Yuriy Manchik Photography

Last Post

2009-03-03T16:05:00.001-08:00

First of, for those of you who kept coming back to the same old post on my blog, I apologize. Not to make excuses or anything but on top of my month in Thailand I had quite a bit of other things going on and didn't have time to blog. Since coming back from Thailand, I've been working on a new, and might I add, much better blog that will be up shortly. On top of the new blog, I'm also in the process of updating and completely redoing my site, going with a new marketing strategy and rebranding my business. So all new things to look out for.

This will be the last post for this blog, you will still be able to get to this blog through a link on the new site, so if there is a post you really like, no worries, it's not going to disappear.

I look forward to hearing your opinions about the new look and just the new directions that I'm taking my business in.

For those of you who still follow my blog, I'm extremely sorry for not keeping it up to date and promise to do a better job on the new blog. Thank you for following and hope you stick around for the new blog.

Here is a link to the NEW Blog!

Cheers!

-Yuriy Manchik

Misty & Jajuan

2008-11-06T17:50:00.000-08:00

I met up with Misty and Jajuan at Sunnyside Park in Steilacoom for what looked to be like a nice day (it drizzled a bit). We had a great time hanging out on the beach. This park means a lot to the both of them, this was where Jajuan asked Misty to be his girlfriend and there was to be one more significant event here later in the day. I asked Misty about her engagement ring which hadn't arrived yet and she was getting quite anxious; I was hoping to get some shots of the ring as well but I guess it wouldn't work out.

After a change of outfit we went a little bit farther down the beach to take some more photos. While I was taking photos, Jajuan got on one knee, took a little black box out of his pocket, which held the long awaited ring and proposed to an astounded Misty. After the initial shock wore off, we decided there was no point taking any more photos, Misty couldn't stop looking at the ring and was excited to show it off to friends and family. It is a beautiful ring, I might be a guy and all but I know a beautiful ring when I see one and this one was most definitely that.

Congratulation to the both of you, I am very excited for your wedding

Here are some of my favorite photos of our time together-

Tiffany & Ian Wedding

2008-11-05T23:23:00.001-08:00

Tiffany and Ian are one of my favorite couples I've ever worked with, they're both so chill, easygoing and FUN! I had an amazing time with them on their wedding day.

They had a beautiful ceremony at the Unviersity Presbyterian Church. Before the ceremony we walked over to the University of Washington campus to take some photos, they had a big bridal party but it made for some awesome and fun photos. After that they got in a vintage Rolls Royce and we headed over to the Rainer Club for the reception. The Rainer Club is beautiful, with all sorts of vintage stuff hanging around the place (you can spend hours just walking around and looking at everything).

Tiffany and Ian, I want to congratulate the two of you one more time. Thank you for letting Julia and I be part of your amazing wedding, we had an awesome time.

Here are a few photos and a slideshow of their day-

2008-10-30T23:57:00.000-07:00

Kyu & Jason

2008-10-22T02:21:00.000-07:00

Julia and I had the chance to photograph the beautiful wedding of Kyu and Jason at the BEST new golf course in the USA, the Chambers Bay Golf Course is beautiful. The wedding was beautiful with an amazing backdrop of the Puget Sound, the clouds added a magical feel. Towards the end of the ceremony, the clouds opened up and a light rain attempted to spoil the event, but no worries.. umbrellas were promptly distributed to the guests. It didn't last long and always let up at just the right time for pictures. A magnificent rainbow following the wedding made the rain worthwhile. The reception was a lot of fun as well-- when Jason and the groomsmen started singing and playing the cowbells, I don't think there was a single person not laughing.

We had a great time hanging out and being part of Kyu and Jason's day. Here are a few images from the day. Check out the slideshow for more.

Go VOTE!

2008-10-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a video done by several well known celebrities encouraging you to go out and vote for the upcoming election. If your not registered yet, you have until October 20th to register in person here in Washington state. If you don't know where to register, google it and I'm sure you'll find a place, if you're to lazy to do that, e-mail me and I'll find a place nearby to where you live where to you can register. If you already registered or not sure if you have, check out MyVote. Make sure you’re registered and go vote.

Check out this video, Jonah Hill is hilarious-

Angie & Rod

2008-10-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Kseniya & Yuriy

2008-10-04T02:17:00.000-07:00

Irina & Sergey Cannon Beach

2008-10-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we all drove to the beautiful Oregon Coast, more specifically Cannon Beach. Had a great time taking photos, eating pizza and running around in the freezing Pacific ocean water. Here are some images from our time together.

Irina & Sergey

2008-10-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

Here is the beautiful wedding of Irina and Sergey, in Portland.

Dasha & Alex's Wedding

2008-09-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

Beautiful wedding with a gorgeous couple. We had a lot of fun.

We did a mini girls photo-shoot around Auburn before the ceremony, we had a blast, the girls are all beautiful and were fun to work with. After the reception, we headed up to Seattle Sculpture Park for some more photos. We also stopped by under the Viaduct for some industrial type pic's and finished up at Alki.

Congratulations Dasha and Alex!

Check out this slideshow for amazing photos from their wedding day (slideshow is a little long about 6 minutes)

Cheers!

