Hey there! So you found the most interesting page on my site. This is my recent Oahu wedding, Hawaii wedding, and...well..lets be honest, it's a blog. The story behind this blog, well, it started out purely about Hawaii weddings, then it evolved into everything and all of the above. Basically, ITS MY BLOG!! So I write about anything on here. I updated this blog "alomost" on a daily basis. You can learn more about me, my quirks, my style, and of course, you'll get wedding tips here.
Call me if you want to make me richer..I mean, book my services!
It was an ingenious plan, the evil Gargamel created Smurfette to infiltrate the Smurfs, to learn their ways, so he could rid the world of these irritating creatures. His EVIL plan failed miserably, and Smufette soon becomes part of the Smurf tribe, and they all lived happily ever after. Smurfette, soon realizing that her story was meant for the silver screen, so she optioned off her idea to James Cameron, who spent $300 million dollars creating "Smurfs in 3D" and renaming Smurfette's original treatment AVATAR.
Yes, Avatar shares many similarities to the 1980's cartoon, from the plot, to the characters. There's even "Brainy Smurf" played by Sigourny Weaver. But don't get me wrong, I am not knocking Avatar for being Smurfs The Movie For Adults. Like the cartoon, the movie is great.
I actually think this movie is probably one of the best movies of the year. The 3D special effects are neat, but nothing really flies out at the screen too much. The reports of people getting sick at theaters are pretty much overblown. People get sick from playing video games. Honestly, I've seen better 3D effects in the Terminator ride at Universal Studios theme park. But this is pretty cool stuff to see.
If you're planning on watching this movie, and I'm sure you are, make sure you see it in IMAX 3D. Also, it's okay to sit pretty close to the screen. I sat 3 rows back on the incline portion of the movie theater; not the "Front-take-it-or leave it seats", those are too close. You can sit rather close on 3D movies because with 3D, you actually look INTO the screen, rather that at the screen. Sitting close actually allows the 3D environment to envelope you, and the effects are rather neat. My only complaint with 3D theaters are the cheap 2 cent glasses you have to wear. Not only are they uncomfortable, but they lower your IQ by 100 when you put it on.
The movie also runs close to 3 hours. So don't drink any soda before the movie. Make sure that bladder is dry. I swear, they are making movie so long these days, it would be in the movie theaters best interest to install white working porcelain toilets as seats.
On another note, I want to criticize movie critics out there. Not only do they have the easiest job in America, they also take their jobs way too seriously, and do it horribly. Most movie reviews tell you exactly what the movie is about. What the hell is up with that? Second, they rarely give you a solid opinion at the end of their article. Thirdly, for some reason, critics are always looking to learn some type of lesson from the silver screen. Wake up dumbo critics, movies are supposed to be fun. The real movie-goer audience watches movies to escape from reality. The real movie-goer audience learns their life lessons from life itself. If a movie is highly recommended by critics, almost automatically, you probably can assume that it's a long drawn out movie with too much dialogue, or a movie that glorifies a killer, or one that bashes conservative ideals.
For this movie, I think the critics gave the storyline a so-so, and the graphics a thumbs up. Well, the story-line is actually very fun and entertaining, and the graphics, well, are not that amazing. It's nothing we haven't seen before to be honest.
So my last words. See the movie before it gets kicked out of IMAX 3D.
Merry Christmas, from Bailee the Guinea Pig IT'S A GUINEA PIG CHRISTMAS! Having fun with computer graphics
This year I wanted to do things a little different for Christmas. Since the economy wasn't doing so hot, I thought I'd make all my gifts from the ground up. So I fired up the oven and baked myself some cookies and fudge to give away. I then teamed up with my friend to create "Guinea Pig" themed Christmas cards.
Creating these cards took a little brainpower, computer power, but overall it wasn't that hard. In fact, here's how I did it! Maybe you can do it too!
Ingredients needed:
1 photogenic pig who isn't camera shy
1 friend who knows how to create costumes and props for their pig
1 film or digital camera
5 pieces of white paper
1 whiteboard
photo-shop or equivalent photo editing program
Creating your own studio at home
The first step was to create the studio. Miniature Photo and video studios are rather simple to create. They are in essence, a solid color wall that is shaped like a ramp wall of a skate park. The effect you want to create is called an infinite wall, or a shot without a horizon. To do this, I took a white-board and removed the sidings from it. I then placed it flushed against the wall and took pieces of folder paper, taping them from the wall to the white-board, effectively ridding the photo of a detectable horizon.
The taping multiple pieces of plain white paper gets rid of a detectable horizon in photographs.
