Black & White Wednesday - Husband & Wife

A week already? Whew... Here's my 2nd week of contributing to Black & White Wednesdays at The Long Road to China. Such a sweet story over there. I'm still reading from beginning to end, almost caught up :)

Today's photos come from my friend Mandie's wedding which took place last weekend. I was particularly happy to photograph this wedding for many reasons...I've been photographing these two since before their son was born. Maternity photos. Luke's 1 yr portraits. His birthday party. Engagements. Her bridals. and then the Wedding. And as her matron of honor said in the toast...well, life is rollercoaster, and these two have just been enjoying the ride, through the ups and downs. I've seen them through the best and worst of days and where they are now is incredible. So here they are now in their first dance as husband and wife.

OCPD much?

Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a personality disorder which involves an obsession with perfection, rules, and organization. People with OCPD may feel anxious when they perceive that things are not right. This can lead to routines and rules for ways of doing things, whether for themselves or their families. (taken from Wikipedia)

I've recently really seen exactly how obsessive compulsive I am with organization on the computer. It's about the only place im organized...and it's Organized with a capital O.

I'm pretty sure if Justin had to go find something on the computer, he wouldn't know where to even start. I think it's self explanatory and quite easy, but then again, I set it up. I just want it my way, and ill spend hours making sure it's perfect. For instance - my itunes library...i wouldnt even let it automatically name and sort things for me. I have over 4000 songs and each file name is artist name - song name. I have the artists names, the album name, the genres...all consistently named. And I hand typed them. All.

I'm also this way at work. We're in the process of setting up a new online storage system of sorts, and I basically asked/begged my boss to let me be the one uploading things to it. I want it perfect. Not that I dont believe anyone else can handle it...but the current system is hosed up pretty bad in my eyes, and I want it corrected. and i want it consistent. *sigh*

Is anyone else like this? What's the method to your madness?!!?

Mine is like this for personal use:

Hard drive
 - Pictures
   - 2009 (for general photos, specific events have their own folders)
     - January 1
   - Family
     - Thanksgiving 2009
     - Christmas 2009
   - Vegas 2010

For business uses it's more like this...

Hard drive
 - AFamily
   - RAW Files
   - Lightroom Conversions
   - High Res Edit
- MBridals
  - RAW Files
  - Lightroom Conversions
  - High Res Edit

and so on and so on for every shoot.

I just deleted 70GB from my 500GB hard drive that windows runs on.
I backed up every single folder on the drive to another internal drive and 2 separate external drives. 8 hrs a piece to copy everything over twice. I think im a little crazy and I think ima need more space soon.

Black & White Wednesday - Family

Ok...so Emily left a comment on my last Vegas post...and it's just habit that i click on the names of the people that comment, even if I know exactly where it's going to lead me, and even tho I had just read her blog the day before. The last post i read was a submission for The Trendy Treehouse. but when i read her blog this morning...i see a new submission, to a new site I hadnt seen before, The Long Road to China. I glanced around there quickly...and now im pretty sure I'll spend the rest of my morning reading it from start to finish. LOL but not before I finish this post... Man. I've been meaning to start doing photography submissions for quite some time... A popular one is I Heart Faces. that's actually the first one i knew of...and i hadnt started submitting there either. Mainly 'cause it looked overwhelming, and I hadnt had the time to sit down and actually figure out what the heck to do with it. So here's to hoping this post sparks me to do that. Back to Black & White Wednesdays... I much enjoy processing in black & white. There's so many techniques to it. After today, I hope to also let you know which techniques I used, and also start posting these on my photography blog if not here also. That's the plan. And it has to start somewhere. (and i realize i posted this on the photo blog already - but im just trying to kick myself in the butt to get this going and motivate me for future weeks, yay!)

This is my cousin Justin and his wife and little boy. I took this Saturday, because Evan's about 6 months old now. He was getting sleepy towards the end. Evan Jeremy Ray is named after Justin's brother who was killed in action in Iraq.

Last Vegas 2010, Best for Last

I saved Terry Fator for the end of my Vegas posts. 'Cause he was awesome! I'm not gonna lie, i didnt watch America's Got Talent, and all I knew about him going into the show was that he was a ventriloquist. I had no idea he impersonated. And sang. and did comedy. all at one time. Wowzers!

Terry Fator is awesome because:

- He's from Texas! (Mesquite to be exact)
- All of his proceeds from merchandise sales go to help wounded soldiers
- He let you take pictures! He also does a meet and greet for free after the show.

