SO CHIC! : MAYNA OF CLOSET FLY WARDROBE CONSULTING

03.05.10   -  COMMERCIAL : HEADSHOTS : BRANDING : LIFESTYLE MARKETING : MY FAVORITES

Mercer : U-Village : Seattle : February 27, 2010

Talk about someone who really has their fashion sense together...Mayna is your gal! Mayna and I really wanted to have some fun, explore a few avenues of her stylish nature and emphasize that she can assist her clients with a variety of styles of wardrobe. Our goal was to utilize 3-4 outfits in a retail setting to allow us some options and really emphasize her fun-loving and playful nature, but with that serious-savvyness that she carries well.

"Omg it's early," I said to myself when waking at 7:45am on a Saturday morning, "but well worth getting up!"

We arrived at 9am at the retail establishment Mercer at the U-Village Shopping Center, about an hour before they opened their doors to the public, and quickly began scurrying through her fashions to decide which outfit would go best with 'this' and which outfit would go best with 'that', etc. Needless to say, we used our time very wisely and the 'am' store manager was more than accommodating to our needs and wishes.

Thanks to Mayna we used our time well, had all the elements set in place and executed to our shoot plan...way to go Mayna!!

WHAT A WEEKEND...LIFE IN VEGAS!

03.03.10   -  MY FAVORITES : TRAVELS

Las Vegas, NV : Feb 19th-22nd

Well, what started as an idea to take a couple days off work turned into a 5-day, 4-night excursion to Sin City...where sleeping until Noon is pretty stinkin' normal! There's always that 'thing' about Vegas that makes you feel like you're on an alternate planet and that when you're there it's like you never have to return to wherever you came from. Anyone else feel that way??

Ok, where to start!? The 'window' shopping, the food, the people, the poker, the taxis...all could have their own chapter!

Lots of (Window) Shopping or should I call it 'perusing' through all the amazing designers and expensive items that most of us wouldn't glance at on any normal day of the week. But hey, it's Vegas, and the Louis Vitton store is THREE stories!! There are TWO Salvadore Ferragamo stores within fifty feet of each other, there are extravagant jewelry and timepiece stores every few steps, and there is amazing, 'oh-my-god-this-is-really-good' food is E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E!!!

We pretty much parked ourselves at the Venetian and Palazzo shops for half the trip since we spent nearly a whole day (5-6 hours) touring these shops alone! The forum shops at Caesars are nice, but not as spacious and cozy as the Venetian-Palazzo arrangement down the Strip. Next to Bellagio they recently built 'City Center', a five-tower amazement of condos, more high-end retails stores and of course, restaurants and attractions...many of which are due out in 2010 and 2011.

As you'll see below, we had some fun at the Burberry store where I tried on a $650 Burlap coat. We visited Chanel and Prada where I had to hold Kerry (my other half) up or she would have fainted. We parked ourselves at one of the best Banana Republic stores I've ever visited for at least an hour on the last day. And I believe between the two of us we saw enough eye candy walking around these stores as there could be...from an apparel and accessories standpoint that is! Next time I'll make sure to have an idea of some purchases in mind so we're a little focused. For Kerry I could have just left her at the Ralph Lauren store for life and she would have been good to go I believe.

Then there was the Poker...something I dream about weekly, but never act on since, well, it's so darn stressful when you're playing for more than nickels and dimes. Venetian, Bellagio, and Wynn are all staple names in the worldwide poker arena, and funny enough all feel like a separate home away from home when I'm there. For anyone who knows about poker, there are a multitude of different level of games to play in 'limit' structure and 'no-limit' structure; I opted to play 'limit' structure which caters to those looking to minimize any potential losses.

Here are a couple of my best hands I played:

Hand #1 @ Bellagio - Rolled-up 8's were dealt to me in the $20-40 limit 7-card Stud game at Bellagio, a game that I have an excellent record in playing in the past. Last time I played there in the summer of 2007 when I was contracted as a Tournament Supervisor for the WSOP (World Series of Poker) where I turned $400 into $2000! 'Rolled-up' means I started with THREE 8's to begin the hand...a VERY strong holding. The action moved around the table slowly and I limped in for the $5 call. With a hand this big I was hoping for 'action' behind me (betting and raising) but had no such luck, so hoped that the player to my left was eager to try to make a play and get into trouble. He limped and the initial caller and I went to 'fourth-street' to see the next card. Both players checked and so did I, hoping to trap one of them for all their chips.

