Just wanted to share that there’s a new post over on my FarewellPhotography.com blog
Here’s a sneak peak!

Check it out by clicking HERE!

-Eric

A Bit Of A Flashback…

Quite a flashback, actually… If you’ve been keeping up with me for a while, you
probably remember the “Epic Surf Trip” I took in my 1970 Volkswagen which began
in November 2008.

I left from Orange County, CA and drove all the way up the Coast to Seattle, encountering
all sorts of fun adventures along the way (including sinking my car in the Pacific Ocean).

After arriving in Seattle, I got my first ever chance to explore the city… And of course,
I started things off down at the Pike Place Market. As I strolled down the brick streets
something out of place hit my ears… Was that a PIANO I heard?

Sure enough, there it was… I could barely believe my eyes. A man with long, gray hair
sitting at a piano, right there on the street corner. He moved with effortless grace, swaying
with the music like an aging metronome… Comfortable, fulfilled, and certainly moving to
the his own beat…

As I stood there watching him play, I suddenly found my eyes closing; hearing the
passion in his music, the grace in the sound. This man was no normal street performer.
Sure, he was a bit disheveled but there was something MORE to him.

As I collected myself, I lifted my camera to my eye and captured these photos:

(My First View)

And then more:

It was frigidly cold that day. Yet here was this man playing his piano,
gloves on his hands, jacket on top of jacket, and eyes closed blissfully.

I wandered around him for several minutes before he even knew I was
there… Finally opening his eyes at the end of the song, he smiled and said hello.

I thanked him for the music, and wandered away.

Flash Forward….

Thirteen months later, my wife and I made our way back to Seattle…
Once again in a Volkswagen, though this time with decidedly less dunks
in the Pacific.

As we made our way up to the market, I smiled as I heard the music in
the distance I was so excited to share this beautiful man with my bride!

Just as we arrived by his side, he finished his song and took a moment
to talk to us. I told him that I’d taken his picture the previous year and had
it hanging in my home (that first photo looks AMAZING on canvas

He asked me for a copy, and shared that he truly wasn’t your average street
performer, barely getting by. His name was Jonny Hahn and he’d been performing
at that same location for nearly as long as I’ve been alive. He lived just down the
street and LIVED to make the music he shared.

It was truly inspiring to talk to this gentle, passionate soul… A man commonly
overlooked, but filled with a humble joy.

Here’s a video I found of him playing on YouTube:
(I’ll try to get a better one next time!)

I’ll be back in Seattle in Late June for a beautiful wedding… And I can assure
you that Lord willing, I’ll be stopping by to see Jonny and thank him for his
constant inspiration.

How are YOU inspiring people?
Who’s inspiring YOU in unexpected ways?

Thanks For Reading,

My Little Brother Got Hitched!!

It seems so strange to say it… My little brother is MARRIED.
Yet on a beautiful day back in February, our family’s came together
and at the end of the day, they were married!

Joseph and Alexandra have been friends (and romantically interested)
since they were 7 or 8 years old. It may sound crazy, but these two
literally grew up in love.

11 years later, they were finally in a position where they could make
it official between God and man… And I got to capture it all

Here’s highlight reel

Shooting my Brother’s wedding was a really interesting experience
for me as a photographer… I wanted to be there for him as a groomsman,
to experience the joy’s of the day AND I wanted to be sure to capture it
all as well as possible.

My wonderful assistants for the day really helped make that happen.
Say hello to my darling wife Danielle, and her sister’s boyfriend (up
and coming photographer) Michael Flores:

The Wedding was held at the restaurant and country inn my family
has owned here in Central Florida for nearly 80 years; The Chalet Suzanne.

I’m REALLY excited to be living close enough to shoot here
more often, it truly is one of the best wedding and event venues
in the Orlando / Tampa area.

Their wedding was at 1:00PM so we were graced with BEAUTIFUL
morning light as the girls got ready…

Snacks were eaten:

It truly was a family affair… Here, two girls from each of our
families help get each other ready

The Bride was the first one ready for the ceremony; she and I slipped
away from the crowds to take a couple quick portraits and so she could
catch her breath before walking down the aisle.

(She was quite happy ;))
One last photo before we were off to become siblings-in-law

Ahh yes, so fun!
But then I was off to my parent’s home just in time to catch
a shot of my little brother going over his vows:

And then it was time!

Being in the wedding party gave me the coolest perspective to capture the day.

See?!

The Maid of Honor, and all the Bride’s Sisters:

My Mom & Dad

Time for the rings:

Then a special kiss

And a high five between Father and Son

As everyone filed out, I made my way around the corner
to see this preciously private sight.