You don't really need to be to exact when creating the infinite wall for small projects such as this. The goal here is to to make to take a great shot that will be easier to work with in the computer
The original photo. Take note, the infinite wall is visible here, but it's still very easy to fix. Also note the harsh shadows in the picture. You want this.
Now for the fun part. Hopefully by now, your best friend has dressed the guinea pig with ant leers. Take your camera and start snapping away. It's 100% a.o.k. to use a harsh flash for this shot, because you do want harsh shadows cast on your white-board. Harsh shadows will make it easier for you to place your guinea pig into any scenery you wish. Make sure exposure is perfect and you're good to go.
The touched up shot, with a new head, Santa hat, and presents in the sleigh.
I liked the original shot, but the only problem, the guinea pigs head was a little blurry, and she didn't look too happy. So I took her head off from another shot, and placed it on the new head. This was done rather easily with Corel Phot0-paint, my bitmap editor of choice (I like it much better than Photoshop for most things.) The next step was to remove the background, and that was as easy as selecting the background color and replacing it with the snow background of my choice. The process is very similar to what you see done on television weather reports, where meteorologists stands in front of a green screen. Whatever is green is replaced with a weather map; same-same here.
So the final picture was what you saw above. I did a few more pictures using the same technique as well.
I was thinking about submitting these pictures to Hallmark..what do you think? This one is funny.
I like this one too
On another note, my Christmas was great. For Christmas Eve, I made my signature prime-rib roast and smoked a turkey. Christmas Day, I basically didn't do much other than play football with my younger cousins. Football every year with my younger cousins is actually a traditions. It's about 11 or 13 of them, with my Uncles, against myself and 4 or my 1st cousins. Yes, it's 13 on 5, but hey, we actually only lost by 1 touchdown. My ability, makes up for 8 of my younger cousins...hahaha.
Anyway everyone. Hope you had a Merry Christmas. New years for me will be rather busy, as I have weddings line up on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd!!
SECOND CHANCE AT LOVE The Hawaii Wedding and love story of Bill and Andrea
"It all started with a blind date", Andrea told me over the phone.
Most love stories for me are pretty straight forward, and all I usually have to do is to take a few key notes on my blackberry, so I can blog about it later. But Andrea's love story was complicated...in a good way. And I had given her a call to make sure I got her story correct.
Right out of high school, young and single, Andrea had agreed to be a blind date for a youthful bachelor-football-stud, Bill, who was dateless for a wedding. Not backing down from any adventure, Andrea agreed. After all, she had nothing to lose, and possibly to everything to gain. As you might imagine, magic happened that fateful day and these two star-crossed lovers fell for each other....head over heels.
Young love, back in the day...
"It was magic from the first day", Andrea recalled.
Bill and Andrea were passionately in love with each other, sharing laughs, conversations, and everything in between from day one. Days turned into months, and months turned into years. As time passed, Andrea decided to become an airline stewardess. As fate would it, her job took her away from California and to Minnesota. Bill couldn't follow her because he was in the middle of finishing up college at Fresno State. As you could imagine, maintaining a long distance relationship, even for this couple, proved to be very difficult.
They tried to make it work for six months, but the distance wore on them, and soon they went their separate ways.
Andrea still looks stunning. This was taken minutes before her wedding. Her friend back home surprised her with this great pre-wedding treat. (taken with G10)
It was Andrea's daughter who set the wheels in motion (taken with G10)
As time passed, Andrea married and gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Nikki. And Bill also fell in love with another and got married. The two star-crossed lovers had crossed paths again a few more times in California, but their timing was never right as they were both never single at the right time. It would be twenty-six years until Andrea and Bill would see each other again.
So one fateful night, Andrea's daughter, Nikki, began looking through some of her mother's old photos. A picture caught her eye, it was a young picture of Bill. She asked her mother about him, and Andrea recounted her young love affair to her daughter. Andrea, now single, told her daughter that she was reluctantly content on the way her relationship with Bill had ended. They had something very special, and those memories were very dear to her. She wished for a happier ending, but didn't think it was possible.
The entire wedding party.
But Nikki was not satisfied with the ending to her mother's love affair. She wanted, and knew, that there could be more. So Nikki got a hold of Bob, her God father, who was one Bill's best friends, and told him that her mother was single and still in love with Bill. Bob soon informed his best friend of the great news.
Bill too, was also now single. Bill, an honorable man, fulfilled his marriage vows to his wife who had passed away. He was now single, alone, and ready to fall in love again.
Then....it all began again...with a phone call. I'm not sure on the details of that call, but I could just imagine how it went. The happy tears of hearing from the one who you've had a crush on for most of your life, I'm sure it was good stuff. But reality soon set in, as distance would soon again prove to be their Achilles' heel. Andrea, lived in Northern California, owned a successful hair salon, and Bill had settled in a new house in Southern California.