Laura & Mike

2008-09-10T16:16:00.001-07:00

I had an awesome time hanging out with Laura and Mike for their engagement shoot. They both have amazing smiles and are a lot of fun to be around. We walked around Golden Gardens, took some great shots there and then headed over to the Ballard locks for some more photos. Check out this awesome couple-

It was a pleasure meeting both of you and am looking forward to your wedding day, cheers!

Katya & Roman

2008-08-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

Beautiful couple and a beautiful wedding

Check it out-

Jennifer & John

2008-08-28T02:30:00.000-07:00

A couple Sundays ago I had the pleasure of hanging out with an awesome couple, Jennifer and John, and shooting their engagement photos. We started out at Pike Place Market and eventually finished up at the waterfront. The weather was great and we got some amazing shots. I'm looking forward to photographing their wedding.

Here is a little slideshow of our time together-

Vicki & Eugene

2008-08-15T01:28:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of photographing Vicki and Eugene's beautiful wedding in Portland back in late June. The reception was held at The Aerie at Eagle Landing, beautiful location. Take a look at the slideshow and see for yourself.

Congratulations Vicki and Eugene!

Yelena & Eric

2008-08-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

Want to see an amazing wedding? Check out the video below. I drove down to Portland to shoot Yelena and Eric's wedding back in June and had an amazing time (although I was a little sick). Yelena has an awesome laugh and likes to laugh often, she was a lot of fun to photograph. The ceremony was at the beautiful Ainsworth House. After the ceremony we headed down to some railroad in downtown Portland, took some amazing shots there......until we got kicked out. After a quick stop at Fatburger we headed to over toAndina restaurant for the reception. I can honestly say it was my pleasure photographing this couple's beautiful wedding and want to wish them the best in their new life together.

If you want more info on anything below, let me know and I can send you contact information

Flowers - Madame Des Fleurs
Cake - Vera Kalavina
Decorations - Luxury Events

Katya & Roman

2008-07-31T23:47:00.000-07:00

Awhile back I had the awesome opportunity to hang out with Katya and Roman and shoot and their engagement session photos. We started off at Pike Place Market and then headed down to Discovery Park. They're an amazing couple, beautiful and very fun to work with. Below are a few images from our time together.

Olga & Alexey

2008-07-30T02:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some images from Olga and Alexey's wedding. We spent quite some time at University of Washington taking some awesome photos and then headed down to Tacoma for the ceremony. But before we got to the ceremony, Olga and Alexey got into a horse drawn carriage and made quite an entrance. Beautiful wedding.

Congratulations Olga and Alexey!

Mt. Rainer Climb

2008-07-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

After climbing Mt. Adams back in September with Dan (you can read about that climb here) we've always been talking about doing Mt. Rainer. We see it everyday, doesn't matter where we go, as long as we're in the puget sound area, that mountain will always be visible. It's a challenge that was staring us in face and just daring us to climb it. At 4,392 meters, Mt. Rainer is the highest volcano in the contiguous U.S. We decided to climb it around the end of June. I thought twice about this whole thing when an experienced climber from Bellevue died on the mountain June 10, you can read about it here. But in the end we decided to climb the mountain.

There was a total of five in our group-

Dan - climbed Mt. Adams with me in September
Vadim - no climbing experience
Viktor - no climbing experience
Henry - no climbing experience
Me - climbed Mt. Adams with Dan in September

So on Monday the 23rd of June we all met up and started our trip. After a quick stop at REI to pick up some boots, crampons and ice axes; we were off. We arrived at Paradise (5400 feet elevation) around 2 PM, got the necessary permit (which took MUCH longer than necessary, the lady who was helping us out was at least 90 years old, used her one index finger to type, couldn't really see the computer screen, and should probably be at home watching soap operas instead of hanging out at Mt. Rainer). After getting our backpacks all packed and organized, we started off at 3 PM. Between the 5 of us we had at least 60 Clif Bars and about a gallon of water each.

This first part of the climb wasn't all that hard except for the fact that this year happened to be one of the years with the biggest snowfall in decades. So from Paradise on, we were walking on snow. It was overcast the whole time we were climbing; the summit was not visible. After 5 hours of climbing we reached Camp Muir at 8 PM. After finding one of the last available camp sites, we started setting up our tent. We had a regular camping tent ($100 at REI) nothing special, it wasn't lightweight and definitely wasn't meant to be used at Mt. Rainer in freezing temperatures. Compared to all the other tents there, our tent looked like a Hummer in a sea of little Mini Coopers. Most of the climbers looked at us like we were crazy little kids just out to have some fun and didn't realize the dangers of climbing this mountain.

After getting settled in (sleeping on snow is NOT comfortable, I don't care what you tell me otherwise) we tried to get to sleep around 10 PM but in a tent with 5 guys that's not the easiest thing to do. We had an awesome time cracking jokes, laughing and just enjoying the moment before we had to get up and continue the climb. Eventually we fell asleep, which was soon interrupted by a alarm at 2 AM. So after about 3-4 hours of asleep we were up again and getting ready for second half of the climb. Henry decided to stay at camp and not continue with the rest of us (he had some pretty bad cramps the day before). After saying a quick prayer we got all packed up, roped up and our headlights on, we set off at 3 AM. After climbing for about an hour, it was light enough to turn off our headlights and continue with the available, which was getting more magnificent by the second. I've seen some amazing sunrises in my short lifetime but this one was definitely one of the best. Unfortunately camera batteries die VERY fast in freezing weather so we couldn't take much pictures.

