Justine Ungaro

2007-06-15T09:54:00.001-07:00

NEW WEBSITE/ NEW BLOG

I just wanted to tell everyone that after months of hard work by Tea Brennan my new website has launched and I must say it is pretty fabulous. Please come for a visit, justineungaro.com. Also, please come visit the new blog. Be sure to bookmark the new page as I will be posting my blogs there from now on. Thanks for the support everyone!

xo,
Justine

2007-06-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

BABY DAY

I have been insanely busy during the past week I've been in D.C. so I've got tons to catch up on. I thought the first should be what I'm referring to as "Baby Day"...that was today where I spent some time with the latest additions to my life. I went to visit my beautiful "nieces" (the daughters of two of my oldest and closest friends), Payton and Ryane. First I went over to Mary and Andy's house to see Ryane who is about 12 weeks old. I think she looks exactly like both of her parents and has the hugest most beautiful blue eyes...you just can't fight those strong Powderly genes. :) They like to call her an orangutan/ dolphin because she makes squeaky noises and holds onto you like a little monkey.
We put Ryane in her daddy's firefighter helmet which was unbelievably adorable, although it didn't last too long. We may try again in a few weeks.

And here she is very happy on her mommy's shoulder.

Directly from there I headed over to Kelly and Erich's house. They were kind enough to loan me a car over the weekend so that I wouldn't have to rent one. Thanks again guys! :) So, I got to spend some quality time with Payton Marie Hoffman who is the newest edition to our big happy family. She's such a little peanut, still tiny but a fiesty little one. We stuck her in a basket wrapped in a beautiful blanket (knitted by her grandmother Marylou) to take some pictures, she didn't seem to mind too much. Eventually she got tired of being nude and her mommy rescued her. She does have HUGE feet by the way, in case you read my previous speculation. Here are a couple of images...

2007-06-08T21:32:00.000-07:00

NIKKI & PETER'S ENGAGEMENT SESSION

Yesterday evening I headed over to the Marine Corps Memorial, more popularly known as "Iwo Jima" to shoot Nikki & Peter's engagement portraits. They are a fabulous couple who are getting married on this year's most popular date, 7/7/07. This particular date has created something of a phenomenon in the wedding industry...literally everyone is booked, it's like there aren't enough vendors around to take care of all of the brides who want to get married on this date. Luckily though Nikki and I managed to find eachother and I'm really looking forward to their wedding. Here are a few images from our session.

This turned out to be a terrific "D.C." location since you can see all of the monuments from up on the hill as well as Arlington Cemetary...all from the same location. Can you spot the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial in the background? These were lit by the sun like fireballs at this point so I shot in RAW (as usual) and used layers in order to get the right exposure for the couple as well as the background. I just love the magic of photoshop! :)

2007-06-07T12:24:00.001-07:00

SHUT UP STELLA WEBISODE #5

2007-06-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

SHE'S HERE!

Payton Marie Hoffman (as impatient as she is adorable) arrived 4 weeks early at 5:05pm on May 31st, weighing in at an impressive 5 lbs. 11 oz. and almost 19 inches long. I think the feet have yet to be measured but I imagine they are probably of a formidable size. Everyone is home and doing great! Here are Payton's first pictures. She and baby Ryane Ashley Devlin a.k.a. "RAD" will both be getting their first official portrait sessions (by me of course) on my visit to D.C. this week. :)

2007-06-02T23:08:00.000-07:00

Michael just sent this to me which he pulled off of the message board on Kay's website, www.kayhanley.com. One of the Cleo fans used my picture and created some "apple art". I changed the font a little to make it more accurate. :)

2007-06-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

REDCAR SHOW

Wednesday night Gary and I headed over to Spaceland in Silverlake to see Michael play with a band called Redcar. They were so incredible. Michael played bass which I have never seen him play before. Such a really great band, can't wait to see them play again. Brought my camera and grabbed a few pictures.

USA Mike on the bass

They even had a string section for some songs...

2007-05-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

FUN WITH REMOTES

I'm sure this video is hilarious for any photographers out there who have been to a trade show before. Here are David Jay, Kevin Swan & Nathan Holritz spicing things up with an apple remote control during the PPA (Professional Photographers of America) trade show. So funny! Is it funny to non-photographers? Please tell me, or are we all just big geeks? :)

2007-05-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

OLIVER & I TO BE FEATURED IN MAGAZINE AD

Check this out, Oliver and I will be appearing with other wedding photographers in an ad for Gary Fong's "We love our Fong Dongs" ad campaign. Pretty cool, huh?

2007-05-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

SHUT UP STELLA WEBISODE #4

2007-05-29T16:48:00.000-07:00

NEW WEDDING SLIDESHOW

I just finished posting a new slideshow of wedding images so take a look. Thank you to the beautiful and talented Nina Gordon for the music. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

2007-05-27T01:11:00.000-07:00

A SATURDAY NIGHT IN HOLLYWOOD

Okay, so I think tonight my very well have been one of the most completely random evenings I've had in L.A. so far. First Gary and I met up with David Rich (Janet's husband) and Lisa at the Arclight to see "Once". It was so amazing, unlike anything I've ever seen before. I don't really want to say anything specific about it but please go see it!

As we were leaving the theatre, Lisa asked if everyone was going home or did we want to go to Bobcat Goldthwait's birthday party? That seemed like the most random thing we could possibly do so we all got in our cars and drove to this funky little gallery called FAKE. www.fakedotcom.com. (please excuse these photos, they were shot with my phone)

It was full of all sorts of crazy art. This was my favorite piece, it's called Crazy Person Magazine.

In case you can't read them, some of the headlines are:
"What the voice in your head isn't telling you"
"New! Tin foil hats just in time for spring"
"Paranoid? Look behind you."
"Double Issue, over 100 pages of gibberish"
"Price: 1 handful of dirt"

So anyway, we walked in and there were only about 25 people there and everyone was watching this bizarre little jam band playing weird songs that sounded like they were making them up as they went along. Then Gary noticed that the singer was Tom Kenny, the voice of Sponge Bob Squarepants. Okay, so I got to watch Sponge Bob serenade Bobcat Goldthwait for his birthday...talk about random.

After the "show", we stuck around for a while to eat some donut muffin things from Big Sugar and to tell Bobcat happy birthday. Such a nice nice guy. What a fun night!

2007-05-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

WEBSITE COMING SOON!

I just paid a visit to my fabulous web designer's home page and I see that my in-progress design is up on her site as the current project. Tea is such an incredible designer as you can see and I'm so excited for my site to go live soon. If anyone out there needs a new website you definitely should stop by to visit her site and look through her portfolio, www.linkartist.com.au. You can see what the main page will look like in the lower right corner of the screen...

2007-05-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

SHUT UP STELLA WEBISODE #3

Just wait til the real tv show...you all are going to love it and you can say you knew the girls when... :)

2007-05-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

I CRASHED THE BMI MUSIC AWARDS

Well sort of. Last week Gary and I tagged along with Kara DioGuardi to the BMI Music Awards with our cameras...just for the hell of it really.

We rode along in the limo with all of the girls from Art House Entertainment...they were having such a good time playing jokes on Stephen, Kara's business partner. At one point they called him to say that Kara had too much to drink and that the limo had to pull over for her to throw up. He totally didn't buy it but it got some good laughs.

The awards were held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire a.k.a. the "Pretty Woman" hotel. Recognize the lobby? :)

I saw my girl Lisa Loeb in the press line.

Here she is doing one of the poses I taught her...arms away from the body!

Here is Kara being interviewed for E!

And running into the beautiful Kat McPhee

Gary and I both agreed that she should just give up music and be a movie star instead, just so stunning.

I'm not sure why but Jesse Metcalf from Desperate Housewives was there...and super cute!

Jesse w/ the president of BMI and some other guys...I obviously didn't belong there since I didn't know who anyone was :)

Me & Gary, photo by Lisa Loeb...notice anything new?

At this point, everyone started moving into the ballroom for the awards themselves. Gary and I were about to leave but then Kara caught us and dragged us in and sat us down at a table with everyone from Art House. We sat there and drank wine and ate filet as if we had actually been invited. No one seemed to care so we stayed for the whole thing. I was not allowed to have my camera in there but no kicked me out.
The Foo Fighters winning an award

Kara receiving an award for a Bo Bice song

She received 3 awards that night. Yay Kara!

2007-05-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

BIRTHDAY/ ENGAGEMENT PICTURES @ PINZ

I know that a lot of you have been waiting to see some pictures from the big night! So here they are courtesy of Jessie. I was too much of a dope that night to remember to bring my camera.

The first picture of the ring

Kay gave a beautiful toast

Gary showing off his excellent work and me grinning like an idiot (which I did all night)

Jessie & me

Kara & me

Hillary & Dave came out to celebrate, they are getting married this weekend!

Big brother Michael & me

Gary, Cheri & Burke

Kay, me & Jessie after a little too much champagne :)

Vanilla on vanilla from Big Sugar...I love Vanilla!

The always gorgeous Jackie Brubaker

2007-05-23T10:55:00.001-07:00

KAY HANLEY LIVE AT THE KEY CLUB

Last night we went to see Kay and Michael play a gig at the Key Club in West Hollywood. It was so much fun, the Shut Up Stella girls were there and Fan even went up to perform a song with Kay. It's so amazing to see them play live since it's a pretty rare occurrence these days but it does take me back to the early/mid-nineties when I used to go with all of my friends to see Letters to Cleo play at the 9:30 club and other D.C. venues. Of course I was underage then and it was always on a school night. The Fairfax girls remember those times, don't you ladies? Who remembers Erin almost killing us on the way home by entering the beltway via the exit ramp? Yeah, that is burned into my memory forever...I think that's my only real memory of Erin screaming at anyone.
The one and only Kay Hanley

USA Mike, Guitar God

2007-05-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

SHUT UP STELLA WEBISODE #2

Here is the 2nd webisode, enjoy!

