I stole these images from Grace Kim's blog. She was cool enough to snap some shots during our Texas Hold'em tournament at my studio on Thursday. I usually do a poker tournament on the last night of my workshops as a way of "giving back" to the attendees. I mean this literally because I never seem to win :) We had something like 16 players in the tournament and I did the honors of getting out first. I was like "so... can I get anyone a drink while I sit around and watch for the next two hours?" haha! Note to self... don't go "all in" in the first 5 minutes of the game unless you want to be designated drink fetcher for the remainder of the night :)

Here's Grace doing quite well in the tournament. I think she made it to the top 4 or 5!

above - Kelli Leslie, below - Jeff and Richie

above - me, below - Eileen Shepheard

above - Hun Kim, Below - Jeff and Richie again (Roy in background)

above - The [b] man showing some very nice moves

below - Regis Chen

And the winner - Ryan Ikari

What an awesome week! I just concluded my 4-day intensive workshop here in Newport Beach and it was such a blast! Here's a group shot we took in Hollywood after our street shoot. Clockwise from the top is Eileen Shepheard (Mound, MN), our models Gavin and Brittany (Orange County, CA), Erin Sullivan (Glendora, CA), Richard Parker (Brownsville, TX), Stephanie Deveau (Bakersfield, CA), Sandra Leung (Vancouver, BC), Grace Kim (Lynnwood, WA), Kelli Leslie (Phoenix, AZ), me, Jeff LaPlante (Everett, WA), and Rodolfo Arpia (San Dimas, CA).

People ask me quite often if teaching a workshop for 4 days straight drains me. Although it takes a lot of energy and preparation, I walk away more inspired and and a better person after every workshop! The friends I make I know I'll keep for a long time.

I want to say thanks to everyone who came this week and to everyone who has been to my workshops in the past! You all have blessed me more than you will ever know! Please stay in touch and keep me posted on all of your upcoming successes! I'll be here cheering you on!

NEW TOYS HAVE JUST ARRIVED!!!

My PowerBook G4 needed to retire after about fifty airport X-ray machines and a couple hundred thousand images viewed and a few dents and dings. It also only had USB 1.0 which is not the best thing for a digital photographer. So out with the old (I'm sending it home to the wife) and in with the new! It's a beautiful new 17" MacBook Pro!

I've been wanting to go entirely paperless with my office for about 3 years now and I finally found a fast scanner that works with mac. Actually Gary Fong found it so thanks Gary!! It's the Fujitsu ScanSnap.

Ok, so on to the new Blackberry 8700g! Fortunately for me, while at Disneyland the other day with my wife and good friends Josh and Mindy, my blackberry screen was somehow smashed. I think it happened on Indiana Jones. I noticed it when I was on Space Mountain which was weird because the screen looked like a window to outerspace with stars and everything!

Last but definitely not least is my new Sony DVDirect! This was actually a birthday gift from someone other than myself. I got to the office yesterday just as UPS was pulling away and I stopped them to see if there was anything for me. The UPS girl was so nice and jumped in the back to find a box for me from my good friend Ray Santana. What a cool (and extremely generous) gift!! It's a dvd burner that will backup my 4GB CF cards to DVD without needing a computer! And it's fast too! Uncle Ray, you are the best! Ray and I are traveling together to shoot a wedding in Monaco next month. I can't wait! I'm bringing my all of my new toys except the scanner unless I think of something I can use it for on the trip :)

I'm so excited! The Theresa Kathryn website is coming right along and they just put up one of my images from the fashion shoot on the homepage! I can't wait to see the rest!

Here's the video I showed at WPPI filmed and edited by Jeff at Blue Skies Cinema from the cover shoot for Grace Ormonde. Thanks Jeff!!! You are amazing!! The first part is just voices without video and then the video comes in after about 60 seconds. Check it out!
***CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO***
Please note: This is NOT intended to be an educational video. It is just a fun stylized video that I thought might be cool to share. Watch it in your "free" time :)

I was headed back to my car after a shoot and I saw this tattoo artist on a break so I grabbed a shot.