Crossing our first crevasse was quite exciting, although small (about 2 feet wide) it was still cool to look down and see how far it went. After reading books like Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, you began to respect mountains and realize that once you fall into a crevasse, your screwed especially when you're with 3 other guys who have no training or climbing experience. About two hours into the climb we decided to ditch the rope, it was just getting in the way and making it harder for us, so we unroped and continued on (I know a lot of you are thinking that this was a VERY dumb idea but hey we're young, dumb and invincible). This was the point were breathing got harder, climbing was a pain and taking breaks was becoming very common. We would climb about 20-30 feet than take a little 20 second breather, after about 150 feet we would take a 1-2 minute break.

We met three parties on our way up that were heading down. We asked why they were heading down and they all said that somebody was either fatigued or to sick to continue. This is the one benefit of not going on a guided climb, if somebody gets sick, you tell them to go down and you continue on. But in a group if somebody can't go on, than everybody turns around and goes down (and you just threw away $2000 and didn't even summit). Around 12000 feet our group of four spit up (yes, I know a another very bad idea) I didn't want to sit and wait for the other three so I continued on by myself. The views were amazing our second day, we were blessed with a perfectly clear day. Standing on top of a mountain, looking down at the clouds is an amazing feeling. On my way up, I ran into a few guided groups coming down, I thought they would give me trouble for climbing by myself but nobody said anything so I continued on. I reached the false summit around 9 AM and after crossing the crater I was on top of Mt. Rainer, standing at 14,100 feet. The views were incredible, you can see Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Baker and Mt. Hood. It was also VERY windy, I took a picture of another group of 4 guys and then decided to climb down a bit to hide from the wind.

After spending about an hour by myself at the summit I began to get very light headed and was debating whether or not I should head back or wait for the rest of the guys. That's when I saw Viktor come over the ledge and was quite relieved to see him. A few minutes later Dan and Vadim also showed up. At this point I was really beginning to feel sick, so we took a quick group picture and started back down.

Going down was much easier but seemed much more dangerous (we were still un-roped), it was very steep and it seemed like on slip could get you in some deep trouble. We did some glissading, which was more scary than fun, I lost control one time and slid a good twenty feet before I could get my ice axe planted into the snow, that had my heart racing for the next thirty minutes. We tried to take short cuts, except some ended with us actually climbing back up the mountain to get back on the path. We crossed some very scary crevasses on the way back; in the end we reached Camp Muir around 2 PM, safe and sound, except for a major headache that wouldn't go away until I swallowed an undisclosed amount of Ibuprofen. After getting all packed up, we started our last leg of the climb. By this time the snow was practically slush, because of the sun and warm temperatures. So we practically ran down the mountain to Paradise. We were all out of water awhile back and had been eating snow for quite some time. Once we reached Pebble creek, we filled up our water bottles and continued on (we didn't use water filters, too expensive and heavy). After reaching Paradise, we checked in and let them know we were safe, threw everything in the car and drove home.

We stopped by The Rock Restaurant, for a quick celebration and headed home. We were all sunburned pretty bad, mostly our faces and the next two weeks were a pain. I couldn't smile, laugh or do anything that required my face to stretch. After going through quite a bit of Aloe Vera, Coconut Oil and lotion, it got a little better.

All in all, this was an awesome trip. Lot's of people climb and summit Mt. Rainer every year. If 4 guys with no climbing experience can do it then I'm sure just about anybody else can to. I would not recommend doing what we did (not roping up, splitting up, glissading, etc) but if you do it by the book, you shouldn't have any trouble.

I think Mt. Baker or Mt. Hood is next...........

Boots and crampons courtesy of REI in Tacoma

Viktor, Henry, Dan, Me, Vadim

Day 1

Our insufficient camping tent

Sunset, Mt. Adams

Day 2, Summit

Getting down, yes it was very steep

Some of the many crevasses

Euro Pics Part IV

2008-07-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

One of the stops on the trip was Munich. We weren't really planning on going to Munich but since we couldn't find an affordable way to get into Switzerland we decided that Munich was the second best bet. And I'm very glad we did, we ended up staying in Munich for a total of 5 days including Christmas. We stayed at an amazing hostel, met some incredible people

Dasha & Alex

2008-07-03T00:30:00.001-07:00

I had an awesome time hanging out with Dasha and Alex awhile back for their engagement photos. We spent quite some time together visiting a cool barn by my place, Pike Place Market and Discovery Park. They are a beautiful couple and very fun to work with, looking forward to the wedding. Here are a few images from our time together-

Tiffany & Ian Engagement Session

2008-06-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to hang out with an amazing couple, Tiffany and Ian, they were up here for the weekend from San Francisco so we decided to do an engagement session. We met up on a beautiful Sunday morning at the Grand Central Bakery in Pioneer Square and as luck would have it, the bakery was closed (which is where we wanted to do the shoot). So we ended up spending a couple hours just hanging out around Pioneer Square and got some awesome photos. Tiffany and Ian were up for just about anything (including getting into a very old rickety bike cart) and they both have such amazing smiles and stunning blue eyes, you just want to take their photos. I had a blast and I honestly can't wait for their wedding in July.

Pleasure meeting you two and I'll see you again here quite soon.

Here is a slideshow of our day at Pioneer Square.