2007-05-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

A BBQ WITH THE BLOODS AND THE CRIPS

Last weekend I sent my mother a text message that mentioned that I had just come from a bbq with the Bloods and the Crips. She didn't really have anything to say about that except that it was the oddest text message she had ever received. It's true though, last Saturday I spent the afternoon in east L.A. with former members of L.A.'s most notorious gangs. The point of the whole thing was to shoot footage for a potential reality show in the works about this guy Lorenzo who back in the 80's was partially responsible for bringing crack into the ghettos of L.A. He spent time in prison and upon returning to his neighborhood, experienced first-hand the devastation that he had helped to create. So, now he has dedicated his life to helping to mentor children out of gang life and arranged this historical "round table" meeting of former members of the Bloods and the Crips in order to discuss how they can address this issue one kid at a time. It was really an incredible experience and we were welcomed with open arms into a neighborhood and a community that I knew absolutely nothing about. I look forward to the next encounter. I was happy to have my camera with me...

2007-05-20T00:21:00.001-07:00

DINOSAUR JR.

Boy to I have some blogging up to do so here I go. Last Sunday night Gary and I went to the Troubadour to see Dinosaur Jr. play. Now that is a LOUD show if I ever heard one. Even with earplugs in all night I still thought I might go deaf. They sounded fantastic though and I don't think I've suffered from any permanent hearing loss so far so that's good. I was lucky enough to be allowed to bring my camera in to grab some pictures...but it was hard! I'll tell you what, I don't envy photographers who actually try to make a living doing this sort of thing. The light on stage is constantly changing. Some moments it's black, other times multiple colors, some highlights blow out...like long, platinum hair :) and everyone is moving a lot so it's almost impossible to focus when you're shooting at f 1.2. Also, there was no way I was going to make my way up to the stage among the fans so I found a little tiny nook up on the balcony. I think I even made some enemies up there. Anyway, I did manage to grab a few shots and here they are.

2007-05-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

BABY BOY GOES TO THE SPA

I just have to take a minute to give a plug to the best dog groomers in the whole world! Yesterday I took Oliver for a much needed trip to the groomer. We decided to try out Tailwashers http://www.twaggers.com since it's just down the street.

The staff there couldn't possibly have been more wonderful or loving to Oliver. In additional to a great-looking summer cut, he also got an oatmeal skin treatment, a blueberry facial and an adorable brown and turquoise bow tied to his harness. They said that those colors just seemed like him. (funny because those are colors of my living room and bedroom in my house in Fairfax where Oliver lived for 2.5 years) Although he usually emerges a little freaked out from trips to the groomer, they were so gentle and sweet with him that he is totally himself this time, just less fuzzy and dirty. :)

So cheers to everyone at Tailwashers, we will be back very soon!

2007-05-14T22:07:00.000-07:00

THE BIG NEWS

Okay okay for those of you in the know, I just wanted to be sure that I called everyone who would be mad at me if they first heard about this on my blog. But I guess I can't delay this post any longer so here it is...I got engaged on Friday! Yes, that's right, I am now going to be on the other side of the whole wedding thing. Now here's the story of the proposal.

Gary was sick all last week. I thought he was just under the weather. In fact, he was nervous and anxious and upset about all of the lies and deception over trips to the jewelry store and making all sorts of schemes behind my back. He had this big plan to take me down to Laguna Beach to this beautiful old Inn where we stayed a couple of years ago. One night we spent hanging out in the hotel bar for hours and were entertained by a very ecclectic and charming bartender named Jerry. He was one of those characters that you can't ever forget. Especially after he gave us some of those toy paratroopers and told us to throw them off the roof and to make a wish. If the wind was right, they were supposed to be carried to the ocean and your wish would come true. We threw ours off the roof and they just plummetted to the parking lot below. But you get the point. So anyway, Gary tracked down Jerry and made reservations at the same hotel for my birthday. He even had his art department working on some sort of puzzle that Jerry was supposed to have me work on which would lead up to the big moment. The plan was all in motion and then I stepped in with "I want to have a bowling party for my birthday." Of course I thought we were just celebrating my 29th birthday, I didn't know about the rest of it. So poor Gary had to cancel all of the plans he had made.

Instead, here's what happened. The bowling party was arranged as planned at PINZ in Studio City to begin at 8pm. Gary and I left our house around 5 to go grab an early dinner. I had suggested Niko Niko, our usual sushi restaurant. But then I figured that Gary had a plan for my bday and I should just shut up and go along with it. So I did. I didn't know where we were going but once we hit the Magic Castle I had a pretty good idea...we were going to Yamashiro, a Japanese restaurant up in the hills with the most amazing views of all of L.A. This was also the site of our first kiss...aww. I still had no clue what was about to happen though. Gary said that we were early for our reservation so we should take a walk through the garden and check out the view. So we did. And then the conversation got serious. A lot of the specifics are a blur but it ended with Gary down on one knee and asking me to marry him. I had to sit down on his knee and then proceeded to cry and rub snot all over his shirt. Sometime during all of this, he pulled out the most beautiful ring I have ever seen and slipped it right onto my finger. This just led to more blubbering and more snot. Obviously I said yes and we went inside and ate dinner and stared at the ring. And here it is...

More to come soon...

2007-05-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

MOTHER'S DAY CARD

He's at it again. My father really had fun making photo collage cards this weekend. Here is the one he did for my mom for mother's day. So cute!!! Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there. :)

2007-05-11T12:20:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME... :)

Well today is my 29th bday and I actually do feel a little older, not in a bad way though. I think it's just one of those days where you have to stop and think "wow, where did my 20's go?" I guess I should have seen it coming because I do remember turning another year older every year of my twenties...some years are more blurry than others. Anyway, my dad just sent me the most adorable home-made birthday card of old pictures. Definitely some awkward phases in there... :) Have a good laugh at my expense today.

2007-05-10T23:42:00.000-07:00

LAX FENDER BENDER

Yesterday I hopped in my car around mid-day, it was 90-something degrees out, partly because we were experiencing a heat wave...partly because of the heat from the fire that was still burning a short ways away. Anyway, I headed over to the west side to meet Tina Brogi for some lunch. When I got out of my car I realized that it was freezing over there and totally foggy.

Tina and I talked about the nature of the wedding business here in L.A. and talked about how we should teach a seminar about how to start over and rebuild your business in a totally new place. She moved from St. Louis, I came from D.C., but here we are in L.A. and having to start from scrach all over again.

After lunch we picked up her son Anthony from school and then jetted over to LAX to pick up her husband Scott. Just as we were about to pull over to the curve, we were sideswiped by a bus. That meant talking to the police and giving them a statement and blah blah blah. An hour later we were on our way again.

Here are a few pictures for your entertainment...
the damage

Anthony was very happy playing video games in the car

Tina in front of the culprit bus

The police officers were so incredibly friendly and wonderful

And back at the house, this is Tina and Scott's darling baby girl. She has the fuzziest hair you've ever seen, it sticks straight up. So cute!

2007-05-08T23:39:00.000-07:00

I CHASE FIRES

While I know that if my parents were here in L.A., they probably would have told me to run away from today's fire as fast as possible. That's why I'm so happy to have friends here who instead will say, "if you can just get closer to those big flames, you could really get an amazing shot!" While maybe not the smartest thing ever, I'd have to side with the friends over family on this one.

That's why when Conroy called to tell me that our neighborhood was on fire, I immediately jumped in my car and drove 4 blocks over to his place for a better view on the roof of his building. And this is what we saw...

2007-05-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

MOTHER'S DAY SPECIAL

Ever since I got these fabulous letter-pressed gift certificates in (see most recent post), they have been enormously popular. So, I figure I will offer a little special in honor of Mother's Day (which is this Sunday, by the way) in case any of you out there need a last minute gift. The gift certificates are good for a portrait session in either D.C. or L.A. and one 8"x10" matted fine-art print. This is a $500 value which I'm offering for $275. I'll even overnight it to you or send it directly to the special lady in your life on your behalf. If interested, please just send me an email to justine@studiodiana.com to let me know and I'll take care of your shopping for you. :)

2007-05-06T15:37:00.000-07:00

MY NEW STATIONARY

This post is a bit late, but a few weeks ago I finally got to pick up all of my printed materials. I labored and fretted over the design for months but I am so thrilled that everything is finally done! I went with a local company here in L.A. called Aardvark Letterpress (www.aardvarkletterpress.com). It is a small, family-owned business consisting of a father and his two sons as well as a number of printing employees. They couldn't have been more helpful or lovely to work with. They even re-printed all of my business cards when I changed my mind about the first batch.

Here are some pictures. What do you think?

2007-05-02T22:51:00.000-07:00

SHUT UP STELLA

Last night I went to King King in Hollywood for a performance by Shut Up Stella as they shot for the MTV pilot that has been going on for the past week or two. Here are a few images of the girls performing.

Kristen

Fan

Jessie

2007-05-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

KARA'S WEBSITE

Today I got an email from Art House Entertainment. It seems that Kara is going to be recieving some awards from BMI next week and they needed a picture for various PR purposes so I sent one over from our recent shoot. They are also up on her website. www.karadioguardi.com. Yay!

2007-05-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

PATTY & ROB'S WEDDING

Well I am back now in L.A. after a rather whirlwhind trip to D.C. I somehow managed to bang out what seemed like hundreds of shoots, meetings, and various bday activiites in a matter of 9 days. Phew, I am exhausted. Somewhere during all the madness I also managed to shoot the wedding of a Patty and Rob, a really darling couple from Tampa, FL. The ceremony was held at St. Mary's of Piscataway in Clinton, MD. I found out afterwards that this is the church that my grandfather actually attended for many years. Since it's kind of in the boonies this was quite a coincidence. Afterwards, I rode with Patty and Rob in a Rolls Royce where we did some pictures in front of the Capitol Building and then it was off to the Willard Hotel for the reception but not before Patty and Rob got out of the Rolls and into a horse-drawn carriage for a 5-minute ride around the block for a grand entrance into the cocktail hour. Ominously cloudy skies caused the cocktail hour to be moved inside but guests were able to enjoy the show through the windows on the 2nd floor. Here are a few favorites of the day so far...