Once we reached fourth street, two 'blanks' (low cards) had hit me and a really tight player bet out $40 expecting to win the pot right there. Instead, I raised him to $80 and he called and the other player mucked. Looking at his 'up-cards' (cards showing) I noticed he probably had two-pair, but wondered if I got lucky somehow when I raised. So going to 'sixth-street' he checked, I bet $40 and he called.

On the river (the last card, dealt face down) he must have caught something, but I still saw no flush or straight draws present so I raised his $40 bet to $80 immediately. He was an older man from New York, wearing an aged Yankees hat and was actually sitting at the same table when I played there last in 2007 (ironic). He went into the tank (thought a lot) for at least 30-seconds before re-raising me to $120! At this point I had no choice except to call his bet in case he made a magic card on the end or higher trips. After my quick call he looked up at me and said, "Whad'ya have?" Since he asked I knew my hand was good...the three 8's held up as I didn't fill up for the full house, but raked in a pot of $515 and started stacking. .

Hand #2 @ Tuscany - While playing a $25 buy-in No-Limit hold'em tournament with $10 optional rebuys at the Tuscany Casino (where we stayed) I found myself in the following situation with SIX players left in the tournament and I was the chip leader at the final table. We had started with over 50 people and I was really concerned with making the most profit off the tourney as possible. However, at this time the blinds had reached an unreal level (8,000-16,000) and even though I was sitting on well over 100,000 in chips I would be sacrificing the chip lead and potentially could get knocked out as there were still two short-stacked players behind me that might push as well.

Here's the situation: The player under-the-gun (first to act) looked down at his chips, thought for half a second, then declared 'All-In'! He had shown some pretty good hands, but had enough chips that the blinds could have gone around him and he would have still had enough to play with. The next player folded to me and I looked down at J-J and really had to think about my options. After thinking for nearly a minute, I folded, wondering if my opponent was holding A-Q or A-K, which I feared. Based on his non-verbal actions and talking I established that he either held something like A-Q or 9-9, but wasn't certain and wasn't willing to risk the chips because if one more player got knocked out we would all move substantially up the money payout scale.

So, I folded, he was called by one of the short stacks, and sure enough, he rolled over 7-7 and never improved. In hindsight I would've won the hand, but also, we knocked out another player after that and wound up chopping (splitting) the money FIVE ways and taking home $500 each for our time. Tough decision at a tough time, but I went with my gut and thought it was the smart thing to do, otherwise I would've walked away with $150 if I would've gone broke there.

Lots and Lots of Tasty Treats and Food was all around....I can't tell you how difficult it was walking around and smelling the most wonderful flavors about every ten feet it felt like!! Because of my small successes at poker we were able to eat a little more extravagant than usual and tasted what we could of the local cuisine. Here were a couple of our favorites:

Espressamente @ Palazzo Shoppes - you MUST try their Cafe O'Le, their Tiramisu Gelato, and their Crepes...Mmmmm!!! We stopped in there after walking through Barney's and wanted to order pretty much everything on their menu. Highly recommend!

Todd English's OLIVES @ Bellagio Shoppes - Not that we didn't like that it was the only place I've ever seen 'Sexy Scallions' on the menu as an item in a salad, but hey, we did pretty good for making a random selection. Lemon-oysters on the half-shell, tasty portobello-feta flatbread and Scallops to-die-for served with the best risotto I've ever had...Muy Delicioso!! (Very delicious) Since we're not drinkers we opted for the sparkling water, but their wine list is impeccable. At our cozy booth in the darkened room with triple ceiling-trims I even saw the stylish manager signing for a bottle of rare wine brought up from their private cellar...wow!

KREATE EVENT FEBRUARY : BECOMING A BETTER NETWORKER

02.12.10   -  EVENTS

February 11, 2010 - Studio C Event Room, Bellevue, WA

How about that handshake?! How about your feet posture? What do I do when someone hands me their card and I really don't want it? Who gets introduced first when there is a leader or executive in the bunch?