Isabella

2008-05-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

I was recently in Sacramento and had a chance to visit some family, including my aunt Dina and her family. One night we decided to do a little informal photo shoot It was late in the evening, lighting was really bad so we used a construction light; under the circumstances I think they came out great. Isabella is an amazing baby with the biggest eye's I've ever seen and the cutest smile. I really miss Isabella and can't wait to see her again. The boys, Jacob and Daniel, are awesome, we had a great time wrestling (I lost, pretty bad).

My aunt Dina, is an amazing woman, she is a single mom, raising 3 beautiful kids and always in an uplifting/happy mood (when I went to visit her, she was doing some remodeling on her place). Amazing woman. I'm very blessed to have such an awesome aunt as her.

Here are some images from our shoot-

Isabella's pulling Jacob's hair.....

Superior Tile & Stone

2008-05-13T11:53:00.001-07:00

My younger brother, Igor, recently launched his business site. He's been doing tile for over 5 years and after some convincing, I got him to agree and make a site. I spent a couple days driving around the jobs he's done, taking pictures.

So if you're ever in need of some tile, marble, stone, granite, etc. work, you now have somebody to go to. He's my younger brother so I might be a little bit biased when I say that he does an awesome job but check out the site and see what he can do. For those of you who have been over to my place, you have seen his work. He did the granite in my kitchen and the floor, as well as the marble and tile in the bathroom.

Let me know what you think of the photography on the site.

Superior Tile & Stone

Euro Pics Part III

2008-04-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

I've got so many awesome pictures of Paris that I decided to post some more. This will be the last post of Paris, Munich is next.

The last image is my favorite image from the whole trip.

Whistler Mountain

2008-04-25T17:42:00.000-07:00

I love Whistler. From my first time there with a bunch of friends, for snowboarding, to the most recent trip, it just gets better and better. You've got incredible skiing in the winter, and you also meet some awesome people from all over the world (there has never been a time where I didn't meet somebody from either Australia or the UK). In the summer, there is some of the most extreme mountain biking too be had (not to mention the kayaking, hiking, rock climbing, horseback, and so on). If you ever get the chance to go....GO! it's only a 5 hour road trip away and well worth it. I just got back a few weeks ago from Whistler, I was up there shooting the TELUS Ski and Snowboard Festival. Awesome time (will post some pics later).

I dug up some of these shots of Whistler and the surrounding area from last year, check 'em out-

Yelena & Eric

2008-04-22T02:22:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome time with Yelena & Eric yesterday, shooting their engagement session. They drove up from Portland and we spent a couple hours having a lot of fun, I can honestly say this was one of the easiest and funnest session's I've had. Yelena had an awesome laugh and she laughed often. Not only where they fun but they are both extremely good looking, makes my job really easy. We did some shooting in the studio then headed out to this little deserted barn by my place to do some more shooting but the cold made it quite short.

I'm really looking forward to their wedding, if the engagement session was this much fun than the wedding should be a freaking blast.

Hair and make-up were done by the very talented and beautiful Lana Muzan, if you're in the Portland area, check out her new and remodeled salon on 23rd ave. For more info go here.

Here are quite a bit of images from our time together-

Shannon & Pablo

2008-04-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some images from a beautiful wedding that were taken last summer, I forgot all about them until I came across them on my harddrive.
Susie Hamidi asked me to second-shoot and I was glad to help her. This was my first time shooting with Susie, and I had a great time. Including learning the best flash set-up ever (Thanks Susie).

Shannon and Pablo were married August 11, 2007 at the Bassetti Crooked Arbor Gardens in Woodinville. It's a beautiful location, I had a chance to talk with the owner, Leanette Bassetti, and I was blown away by her. She and her husband, Bill Berleman, opened the nursery up in 1983 and have been running it ever since. It's the perfect place for a little stroll through the garden, to get your mind off things and go off in your own little fantasy world. I'm not going to give away everything, check out the link to learn more including directions, or better yet just head out there one sunny afternoon, you'll be amazed. You might even catch Leanette, with her garden gloves, planting some new plants in her beautiful garden.

Afterward we headed off to Willows Lodge for the reception. Another amazing place like none other, but don't take my word for it -

"Ranked #80 best hotel in the world and #12 best hotel in the US and Canada" Travel + Leisure

I don't know much about flowers but I've seen enough bouquets and flowers to know what is spectacular and what isn't. Shannon's bouquet was beyond spectacular. TJ Montague of Garden Party did the floral design. Amazing job TJ.

Check out Shannon's hair, I don't know who did her hair but whoever it was did an awesome job.

I had an amazing time and want to thank Susie once again for letting me assist her at this beautiful wedding. To view the slideshow from the wedding click on the link below.

View slideshow

Margaret & Christian

2008-04-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some images from Margaret and Christian's wedding back in February. They were an awesome couple, very laid back and easy-going, I had a great time hanging out with them. The wedding took place at the Courtyard Hall in Bothell and catering was provided by Celestial Catering.

Surfing in Santa Cruz

2008-04-01T00:40:00.000-07:00

I recently arrived back from the most amazing 10-day road trip ever. I borrowed my mom's little Toyota Rav4 (much more gas-efficient than my car) and took off. First stop was in Boise, to visit some friends and do some incredible skiing at Tamarack and Bogus Mountain. Then down to Vegas for WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International). For those of you who aren't photographers, WPPI is the biggest and best conference/convention for photographers. My first time in Vegas was amazing. I had an incredible time hanging out with some awesome photographers and meeting a lot of new friends (I'll post more pictures from Vegas soon).