After a few minutes alone, the couple were announced and
a beautiful little reception ensued:

There was great rejoicing:

And Toasts!

And then a family portrait (or 20):

There are SO many more I’d love to share, but this post already has a
plethora more photos than I’d normally post; so I’m going to let it
draw to a close.

I’m so, so blessed to be able to share these with you, and to be able to
share my gifts with my family… I hope that someday I’m able to do the
same for YOUR family, dear reader.

May your day be Blessed!

P.S. Leave me a comment so I know you stopped by?
Would love to know which photo was your favorite!

Here’s What Happened In Vegas…

Over the years, I’ve been asked if I’d be at WPPI a multitude of times.
Yet, somehow I’ve NEVER been able to make it. There’s always been
SOMETHING going on during the event so I’ve had to skip!!

This year however, everything we’d planned for the week of WPPI
was able to easily be moved… So at the very last minute; I went!

Arriving Saturday, I was able to hook up with a bunch of old friends
from my days in Orange County… Folks like the venerable Becker,
the adorable Keats, and the rockin’ awesome Jeff Norwood.

I also made some awesome NEW friends like Jen Otchy, and finally
connected with internet buddies like Aric Becker…

All in all, Saturday was rockin’… But then Sunday began.

It all began with a little lighting workshop Lan & Vu Bui put on.
They sold it out almost instantly and had a great group of folks
to teach. Sadly though, two of their models failed to show at the
last minute and my dear friends Matt & Stevi offered to step up
(You may remember them from our time in NYC, they’re the best!)

Here’s a few shots from the workshop:

Another friend from our last NYC trip was there as well… Feuza Reis!!

Another one of my very favorite people was there as well;
Mike Larson and I ended up rooming together for the week.

He’s a TRUE rockstar of the industry, and has some of the greatest
character of any man I’ve ever met… If you’re a photographer, or
even just a fan of photography, I encourage you to spend some time
getting to know Mike… It’ll be well worth your while.

That’s his new Canon 1D MkIV — I spent the week playing with it and I’m in LOVE.

The little guy above is the soon-to-be child prodigy of Grace Liu Anderson’s
(He’s really an AWESOME little munchkin!)

Sunday night was a private little Pictage get together at the Mandalay Bay
which soon was carried away by the Go|Bee Party… I made a few new friends
there as well (who promptly shoved me into a photo booth)

The following morning (Monday) I made the rounds of the trade show
(several times) finally finding myself at the Bui Brothers/ Pictage/ Dane Sanders’
“New Media Lounge” complete with comfy couches, Wi-Fi and the all important
iPhone chargers.

Here’s a quick shot of Lan Bui with the 1D MkIV and 85mm F1.2L MkII

As the day drew to a close I started running around like a crazy person
getting ready for Mike Larson’s incredible speech on “Character Marketing”.

Did I mention that this is Vegas, and the conference center is about a mile
from the hotel rooms? Well, it is… And all in the same casino!

Mike’s speech was a great success, despite technical difficulties that would
certainly have thrown off a less passionate speaker.

More shots from the Canon 1D MkIV:

Here, Mike demonstrates his best Jedi mind trick on my dear
friend Ginny Corbett:

Mike’s workshop was an overwhelming success, people walked
away each feeling more inspired to lean on their character as
the foundation of their business… Each inspired.

Many thanks to Mike, and to Kiss Wedding Books for making the workshop
happen… I was honored to be a part of it!

Tuesday dawned a new day… With BIG plans!!
First off was a morning session with legendary wedding guru Grace Ormonde.
She was really working the audience; helping them understand the best ways
to get their work published in magazines like hers.

Lawrence from ToFurious had invited Mike down to do one of his famous
“camera tosses” to record the event. (Mike and I actually MET because of
a camera toss in Times Square a few years ago, but that’s a different story
for a different time

Here’s Mike’s shot:

Pretty cool, eh?!

Next up, we had to run over to the New Media Lounge for Mike
to hop on “AskDane” with Dane Sanders…

Along the way we bumped into Becker and I finally got to subject
him to what I can only call “Beckering” — He’s famous for shooting
hundreds of photos of subjects in a single pose, largely to get them
comfortable, and partly to ensure he’s captured the PERFECT moment.