Walking into the theater you see the usual vegas show sign "no cameras allowed." Well, it's Vegas. I'm not going to the hotel straight after the show...im going to have a look around, visit the Bellagio, do stuff I want to take pictures of. I have my camera with me. I dare not take it out the bag. Until...

Terry opens his show with Winston the Impersonating Turtle - and he says the rules are... there are no rules! He tells everyone to take as much photo and video as you want because he knows we snuck 'em in anyway. That the flash doesnt bother him and to go upload those videos on youtube when you get home. I looked at Justin with my eyes open wide going really!!?! Realllly!!!!?!?!? It was fantastic. That just doesnt happen in Vegas.

Anyway, the show starts and it was brilliant. A must see for sure.

Winston the Impersonating Turtle(If i read online correctly, this is the new Winston?)


Winston (he likes the Bee Gees) & The Fifth Beatle!


The Fifth Beatle - if you can just imagine the commentary...


This is Walter T. Airedale - i believe this is his oldest puppet. He likes to sing Garth Brooks



This is Maynard Thomkins aka the best Elvis impersonator in Vegas



I wish i could remember this little girl's name...


Here's Wrex, a crash test dummy



And then there's Julius (who i think is also a fresh face that used to look different)



The night we were there, Terry presented two charities with these checks from his merchandise sales!



Duggie Scott Walker (the annoying neighbor) - (by what i can tell online, he's also an old character, but newly designed) He likes rock n roll!



Vikki the Cougar



Maynard makes another appearance


There's also some more skits he performed that involved an audience member, as well as some songs without the puppets.

Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Las Vegas 2010, Part 3

Hoover Dam. I didnt know much about it really. Didn't imagine I'd ever actually get to see it either. What a piece of work. And the new bridge? Who designs these things? Craziness! I dont think I want to drive over it. Ever. I'm not scared of heights. Unless i'm driving. No thanks. Anyway, we showed up at the dam, booked a tour, and then did a little self guided tour until the other one started. We got to go inside the dam, look out one of the vents, see data on the walls from earthquakes, see where the turbines, watch a video... Amazing stuff.

Las Vegas 2010, Part 2

On the day we decided to grab a rental car - we made 2 trips. First stop Hoover Damn, 2nd stop, shelby factory. Check out the live camera on the website! they only do one tour at 10:30 in the AM...we didnt read that...we showed up about 3. We wondered around and looked at the cars in the showroom. One of the HR ladies happened to walk through the actual factory door, and we got to talking to her for a bit. She let us go in the back, with the cameras off, but it was a neat sight. We're mustang freeeeaaaaks, so we enjoyed every minute of it. Here's a few pics from the showroom.

Las Vegas 2010, Part 1

Back in April, we took our 3rd trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. I love going. It's a never ending supply of photos. In 2008, we went for the 1st time, and stayed at The Luxor - you know...the big pyramid with the light that you can see from space? Maybe. I'm not sure if you can. But it's cool. That also happens to be the trip where we got engaged. We also saw Mystere by Cirque du Soleil and Stomp Out Loud (hello Awesome!!). We had a good time playing tourists that year and took well over 1000 photos. In 2009, we went back and stayed at Treasure Island. They have the Siren/pirate show that we have yet to see thanks to the wind. We spent most of our time at the hotel itself and enjoyed the restaurants there, and popped over to the Mirage to see the white tigers. We also go to go to Freemont Street and see Fleetwood Mac! I think we came home with 350 photos that year. Well, we went back this year determined to be tourists again, and ended up at Hoover Dam, the Titanic exhibit, Terry Fator, Carrot Top, and the Shelby factory, and we stayed at the Monte Carlo. We enjoyed the casino and food court there.

Part 1 consists of Vegas in general. There's tons more to see, and I've probably got photos from previous years that show that, but these are all from the last trip.

Three years later - i finally get the photo with the sign!

The PUB inside Monte Carlo - very salty burgers. whole tab got comped except the beer!

Also inside the Monte Carlo was a little bakery called the Cupcakery! I had at least 1 cupcake a day.

You cant go to Vegas without stopping at the Bellagio!

The dancing fountains are one thing...

but inside...they have this huge garden and cool ceiling!

Stay tuned for pics of Hoover Dam, the Shelby factory, and Terry Fator!