Insane couple of months!

Well, with the advice of a couple of my really good friends... I'm going to start blogging a whole lot more =) I feel like I can relate to Bobby's feelings of "who exactly is going to be reading this?? =P But I want to have a really good way to communicate to a lot of people whats going on in my life! (not everyone is on facebook, I guess =P) And this one is going to be a beast of a blog, so prepare yourselves!

So... where to start?? well as many of you know, I got the chance to go to europe! but right before I left I had two photoshoots for ISS Facility Services - one in San Francisco and another in Pheonix. I met up with my friend Josh Gruetzmacher in San Fran and we got some sick shots for them =)

Here's Josh shootin the bridge~


I actually ended up hanging out the back of a car getting pictures of their van driving down, but I got some rad shots too =)


So two days after Phoenix, I left to Frankfurt! I had no idea what I was going to be doing, where I was going to be staying, or what countries I wanted to visit.

I went to Berlin after spending a couple hours in Frankfurt and met up with a guy from Argentina, and he was rad! We split a hostel and went on a tour of Berlin the next day.


I then went to Amsterdam and Brussels, but was meeting up with a friend so I only stayed in both cities for a couple hours each. The train ride to Paris was amazing and I caught a beautiful sunset!


I stayed a couple days in Paris and I loved it =) I feel most at home when I have mountains and the outdoors close by, but Paris was really special. The Eiffel Tower was weird to see - I've seen it in so many movies and pictures... it was sweet to see it in person!!

Paris has so many little shops, cafes, outdoor markets, and bakeries! I ate as much food as I could and loved every part of it =)

After Paris, I went to Versailles, Marseilles, and headed east through Toulons and NIce to Rome. Rome was epic, I got to see all the major sites and I ate some AMAZING Italian food =)

I then made my way up to Zurich, and that was by far my favorite city. I watched the sunrise over the alps and went through so many amazing communities just sitting on the waters edge with mountains in their backyard. Zurich was by far one of my favorite cities, I'm really excited to go back =)


Zurich at night was beautiful, and I went out to some amazing restaurants here. I actually met up with a girl from Zurich, Fabienne Mayer, and she was awesome! She bought me roasted chestnuts and a ton of Swiss chocolate!


I stopped in Innsbruck for a couple hours, but I then made my way to Venice. I met up with 6 photographers from Sweden there and they were AWEsome! We spent a whole day and a half just walking around shooting random things, and it was a blast.


The weather was FREEZING cold and going on the boats was loads of fun but also quite cold. I was in Venice though, so I didn't mind too much ;)

After Venice, I went to Vienna and Salzburg - both Amazing cities =) Salzburg has this wicked castle right on top of this hill and you can climb to the top of it to get a fantastic view of the whole city. I made it just in time for sunset and it was gorgeous!

Whats funny about my trip to Europe is that I got to go to Hawaii right before I left and also right after! I photographed April and Chris' Wedding in Honolulu and then I got to go to Kauai with my family, my brothers girlfriend Ali Sheffer, and my sisters friend Caroline. 

I brought a second shooter with me to shoot April and Chris' wedding, Christie Wilhelms, and we rented a BMW 750 =) it was a blast...

We drove up to the North Shore and made it to Pipeline just in time for Sunset! 


The next day was wedding time! This was my first wedding in Hawaii, and I loved it! We got some really cool shots, and I was stoked to be able to photograph it. I got to see a lot of Westmont friends I hadn't seen in a while, good times!!

After the wedding I spent of couple days just relaxing and touring around Oahu, and I got a chance to stay at my good friend Chris Johnsons house!! Christie and I drove up there  and we ate the BEST shave ice I've ever had =)

I was stoked on this next shot... I took a long exposure at night and even all the stars showed up! Sweet!


So, on to family vacation! We had so much fun and I had much needed relaxation time =) I hadn't been sleeping at all trying to get work done and I was able to just chill a lot here. We went on a couple hikes, kayaking, to the ocean a lot, and to a couple waterfalls.

This waterfall is that the end of a small hike on the Napali Coast. I have pictures of the Na Pali coast on my last blog when I was in Kauai in November, its one of the most beautiful places I've been! But my dad, brother, Ali, and I went swimming underneath the waterfall and I LOVED it!!

