Ronnie's Ohana

as many of you know, we are HUGE supporters of our military, so when i received a call from one of my fellow servicemembers asking if i could take some family photos before he shipped out for a deployment, i was more than happy to acquiesce to his request. as it turned out, we actually knew some of the same people in the military. it's a small world after all.
on with the post!
meet ronnie, giji, rinnah, and... i can't quite see that other kid. he's running as fast as dash. maybe his name is dash...

or was it spiderman? no, that's not it either.

almost there. give me a minute. his name will come to me.

it's JONAH!
this little guy was just a ball of energy and so so fun to take pictures of. he kept shooting webs at kim and i. do you have any idea how difficult it is to get spidey webs out of your hair? i don't know how i was able to keep my lens clear.

ronnie and giji have a super fun ohana. they all have the most amazing smiles. they may not have seen it, but i was smiling behind my camera every time i pointed it their way.

we tried flexing their face-making muscles in several ways.
here's ronnie's duck face, as requested by giji.

this was jonah's you-seriously-want-me-to-be-in-these-pictures face.

and the super g-force face.
check the big-wheel shirt. i miss my big-wheel.

getting the point?
these guys are f-u-n. fun.

rinnah's hat was so cute. jonah thought it would look great on his mom. i agree.

if you spend a couple minutes with these two you'll see how warm their hearts are.
that's not sun flare you're seeing. it's the glow of love. they're soaking in it.

such a beautiful ohana.

these flowers look hideous...
next to giji.
she has such natural beauty. i couldn't take a bad picture of her if i tried.

i love giji's smile here. it just feels so warm and full of love.

these guys were such a pleasure to work with. every moment was filled with happiness.

eventually the sun set on our time together. as much as i love san diego sunsets, this one felt kind of sad. i really enjoyed spending time with this wonderful ohana.

just as we were wrapping up the most insane thing happened.
true story.
moments after this shot was taken, the ground started shaking and...

the fountain erupted in a fiery shower of lava!

ok, not really, but you could imagine if it did.
it would be pretty hot in balboa park.
right now ronnie is still over there in harm's way, so please join me, his family, and his friends in praying for ronnie's safe return.
thank you so much for your service ronnie. i've been there before myself, and i know how hard it is to be apart from your family for so long. God Bless you, and the thousands of other servicemembers over there with you.
i hope these images help home seem a little less far away.

Leaving Las Vegas

weeks later i still have vegas on my mind (and in my pending folder).
before coming back from vegas (the 2nd time in as many weeks) i was lucky enough to get a golden ticket to hang out with a literal bus-load of talented photographers. john michael cooper, sofie and paul, tana huffman, jason dominguez, and mark eric (to name a few).
we headed out to red rocks for a sizzling session in the hot hot heat of the nevada desert.
hotness follows.

jessie (seen here) has some of the most amazing eyes i have ever seen. she definitely made it difficult to call what i do "work."

you would never know it by looking at her face, but the water in this pond was snow runoff from the nearby mountains. water temp was frigid.

jessie, being the ultimate professional, stepped right in and made these shots possible.

ya she did.
jessie ended up getting totally soaked.
gamer score +100!

while jessie was getting warmed up, i got a chance to chat with some of the aforementioned willy wonkas of the photographic world. (yes that's a compliment.)
from left to right - sofie, jason, tana, mark.

after a short intermission, jessie was back in black to set the desert on fire.

unfortunately, my clone is still on backorder.
there was so much going on out there. i wish i could have been in about 14 different places at once.

if you ever get a chance to go out to red rocks, do it. i didn't even scratch the surface of amazing spots to see out there.

after a full day of sun we headed back to the strip for dinner at the planet hollywood hotel.
planet dailies to be exact.
the place was plush, the food was great, and the company was choice.

until this trip i had only known paul and sofie through their images and emails. let me be the first to say that they are twice as nice in-person. oh how i wish plane fare was as inexpensive and as fast as email. i also wish cyprus was a whole lot closer to california. i can't wait to see these two again. along with most of the people i surround myself with, they are supportive, super nice, and genuine. please make some time to pay them a visit (online or in-person) so you can share in their awesomeness.

speaking of awesomeness...
check out these mad old-school skills. like parachute pants, they never go out of style. :)
i had to do something to shine the spotlight on bobbi. sure, she demands it, but she SO deserves it. as with paul and sofie, i had only known e-bobbi before this session. if i could snap off a piece of her energy and package it i would be rich rich rich!
bobbi is like a super mario bros 1up to be around. for those (like kim) that don't habla super marionese, bobbi brings life into every situation she is in. you can't help but to be about 5 levels happier whenever she's around. we liked e-bobbi, but we absolutely LOVE real bobbi.
i can't pass up throwing a little love to mark eric too. he started up the trash the dress website and has really helped us. thank you mark for continuing to support our ohana.

tana is super sweet, like a claim jumper choclate motherlode cake that has been drenched in maple syrup, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and wrapped in cotton candy. are you getting the picture?

insert your own caption here.

i met chris in vegas for the first time also. chris is the coolest. you might think from his looks that he is too cool for his own good. not the case at all. he is one of the most grounded people you will ever meet. besides being a rad photographer, chris is also a rad dad. he has an awesome rockband ohana.
here's an example of how cool chris is.
true story.
in vegas, right after i met him, a group of us got together for lunch and i was rambling about something i had been looking for but couldn't find. nothing big. most people wouldn't have given it a 2nd thought. chris, on the other hand, goes back home days later, finds the thing i was looking for, and emails me not only that thing, but a handful of other options.
like i said, chris is the coolest.

i had so much fun in so little time in vegas. i will miss all my friends until the next time we get to meet up. hopefully next year, if not sooner.

i met some people this year that will definitely be on my mind for some time to come. these 2 couples in particular.
on the left, ross and leysa. on the right, sofie and paul.
if you don't know them, go drop them a line. you want people like them in your closest circle of friends.
we have been admiring sofie and paul's work online for quite some time and were stoked to learn that they were flying all the way out to vegas from their home in cyprus. i think they were competing for the longest distance traveled award with ross and leysa (they flew all the way from moldova).
before flying home, ross and leysa rode back to san diego with us to meet up with our mutual compadre eddie b. we talked all the way home, and in that trip we discovered that ross is brilliant and has the most giving heart of just about anyone we know. he is an incredibly talented web/blog designer. talent he donates generously to charities like mission moldova.
may God continue to bless you all and keep you safe in your travels. we can't wait to see you again.