Today at my February 'Kreate Interactive Brand & Business Development' event we had the honor of hosting 'Arden Clise of Clise Etiquette' website and 'Jean Hamilton of Speaking Results' website, two very dynamic and interactive presenters who really made their audience step out of their box and really think about some of the messages they might send off when conversing with others and networking in particular. Through a variety of exercises in both 40-minute presentations, both Arden and Jean made some simple exercises very fun for our audience tonight. Between shaking your neighbors hand in a couple different fashions, to practicing some fun non-verbal concepts, to introducing your neighbor to another attendee in proper format, we had lots of excitement in the room and conversations-a-plenty!

A Big 'Thank You' to all our guests for this evening, including Tammy Redmon, who drove up from Olympia to do our close to the event. Also, our Vendors for February are as follows:

• Lisa Haddad, Wine Shop at Home 
• George Pro, Pro Sound & Vision and Clear Wireless check out George's website
• John Erdman, Ideal Companies Solution Providers check out John's website
• Cyndi O'Neil-Dady, Send Out Cards Extraordinaire check out Cyndi's website

About the Kreate event series:

Kreate 'Signature' events are every Second Thursday of each month, held in Bellevue at the Master Builders Association event room (no affiliation), located near the Lexus dealership just off Hwy 405 in downtown Bellevue. Events will be held during the daytime through 2010, beginning at 11:15am with open networking opening up at 10:45-11am for our vendors and table hosts. Cost to attend an event is $20 pre-registered and $28 at the door. Food and non-alcoholic beverages provided and there is plenty of free parking. Also, we have been averaging about 7-8 great door prizes at our events, which are open to all pre-registered attendees.

We hope to see you at our March event - March 11th, 11:15am. Register here

Enjoy some of these fun images below, which are also posted to my Facebook profile. 'Fan' Kreate Brand & Business Development if you haven't already and you can access the images there as well.

Interactive presenter Arden Clise demonstrating a variety of handshake techniques to our audience.

(L to R) Phoebe Patten of Verdure Designs practicing her handshake with Tammy Redmon of Redmon & Associates.

(L to R) Arden Clise having a laugh with Vicki Mims of Core 4 Basics and Jeffry Myers, Motivational Speaker and Photographer.

(L to R) Gina O'Daniel of O'Daniel Designs and Diane Bridgwater of Speaker-Publisher share a laugh during Jean's presentation.

Interactive Presenter Jean Hamilton explaining how our non-verbal actions are more important than our verbal ones.

Vendor Lisa Haddad explaining why she is passionate about her business during of the networking rounds.

(L to R) Ezzie Anderson of John L.Scott and the MBA, Audrey Godwin of The Godwin Group and Gabe Gervalis of Gervelis Search Mktg.

During one of two networking rounds, team leader Kammie Linseby has a full house of laughs and great conversation.

THANK YOU AGAIN to all my guests for the February event...make sure to come back next month and INVITE A GUEST. I APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT GREATLY. -JM

'GROUP RATE DAY' HEADSHOTS EVENT @ THE MBA : OCTOBER '09

02.10.10   -  EVENTS : HEADSHOTS

October 5, 2009 @ the Master Builders Association facility, Bellevue, WA

Group Rate Day is an event I host every 6 weeks throughout the calendar year whereby headshot appointments are only $99 for 'One-day only', a 60% Savings off my normal rate for a typical 1-on-1 session. 

After an increase in demand for 'Special Headshot Rates' and the fact that I meet many entrepreneurs and agents on a budget I took it upon myself to create these special events where each client has a 20-minute session with me and receives their best retouched digital file as the deliverable, which should be interesting to see what future demand brings.

