I had an amazing week learning and being inspired, meeting new people and catching up with friends from across the country and around the world, and finding a few new products.

There is one product that I am absolutely in love with, and I should be getting my first samples back in the next six weeks. It’s a wax coating over a photo with a bit of oil paint, and it is truly a fine art product not to be missed!

Oh… and somebody missed me. He hasn’t left my side since I got home (except when I gave him a carrot… he likes to eat outside).

Well, I should have left about an hour ago… But I’m off to Vegas shortly! I’ll be learning and gaining inspiration for the upcoming season and won’t be back until Friday!

In the meantime… you know the drill. I will have sporadic access to email and cell phone coverage at the hotel is not guaranteed. I will try to get back to you in a timely manner, though.

Have a great week!

What a fun weekend! Leigh Miller asked me to come along and second shoot for her on Melissa and Brian’s wedding in San Diego at Grace Lutheran and the Prado. Their family was warm and friendly and they had such a beautiful wedding!

How many groomsmen does it take…?

Brian

One of Brian’s groomsmen and his son

Melissa and the girls took a trolley to and from the church!

We were just finishing the portrait session when I turned around and noticed the beautiful blue sky!

Melissa’s dress just moved with every step

They smashed their shamrock themed wedding cake all over each other!

I wonder what Brian and his dad are saying here?

Wednesday afternoon brought me a wonderful portrait session! We had such a fun time in and around the studio, and I think I may have convinced John that having your photo taken isn’t such a horrifying experience. :)

Fez likes girl scout cookies… but then, who doesn’t?

Bear with me… it’s a long one. You can just skip to the end if you aren’t interested in the story.

Tuesday was not the best of days. It started out great– my morning oatmeal was superb! I went to the gym around 10am, came out around 11am, got in the car and backed out of my parking spot… and the car died.

Yup, my 1.5 month-old Passat just died. It wouldn’t start up again, no matter what I did. I was blocking the whole aisle and a very nice man helped me push it back into the parking spot. I tried several more times to start the car, and once it actually started and died a few seconds later again. I called VW roadside assistance and explained the problem. They said they would call back to let me know who was coming to assist me. 20 minutes later, they had not yet called back and I was starting to get a little ticked off! When I called to find out what was going on, they said it would be 45 minutes to an hour. Lesson #1: do what you say you’re going to do, even if it means giving bad news!

About 1/2 an hour into the waiting I went next door to the Elephant Bar, and they were so nice to me. I’m pretty sure I looked awful because it was a hard workout, and they pretended not to notice. They knew I was in a hurry and gave me a full silverware set since they were out of the plastic stuff (I brought them back!). Lesson #2: Being nice to scary-looking frazzled people really goes a long way. After I finished eating my salad, I decided to try and start the car again, and it started and didn’t die. However… I wasn’t about to try and drive home and cause an accident at that point.

At 12:50pm the tow truck finally showed up. He started my car just fine and tried to convince me to drive it in very accented and broken English. I tried to explain it would probably just die again, but he didn’t really get the idea. It was frustrating. He finally just loaded it onto the tow trailor, but then he left it on while on the trailer and was about to drive with my car running! I had to turn it off and roll the windows up myself! Need I even mention Lesson 3? Anyway, Lesson #3: Hire employees that can communicate properly for their line of work… and pay attention to details.

We got to the dealership and it once again started right away. I was starting to think maybe I was crazy, but they assured me they would check it out. Susan, one of VW’s service department wonders, was very nice. She called Hertz to come pick me up and within a minute or two, their manager was there. He was also very nice and professional. I drove out of Hertz’s parking lot around 2:45 in their styling baseline Hyundai (which actually wasn’t bad).

I finally got home around 3:00pm and took my long-awaited shower. Susan called me around 5pm and told me the brand new 2007 Passat I leased at the end of January needed a new fuel pump. I won’t pretend to know why, but it could work sometimes and not others, which is why the car started later with no problem.

I just picked up my car about an hour ago, and I’m so glad to have it back. Apparantly VW headquarters will be calling me to find out all about my experience with the service department. I’ll be telling them how great it was, because once I got back to the dealership it was actually a very nice experience if you don’t count the sweaty gym clothes part.

I sincerely hope I never put my clients through the frustrations the roadside assistance people put me through. I really want to provide the best customer service and client experience possible. If there is EVER anything you think I can do better, please let me know. Give me a call, email, whatever. Because I’ve been on both sides, and I really appreciated the good side and those people that helped make it as pleasant as possible.

[AG]WPJA 2006 Winter – Contest Gallery

I didn’t have time to elaborate the other day when I found out about my second win with the AGWPJA, so I’m editing the post now to include a little more info. First, I am so excited! I had a fabulous time at Christy and Mike’s wedding last November and the entire day pushed me a little more in photography. I like the symbolic nature that an image from this day placed in the contest.

Straight from the front page of their website, the AGWPJA says, “The Artistic Guild of the Wedding Photojournalist Association [AG]WPJA is a group of international wedding photojournalists, who capture unscripted wedding moments as they happen, and excel in the art of post-production image processing.”

I enjoy being a member of the WPJA but felt hampered a bit since they don’t allow post-processing other than color correction. Also, they don’t seem to like infrared images even without post-processing, so I’ve been happy to include these images in my entries to the AGWPJA.

Related posts:
first WPJA win
first AGWPJA win

This past Saturday I was honored to participate in the Long Beach Westin’s bridal show. It was a much smaller show than I’ve been in the past, which is why I agreed to join — the showcase was lovely with Bixby Knolls Florist providing floral arrangements, Rossmoor Pastries the cake, and Glow Concepts the gorgeous linens. Also, the lovely woman next to me was displaying the most beautiful invitations I’ve ever seen! You can see more at Tangé Design.

I realize the beginning of Spring is techically a couple weeks away… but I don’t feel like it is. Flowers are blooming everywhere, I can smell the wonderful Jasmine when I walk up to our house, and the time is already changing this weekend.

I just found a few more photos from Thanksgiving in Michigan on my laptop. Gotta love PhotoBooth!

Britney Alves – Award Winning California Wedding Photography

I am so excited! I placed 6th in the Winter 06 WPJA contest in the First Dance category.