Hank was one of those guys you just wanted to be around; razor sharp wit, fun-loving, loyal to a tee with a rock hard exterior to hide his loving gooey center. Kind of a “Robert De Niro” type.  When I was a kid he would come visit our family in Arizona to get out of the freezing cold temperatures of the Chicago winter.  He’d lay out at the pool and work on his tan while mom bundled me and my sister up in coats and earmuffs to go to the bus stop.  I’m so grateful that Ryan was able to meet him on a trip to Chi-town about five years ago.  The three of them (Ryan, my Dad & Hank) sat in Hank’s basement and smoked cigars while I took silly photos.  I can’t think of a single memory of him that doesn’t include laughter and witty banter.  Saying goodbye was tough, especially because it’s hard to imagine that someone so strong could really be gone.  It was truly an honor to be one of  more than 200 people that come to pay their respects at his wake.  Since I’ve lived across the country from this side of my family my whole life, being there helped me to get to know him even better as I listened to the countless memories that his friends and immediate family shared.  He was a very special man and he will be missed by so many.

Here are a couple of my favorite “Hank Memories” that we pulled from the photo archives. (Right to Left)

• Ryan & I with Uncle Hank, Aunt Jan, my Dad and my two sisters, Cheri & Amy on a trip to Chicago (2006)
• Hank & I in Hawaii for Amy’s wedding (2007)
• Hank & Jan at our wedding (2004)
• Ryan, Dad & Hank smoking cigars in Hank’s basement (2006)

My Dad took us to see the house where he and Hank grew up.  It was still in perfect shape!  We got to hear all kinds of stories about what it was like to grow up there and all the trouble that the two of them got into!

Here’s a shot of my Dad sitting on the very same front stoop where my grandparents used to sit and watch the neighborhood.

We also stopped by his old high school.  He told us that Taft High School was the last school in Chicago to be integrated when schools were still racially segregated.  He was a student at the time and actually remembers students protesting on the lawn the day it happened.  It’s strange for us to even imagine a world like that so it was pretty fascinating to hear that he was a part of this turbulent time in history.

In doing a little research, I also discovered that Jim Jacobs, the writer of Grease, attended Taft and used his time there as inspiration in writing the musical.  Kinda cool right?  The way my Dad describes he and Hank at that age I think they would have fit right in with Danny, Kenickie & the rest of the greaser gang (minus the randomly breaking into song part of course)!

On our last day there we headed into downtown Chicago to do some exploring. We parked the car by the Adler Planetarium and were greeted with this gorgeous view of the Chicago skyline.

Chicago’s most recognizable landmark – the Sears Tower (as seen from Grant Park.)  Love the segway tour in the foreground.  Seriously, those things were everywhere!

First stop, Buckingham fountain!

The thing I was most excited to see was the Bean!  A couple of “Bean” fun facts for you: 1) It’s actually called the Cloud Gate sculpture and 2) It’s made of 168 stainless steel plates welded together and highly polished to hide the seams.  My Dad, being the engineer of the group, was pretty impressed with how much work it must have taken to construct it.  I just thought it was cool.

Love the way it reflects the skyline and the clear blue skies.

Here’s the view from directly underneath the 12 foot high arch.  Crazy, huh?  If you look real close, you can see Ryan & I in the middle section.

And what do people do at the Bean? Take tons and tons of self-portraits of course :-)  Here’s the best of our family shots – please excuse the millions of fingerprints that distort our reflection . . . and the group of little old ladies behind us.  We were lucky to only have 3 extra people in our shot actually.  It was a super nice day so the place was pretty crowded.

Ryan wanted to mix it up a little with our self-portrait so we went a little non-traditional.  LOL!

We cut through the art institute to enjoy the cool air and escalators.  Not sure what Ryan’s Star Trek reference is about. Now that I think about it, we WERE on our way to the Planetarium . . .

Sure, my Dad may look pretty sweet and innocent, but this photo shows proof that it’s all a big facade.  Though he looks like a bystander, Cheri and I can attest to the fact that we are, in fact, shielding ourselves from the water he was spitting at us!  Thanks Dad. LOL!

I had no idea that downtown Chicago actually had a beach too!  It’s official. They’ve got everything there.  Here’s Cheri resting her tired feet in the cold water. After lots of walking, boy did that water feel good!

One last shot of me & my hubby with the beautiful skyline.

Thanks Uncle Hank for giving us a reason to visit.  We only wish you could have been there to share it with us.  Thanks for the memories.  We love you & miss you.

I like to through up little gang sign every now and then – here’s my “I’m 31 and happy about it” sign.

