Old School!

Nowadays I don't get to watch TV. My life is consumed with photography, editing, editing, more editing, making albums, DVDs, photo cds, consultations, marketing, branding (blog fits in there), etc... I do commit 15-30 minues of each day to stop what I'm doing and watch Conan O'Brian. He's the best.

So I have decided to pay tribute to the great TV shows of my time, since television has influenced me so much in my life.

Oh Thundercats. You taught me to respect my feline friends. Our family cat, Penny was a Thundercat. I think the Thundercats should market their own Kitty Litter. The most powerful Kitty Litter EVER! If it can deodorize a Thundercat's litter box...

Who needs science class when McGyver is on TV? Now I know how to build a bomb with duct tape, a chocolate bar, hair dryer, and a snorkle. Thanks McGyver! Nice hair!

I Pity the FOO! Mr. T. You have taught me so many things.

You put up a mean fight, and call people fools, but you ended each episode of the A-Team with a positive message, like "Stay in School" (which I did), and "Drink yo milk!" (which I do). Thanks for all your positive Jibba-Jabba. Nice hair!

Jack Tripper. I loved the scenes where he and Janet would be installing a shower curtain, while Mr. Roper is evesdropping on their conversation, which doesn't sound like they are installing a shower curtain.

The whole reason I am doing Body for Life is so that I can compete in American Gladiators. Well no one ever told me that it's no longer airing! NOW WHAT! I miss you, Lace! I'll get you, TURBO!One of my favorite TV shows of all time, "The Broncos". Usually it aired on Sundays and the main actor, John Elway was amazing. I believe it was filmed with a live studio audience.

Doberman Body for Life

I've been travelling to Arizona once again, and I got to spend some time with my Aunt Peggy and Co. It was quite nice! We played golf and didn't keep score at the Scottsdale TPC. It was actually really comfortable, we started in the evening, like 6. I played like crap (what's new), but it was a blast. Hit some good ones, and some bad ones.

Then I got to hang with her mutts, Shelby and Bart! I think it was about a year ago that I met Bartholomew for the first time. He was a little shaver. Shelby could pick on him, but see how the tables have turned!

This is Bart, before he took the Bill Phillips Body for Life Challenge:


Who's the boss now? Bart is like, twice the size as Shelby! I LOVE these dogs.
Bart's "after" photos from the BFL 12 week Challenge. Bart put on 60 pounds of lean muscle and body fat percentage DROPPED to just 9%! Now THAT is a success!

That's Shelby, Bart's "big" in the background... kind of!

Seoul Train! India Style! Robert and Mina

This weekend I had another great wedding! This was so cool, I had two very strong cultures coming together to celebrate the wedding of Mina, whose family comes from India, and Robert, from Korea! I loved every second of working with the two of them and their families. I even got the chance to photograph two wedding ceremonies from one couple, in two days.

Here's an artsy shot from the rehearsal dinner at the Wynkoop Brewery.


Something that was really interesting was comparing the dance moves between the two families. Mina's Indian family danced the night away, pointing their index fingers in the air. I almost got my eye poked out a few times as I tried to get some nice dance shots. Robert's Korean family danced with flat hands extended, kind of karate chop movements. Let me just tell you that the dance floor was dangerous that night!

Anyway, here are some shots from their very cool wedding!

Mina's Indian Wedding Ceremony. I ws hoping she'd have the traditional hand painting (sorry I know there's a name for it), but she is a doctor and says that paint takes a good couple of weeks to get off. Robert is also a doctor!

Her hands still look pretty, even without ink!



Here, they hung a sheet between the two of them before they got to see each other.

I got a ton more great shots from the India ceremony, but I have limited # of shots I can post here, so we'll move on. Here's Mina and Robert after the ceremony and their doggie, Sadie. Isn't Sadie, just the sweetest, most adorable, little furry creature EVER???


THINK AGAIN!!!


Not so cute anymore, eh? That dog was VICIOUS! (Just kidding. I was photographing her as she was yawning!)

Saturday soon came and the weather was beautiful! Their wedding was at the beautiful Sanctuary Golf Club. I LOVE working there!


I met Mina on Saturday at the JW Marriott in Cherry Creek. Check out the gift baskets that the other guests got when they checked into their hotel! This is one of their engagement photos that I took of them in Downtown Denver!

Antoine du Chez, getting hair done.

Here's Mina, about to surprise Robert. She can see him, he can't see her!!! SNEAKY!

Robert's reaction... he's PSYCHED!

Mina's mother is a beautiful Indian Princess!

The aisle. Rose petals!

Mina was worried that I wouldn't get a good shot of her and her father walking down the aisle because her friend recently got married and the photographer totally missed that shot. That's crazy. Not THIS photographer, Mina! :)

Reflections are cool!

One of my favorite parts of being at weddings is hearing the toasts. This is Robert's brother. His toast was HILAREOUS! I wanted to press rewind to hear it again. Probably one of the funniest toasts I've heard. I was impressed.

Groomsman, getting a little fancy on the dancefloor. Be careful man!

Again, a sweet Rolls to pick up the bride and groom.

Back in my hippie daze.

I was going through some old stuff and found this old press pass from college. I was the photo editor at the campus news paper, the UNC Mirror! So being the top dogg (that's right, with two g's... the double-g, ya see), I got to go to DIA before it was open to the public. Check out my fro! That was in the early stages of my fro. It got really huge, to the point where it would bounce when I walked.