My uncle and cousin flew into Vegas and joined me on the last half of my road-trip. From Vegas we headed up to Sacramento. I visited a lot of family that I haven't seen in a long time in Sacramento. We also met up with some friends and went on a day trip to Santa Cruz to do some surfing. Water was cold but it's amazing what a wet-suit can do. My first time surfing was a very good experience, I think I did okay and am excited to go again sometime soon (Anybody wanna join me for some surfing in Westport, WA?????
). After that we headed up to San Francisco and from there we came home.

Road-trip stat's-

---States visited - 4
---Miles - 3250
---Gallons of Gas - 135

Images from the rest of the road-trip coming soon.

Here are some images from our surfing trip to Santa Cruz. Most of these shots where taken by Anna and Inna, I was too busy surfing.....

Cowell's Surf Shop awesome little place where we rented our boards and suits. If your bored or trying to fall asleep, go onto their website and listen to their "surf" music, it's really cool, I've been listening to it for the past 30 minutes and I feel like I'm sitting on a beach somewhere typing on my laptop....all I'm missing is a drink with an umbrella.

I call that trick the "Statue of Liberty" (or trying to regain my balance, same thing)

I'm in the middle

Yes, I eventually stood up......

Garage Boxing

2008-03-25T23:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some images of some "underground" boxing. I shot these images back in February at Ruvim's place in Newcastle.

Even had an official weigh-in-

And some break-dancing

Elina's Maternity Shoot

2008-03-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to photograph my aunt & uncle (Elina and Alex). Elina is 8 months pregnant with a boy. But this isn't just any boy, this is the first boy who will carry on the last name. Expect a lot more pictures of him (name is still unknown) when he's born and in his first years.

Here are some of my favorite from our shoot-

Euro Pics Part II

2008-03-06T23:57:00.000-08:00

After we flew into London, that same night, we got on a bus and rode all through the night and arrived in Paris in the morning. We arrived at 5 am and spent some time wandering around the city with our huge backpacks looking for somewhere to sleep. We finally found a little hotel, where we spent our first night, and then switched over to a cheaper hostel. Paris is beautiful, like no other city can be beautiful, walking down the little cobblestone streets feels like your in a movie.

These images are from our first day in Paris-

Snowmobiling in Easton WA

2008-03-04T23:00:00.000-08:00

I had an awesome day today. My brother Igor, Sergey and I drove out to Easton Washington (exit 70 off of I-90) to the Silver Ridge Ranch to do some snowmobiling (this was my first time). After a little stop on I-90 (avalanche control, stand still for about 30 minutes) we got to the ranch and started riding at 1:30. We were originally planning on going to the Easton Snowmobile Rentals but they were closed for the week; they're just down the road from the Silver Ridge Ranch.

The riding was incredible, the weather was unbelievable, and the snow was perfect. There was a bunch of trails to ride, an airfield strip, a huge open area by a lake, and a road leading up the mountain. We were the first to ride out here in awhile, because everything was covered in snow, no tracks anywhere. We got stuck a few times and had to spend quite some time digging ourselves out. Also found a few places to do some awesome jumps. We were doing about 40-50 MPH most of the time, unless we where on the trails; ridiculous adrenaline rush.

We had a few problems - Sergey's handlebars completely came off after a jump (makes it impossible to steer), so we had to get a new snowmobile, I rear-ended Sergey's snowmobile and broke his taillight ($56 charge), and Igor broke a piece of his hood off ($100 charge). All in all it was awesome time. We rode for 4 hours and that was more than enough, we were dead-tired and really sore all over. Take my word on this, if you rent snowmobiles, 4 hours is PLENTY.

As much fun as I was having, I found some time to stop and take some pictures-

Me-

Sergey-

Igor-

Taking a little break-

Igor taking a little jump-

Me-

Me again-

Pipelines

2008-03-03T23:34:00.000-08:00

Here is an awesome little parable from Robert Kiyosaki. I found this on Deyl Kearin's blog. It's amazing how a little parable/story like this can motivate people so much. Personally, it's been a great motivating tool for me, hopefully it is for you as well. I think this is a great little something to read for business owners whenever your having trouble in business or when you just need a little boost in the morning to remind you of what all your hard work is for.

The Pipeline: A Parable
(Adapted from an audio segment by Robert Kiyosaki)

A story is told of a spring that ran dry in a small mountain
village. The leaders gathered to determine how they would supply the village with clean water. There was another spring and reservoir about a mile away but was too far for the villagers to travel. One of the men volunteered to solve the problem by carrying water into the village himself each morning for a set fee.

Since the need for water was clear, the leaders agreed to the offer and determined a fair price for each bucket of water delivered. Early the next morning the "bucket carrier" arose and began transporting water. It was hard work but he was pleased with the immediate pay for his efforts. He awoke each day and hurriedly carried water. The more he delivered, the higher the pay. As time went on, he began to think there had to be a better way. So, he designed buckets that could hold more water and were easier to carry. He bought better shoes and discovered a quicker route between the reservoir and the village. The problem was, despite all his improvements, the bucket carrier still had to get up each day to carry water. Some time later, another villager came forward with an offer to supply water. He planned to build a pipeline from the reservoir to the village. The leaders were skeptical but eventually agreed to the competing plan, especially since the new proposal would cost the villagers less for the same amount of water.

