Thank you!!!

Thank you everyone for a really wonderful birthday day.

I started out by ringing in midnight of my birthday day with my roommate Kayvon at our neighborhood hotspot, Beauty & Essex.



From there I woke up pretty hungover and didn't get myself together until noon-ish. I went on a secret mission to Coney Island to procure some secret items for a secret surprise I'm planning for this weekend in Vegas.

Then I went to the gym and worked out with my trainer (figured I'd start the new decade off right and healthy). Then, like an old man, my back felt really sore following the workout. And I went to my neighborhood massage parlor for a back massage.

The little Asian masseuse lady climbed all around me like a monkey and it was a fantastic massage until the end where she made me flip over and tried offering me a happy ending MULTIPLE times by patting me inappropriately and making really obscene hand gestures. SO UNCOMFORTABLE.

Now I know how Felix felt during his "On is OK?" incident.

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After massage, I went over to Kate's to help her pack for her weeklong trip to Hong Kong and give her pointers about things to buy and people to meet (hopefully she will get to hang out with TL and TL2).

She bought me a Magnolia cupcake and sang me a birthday song. It was so sweet.



After Kate's ride to the airport picked her up, I went over to Conlixes and we watched the Beverly Hills Housewives (not pictured).

And then out of the blue, Meredith, my first roommate in LA, called me and told me she was in town and wanted to get drinks. So I met up with her at La Esquina.



Meredith, if you remember, was one of the first people I ever photographed and basically inspired me to take headshots when she came home with some pretty new headshots way back when. Really crazy how things have come full circle.

We closed out my bday and I went home to lie down because my back was starting to hurt from my workout earlier in the day and I'm an old man. Fitting right?

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This was the first year my facebook account was linked to my iPhone to give me instant notifications and I have to say it felt pretty amazing to have my phone blow up with wall posts and text messages every 3-5 minutes all day long to remind me that it was my birthday and that someone somewhere was thinking about me, if only for a split-second.

Things like this coming across my news feed:



really touched me. These are two lovely girls I met who were bridesmaids in Doug's little sister Annie's wedding.




People like this are what makes me love wedding photography. You get to be a big part of someone's special day. You get to see their parents and siblings and best friends at their absolute happiest and looking their absolute best. I think of The Bridezilla as more of an urban legend, because I've never met one. All my brides are happy gorgeous awesome people.

I couldn't be happier with where I'm at in life at 30. Sure, back when I was 19 I fantasized about being a ten-millionaire by the time I was 30. But things are a little more realistic now, and I probably won't be a ten-millionaire til I'm 40**, but that's just fine. :-)

Even now I feel like I live a kind of dream-life. I have an amazing job and career. I'm surrounded by the funniest most wonderful people. I don't need to wake up to an alarm clock. And I still kind of look like a 20 year old, especially after Photoshop.

And so my 30th birthday day was semi-low-key....

But tonight begins a week of insane celebration.

30 is going be amazing.



LOL

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**unless I win the lottery tonight. I bought 30 tickets yesterday and they gave me 4 extra for some reason...



Comment on this post and you can share in some of my winnings.

Funny dream

I had this dream last night that my sister was being super annoying and like walking around the house blabbering on her cell phone while unknowingly breaking stuff/making a mess. Like she was eating an ice cream cone and it was dripping everywhere and she like knocked over a plant and dropped a rock on my computer screen etc. so I'm like chasing after her screaming and being SO annoyed. And then I realize we're living in this awesome marble mansion and I'm standing in this grand foyer with one of those massive staircases that forks and goes off into different wings of the house. And I say "hello?" and all these little maids in classic white and black uniforms peek their heads out from around all the corners and balconies like prairie dogs and then scurry about and start cleaning up the mess.

And then I woke up all sad that I don't live in the marble mansion.

Still glad I don't live with my sister though!

-- Post From My iPhone

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhHhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHh

I'm 30.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dad may have ruined the turkey.

I am thankful for Costco frozen appetizers.



And for Bieber.

This is effing brilliant

#1 Wedding Photographer in RI!!!!

I got an awesome surprise email yesterday from The Knot:



This is KIND of a big deal because The Knot - for those who are not familiar with wedding mania - is one of the biggest wedding resources for brides nationwide. I mean they even own the domain name www.weddings.com if that tells you anything.

So yes, this is very exciting.

What's also awesome about this is that I didn't even campaign to get this title. I didn't hustle or send out mass emails or anything. The brides just gave it to me.

So THANK YOU brides of RI!

I'm waiting to book 4 more weddings (already have 14 booked for next year) and then I'm jacking my rate up to $4800. EEEEEEK!

(Friends, keep in mind I'll always reserve a special friend rate for you guys so that I can actually attend your weddings!)

Archie surprises a superfan.

Never have I been so jealous of a 97 year old lady.

Archie is just magical.

Book of Mormon!!!!

