Long story short, we quickly packed our bags and headed out to play with our new toys!  Location of choice: La Jolla Cove, Subject of choice: Phil Paik of Phil Paik Studios.  Experimenting with lighting is SO MUCH FUN!!!  Here are a few of our mad scientist lighting experiments:

The newest tradition to Christmas this year is our makeshift photo booth.  We found a blank wall in the living room, set up one light, and snapped away the whole day.  Here are a few fun photos, I’ll post the full gallery soon!

Not all the cousins could make it this year, but at least the cool ones made it:

Charlie’s Mangels:

Melvin and Jojo on a higher plane:

Chimping:

Meditating:

Practicing our levitation technique:

Best buds since middle school, Tiff and Lea dote on Belle:

No, YOU farted!

If you ever want to see your precious Belle again, I’ll have one million dollars!

It was Tiffany!!!

OG:

Wow, I really broke some major wind!

Self portrait:

It’s Wednesday, which means for most people, the week is half over. But for me, since I bow to the laws of rounding, it’s already rounded up to Friday! I can’t help it, I have so much stuff to look forward to this weekend! Friday I get to tag along on an architectural shoot with the incredibly talented Larny J. Mack. Saturday I get to shoot a wedding, and Sunday an engagement session!

Oh, by the way, the little widget above is telling you all about the [b] school.  It’s a new online networking community for photographers, and I’m really excited to sign-up. From the way things are looking, I think it will be a treasure trove of knowledge and resources.

Before I go, of course I want to post a few pictures. This weekend we visited my mom in MoVal (Moreno Valley) to do a little work around the house and celebrate Tiffany’s birthday with her. Tiff’s birthday was actually August 21st, but we just had to celebrate it with my mom. What celebration isn’t complete without a pitcher?! Here’s me, Tiff, my mom, and our good friend Isaac. Yes I know we’re blurry, but you’d want to be blurry too if you had been moving stuff and sweating all day.

Here’s Jojo, looking so cool for the camera.

Here’s Tiff with her birthday chocolate chip pizookie (warm, soft giant chocolate chip cooked piled with vanilla bean ice cream!!!!)

Can you at least share TIffany?

Last photo of the day, my Jojo!

Here is Skip trying to bribe one of the judges.

The lovely trophy for grilling the best beef.

Check out Skip and Carey’s reactions as Dana revealed the vote count.  Can you guess who won?

The contestants with the happy and well-fed judges.

Skip showing he can be a good sport.

The delightful Arlene Evans of WPPI.

Skip had this little surprise for Carey after the competition.

And here’s Molly, Carey’s dog, relaxing and enjoying the fun of BBQ Smackdown 2008.

What an awesome event!  Carey and Skip were able to raise $1000 for the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation.  I can’t wait for next year to see if Skip can come back and dethrone Carey!

David Jay and Jasmine Star, two awesome wedding photographers and all around super cool people, are touring the country to share their knowledge and experience with other wedding photographers.  Along with sharing so many good workflow tips and marketing strategies, they really hit home with me on two notes.  Creating freedom in our lives is huge and creating time for ourselves and for the things most important to us in life – this is a goal for me and I feel very inspired after hearing DJ talk about this.  Secondly, Jasmine’s adamant demand to Keep It Real!  It’s really important to Jojo and I that our business always reflects exactly who we are.  So if I dress up next year at Comic-Con, you better believe I’m posting pictures of myself in costume!

On a completely unrelated note, I feel it necessary to congratulate Rafael Nadal and his rippling biceps on finally becoming the number one tennis player in the world!!! Yihoo!  Federer’s reign is over, Rafa is taking his place as number one at the strapping young age of 22.  VAMOS RAFA!!!  I want so badly to buy a ticket to Flushing Meadows, New York so I can see Rafa play his first Grand Slam as #1 in the world!

The best thing about BBQ Smackdown is that all the proceeds go towards the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation  (NILMDTS).  This amazing foundation has a network of over 5,000 volunteer photographers, ready to document the shortest of lives, the life of a baby born and lost.  A time of rejoicing and new life is sometimes turned upside down into a time of grieving.  You can read more about the cause here.

If there are any other photographers out there interested in going to the Smackdown, let me know!

There goes Nicholas, flying down the slip ‘n slide at Mach 1.

“I’m pretty sure the clown’s nose goes riiight about here!” says Caleb.

Don’t tap out Charlie…FIGHT!

Charlie actually turns 1 today, July 17th…so happy birthday kid!  And one more birthday shout-out to Ron!