The heat and humidity in Dubai were impressive, like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Midnight and it was 95 degrees and 90% humidity. Midnight. Let that sink in. Yes, Dubai is definitely a city where your live from air conditioned car to air conditioned office building to air conditioned apartment. Growing up in Central Washington and having spent some time in the dry heat of Albuquerque, NM I thought I knew how to handle the heat but this was a completely different animal. It didn’t even compare to the summer I spent in Georgia where I watched person after person fall prey to heat stroke.

At one point we found ourselves out on the beach looking at that crazy ‘6 star’, sail shaped hotel the Burj al Arab where a suite for the night will run you a minimum of $1,000. Mind you, it’s a 1,820 sq. ft. suite… That’s bigger than my first house!

A bit more driving in the cool but cramped minivan through a tunnel and down a long road and we appeared before this grand hotel and beach resort on ‘The Palm’ island that you may have seen on tv. The resort is a replica of the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. Complete with the bridge suite joining the two halves of the resort. We ventured inside for a look and found a beautiful Chihuly art glass display in the lobby and a massive aquarium down one hallway complete with a whale shark. It just goes to show how small this world has become. Dale Chihuly is a Washington native and created the Pilchuck Glass School . I had the pleasure of shooting his glass school’s auction event for Seattle Metropolitan Magazine last year.

Whale sharks are awesome, by the way.

Somewhere between the Burj al Arab and The Palm Atlantis we stopped at this other cool resort with a very old world Arab feel to it. I would love to stay in one of those little ‘villas’ for a few nights.

Dubai is now home to the worlds tallest building, the Burj Dubai. I only know this because while on the freeway our cab driver pointed right and I caught this horrible image of it while buzzing down the freeway. At 818 meters tall it dwarfs Taipei 101 at 509m.

By the time we whizzed by the Burj Dubai over half of the cab was asleep. Exhaustion had kicked in. The early morning plane ride was looming only a few hours away and we all needed sleep. Back at the hotel we staggered up to our rooms and cooled off in our chilled ice box rooms.

All in all, I wish I had more time in Dubai with good light and a full night’s sleep to take in all the new architecture and really get a feeling for the culture. As it was, the thick hazy air at midnight didn’t leave me with the best impression of this super modern city. Next time.

Yes, I’m teasing you with this shot of the African Plains.. I thought it was cool. The Safari we went on yesterday was amazing. We saw impala, warthogs, giraffes, hippos, zebras, wildebeest, buzzards and lions. Yes, even lion cubs. (They were sooo cute.)

We’re just about ready to take leave for the airport so I haven’t had time to really do any editing. Don’t worry though, I’ll post images here soon from the whole trip so check back.

Internet access here has been very hard to find. Tonight we’re staying in a pretty nice beach resort though and finally we’re able to update the blog. The last few days have been incredible and life changing. We have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of local people connected to the water project here. We’ve learned about their needs and how Thirst Relief is working with the local team to fund the construction and delivery of bio sand filters all over the Bagamoy0 district here in Tanzania. Water here isn’t even safe to drink from the municipal water supply, should you be lucky enough to have the shallow laid pipes anywhere near your home. Even the ground water collected from common shallow wells is contaminated with e.coli. The new bio sand filter we installed in this village will provide these orphans with clean and safe water and provide with with the opportunity to grow healthy and strong.

Above are a few images from our trip to a nearby village orphanage. I hope they stir your soul and tug your heart as they did mine when I captured them.

Make sure to check out the official Thirst Releif Tanzania blog

I have to mention that both both Virgin America and Emirates Airlines are both awesome. I flew Virgin down from Seattle to LAX and it was fabulous but the brand new 777-200LR from LAX to Dubai was incredible, the service impeccable and the food tasty! (I had the duck. Yes, duck as airline food. Go figure.)

In 7 hours we’ll be in Tanzania. woot!

Paige In The Snow

The weather around Seattle has been pretty wild lately. In my neighborhood we had over a foot and a half of snow over Christmas and we were completely snowed in for a week! The kids loved it though! What once was white has now melted off and now we’re dealing with major flooding! Here are a few images from the Snohomish Valley that I took 2 days ago while checking out the flood waters.

The Snohomish river has breached it’s banks and several dikes protecting many houses from damage. Roads all over the valley are covered with water and are impassible. My Garmin GPS was very unhappy with me for not listening to it’s directions to get me home that evening. It seemed that every road I tried was covered over with water when you’d get to the low valley floor.

I am based in Seattle, Washington; however, destination weddings are accepted and encouraged! I love to travel and would be delighted to cover the world for your wedding. Planning a wedding in Bali? I’m in. Planning a beach wedding in Savannah? I’m in. How about a gorgeous Chilean wedding set in the foothills of the Andes outside of Santiago? I’m so there.

I’ve traveled to Chile, England, France and all over the United States for my clients. I’d love to do the same for you. Give me a call or shoot me an email and we can discuss the possibilities.

Click on that link above and google maps will help you determine how many days you have left to get your registration in. If you live in Washington state you have until October 20th to register in person.

Announcing Seattle’s Premier Bridal Giving Event

You’ll get gorgeous goods for your wedding while giving back. Lovely libations and amazing appetizers. With raffles, auctions and jellybeans. Lots of jelly beans.

My friends over at Get Hitched Give Hope are holding their premier event on October 23rd at the Arctic Club Hotel in Seattle. You should go check it out! Your attendance is helping to fight breast cancer too!

They’re going to have all sorts of cool stuff to auction off, great swag bags and awesome food!

I’m a sponsor and I’ll be there photographing the event for them. If you see me, come say hello.

Go get your tickets and we’ll see you there!

If you haven’t checked out GigBooks already, you should. What Justin and his developers have created is a much needed business management tool that will help you get organized and grow your business.

Justin Kifer, CEO of GigBooks

We had my mom and grandma over for dinner and fireworks on the fourth. We had way to much BBQ and watched all the neighbors light off their spectacular aerials. (Our neighborhood always goes all out with the fireworks displays. It’s better than trudging downtown to see the Space Needle covered in smoke.)

I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day!

I’m in studio today editing a fabulous engagement session for Stephanie and Peter where it was 85 and sunny on Daytona Beach and outside the studio window I have this. Snow! It’s mid April and it’s snowing like January in Seattle today.

If you have an iPhone, go ahead and browse to www.jefflaplante.com and you’ll be redirected automatically to iphone.jefflaplante.com.

Here’s what it looks like. (It’s fully functional so click around!)

Urban Unveiled was a couple weeks ago and I just finished editing all the great images I shot of Luly Yang’s fashion show. It was a hot show with lots of great new looks from the renowed Seattle bridal couture designer.

Check out all the fashions below. Click on the thumbnails to see larger versions.

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Andre Feriante held a charity concert at Benaroya Hall the 15th of February in celebration of Valentine’s Day. My friend Tolga Ural invited me to attend. Andre is a great performer and accomplished classical guitarist. It was a pleasure listening to his work. During the second half of the show, Andre invited several other artists to share the stage with him. Perhaps the most captivating was violinist Swil Kanim who played several pieces. They were profound, moving songs that captured my soul. Good stuff.

For more information about Andre and the other artists involved in the concert, have a look at Imagine CD’s website.

Here are a few of my favorite images from the evening.

View more images after the break.

http://www.apple.com/aperture/