Gilt City is offering VIP tickets to a special performance of Book of Mormon for $500.



I just bought two. I figure that the going rate for regular crappy seats is around $400 on stubhub anyway, and these are going to be the best seats in the house AND it comes with a post-show reception with food and drink and mingling with the cast so it's actually a pretty sweet deal. And I'm sure I can probably scrounge up a headshot client by schmoozing at the afterparty so it'll just pay for itself. And either way it will be really fun and funny.

Who wants to buy my extra ticket?

The show is at 1pm on Dec 7th.

Come!!!!

this rules

I'm back in NYC

I landed at 8am this morning. Sleeped all day. Will probably be working on my computer all night. It's amazing I'm still jetlagged from HK because of my silly schedule.

Diamond!

I am now officially a Delta Diamond!



Who wants to touch me?

Diamond Flight to NYC / 36 hours in LA!

Tomorrow morning when I land at JFK I'm officially going to be a Delta Diamond!



It's been a whirlwind 36 hours here in LA.

I landed at 11am Tuesday morning and picked up my rental car and headed straight to my morning shoot.

They gave me a sweet little Wrangler for the price of my usual compact rental. Win!



My morning shoot was for this contest winner Charlie from the Brown Club of SoCal thingy we attended last time I was in LA. (I donated a free shoot to the raffle to help the club raise money.) He is a successful entrepreneur who fell into acting recently when he was randomly cast in a national commercial.

From my shoot in Santa Monica I booked it across town to meet up with Morgan and Luc for their engagement shoot. (I'll be shooting their wedding next summer.)

Morgan is taking off to shoot The Lone Ranger starring Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp and won't be back in LA until right before her wedding so I wanted to come out and get these pics done for her. So exciting!

We went up into the Hollywood Hills right by their home near the Hollywood sign and caught some great sunset light.

Then I went over to Evan's, took a quick nap. And Jesse came over and we went out for dwinks.



Look who we ran into! It's Cedric from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills! He gave me a rose, so he can't be that bad... but please don't tell Lisa Vanderpump. I still want to her to be my best friend.



We got some late night burgers...



And then before I knew it it was Wednesday morning and I was at brunch at Hugo's with Danny!



We did some shopping on Rodeo...



And then we went to meet up with Matt to look at a West Hollywood condo that I immediately fell in love with.



This place is nuts!



Look at this bathroom! And there are TWO!



Look at this shelving!



The living room looks a lot like Bobby's!



I <3 house-hunting.

This COULD be my future west coast pad!!!!!!! AHhHHhHHHH!!!!

LA!

Just landed in LA for 36 hours of photoshoots and a little house-hunting. Woo!

I also just got an email from some lady at the Knot letting me know I'm on their preliminary list for the "Best of the Knot" 2011!

Not sure what region it's for, but it's a nice surprise. I didn't even have to campaign for it. Yay!

Willis's 30th Birthday | Atlantic City!

For Willis's 30th Birthday we headed down to Atlantic City.

The festivities took place at The Borgata Hotel and Casino starting with a delicious dinner in the private dining room at Sea Blue.




Not sure what the deal with the menus was. Apparently some intern got lazy...



But we got a kick out of how it listed four different sections of first courses and said, "Happy Birthday 'Willis'".



I had a tuna tartare with a raw quail egg which I smartly scraped off because eating raw tuna in Atlantic City is already questionable enough...in the end the raw egg is probably what gave DK2 food poisoning later in the evening...



Megoon's scrimps came with a little thing of tabasco.



What a lovely family.



The best course was by far the lobster bisque it arrived with the lobster chunks and quacamole and other stuff.



And then they poured the bisque-y-ness on top of it.



Ohhhhh I would go all the way back just for this bisque.



And then I had the chicken.



And "Willis" got a special cake that made all our mouths black.




We reapplied makeup...



And then it was off to the club.




At the club some Snooki clone accosted me and kept calling me Jackie Chan and making me karate chop her friend.



They played lots of fun poppy hits.



And I taught the Kaminskis some fun Asian poses.



Also DK2 and I tried to come up with a good DK hand symbol.

He disguises his misery well. He had 2nd degree food poisoning and may or may not have just vomited in the bathroom.



Yuck.



Oh my there is much trash to be seen in the Jerz.





I made the MellyKam and MeggyKam get up on the box to bring a little class and hotness to the place.





They could not get enough of the Asian poses.









After dancing we stumbled our way back into the casino...



Here are some lovely shots of me and Willis and DK2 posing proudly with hard-earned hundred dollar bills that were no longer in our possession less than a minute later.




Yeah, we decided to play roulette and bet everything on black.

Oops.




And then we went to fatburger and had some secret off-menu chicken strips.




Fun first trip to Atlantic City!

Happy 30th Birthday "WILLIS"!!!!!




Eeeeek!!!!!!!!! I turn 30 in exactly one week!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEKKKKK!!!!!!!