Here is the view from our room at the Las Palomas Resort and Spa.  We spent most of our time in that giant pool closest to the ocean (Sea of Cortez).  The ocean water was very warm and uncomfortable and every once in a while you’d feel a bit of cold water pass around you – a little scary because . . . hmmm, it’s Mexico.

Take a short walk to the other side of the resort and this is what you see.  Desert and yes, nothingness. See that crazy winding dirt road?  Yes, that’s pretty much the way we came in.

Most of our three days was spent relaxing by the pool and beach.  We promised ourselves that we wouldn’t talk about business the whole time.  And I’m proud to say we didn’t . . . ok, maybe we did like twice!  Here we are trying to get our tan on.

The main pool had a zero edge view out into the ocean and an awesome swim-up bar!

I think we were the only two people in Rocky Point.  It was surprisingly deserted for pretty much the entire time we were there.

Adios Mexico!  BTW, thanks for the tan that you forgot to give me.

Our first day there we slept in and spent the afternoon along the Riverwalk in downtown.

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Anybody else feel bad for the poor little duck in the back?

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The 8-mile Riverwalk is home to four historic bridges.  My cousin Matt is a civil engineer and part of his job is to inspect bridges.  He later shared with us that these four were among some of his first projects.  Pretty cool, huh?

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Have to show of a few shots of our cute fam!  This is Larry, Jan, Ali & Matt.

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Ali, Matt and their furry kids, Izzy & Bella.

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By this point in our trip, we were missing our little Molly pretty bad.  Luckily, we had a chance to get our puppy fix with Bella, Izzy, Jack & Koda :-)

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We also had a chance to have lunch with one of Ryan’s old college roommates, Jacob and his wife Jen.  We goofed and forgot to get a shot of all four of us, but at least we managed to snag this one.  Having friends in other states is so much fun!

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Our last sightseeing adventure was to Multnomah Falls.  The drive up was gorgeous – full of green trees and winding roads.  Exactly what you’d imagine Oregon to be.

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It was pretty much pouring rain when we got there, but we couldn’t pass up the awesome photo op.

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We hiked up to the bridge with our cameras and an umbrella we bought at the gift shop to get another view.  Love this shot of the base of the waterfall.  Looks so deserted, doesn’t it?

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The 105mm Macro lens sure came in handy for this next shot.

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And we made friends with this little guy too :-)

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For our our last night we spent the evening out on the town.  We had dinner with the whole fam at one of the many fabulous microbreweries that the city is known for.  Then drinks with Matt & Alli at the Portland City Grill for some awesome city views.  And our last stop was for dessert at the infamous VooDoo Donuts. It’s a funky little hole-in-the-wall donut shop known for it’s unusual take on donuts.  To give you a little “taste” of the menu (no pun intended), they serve donuts such as the Bacon Maple Bar, the Oh Captain My Captain (vanilla frosting with Captain Crunch on it) and the Old Dirty Bastard (chocolate frosting with oreos and peanut butter)!  I had a VooDoo Doll (chocolate frosting with raspberry jelly filling and a pretzel “stake”) and Ryan opted for the Old Dirty Bastard.  Don’t let the crazy names fool you – they were delicious!

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Thanks to our awesome family for the wonderful time and for giving us such an awesome place to crash!  Our time spent in Portland was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.  We can’t wait to go back very soon :-)

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The majority of our time at Pike Place Market was spent scouting locations for the bridal session and then shooting there.  By the time we got around to doing the “tourist thing” we didn’t take many photos of it.  You can’t do a post about Seattle though without this iconic view.

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I almost had a heart attack when I noticed this little guy as we were wandering through the market.  Looks pretty real, huh?

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While visiting the “Emerald City”, Ryan had the chance to accomplish part of #80 on his 101 list: “Lick a dolphin, the Space Needle, and part of the titanic (not at the same time)”.  Yes, the goal is threefold.  And yes, it’s probably the strangest goal on our list.  That’s Ryan for you.  Always on the lookout for ways to make life a little more entertaining.  One of the many reasons I married him :-)  After lunch in the Space Needle restaurant, we made the trek up to the top to check out the awesome views and let Ryan “get his lick on”.  I laughed pretty hard when he pulled out a disinfecting wipe to “prep” the area.

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TA DA!  (Seriously, what else can you say about this shot?)  It was certainly memorable!

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Here’s a shot of the view from the top of the Space Needle.  Doesn’t quite look like the Seattle skyline without the Space Needle in it though, does it? (I think I see our hotel)

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After the licking adventure, we goofed around in the gift shop for a while.  Love this shot of me :-)  It recently became my facebook profile pic.

