Urgent Prayer for Harrison Daniel

If you scroll down, you'll see how beautiful 2 week old Harrison Daniel Curtis is. Damion was fortunate enough to be there to capture his 2nd day of life!

If you've ever prayed, please say one for Harrison now. He has a solid mass between the lumbar vertebra in his lower back. The mass is growing and is now causing him pain. He is going to see a specialist in Oakland next week to find out where the mass is attached (vertebra or spinal cord), whether it is causing him any mental or physical delay, how the mass will be surgically removed, and if the mass is cancerous or benign.

As you can imagine, it's a rough time for the parents Amy and Josh, as they are juggling recovering from a c-section, another 16 month old son, and extra Dr. visits for Harrison. They are doing well at going through the necessary motions right now, but I'm sure they need some encouragment and hope.

We will definitely keep you updated as we hear reports on little Harrison Daniel.

Long overdue Thank You!

For Christmas, we received a great present from our friends Justin and Mary Marantz. It was the book "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell. The introductory summary reads like this: "The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire." It's the kind of book where you read the title and want to dive in right away to find out how to start an epidemic!! Not a disease of course :) One of the points that Gladwell makes is that it's the small factors that add up to make the big changes. It's the daily minute changes that you don't see that create the big tide. So, if you're striving to make changes in your life, don't be discouraged if it's just a bit at a time because all of those small changes will equal a transformation in the end.

Many thanks to Justin and Mary for sharing your hearts and lives with us. From the first time Damion met you, he felt like you had been long time friends.

Please be sure to check out the Portrait House, a project which helps photographers earn money to benefit Habitat for Humanity. And keep your eyes open....we may be doing a project in partnership with Portrait House soon!

Harrison Daniel Curtis

This last Saturday I had the incredible honor of being present for day 2 of Harrison Daniel Curtis's life. His wonderful parents Amy & Joshua Curtis invited me to join them up north in my home town of Napa, California (But Harrison was born in the town next store, Vallejo, CA).

To give a brief history, I've known Amy Curtis (Previously Amy Christian) since about 1992, where we attending high school together and met in the Music Department. She married Joshua Curtis who also attended the same high school and who's father was a staff Math teacher at Vintage High. Its so amazing and I never dreamed 16 years later I would be photographing her 2nd baby boy just 1 day after his birth. Man does time fly and do I feel OLD!!! :)

Ok...in all seriousness...this little boy just stole my heart. I believe it was just the second time the parents got to take little Harrison into their room, but just prior to that, Dad and I went to the nursery to visit him. The moment I saw him....I just welled up with tears. Perhaps it was because that to the date one year ago, I too was sitting holding my 1 day old daughter Olivia in my arms? Maybe because I knew how precious this child was to Amy & Joshua and the miracle his birth and his brother Christian were in their lives? Or perhaps is was all of the above and I was just still taken back my the amazing creation this child was.

I've been blessed to be there for both of my daughters births. There is no words to describe it. One second its just you and your wife....the next second...there is another little human being who never existed coming home with you. No social security number, no recond of existence, no past photos, no medical history, just POOF...brand new life. (Of course their coming wasn't POOF..mommy worked really hard on that!). Just like a wedding day, to be invited to one of the most monumental days in persons life is incredibly humbling. I was certainly humbled.

The below slideshow is just over 15 minutes long. As a general rule we typically keep our slideshows to just one song or 3-5 minutes max. Just like our daughter Olivia's slideshow, Amy requested that we use the same song we did with ours one year ago. Of course we just could not bring ourselves to reducing the slideshow by eliminating 3/4 of the photos. There is just too much joy, too much amazement, to many memories, too many deep breaths, too many joyful tears to not share them all. If you have 15 minutes of time, I invite you to step into my place and witness this amazing event.

Congratulations Amy and Joshua. I cannot begin to tell you with words the honor it was for me to be invited to share this day with you. It is something I will treasure and remember the rest of my life.