I took this image in the bathroom of the famous Beehive Coffeehouse in downtown Pittsburgh. Can you find me in the image? An awesome photographer and friend Terry Clark brought me to the Beehive because he knew there would be some great photo opportunities. He was right...we ended up photographing two girls out front and got some amazing stuff. I'll post some of those later. I think our buddy Joe Pulcinella took some group shots of us in that crazy bathroom. I haven't seen them yet so hopefully he'll send me some!

Ok, I have to let you guys in on a little secret. We shot the image below against a green screen using clear safety lines hooked to the back of my pants and shirt. It wasn't really in Pittsburgh, it was in a studio in West Hollywood where they filmed Hollywood Ninja.

This image is posted by special request of Shyla. She's been begging me every day to put this shot on the blog. So this is just for you Shyla! This image was taken by the very talented and extremely cool Daria Bishop at my workshop in Pittsburgh for TPA during a demonstration of my latest approach in photojournalism called "The Tomahawk". Please don't try this at home! This technique is only acceptable deep in the woods of Pennsylvania when you are having way too much fun and have consumed far too many Caramel Frappuccinos. If anyone from Nikon sees this, please don't worry... the cameras were built for this exact use.

It was my birthday on Friday (Cinco de Mayo) so I took the day off and went to dinner at Koji's (famous for their shabu shabu) with some friends. Afterward we all went over to my friends Ryan and Kristen's house for some ice cream sundaes, ping pong and poker. I stole these pics from Becker's blog because I didn't have my camera with me. I'm seriously lame for not bringing my camera but maybe I just knew becker would have his so I didn't bother. Thanks to everyone who came and made it a fun night! I am so blessed to have such great friends!! When I think back to all the times when I am truely content, it's always when I'm doing nothing, just hanging out with people I love!

Here's a pic of me, Julie, Jasmine, Shyla, Keats, and [b]. I'm holding a very "creative" wrinkled up birthday card from my friend danny. He had it crumpled up in his pocket and handed it to me like it was a piece of garbage. So it looks like this piece of paper that just says OLD on it, but when you look closer it has some fine print that says: "here's a hearty happy birthday wish for an OLD friend. good times last forever in our memories. you've certainly made a spot for yourself in the library of my mind mr. colon. may you live long, be blessed by the Lord and increase your experience of joyful life continually. - danny hotea. Thanks danny! I have quite a few memories of you in my library from our crazy teenage days in Mr. Tully's class and skateboarding every day at "Sadlands". Oh yeah.. and who can forget that deadly bb gun of yours? I only hope God forgave us for that!
Here's me with one killer ice cream sundae! The whipped cream was tasty too! My dentist always said that I have a long jaw. After seeing this picture, I finally know what he's talking about! freakish!
Here's me on a serve. I'm actually not as good as becker says I am at ping pong. I did go undefeated that night but only because I played against Ryan and he's not good at all! haha! Oh, I did beat my buddy Regis too, but only because he felt sorry for me because it was my birthday.
Here's one I stole from Jasmine's blog with Regis in the shot
And last but not least, a shot of me and b sharing a diet coke. hahahaha

I love this shot of Brittany in New York for Marianne Lanting Couture.

Here's a shot from a couple months back that I just ran across :)

Yesterday I was on a fashion shoot in LA for Theresa Kathryn Bags. The owner of this fabulous new bag company is Tammy Trenta, an amazing business woman and all around cool person. Tammy is currently among the top five contenders left on NBC's prime time show The Apprentice. If she can succeed with The Donald, you can bet that her new company is going places! In fact, Instyle just called and wants to feature her bags in an upcoming issue! What's even more awesome is that she hasn't even launched the product line yet and she already has a waiting list 600 deep with ladies wanting to purchase her stylish new bags. I don't blame them, the bags are totally cool. They hold a laptop, pda, cell phone, and everything else a lady needs for a long day's work! They even attach to a carry-on bag for travel.

I met Tammy a couple years ago at a wedding and we've kept in touch ever since. She named the company after her grandmother who she deeply respects. Her grandmother (Theresa Kathryn) was quite an amazing woman who founded her own successful business and still managed to put food on the table every night for her family. Tammy says that her grandmother had a ton of style and was a great role model. Thanks for the fun shoot yesterday Tammy! And thanks to Shyla for assisting me! You are awesome! Oh yeah, and you might be seeing a bit more of Ariel (the model shown) because I'm going to talk her into modeling for my upcoming workshop.