This time around, Andrea made sure that distance would not be an excuse for them. They both visited each other as much as they could, emailed, and talked on the phone. Then, when Bill proposed last December, Andrea made it a point to retire, close up her shop, and live the rest of her life with the man of all of her dreams.
I'm not sure what else I can add here to make this love story anymore cinematic. Having the privilege to be trusted to deliver great photos, and video to document the new chapter of their love story, I have to say, was truly an honor. I wasn't nervous at all, given the surreal circumstances, as most would expect. Just truly honored.
The weather was perfect
and the couple was perfect...
Wow, Andrea sure does have some legs on her
Their first dance...on the beach
Simple pose, dramatic lighting, make for a great picture don't you think?
I always make sure to shoot a shot like this if there are palm trees around
This hug says a lot
So this is my winter-love-Christmas-story for you, my loyal future and current customers. I'll be blogging more, but this one, just makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over doesn't it. Geez, I'm looking here at my keyboard, and thinking..."WRITE SOMETHING INSPIRING OR FUNNY STEVE LIKE YOU USUALLY DO", but I can't. This love story has literally stolen my thunder, my brain juice, and probably my funny bone too.
Let me just end on this note.
Bill, Andrea, you love story was truly inspiring. It defines to me that love never fails, always hopes, and always trusts.
IT ALL STARTED WHEN THEY WERE 14 Childhood sweethearts, blossom into a beautiful marriage
The love story of AJ and Teresa reads like an unrealistic Hollywood script. Yes, that's not a typo there, I said unrealistic. If you were to see their love story on the silver screen, you would definitely whisper to your wife, "That would never happen in real life." But yet...it did.
AJ and Teresa were childhood sweethearts who fell for each other when they were around 14. They were both home-schooled, best friends, and knew everything about each other, except that they each shared a secret crush on each other. They would keep this secret from each other for most of their lives.
Sharing their vows on the beaches of Waimanalo
AJ, soon after graduating, enlisted in the military, and was defending our freedom in the Middle East. During his deployment, when his life was on the line, there was not one day that he didn't think about Teresa. I'm sure the thought of not making back home to tell Teresa how he felt crossed his mind. And I'm also sure that Teresa prayed every night that AJ would make it safely back.
Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and AJ was soon back in Hawaii, where he was stationed. It didn't take him very long to tell Teresa, who was in the mainland, how he felt. Teresa soon caught the first plane to Hawaii, with her mother, Ruth, to see AJ.
Now why was Teresa's mother coming with her to Hawaii? Well, unknown to Teresa, AJ and Ruth shared a secret. AJ, a longtime friend of the family, had asked Teresa's parents permission to marry their daughter. Ruth could have not been happier, and she was completely overjoyed that she would be gaining AJ as a son. Ruth tagged along with her daughter to interview potential wedding planners for their wedding. Take in mind here that Teresa and AJ still had not gone out on their first official date yet, and their wedding plans were already on their way!
A Christian ceremony was definitely important with their family. Pastor Stan Ponz, was the perfect choice for their minister.
As you would expect, the reunion was perfect. Not to mention, their first date was one to remember because AJ proposed to Teresa on the first date! This was Teresa's live long dream, and of course she cried, "yes!" The very next day, I was in Starbucks meeting with Ruth, AJ and Teresa, getting interviewed to be their "Wedding Guy." I apparently passed the test.
Happily ever after
Check out that blue ocean, perfect for that....
...long overdue kiss...
Ruth, I have to say, was the model mother and mother-in-law. Usually, mom's can sometimes be nothing but a pain to me. A lot of times, they are over-demanding, controlling, and just unpleasant to worth with. But Ruth, was perfect. She had worked for a photography company at one time, and she completely agreed with my philosophy of photography, and wedding planning. Ruth did have questions like any concerned mother, but trusted in my advice, and never stepped on my toes when it came to the picture taking. If only all mother's were like Ruth (sigh..)
I like that smile
Another long overdue kiss
AJ and Teresa's love story, I really can't add more to it to make it more romantic or great than it already is. I'll just add here that both AJ and Teresa are extremely cool, laid back, and fun. I'm completely envious, in a good way.
The love story and AJ and Teresa, I believe is one for the ages that they can share to their future kids and grandchildren for years to come. My last comments to this couple is to always remember that love is not an emotion, but purely...a commitment. There will definitely be rough times, sad times, mixed in the great times....just remember, stay committed and you'll do just fine.
Steve Young The Wedding Guy http://www.dreamweddingshawaii.com