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Our next stop was Kerry Park in the Queen Anne Hill section of the city.  Hands down, the best views of the Seattle skyline, not to mention being a super charming area with gorgeous homes and great architectural elements.  We had a hard time getting directions there since most people had never heard of it, but it was totally worth the time we spend climbing uphill and asking strangers for directions!

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My handsome hubby workin’ the long lens.  Sometimes you just gotta pull out the big guns :-)

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And yes, we bought a souvenir at the gift shop.  Little known fact about the Gotchers: we really like to visit big buildings that serve as landmarks . . . and then buy metal replicas of them.  It’s sort of our thing.  Our collection includes the Eiffel Tour, Big Ben and the Empire State Building.  And the Sears Tower is sadly MIA :-(

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Have you ever wondered what the Space Needle tastes like?  Ask this guy.

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Throughout the course of our trips, I discovered that I’m kinda obsessed with photographing flowers and leaves . . .

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… and Ryan’s a little obsessed with taking photos of birds.

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It was so fun to see all the colorful fall leaves since we don’t get much of that in Arizona.  I’m totally in love with this next shot.  Just might have to frame it and hang it on our wall somewhere to remind us of what the rest of the world gets to see in September :-)

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A couple fun detail shots of the Experience the Music Project/Science Fiction Museum (EMP/SFM) building that’s located near the base of the Space Needle.  We didn’t take a great shot of the entire structure, but it’s a very cool building.  Supposedly it’s modeled after a smashed guitar.

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Love the little Space Needle cameo as it’s reflecting in the side of the building.

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We stayed in a really cool boutique hotel called the Hotel Max. Now, if you’re planning a visit we should warn you that the rooms are pretty small.  In fact, we had to ask for a bigger room so that our bride would have enough space to get into her gown for their day after session, but the staff was really cool about it and was totally happy to move us when a bigger one became available on our second night there.  What the Max lacks in size, it certainly makes up for in ambiance.  The incredibly unique, artistic decor and overall styling of the hotel is pretty amazing.  It is totally unlike any place we’ve ever stayed.  Every floor has a music related theme and the door to every room has a different black and white photo image on it.  The dark walls and door frames paired with the overhead spot lights give a very cool and unique visual effect .

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Here’s a detail of our door.

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If you can get past the need for space, the rooms do have great modern decor and original art throughout.  It was very close to transportation and just a block or two away from Pike Place Market, so we would still totally recommend it as a great starting point to explore the city.  Overall, we had a great time there and would be more than happy to go back.

Thanks Seattle!  We love and miss you!

This little baby traveled to Seattle, Portland, San Francisco & Coronado Island with us these past few months.  And, due to a little incident with a can of spray on sun tan lotion in Coronado,  it will forever smell like vacation.  Mr. Speedroller, you’ve already become a fond friend :-)  We were able to pack pretty much everything we needed in this handy little bag, although I liked to have my camera body and a couple lenses on me at all times in case we needed to take a few mid-travel snaps here and there.

That’s where my ever so handy Kelly Moore Bag came in.  I’ve been using this little gray cutie as my primary camera bag for the last 6 months, but boy did it prove that it’s worth it’s weight in gold while traveling.  My absolute favorite feature is the convertible strap which allows you to wear it as a purse that just happens to hold an SLR camera.  Love, love, love it!  I carried this bag the entire time we were traveling, whether for sightseeing, visiting friends or a night on the town.  And of course, when it was time to shoot a session or wedding, I just popped on the other strap.  It’s attractive and fashionable like a regular purse while still meeting the needs of a photographer on the go.  Can’t say enough good things about it!

I’d be one happy camper if a red one of these showed up under our Christmas tree with my name on it :-)  Hint, hint.  A girl can never have too many great purses.

By the way, if you ever have questions for us about other photography related stuff (or non-photography related stuff actually), feel free to CLICK HERE and ask away!

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At the Space Needle we had a great lunch followed by an amazing dessert.  It was called the “Lunar Orbit Sundae “.  As soon as it was placed on our table I immediately grabbed my phone to take a video while Denise took some photos.  It was definitely a scene.

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Photos just don’t do it justice.

And of course, we ate it.

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Portland photos to come soon . . .

DAY ONE: Brad & Flo’s Wedding!  We’ll be doing a full blog post for these guys very soon of course, but since capturing their big day was pretty much all we did on Saturday, a little sneak peak will have to do.

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DAY TWO: Brad & Flo’s Day After Session!  They wanted their session to be iconic of Seattle and they got their wish . . . Pike’s Place Market and rain!  This session was a pretty crazy adventure for all four of us – more to come in the full blog post!