2007-04-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

MARIA & ANDREW'S ENGAGEMENT SESSION

Yesterday I met up with Maria and Andrew for their engagement session at the Lincoln Memorial. I'm shooting their wedding on June 9th at Meridian House in D.C. and it's going to be a fabulous event. What a gorgeous couple, I see a sample album in the near future. :) Here are a few favorites from the shoot.

2007-04-23T19:41:00.002-07:00

PATTY'S BRIDAL PORTRAIT

Patty (one of my darling brides) came to visit me at the D.C. studio for some pre-wedding bridal portraits this afternoon. Her wedding is coming up this weekend at the Willard Hotel in Washington D.C. this Saturday. The Willard is this amazing old hotel just filled with history. I lifted a couple of images off of the Willard website.
Building exterior

The bathroom of the Jenny Lind Suite, I have photographed bridesmaids eating lunch in this bathtub...yes this is the actual view from the tub

Here are a few factoids about the place...

Nathaniel Hawthorne described the hotel with the following passage.
"This hotel, in fact, may be much more justly called the center of Washington and the Union than either the Capitol, the White House, or the State Department... You exchange nods with governors of sovereign states; you elbow illustrious men, and tread on the toes of generals; you hear statesmen and orators speaking in their familiar tones. You are mixed up with office seekers, wire pullers, inventors, artists, poets, prosers... until identity is lost among them."

The hotel has hosted every president, as a sleeping guest or at a social function, from Franklin Pierce in 1853 to the current President.

President Ulysses S Grant, after a long day in the Oval Office, used to escape the pressures of the presidency with a brandy and a cigar in the Willard Lobby, where many would-be power brokers approached him on individual causes. Grant called these people "lobbyists", hence the term today.

Now that the history lesson is over, here are a few images from today.
Rob (Patty's fiance) specifically requested the infrared look

A little loungy

A little demure

A little fun

2007-04-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

KAY HANLEY, TIGGER & POOH

Hey everyone, check on my amazing rock star sister-in-law, Kay singing the theme song to "Tigger & Pooh". I missed this shoot but Gary went and said it was amazing...he thought he had stumbled onto the set of a movie. I was so sorry to have missed all the madness. Hope you enjoy!

2007-04-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

RETOUCHING FOR BEAUTY

I checked with my friend Jackie to make sure she was okay with me using her as an example for a little lesson I've been wanting to do about how to retouch faces for beauty-type images. Obviously she said yes and since she's a beautiful girl anyway, it was very easy just to do a few things to make her headshots "pop" even more.

The first thing I did for this image (which I shot in raw on a Canon 5D with a 70-200 f2.8 lens) was to take a look to see what I could do to enhance it. The first thing I usually do with women (and we all have some issues) is to see what the skin needs in order to improve the overall image. That usual entails a little bit of work under the eyes and maybe cleaning up a few minor blemishes and softening every so slightly around the mouth. So on this image, I used the healing toolbrush to fix any little dots on her skin. Then I set the cloning stamp at about 15% opacity and sampled the skin on the cheek area. Then I ran it back and forth under her eyes a few times to take away any darkness and to soften the lines under the eyes just slightly. You want the person to look like themselves, only well rested and maybe a couple years younger. This was very slight with Jackie since she is young and beautiful to begin with.

To proceed from here you need to have Kevin Kubota's Photoshop actions, you can get them at http://kubotaworkshops.com/store/catalog/index.html. You can also do everything on here the long way in PS if you're REALLY good (which I'm not) but it also takes longer. I recommend investing in actions or making your own in order to save lots of time.

So, the next thing I did was to take a look at her eyes, I wanted them to pop out at you a little bit more. So I used the "eyes & teeth enhance" action to whiten and desaturate her eyes just a little bit, then I reduced the opacity of that layer a little bit until I thought it looked natural. Using the same action, I also darkened her eyeliner just slightly. Then flattened the image.

Next, I applied the "lord of the rings everyday" action which is one of my favorites. This applies a softening look to the whole image. However, I only want her skin to look soft and creamy and not the whole image. So, I selected the eraser brush set at about 40% opacity and then erased the softening wherever I wanted the image to be sharp...her eyes, eybrows, lips and hair. At this point the real retouching is done and I just wanted to add a tiny bit of contrast and sharpening to the image. I do this with the "daily multivitamin" action. At this point the image looks fabulous but I also wanted to crop in a little closer to improve the composition and so that the focus is on just her face.

In the version at the top, I also took it one step further by adding Marcus Bell's "sepia halftone" action to bring the color down a little bit. Marcus is an incredible Australian photographer. His actions are available for sale at http://www.studioimpressions.com.au

Feel free to ask questions and leave a comment if you're interested in seeing more lessons like this...

2007-04-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

POLL #1 - WHO IS READING THIS BLOG

I've been having lots of fun with this blog but I feel like it needs to be a bit more interactive to I've decided to start posting some polls so that I know who is reading and what you like to read about/ look at. So, here's the first one....everyone please answer. It only takes a second and in the future I may offer some incentives...aka prizes. :) Consistency wins points people!

2007-04-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

OLIVER'S FIRST TRIP TO THE BEACH

Since I've been a little under the weather this week I thought it might be a good time to catch up on some old images I have yet to edit. About a month ago, Gary and I took Oliver to Malibu to this wonderful dog beach. He had soooo much fun, I mean I knew he would like it but he didn't know what to do with himself. He met some nice boys along the way who took pictures of him and gave him kisses. He was NOT as big a fan of the seagulls as he took every opportunity to chase them around. So much fun! Here are a few images.

Gary and Oliver take a stroll

Wonder what they're looking at?

Ollie makes some new friends

And has a run in with a seagull

The view on the drive home.

2007-04-17T17:41:00.000-07:00

JACKIE'S HEADSHOTS

Yesterday I had the pleasure of doing some headshots for my friend, Jackie Brubaker. She is an incredible makeup artist with her own agency called Dollface. www.dollfaceartists.com. She is also a singer and dabbles in acting a bit. I met her through ISES a few months ago and we have been friends ever since. Here are a few images from our shoot which we did in or around my yard and neighborhood.

2007-04-17T00:32:00.000-07:00

DEAL OR NO DEAL

In light of very sad events today...and because I've been waiting for these pictures to arrive by email, I figured now would be as good a time as any to post something really silly on this blog. And here it is. Last weekend Gary and I went to the season finale of Deal or No Deal. I am a huge fan of the show and honestly didn't know Howie Mandel from anything but an animated show called "Bobby's World" which I was really too old to be watching at the time anyway. Gary's friend Allison is a producer on the show so we got to waltz right in and got great seats in the one area that was not a "hot spot" for the cameras. We sat there for a bit. I noticed that across from us was Ty Pennington from Extreme Makeover Home Edition along with his family...they actually waited in line with all of the tourists which seemed pretty sweet of him. He got some applause upon being recognized and turned bright red. (Later on in the show, we realized that Danny Glover was sitting right in front of us.)

When the show finally started, we played along with all of the smiling and clapping we were supposed to be doing. And I think we were lied to because there was a camera about 3 feet from my face for a good solid half hour. Then I got really self conscious about how my smile probably looked stupid and how I knew my hair was messy. I'm sure we are going to be all over this show. Anyway, it was a real roller coaster ride and it's amazing how you feel so attached to the person playing the game...you really want them to walk home with some money. Gary and I were both supposed to be yelling "No Deal!" the whole time since we were both born during the first half of the year. I couldn't help but yell "Deal" pretty much as soon as the offer hit 6 figures which is exactly what I do when I watch from home. Luckily this lady didn't listen to me and she walked away with a lot more money than I would have.

It actually took 3 hours to film this show and since I hadn't eaten since breakfast, by about 11pm, I was starving and about to chew my own arm off. I was so happy when Allison invited us to stay for the after party because they were serving fried chicken! This is the first thing I did...

Once my belly was full, I pretended to take the deal...

Then Liz and I stood on the famous stairs and pretended to be models who showed up about 10 years too late for the job.

At this point, there was a dj spinning tunes and 20 year old models dancing all over the place. We called it Club DOND. It really was such a fun experience...and I plan to go back next season. I think that episode airs sometime in May or June so when I find out, I'll be sure to post the date and time so that you can all watch and laugh at me looking like a total idiot in the audience. :)

2007-04-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

PAULA ZAHN MAKES ME MAD!

I have been absolutely glued to CNN all day to watch for updates about the VA Tech shooting...little did I know when I wrote in my blog this morning that this was to become the biggest school massacre in U.S. history. I've watched a number of interviews with current VA Tech students that have aired throughout the day. They all seem shaken up and upset by the whole incident. But it seems to be the position of Paula Zahn and other news anchors to try to turn the students against the administration of VA Tech by telling them that they should have been notified, that something should have been done. Not one of the students who I've seen has shown any anger towards anyone except for the actual gunman. Leave it to the news media to try to divide the school at a time that it most needs to be united. I'm just so furious that Paula Zahn is reporting this story in an almost gleeful manner. This is so incredibly sad for the families and friends of the victims and she is on tv smiling.

2007-04-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

SHOOTING AT VA TECH

This is so incredibly sad and it's all over the news today. 21 people have been killed at my alma mater, VA Tech this morning. There still seem to be no reports about why this happened or who this gunman is/ was...as police have shot and killed him. Thank goodness it is over though. The first shootings took place in my old dorm, West Ambler Johnston or West AJ as we called it. I can only imagine what It must have been like for those poor kids. My thoughts are with them and their families today and I'm so sad for everyone who was affected by this terrible tragedy.

2007-04-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS

Okay, so I know that there are at least a few people who check this blog regularly and I have to scold you all for not leaving comments. Please please, it makes me feel all alone in the world when I don't get any comments. So, if you are a regular reader, I would love just one comment every now and then. Even if it's just to say hello or to get credit for the visit...ask Janet and Gary, they can tell you all about that. :) On that note, I want to say thank you to Gary, Mary, Missy and Carrie for being regular commenters. Wilkie, I know you're out there so drop me a note sometime, okay? :)

2007-04-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

JACK

This is Jack, he's the son of our friends "Burke and Doc" as they are generally addressed. I took this picture during a birthday party and it has haunted me ever since...in a good way. It's images like these that make photographing really little kids so much fun and so rewarding, even though it's really really hard. You just never know what they're going to do and they are so natural and unposed...mostly since it is nearly impossible to get them to stand still for even a second. But every now and then you catch them in their own element and it's magic.

