Thirst Relief & Grace Ormonde Tanzania Benefit Shoot Instructional DVD for wedding photographers. Watch Mike Colon, Jim Davis, and 15 other photographers on location in Tanzania as they photograph a benefit shoot for Grace Ormonde.

Check out this awesome preview video of the Training DVD that led by Mike and Jim. All 17 of us worked to add our tips and instruction to this training DVD.

So, be on the lookout for more posts on Tanzania, Thirst Relief International, Grace Ormonde Wedding Style, Dar es Salaam, and all the wonderful photographers I met on the trip as well as updates on what’s up with the studio splashed in between. Plus highlights from Maria and Harri’s wedding in Finland and highlights from England!

Told ya, craziness. See you soon!

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!

Katie and Bryan are so cute together. I had a blast photographing them for their engagement session a couple weeks ago. Check out their slideshow from our time in Seattle’s Arboretum.

Tara and Evan met up with me in Seattle a few weeks ago where we had an awesome day in the sun down next to Pike’s Place Market. Here’s a few of my favorites from the day.

I can’t wait for their wedding this fall!

Last fall before all the snow fell Grace and Eric came out with me to shoot their Trash The Dress session. Here are my favorites from their set. I love the train trestle we started out at in Bellevue.

Project Red Dress was a huge success this past Friday night at the always fashionable Fairmont Olympic Hotel! Ten design students from area fashion schools competed to create the best red dress in a VERY limited amount of time. Monir Zandghoreishi created the Project Red Dress fashion contest in Seattle to team up with the American Heart Association’s cause to create awareness for heart disease.

Stylists from Gene Juarez were on site to do the amazing hair and makeup for the models from Seattle Models Guild. Courtney from Half Past Lavish produced a beautiful show with the help of her team. I also saw some of my friends there from Seattle Metropolitan magazine volunteering their time to make the show a success. The floral designs were created by Daniela of Bella Signature Design. Brook and Monti from Movin 92.5’s the Ladies Room Emceed the festivities and among the talented judges was Seattle Metropolitan’s Laura Cassidy, designer Nick Verreos of Project Runway and Nikolaki Design and Seattle dressmaker Victoria Glenn of V Custom Design.

My friends Barbie Hull, Danielle Bortone-Holt and Mike Adams were there photographing the event as well.

Here are a few of my favorite images from the runway followed by some of the behind the scenes moments. Click on the images to make them larger.

Update: Check out Laura Cassidy’s blog post — Black and White and Red All Over — featuring images from Barbie and I.

Seattle Metropolitan Magazine / Arts & Entertainment / Charity Events / Glassy Affair

As well as the Great Figgy Pudding event held in downtown Seattle last month:

Seattle Metropolitan Magazine / Arts & Entertainment / Charity Events / Great Figgy Pudding

There’s a lot more, just go hunting around their new archives. Fun!

Project Red Dress

I am excited to be working with FGI International and Seattle Metropolitan Magazine again this year for the second annual Project Red Dress event coming up this February 13th at the exquisite Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle.

Last year I photographed the runway show and captured all of the unique dress creations. This year I’m venturing further behind the scenes to tell the story back stage as well. I can’t wait!

Here’s a few of my images from last year’s event to whet your curiosity. I hope to see you at this year’s show!

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.

Jacqueline and Tim were married at Holy Rosary church in West Seattle last month followed by a reception at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle.

Blue skies and sunshine are a rarity for Seattle in October! We took advantage of the weather and headed over to a local park in West Seattle and then down to Alki beach for a few portraits before driving downtown to start the reception.

My good friend Susie Hamidi came along and second shot with me which was awesome, of course. Thanks Susie!

Jacqueline and Tim, Susie and I had so much fun with you both! Thank you for having us be a part of your day! I can’t wait to have you both back into the studio to get started on your album!

Salon: Robert Leonard Salon
Reception: Washington Athletic Club
Cake: Washington Athletic Club
Linens: BBJ Linen
Flowers: Fena Flowers

Meagan & Tom were married at Seattle Golf Club last month on a beautiful fall day in Seattle. I had guest photographer Jack Young cover their event for me. Thanks Jack!

Check out their slide show! Their full event will be posted online shortly. For more images and Jack’s take on the day, check out his blog.

Anna modeled a dress picked by Liz Navarro – the Gown Diva from the selection at La Belle Reve in Bellevue. Makeup by Erin Skipley of Bellatrix Studio

Last night I shot the first annual Get Hitched Give Hope event at the recently remodeled Arctic Club Hotel in downtown Seattle. If you weren’t able to attend, check out the slide show above to see what you missed!

The dome room at the hotel is great! It made for an awesome space for their event. My good friend Jason Parker was there with his quartet busting out some sweet jazz to liven up the room and so many of my friends and colleagues were either donating their time volunteering at the event or displaying their craft as vendors. The incredible Steven Moore provided the massive floral center pieces and Kate McElwee setup a photo booth complete with props near the bar. (Check out her blog for some sweet snaps.) Movin 92.5’s Brooke and Monti from The Ladies Room were there to MC.

On first count I hear they earned $24,000 for breast cancer last night! Way to go ladies!

The founders:
Michelle Loretta – Mmm Paper
Eliza Truitt – Eliza Truitt Photography
Barbie Hull – Barbie Hull Photography
Michelle Engvall – Married & More With Michelle
Kelly Simants – Sweet Pea Events
Laurel McConnell – Laurel McConnell Photography

I’m certain you’ll be able to read more about GHGH on their blogs in the next day or two.

Photographing children can often be a challenge. I know this first hand, I’m a photographer and more often than not I find myself working entirely too hard to get a decent photo of my two.

Let them be kids
Start by putting them in a situation that will let them play and have fun. If they’re engaged in an activity the photos will be more natural and you’ll have a lot more fun taking them. For the image of my daughter Paige above we went out into a field on my uncle’s property in Lake Wenatchee. It was a beautiful fall day and I just let her and her brother run around the field picking wild flowers.

Use a long lens
Using a zoom lens lets you capture the action while filing the frame. If I had a short lens on my camera for the image of Paige above I wouldn’t have gotten that shot. She was running right towards me and would have run me over before I was able to get that composition. Try to fill your frame with your children and their activities. Using a long lens makes this easier to do. It also keeps you from directing.

Don’t Direct
About that whole direction thing.. Don’t do it. Let them play and don’t ask them to pose for the camera. Put them in the situation you want to photograph and let them interact with their surroundings, not you.

I do this with my couples all the time. You’ll come away with more natural photos that draw you into the image and actually give you the feeling of capturing a moment in time rather than looking at a posed ‘cheese’ type of portrait.

That should get you started. If you’d like more recommendations on gear or the technical aspects of photographing kids please feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll write a follow up article next week to answer your questions. That is, if anyone other than photographers and my mom read my blog….

Hi mom!