Disney Holiday

Stubs and Donna were awesome enough to invite Melony and i to the Disney Holiday Family party this year. I miss these guys, and it's always a riot with Donna around!! she had us wait in line for an hour to take the mickey mouse picture, but in the end it was worth it since we got popcorn and churros to pass the time :)

Christmas weekend...... whew!

I started out the weekend with my pals from high school, unfortunately at a funeral, but we still caught up and had a really great time. We ended up having pitchers of margaritas at Acapulco and reminiscing about the good old days. Thanks Danny for all that you did!

Next i drove out to the low dez (yes, scot, i'm catching on). Scot's pals were in town from Ventura, so Andre, Jen, Scot and i played 'photobooth' til 5AM. The next night Scot treated us all to dinner at the Viceroy, a super great hotel/restaurant in downtown Palm Springs. Mike and Maya joined us and we proceeded to run up Scot's tab for a few hours. Scot is so generous and giving, it's amazing :) We ended up back at the house for some more rounds of photobooth (after 2 stops at local bars) and the boys kept us rolling all night. I'm extremely happy that i was able to meet all of these awesome people and i look forward to more fun nights in the future.

Stacey was kind enough to invite me over for Christmas eve dinner at her parents' home in Hacienda Heights. There had to have been over 40 of the Nishiki clan present, and i had a great time. I'll admit, i held and fed her 4 month old nephew for a couple of hours (in between chocolate cake shots that her brother Ryan was mixing up for the ladies). It's so great to be a part of a large group during the holidays. Thanks for including me, kiddo!

Dad invited me along to a brunch that Charles' family was holding on Christmas day. Again, it was nice to join in on a family gathering - be it my own family or not! I taught the kids to play blackjack, which they absolutely loved :) not so sure how Charles and Tracey felt about it!

Lastly, Mariko invited my mom and i over to her mom's for christmas dinner. This was probably the most relaxing time of the whole weekend. Their power was out the whole day due to a downed power pole, but we made due. They managed to cook and BBQ the most wonderful meal with absolutely no electricity. We lit about 50 candles around the house and drank wine all afternoon. Her family is incredibly interesting and intelligent, which i absolutely love. We didn't need the TV as a distraction, and managed to have a beautiful time by candlelight. Mariko, Roxanne and Tosh, Thank you for having us. My mom and I really appreciate it :)

Celebration of Life

Walter lived an awesome life, surrounded by a loving family and great friends. We all laughed and cried together remembering the good times. Beth is a wonderful support for her mother and has held up beautifully through this hard time. It was really odd and surreal for me to shoot my good friend's father's funeral. I hope that these images will in some way help in the grieving process.

Crazy Lights

i can somehow appreciate this. i had neighbors who attempted this and failed when i was a kid on Malton Place.

HH Holiday party

Tine & Becky
Stacey & Christine
Mark & Marisa
Christine & Ryan
Mariko & Jeff
Sharon & Tom
Emily & Christine
Mark and Marisa hosted this year's annual potluck. We had SUCH a great time, laughing, playing Rockband and exchanging gifts. I ended up with a bottle of kettle one and a vodka set. Mark opened my beautifully framed photograph of myself doing a 'Warren' impression and immediately yelled out "OH HELL NO!!". It's amazing that my closest friends are the ones i've known since jr. high school...

more hh pics

PUG parties

I 'heart' PUGs!! check out what the rest of the country is doing here.



On wednesday we went to the Los Angeles PUG party at Life on Wilshire. THere were a ton of awesome local Pictage Photographers there. This group is led by Jules Bianchi. She posted some awesome images from the night on her blog.



Thursday Dave, Lisa, Kurt and I headed up to the Santa Barbara party to check out David Jay's house. There was a 'photo booth' set up where we all took turns getting funky in our ugly sweaters. The Santa Barbara PUG leader is Kacie Jean. This was such an amazing place with company and conversations to match. Thanks so much for having us DJ!!

not sure what to do

cancer sucks. it's not fair for good people to be struck by such an incapacitating, terrible disease. it's even less fair when there's no family history and no warning signs. you're in my thoughts and i'll do everything in my power to help you through this time. love you Beth, take care of your mom..

All dressed up

me, Davide & Stace

Went with Stacey to the EA holiday party. I love that my roommate is an accountant for them!

Ra Sushi

Emily, Becks & Lisa
Kurt, Scott, Dave L & David M
Salud!
Keila, Dave & Angelica
Dave and the girls - back together again! D-A-v.i.d D-A-D-D-Y
The Pictage work crew - plus Dave! We try to make it out to Ra every few weeks for some sake and sushi

have you ever stopped talking to someone.. and not really known why? it sucks. so you try to avoid them, and they try to avoid you and everything gets really awkward. it starts to affect your dreams and you have this feeling that you really need to re-establish contact. so you do it. you reach out. you feel like a jackass because you're not even sure what the problem was in the first place. well, the other person feels just as much like a jackass as you do. and you feel better now that you've made yourself vulnerable. and they feel better because it's been weighing them down too.

sorry...

LA Auto Show

Went to the car show with Dad, Charles and Tracy and their 5 kids. Josh, Andrew, Daniel, James and little Katie. Of course the oldest child got lost - twice. but for the most part it was a good time. I'm not really used to hanging out with kids all day, so it was kind of challenging :) Gotta love the Lewis family..