All 10 Clients for the October event were:

• TERRY MEAD/Postnet Printing, Woodinville website
• KATIE MUNOZ/Moving Forward, Inc., Redmond  website
• DAN COTE/CFO 2 GO, Bellevue  website
• DARCI BIDMAN/John L. Scott Realty-Kent North Office  website
• NANCY OWYANG/Eye 2 Eye Graphics, Mill Creek  www.eye2eyegraphics.com
• CAMI PRICE/ReMax Eastside Brokers, Bellevue
• BARBARA GRADDY/Mortgage 
• KATHY COREY/Rainier Title, Seattle
• MARILYNN HIGGINS/Ageless Enterprises  
• DIANE BRIDGWATER/Pawsitivity & Visual Communication websitehttp://www.visualcommunication.com

Here are some samples of my clients' final selections, some of which selected 2-3 images each for a variety of uses in their marketing materials, website or business cards:

MEDELLIN FAMILY PORTRAITS : FUN AT SNOQUALMIE

02.07.10   -  FAMILIES

 August 28, 2009 - Downtown Snoqualmie, WA

About 15 years ago I accidentally strolled into Snoqualmie looking for someone's house and found the downtown area. Today I ventured into Snoqualmie with George and Wendy Medellin - coming from the Hwy 18 exit - and couldn't believe how many houses and developments there were back there!!

Since George and I were members of the same 'BNI' Chapter in Factoria, Bellevue, we had the chance to think about where to have their family portrait taken. Through the years George and Wendy have taken their kids up to a particular area to relax and enjoy 'family time' so they felt it appropriate to take advantage of this and make the 25-minute jaunt up there to capture their family in their favorite special place. We were lucky enough to have GREAT weather that day and everyone was in good spirits, as the images will display. They requested we take some images of different combinations of them and their two little ones, as well as some 'fun' couples images, which we took between and around the historic locomotives centered in downtown. Just a ton of fun!

The second image series is one of my all-time favorites because George and Wendy were very relaxed and just had fun being themselves...fun, romantic, with a little bit of 'kidding-around' in there...enjoy! -JM

ISABELLA'S 9TH BIRTHDAY PARTY : KIRKLAND

02.06.10   -  EVENTS

August 17, 2009 - Our Home, Kirkland, WA

Silly string, decorating, lots of pink and pastels, all the trimmings for a 9th Birthday party. "Oh no," I yelped, "Kerry's got the silly string!" We searched everywhere for that stuff and finally found it at Target I believe...but we were definitely happy we did. 

"I got you," or, "Take that," were common shrieks you would hear during our 20-minute battle royal between several kids, Kerry, myself and her parents in our front yard. Had to wonder if our neighbors thought we were nuts of not, but oh well, it's all about having fun!

Somehow I was able to 'run' AND 'carry my camera' at the same time...as you can see in this image of me 'getting' Kerry pretty good!! She had 'pastel' hair and I looked like some sort of 80's-crazed band member at the end!

Here's Isa's good friend, Marisa, who began collecting as much silly string from our new 'Silly String/Bermuda' grass. The ball looked similar to a softball within a few minutes!!

Decorating the cake was a whole-nother adventure as I had to make frosting from scratch and couldn't find something to decorate so added the white frosting to paint her name 'ad-lib', then cut up some chocolate-chip granola bars and made a trim...yes, Julian can decorate sometimes! lol...and the 'heart bracelets' were a hit!

Pricesless (above).

TYLER DARNALL : GIDDY UP!

02.06.10   -  SENIORS : SENIORS : FAVES!

September 4, 2009 : Pioneer Square & Capital Hill, Seattle, WA

Talk about 'bright' colors! We definitely started with some brightness, using a cool graffiti wall located one block East of Broadway and Pike streets that's kind of hidden unless you knew it was there. My studio I used to rent was located across the street is the only reason I knew the location...so much fun shooting up on Capital Hill because of all the eclectic colors, crazy backdrops and number of 'interesting' people you'll come across navigating from block to block!

One thing about Tyler and his family, they are absolutely FUN people to be around, so needless to say our almost 3hr session went by super fast because we kept things moving and had a great time! Tyler's older sister will be a 2010 grad of WSU and his mom can't believe it's already time for Tyler to move out pretty soon onto college...time flies!!

Started on Capital hill for about 45min then finished the remainder of his session down in Pioneer Square utilizing his guitar, the great view of the viaduct and Pier 50 backdrops. Tried to bring out that super goofball-fun personality and I thought we did exactly that as you'll see below. Enjoy! -JM

'GROUP RATE DAY' HEADSHOTS EVENT @ THE MBA : NOVEMBER '09

02.06.10   -  EVENTS : HEADSHOTS

November 12, 2009 @ the Master Builders Association facility, Bellevue, WA

'Group Rate Day' is an event I host every 6 weeks throughout the calendar year whereby headshot appointments are only $99 for 'One-day only', a 60% Savings off my normal rate for a typical 1-on-1 session. Next event is January 28th, 2010! After an increase in demand for 'Special Headshot Rates' and the fact that I meet many entrepreneurs and agents on a budget I took it upon myself to create these special events where each client has a 20-minute session with me and receives their best retouched digital file as the deliverable, which should be interesting to see what future demand brings.

