Theresa & Olivier

Theresa and Olivier are an amazing couple who I had the privilege of shooting their engagement session recently.

They are from Seattle but are getting married in Chicago, her family is from Evanston and his family is from across the ocean in France.

The outdoors is something very important to them and their ceremony will reflect that and the engagement session did.

Fun was the name of the game this day! Theresa and Olivier were game for anything and if I asked them to go for something, they went all out!

The thing that struck me the most about them, is the incredible connection they have. I never had to ask them to be affectionate or to cuddle up or to kiss. Every time I turned around, they were in a hug or liplock!

That kind of passion is something to really be admired, they just have a great spirit and great connection. It's their spirit that is making me super psyched to shoot their wedding!

My pal the international award winner

Congrats are in order to my my main man Johnny Tran! No not the street racer from the Fast and the Furious, I'm talking about the hippest, freshest, baddest wedding photographer in Calgary!

You can read all about it here - http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/finao_dwf_photographers_year?s=706d3f0938777f7619b39aa42aa40c72

Also be sure to check out his blog - http://www.jtimages.ca/blog/

Can't wait to catch up with him and many other cool photographer types at WPPI. I'll be gone starting Feb. 13 (I know my girl is real happy about me being out of town for Valentine's) and coming back the the 18th.

TTYL!

WPPI, Vegas here I come!

I can't wait to go to WPPI this year. In spite of the troubling economic times, one can never forget to educate themselves and improve.

If you don't improve and educate yourself, then you make it harder to retain what you have business-wise, and you will eventually lose out to those who are constantly pushing themselves further and higher.

I hope to meetup with my mentor and idol Jerry Ghionis again, and my many friends from the week in Washington DC that changed my life.

To spice up the blog post, here is another greatest hit from the year 2008.



Canon 5D / Tamron 70-200 2.8 / F2.8 @ 1/250 @ ISO 125 @ 105mm

This is an image taken at Union Station in Chicago.

I love to feature architecture and the surroundings in my photography.

I think a strong sense of design and composition is a trademark of my work.

The columns of Union Station provide the perfect backdrop for Christian and Candice to express their love for each other.

What can I say? With beautiful people and a beautiful scene, the pictures almost take themselves! =)

Until next time!

L.A. Story part 2

Here is the 2nd part of our Los Angeles story. Andre & Chanda had a beautiful wedding, highlighted by a horse drawn carriage and a romantic evening in the mountains.

Please enjoy this sampling of images.

Chanda's lovely wedding dress

Chanda in repose

Danny - Chanda's eldest

Do you take this man...

A carriage just like in the fairy tales

Staying up past curfew

Dancing the night away

A romantic nightcap

L.A. Story part 1

In November of 2008. Allure was commissioned to photograph a Los Angeles wedding. We did a couple days of engagement shooting and the actual wedding.

It was so good to get out of the cold of Chicago and bask in the warm California sun for a couple of days.

We got to see some cool things that I had never seen before - Santa Monica Pier and the Getty Center. Truly the Getty Center is an inspiring place to visit. The artwork I saw, makes me want to be an even better photographer and to work even harder.

Please enjoy these images from the engagement session. Pictures from the wedding will be coming later this week.

New Website!

Well we here are at our new web home and new blog home. Allure Photographic Art is now Allure Photo!

The new website, is something that we're really excited about, it will allow us to more easily and quickly add content. So that means more new images, more updates, more more!

We're really looking forward to 2009, maybe we'll get a federal bailout (yeah right)!

So anyways to celebrate 2008. Here's an image that really enjoyed creating:




Photo Info: Canon 5D / Tamron 70-200mm / F-4.5 @ 1/500 sec @ ISO 1000 @ 70mm

This image was recently featured on the international photography website The ICE Society in the December 2008 updates.

I hope to enter it in print competition in 2009 / 2010 and hopefully do well.

Till next time!