i love my DHL delivery guy...

...well not LOVE him, as in i want to marry him love him..but love him as in he just made my day. :)

he delivered our eurail passes today!! OH MY WORD!

NOW i'm getting really giddy excited..in fact i started to cry...how blessed am i to be able to be going on this trip. sigh.. god is too good to me.. :)















and i picked up our euros today...ahhhh! this is so crazy!! stay tuned!! this blog will be buzzin!

7 days and counting..!!!!!!!!

so a week tomoro erin, my BFF, and i will driving at 430 am to seattle and jet off to cinncinati and thru to paris, france, and our final flight to zurich, switzerland..

i'm a litte excited now.. WE LEAVE IN A WEEK! and then brought tons of stress - I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE WE ARE STAYING, WHERE WE ARE GOING AND WE LEAVE IN A WEEK! chuckle...so it was wonderful to have tea with our neighbor, iolla, who is from italy. :) she let me borrow a great book on venice and told me places i "must see"..

then i got home and full on stressed - erin, do we drive from germany to italy or train it? after much discussion, we decided we'd buy our eurorail passes and leave out mondo stress! great! we now have transpo from zurich to munich (travel day 1 of 5 with our pass!)















(zurich, switzerland)

we are staying in zurich one night with my friends, who are getting married, at a 4 star hotel - their treat! this will be cool to explore a bit there..from there we will use the eurorail pass and go to munich.






















(munich glockenspiel)

when we get to munich, that is the only part we are still uncertain about.. where we will be staying. will we be staying in munich or outside of munich? the thing is, it's oktoberfest - and that brings in 6 million visitors! that's what i said, what!?!? :) so i asked j if he met/knew anyone from germany, namely munich area from his week long leadership thingy he had in malaysia last year. he said he did! so he will email and we'll see what we can do! :)















(garmisch-partenkirchen)

from munich we'll spend 3 days south in a place called Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a market town, not too far from the border of austria. this is the area in which my friend's wedding will take place..we've talked about the castle in lindorf.. that would be a FABULOUS place to shoot! :)
















(city of venice)

from Garmisch-Partenkirchen we will train to venice.. :) we're actually going to take the train late at night and sleep thru the night - no need for another room for the night - sleep on the train! and will stay almost 4 days there. we are staying in a hostel there.. very cute place with great reviews.. woot! this is where my tea with iolla comes in! our hostel is right in venice, and we plan to go to burano and murano islands too...the colored glass and the lace apparently is really cool..and san marco square and the bridges and the canals..as iolla said, "get lost in venice..cuz you can always find your way by following the flow of people".. so i'm thinking getting lost is in order!






















(canals in venice)

















(burano, 7km from venice)

then we will head back to munich and probably crash at the airport that night - our flight leaves munich at 7am! we then fly to paris, have a 3 hr wait and onwards west to cinncinati and back to seattle.

doesn't that sound crazy?? i actually can't believe we're really doing it.. altho after buying the eurorail pass, i was like, "ya i just bought an EXPENSE train ticket!" so it kinda sunk it! but sooo much fun!

i'm packing light - a small suitcase or large backpack for my stuff, and my small laptop backpack. i know! i can't believe it! whether or not that ACTUALLY happens or not is another, but thinking that is the way to go when we're going from place to place.

so ya.. :) if you have any packing tips, ideas for things we should see, etc, email me.. i'd love to hear them, as we're keeping everything pretty open!

and i will do a daily blog, when possible..how many photos i'll post is another thing - it may NOT be as extensive as our philippines trip..but then again, who knows! :)

i'm going to bed..my brain is mush and i'm going to dream of venice.. :)

autumn is near..

isn't it funny that after the labor day weekend, it just starts to cool off at night? yes, autumn is near..one of my most favorite seasons.. :)

shot a couple more weddings this weekend - on friday with the ever lovely erin g and yesterday with sir reilly of blue olive. both of which were good times, of course! it was so great to see miranda walking about - i haven't seen her in a few weeks. :)

sunday today...what can we blog about sunday sept 7....

* 10 days til i trapse off to europe with my BFF to photograph my friend's wedding in munich, germany and their post wedding pics in venice, italy.. i'm ooober excited!

* i officially have 10 weddings left to shoot - with liz, erin g and reilly, and then one myself.