So, while the bucket carrier continued his daily routine, the second man began work on the pipeline. The digging was tedious through the treacherous mountain terrain. The necessary tools and materials proved costly but he continued his work diligently for many months. Finally, the "pipeline builder" installed the last piece of pipe and ceremoniously opened the valve while a crowd gathered. Everyone cheered as they watched clean water flow into the village cistern. The following day the two men's worlds changed dramatically. The bucket carrier had to lower his prices significantly to remain competitive. He worked harder and yet found himself worrying about losing his job. The pipeline builder, however, began enjoying the fruit of his labor. He stopped working long days and began enjoying the income his venture generated.

He found the pipeline required minimal maintenance, so he was free to spend his days fishing the mountain streams and enjoying time with his kids. Many years later, after both men had died, the pipeline was still an integral part of village life and the pipeline builder's children continued to enjoy the benefits of a father’s entrepreneurial spirit.

TravBuddy.com

2008-03-03T23:25:00.000-08:00

Hey, so I found this cool little map on travbuddy.com. Helps you keep track of where you've been in this small world of ours and how much more you still have to see. I thought it was pretty cool, although I realize that I still have a lot of traveling to do.

Studio Party

2008-02-27T01:39:00.000-08:00

I had some awesome friends over last Saturday for dinner and to mess around in the studio a bit. Erwin Wijanto (thanks for making the long drive) brought along his new ring flash from Alien Bees; I love the ring flash and the lighting it produces, check out the images below to see the effect of a ring flash. I had an awesome time hanging out with Erwin, Jason & Crystal and Sarah & Chris. We had dinner, spent some time in the studio trying different light set-ups and just messing around, then we played a little Catchphrase and talked lots of shop. Can't wait till the next get-together.

Thank you all for coming and making the long drive (most of you). See you soon!

Here are some images from the night

The lovely Sarah Rhoades

The whole gang-

Crystal Verhoff-

Sarah showing off her dance moves-

Chris and his awesome self-made shirt-

Jason, our own GQ model-

I loved this lighting set-up-

Erwin Wijanto-

I used the ring flash on these last three, it's awesome-

Euro Pics Part I

2008-02-21T01:06:00.000-08:00

First of, I have to apologize for taking so long to post images from my Euro Trip. I've got so much awesome pic's that it's hard to choose which ones to post and which ones not to. So I've decided to post as much as I can. I've divided the images into the different countries that we visited and every week I'll try and post 10-20 images from that location. This is part 1 of 8-10.

First location is the one and only London. I fell in love with London; Paris was beautiful, Munich was fun, Edinburgh was crazy but London was hands-down my favorite city. We flew into London and only spent 12 hours here before we caught a bus to Paris (but we spent 4 more days in London towards the end of the trip).

Here are some images from our first day of the trip (London, England)-

Brittney & Andrey

2008-01-29T01:14:00.000-08:00

I recently did a photo-shoot with good friend Andrey and his girlfriend Brittney. Here are some of my favorites from the shoot.

Verhoff Party

2008-01-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

I just got back from an awesome night with some incredible friends and fellow photographers. Thank you Crystal and Jason for having us over and for the awesome time. We had an amazing dinner, Jason made an incredible chicken parmesan w/eggplant and Crystal made just as an amazing spinach salad. We also played a game of Cranium , in which the guys played the girls, I won't tell you who won but I will tell you that the guys didn't lose. Thanks to Cranium I learned Balaklava is actually a city in Ukraine, not a pastry dessert as we originally thought. I also got to meet their two amazingly beautiful kids, Ella and Gibson (here are some pictures that I took from their blog)

This is Ella-

And Gibson-

If your looking for some talented photographers with awesome personalities, you need to check out Crystal and Jason. Not only is there website incredible but their choice of music on the site is awesome; sometimes I open their site just to listen to the music while I'm doing work on the computer.

Airika and Gerald (George) are another awesome couple that hung out with us tonight. They recently did a photo-shoot at the Seattle Public Library on 4th ave. which turned out incredible. Check out the images on their blog. And you thought libraries were boring......they actually serve a lot of purposes nowadays, those libraries. If your looking for another husband/wife team then I would highly recommend Airika and Gerald, check out their portfolio and other info on their website. Thank you for the company, hope to see you guys at WPPI (if all goes as planned).

And last but not least was the amazing Sarah Rhoads. Unfortunately her awesome husband, Chris, was out of town doing his crazy musician thing that he does, so he couldn't join us. I first met Sarah and Chris at our PUG Christmas party in December and hit it off right away, they moved up here from Oklahoma about six months ago, I don't remember why but I'm sure it was a good reason. Sarah has an awesome/hip/trendy/cool blog (she's watching you the whole time your on her blog) check it out, you'll be blown away. Be sure to check out her site as well - Sarah Rhoads. And then go and check out Chris's site.

So there you have it, three awesome husband/wife teams, you can't go wrong with either one........ Or you can go with this single guy named Yuriy, he does an okay job.

I had an awesome time hanging out with y'all (did I get it right Sarah?) and look forward to next time.

