphony into an alley to get some alone time :) So fun! This whole series is sweet!

Look how she looks at him :)