*15 years ago today i met my wonderful hubby for the first time, then super cool single guy with long locks and bell bottoms.. :)

* it's the wedding anniversary of my parents..i think 38 years.. give or take!

ya so that's today. :) i leave you with a few photos of the wedding i shot with erin g on friday..she got some STELLAR shots. :)







take a boo at her blog to check out the rest!

weddings, weddings, and more weddings!

it's been almost 2 weekends since i posted anything about weddings..mmmm, cuz i've been shooting so many! the 4 wedding weekend came and went and i survived.. :) then there was a two wedding weekend last weekend, and this past weekend was a one wedding weekend, that was 16 hours.

i have survived. i know.. it's a miracle really, but i have truly survived. ;)

when the photogs whom i've shot for either post some more, or give me some of the files of the stuff i shot, i'll post some.. :) but they are all waaaaaaaay more busy than i, with the editing and post wedding busyness, so y'all will have to be patient. :)

until then i leave you with this really rad video of hayley..she lives downstairs with her ultra rad parents, our best friends. we were coming back from jericho beach yesterday and she was singing wonderpets theme song over and over and over and over. she's so rad! :)

enjoy!

tbomb and strawberry vale

so my dear friend tanya, who lived with us for about 6 months, was in town drumming for a band at the railway club tonight.. being that i haven't seen tanya since mid june, a visit was in order! the band she was drumming for, strawberry vale, was part of the international pop overthrow festival..tres cool. they go up the coast from LA, to portland and land in vancouver.. check out strawberry vale's music on their myspace page..www.myspace.com/strawberryvale

here are a few snaps from tonight's show..

a little shakin' going 'round

so as i was reading my daily news whilst chompin on cheerios this morning, i found this on the AP, associated press.. whoa! one of the joy's of living on the west coast, i suppose....!

Large quake off Canada's Vancouver Island

2 hours ago

VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — A strong earthquake struck at sea Thursday off Canada's Pacific coast west of Vancouver Island, but was too small to generate a tsunami, Canadian and US officials reported.

Initial government reports indicated it was a quake of 6.1-magnitude, but the US Geological Survey later downgraded it to 5.8.

The quake occurred at 5:37 a.m. local time (1237 GMT) some 153 kilometers (95 miles) west-southwest of Port Hardy on the northern tip of the island, and 472 kilometers (293 miles) from Vancouver, the largest city in western Canada, said the US agency.

Natural Resources Canada said it was the largest of "a series of earthquakes occurring in the seismically active region" beginning late Monday.

"These earthquakes are too far offshore to be felt on land and too small to generate a tsunami," the Canadian government agency said.

Glen Plummer, spokesman for Emergency Management British Columbia, the province's emergency preparedness agency, said Thursday's pre-dawn earthquake was "nothing to be alarmed about," as it was "not an unusual event."

No reports of casualties or damage had come in to the agency, Plummer said.

Experts say Canada's Pacific Coast is overdue for a major earthquake, but a British Columbia government website on seismic activity points out that the province "experiences an earthquake every day, but only a small number of these quakes are noticeable and even fewer result in damage."

i heart the oregon coast

just a couple snaps of our trek to the oregon coast after our great night in portland meeting old friends!

we decided to hit up cannon beach, seaside and astoria..wow...simply wow..

will post more later..but here's a few..

some exciting news..

sitting with my dear friend at a great thai diner in burnaby, we were discussing what it is like being a second shooter here in the city of vancouver.

i have had rolling around in my brain in the last six months, there's got to be a venue for us second shooters.. but how? where? what?... since moving here almost a year and a half ago, i am beginning to know the wedding photography market and the role of a second shooter so vital to most principal photographers.

so back to the great thai diner.. after some amazing convo and inspiration, i started a group... i put it's initial page on facebook as a venue for people to see it instantly and so i can get a feel of where it's gonna go.. :)

check it out.. vancouver wedding photographer second shooters.

i'm really excited to see where this network or guild, of sorts, goes.. stay tuned!

wedding #2 of 4...

this weekend was crazy busy!! i still feel like my brain is mush...but hey! :)

friday's wedding with erin g was absolutely spectacular...megan and philippe..she's from here, he's from switzerland..they met backpacking in australia..they now live in san fran.. it was a GORGEOUS day..from her getting ready, to our portrait session around town to the ceremony and reception at cecil green..did i mention the FLOWERS?!??!?! oh my WORD! i have NEVER seen so many flowers...they were absolutely mind-blowing.. :)

anyhow..check it out at erin's blog...

blue olives are my fave..

...as in reilly and miranda of BLUE OLIVE PHOTOGRAPHY!

this season i've shot some weddings with reilly...they have been so fun! and gosh, do i always learn something!! like, how MANY photos can you get in 5 seconds? or how many videographers does it take to... you get my drift? chuckle.. :)

anyhow, this is one of the first weddings i shot with reilly. honestly, i didn't know what to expect...all i can say was FUN! :)

here's a few pics..and you can look at the rest on their blog.

thanks for the fun times guys!! :)