I stole this video off of Crystal & Jason's blog. If your this type of couple, give me a call, I would love to shoot your wedding-

Daniel Usenko Photography

2008-01-25T02:02:00.000-08:00

I recently met an awesome photographer, Daniel Usenko, from Everett. Not only is he an amazing photographer, he is also a very genuine good guy. If your a fellow photographer, you need to check out his blog, he's got some really good stuff on there. Daniel used to shoot film and recently got into digital, in his most recent blog he compares digital to film. If your not familiar with the differences or think one is better than the other, than go to his blog and read what he has to say.

He's also got an awesome website, check out the "Texas Project" on the personal side of his site. Good stuff, Daniel. And just to show you a little proof of his talent, I took this image from his blog because pictures always speak louder than words.-

That's some good stuff, if I say so myself.

Gatorade Commercial

2008-01-23T00:47:00.000-08:00

I'm sure some of you might have already seen this commercial on TV. But for those of you who haven't, check it out. I had my TV turned on and wasn't really paying attention until I heard O Fortuna of
Carl Orff's opera Carmina Burana, which is an incredible choir, definitely check them out. Gatorade's marketing department does an awesome job, their commercials always inspire and pump me up.

I've watched this clip about ten times and every time, I'm just blown away.

Little Sister Hang-Out Day

2008-01-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

My youngest sister, Elizabeth, had an early-dismissal day today, so I being the cool big brother that I, sometimes, am picked her up from school and we decided to go to the Glass Museum in Tacoma. We had an awesome time at the museum, we got the opportunity to watch a live glassmaking demonstration. It's amazing to think that those furnaces can get up to 2150 F. After the demonstration we walked the museum and saw all the works, there current exhibition is called Contrasts: A Glass Primer and it's running through Nov. of 2009, so you've got plenty of time to check it out. My favorite all-time glass blower is Dale Chihuly and the museum has some of his most amazing work. After the museum, Elizabeth and I went over to the Hands-On art activites room and made square collages with little glass beads. I forgot how much fun it is playing with scissors and glue, to tell you the truth I think I enjoyed the activity more than Elizabeth.

After that we went over to the Tacoma Art Museum which is featuring Pierre-Auguste Renoir complete works from 1878-1912. The museum also has Mary Randlett's work on display. I had never heard of Mary until today, she is a photographer from Washington state who did an amazing job photographing the Northwest. She uses film, and some of her black and white image's are just amazing, check them out for yourself at the Museum. The other two exhibits weren't all that great, one was Threads that Bind, bunch of fancy quilts, I guess it's just not my taste. I took Elizabeth to another hands-on activities room at the Art Museum, dropped her and let her make her own quilt out of patterned paper, while I explored Renoir and Mary Randlett by myself. I guess I'm a little spoiled after visiting the museums and galleries in Europe, where it can take you days to see everything. It took me about an hour to walk through the museum and see everything; it took elizabeth about 5 minutes to see everything, I guess 9 year-olds aren't into Renoir and fancy quilts; who would'a known?

I had an awesome time with my sister and need to find more time to do these kind of things with her more often. Before she grows up, becomes a teenager and starts caring more about boys than hanging out with her older brother.

Here is more info-

Tacoma Glass Museum is free every third Thursday of the month from 5-8 PM (otherwise it's $10 for an adult)

You can also see Dale Chihuly's work for free in public places like the Union Station, Bridge of Glass, UW Tacoma, and at the Swiss Pub

The Glass Museum is an incredible place for weddings. They have beautiful plazas, an intimate cafe overlooking the Thea Foss Waterway, and Gallucci's Catering
is the museum's exclusive on-site caterer. If you want more information, contact Liza Holbrook at 253-284-4711.

If your interested in giving glass-blowing a try, you can. Tacoma Glass Blowing Studio puts on classes where you can learn how to make glass art and actually make your own piece. It is $65 for the class and they are located just four blocks from the museum.

The Tacoma Art Museum is free all day every third Thursday of the Month. I would recommend checking out Renoir (runs till June 29th) and Mary Randlett (through May 18th).

I brought along a little compact camera-

Elizabeth, next to some crazy looking glass vases

Glass-Blowing demonstration in progress

Elizabeth working on her glass-bead collage

Me playing with scissors and glue (Elizabeth took the picture)

Women in Art

2008-01-11T12:43:00.000-08:00

I came across this video on Olaf Haushulz's blog. I have no idea how they did the transition effect but I'm amazed. Check it out-

Here's one more video of Vincent Von Gogh's self portraits. While in Europe I was really hoping to make it over to the Van Gogh Musuem in Amsterdam, the largest in the world. But it didn't work out exactly as planned but I was still able to see some of his work at the Tate Modern Musuem in London. Check out the video-

How Soccer Explains the World

2008-01-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

While backpacking through Europe I had the chance to read an awesome book by Franklin Foer titled How Soccer Explains the World. Franklin Foer, senior editor at The New Republic analyzes the interchange between soccer and the new global economy in the book. Foer uses ten chapters to show us how soccer explains things such as the Black Carpathians, Islam's Hope, and the American Culture Wars just to name a few.

Personally I really liked the book (maybe because there was a whole chapter on Ukrainian soccer clubs) and would recommend it to somebody who is on top of current world events that way you at least have a clue on what Foer is talking about. Or if your just a soccer fan, this book will reveal how big soccer is all around the world.......except the U.S.

