Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We had a large party at the SIL center which is where my grandfather works. Friends came from all over the US and I have to say that the most exciting guest was his old college roommate who came out and told some wonderful stories. I wish we could get away with even a couple things they had done during their college years, including placing a small car on someone's porch with the headlights shining down the hallway of the house. I hope I can hear more stories soon.

Yay! He's 80!


A little 'Bling' from the cousins


Showing off his stuff


I couldn't keep a serious face with him doing that


Happy Birthday Grandpa! I hope that I can live even half the life that you have. Thanks for all of your encouragement and that you've given me over the years.

Grandpa is now an official Snowbird and will be spending this fall and winter here in AZ so I'm sure you'll be seeing some more photos of him soon.

Family

I recently took a trip to Dallas for my grandfather's 80th birthday party. All of my mother's side of the family came into town from Tennessee, Arizona, Texas, and Florida to celebrate. We all got met up a few days earlier since we knew the chaos would hit over the weekend.

Here's Uncle Mark Master of the Grill training Uncle Russell in the background.


The whole family


My sister Heather and husband Ryan


Gramps on his last day of 79


My cousin Elizabeth


My fam (me, Darren, Mom, Heather, Ryan)


Working on the family pictures

Jenn + Rob Engagement Session

Before I left for Dallas last week I shot Jenn and Rob's engagement session.

We had a slight change in plans when we noticed that a festival was going on in the location we had a planned to shoot so we just ended up walking around downtown Phoenix.

Jenn had booked me when I had first started and I'm so glad that we connected then. They are both so much fun to be around and Rob is a jokester like me so I'm sure there will be some fun times at the wedding.

We marched all around the downtown Phoenix area and continued shooting into the night. We ended up in some pretty cool places and I thought the photos turned out awesome.











Their wedding is going to be at the Orange Tree Golf Resort in Phoenix in December and I know they're also getting a cake from Tammie Coe Cakes as well which will be awesome. Be sure to come back and look at their wedding photos!

Check out the slideshow here ---> Jenn + Rob Engagement Session

Dallas PUG

Tonight I had the pleasure of dropping in on the Dallas/Ft. Worth Pictage User Group.

Kristin GreenLee is the local leader and she was so nice to give me some time to share about marketing and creating newsletters. We also had a great discussion with Bradley from the wedding album binder ArtLeather. Thanks to everyone for inviting me into your group! I hope to be back another time.

Photographer Friend in Town

My friend Liana Lehman was in town from Atlanta last weekend to shoot a wedding in Sedona. After her wedding Bruce and I met up with her in downtown Tempe for dinner and a couple of drinks.

I love being able to hang out with friend who visit.

8 Years and still no album...

While I was on my flight to Dallas I started talking with the guy seated next to me. We got onto the topic of wedding photography (it seems to come up often) and he told me that it's been 8 year since his wedding and they still haven't received their album (that makes me sick). They have some proof prints (not final prints) and that's about it. And I could tell that its not the photographer's fault for this delay.

The truth is that life takes over after the wedding and most couples don't have the time to work on picking the photographs for their album. And one reason is that they aren't sure which photos would be best for an album.

This is exactly why we will pre-design your wedding album for you based upon the photographs that we believe would be best for the design. Each wedding album is different in design and length. And the best part is that since we start desiging your album right after the photos are edited, we can usually get you a finished album 6-8 months from your wedding date. This is another one of our unique service that we provide here at Jefferson Todd Photography.

Check out these recent album pre-designs:

Keri + Adam
Kristina + Randy
Kari + Kevin

Love my New Blackberry Pearl

I got the new Blackberry Pearl a few weeks ago but they just released the mac version of the software so now I can use it all of the time. It's such a great phone. It's the first Blackberry that can play mp3s and has a camera on it. Plus it's the width of the Razr phone and I can use it as a modem for my laptop, so I can get internet anywhere!
Any other Blackberry fans out there?!

Mesa Arts Center

Today was creativity day. The last 5 weeks have been filled with many photos of wedding and engagements and it was time for a change. So I called up my friend Bruce and we planned to take the entire morning to walk around the new Mesa Arts Center taking photos.

Here's Bruce (check out his killer new website) going crazy over one of his shots.



I really liked the arts center. It's filled with so many colored walls and water features. I think it would make a great location for an engagement session. Make sure to check out the slideshow below.

Check out the slideshow here ---> Mesa Arts Center

Kim + Jason E-session

We got home safe last night after spending a wonderful afternoon at the San Diego airport. I'm so glad to finally be home for the next 9 days.

My time with Kim and Jason was very encouraging and entertaining. We spent the entire Saturday taking some fun photos of the two of them. Kim was so worried about being in front of the camera at first, but I think you'll agree with me that they both look natural!

Check out the slideshow here ---> Kim + Jason E-session

I love it here!

The last couple of days here in Oceanside have been wonderful. Kim, Jason and myself have had a so much fun together taking pictures and making jokes.

We spent all day yesterday taking pictures and today we got up and had a wonderful breakfast at a mom and pop place. Then Jason drove me by the blue Top Gun house this morning.

I'm sure a few of you will recognize this house from the movie.

We're off to the airport where I'll hopefully have time to post some of their photos from yesterday!

Check out the slideshow here ---> I love it here!