I do, I do, I DO

HOLA AMIGO Y FAMILIA!!!

Chev and I are back from our honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was a sunny week of all-inclusive bliss. Here are our pictures from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/c12raney/PuertaVallartaHoneymoon

We're still in a daze from our wedding weekend. We are very grateful to each and everyone of you who made it so special. We will carry all of that love and friendship with us throughout our lives together. We can't thank you enough.

We are also very excited to see everyone's pics from the weekend. We love seeing it from your perspective. So far, we've received links to galleries from a number of people (I'll post at the bottom) but we want more!

I personally prefer Picasa Web Albums for such things because it is SO easy with Picasa and the file sizes can be reasonably large. I also like Flickr for the same reason (I'm a "FlickrPro", check out my regular galleries too).

But obviously, whatever is easiest for you is fine. We just want to see the pics for now. If you took some photos and you need any help getting them online, or if you would rather give them to me on a CD and let me upload them, please email me or leave a comment.

Here's the photos we have so far (I'll keep a running list as they come in):

Takoa:
http://picasaweb.google.com/c12raney/2007_07_26LakeArrowheadTakoa

Andrea:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akleith/ChevSeanSWedding72807

Lisa:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Stottssnapshots/RainerWedding

Steph:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ssalgado12/ChevsWedding02

Wendy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18792497@N00/sets/72157601215939528

PJ:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=vwppn1d.2qeguiyp&Uy=-b59oet&Ux=1

Sky Blue Sky

Wilco's new album doesn't hit the stores until May 15th. But you can hear the entire thing on their web site today... wilcoweb.com.

We went back to Lake Arrowhead this weekend for more wedding planning. It was beautiful as usual.

More photo's from Saturday here.

UPDATE: More photos from Lake arrowhead:

From 2007_03_31 La...

Green Beer

Click the photo to see more of the green beer debauchery on Venice Boardwalk. I took the photos with a lens that I forget about sometimes... my 50mm f/1.8. It's fast, compact and usually produces a beautiful bokeh.

More Portraits

Here is a shot from a shoot I did a couple of days ago with my friend Lyss. More from that shoot here. Tell me your favorites. I'm having a hard time choosing.

As you can see, I'm putting my new lighting gear to good use. If you're in the LA area and you would like to do a shoot, I'm ready and willing.

I owe my latest development in photography largely to the web site Strobist.com. If you're a photographer, I highly recommend spending a few hours on that site.

Chevas and Rose

Let's recap

Did I lose you? It's been a while since I've posted. So let's catch up real quick.

Since last I posted...

We had a great time in Lake Arrowhead in James' super cool cabin (click for pics):

I went to an Ayn Rand exhibit in Hollywood.


I took this picture of JL:














I got the Canon ST-E2 that allows me to take pictures like this:














Went to one of the most amazing shows ever with Chevas and Lisa. We saw Earlimart at the Getty Center with a string quartet. It was almost an out of body experience. It definitely ranks as one of my all time favorite live music experiences. (not my photo)











Oh, and the Master Batters started off the season by beating Off Constantly 9-4. We'll look to extend the streak tonight. Thanks for hanging there... more pics tomorrow.

More goo for you

I just can't seem to get enough of these Goo Drip pictures. Seems like I always come back to them. What can I say? They fascinate me. Here's a recent one.

UPDATE: it was brought to my attention that the picture wasn't showing up for a while.

Reader Question

Reader Sheila asks:

hey, do you know who sings the song with those lyrics before Beck? "Let me hear you say "Ooh La La Sassoon". I am trying to find that song. It would have been around the year 200[0]. Any ideas?

Thanks for the question, Sheila. "Ooh La La Too Soon" was actually a disco song by Sarah Dash released in 1980 that was then used in commercials for Sassoon Shampoo/jeans. That's where "Ooh La La Sassoon" originates in pop culture.

By the mid-90's, Beck was using the phrase to rev up crowds at live shows and it eventually made it into a song on his 1996 album, Odelay, called "High-5."

Now, you say you're looking for a song released circa Y2K. Maybe you are looking for 1999's commercial hit by The Wiseguys called "Ooh La La," which also uses the famous hook. Ironically, that song was then used by Budweiser in more commercials. You can read more about it here. And just for good measure, YouTube provides us with the video:



So, is that the song you were looking for, Sheila? I hope I could help.

And if anybody else has any questions for The Creamy One, leave them in the comments or send me an email.

Chocolate, meet Peanut Butter

Two programs I've talked a lot about in the past year are Pandora and eMusic. Pandora is a great site for discovering new music and eMusic is a nice companion because it deals primarily in indie artists (and indie releases of major artists). They're two tastes that taste great together.

And now somebody has gone to the trouble of actually mashing them together... Chocolate, meet Peanut Butter.

It's in the stars

Some photos from our trip to the Griffith Observatory yesterday.

What dreams may come

From 2007_01_19 Ma...

The world welcomes Madyson Stathem. We were there in Sacramento for her birth. Here is a gallery of pictures from the weekend.

Close but...

Enjoying a cigar after a round at Trump National Golf Course. Life is good.

Hike over the city of angels

Looking over the city on beautiful day in Los Angeles.

Tug Boat at Sunset

There was supposedly a comet out last night. I went out to see if I could take some pics of it but as you can see, way too much cloud cover.

This blog scrolls down

This is one of my favorite photos from the holidays. My grandmother unwrapped a USB hub in our white elephant. She was a good sport considering she had no idea what she was looking at.

And just so we're clear... I've added a few more galleries to the holiday photos. Be sure to scroll down for UPDATES.

Takoa With Child

From Takoa Pregnant

On Christmas Day, I did a little make shift photo shoot with Takoa, Mike and Truman. It was a great opportunity to try out my new lights and some artsy techniques. If I had it to do over again, I would have changed a few things but I think I got some real gems.

See what you think. And feel free to let me know which pictures are your favorites so I can gauge which ones to work on in PhotoShop. Thanks!

Takoa's Pregnant Photo Shoot

(Creamy note: I'm moving this out of the Christmas Photos post so it's easier to link directly to it. Also, I've gotten some strong opinions about this pregnant shoot so I'd really love to hear what everyone thinks.)

I'll take the pictures

From New Years Eve 07

I took about 500 pictures on New Year's Eve. Here's 150 that are suitable for public consumption... sorta.

UPDATE: Dre has some more New Years photos at the bottom of this gallery.

Christmas Photos

From Xmas 2006

Here's a big gallery of the xmas in Sacramento and Houston combined. Ernest actually took a lot of the ones from faux-christmas morning in Houston.

We had a whirlwind Holiday tour but, as usual, it was all too short. I wish we could have spent more time with everybody.

Sacramento and Houston Xmas Photos

UPDATE: Rick's gotta cool slide show from Xmas. Check it out here.

UPDATE 2: PJ took some nice photos. She has a Kodak gallery setup here.

UPDATE 3: Uncle Doug took some Xmas photos with his very impressive camera rig. I put them in one of my Picasa galleries for easy browsing.

Picasa low res gallery here.

Uncle Doug's Original High Res files here.