My New Baby Sister

Yup, that's right! I have a new baby sister. My dad and step-mom had little Anna Marie Pals on July 19th at 2:54am. She weighted in at 5 lbs and 13 oz and was 19-1/2" long at birth.
My dad sent me the following pictures.

Here she is!


Here is my dad holding Anna Marie


My dad, Kristina and my brother Darren


Anna Marie trying to sleep. It looks like the dogs might be barking.


And here are a couple baby bottles my dad worked on. It wouldn't surprise me if he tries to market these. Ha!


I'll get to see her later this month for the first time while I'm in Arizona.

Fourth of July on Coronado

I spent the 4th of July on Coronado island in California with my dad and brother. There is a huge parade each year on the island that we were able to enjoy.



This cute dog was sitting by us.


With a base being on the island there was a large presence of military in the parade.


Including the girl scouts with their Operation Thin Mint car.


In the San Diego bay there was a ship with a huge flag on it


The sunset was beautiful


Then the fireworks began with the San Diego skyline behind.



I hope you all had a wonderful and safe Independence Day! What a great country we have!

The Santa Barbara Crew

I've been in California since last weekend to shoot some engagement session photos for upcoming weddings. During the week I headed north to Santa Barbara, which is one of my favorite places to visit. I have a great group of friends whom are all wonderful photographers as well.

We all went out to lunch one day while I was visiting. It seems as though the out of town guy is the one that brings them all together for events.

(Ricky Mia, myself, Cheryl and Tim Halberg, Brett Bollman, David Jay, Katie and Chris Humphreys)


Later on that night I headed out for some wonderful sushi at Arigato on State Street. It's my favorite sushi restaurant ever!

While I was walking to dinner I noticed the smoke coming up from north Santa Barbara county. It helped create a beautiful sunset. But it also helped create a nice power outage during dinner.

My Brother is Driving! Watch Out!

My brother just got his permit and helped my dad drive to San Diego to meet up with me on Coronado Island for the 4th of July.

My mother took this photo of my brother after he got the permit.


It's odd to think he's now driving but I'm sure that it feels that way for anyone who finally passes that stage. Hopefully he'll turn into a nice safe driver.

The JT Pal Award

One of the funniest things that I received before moving was an old award that we would hand out when I worked at Starbucks. For those of you who don't know, my last name is Pals and of course I get the "You're a pal!" joke all the time. So in honor of my name there was an award created at our store that would be passed from one recipient to the next. There were no real rules for when the award would be passed along so it was always a surprise when it would show up in someone's box with a little note.

And in honor of my leaving I was awarded the JT Pal Award!


The award always included an undisclosed amount of change.


Watch out because one of you former Starbucks employees might just be getting the award passed along to you.

We're in Greece

I'm here in Greece and we went to check out the ceremony location yesterday. The view was amazing! I can't explain how beautiful all of the buildings are.



My friend Matt is tagging along to videotape the entire trip. We'll be posting some video in the next month.

Country Thunder Weekend in AZ

It was Country Thunder weekend here in AZ. Some friends had a couple extra tickets so I headed out to Florence, AZ Friday night to hang out with them.

The headline band was Sugarland, and they were great on stage!

John Fogerty also played earlier in the evening and he is an amazing guitarist that has some great hits.

I love this shot of John Fogerty with the silhouettes of two cowboy hats on either side of him.

Sorry about the fuzzy photos, my friend Amanda graciously allowed me to use her point and shoot camera all night long because mine is currently out of commission.

San Clemente Exposé

A personal project of mine has been to capture some of the unique elements in San Clemente, CA over the last two years. My recent engagement session brought me back out here so I spent yesterday afternoon walking around downtown. Here are some of those photos.

Flagstaff, AZ

Flagstaff, AZ, originally uploaded by Jefferson Todd Pals.

The snow up here is beautiful. I totally forgot my camera battery so I might have to make a trip back to phoenix tomorrow so that I can take photos of my friend Todd and his family.

Jefferson Todd
(sent from my BlackBerry)

Edit: We decided that I will step down as the professional photographer for the day and use a Canon Rebel that Todd has at home. ;-)

Thanks Mom!

My birthday is on Sunday but I'll be in New York City photographing an engagement session so my mom gave me my gift early.



She bought me two ocean kayaks for me to take with me on my trips to California. I received a roof rack for my xB over Christmas and all it was missing were a few of my own kayaks. Thanks Mom!

My Brother - Darren

This last Monday my younger bother had off school so we spent the day together. We started by playing some Racquetball and then we picked up his friend Stéphane to take some photos.

We drove up to an abandoned building for a few photos and then headed to a local skate park.

My brother Darren


Stéphane










They both love skateboarding and the Chandler Skate Park is a great location.


At the skate park a guy named Raul did a melon over a few guys and I pieced together this photo from the sequence of shots.

Thanks for Your Cards!

I was gathering all of the Christmas cards that we received this last season and I just wanted to thank all of you for sending us one. It's great to see all of the wonderful photos of your families. It was a surprise for me to see my own face on Pictage's card this year.

Of course I love it when my own clients send us a card with one of my photos on it!

For those of you that did not receive our card this year, here is the design. And be sure to send us your address so that you will get one next year.