Here are some more images from the party, same 3 adorable kids. The others are Valentina and Joseph who are going to have their own portrait session at home next week.

2007-04-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

GARY'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION - PART 2

Tonight, Gary, Lisa, Stephanie and I had the most fabulous dinner at Simon's L.A. which just opened in the new Sofitel right across the street from the Beverly Center. It was Lisa's idea and she made the reservations but Gary and I had actually met the sous chef, Andrew a couple of months ago when we sat next to him at Hungry Cat when we were celebrating our anniversary. Small world, I guess. Anyway, we had the most fabulous dinner, sort of family style and then capped it off with an amazingly colorful and inventive dessert try of cotton candy, caramel popcorn, various rice crispy treats, cookies, pear sorbet, peanut butter ice cream and some hostess cupcake-looking things. What a treat! There was even a candle in a glass filled with pink sugar for the birthday boy and girl (Happy Birthday Lisa), hers was last month. Tomorrow is Jamie's birthday so I have to give a shout out to New Jersey. Happy birthday lady, hurry up and move back, we miss you!

2007-04-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

A DAY WITH KARA DIOGUARDI

On Friday, Gary, Kaylyn, Chris and I (on official Sixteen Blue business) went over to Kara's house up in the Hollywood Hills to shoot the open of a show they are working on about her life. Kara is an incredibly talented singer and songwriter and although she has one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard, she chose instead to make her mark by writing hit songs for other people...like Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Hillary Duff, Katherine McPhee and tons of others. She was on the cover of People Magazine last year but she would never actually tell you that but I took this picture of a poster her dad had made from it.

This is Kara being really embarassed by some old home movies we got to see. I think this one is going to end up as another one of dad's posters for the office. :)

We spent the first hour or so playing with Stephen's new puppy, Kirby. Stephen is Kara's business partner in their publishing company, Art House Entertainment. www.arthouseentertainment.com

Some headshots...

Writing...

And from the back seat of the car on our way to the studio...

After a few hours at the house, we headed over to meet Nick Lachey and Mitch who were working on some songs with Kara.

Kaylyn and I actually managed to get locked in the building somehow but in separate areas. She was stuck inside the parking lot while I was trapped on the upstairs balcony. Luckily Mitch came to our rescue to let us out. Thanks Mitch!

2007-04-07T23:52:00.000-07:00

THE DAN BAND

Okay, does anyone remember the wedding scene in Old School where Will Ferrell is dancing with his bride to 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' and the song starts to get a little...inappropriate? Yeah, well that was The Dan Band and that's who I saw play tonight at The Avalon in Hollywood. It had to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. These guys perform their own "versions" of womens' rock and pop songs from the 80's and 90's. Trust me and see them if they're ever in your area. Here is a video to jog your memory of the scene from Old School.

2007-04-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

MARIA & JASON'S WEDDING

Here is a wedding album that I just finished designing from a beautiful wedding at the Mayflower Hotel on March 10th. Maria and Jason are the most darling couple, both finishing their masters degrees at Oxford. Their first dance was one of the most memorable and adorable of anything I've seen. They came out to a sort of ballroom-type waltzy number and then all of a sudden broke into a choreographed version of Michael Jackson's thriller. It was such a riot and all of the guests went crazy!

Wedding coordination by www.engagingaffairs.com, flowers by www.nicksflowers.com, Hair by www.hairbygiselle.com, Makeup by www.beautymark.biz.

2007-04-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

SHUT UP STELLA - WEBISODE #1

The first webisode that Gary and Sixteen Blue did for Sony went up on YouTube this morning. 11 more to come so check it out...and note the really cool SixteenBlue logo at the end, courtesy of http://www.logoworks.com. They did my logo also.

2007-04-03T21:38:00.000-07:00

ALANIS IS BACK...

This evening I got to celebrate my first Passover dinner over at Janet's house. I had no idea what I had been missing but we had such a blast. At some point in the evening, my sister-in-law Kay brought up this thing she had seen on perezhilton.com. Alanis Morissette made a little low budget music video to her own "Alanis-style" version of "My Humps." It's so funny because it has got to be the dumbest song I've ever heard and seeing her writhing around in hoochie clothes singing in her signature mellow style is such a riot. Enjoy!

2007-04-01T14:11:00.000-07:00

WILL FERRELL

So I hate to make this blog all about celebrity sightings but it's just been one of those weekends. Gary, Oliver and I went to have bruch at Figaro this afternoon (felt like morning though) and along comes Will Ferrell with his family to have brunch there too. He had big floppy curly hair and didn't really look much like himself in person. :) After lunch as we walked by the movie theatre, Gary pointed out that there were all of these people standing in line to see his move, Blades of Glory. Little did they know that Will Ferrell was eating lunch a block away. :)

2007-04-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

BABY SHOPPING

As part of his bday celebration yesterday, Gary got to go shopping with me to find a shower gift for Michelle. We went to a place on Ventura called Juvenile Shop. Now I can tell how if you have a baby it could be a really fun place to shop...like going to Samy's Camera or B&H for me...your own personal Disneyland. However, this place had a rather archaic registry system and to make it even harder, I didn't even know what half of the stuff was for. I did eventually manage to find a some gifts off the registry and while we were there I spotted Annabeth Gish a.k.a. "Pudge" from the movie Shag. Also in Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts.

On the way out we also saw David Caruso sitting in an armchair near the front door looking rather bored and miserable.

2007-03-31T12:05:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GARY!

Today Gary turns 36 so to kick off the celebration last night, we met up with Michael at the Beauty Bar in Hollywood and then to see Conroy's improv group. Afterwards trying to find a decent place to have a quiet drink in Hollywood on a Friday night is nearly impossible. Our target bar was Musso & Frank's which is supposed to be a cool, sort of retro hipster bar. Well we walked in and it looked more like Denny's at night circa 1945. The 4 of us looked like we were there to visit our grandparents at this joint. Somehow it just didn't live up to its reputation. So, the next stop was the Pig & Whistle. They had about 4 big bouncers at the door and a velvet rope to make it look important. We had to pay 5 bucks to get in. And inside? Deafening music that I specifically remember doing cheerleader dances to during the early-mid 1990's. And crazy tourists convulsing (I mean literally convulsing) on the dance floor. And it's not often that you get to see such big celebrities as...Justin Guarini! :) The big American Idol fan in our group didn't even manage to notice him.

So, after we felt like we had damaged our hearing enough, we finally settled into a place called Boardner's which just hit the spot. We cozied up in a corner booth, had some beers and some garlic fries and finally got to have a conversation. Yay!

Tonight is Michelle's baby shower and then it's out for dinner at Pace to continue the bday celebration. No party this year. Maybe next. :)

2007-03-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS ARE BURNING!

At about 1pm this afternoon, I got a call from Gary...he said turn on the news and then go outside and look. I walked out the front door and this is what I saw...

It's 3 hours later now and the fire is contained. It's not out yet but it definitely looks a lot friendlier than it did earlier. When I heard on the news that it could head into our neighborhood, I grabbed Oliver and my camera and we went over to meet Gary for some birthday pie, courtesy of Mind of Mencia. Yum yum yum! I actually forgot all about the fire for a bit but I must admit I was pretty freaked out.

2007-03-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

LIVE FROM VEGAS

I've been in Las Vegas for the past 4 days attending the annual WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers) Convention and Trade Show. This is my 5th year in a row attending and if there's one thing I've noticed it was, "hey, where did the past 4 years go?" When did I become a show regular as opposed to the newbie? I certainly don't know when that happened! :) Anyway, it's been a bit of a whirlwhind but a few moments stick out in my mind that are actually totally unrelated to WPPI altogether. One was getting carded for loitering in the casino. Apparently pigtails = under 21. I wasn't going to argue but I didn't want to leave so I had to cough up the ID amidst my shock and amusement. I wanted to tell this person that people who are trying to look older actually don't wear pigtails but I'll let her figure that out on her own. That's definitely the first time I've ever been carded for just standing around somewhere. :)

Gary came with me for the weekend and after doing our usual Sushi Roku dinner on Saturday night, we went to go see Roseanne Barr on Sunday night. Now I have a minor Roseanne obsession anyway but to be that close to her in person (we were in the 2nd row) was pretty surreal. She even did a little striptease at the end of the show and Gary tipped her a $5 bill which she stuffed right into her bra. All I could think was "oh my god, Gary's money is in Roseanne's bra right now", really crazy. We talked to her afterwards and got a picture. Love that woman even more now....

Us talking to Roseanne. I don't remember what I said but she's smiling at me so I guess I was at least vaguely entertaining or maybe it's her polite face.

And the photo op...

2007-03-27T00:42:00.000-07:00

BABY NEWS!!!

I am in Vegas right now but I just got a text message reporting that Ryane Ashley Devlin was born at 1:38am ET by c-section. 7 lbs. 10 oz, 21 inches long. Congratulations to Mary and Andy!!! I can wait to meet your darling little baby girl. Let's get her ready for her first portrait session next month. I love you and miss you and I hate that I'm not in Fairfax for this. xo

2007-03-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

THE BETS ARE IN

I swear, these days you would think my blog is all about my friends' pregnancies and so what? It's exciting and there's always new "up to the moment" news regarding who's miserable, who's vomiting and who just wants to have a baby already. This week, Mary sent out a poll for everyone to guess the baby's arrival date & time, sex and weight. Here is her email and the bids so far:

When will baby Devlin arrive?