Also, congratulations to the Grandma & Grandpa Curtis and Grandma & Grandpa Christian!!

Krista + Jeremy Engagement

Damion had a great time sharing the afternoon with Krista and Jeremy. Even though being in front of the camera is one of Jeremy's least favorite activities :), it was easy to capture "them" because they were so natural in expressing their love for each other and having fun together! Here are a few of our favorite shots along with the slideshow. I had such a hard time choosing the images for the blog post because their were so many cute pictures!!! I know I picked too many. You really do have to watch the slideshow to see ALL of them :)

Thanks Krista and Jeremy for making our job so easy! We're excited about capturing your special day in June!





































Every good relationship should have a healthy dose of mocking...

























Ice cream makes everything better....if you eat your own!

























and what's better than matching pea coats?

Finally! SS Trash the Dress

Here's a few of our faves from last weekend's Salton Sea Trash the Dress Session! Many thanks to Chris Austin for organizing and planning this event!

Love the attitude! ...and check out the boots :)



















































































































And of course, had to break out the Lensbaby for a little playin around!

Thanks to Dane!

Yesterday, we had the privilege of sharing lunch with Dane Sanders, as he generously donated his time to support the Through Their Eyes Africa project. We were so challenged, built up, and encouraged by Dane to really consider and clearly define who we are and what our goals are, and thus how to reach them more efficiently . We also got to hear a bit about Dane's new program Fast Track Photographer, which is designed to help other photographers do the same thing that he was challenging us with! ...and if you ever get a chance to share some time with Dane, do it! He's a great guy and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him better. Believe me, he'll give you plenty of thoughts and questions to chew on and just by being who he is, you'll be challenged to be a better person and run a better business :)

Thanks Dane for sharing a tasty meal and a great conversation with us!

Busy, but fun weekend!

Hi all! Sorry we haven't posted in a few days, although we've got plenty of work to put up for you to see this week! On Saturday, Damion had a blast at a Trash the Dress shootout at the Salton Sea (rustic, arid, desert). There were about 8 ex-brides/couples who wore their dresses to trash and had hair and makeup artists there to make them look great. Add in about 30 photographers or so and you have a long day of shooting with lots of great pictures! On Sunday, Damion also had an e-session with Krista and Jeremy, which had to be done quickly before Jeremy returns to Russia, where he will be until shortly before their June wedding. It looks like they all had a lot of fun together in downtown Claremont. Keep checking back (don't give up on us yet!) because there will be some great images posted over the next couple of days! Hope you are all having a wonderful 2008!

Catherine and Brandon's New Year's Wedding

As you saw below, we got to shoot a great wedding for some dear friends of ours on New Year's Day! It was so fun to spend the first day of the year with so many old and new friends, doing something that we love.

Ultimately, from us photog's standpoint, it was perfect photo weather, completely overcast with lots of bright indirect soft light (brides love this because their skin looks amazing!). With my wife Julie, it was so fun passing each other in the hallways and different rooms as we collected the many details, emotions, and events of the day. I just love working with her. In fact, any of you frequent blog readers out there be sure to give Julie LOTS of love on this post because she has been so willing, eager, and amazing to me by sharing in my passion. Truthfully, ratio of pictures taken to final, chosen photos for this wedding, Julie was 50%+. YOU GO GIRL! Who hoo!!!!

(OK....there was my tangent....now back to the reason for this post)

Catherine and Brandon, we just want to thank you for allowing us to stand with you every moment of this incredible day, to witness your love and the amazing feature you both have ahead of you. I know you guys are just returning from your honeymoon today and we wanted to make sure that these photos were waiting for you. Please enjoy a few more of my personal favorites below along with a short slideshow at the bottom of this post.

Many thanks to the Aguilar and Jauregui families for being so welcoming and including us in your family!

New Year's Wedding Sneak Peek

Damion's hard at work putting the finishing touches on Catherine and Brandon's images, but here's a little sneak peek of our 1st wedding of '08 until we can show you more...