Front


Inside

Latest Trip to Texas

I've been going to Texas often now that Heather (album designer and sister) and her husband moved to New Braunfels, TX.

I was out there a week ago and had a great time in between the work. The city had their big seasonal Wassailfest celebration. There were 50 wassail stops by local groups where you would get a sample and then you would vote at the end of the night for the best wassail.



A little holiday music to help the wassail go down.


Mmm...Brat in a wrap


The party crew minus Steven.


Heather and I


It was a fest week for us while I was there. When I showed up we had Cheesefest at Heather's house with a cheese fondue. Next year we're planning Chocolate fest as well.

(Ryan, Heather, Jaime, Steven, Mona, Me)


I can't forget the week full of Guitar Hero III on the Wii. And YES, I did get plenty of work done as well.

We're on BedJump.com

I just submitted my photo to Chris at BedJump.com and he loved it so much that he rushed it onto the blog.

Bed Jumping!

I'm at the Pictage Conference this week and all of us photographers are having a blast geeking out on the wedding business. But of course we have to let go a little in the evenings.

Jared and Bronson from Bauman Photography and Shoot.Dot.Edit joined me in the fun!
We're going to be posting these images to BedJump.com





So what do you think?

Santa Barbara and San Louis Obispo

I had a wonderful time with friends while I was in Santa Barbara to photograph Dayna and Kevin's wedding.

A big thanks goes out to my friend David Jay for letting me crash at his new pad for a few days. The view of Santa Barbara from his place is just AMAZING!


One of the days I headed up to San Louis Obispo to meet up with photographers Mike Larson and Colin Michael. We had some great tri-tips and then visited Mike's new office space that he's busy designing.
Myself, Mike and Colin


Then it was time to come home. I left DJ's place at 5:30 in the morning, hoping to miss at least some of the morning traffic into LA. As I was packing the car, I noticed this reflection from the lines on the road.

Happy Birthday Heather!

I surprised Heather by flying out to San Antonio the day after Katie and Andrew's wedding. My brother-in-law Ryan played it all so well that she had no clue that I was coming in town.

Here's a fun video of them pulling up to the airport to pick up one of Ryan's "co-workers"!



We traveled to Austin to check out the Capitol


And we took Heather out for a Teppan-Yaki dinner on her birthday


We also kayaked down the San Marcos river but ran into a few issues. First, it took us a good 2 hours longer than expected because we only had two kayaks and Ryan had to float on a tube which wasn't going to move fast. Second, we came up to a large dam that we didn't see on the map that we had. So we had to get out of the water and scout a way around the current being pulled over the dam and over to the side so we could carry the kayaks around. It was scary and pretty crazy, but we're alive!

Visting San Francisco

I was in San Francisco a few weeks ago to spend some time with Tegan.
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The first day we headed down to the Santa Cruz Mountains for some wine tastings.


One of the vineyards that visted was Byington Vinyard and Winery



Tegan and I in the Santa Cruz Mountains


The next day we headed to San Francisco so I could see some more of the sights. I made sure to buy Alcatraz tour tickets ahead of time because they sell out fast!

Heading to Alcatraz Island from the tour boat


A sailboat out in the bay


Our amazing flag posted on Alcatraz Island with San Francisco in the background.


The cell block.


On the rolling hills overlooking Oakland bay.

Heather is Moving

After many months of anticipation for their new home, my sister Heather and her husband Ryan are moving to New Braunfels, Texas. Their new home is now finished and ready for them to occupy.

There not much really going on in New Braunfels, but I am excited to come and visit Schlitterbahn, voted the World's Best Waterpark 9 years and running.

Heather will continue to work from Texas as our exclusive wedding album designer.

Heather and I


Ryan, my brother-in-law


I wish them the best as they both begin a new adventure!

So Surprised!

When I arrived at the studio today I noticed an unexpected package had arrived. It was from Ben and Laura Harrison of Ben Harrison Photography.

It was filled with a great note thanking me for sharing during my session at the Pictage Partner Conference in Chicago earlier this month. As well as a block of fudge, a tin of Pure Michigan Maple Syrup and two awesome Nooma dvds by Rob Bell a pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church.



Thanks so much Ben and Laura! I had a great time hanging out with the two of you at the conference and I hope to see you at future events.

Little did they know that I love Rob Bell's stuff. I haven't yet seen the films that they sent. For those of you who haven't heard Rob Bell speak, you're totally missing out! He is so good about digging into the scriptures and explaining the historical backgrounds behind everything as well as full explanations of the Hebrew texts.

My Chicago Visit 2

I also called up my my cousin Samara who is going to school in Chicago. So we all met up for dinner near Wrigley.


Ron hanging out at Wrigley


Waiting for the train


Millennium Park during Looptopia

My Chicago Visit

Ron


After the Pictage Partner Conference I rode the train into the city to visit with my friend Ron O'Day for a few days. Ron and I worked together at Starbucks for over 6 years and he moved to Chicago about 9 months ago. He's currently attending the film program at Columbia College.

He brought me to an awesome cafe in the morning. It's called Julius Meinl and was founded in Vienna in 1862. I love how they serve a small chocolate and water with every coffee ordered.


After breakfast I went out on my own to see Chicago.
Here is the Bean.




Grant Park


There were tulips all over the city


The Train


Interesting water display


Go Cubbies!


Ron was hungry