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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I’m currently in Sierra Vista, AZ working another week long shoot for the US Army. I’ll have images to post soon, but right now I want to post a few images from a trip Jennifer and I took a little over a week ago. We once again headed out to Lake Cherokee, TX to visit some of her family for a few days.
On Friday night, Jen’s aunt, uncle and cousin threw her a quick, impromptu baby shower!
Jen’s uncle Joe gave Jen some sentimental gifts, including an actual shirt from the racing event he and Jen’s father were at when he got the call that her Mom was in labor. He’s kept this shirt for over 30 years!
The next gift was a very old bible used by Jennifer’s Grandma Kay:
(Shhh… I think Jen and I have decided use the name “Kay” for the middle name of our soon to be daughter, Elliott!)
What little girl doesn’t need a pair of Air Jordan’s?
Jen’s little niece Avery was dying to get into the cupcakes:
The coolest dog in the world, Nelson. I LOVE THIS DOG!
Uncle Joe, cousin Kelly, and niece Avery, chillin’ by the fire:
On Saturday we decided to take a trip to Caddo Lake, a beautiful lake split between East Texas and Louisiana. But, before we headed out, Avery had to put on her alligator huntin’ glasses, given to her by uncle Joe:
The entrance to our section of Caddo Lake is in Uncertain, TX. I don’t know the origin of the name, but I did buy a sticker that reads… “Where the hell is Uncertain, TX?” Upon walking up to our paddle boat, the “Swamp Thing”, I was a little nervous:
But after getting out onto the lake, the sheer beauty of the surroundings squashed any reservations I had.
The lake is huge, and filled with thousands of cypress trees, all coated with Spanish moss:
After a tour of the lake, we stopped in Jefferson, TX for some shopping and pictures. Jefferson is the 2nd oldest town in Texas! Who new? After getting to Jefferson, Avery had to switch to her rock star glasses:
And a few portraits to finish up…
I was trying to take a nice portrait of Aunt Susan and Uncle Mike, but Joe decided to make that difficult by making a few obscene gestures behind me while I was shooting:
One last group shot on the main drag:
Lake Cherokee is truly beautiful, and spending time with Jen’s family is always a blast. I can’t wait ’til our next visit!
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I decided to wait a few days before making my traditional first “New Years” post this year. I, like many other bloggers out there, like to post about all of the new things I hope to accomplish over the next 12 months. I wanted to wait a couple of days to see if I still had the same passion for all of my new ideas. It’s easy to get excited during the last few days of December, only to be let down and deflated after the first week of the new year. I’m super stoked and excited to say that I’m even MORE excited now about everything that is to come. This is pretty much a big free-form post about everything in my head, and everything that’s on the horizon.
First and foremost, I want to update everyone on the 3 ladies in my life. My Mom just finished her 5th (out of 6 total) chemotherapy treatments on Monday. She’s a chemo veteran now, and is doing very well. In addition to an outstanding oncologist, my Mom has an incredible spirit and drive to overcome all of this. After her final chemo treatment at the end of the month, she will undergo 30 days of radiation treatments. She’s looking forward to moving on, and enjoying life to the fullest! Next, both Jennifer and our soon-to-be-born daughter Elliott are doing great! We had another doctor’s visit today, and everything looks fantastic. While the doctor was listening in to the heartbeat, the baby gave a huge karate kick that nearly poked through Jen’s belly. I think she’ll either be a soccer player, or a drummer in a punk band. I want to sincerely thank everyone who continually inquire about my Mom, Jen and the baby. I truly appreciate all of your positive thoughts and kind words. I don’t take any of you for granted!
I can’t even begin to express how excited I am for everything that is to come this year. Jen and I will be moving into a new house in March, followed by the birth of our first baby in April. Those two things alone are life changing! I look forward to creating more wonderful images for all of my 2009 brides and grooms, as well as plenty of portrait clients, and several more shoots for the US Army! Here are a few more things I plan to change in ’09:
– Weight loss… Everyone talks about losing weight at the beginning of every year. Knowing the difficulty of sticking to an eating and exercise plan at the onset of a new year, I actually started working out and eating a little better back in mid December. By January 1st I’d lost 6 pounds, and I’m super motivated to keep going! I’ll likely update the blog with my progress!
