Celebrity Chef: Ingrid Hoffman

You know, it's kinda hard to blog while SNL is playing highlights... They're just too funny!

Anyway, if you're a food network watcher, you may recognize the star of the following pictures we took last night. =) Every year St. Anthony Hospital hosts a Celebrity Chef event to promote healthy eating and this year's chef was Ingrid Hoffman. She has such an entertaining personality and accent... I think the crowd had a great time. I've never actually watched her cooking show, but I'm sure it's popular with such a fun host.

Here are a few of my faves from the evening.






We ran into one of our grooms there, actually. Matt & Jessica were married last year at the very cool Oklahoma History Center with some of the coolest lighting we've seen to date. Matt runs a great crew at SwankAV and I saw recognized some of his signature lighting at this event. Great accent lighting can really make a huge difference in photography. Hope to work with them again soon!

Facebook Page for PCP

If you're on Facebook, check out our Prints Charming Photography page and become a fan if you'd like! We'd love to have you on board if you're a Facebook user. We created the page over the holidays, but I just now realized that I never did blog about it!

Some people have Facebook "groups" and some have "pages"... Do any of you have a preference on what you like better? I'm a member of groups and pages for others and I don't see a lot of difference between the two... Maybe I'm missing something?

As always, we would love to hear your feedback!

Twitter Technology Tuesday

Yeah, that sounds like a regular feature, but don't look for it again. =) I just got our blog to feature a Twitter feed of our most recent 5 tweets, and I thought I'd share it with you. (Check the right column for it.)

It's nice when technology actually works together. And when it doesn't, I'd like to toss it all off of a very large building. =) Anyway, that's all for now... Just a little fun update. Time for bed!

And congrats to our friends Josh & Katie McCullock on the birth of their son Gavin, just moments ago!

Too Many Blog Subscriptions...

In this age, there is no shortage of info/knowledge on hand, begging to be taken in. Unfortunately, there's not enough time to take it all in. Well, after weeks of catching up, I've finally read every blog post that I had subscribed to and I have no unread blog posts pending! Ahh... It's a great feeling.

It's also a wake-up call to pare down the 120 subscriptions I had collected over the last year or two. So, I've unsubscribed from a few and I'll try to keep it better under control. There are just so many interesting blogs out there that it's hard to unsubscribe! =)


Okay, it's 4AM and I'm finally heading to bed! What a weekend... =)

Venues for Weddings and Other Events

One of the greatest rewards of any photographer is seeing their work being used and enjoyed... Tonight I ran across the Will Rogers Theatre blog again and had to smile when I saw the blog header including an image of the theater that I made for them last year.

(click on the picture to check out their blog)

Speaking of venues, I met with the good folks down at the Chesapeake Boathouse today to share some of our wedding images made there last summer. I look forward to doing more weddings there this year -- it's an awesome venue with lots of windows and great light.

This evening, we got some great shots of Chicago-style, deep dish pizza for Humble Pie, coming soon to Edmond on the West side of Broadway, just North of 15th. Oh, man, that is the greatest pizza on earth. It was an easy job to take pictures and then eat a few slices. =) Thanks, Matthew! Looking forward to seeing the pictures on the Humble Pie page soon! And if you're a fan of Chicago-style pizza, make a note to check it out in a week or two when Humble Pie makes it's grand opening!

On a personal note... Man, I am SO sore! Holly and I just started working out again after a *very* long hiatus and although it's painful, it's definitely an endorphin rush. You'd think that a run in the morning would make you more tired later in the day, but it works totally opposite. A morning workout makes me so much more productive and energetic that it's totally worth the investment of time. If I could only remember that all year long! =) Seems like when the schedule gets pinched, that's the easiest thing to cut, unfortunately.

Anybody have any tips on how to keep from cutting exercise? Right now I have a bet going with a good friend of mine (thanks, Freddie) so that if I miss too many workouts, I owe him $100... So I'm looking for another source of inspiration rather than a hit to the wallet. =)

Well, Holly just told me she's going to bed early (what?! It's before midnight!)... Guess I'll cut out early, too!

Zagg's Invisible Shield Screen (etc.) Protectors

I just picked up a couple of LCD screen/scratch protectors from Zagg.com for our cameras and I was impressed by how many products can benefit from their Invisible Shield protectors. After placing my order, they gave me two one-time-use discount codes to share with friends, so I thought I'd share them with you in case you have something you'd like to protect! (Think cameras, iPhones, computers... anything with a screen.)

So, here you go! 5v9nk7 and q3wcr8 are the two codes. They're only good for one use, so you might leave a comment if you use one so other readers don't try to use one if it's already been used.

By the way, have you ever checked out RetailMeNot.com to find discount codes and online coupons? I just found a 50% coupon for Zagg.com on there... SHOWSP09 is the code and it just worked for me!