But, I had the 1D MkIV in my hands which meant I could fire off
10 frames a second for a full minute or so… I only took fourty or fifty
pictures, but darnit, I still feel like I “Beckered” him good

Then, it was off to the ShootQ booth for another quick speech.
(It was actually really fun chasing after Mike all afternoon, I got
to capture all kinds of things

Next on our list was a sprint over to the OTHER tradeshow building
for Mike’s speech at the Pictage Booth… Where my dear old xanga friends
Bob & Dawn Davis were just finishing up:

Jim Collins, the CEO of pictage is the one in focus… That man is a rockstar

Simon from pictage interviewed Mike all about his thoughts
on Character Marketing, etc. He was quick to point out that one
of Mike’s photos hung above us… Which was pretty darn cool

And then in a blur, we were off to our next stop…
Dane Sanders‘ Platform Session… With nearly a thousand other people
crowded into the room!!

Mike, Jesh De Rox, and I ran to the front row right as things
were getting started… Here are a few photos:

You’ve got to see Mike’s pictures from this… They’re awesome!
He doesn’t have them up on his blog yet, but I’m sure they will be soon

That evening was a rapid fire series of rockin’ parties…
First off was Dane’s after party at the Centrifuge Lounge, followed
by the biggest party of the week… Pictage’s VIP Event at Studio 54.

Both Kiss Wedding Books, and ShootQ sponsored shows during
the party, and when my friends Kevin Swan & Shaun Austin from
Kiss asked if we’d shoot their special event, there was no way we
could say no!

So, here are a few shots from that:

And here’s a rockin’ awesome video Lan & Vu Bui put together:

After the Pictage party, a group of us made a dash to the Mandalay Bay for
Becker’s [b]School party… Which ended up being ANOTHER awesome event

No pictures though, I left my camera in the room, that thing gets heavy fast!

Wednesday morning, I was scheduled to fly out at 8:00AM but I skipped
my flight to attend the first ever “Unite” meeting at a WPPI.

Unite is an incredible group of Christian Photographers, led by Mike Larson &
David Jay as well as many other photographers around the country.

We worshipped, prayed, and shared for about 2 hours… And my only wish, is
that it had gone on for 10 times as long… It truly was an immense blessing
(and well worth the cost of booking another flight, haha).

David Jay and Mike asked if I’d shoot a few photos to capture the event;
they’re attached below:

And since that’s about all the vertical ones I took, let me find a few more
landscape style

There are so many more photographs to post, and so many other friends to mention;
but I must let this post end somewhere!

Many thanks to each of you who made the week so wonderful…
I can’t wait until the next time we meet, and I am truly blessed by each of you.

As always, I am here to serve.

P.S. If you were there, would you do me a favor and leave a comment with
YOUR favorite moment from WPPI 2010?

I’d love to hear from you!
(Even if you weren’t there

Blast From the Past…

If you’re a photographer, then I’m certain you can understand this story.
You go out; take amazing photos just for fun; edit a few, and then remember
another shoot you’ve got to get uploaded for a client.

You focus on your clients needs; and the next thing you know, it’s been
nearly a YEAR and your “fun” photos have yet to make it online.

Well, a few nights ago I decided “Enough is enough!” and decided to edit
ALL my photos from Sun-N-Fun fly-in, 2009.

So, here are a few of my favorites

Sean D. Tucker…

Sean is my favorite aerobatic pilot to watch… To shoot…
AND he’s a great guy to get to know as well.

The best part of Sun-N-Fun ‘09 for me though, was getting
to share it with my Mom, Sister, Brother, and the woman who
was soon to become my Bride.

We had SO much fun.
(and gained the dirtiest feet I’ve EVER seen)

We ended up having quite the contest to see who’s were
the grossest… Still not sure who won that one for sure

Becca, Nelle, and Myself

My rockin’ little bro and my Mother with a turkey leg.
(Sorry Mom)

James (my brother) has grown up SO much in the past year!
It’s wild just looking at these.

As the night grew later, the night airshow geared up.
Here’s one of the many shots I was able to capture
as the Aero Shell team prepared for their amazing routine.

Each year around Sun-N-Fun time, my family’s restaurant
Chalet Suzanne throws an epic Aviator’s BBQ… It’s always a
MUST attend event in my world; and hundreds of pilots from
around the world usually show up.

So, here’s a few from that event as well

SO much fun!!
There was one small damper on the festivities of the week though;
one of our over night guests made a mistake on their climb out and
ended up bending his airplane.

Both he, and his passenger were fine; but the accident caused a few
fires that took some work to put out.

Truly amazing that they all walked away… God is good!

And that’s it for me!
I’ve got a plethora of other events to shoot, but this’ll have to
do for now

Next up?
WPPI 2010 Recap, a few weddings, a few photo shoots, and
an epic little road trip across the US with my Bride

Talk Soon!!

P.S. Which was your favorite photo? I hope this post has
inspired you to go finish something you love to do!