– Back to the good ‘ol days of blogging regularly… After posting every single day during 2007, I kinda slacked off this past year, only posting every few days. 2007 burnt me out a bit, and I needed a brake from constant blogging. While I won’t be blogging EVERY day this year, I’ll certainly be posting more often. AND, I’m going to be adding a lot of video content. I need to keep up with all of my talented, innovative, hip friends and begin to shoot and post some videos on here!
– Broadening my photographic dexterity… This year I’m going to expand my photographic horizons, and shoot a little more outside of my comfort zone. I have a head full of ideas, and I want to have the opportunity experiment. I hope that by summertime I’ll be able to start showing some of this new work on a new site that I’m building. It’s more of a personal thing than a professional thing. I’ll announce any new stuff here first!
– More time with friends… I know I have a lot on my plate this year, but I’m going to make an effort spend more time with my old friends, as well as continue to develop the relationships with newer friends I’ve made recently. Is it sad that I have to make it a goal to spend more time with my friends???
– Start drinking more wine… I’m going to make a real effort to drink more wine, and to become more educated on the subject of wine. I like wine, but I’ve never taken the time to become REAL wine drinker. This will be an easy one!
– It’s time to be myself, more often… I know that sounds weird. I find myself holding back my thoughts, opinions and ideas way too much. I don’t know if I’m afraid people won’t like it, or won’t like me, but it going to change. Nothing radical, just a little less holding back.
– Continue to run and expand the PPT Forum… Back in February of last year, my good friend and fellow photographer Aaron Thompson started a networking group for professional Southern California photographers called Pro Photo Thursdays. In an effort to help out and create a way for our friends and members to communicate, I started an online forum for the group. It’s become a great resource for everyone to meet, share, learn and network in our industry. I hope to make it even bigger and better in ’09!
I’m a little embarrassed to say it… but I’ve finally created a Facebook account! I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m sure I’ll learn. I just couldn’t listen to my friends complain to me any more! So, if you’d like to be my Facebook friend, please click the banner below! You can also follow my twitter updates, and be my friend by clicking the badge! Cheers to social networking!
Oh, and since Mom hates it when I don’t post any images here are a couple fav’s from last year…
One of my favorite Army images of ’08:
One of my favorite wedding images of ’08:
My favorite shot of my beautiful wife, Jen!:
And… here’s a NEW shot from a recent stock shoot with my friend and fellow photographer Emily James. I’ll be posting more in a couple of days.
I want to wish all of you the absolute best wishes for 2009. After everything we’ve all been through in ’08, we all deserve an amazing year!
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In the last few days leading up to Christmas, I decided to put the camera down and focus on enjoying the holidays. It felt good to not shoot anything for a few days, and be able to sit back and relax. I hope all of you were able to have a fantastic Christmas, Hanukuh, Kwanzaa, or whatever you choose to celebrate.
Jennifer and I had a peaceful Christmas morning together, exchanging gifts and enjoying the quiet rainy weather. In the afternoon we ventured out to visit my parents, as well as Jennifer’s extended family. I did manage to snap a couple shots of our nieces Denise and Daphney earlier this evening:
Merry Holidays everyone!
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Every year I like to say that I celebrate my birthday all month long. That’s more of a joke than a reality, but this year it’s looking like I’ll be celebrating my birthday for at least a whole week! Last Wednesday I spent the evening having dinner and conversation with a bunch of my fellow photographer friends, and this week is packed full of fun evenings as well.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is my actual birthday, and I’ll be taken out to dinner by my lovely wife Jen! Also, I’ll be having lunch at my favorite little hole-in-the wall, Chopstix. If you’d like to stop by and chow down on some ramen with just let me know! I plan on getting there around 12:30.
Thursday is the PPT Christmas party! And while that has nothing to do with my birthday, I’ll secretly be pretending that everyone and everything is in honor of my birthday! If you’re a photographer in the SoCal area, and would like to come spend the evening partying with us, send me a note and I’ll give you al the details. Bring your spouse, and have a good time with us!
Friday I’ll be hanging out downtown with a few good non-photographer friends having some dinner and drinks. Yes, in honor of my birthday! Saturday will concluded the birthday dinners as Jen and I meet up with another couple who share the same birthday as me. We’ll be doing stakes at Donovan’s… yum!
After all of the partying and eating, I’ll be flying out to Georgia on Sunday to do another weeks worth of shooting for the Army. Fun times!
