Chad and Lauren Solbakken

Chad and Lauren's wedding was an awesome way to wrap of my 2008 weddings. It had snowed abut 8-10 inches the night before, so there was new snow everywhere! You cna see more photos in the slideshow by clicking HERE. 

We took photos before the ceremony (a really good idea), so this is Chad seeing Lauren for the first time on their wedding day. This gave us lots of time to get all of the portraits done before the ceremony.
With all of the new snow, and it currently snowing while we were taking these portraits, I think these are the most unique portraits that I've ever shot. I loved it!

Lauren had seen these barns before, and knew they would be a cool background. Good call :)


We took pictures in the snow for a while, even though it was really cold. Props to Lauren for making it happen in her dress!
I love how you can see the snow coming down in these shots!



1st time ever bridal party snowball fight.
We made it out of the snow, and inside for the ceremony. They had all of these hurricanes with candles that lined the sides of the isle.

It was super dark during the ceremony, but the shots still worked out.




I went to school with Nicole Mullen, who connected me with her college crew from APU. I got to know all of these ladies while I was in Las Vegas shooting Jolie's sister's wedding, Ashley and Jebron.
I don't mind using a flash if I have to, but I much prefer to use natural light if it is at all possible. The natural light in this shot makes a cool vibe.
Getting down!



We snuck out to get this shot outside during the reception.



Chad and Lauren took the boat back to Seattle after the wedding. It was an awesome day!
Oh yeah, I almost forgot... it was my birthday today!! I turned 24. There were so many cool people and fun stuff going on, that it was a good way to celebrate my birthday too :)

Seattle

After a crazy morning at the airport, I was able to make it up to Seattle for Chad and Lauren's wedding this weekend. These are some pics from the pre-wedding festivities. You can also see more photos in this SLIDESHOW if you want.

When you go to a new place for the first time, you feel like you have to check out all of the cool sites. This is often where tourist traps come into play. In my travels, I have found that many tourist traps, while over-priced, are still really cool to see. The Space Needle fits into this category.

I was with Chad and Keith, and we were all impressed with the cool stuff that was at the top of the Needle. This one showed the view from the top of the Needle on the screens and you could pan them to the right of left, allowing you to see a 360 view. Not only could you pan the screens to the left or right, but you could turn a nob that changes the time to show what the view would look like at the corresponding time. Here Chad is making the sun rise.
Whoever created this is really cool!


These guys were climbing around on the edge picking all of the icicles off. Sketchy!
This might be surprising, but burgers at Dick's is another Seattle thing to do--since Starbucks is a site you see everywhere else.
We took a boat across the Puget Sound to get to where the wedding was going to be. Here you can see snow on one of the lines.


The water level changes, and the boats have to get out through a lock. You can see that we are a lot higher than the water on the other side of the gate. 
They are letting us into the chamber. Once we were in, they closed the gate, and then let water out until we were on the lower level. The next few shots show the process of the water going out.


You end up on the lower level, and then they open the other gate and the boat drives out. Cool, right?
I was stoked to see this totem pole after learning about them in a cultural anthropology class I took at SBCC.


We watched a slideshow at the dress rehearsal of Chad and Lauren pics. It was super cute.
It dumped snow all day today.


Hanging it... but if anyone asks, the tail light was already like that ;)
I was super tired, and I started passing out when I heard, "unlimited ammo!"  I gotta start using my cameras like machine guns more often--it looked fun.

Ireland

After a whirlwind of all-nighters and tons of work, I was sort-of glad to be spending a week in Ireland. It was nice though, and we got to see and do lots of cool things.  I went with part of the den crew from Goleta, including my older brother Daniel, cousin Aaron, Pat, Nels, and James. To see more photos, click HERE. 

Pat found some bread that he liked:
These are the Cliffs of Moher. They are HUGE! Unfortunately, they fenced off the edge so that tourists can't go out there anymore. They are still amazing, but I think you lose the impact of how high they are when you can't go to the edge. I had been there before, about 7 years ago, and I was able to stick my head over the edge then. The rush of wind coming up the cliff's face and being totally scared made this a cool site to see. 
We jumped over the fence to get this shot of out whole crew.


Most of the storefronts in Ireland have a really similar facade, but they all have a unique typeface, or color scheme to differentiate themselves from the stores. 
Haha, DK is picking his nose.
In the City Center at Galway.







There is snow on the mountain in the center of this shot. It was pretty cold the whole time we were there. 