Points:

5Â—date
3Â—sex
2Â—weight
1-- am/pm

Mary - April 3, girl, 7.11, am
Ashley - April 6, girl, 7.6, PM
Justine - 3/31, boy 7.7, pm
Erin - 3/29, boy, 7.8, pm
Katie - April 5th, Boy, 8 pounds, PM
Erich - March 28, Boy, 10 pounds 4 oz, PM
Courtney - April 2nd, BOY, 7 pounds 12 oz, PM
Kelly - March 30th, Boy (but how fun will it be to have girls together!!), 8 lbs, AM
Molly - March 31, Girl, 7 lbs 0 oz, PM

Mary, is there a prize for whomever has the closest guess? I think there should be. :)

2007-03-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

MOVIE REVIEWS

Friday night Gary and I met up with Lisa and her friend Stephanie in Burbank to see Reno 911, the movie.

When were waiting to buy tickets, it struck me that there were children around. It's funny but where I live, you almost never see any kids so you sort of forget that they exist and then you go out to the valley and think "oh yeah, some people have kids and they take them places." That's a deep thought by Justine Ungaro. Anyway so we saw Reno 911 and I have to say it was a major disappointment. There were a few laughs in there but I think that the brilliance of the tv show is in it's short little 2 or 3 minute clips that are hilarious. Trying to drag on the idiocy of the Reno Sherriff's department and all of the "self-pleasure" montages get a bit old. I rate it Netflix at best but don't waste $10 to see it in the theatre.

Last night Gary and I went to see Zodiac in the dome at the archlight.

It's such a great theatre because the screen is HUGE and practically encompasses you so that you really feel like part of the movie. Anyway, the movie was fantastic....beautifully shot and keeps you almost on the edge of your seat throughout the more than 2 1/2 hour duration of the film. Robert Downey Jr. gave the best performance in my opinion portraying a slightly femme, drunken journalist who befriends Jake Gyllenhaal, a young cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle who becomes obsessed with solving the mystery of the Zodiac Murders in the late 1960's and early 1970's. It includes one of the most graphic and upsetting murder scenes that I've ever seen. I highly recommend that everyone see this one right away. Makes me want to investigate and read up on the Zodiac murders.

2007-03-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

SAD NEWS

I just received the following email from my friend Jenny Lehman in D.C.

I am sad to pass along some news.
Monte Zucker has just passed away.
His passion for wedding photography inspired thousands. He was a true
pioneer.
I had the pleasure of shooting with him and he was truly an artist.
I will miss him.

-Jenny Lehman

Monte Zucker was arguably the most famous wedding photographer in the country if not the world. Some have toted him as the "grandfather of wedding photography". He perfected the classical style of wedding photography with amazing technical excellence. He actually shot the wedding of my best friend's parents back in the early 70's. The bride was only 19 and he insisted that she wear no makeup...only false eyelashes were allowed. There's no way I would be caught dead being photographed without makeup but I'm certainly not 19 anymore. :) I never got the opportunity to meet Monte even though we worked in the same circles in D.C. although I was in an elevator with him one time in Vegas a couple of years ago. He will be greatly missed by the industry and I'm sure there will be an enormous tribute to him at WPPI at the end of this month.

2007-03-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

MARY'S PREGNANCY PORTRAIT

Since I've been in D.C. for the past week, I got the opportunity to shoot Mary's pregnancy portrait. I just realized that I have gotten to shoot her engagement portrait, bridal portrait and pregnancy portrait. It's always been easy since she's so gorgeous and actually seems pretty comfortable in front of the camera. If she's not, she fakes it pretty well. We got her husband Andy to be in some of the pictures as well. I even coaxed him out of his shirt! Just in case anyone is wondering, it was absolutley NOT his idea...all mine but I'm glad he was willing, just barely. :)

Now I can't wait for this baby to arrive to get him/ her into the studio as well!
Here are Mary's favorites...

These 3 will be matted and framed together

2007-03-05T22:08:00.000-08:00

MULLIGAN SHOOT

This afternoon I got to do a portrait shoot of my friends (and former co-workers) Jenn and John and their two gorgeous girls, Molly and Kiera. I met the two of them back in 2002 when I did actually have a regular job where I had to show up somewhere every day and when I still had benefits. We all worked in the same small office and Jenn and John were having a not-so-secret romance. It was the sort of high stress job that really makes you crazy and I have very fond memories of Jenn and I taping pieces of paper to our bodies to create clothes out of our payroll edit reports. I think there are still pictures of that hanging in the office at Maxim...healthcare, not magazine. Anyway, it was wonderful to see them while I'm back in the D.C. area this week. Here are a couple of images.
The whole family

Kiera, the new baby

2007-03-04T22:14:00.000-08:00

MARY'S BABY SHOWER

This afternoon a bunch of us threw a baby shower for our dear friend Mary who is expecting her first baby at the end of the month. We were lucky enough to host the shower at Courtney's parents house, which is just the most incredible house! It just screams for a party. Courtney is actually going to be having her wedding here later this year.

Of course everyone wanted a tour. Here is my own little virtual tour.
The foyer

Kitchen...makes me want to cook

Indoor pool

Lauren decided to take a steam

And Gizelle tried to get a tan

Self Portrait

As for the shower itself, Mary really cleaned up.

No one knows if they are having a boy or a girl so there were a lot of yellow and green gifts and Mary received a large library of baby books, a coach diaper bag and lots of other goodies.

Kelly & Lauren

Katie & Patti

Erin & Katie

Courtney

Gizelle & Natasha

Mary trying to look stern with me :)

Me and my sister Lauren

Kelly, me, Mary & 2 babies

Justine & Ashley (I'm shooting Ashley's wedding in January of 2008, yay!)

I think the best part for me besides getting to celebrate this baby we're all about to meet was getting to spend the afternoon with all of my best girlfriends. Even though some of us have moved far away, it's so nice to be able to come back and pick up exactly where we left off. I think it's so rare in life to find such wonderful friends and I cherish them all like sisters.

2007-02-28T22:48:00.000-08:00

THE PREGGIES IN MY LIFE

I was just reading Mary's blog and I had to steal one of her pictures because I thought it was just so adorable of two of my best friends in the world. They are both knocked up right now. Mary is just about ready to pop...we don't know what's going to pop out yet...a baby yes...but boy or girl...who knows. Kelly is almost 6 months and we do know that hers is a little girl. But of course she's being secretive about the name. Always likes to keep us guessing about something. :) Anyway, here is a picture. I can't wait to see them when I get back to D.C. this weekend,

2007-02-24T18:56:00.000-08:00

CULVER CITY

My mother has been in town this week and we spent all of yesterday wandering around Culver City. Who knew it was such a fun walking city, and it has a booming art scene. We went to some galleries and little shops and for a delicious glass of wine at Bottle Rock. Also saw Willem Dafoe enjoying some lunch in the window of a local restaurant.

Afterwards we met Gary over at Dar Maghreb on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood for a VERY traditional Moroccan dinner. The food was good but there was WAY too much of it. If you go, go hungry and be prepared to not get to choose your dinner or use silverware or plates. The menu is basically set but there are a few either/ or items. We opted for the chicken rather than the pigeon. I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to food but I just don't think I could enjoy eating pigeon.

2007-02-20T21:16:00.000-08:00

ANOTHER CELEBRITY SIGHTING

While I was grocery shopping at Mayfair Market on Franklin in Los Feliz today, I saw Mandy Moore in the produce department. She was wearing sunglasses inside and trying to be incognito but I spotted her anyway. Haha! :)

2007-02-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

CELEBRITY SIGHTING

Who: Drea De Mateo

From: The Soprano's
When: Sunday evening
Where: Katsuya in Studio City
What: Eating sushi
Why: Gary and I had just picked up my mother from Long Beach airport and we were all starving so we hit Katsuya for some delicious sushi before dropping her off at Michael & Kay's.

2007-02-18T01:09:00.000-08:00

BUYING ART?

Gary and I just spent the most lovely evening at the Grove. First we went to Jack Gallery for the opening of Todd Goldman's new show. We saw Jared, one of the art dealers who immediately recognized us as regular gallery browsers. I was feeling particularly amorous over a 4' x 7' fuschia canvas painting that read "Gold digger...like a hooker just smarter". I don't know why but I have always loved this one but never seen it this massive or in that color. Anyway, I think I stared at it a little too long because before I knew it, they had pulled it off the wall and taken us into a private viewing room where we could sit down in front of the thing to fully absorb it. Once we heard about the 1 year 0% interest Wells Fargo finanacing plan, the $7500 price tag started to sound not so bad after all. Although Gary and I both started to get a little overly excited about the prospect of purchasing big, original art by an artist who is seriously on the rise (it is an investment after all), so we decided to go talk about it over dinner. After we managed to get out of the gallery and after some rational discussion, we came to the conclusion that even if we forked over $7500 for this thing, we have absolutely no where to hang it. Hmm. The decision became very clear after that. BUT, we did go back to tell Jared our decision and promised to return to take a look at our options of buying something a little smaller...which I think will also be very exciting. Oh yeah, and Selma Blair was at the opening too...with a short blonde pixie cut. Adorable!

And that reminds me that last night on our way to Pinkberry (yes again), Gary, Oliver and I spotted Trishelle from The Real World outside of The Dresden on Vermont.

2007-02-16T22:37:00.000-08:00

MUG SHOTS

Last night a bunch of us gathered at Kaylyn's to watch the 3 most recently edited Shut Up Stella webisodes. They are absolutely brilliant and I'm just dying for everyone else to see them. Kay and the girls leave tomorrow for a 2 week trip to London. I wanted to go with them but Sony would not pony up the cash for my airfare so it looks like I'm staying around here until my next trip back to D.C. It sounded like an awfully long flight from here anyway, ugh!
Anyway, while we were all at Kaylyn's, I did some headshots for the Sixteen Blue website...mugshot style. Gary rented the little board and all of the letters and we used a blank wall in Kaylan's apt. for the background. I lit it with an off-camera strobe so that it didn't look too much like somebody's apartment. Then I blew out the faces with some really stronng direct on-camera flash. Really against everything I stand for as a photographer but it was the look Gary wanted. I think they are kind of a riot actually.

