Hi, folks!  It’s 2009 and it’s going to be a great year.  I thought I’d post some of my personal resolutions for the upcoming year.

1. Commit to getting back in shape.  OK, you knew that one had to make the list.
2. Spend less on gear.  This may actually be harder than hitting the gym.
3. Book a destination wedding.  Who wouldn’t?
4. Develop a portrait promotional kit as good as my wedding one.  On second thought, let’s improve both!
5. Take my wife on a killer vacation.  Last year, we had a big family trip to San Diego and it was awesome.  This time, it’ll be the two of us.
6. See my mom more often.
7. Get my podcast backlog down to zero.

So, what are your resolutions?

I’m a week late posting this, but better late than never!  The family had a blast this holiday…too many meals, just the right amount of gifts, and some good cheer.  I thought I’d post today in black and white.  It kind of bucks the trend of showing everything in full, over-saturated color, as seems to be the rage these days.  Anyway, here are the boys and my lovely wife on Christmas morning.

For you photographers…24-70mm lens (shot wide in many cases for a documentary feel).  Straight curves conversion to B&W.  Added slight noise and darkened edge slightly.

Gosh, I can’t believe how cool today’s couple was.  Bella and Justin are just the nicest people you’d ever want to meet.  Bella came to me after a less-than-satisfying experience with another photographer–we won’t name names because I don’t even want to know.

Anyway, they wanted some pictures in their full wedding gear, so we headed out to Las Olas this morning to get some fabulous pics.  Despite me walking them around for almost two hours and one dress change, they were still as motivated on the last shot as they were on the first!

The first shot is pretty clean while the other two are just fun edits.  Check out Justin’s glasses in the second pic.  More to come later!

OK, so my mom’s been on my case about family portraits.  I love you, mom!  Fortunately, I was able to corral the family together for some simple, individual headshots.  I know, it’s not exciting, highly-creative stuff, but we’re long overdue for pictures and it was a bit easier to focus on the boys one-on-one.  As they enter the teen years, they’ve developed a certain self-consciousness and are doubly shy in front of the camera.  I was shy…am shy…so I understand.

Besides, we did a little creative shooting earlier in the morning with Liam…more on that in an upcoming post!

Anyway, here we are.

Liam

Luke

My wife, Karen

Yours truly.

Oh, by the way, with the exception of just a little white balance adjustment, these are straight out of the camera.  How I do love my new D3!  Note to photographers: these were all taken outside, in shade, under the corner of an office building.  I’m not a big fan of upward light–and you can see a bit of it here from the reflection off the marble floor–however, it actually softens the skin quite nicely.  I like it.

If you’re wondering why the background on my portrait is different, it’s not that I want to stand out.  We actually took mine earlier in the morning.  After I’d taken the others, I forgot to have my wife reshoot me.  Darn it!

Ahsaki and Dominic are a pair of the sweetest people you’ll ever want to meet. She came to me on a referral–which is always cool–and there was just no way I was going to turn her down when she asked me to shoot her wedding.

Saturday turned out to be a really awesome day. The people were all so amazingly nice that I had a fantastic time.  Congratulations, you two!