Fungee the Dingle dolphin is a local legend there. This statue was made by the same artist that made the dolphin statue in Santa Barbara.












Frosty mornings.

Las Vegas

School has been KILLING me lately. I have had so many big projects that I probably did 3/4 all-nighters this week. I have a few days off for Thanksgiving, but it is going to be a whirlwind of craziness.

I met up with Alexis and her family at her grandparent's house in Las Vegas. It was a nice visit and it was cool to meet her grandparents and spend time with her family.

Putting with her grandpa was cool. It brought back some memories of golfing with my grandpa, who passed away earlier this year.
Adam is Alexis' older brother. He works at Live365, the same company that Alexis works for too.





We had fun watching the fountain at the Bellagio and just walking around. We played blackjack for a while and some roulette. I did we both did ok, but in the end, I was down $40, but Lex was even. We found that cool fur coat at a thrift store earlier in the afternoon :)

Miami

Here are some photos of the pre-wedding fun out in Miami. I came out to Florida for Grant and Laura's wedding. Grant has been a friend for a while, and when he called to see if I could come out to Florida, I was like, "heck yeah!" 

We are heading over to the rehearsal in this sweet stretch limo.
Photos bring smiles... It's why I do what I do :)


We had a free day before the wedding and all of the guys went for a race at a high-speed go-cart track. The carts could go 45 mph!

So much fun!!! When I was growing up we had a go-cart, and it always seemed like it was going really fast. I'm sure that it wasn't going more that 20mph, but it seemed SO fast at the time. These carts were awesome!


It would just start raining for a while, and it was pretty steady rain, and then it would stop. It was hot and humid out, so it was not bad when it rained.
The birthday boys having a good time.
I stayed in a room with some of the friends and groomsmen from California. We had a good time, and this was an awesome late night discussion after a night at the bar ;) Props to Gina for putting up with all of the stinky boys in the room.
These photos were actually taken on the day of the wedding. We went snorkeling off the coast. The water was SO amazing to be in because it was nice and warm. I'm used to the cold California water and wearing a wetsuit most of the time. It was a good way to spend the morning on the day of the wedding.  
"Look Jack, I'm flying!" -It's from the Titanic
Even though we went snorkeling at a shipwreck, the coral and other things to see were a little bit too deep. It was not the best snorkeling that I have ever done, but it was really cool to just chill on the boat.

Gina and Patty with their smiles on :)

Bollywood!

I went to India about 6 months ago with my cousin and we traveled all over the place. While we were in Mumbai (Bombay), we were able to start our Bollywood careers! Well, we were just extras, but it was still lots of fun :) The first thing we were in was a commercial for HDFC Bank. The truth is that you can barely see me in the background for like 2 seconds, but oh well. These are screen captures from the Youtube of the commercial. You can watch the whole thing HERE.

The poster below is for the movie that we were extras in! It seemed like a proper Bollywood film, with top stars like Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar. It's called "Singh is King," and it comes out in August. All I'm allowed to say is that we were dancing... I'll keep you posted :) 

New York

So I was on spring break from school this week, and New York seemed like a pretty good place to spend the week. I had SO much fun! I absolutely LOVE it there! This is a small taste...

A view of the Empire State Building from the Top of the Rock.
These are my friends, Dillon and Kalla, enjoying the view.
We stayed in the Chelsea Hotel, which was really cool! It is know for all of the famous people who have lived there. Leonard Coen lived in our room for a little while, and one of my favorite songwriters, Ryan Adams, lived in the room right below ours. We were staying there with some other friends from SF, Erica and Tony.
We had a lot of fun shooting ourselves in the window of our room!
Dinosaurs at the natural history museum were really cool.
Say this name ten times fast...
Cai Guo-Qiang's exhibit at the Guggenheim was simply amazing! I absolutely love art, and this was a super original exhibit to that was unlike any other that I've seen. The architecture of the Guggenheim fits like a glove with the selected works too. There was one installation with wolves that totally blew my mind! If you are going to New York while this exhibit is still there, it would be worth your time to check it out!
I wouldn't have expected to meet so many rad people there, but we did! Every night we were out, it seemed like we met new people that were just really cool. It's been a while since I've hung out with someone as fun as the girl on the left, Alisa. Oops.
We went dancing every night until 4 or 5am. Oops. It was so much fun though! I'm always down for a dance floor, and everywhere we went in NY had them :) This photo is of the band Crystal Castles, that we saw in Brooklyn on our last night there. It was a crazy dance party, so you know I loved every minute of it! Good times, I want to go back already...