2007-02-13T11:47:00.000-08:00

TRINIDAD WEDDING

Last night I finished designing the wedding album for Amit & Gillian, whose wedding I shot in Trinidad last September. For those of you who don't know where Trinidad (& Tobago) is, (which I didn't), it is just off the northern coast of South America, near Aruba. Amit and Gillian are both doctors with practices in D.C. Gillian is originally from Trinidad so they opted to have a destination wedding there. I was thrilled at the opportunity to go somewhere completely new to me and Gary came along with me to help (which I desperately needed) and to have a little vacation. The wedding was wonderful and all of the guests were great to be around. We participated in many of the pre-wedding activities like a float through a bird sanctuary, a day cruise, a bus tour through Trinidad etc.

The one thing that we didn't plan for was the fact that Gary and I were going to be sharing clothes for the week. This was because my luggage never made it there...ever. Not for the 5 days we were there. Luckily, I had all of my camera equipment since I had carried it on the plane. But no clothes, no makeup, no products, no nothing. And to add insult to injury, our trip coincided with Trinidad's Independence Day, a national holiday so all of the stores were closed. When I finally managed to make it to a mall, I found that the style in Trinidad is well, a little bit "hoochy"...as in I had trouble finding clothes that did not bare my midriff and other body parts. :) I did finally get to pick my luggage up on the way back home so luckily it was not gone forever but I did get to cross-dress for several days and go au natural on the makeup.

Here are some images:

The bus tour...
me and Gary on the bus

These kids really enjoyed being photographed

Somebody is in trouble

Lots of people in Trinidad like to wave at the camera

Floating through the bird sanctuary...

There were lots of big snakes in the trees...more snakes than birds at this point.

This was where it got exciting. A big tree had fallen across the river and blocked the path of the boat. Everyone thought we would have to turn around. Our guide thought he would plow right through until the tree started to come up over the front of the boat. Then he decided to get out his trusty machete and he hacked right through the thing!

The Day Cruise...
Gary with the video camera...all of our traumas on this trip were caught on camera

Some decided to go for a swim (I had no bathing suit since I had no luggage)

I was obsessed with this baby

Gillian & Amit "officially" got married in a small ceremony on Saturday, the real wedding was on Sunday

Here are the layouts for their album:
(my clients select their favorite images and I do the design from those)

2007-02-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

HOW MANY OF ME?

http://ww2.howmanyofme.com/

My friend Erin Ogburn sent me this link this morning. It is statistically supposed to calculate how many people are living in the U.S. with your same name. She said there are 3 Erin Ogburns. It doesn't actually search any census databases though....too bad. Here's what happened when I looked up my own name.

JUSTINE
There are 25,497 people in the U.S. with the first name Justine.
Statistically the 1143rd most popular first name. (tied with 35 other first names)
More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Justine are female.

UNGARO
There are 990 people in the U.S. with the last name Ungaro.
Statistically the 26894th most popular last name. (tied with 1178 other last names)

JUSTINE UNGARO
There are 0 people in the U.S. named Justine Ungaro.
While both names you entered were found in our database, neither was common enough to make it likely that someone in the U.S. has that name.

Apparently I am a statistcal anomale but all statistics aside, I'm pretty sure there is at least one Justine Ungaro living in the U.S. :)

2007-02-11T23:32:00.000-08:00

DIXIE CHICKS ROCK THE GRAMMY'S

What a big F You the Dixie Chicks just gave to Bush and all of his cronies! With five Grammy's in one night, I feel so happy that their voices are heard and appreciated. Congratulations to the Chicks for speaking up and for finally receiving the recognition they deserve!

2007-02-11T21:05:00.000-08:00

THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA

Has anyone else seen the previews for The Bridge To Terabithia? Well I've been watching these for the past few weeks and thinking, it's a kids movie but it looks so good. I suggested to Gary that maybe we should take my niece Zoe to see it but he thought it might be too scary. We mentioned the idea to Michael to see if he thought Zoe might enjoy the movie. Then we find out, oh Zoe went to the L.A. premiere of the movie and walked the red carpet and everything. I guess it wasn't too scary after all.

Here she is with her friend Hayden and Hayden's dad, Ed Begley Jr.

2007-02-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

GROCERY SHOPPING

Gary and I just got home from the grocery store and you would think we had to feed like 8 people for a week. I've never filled a cart this full before. It was so heavy that I was weaving through the aisles like a drunk driver.
We were not even finished shopping at this point.

Then we were trying to guess just how much that amount of food would cost. Our guess was $210 but it turned out to be more than that.

Seems like a lot to feed two people for a week.

2007-02-10T00:55:00.000-08:00

SHIRLEY MANSON

Gary and I saw Shirley Manson dining at Farfalla on Hillhurst tonight. This was not the first time I'd seen her though. About 7 years ago, I served drinks to Shirley Manson and the rest of Garbage when I bartended in college. I remember Shirley drank sea breezes and greyhounds. I wonder if she still does? :) She did go to her room early but everyone else stayed and hung out with me and my sister until closing. They also gave us tickets and backstage passes to the show the next night. One guy in their road crew was this guy named Chad. A couple of years after that I saw him again at the 9:30 Club in D.C. when he was on tour with Nina Gordon. Very random.

2007-02-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

GRIPE WITH CHRIS AND GARY

Back in the mid-90's (when I was just a teeny-bopper drowning in horrendously oversized Nirvana-esque flannel shirts), my current boyfriend Gary was hosting and producing a public access show in NYC called "Gripe With Chris & Gary". Over the past few months, Gary has been uploading all of these old clips to a myspace page for the enjoyment of the masses. Well, last night he discovered that one of his clips has landed a place of honor on the myspace homepage and in the last 18 or so hours has garnered some 22,000 or so views and many many comments. There are actually people having racial disputes on his myspace page. How crazy is that?

Deli clerk 'Bittu' is looking for love

Add to My Profile | More Videos

2007-02-08T18:37:00.000-08:00

STEVE MARTIN

So yesterday was so incredibly cool and surreal. I got to do a shoot with Steve Martin! Yes, THE Steve Martin. He came over to play the banjo on Lisa's album so I was asked to come and shoot it and I was more than happy to oblige. He was incredibly professional and very nervous, even though he's an incredible banjo-player. Oliver turned out to be a HUGE Steve Martin fan too even though we had to banish him and Bea to the house for a while so they wouldn't interrupt.

Here are a few images:

Steve & Lisa

Michelle, Dan, Steve & Lisa

2007-02-08T18:04:00.000-08:00

5 CHICKS

Tuesday night was my 2nd ever meeting of Five Chicks and a Fag...but this time the invite email said to feel free to bring straight boys. So yay, this was my one chance to bring Gary so that he could get acquainted with everyone. He was a little reluctant to go because he thought I should just be having fun with my girlfriends...but since I wanted him to come, he did. How sweet. So we roll up to Liquid Kitty

and of course it's ALL girls and Jim but this time there are even extra girls...no straight boys though. Apparently some were invited but no one showed. So Gary was such a great sport about it and chatted everyone up and they all just loved him.
Here are some pictures:

Erin taking her job as Secretary VERY seriously

A smoke break for some of the chicks, I am pretending to have a conversation here, I don't really look like this :)

Damian brought us way too many shots this time

Gary chatting up the ladies

Here is Erin's recap for all of the chicks:
2/6/07 - Recap....
Hello Lovely 5 Chicks!! What a nite!!

Awards:
Applause Award: Shannon, our fearless PRES! Outstanding leadership in the new year with logo tee initiative, book list, movie list, and cd of the month projects!! We love you and feel loved!
Most Dedicated: Maritza - poor kitty attended looking sassy with walking pneumonia!!
Hidden Talent: Elle - massage expert -awe!
Party Foul: Poor Shannon dropped her phone in the sink while washing her kitty hands - oops!
Stepping Back Award: Jim - he grabbed Shannon's chest twice!! Who could blame him - her clams looked great per usual!
Most Intelligent: Claire - she had dinner other than olives

Points of Interest:
Lacey's Congrats Nite: Lots of toasting and slamming of shots courtesy of Damian!
Dana took a shot - Holy Tuesday! And she is now taking "risks" in the dating world! Go Dana!
New Guests: Monica, Gary, Gary's nice friend? (oopss this kitty was buzzed last nite), and Veronica - YAY - we love you all!
Political Discussion: Very unKITTY like! It was short with a lot of name calling!

Song/Dance:
DANA gets it - signing our theme song "Jammin' and Clammin'" --- the stomp dance along with the singing really topped it off!
Dana and Jess also decided that they are the NEW SALT N PEPPA - dear lord!!

Quotes:
Lacey: "Erin, you are a ghetto b8tch - I need a non menthol cig please!"
Erin: "They are thirsty for us" ; Shannon added "For now" (who knows)
Shannon: " When it's that time of the month, I pick one evil co-worker to take it all out on"!

Observations:
Erin - Lacey needs to eat meat or stop getting so much action. So lil I can put her in my skinny jeans pocket!
Erin- Leah looking all hot and married!
Erin- Monica and Lacey are in friend love - couldn't get a word in edgewise with those 2 kitties!

Future Highlights:
Oops- Half Nelson showing at Wilson's tonite!
Barney's warehouse sales starts tomorrow!!
Justine is planning on starting a 5 chicks blog - be on the lookout!
Launch Party for Justine's website! Let's show our support and sass! Possibility that Justine may coordinate with Lacey to cater the party! Chicks helping chicks - love it!
Gary is dabbling with the idea of a tv pilot all about 5 chicks!
Life is always full of stressors - Elle and Erin are quitting smoking March 1st!
Galaxy game once Shannon's bf "Beckham" gets here!

2007-02-08T15:59:00.000-08:00

CAMP LISA

Obviously from this blog, everyone can tell I've been spending a lot of time over at Dan and Michelle's lately. :) Well, one day I went over to photograph Lisa doing a recording session with a bunch of kids who were singing some background vocals for her Camp Lisa album. Zoe, her friend Hayden & Ellen & Doug's daughter Isabel were three of the little cuties.