Sunset later that day, and it was phenomenal. After Tim finished his caveman routine... which will hopefully be on youtube soon, he turned back into normal and I got some rad shots of him and Ali over Ke'e beach =)

We also had Easter in Hawaii, but the night before we had some fun with "costumes" and we all came up with names for each other. Good times for sure...

After I got back from Hawaii with my family, I spent a couple days with the Bohlingers and took some pictures of their house in Manhattan Beach because they are putting it on the market =( I'm excited for them to come up to Santa Barbara though, its going to be awesome!! But then I left to Washington with a couple friends to a prayer/worship conference for International Justice Mission and we met some rad people.  

We had a candlelit prayer service at each of the memorials (there were over 1000 people that came) on the last night, and it was really neat to be a part of it. I loved learning about IJM and what they're all about.

I actually ended up meeting up with two of my friends from Alaska, Russel and Paul! It was really good to see them and I was totally bummed we didn't get to spend more time together. 

Some of my friends I made in DC made a ghost picture... pretty wicked, huh??

Below are my really good friends Jonathan Olinger with Discover the Journey and Brad, from Dispatch, who runs Love Light and Melody. We had a really blessed day - we got to play with kids, listen to Brad's music, and hang out at his house that night.

After I got back from DC, I went to Santa Barbara and just worked for 3 weeks straight on editing photos, uploading every wedding picture I've taken to Pictage, making slideshows, and designing a new website. I've gotten to shoot two amazing weddings, though, one in Livermore (near San Francisco) and another one on Summerland beach. 

This is a rad story... so, I was on David Jay's blog the week before my wedding in Livermore and I noticed that he mentioned a guy named Bobby Earle. He had just met him that week and they met up for lunch and had a really good conversation =) So DJ put up a post about them, and I decided to go to their site to check it out. Right away I was blown away by their photography and so I added their blog to my RSS feed in my email. Well, a couple days later I got from their blog that they were going to be in SF over the weekend! So I gave Bobby a call and he said that he and his wife would love to meet up with me... and I was really stoked. I drove up to SF all Saturday morning and met up with my friend John Nelson, who I hadn't seen in a while, so that was really cool =)

Later that night Bobby invited me to stay in his hotel room... which was a LIFE saver, and I could not have been more grateful! We ended up talking until around 2 in the morning, and right away we were all best buds. His wife Lindsey had to get up at 4, so she ended up falling asleep early, but one of her super powers is sleeping through anything... so that worked out well. 

The next day we woke up and drove to Livermore and got some Jamba to start the day off right =) We photographed an amazing wedding that day, and here are some shots from that wedding!

We finished at about 10 o'clock that night, and Bobby had been on the phone with his wife for a couple hours because his 5 month year old german shepherd had gotten sick! I had planned on staying in SF for a couple days, but I knew Bobby wanted to get back so we drove all night back to SB. Bobby and Lindsey were such a blessing to me - they totally encapture what a relationship should be and were such an encouragement and inspiration. They are so in love and they've been married 7 years and haven't skipped a beat! I loved talking to Bobby all night on the drive back home and I learned a lot =) I am SO excited to hang out with them more and get to know them better, I know God has amazing plans for them and I'm stoked. When I grow up, I want to be like THEM!! ;)

That morning was actually amazing - I stayed up for the sunrise (we got in at 4:30!) and went out on the pier to get some rad shots of SB!

All last week was filled with lots of Super Mario Smash Brothers (a very good distractor from my friends finals schedules!) and more editing =) I got a chance to go to this swing overlooking a valley in SB, it was soooo beautiful!! (And fun! It felt like I was flying into this valley!!)

I had another wedding the next weekend... but my life has been kind of crazy for the last week so I haven't been able to edit any of those photos. Last Saturday I had my best friends graduation, a birthday party at the beach, a graduation dinner, night out with the friends, and then I had to be in Newport to pick up a friend and meet with a bride.

For those of you that made it to the bottom of this, thanks for reading and I'll be trying to upload a lot more!! Much love~