New Additions to our Fine Art Galleries

As promised, we've put a whole bunch of new photos on our Fine Art Gallery from our recent trip to Nevada's incredible little Valley of Fire State Park. They turned out so good, we ended up adding 24 new shots to the 10 we took during our last visit in 2005! The petroglyphs photo above is one of our favorite new VOF shots. To view the rest, click the Valley of Fire link in the Landscapes section of our Fine Art web gallery.

While you're on our main website, visit the Urbanscapes section to check out our "Shiny" series, which is a collection of very cool urban reflection shots taken wherever we find them. Our primary motivation for the trip to Nevada was to attend the WPPI conference in Las Vegas, and while we were there we found a little time to go in search of more glitz to add to this series. We ended up with four new additions, including the photo below, which features a reflection in the new-to-us Wynn casino/hotel. Let us know what you think of our new galleries!

From Portrait to Baseball Card

Congratulations are in order for our wedding videographer friends Laura and Chris Randall, owners of Tacoma's Edit 1 Media. At the 4Ever Group's Video '08 Convention in Orlando, they were named one of the Top 25 Hottest and Most Influential Videography Studios. For the second year in a row. Wow.

The Top 25 has an All-Star theme, and Laura and Chris needed a cool photo of themselves for their baseball card, so they gave us a call and we did a quick session with them around the Museum District. It was freezing, but we all toughed it out, and the image they chose looks pretty darn awesome, if we do say so ourselves. Kudos, Edit 1!

Viva Las Vegas, Baby!

We've just returned from the annual Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) conference in Las Vegas, and had a blast! We spent a huge amount of time in classes with Yervant, Jerry Ghionis, and other top international photographers, and learned great new tips for making absolutely killer images and running our business better. We also spent a lot of time trekking around the tradeshow, which for photographers is like being a kid in the candy store. We're especially excited about the amazing new shopping carts we'll roll out for our clients soon!

We were thrilled to see that one of our favorite photos of 2007 received an Accolade of Excellence award from WPPI and was on display along with images from some of the biggest names in photography! Here's the winning image, a sunset portrait taken at Newcastle this past summer:


We actually flew to Nevada before the convention started to head out into Valley of Fire State Park for some hiking and fine art photography. It was our second time visiting VOF. You can see images from our first trip in our Fine Art gallery right now, and soon we'll add our new ones to the collection. We'll let you know when they're up, so keep an eye on our blog!

Latest WPJA Contest Brings Us New Wins

If you've been following our blog, you'll recognize these photos, two of our favorites from the past summer. We're posting them here again with the good news that they're our latest award winners in the Wedding Photojournalist Association's international contests! Scott came in fourth with this beautiful shot of Lesa and her daughter dancing at her wedding in Kiana Lodge (above), and received a 12th place win for this fun photo of Molly and Graham's first kiss at their ceremony in Union Station (below).


Looking through the winners, I was struck by how much more diverse this contest has become. It seems with each contest that passes, we're seeing more winners from overseas. In addition to seeing winners from the photography hot-spots of Australia, Singapore and Italy, there are also winners from England, Mexico, the Philippines, Greece — the list goes on and on! I think it's a great testament to Scott's creativity and skill when his images stand out even among the best from around the globe. Congratulations Scott!

~Laura

Photo Safari at Tacoma's Pythian Temple

Yesterday I had the rare privilege of touring and exploring Tacoma's century-old Pythian Temple. This place is incredible! It was designed by Frederick Heath, who also designed several other beloved Tacoma icons, most prominent of which is Stadium High School.

My tour was part of a City of Tacoma-coordinated "photo safari" that will culminate in a photo exhibition to raise funds toward the restoration of Castle Hall, the Temple's big attraction. This photo shows one of the murals and some of the moldings in Castle Hall. There's also a LOT of beautiful wood paneling, 35-foot vaulted ceilings, and intricate moldings everywhere. There's all sorts of cool old stuff throughout the building, like the Addressograph and an old reed organ with oddly-named levers.

You can see all my keeper photos from this shoot, plus some previous exterior photos I've taken, at http://www.wallflowerphoto.com/pythian for the next few months. I'll add my very favorites to the Fine Art section of our main website soon. I'd love to hear which ones catch your eye, too!

~Scott

Kerrigan and Rick at The Ruins

We were in heaven this fall when we photographed the wedding of Kerrigan and Rick at The Ruins in Seattle. This was our first time photographing at this secluded venue (there's not even a sign on the building to hint that you're in the right place), and we were so impressed! With its colorful murals, hidden indoor garden, and collection of trinkets (including a full-sized mechanical elephant), it was the perfect fit with our love of color, details, and all things "funky."

We had so many fabulous photos from their wedding that it was really hard to pick just a couple to display here. On top of the joy of just being at The Ruins, we were treated to Kerrigan and Rick, one of the sweetest couples that we've photographed. We truly enjoyed taking part in their significant day and wish them all the best! And on a side note, I was also impressed with Kerrigan's dress, which was gorgeous and unusual, suited her and the venue absolutely perfectly ... and only cost her $60! Very cool.

Our cover photo hits the racks!

The latest issue of South Sound Wedding & Event is on the news stands! Last spring we were approached by the magazine's editor, Paula, to photograph their Spring 2008 cover, and we're thrilled to share it with you here.

We had a great time trekking around downtown Tacoma with Paula plus Jenna and Holly (the model and graphic designer). Our city offers a huge wealth of backdrops, and slimming down the images was tough! We think it's cool that the final choice was a playful candid — it really stands out as something eye-catchingly different.

Inside the magazine, you'll also see photographs from one of our weddings this summer, Becky and David at Lakewold Gardens. Their wedding was included as part of a feature on 7-7-07 weddings and the variety of couples who fell for the lure of a "magical" date.

Look for the new magazine on the news stands and let us know what you think! We'll also be at the Tacoma Wedding Expo this weekend — stop by and say hi!