Anyone else think that Hayden is going to grow up to be a "Type A" personality? :)

Another evening a whole bunch of us were over there. The musically inclined added their talents to the album.
Kay & Michelle

Dave Gibbs

Dan

Michael & the kids

Dave, Lisa & Michelle

Nina Gordon

Gary filmed all of the madness

Oliver just wanted some love

Zoe

Henry

2007-02-05T16:38:00.000-08:00

CELEB SIGHTING

This afternoon Oliver and I took a nice walk over to Hillhurst to go to Box Brothers because they are the nearest FedEx location and I had to ship out a wedding album. When we walked in I noticed that there was Kelly Lynch standing at the counter trying to ship out a package of some sort. I guess this neighborhood is a hotspot for celeb sightings. Seems like every time I go anywhere these days I end up seeing somebody.

2007-02-04T23:06:00.000-08:00

BABY IVY

I finally got to meet our friends Nina & Jeff's new baby, her name is Ivy and she's a redhead...with cheeks. So incredibly adorable! I don't think I've ever seen so many people fawning over one baby at a time before. And Nina looked amazing. I've never seen her look quite so happy. I can't wait to see my closest friends Kelly and Mary with their babies...both prego at the moment.

Here are some pictures of Ivy.

Nina, Gary & Lisa

Nina showing us that yes, she does have red hair...and Dan leaning in to see just what's in store for him very soon.

2007-02-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

I GOT FLOWERS!

On Thursday morning I stepped out of my front door to take Oliver for a walk and I saw this box from Pro Flowers outside just sitting there. I thought it was for our neighbor so I snooped to see who they were for...and there was my name! I couldn't believe it. I brought them inside (without letting Ollie relieve himself, poor thing) and Gary seemed awfully curious also to see who was sending flowers to his girlfriend. Inside were two dozen gorgeous sweetheart roses with a card that read:
"Justine...Thanks for working (and dealing) with us and we look forward to spending our big day with you. You are truly a sweetheart! Love, Stacy and Derrick"

They were from the most lovely couple whose wedding I just can't wait for coming up in November. I would have absolutely cried if I hadn't gotten to shoot their wedding. We clicked from the first second they walked in my door. I'm just so thrilled that it has all worked out so well and I just couldn't believe how thoughtful they were to send me flowers! That's a first for me. :)

2007-02-04T11:30:00.000-08:00

FIRST WEDDING OF THE YEAR

I shot my first wedding of 2007 on January 13th while I will still in D.C. for the holidays. Emily and Jeff are a great couple from New York who hosted a very tiny wedding (just 14 people) at the Morisson House in Old Town Alexandria. It was such a sweet and intimate ceremony followed by a fabulously delicious dinner. Here are a few of my favorite images from the day.

(this one I made by photoshopping two images together)

2007-02-04T11:27:00.000-08:00

NEW WEDDING POSTCARD

I designed this yesterday to hand out to potential wedding clients/ contacts etc. out here in L.A. I don't have my real business cards yet but I'm heading to Aardvark Letterpress tomorrow to get those ordered. Yay!

2007-02-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

SHANNON ELIZABETH

I saw Shannon Elizabeth at The Alcove in Los Feliz the other day.

I was there to meet Jackie from Dollface for lunch and there she was. She seemed nice. She smiled at me and I smiled back and then kept on looking for Jackie. I'm just starting to get used to recognizing celebrities around here. Last year in NYC, I saw Rachel Weisz at Whole Foods and I kept on staring at her because I could have sworn I knew her from h.s. because she looked SO familar. And then I realized, oh that's Rachel Weisz. Oops.

2007-01-27T14:15:00.000-08:00

IN THE STUDIO

Yesterday Gary and I went over to Dan & Michelle's house again to shoot Lisa working on her Camp Songs album. Somehow we also had a conversation about naming the new Petty baby that is coming in a few months. One of the top picks seemed to be Jet with a pretty good possibility of Daniel Jet or D.J. for short. We also discussed how a lot of our grandparents' names have become popular once again but that names like Adolf or Osama could take quite a long time to recover from the naughtyness of their forebearers.

While shooting in the studio, I decided to grab a few shots of Lisa. Since it was a recording studio and not a photo studio, I managed to rig up a little lamp and dangle it over her head for some nice flattering light. I tell you, I am so obsessed with lighting these days. I can't even watch movies anymore...all I look at is the lighting...good, bad, interesting, flattering, contrasty...it doesn't matter, I barely even notice what the movie is about. So anyway, there was this little light with a paper shade on a table off to one side in the studio. So, we adjusted the overhead track lighting to bounce off a wall and then held this little lantern in front of Lisa's face and voila....beautiful, candle-lightish, sunsetty lighting. Beautiful!

I also grabbed a few shots of "Bea", Dan and Michelle's first baby.

2007-01-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

FIVE CHICKS

This week was my first meeting of "Five Chicks and a Fag"...a.k.a. "Five Chicks" for short...even though the number really isn't accurate anymore. A bunch of us met up at Liquid Kitty which is this little martini bar...the perfect venue to gather in a quiet AND DARK corner to have some good old-fashioned girl talk. I had such a great time, it's really such a wonderful group. Makes me miss my girls from back in D.C. even more. Anyway, as I said the place was practically dark so I really couldn't actually SEE anything that I was trying to take pictures of...but here are a few.

Shannon is the President of 5 Chicks

I actually knew Jim in college but I couldn't seem to get myself in the picture

I think this is how some of the ladies were feeling by the end of the night. :) I knocked over two drinks trying to take this picture. I wish I could blame it on the alcohol but after just one drink, I think that still falls under the blanket of plain old clumsyness.

2007-01-24T22:43:00.000-08:00

SHUT UP STELLA

I was just going through my old blog posts and just realized that I never posted any images from our shoot with Shut Up Stella and that was back in November, yikes! Anyway, here are just a couple of them.

2007-01-24T22:04:00.000-08:00

RANDOM MINOR CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS

In the past week I've had two random celebrity sightings. In fact, I didn't even know either of their names, just recognized them.
One was last Thursday at the 101 Diner. Patrick Renna a.k.a. the redhead kid from The Sandlot was waiting for us to leave so that he could have our table.

The 2nd sighting of the week was Judy Greer who I saw at The Echo when Gary and I went to see the Submarines. She was in Jawbreaker, The Wedding Planner & 13 Going on 30 among other girly movies...all of which I've seen. :) She usually plays the best friend, assistant or other tag-along to the female lead.

2007-01-23T13:31:00.000-08:00

THE SUBMARINES

After being cooped up all day yesterday working on album designs, GK and I decided to go out to The Echo to see our friends John and Blake perform. The two of them plus a laptop with programmed music comprise a band called The Submarines. They are so incredibly good, I recommend that everyone go right out and buy their cd straightaway. www.thesubmarines.com

Unfortunately, I managed to have some mild food poisoning from some meat pizza I ate earlier for dinner so we didn't end up staying long. I did grab a few pictures though.

2007-01-23T13:12:00.000-08:00

MARY POPPINS

Saturday night Jessie came over to eat some of my special quesadillas and homemade guac with us. I also made margarita mix from scratch, meaning fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice and a bunch of splenda. Plus some Cuervo and cointreau....yum yum yum!

We were planning to head out to see a movie afterwards until Gary found that a sing-a-long version of Mary Poppins was playing at the El Capitan movie theatre. So, we scooped up Conroy and headed over. En route Jessie and I discovered that we both have the same weird breathing issues and back problems. We are just kindred spirits, I think. :)

El Capitan is this big old theatre in Hollywood where the seat springs cut into your back and behind but overhead is this huge amazing dome ceiling that makes you feel like a part of cinema history. It really is pretty incredible. The screen is even covered by a big curtain just like in the old days.

The most fascinating part of this show was the fact that a real live Mary Poppins came out at the beginning to scold the audience a bit and to introduce the movie. Spit spot.
(gotta love the camera phone)
Then throughout the movie, every time the characters break into song, lyrics appear at the bottom of the screen so that the audience can sing along. This made me realize how many incorrect lyrics I have been singing all these years. Like "toppins" is actually "tuppence". I'm sure this is something I could have figured out if I had thought about it but how often do you really re-analyze movies from your youth. I still remember watching Dirty Dancing and thinking "oh, Penny is sick and needs a doctor". I don't remember ever questioning what "knocked up" actually meant. Anyway, I also found Mary Poppins to be surprisingly dirty for a Disney movie from the 60's. Like when Mary sings to Burt about how he "never presses the issue". Hmm. Gary also pointed out to me a rather obvious sign in the foreground during that scene that lays it right out there, it says very blatantly, "Teas". Add an "e" to the end of that and that's Mary Poppins for you for sure. She also struck me as being terribly self-important and arrogant. I don't think I would enjoy her in real life...although I did have fun belting out the songs in the theatre. There's always something weird to do on a Saturday night in L.A....or any night of the week for that matter.

2007-01-23T11:32:00.000-08:00

THAITALIAN

Recently I have a new obsession....paper. As in fine types of stationary, envelopes, letter-press, you name it. I just love the stuff. I've had so much fun picking out the papers and supplies for my business cards, gift certificates etc. So Friday night GK and I headed to Pasadena to hit the Paper Source store. Afterwards we shopped around a bit and what an adorable area it is! After working up a good appetite it was time to find some dinner. We came across this place called "Thaitalian".

It is literally what it sounds like, Thai and Italian fusion. Only in California can you find things this weird. The menu was comprised of things like pad thai linguini and pad thai pizza among other odd combinations. We opted for a tuna tartare appetizer which seemed more Japanese than thai OR italian but it was good. For the main course we had thai bbq chicken pizza covered with cilantro, avocado and other things that really shouldn't go on pizza. It wasn't great but it was certainly an experience.

2007-01-23T10:56:00.000-08:00

BABYSITTING

Ok, I know I have a lot to catch up on so I'll start with last week. On Thursday night Gary and I went over to babysit Zoe and Henry so that Michael and Kay could go out for their anniversary. It's hard to believe that it's been 9 years since I was at their wedding, I was still in college and that seems like a whole other lifetime. Yikes! Anyway, GK and I thought that it might be fun to do some sort of activity with the kids so we brought over all of the fixings to make and decorate cupcakes, including my brand new pink silicone cupcake pan that was among the big box of xmas presents from Gary's family.