Anyway, that was a day to remember. It was the big press day. I got to DIA and found myself amongst some of the top journalists in the country. CNN was there MSNBC, FOX News, New York Times, some big shot AP journalists etc... then little ol' me from the local campus paper. Everyone had the nicest equipment and I had a 35mm Canon EOS Elan and a cheapo 28-80mm lens.

It was so fun being at DIA before it was open to the public. I remember being blown away because it was so much more contemporary than that old Stapleton Airport. Anyway, that's what I looked like in college.

My darkroom was so cool. It was in the main campus building, in the Mirror office. I had a fridge that was always stocked with Mickey's 40s and a stereo that I would play snoop doggy dogg on. I was such a wierdo. But I loved that darkroom. It was my life! My hands always smelled like fixer, and I took pride in my ability to roll film onto a spool. We had two kinds of spools. I was so cool I preferred the old school metal spools, opposed to the new plastic ones with the fancy winding mechanism.

I don't really listen to rap anymore and I haven't had a "40" in years. But I'd like to! For old times sake! :)

John and Jennifer!

Yesterday I met up with John and Jennifer of TEXAS for some engagement photos. We hooked up at Chautauqua Park in Boulder, which is the perfect place for some engagement photos. I can't wait to photograph their wedding next month in Breckenridge!

Egg-a-plant-a Parmegianna!

Oh man oh man... what a splurge day I had this weekend! Here's a rundown of how my splurgeday went:

8:30 AM (Slept in!) - Started the day off with Oreo Cookies and Milk! OHHHH YEAH.
8:55 AM - Costco brand Asian Snack mix.
9:00 AM - Cheetos (while checking email)
9:30 AM - Jenny and I went to the Denver Diner. I had eggs, hash browns, bacon, snausage, coke (two refills), pancakes and bizcuits.
11:00: Bugle corn schnacks and Gatorade
2:00: QUESO! Jenny made some fab queso. Accompanied with fritos and corn scoopz.
3:00 - 8:00 Constant Schnacking. (More oreos, chips, etc.)
8:00 - Eggplant Parmesan!

Before I continue, I am going to teach you how to make Eggplant Parmesan. I tried a new sauce recipe from a photographer friend of mine, Randy Kepple, from Washington! Thanks Randy! Surprisingly it was almost an exact match to my family recipe. WIERD. Oh and Randy is an AMAZING photographer and I am glad he is in Washington, and not CO or AZ.

1. Get some fresh parsley and garlic, and about a half of a large sweet Walla Walla onion. Chop it up!

2. Sautee it up in EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL!!! Don't get cheap olive oil, people, you're killin me! The garlic is tricky. If your olive oil is too hot, your garlic will burn, producing a strong, bitter, NASTY flavor. Dont do that.



3. My sauce for eggplant never has meat, but I was dying to try Randy's recipe, so I added ground lamb and italian snausage. It was soooooo good! But, I think I'll use that sauce for pasta and lasagna only for now on. The meat kind of covered up the delicate flavors of the eggplant. It was great, but I think the sauce is more intended for lasagna and pasta. Add a good glass of Cabernet. Then add some sugar (or like they call it in Mexico, "Choogargh") to sweeten it up a little and reduce the acidity from the tomatos, some sweet basil, large dash of salt and I add a dash of red wine vinegar, too. Add a small can of Contadina tomato paste, and 1-2 cans full of aqua. Randy and I agree that Hunts makes the best sauce. Add a large can of that. Stir, and turn to LOW.



4. The fun part... bring out tha EGGPLANT! Slice it about 1 cm thick. Too thick, and it will be too firm after it's been fried up. Better too thin than too thick. Dredge in this order: 1. Flour; 2. Eggs and a little milk (to make em fluffier); 3. Bread Crumbs.


I always thought this was a wierd order to do it, because the flour makes it hard for the egg to stick to the eggplant, but that's how Nonnie does it, so I don't ask any questions.


5. Fry em up! Again, in good, extra virgin olive oil! BE CAREFUL. I cook em up at less than "medium-high". Just between Medium and Med-High. Too hot and your eggplant will brown too fast and they will be too firm. Too low and it will take forever and your eggplant will taste more like oil, than eggplant. BE CAREFUL.

In a casserole dish, layer the eggplant and a tiny bit of sauce, a good layer of mozzerella cheese. Do this until you're done and then dump as much sauce as you can on the top and add more cheese.
Toss it in the oven, preheated at 350 for about 15 minutes, or however long it takes to make a side dish of Penne.



7. Remove from the oven, serve, garnishing with fresh basil and parley and grated parmesan cheese. Bon Appetito! ...or BAM! ...or "Dinner's Ready" ...or "come and get it!".


8. Jenny was hard at work in front of her computer while I was slaving away. So I made her close her eyes and stand behind the table. I put the eggplant right on the table, under her nose and made her smell it for a while. I could tell she was getting excited!


9. OK! OPEN YOUR EYES!!! Let's EAT!




Check out what I did to our water! Added fresh rasberries and some canteloupe and mint leaves. It was pretty and refreshing!

The end result:

10:05 PM - Jenny and I went to see the movie "Cars". LOVED IT. And even better, Jenny (ahem, I mean, the "Splurge-Fairy") surprised me with a Cars Pez Dispenser! We had popcorn and sody-pop and those mint cream things that are covered with chocolate (I forgot what they are called) and Sour Patch Kids!!! WEW!
11:59 PM - more oreos and milk. Splurge day was officially over. :(