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DAY THREE: We spent the day exploring Seattle and had so much fun!  We had lunch at the Space Needle and the took a long walk around the Queen Anne’s Hill.  We eventually found ourselves in Kerry Park to check out the absolute  greatest views of the Seattle skyline.  Got LOTS of awesome shots!  Please excuse the crazy hair – it was windy up there!

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Tomorrow is our last day in Seattle and then we hop on a train to Portland.  Stay tuned!

Our super busy fall wedding season is going to start off with a bang :-)  Today we head out for back to back weekends of fabulous destination weddings!   First, we’re off to Seattle, Washington  for a gorgeous winery wedding. Then we’re taking a little detour through Portland, Oregon to visit family and friends for a couple days. And finally, we head to San Francisco, California to capture another amazing wedding at a Spanish-style mansion. We’ve been stoked about this trip for a long time and are SO excited that it’s finally here!  Two amazing couples, three beautiful cities and endless potential for awesome-ness!  As always, we’ll have our trusty iPhones, iPad & laptop with us so we’ll still be available via email, but we may be a little slower to respond than we usually are.  We’ll be posting daily photos on our blog throughout the trip so feel free to visit a lot in the next couple weeks!

Hands down, our favorite part of the trip was our hotel room at the Wynn.  It was FAB-U-LOUS!  We absolutely loved the bright, modern decor and the roomy floor plan.  If you’re ever looking for a hotel on the strip don’t pass this one up!  Ours was a standard room, but it completely exceeded our expectations.

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Floor to ceiling windows overlooking the strip – YES PLEASE!

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And to top it all off . . . custom room keys :-)

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Check out this awesome section of the lobby at The Bellagio.  Love the multi-colored tulips and the way the light was hitting the fountain.

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Silly Gotcher self portrait :-)  I think we were sitting in the back of a “boat” at Margaritaville when this was taken.  Mmmmmmm.  My mouth starts to water just thinking about their burgers.

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Many of our favorite Vegas activities involved eating.  Wichcraft at The MGM Grand has AMAZING sandwiches.

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Love this one of my handsome hubby :-)  And if you look real close, you can see my reflection in the windows.  Yes, I was laying on the ground IN VEGAS to take a photo.  Not to worry, I made sure to shower when we got back to the hotel.  Ha ha!

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If you know me at all, you pretty much know that I’m a HUGE Beatles fan.  The Mirage is home to an AMAZING Cirque du Soleil show called “Love” that consists entirely of Beatles music!  We saw the show a couple years ago and spent a small fortune at the gift shop at the time.  Item one on my Vegas To-Do List was to replace my well worn t-shirt.

This place is Beatles fan HEAVEN!!!! I loved walking around hearing everyone else in the store softly singing along to “Here Comes the Sun” and “Revolution”. It’s such a cool feeling to know you share a passion with complete strangers.  Makes you feel kinda warm and fuzzy inside :-)

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How cool is this hallway leading to the theater?

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Rockin’ it fun house mirror style!

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We also spent a few hours at the Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat.  Dolphins are pretty much the coolest, happiest creatures ever!  We could have watched these guys all day.

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Llama anyone?

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Now, the total dollar amount of Ryan’s BlackJack winnings may not seem like much at first glance, but when you consider that he started with $5 it’s pretty impressive.  An 1130% increase is something to be proud of!  Way to go honey :-)

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Thanks again to our awesome couple Nerina & David who invited us to capture their special day and gave a reason to hang out in “sin city” for a few days.  We had a blast!

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Nerina & David have the best kind of love story . . . one that started a long time ago :-).  These high school sweethearts have been a couple for many years and have two adorable sons Noah & Gabe.  It was such a blast to hang out with them and the fun group of family and friends that made the trek up to Las Vegas for the wedding!  We really enjoyed getting to know them and had a great time running around the strip together having our very own fabulous Vegas adventure!  Many will tell you, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”, but in this case, the wonderful joining of two sweet people in marriage is truly an event to be shared and remembered for a lifetime.  That’s where we come in ;-)  If you were hoping for Mike Tyson’s missing tiger, random babies showing up in hotel closets, or a naked Chinese man popping out of the trunk of a car, you’ve come to the wrong blog . . . or have you . . . Just kidding, we’ve got something even better!  True Love.

(Please sign the guestbook if you’d like to be notifed when the rest of their photos are online.)

The day began at Harrah’s Las Vegas Hotel & Casino where the happy couple was getting ready and where the reception would be held later on that evening.

Nerina had two pairs of shoes – fancy ones for the portraits/ceremony and some comfy ones for the PAR-TAY!

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The beautiful bride putting on the finishing touches.