NOVEMBER CLIENTS - THANK YOU!!

• LEANNE PLANCIC/Axa Advisors, Bellevue: Financial Planning, eWomen Member 

• BOB SMITH/Allstate Insurance, Bellevue: Total coverage, Home/Auto/Business, MBA Member & MBA Spike

• CHARLIE BROWN/Sears Commercial Sales: MBA Member & MBA Spike

• TERRY FONTAINE/Recruiter: MBA Member

• PETE DISANTIS/Peter DiSantis Consulting, Seattle: Local Speaker & Efficiency Expert Pete's Website

• ELISE LINDBORG & KELLI HENDERSON/Zippy Dogs Promotional Products, Seattle/Bellevue Zippy Dogs website

• PEGGY WATT/Lancer Ltd Printing, Bellevue/Redmond: eWomen Member Peggy's site

• GIOVANNI ISAKSEN/Ashworth Partners Investment Group, Seattle

• GERRI TYLER/NuSkin Enterprise, Bellevue/Seattle: eWomen Member

• APRIL BETTINGER/Shirey Handyman, Bellevue/Seattle: eWomen Member, MBA Member Shirey Handyman site

• DR. SCONTRINO & POWELL/Scontrino & Powell Consulting, Seattle website

• JABEZ LEBRET/Jabez LeBret Communications, Seattle & Worldwide Jabez's website

CHRIS SCHUETT : KENTRIDGE HIGH

02.05.10   -  SENIORS

August 14, 2009 @ Bellevue : Main Street & Bellevue Park

Kentridge HS Class of 2010

Nice Fro! This was what I said to Chris shortly after seeing his afro for the first time. The last time we had met Chris' hair had a 'relaxer' in it and his pictures came out great!...except for the fact that he didn't usually look like this. So once we figured out a date that worked Chris was totally ready to get his images again.

Michael enjoys making music, creating music, breathing music, playing music and pretty much anything related to music....nuff said! So, we figured we might want to throw the gee-tar into the mix and do some 'drifter shots'...had a little fun with that. Chris is pretty laid back so I was really looking to capture this style of person, rather than someone else that he is not.

"Oh, this looks JUST like him," Chris' mom later said at their viewing appoinment. Inside their family home there are dozens of framed images, just a great collection of family moments like many of us with we had room for. Anyhow, I was in awe and was pretty stoked that they found a fwe images to add to their collection of family memories.

LAUREN LAFONTAINE : NEWPORT HS

02.05.10   -  SENIORS

March 25, 2009 - @ Newport High School, Bellevue and Main Street-Bellevue

Class of 2009, Newport High School

What a seriously fun session I had today! Lauren is one of those students everyone wishes they knew - super great to work with, showed up on time and was up for having fun during her session regardless of location. We started out with a bunch of fun outfits and definitely wanted to highlight that Lauren is a cheerleader, and more importantly wanted to bring out her personality, which I think was a little more reserved at first but came out more as our session progressed. 

"Bring on the 'Country'," Lauren said. She was referring to 'country music' that is, which I would not have guessed when I met her. If I had the choice I would've cranked up some but we weren't exactly around a huge PA system or anything! Was surprised she didn't bring a cowgirl hat or boots as this would have always been fun...but I was super happy with the images we produced.

Lauren brought all sorts of fun clothes but she's pretty simple and classic so we went with everyday 'cashe' wear and the rest was full of fun...and lots of jumping around, but it's all good.

These next images were my favorite and were done just after some rain had let up a couple hours before...couldn't have asked for a more fun outfit here, and Lauren knew how to rock it!

JANUARY: DYNAMITE GOAL SETTING FOR A SUCCESSFUL 2010!

02.02.10   -  KREATE EVENTS

This post cannot be republished without express permission, thanks!

