My wife Jen, daughter Elliott and I just returned home from a 5 day vacation in Sedona, AZ. I shot an engagement session in Sedona a couple of years ago, and told Jen that it was gorgeous and that I had to take her there some day. We spent our days relaxing, taking in the beautiful surroundings, and enjoying some great food. This was our first trip as a family, and Elliott’s first time traveling in an airplane. She was her usual happy self, and had an amazing time! While I didn’t shoot that many images on this trip (I wanted to do more relaxing than shooting), I thought I would post a few shots from the first couple of days. We started out by visiting Jerome, AZ, a tiny mountain mining town, and then toured Sedona and the surrounding area.
Here are a few images, starting with a few from quirky little Jerome, AZ.
A cute shot of my girls, strollin’.
On the second day of our trip we visited Slide Rock, a beautiful spot a few miles outside of Sedona. You can hike down to a shallow section of river and walk along the red rock river bank. In the summer you can actually get in the water and swim, but it was a little too cold for that this time of year.
Here are Jen and Elliott, ready to make the trek down to the river:
Elliott LOVES riding in her hiking pack!
And here’s what we journeyed down to see:
The rocks are so gorgeous!
And here’s a little self shot family portrait next to the river:
We had such an amazing time, and I know we’ll be back in the future. Jen said that she’d easily be willing to retire there some day! Who knows… : )
On a side note for photographers, all of these images were processed using TRA’s Totally Rad Actions. I’m mentioning this for two reasons. One, I’m often asked what I use to process my images to achieve the look I get. I can honestly say that I use at least one of these actions on EVERY SINGLE image I process in Photoshop, and usually several. They are an indispensable part of my digital photographic workflow. Secondly, TRA has released a brand new set of Adobe Lightroom Presets, TODAY! They have created a brand new set of Lightroom presets that closely resemble the same effects that can be achieved through their actions in Photoshop. If you’d like to pick them up (as well as the actions sets I use), click on the banner below!
In the realm of full disclosure, if you click on the link and purchase any of the actions or presets, I will receive monetary compensation as an affiliate. But please note that I would never endorse any product that I did not completely LOVE and use myself, no matter what. These tools are amazing, and I could not work without them!
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Happy New Year everyone!
After a nice long break from blogging, a vacation at home with the family, a fantastic Christmas and New Year’s, and a nice semi-break from social networking, it’s great to be be back! I’m incredibly excited about all of the things in store in the coming weeks and months. This blog will soon be getting a facelift, and I’ll also be debuting my brand new main portfolio website! I’m also planning on blogging a lot more this year, (including my daughter’s website). I blogged EVERY SINGLE DAY in the year 2007, but have been a bit of a slacker the last couple of years. It’s time to pick up the pace! I certainly won’t be blogging every single day, but definitely more often.
I also plan on networking more in the new year. Getting out and socializing (in PERSON) with my fellow industry professionals is key being successful these days. In fact, I’m going to try to have lunch with a fellow industry friend at least once per week. If you want join me, let me know!
After the most chaotic, and at the same time the most rewarding year of my life in 2009, I’m looking forward to creating more time for friends and family. I’m hoping this year is both a year of growth, as well as tranquility. All of the hard work and stress is meant to give us the ability to enjoy the little moments spent with the most important people in our lives. And that’s what I hope to do this year… to work hard, but to also make plenty of time for my family and friends. That’s what it all comes down to.
I hope you all had a fabulous holiday season, and that you’re as pumped about this new year as I am! I have several shoots and projects from last month that I’ll be blogging in the next few days, so check back!
And because blog posts without pictures are lame, here are a few shots of my daughter from a couple days ago, tearing apart a teething cookie like only she can:
And just for fun, a super-sized image of the queen of the cookie!
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I know I’m a little behind on posting these results. Halloween is over, and everyone has moved on from pumpkins, ghosts, costumes and candy. BUT, it’s still necessary to announce the results. After a week of voting, the people have spoken, and the winner is….
MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here’s the breakdown:
I want to announce the carvers of the 2nd and 3rd place pumpkins, as they really gave me a run for my money. The “howling wolf” pumpkin was carved by last years winner, Courtney. He brought power tools this year, so I was a little scared! 3rd place went to my good friend Paul, who decided to go for the MJ Thriller pumpkin.
I made sure to not influence the voting in any way. I’m sure I’ll be called a cheater by all of the non-winners, but at NO POINT during the voting period did I let anyone know which pumpkin was mine! I went with the cuteness ploy, hoping that Gizmo would bring in a few extra votes. Thanks to everyone who took the time to stop by and vote!
I can’t wait until next year to defend my crown. There’s talk of people wanting to do away with the template based pumpkin carving. I’m not sure about that. It’s not MY contest, so we’ll see what the hosts decide. If the rules are changed, I will adapt, and come back even stronger!
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It’s that time of year again! This past Friday night Jen and I hosted the 3rd annual Ritchey Halloween Pumpkin Carving contest. Our good friends Pete and Jena Ritchey have hosted the party the last couple of years, but graciously allowed us to host this year. We had a blast yet again, with everyone bringing their pumpkin carving A-game. If you want to see the contests from the first couple of years you can see those blog posts HERE for ‘07, and HERE for ‘08.