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After helping her get into her dress, Nerina’s mom took a step back to take a look at her lovely daughter.  Her expression and sweet teary eyes say all there is to say.  Capturing perfect little moments like this is one of the very best things about our job :-)

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Nerina & David wanted to have lots of time before the ceremony to shoot portraits out on the Strip so they chose to see each other before the ceremony.  Their first look was full of happy smiles and tons of laughter.

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Nerina – you’re adorable!

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Love both of these!  Especially David showing off his awesome kicks.

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As we left Harrah’s and headed out for their portraits we noticed that they were holding pinkies.  So cute :-)

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Shooting on the Strip was quite an experience.  It was a lot of fun, but it did have a few challenges.  The first was the crowds.  It was a Saturday afternoon and there were people EVERYWHERE!  The other challenge was the amount of walking.  Luckily, the day before the wedding Ryan and I had set aside a few hours to scout out some locations that weren’t TOO far for our couple to walk to in their formal attire.  It was pretty entertaining to have so many people “woo-ing” and yelling congratulations as we made our way through the crowds!

We spend most of the session focused on the classic and elegant look of Caesars Palace and The Bellagio.  Love the drama of the high ceiling and curved lines in this first spot.

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Can’t complain when the Eiffel Tower makes an appearance in your wedding photos, right?  Only in Vegas!  (Well, I guess you could get that in Paris too, but the plane ride would be much longer.  Ha ha!)

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We took a little walk through the casino at the Bellagio and just couldn’t help but showcase Vegas’ most popular landmark . . . slot machines :-)  Hilarious!

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Nerina & David were so easy to work with.  They didn’t blink an eye when we asked them to sit on the ground in their formal wear.  Bride & Groom + awesome hallway + outdoor marble floors  = yummy photos :-)

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A couple individual shots of the awesome couple.

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Next, we were off to the Flamingo where the ceremony would take place in a lush garden at the center of the hotel.  Since Las Vegas is such a popular wedding destination, the Flamingo is like a well oiled wedding machine. There are five different ceremony locations and a good possibility that there will be a wedding going on at each one at the same time.  The hotel requires that all of their couples use a photographer and videographer from their staff during the ceremony, so we were actually sitting in chairs the whole time, shooting as guests.  It was kind of a fun challenge to stay in one place and not have our usual ability to move around.  Despite having a little different perspective, we ended up getting some really great shots and our feet got a little rest too so that part was kinda nice :-)

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Super cute :-)

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We did have a little advantage over the other guests that were taking photos from their seats.  With our handy zoom lens, you’d never know that Ryan was sitting in a row of chairs at the back of the ceremony and was still able to snag these awesome shots :-)

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The bridal party workin’ it on the steps of the casino.

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It was so great to catch up with one of our past couples Manny & Rachel that were both members of the bridal party.  They play softball with Nerina & David and that’s actually how they first heard about us.  Happy (almost) one year anniversary you guys!

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The lovely ladies :-)

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Couldn’t help posting this silly one of the guys :-)  It just makes me laugh!

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Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Gutierrez!

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The reception took place at the Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill at Harrah’s.  It was super casual with no formal events – just the couple hanging out with their closest family and friends.  We snuck out to grab a couple quick ring shots in the hotel casino.  A friendly Pai Gow dealer let us use his table as a fun photo back drop (with permission from the pit boss of course!)  Does anybody actually know how to play Pai Gow by the way? There’s dice and dominos and cards – what’s the deal?

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Time to get the walking shoes out for some fun night shots on the Strip!

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The one photo request that these guys had was to get some shots in front of the fountains at the Bellagio.  We were more than happy to oblige!  Talk about iconic Vegas, right?

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Don’t be fooled by the images above.  It may look quiet and peaceful, but there was actually quite a crowd to work around and it was TOUGH getting enough room to shoot out there!  It was an adventure for sure!  The fountains go off every 30 minutes and we got there about 10 minutes in advance, but as the big moment got closer and closer people started to line up along the water’s edge to watch.   We had to sweet talk a family, two middle aged men and a rather drunk/crazy local who kept shouting, “I’m having a picnic!” to stake out our territory.  Befriending “Picnic Guy” actually worked to our advantage because he scared off other onlookers :-)  As you can see, the images were well worth it and I don’t think any of us will soon forget it!

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There are many more great images from the day so make sure to click on the “view slideshow” button below!

To Nerina & David:  You guys are so perfect for each other.  It warmed our hearts to have the chance to capture such a sweet and honest love story.  Thank you so much for inviting us to be a part of it.  We truly enjoyed every moment!  You guys ROCK!

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