What a great year it's been! Peppered with lots of travel, speaking engagements and three (count 'em, 3!) new nephews.... 2009 has been as fun as it was adventurous! Here are a few quick highlights. Speaking at BryanLGH's Women's Day

Experimenting and playing with classic vintage pin-up portraits

Attending WPPI in Las Vegas was a blast! It marked the beginning of a 2-wk whirlwind adventure starting in Vegas, traveling through San Diego and finally wrapping in San Francisco. Part business, part pure fun.... it was all good!

While on our little west coast adventure, we met up with Lan and Vu Bui of the Bui Brothers to produce a video to show couples what it's like to have KaBloom Studios photograph their wedding. We were joined by past wedding clients Kjerstin and Joel to capture their thoughts on camera and capped the day off with a Cuban dinner. Perfection!

Shortly after WPPI, I climbed back on a plane and headed west (again!) but this time to the gorgeous coast of Oregon for our annual PhotoGirls get together. We rented an incredible beach house in the picturesque town of Manzanita and spent a week of photo/girl/nerd bliss enjoying each other's company. (We're about to pack it up again and head out for PhotoGirls 2010, the location will be a surprise, so stay tuned!)

Bring on the nephews! First to arrive, was Nick & Jamie's little Cole. Emir immediately began calling him 'Col-e' (like in Austin Powers 2 when Mike Myers points to Fred Savage's mole and says, 'mol-e, mol-e, mol-e!'). It totally stuck and I'm pretty sure Cole thinks that 'Col-e' is his actual name. :)

A mere 5 weeks later, Gina & Roy's little 'Denominator' entered the picture.

Adis & Laura chimed in only 1 week after Dominic with little Haris! All 3 boys are within 6 weeks of each other. I am *so* excited for their little birthday parties as they grow up... it's going to be a blast!

Summer brought lots of fun travel opportunities and several destination weddings, the first of which was Annette & Brandon's wedding in Grenada. We did a special 'day after' shoot to make sure we had time to capture the gorgeousness of the island. Emir and I headed down a few days early to enjoy what's known as 'spice island' before the wedding. We spent several sun soaked days snorkeling, laying on the beach and reminding ourselves to stick to walking and avoid driving while in town. Ha! The entire experience couldn't have been better... we felt and were treated like family. Already can't wait to go back!

Learning from 2008, I did a much better job of managing my schedule this summer, which left me with a small pocket of time to do a couple of a fun shoots I've been wanting to experiment with for quite some time. Using simple incense and a pan filled with water, Emir and I created two colorful series of images.

After years of avoiding the mac hype (I had dug in my heels pretty stubbornly....), my PC finally drove me to the point of surrender and I bought a new Mac Pro. This was sometime in July. It sat in the box it came in until December when I finally had time for the monumental task of migrating my entire work flow and all of my files to the new system. The switch wasn't without its hiccups, but.... overall.... I can see why some people are Mac evangelists. Even Merki became a convert. :)

Jeff & Megan's destination wedding took Emir and I to Michigan where we had the opportunity to spend a few days on Macinac Island on Lake Michigan. We passed our time riding bikes, eating fudge and listening to the rhythm of the trotting horses. Highly recommended! (There are no cars allowed on the island... it's kind of an old fashioned escape. A fab family vacation spot!)

I was thrilled to find out that I will be teaching a Master Class at 2010's WPPI in Las Vegas!

An international conference with more than 10,000 photographers from around the globe in attendance, it's a place to learn new things, make new friends and become the best you can be at what you do. I am honored that I will play a role in helping to shape not only the experience of some of the attendees, but hopefully I can have an impact on helping them improve their workflow, design skills and overall work efficiency. I can't wait!

I'm especially honored that my appearnece is being sponsored by the incredible folks at AsukaBook, Adobe... and of course, Banti.

A long proponent of using InDesign for all my layout and design work, I was pumped when AsukaBook approached me to present a webinar demonstrating how to create Asuka-friendly files from InDesign. I actually got a lot of feedback from folks to told me it was extremely helpful... which is always great to hear! I even created a super easy-to-read pdf to help explain the process and an action script to save photogs time in the process. You can find the recorded webinar listed among others on AsukaBook's site.

After wrapping the photography for Christina & Jason's destination wedding in Denver, Colorado... Emir and I hopped a quick flight to Santa Fe (full post here! Lots of yummy eye candy!). Considered by many to be one of the most artsy and creative cities in the country... it's been on my 'to-visit' list for quite some time. While there, we had the bonus opportunity to have breakfast with one of my favorite design authors, Robin Williams.

I've been teaching photo related classes (photoshop, photography, digital cameras, etc....) for going on 5-ish years now. This year, I added private workshops to my repertoire. Customizable to anything you're interested in learning, it's perfect for small groups... and is always a lot of fun!

Public speaking? You bet 'cha! I love when people invite me to speak at various clubs, meetings and workshops/seminars. This image is from a twitter presentation I did for the American Advertising Federation of Lincoln's 'Ad Camp.' A real joy!

This fall was especially enjoyable:  The Huskers had a promising season. Our apple tree produced its first apple that the squirrels somehow managed to miss. And.... I spent lots of quality time with family and friends (including our delicious three nephews!). I already can't wait for next fall!

Thank you 2009 for bringing wonderful clients, friends and new family members into my life. Here's to 2010!