Zoe quite enjoyed decorating the cupcakes.

Henry just dumped a lot of icing on top of one of them and then ate it. Just the icing though. Afterwards he smashed the cake part onto a plate.

When you don't have kids, you forget about all of the little things that you should or should not do with kids. For one thing, large amounts of sugar right before bed is not really a great idea. Not thinking about this, Gary and I basically might as well have mainlined coffee right into their little veins for the same effect. So, after pumping Z & H full of sugar, we put them straight to bed. Meaning that we all went into the bedroom for a story. Henry demanded that we all climb into the same bed which was cozy to say the least. At one point I remember seeing icing still caked on Henry's face and thought, aren't these kids supposed to brush their teeth? Another thing that just doesn't really occur to you if you don't have kids. So we eventually coaxed them over to the sink, Zoe went no problem as usual. Henry battled over it and finally squeezed some pink toothpaste onto his toothbrush. Instead of brushing his teeth though, he decided it was a better idea to polish the sink with it. That finally ended with threats to go to bed without a story.

Of course it only took about 5 minutes for Henry to get up to request some milk. Next he got up to say he was hungry...several times. Finally I asked him if he was really hungry or just not tired. "I'm just not tired" he said. At least he was honest. So, Gary spent the next half hour telling Henry made up stories off the top of his head. One of them was about Darth Vader flying in on a pink spaceship but Henry was quick to correct him that Darth Vader is a BOY and that he would never have a pink spaceship. Pink is for girls!

A few hours later, Michael and Kay returned from their much needed night out. We told them about our evening and Henry's strong ideals about what is for boys and what is for girls. Michael said "this coming from a kid who 6 months ago wore a blue Cinderella dress around for a solid week!" Apparently Henry went through a little obsession with this particular dress and wore the thing around every day with a pull-up on his head as a crown. These are the things I was sorry to miss, would have loved to have my camera for that one. :)

2007-01-21T21:28:00.000-08:00

I COPIED THIS ARTICLE FROM GARY FONG'S BLOG http://www.xanga.com/garyfong1

This is a must read, so hilarious!

2007-01-17T17:02:00.000-08:00

BACK IN L.A.

After 3 weeks in D.C. over the holidays, Oliver and I hopped on a plane on Monday to come back to L.A. This time he rode in a bigger bag but it didn't seem to make much of a difference to him. It did however make me feel better about dragging him on a plane for the 3rd time in 6 weeks. Ollie was very happy to see Gary again and to return to all of his Christmas presents, one of which he immediately re-killed by breaking it's neck...over and over and over again.

All day today Oliver has been scratching at this mat that we have on the kitchen floor. At first I thought there might be some food under there or something but no. Eventually we opened the cabinet door so that Oliver could investigate and find whatever it was he was looking for. Then Gary had the brilliant idea to open the drawer right above the mat and cabinet. Lo and behold there it was. One of the many balls that was confiscated weeks ago because Ollie kept on throwing it under the couch. We of course had to give in and let him play with it...until it ends up under the couch again. Then it goes in the trash.

2007-01-01T09:59:00.000-08:00

KRISTYNA & JIMMY'S WEDDING

On Saturday I shot the most beautiful wedding at Congressional Country Club for a gorgeous couple named Kristyna and Jimmy. I actually met Kristyna and her mom last year while they were gown shopping at Hitched (www.hitchedsalon.com) and I was just visiting the shop. Anyway, we ended up chatting and they came into the studio and booked me to shoot the wedding. Kristyna looked so amazing, I haven't had chance to edit the whole wedding yet but here are a few. I'll post more later in the week.

Jimmy gave her a gorgeous diamond ring (yes another one) as her wedding gift

Giselle (www.hairbygiselle.com) did a fabulous job with the bride's hair

Dad helped Kristyna with her jewelry

Kristyna's grandfather gives a toast...in Chinese, I have no idea what he said but it sounded funny

the ring bearer ran around like a mini Chippendale dancer

They pretended to leave in a golf cart but just drove away and then came back since they were staying at the club.

Bubbles are always a good send off.

2006-12-23T23:48:00.000-08:00

A GREAT CHRISTMAS ALREADY!

When we got home from Henry's party, Gary brought out all of the really good presents! :) First, Oliver got a bunch of nice red presents from his best pal, Gary.

But he wasn't sure what to do with them so I helped him unwrap them.

Gary said it was "something to kill (a stuffed dog with reindeer antlers), something to chew (a rubber bone) and something to eat (some yummy greenies)". Oliver immediately took to the killing part and tore apart that poor little dog.
Then, I got to open my presents. They are soooo good! The first was an Apple ProCare Card so that I can go get Apple classes whenever I want them. The second was Season 2 of Roseanne on DVD. Gary bought me Season 1 about a year and a half ago and we watch them at night on the new tv before bed. I think he is really tired of seeing season 1. I don't blame him. And the last and BIG gift is Apple Aperture, the new photo management software I've been drooling over. I just couldn't believe it, I started crying!

Tomorrow morning (early) we head to Long Beach airport to head home for Christmas, he goes to NJ, I go to D.C.

2006-12-23T23:28:00.000-08:00

HENRY'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

Today was my nephew, Henry's 4th bday party so we all headed over to Michael and Kay's for an intimate bday bash for the little man. He is totally in love with everything star wars these days so he got tons and tons of star wars action figures and lots of really cool lego things too. And then there was a cake.

Henry was extremely patient considering he was one of the last people to actually get to eat his bday cake.

Gary and Conroy found their own form of amusement while playing with one of Henry's new action figures.

One of the best parts of the evening was when Gary and I gave my 7 year-old niece, Zoe her Christmas gift. We decided that since she's a big girl now, she should have a big girl gift. So, we got her the new tiny iPOD shuffle. But, just to be a little bit mean, we bought her a really crappy $6 Carebear and clipped the iPOD onto it. So, here's what happened....
"oh, what a nice bear..."

...and then...

...the real smile...

...and mommy was in on the joke...

Here it is up close.

The funny thing about it all was that she's such a great kid that she actually seemed happy to see the Carebear, even though Gary and I took great care to find the most horrible looking thing we could find. :)
Zoe also really liked the new outfit she got for her "All American Girl" doll.

2006-12-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

NEW PRINTER

Yesterday after I gave up on going to the Grove, I decided to swing by Samy's Camera for some supplies. I thought, hey while I'm here I might as well order the out of stock everywhere brand new Epson Stylus 3800 wide format printer.

I figured if I can't get the printer for 5-7 weeks, I might as well get the tax deduction this year. Anyway, I went up to the pro floor (the elitist 4th floor), much better than the 3rd floor mere mortal consumer floor. I waited my turn and then asked "Chris" if I could order the Epson 3800. He told me, "wait just a minute, right there". So I stayed. He comes back after a couple of minutes and tells me that I am the "lucky one". He has one printer in the stock room. I have no idea how this happened because this printer just came out this month and literally EVERYONE is out of stock. I guess it was just my own little Christmas miracle and a big, fat Christmas present To: me From: me.

2006-12-22T21:43:00.000-08:00

PARKING AT THE GROVE

Yesterday I tried to do a bit of last minute xmas shopping so I headed over to the Grove in a fit of insanity. I got into the parking garage and drove straight up to the roof where there appeared to be plenty of parking. But of course, the roof was closed and I ended up having to back down the ramp and then battle with hundreds of other cars over the 4 available parking spots. After 15 minutes I threw in the towel and decided to leave. This is an email I got from Gary later in the day.
This is the actual sign in the parking lot of the Grove.

2006-12-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

KARA'S HOLIDAY PARTY

Saturday night GK and I ventured up into the hills for Kara's annual holiday party.

I'm telling you, every time I go up there I fall more in love with the idea of living up there someday. It's so incredibly peaceful and the views are incredible! This party was particularly fun because I actually knew people yay! Michael, Kay, Michelle & Dan were all there and I met several other new fabulous people. Pretty much everyone was from the music industry in one way or another.
Christine & Kara

Tiki, Kara's baby

At one point there were a bunch of us up in Kara's bedroom, Gary had the camera on and I had mine around my neck. There were these two random girls up there chatting with Kara and playing with Tiki.

It turned out that one of them was the inventor of Hard Candy...yes, the incredibly cool line of nailpolish. Anyway, I never knew this but the story behind it was that when she was in college one day she decided to mix aqua and white nail polish and created this new color. Then word spread around campus about this girl who mixed really cool colors of nailpolish. All of a sudden she has celebrities coming to her dorm room to mix custom nailpolish colors for them. The next thing you know, a cosmetics company has bought her out for millions. It's just amazing to hear stories like that but they seem to be everywhere out here.

When GK and I finally decided it was time to leave, we headed down the hill to find the "valet". I use the terms loosely because the valet Kara had booked canceled at the last minute so she ended up having to use a friend of her handyman or gardener or something. Anyway, they were so nice and professional and developed a really good system. The only thing that gave them away as not real valets was the fact that they pulled Gary's car up into the intersection of two streets and then locked the keys in the car, with the car running. I had to run back up to the house to get a wire hanger so that they could break into the car for us. Of course Kara and an entourage of others came marching down with me to help. Gary caught it all on camera too.

2006-12-21T11:18:00.001-08:00

AIMP EVENT

I know I'm still playing catch up but here I go...last week Gary and I attended an event for the Association of Independent Music Publishers. Gary has been trailing around this amazing songwriter named Kara with cameras for the past month or so for a new tv show he's working on. Kara is this beautiful, totally laid-back, incredible songwriter. She has written a ton of hits for Gwen Stefani ("Rich Girl"), Christina Aguilera ("Ain't No Other Man"), Hilary Duff ("Let the Rain Fall Down"), Enrique Iglesias, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, etc. etc. You get the picture. Anyway, she manages to lead this totally glamorous yet also really normal life at the same time. So we went with her to watch her speak at this event for other songwriters. And guess who else was on the panel? Billy Bob Thornton! He did look a bit sickly but was also incredibly friendly, charming and funny!
Here are a few pictures...