I also want to say thank you to everyone inquiring about my Mom, and about the baby. Mom is doing well, pushing through chemo and staying strong. Jen is also doing very well. We found out last week that we’re having a girl! She just now beginning to kick, and things are starting to get real!
2 hours and 5 minutes left in year number 32!
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Im’ still in shock that my wife’s little niece Daphney turned 7 years old last week. Time is somehow traveling at an alarming rate these days! I also realize that before I have a chance, my child will be 7 years old!
Before heading out to have some b-day fun, I took a few goofy shots at the house. It’s amazing to see just how big she’s getting. Here are a couple shots of the crazy birthday girl:
And a shot with her awesome Aunt Jenny!
We then headed out for some spaghetti for lunch, and as you can tell, she’s not shy when it come to chowin’ down!
We then headed out to a little Halloween fair and carnival for some fun on some rides. Another quick shot:
And lastly a shot of the best ride at the carnival – the jumpy thing! We waited in line for about an hour to get her on this thing, but it was well worth it. I was a little surprised at how high she was able to get in this thing:
I’m sure it’ll only be about a month before I’m posting pictures from her 8th birthday. Agh!
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It’s officially been long enough between blog posts that I’m starting to get hate mail from family and friends. : ) That’s obviously a joke, but I have been informed by my wife that if I don’t update soon, I’m going to be in trouble! I’ve had quite a bit going on in my personal life over the last few weeks, and I think this is a good time to blog it out! This post is going to be a bit all over the place emotionally, so bear with me.
Firstly… some incredible news! Many of you may have already heard this news, but for those of you that haven’t, Jennifer and I are expecting our first baby! That’s right folks, I can procreate! In all seriousness, we’ve been talking about and planning this for quite some time now. When we finally made the official decision to start trying for a baby, it only took one try. We know that we’re incredibly lucky for that. I’ll certainly be posting updates about Jen’s progress. Her current due date is tax day, April 15. Here’s an iPhone snapshot of the ultrasound from our doctor’s appointment from last week. Those that have seen it say it looks just like me!
On the other side of life, shortly after the news of Jen’s pregnancy, my Mom, was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was a major shock to all of us considering there’s no history of cancer anywhere in her family. She had successful single mastectomy surgery earlier this week, and is recovering quite well. Chemotherapy will start in a few weeks with radiation to follow. If anyone can beat this disease, it’s my Mom. She’s the strongest, most energetic, positive thinking person I know. I twittered about her surgery on Monday, asking that my friends say a little prayer and send some positive vibes her way while in the hospital. Well, I have to thank everyone for their outpouring of support, as she is doing very well! I know she’s strong, but support from friends and loved ones can never be taken for granted. I will also be posting updates about her progress here on the blog.
I normally don’t get this personal on my blog. But, I like to think that this place serves as real snapshot of the things going on in my life. I know I haven’t updated the blog for quite some time, and I reserve the right to wait until I’m ready. After all, I did post 365 times in a row last year. I think I’m allowed to take a break every once and a while!
Thanks for taking time to read such a long post without any photos. Many people stop by and skim through the images and never read a single line of what I write. So to those of you that actually do read the words, thank you. Very much. Please take a moment to leave some kind words for my Mom, Karon, in the comments below. She’s the biggest fan of this blog, and would love to hear from you guys!
PS – I’m shooting a couple of weddings this weekend, so posts with pictures will be returning soon!
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Yesterday shortly before my procedure during the preparation, a nurse asked me to “sign my initials” near the approximate area where the procedure would be taking place. I thought that was a little weird, but then quickly realized they weren’t taking any chances when it came to the procedure/location of every patient.
It reminded me of stories I’ve heard about patients going in for certain operations, only to find out later that a completely different procedure had taken place. Like… going in for a colonoscopy, only to realize the doctor had performed a vasectomy. Or someone going in to have their left pinky amputated, only to have their right leg removed. Scary, scary stuff. That’s why it was very good to have no less that 5 nurses and doctors verify who I was, and what procedure I was having prior to entering the O.R. You can never be too careful!
It was difficult for me to sign my own left abdomen, so I had Jen do the honors. Whatever kind of ink is in that pen will NOT come off! I’ve taken three showers since yesterday morning, and it’s not going anywhere. Jen has permanently branded me!
iPhone abdomen goodness.
I missed my crunches last week, so I apologize for not having my usual six-pack. :)
Happy Friday everyone!
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