Now, onto this year’s contestants! Below are the 11 pumpkins up for voting. Glance through all the entries, and even the group shots below the individual images. There’s considerable bragging rights at stake, so please vote for the pumpkin you like the best! They’re displayed in random order, and I can’t give any hints as to who carved which pumpkin. I will say, however, that MY pumpkin is the best of the bunch. So make sure you choose that one. : ) You may only vote once, so make it count!
Here we go!
And some group shots to allow some comparison between the pumpkins:
The voting will be open until this coming Friday at Noon. I’ll post the results shortly thereafter! Thanks so much for stopping by! Please forward this along, as we need as many votes as possible.
Happy Halloween everyone!
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I can’t believe my little girl is 5 months old! I know it’s a cliche, but it seems like just yesterday Jen and I were bringing her home from the hospital!
After posting her 5 month portrait over on her blog, I thought it might be fun to post a little collage over here on my blog. While I take a lot of pictures of Elliott all the time, I make sure that take a good, standard portrait every month on the 13th, the day she was born. I’m hoping to do something with all of the images when she turns a year old. For now, here’s a little collage of images starting from the day she was born, through this lat Sunday when she turned 5 months old. It’s amazing to see the month by month growth!
And here’s a shot I’ll be posting over on her blog in the next couple of days:
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On Friday night, our good friends Kim and Alex gave birth to their for baby, Ellianna Jade. I was in New York on Friday night, but as soon as I arrived back in San Diego on Saturday, Jen and I went to the hospital to see the new happy family, and to take a couple of pictures. My wife Jennifer and Alex have been the best of friends for a very, very long time. I’ve only know Alex for the last few years, but he’s proven to be one of the most down to earth, honest, and all around coolest guys I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Both Jen and I knew that as soon as he met Kim, they were destined to be together. Kim is one of those girls you love to hate because she’s SUCH an amazing person. She’s amazingly kind and generous, and incredibly kind and giving to everyone. Jen and I are blessed to call them our friends, and baby Ellianna is blessed to have them as parents. I was fortunate enough to photograph their wedding day last year, and equally happy to shoot a few images of their new baby girl, just one day old.
With Mom:
Proud Papa:
The happy family:
Congratulations you two! Jen and I couldn’t be happier for the both of you!
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I’ll post more Army images in the next few days, but today’s post is for my buddy Chad. He tends to get grumpy if I don’t dedicate a post to him every once and awhile. So, here are a couple shots from our trip.
And here he is hanging on to his chopper during the war:
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It’s been a wonderful but long day, but I really wanted to post a couple more images of our new baby girl before I pass out for a couple of hours. I’m not going to say much, as I’m super-duper tired, but will say that I’m totally in love with my little girl. She’s gorgeous, and I already adore photographing her. She was tired, so her eyes aren’t open, but she’s beautiful anyway!
My two girls, sharing a moment:
More soon!
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Jen’s water broke at 2:30am this morning, and we’re currently in triage waiting to be taken up to our delivery room! I’m writing this post from my iPhone, and all future play-by-play updates can be seen by following my Twitter page:
Follow along and wish us luck! : )
If you’ve been following my Twitter and Facebook updates, you already know that Jen delivered our beautiful new baby girl on Monday afternoon at 3:37pm. Elliott Kay Larsen weighed in at 9 lbs, 1 oz., and is 21″ long. I want to say thank to all of our family and friends who have been following along with us, and have been sending wonderful messages and congratulations. I’ll be posting a bunch of pictures in the near future, but for now, here’s a shot of Mom and Elliott taken with my iPhone shortly after delivery.
Thanks again for the love, everyone!
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As of yesterday, it has been 2 full months since I’ve updated this blog. It’s easily the longest I’ve ever gone without writing a post. It’s been SO long, in fact, that I’ve had many people write me emails asking if I was ok, if I was sick, or if I was even still! Some were even surprisingly Yes, of course I’m still here, and things are going fantastically well. Regular posting to this blog will likely not pick back up for a few more days, but I wanted to share a few things, give everyone a brief update on what has been going on in my life, and explain the long blog silence.
Last Sunday, after 5 straight weeks of renovating, Jennifer and I moved into our new house in Serra Mesa. After returning from an Army trip in late February, I spent over 30 days in row working on the house, preparing it for moving in. We decided to do a HUGE amount of work to the house, and that meant I’d be putting in 10+ hour days, every day, for the entire month. I did have a couple of photo shoots, but still worked every day on the house. I was so tired at the end of every day, that posting to the blog was just not an option. And while there are still plenty of things left on the renovation list, we have moved in, and are extremely happy to be here.
In the FANTASTIC news department, a few days ago my mom had her final radiation appointment, which had proceeded 6 months of chemotherapy. It’s been a long 8 moths, but she’s all done, and is currently cancer free! I’m incredibly proud of her for her strength, determination and positive spirit throughout the last year. She is an amazing woman.
I mentioned not getting back into regular postings on this blog for a few more days, and that is because Jennifer is due to have our first baby in the next few days. I can’t believe how fast the last nine months have gone, and I can’t believe our little girl is almost here. In the days following her arrival, I’ll (of course) be posting plenty of pictures here on the blog. But, if you want to see some lo-fi iPhone images right when she’s born, you’ll have to follow my Twitter updates. I’ll be posting shots via Twitpic for the first couple of days before the real post on this blog.
Once the chaos of the house renovation and the new baby subside, I’ll be back to normal regular blog posting. I shot like crazy in February, so I’ll have plenty of images to post! Thanks again to all of you who check out my blog. I’ll be back in the swing of things very soon.
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