Presenters: John Erdman www.idealcompanies.com and Julian Michael

"I am a FIREBALL!!" That's what everyone left with after John did his fabulous "I am a Fireball" story as our close, which always gets people excited to wake up the following day. (below)

"If you aim at nothing...you'll hit it EVERYtime," was the quote I opened with. This is so sad, and so true for many business owners and entrepreneurs. Many new business owners and even some experienced ones get trapped in the day-to-day grind that they forget to plan for their own success, and thus, become a statistic (and there's been a lot lately!).

For John's presentation he covered just one segment of his extensive goal setting and realization workshop that he offers, focusing on "Where are you now," as his key phrasing throughout his 45 minutes of storytelling and exercises with the audience. Everyone had the opportunity to answer a few questions for themselves, apply them to a 'flow of life' graph, and briefly analyze their current position in terms of happiness and balance. Pretty cool stuff to know about yourself1

For my presentation I made everyone work and participate a little since I really enjoying doing this, and will likely not present again for a few months. Everyone had the chance to utilize their groups of 4 or 5 and answer a variety of questions about their goals for 2010 and 'The Big Picture'. Using examples from the audience and stories of my own we wound up with a very realistic look at challenges that face us in growth and how to overcome these.

My favorite exercise was my segment relating to 'Barriers to entry' when looking into expanding into new markets. Here I shared a story about the runners I used to coach at a 4A school in Washington where before I arrived they had never won a track meet in their 5-year history. "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect Practice makes perfect." One of my favorite quotes, and I opened these runners' track season with this, hinting that they had been taught to do the wrong things from the beginning so they were learning incorrectly, running the same, and achieving the same result of 'subpar' at best. In less than three months we lowered every record from 800m to 3200m for the boys AND girls teams and broke the 4x400m records as well. My fastest 1600m runner held the school record of 4:51 and only two others had ever dipped 5:00, which is quite slow for a competitive runner. By that season's end we had 11 athletes dip the previous record of 4:51!!

This previous story goes out to all those that say, "There's just no way I can reach my goals anytime soon." Where there's a will, there's definitely a way - a method - to achieve your personal brand of success.

Until February....that was fun!

What some of our audience had to say following the event:
"I got so much more out of this than I first expected!" - Jeffry Myers, Photographer & Speaker

"This was very helpful since I'm just starting out in my business and it's tough to organize my goals." -Mike North, Graphic Designer

"Thanks Julian, this was a great experience!" -Cyndi O'Neil-Dady, Send Out Cards

EASTSIDE SPINE & WELLNESS SESSION: NEW LOCATION

02.02.10   -  COMMERCIAL

May 7, 2009 : Juanita Beach Professional Complex, Kirkland, WA

Funny thing about this entire session is what I kept in the back of my head throughout my work with Eastside Spine, Dr. Coogan and his staff. After meeting Dr. Coogan and after he had checked out my website he immediately wrote me a very positive email, highlighting that he was excited to work with me and had interviewed several photographers but none of them had 'made the cut'....and that I had made an impression!

"Living the dream," is something Dr. Coogan says, and it's so true for his new facility which he takes an enormous amount of pride in. Two weeks prior to our session we had outlined a 'wish list' for the types of images he wanted to capture and created a nice visual for me while visiting the site in it's 'under construction' stage with painters finishing up and equipment on its way in. Ducking and dodgeing, ducking and dodging all sorts of flying debris...only kidding here. Dr. Coogan indeed had a vision, but without tables, signage and equipment in place I did my best to visualize so I would be prepared for the session on shoot day.

We spent the better part of 4-4.5hrs including a short break to capture a wide variety of images:

• Variety of Interior imagery including room by room space images
• Lobby images with prime signage
• Updated headshots for all three staff members
• Group images of Dr. Coogan and his staff
• Interactive images with sample client and Dr. Coogan
• Lifestyle images of Dr. Coogan
• Variety of 'product' images of current inventory

Somehow the time flew by during this busy day of shooting (which is always nice for everyone) as we began in the midday and before we know it we were approaching 5pm and dinner sounded darn good! Enjoy!