If you've never heard of Zagg or seen their amazing demo, check it out. It's pretty impressive...

Security is a big deal... Safari & OS X

I'm kind of a security freak... I know. But when I heard from a friend over Christmas who had her door kicked in, it reminded me this blog post from last year. I did hear from a few of you that you checked and replaced your own door screws -- thanks for letting us know!

Anyway, today I found out another security vulnerability issue, this time with Safari and Mac OS X. It was announced just hours ago, so if you're a Mac user you might check it out... It's an easy fix.

Better to be safe than sorry. Have a safe 2009!

Happy New Year!

It's that time of the year when we all think about the old year and make plans for the new. We're actually still holidaying (yes, that is a word, I just looked it up =) with family, but we're at the very tail end of it so it feels like my last chance to blog before work officially kicks in again.

First of all, we are so grateful to all of you, our blog readers, customers, friends and family who have all helped us to grow again this year by spreading the word about our services! We're honored and humbled to have such a great base of support.

2008 has come and gone so quickly, yet so much happened! I thought I'd outline some of it here...

30 Weddings: Actually, the final number was 31 for this year, still low enough for us to maintain our small boutique personal-touch experience and yet have a little bit of a life on the other 21 weekends of the year. =)

Seaside Wedding: 2008 marked our first destination wedding to the white sand beaches of Seaside, Florida! It was a really great experience and I hope we'll have more opportunities to travel and photograph at great locations like that. (Preferably warm! =)

Low-Res files: This year was our first year to offer low-res files (optimized for on-screen viewing) to customers. With the overwhelming rise of social networking sites, our customers love being able to post professional-grade pictures from their portrait sessions. We've always included high-res files with our wedding photography, but adding low-res files saves disk space and time uploading.

Twitter: Speaking of social networking, we got a Twitter account this year! Check us out (and follow us if you like!) here. (http://twitter.com/csangree) I think we're still getting the hang of using it, so we'd love to hear from you if you Tweet!

PickPic: Probably my favorite development this year was moving from Pictage to PickPic, our own hosted proofing and ordering solution. It's been a much easier transition than I expected and a much-improved experience for our customers. Not to mention the major quality improvement in printing by being able to use our favorite pro lab for all of our orders.

Mac Pro: This year we upgraded to an 8-core big daddy Mac Pro to help keep our time at the computer as efficient as possible and it's really made a big difference in our workflow and computer time. They're pricey, but it makes sense when we spend at least 60 hours on the computer every week.

iPhone: I managed to hold out until the end of 2008 before getting an iPhone, but I've been looking forward to owning one for ages! It's been really great to have a phone that actually syncs with my Mac calendars, contacts, podcasts, music and even folders of favorite photos that are always on hand if needed.

Home Security: I've always been security-conscious, but we stepped it up after our auto-burglary in March of '08. It's nice knowing that even if the power is cut to the house, and the phone and cable lines are cut, our monitoring company is still notified of any alarm at our house. Gotta love technology! =)

Recycling: Yes, we just started recycling this year. I didn't think we had much trash that could be recycled, but after starting to recycle I was amazed at how much white paper and other recyclable material we were quickly collecting. Honestly, I'm a skeptic of "global warming," but I am a conservationist and if everyone was able to conserve and reuse more I do think it could have a big impact on landfills, etc.

Goals: For years, I was a real goal-setter at this time of year. I would type up pages of goals with timelines, etc. but life happens. While goal setting and priorities are important, so many of the best things in life were not a part of my goals or plans. I think in the last few years we've had a vision for where we were heading, but then we pretty much just rolled with the punches on a day-to-day basis, receiving grace and strength for today from Above.

Please forgive my rambling and run-on sentences! I have two little girls calling for their Daddy and requiring attention every 30 seconds, so it's sometimes hard to think through a complete thought and get it typed before the next interruption distracts my train of thought. =)

Plans for 2009

We would love to start gardening a bit this year. Our foray into gardening in 2008 was to plant sunflowers and morning glories and we really did enjoy it. We've been thinking it would be really cool to be able to grow some grape-tomatoes and maybe some hot peppers... So we'll see how green our thumbs get! We don't have the best soil where we currently live (does anyone in Oklahoma have nice soil? =) but with some composting, topsoil, and manure we should be able to remedy that over the next year or two. Plus, there's something relaxing and therapeutic about gardening.

We plan to soundproof our office a bit more. Eventually, we'd love to buy or build a home with the office a bit removed from the living areas of the home (and with a separate entrance, too) but that's probably a couple of years out.

And then there are all of the normal resolution-type plans, like getting out of debt, back in shape and a more balanced life (work/play/etc.), but I think this post has already waxed long, so I'll try to wrap it up. =)

Best wishes to you for a wonderful 2009! May you prosper in every truly important way!