'CLEARVUE VISION' REBRANDING SESSION

02.01.10   -  COMMERCIAL

February 1, 2009 (Super Bowl Sunday) : Kent, WA

When I heard about this client from Gina O'Daniel of O'Daniel Designs I was immediately intrigued since there was such an array of imagery they wanted to capture for their new line of brochures and additional marketing collateral. However, there were a few challenges that I had to field, including working on a limited time schedule, working within a smaller commercial space, and trying to interpret my client's needs without other imagery to play off of. Nonetheless we pulled off a great shoot with quite a variety as you'll see below...and all while the Super Bowl was going on!

We utilized the 3.5hr-4hr time frame to capture the following types of images:

• Interactive images w/sample client
• New headshots (business casual and with labcoat)
• 'Tandem' imagery of both partners utilizing their interior signage
• Interior shots of their lobby and frame selection
• Close-ups of Dr. Heitmeyer working with client
• Close-ups of Dr. Gelt working with sample youth client
• Macro images of higher end frame selection
• Exterior image at night

Thank you again to O'Daniel Designs - www.odanieldesigns.com for the referral! 

SAN FRANCISCO: GHIRARDELLI, TROLLEYS, GOOD EATS AND LOTS OF WALKING!

01.31.10   -  TRAVELS

August 1, 2009

Gotta love those Ghirardelli 'sample size' bars they give you at the door. You know, the little tiny, bite-size shiny ones that are different colors and is juhhhst enough to get you hooked so you spend more than you intended to when you enter their store-slash-temple! Fortunately we managed to get out of the Ghirardelli chocolate factory without breaking our allowance. :OD

"There aren't any coffee shops anywhere," I shouted to Kerry while we strolled through the Fisherman's wharf looking to have our usual mocha or chai while walking through San Francisco's 'Pike Place' or 'Farmers Market'. Shocked, we found the only coffee shop around - Starbucks! But I was really looking for that 'out-of-way' specialty coffee/cappuccino stop that would prove different and more cozy...since after 7pm the temperature wandered well below 50-degrees (super cold considering we had shorts and a light top on).

Our first experience was riding the 'BART' underground transit system, which is just about the coolest thing I've ridden on lately. From thirty minutes south of the Bay Area (where the airport is located), the Bart took us all the way into downtown, with about ten stops along the way....but sure felt nice to imagine what Seattle would be like with a similar system! (only in our wildest dreams!!)

Starving from pretty much skipping breakfast on our first full day, we managed to find one of the best Chinese restaurants in town, in whereelse but 'Chinatown', which flaunted so many street shops we were just about 'street-shopped' out after our lunch of Wonton-noodle soup, Szechuan chicken and some great hot tea. After that meal we still had about five blocks of hill climbing (oh yeah, did I mention San Fran puts WSU to shame on hills!)...until we reached the trolley stop that took us down to the 'Wharf'.

Travelling standby is always fun, but managed to find a flight with TONS of open seats so I got a whole row to myself....Zzzzzz

Chinatown has some of the most eclectic colors around, really opens up your 'visual palette' - no wonder we HAD to wear sunglasses!! lol

Yeah, between the trolley operator and Kerry urging me on, I was pretty much a lock for being a cheeseball and ringing the trolley-bell! Good times...and yes, I would do it again!

My last photograph (above-right) before hitting the 'In-N-Out' burger and ducking into the Bart (subway) and heading back to the airport.

This was the view from the top of the famous 'Lonbard Street' (you know, the one that zig-zags on some seriously dated brick cobblestone). Really reminded me of my youth when my dad would make ABSOLUTE certain that we took a drive down Lombard before we left. Just a great view of 'The Presidio' (far top-right) about an hour before sunset. Oh yeah, forgot to mention...we walked from Fisherman's Wharf halfway back to downtown, including the brutal few hills leading up to Lombard, which left me wishing I kept my running fitness a bit more!

We had a fabulous time - I highly recommend visiting San Fran if you get the chance! - JM

MY BIO : MY PHOTOGRAPHY BACKGROUND

01.27.10   -  ABOUT ME

 What do I shoot with?

Although I used to own and operate the Nikon line of camera equipment, I currently shoot all my sessions with the Canon 5D and professional L-series lenses. I shoot all throughout the greater Seattle/Bellevue area, Portland/Beaverton and Los Angeles and Las Vegas on occasion doing a variety of styles of photography as requested.