Geraldine Georges

2008-01-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard of Geraldine Georges then you've been missing out, Geraldine Georges is a phenomenal graphic designer and artist from Belgium. Her designs take on an abstract form using line art mixed with photography. Her work is mesmerizing, I'm amazed by the creativity and talent of some people. I've attached a few of her images below but too see more of her work click here

Euro Trip!!!!!!

2007-12-13T23:53:00.000-08:00

So as some of you may know, I'm going backpacking to Europe. After my backpacking trip in Belize earlier this year, I put a Euro Trip on top of my priority list. And as luck would have it, I found some free time right around the Holidays; how convenient. I was originally planning on doing a solo trip but my brother and a friend decided they would love to come along as well. We're flying into London, and from there we've got Paris, Switzerland (skiing the Swiss Alps), Scotland, Ireland or Germany and whatever else we decide on. We're not sticking to any particular agenda, just going wherever we please. I'm bringing along a camera, so expect some awesome pictures once I get back. Leaving in about 6 hours and coming back Jan. 7th.

So it's midnight, and I still haven't packed or even started packing. I'm sitting here listening to the Kaiser Chiefs and trying to finish up a couple albums for some clients and then I'll get around to packing. I've already updated my iPod with some British music which I'm excited to listen to (yes, I added some Beatlesas well, you can't go to London and not have any Beatles music, that's absurd)

So I obviously need a picture to go with my post, so I snapped a shot of my backpack that's coming along with me to Europe. It's currently laying on the floor (empty) and waiting for me to put it to use.

I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! and I'll see you once I get back.

Cheers!

Christmas Party '07!

2007-12-13T00:20:00.000-08:00

We had an awesome Christmas Party, hosted by Me Ra Koh, at the Upper Crust Pizza in Tacoma. Which by the way, is a very homey little place with a very good vibe, and incredible calzones. We had lots of fun and an awesome gift exchange. I had fun playing around with the new Nikon D3 (as soon as I come up with $5K I might consider buying it). I made some awesome new friends and all in all had a great time.

Erwin Wijanto took a bunch of awesome pictures. His blog has links to more images from the night.

I stole this image from Erwin's Blog, that's the whole group towards the end of the night.

Zack

2007-12-12T03:10:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to photograph one of the cutest little kids around last week. Zack has the cutest smile I've seen in a long time, I love his tooth gap. Zack makes the tooth gap look cool again, that's not an easy feat to accomplish. Everytime I look at his pictures I can't help but smile, I hope it does the same to you.

Here are some of the images from the shoot-

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T23:57:00.000-08:00

Every Thanksgiving all us guys get together and have us an awesome game of backyard football. This year was no exception, with incredible weather and perfect field conditions. We started play at 11 am and played till about 2, I quit a little early to take a few shots while the guys still had some energy in them. If your interested in getting dirty once in awhile, we play almost every Thursday, send me an e-mail and I'll give you more info.

Hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving with friends and family (and delicious food). I hope you had plenty to be thankful for this past year, I sure did. Now it's time to start the count-down till Christmas.

Here are some images from today's game-

Group shot after the game.

This is us, two years ago, after an awesome game of football.

NEW Website!!!!!!!!!!

2007-10-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

So after some setbacks and minor bumps on the way. I can finally say that my new and much improved site is up and running. Check out the new site here. I have to thank Blu Domain! for their awesome template and help in creating the site. If your looking in upgrading or just need a new site, I would highly recommend them. They also have an awesome blog. Please check out the site and let me know what you think, your feedback is much appreciated. Cheers!

Julia's Missionary Trip to Mexico

2007-10-01T01:09:00.000-07:00

I met Julia last summer when she was here for Good Samaritan Missionaries Practical Missionary Bible School. She is originally from a little place called Boise, Idaho and that's where she currently resides. Their whole class took a short missionary trip down to Mexico to help out and spread the Word. I was looking at some of Julia's pictures from the trip and was blown away by a quite few. Julia has also helped me with the Fashion First fashion shoot (which I'll post some images from very soon) and a couple other events while she was here. So I figure the least I can do is post some of her awesome work for people to see.

Here are some of my favorite images that Julia took while down in Mexico on the PMBS missionary trip. These were all taken with a simple compact camera.

Ride4us with Me Ra Koh and Brian

2007-09-27T00:20:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, the Ride4US organization put on a bike ride to raise money for ultrasound machines. Me Ra Koh told me about the ride and I was glad to participate (check out Me Ra's blog for a video and more info on the ride). Team Me Ra Koh Photograpy consisted of Me Ra, her husband Brian and me. The first leg of the ride included a ferry ride to Vashon Island where we did 25 miles of hilly terrain with a little 2 mile climb at the end. After the ferry ride back, we did another 37 miles around University place and a killer hill at the end. It was an awesome day with good weather and lots of entertainment provided by Brian (you have to check out the video on Me Ra's blog to see what I'm talking about). Next year we're planning on having a lot more team members on team Me Ra Koh Photography. All in all 802 people came out to the event, raised $92000 (exceeding the goal of $50K) and the organization was able to buy 3 Sonosite ultrasound machines for Care Net Pregnancy Centers of Pierce County.

Here are some images taken by good friend Steve Smith. Thanks for coming out Steve.

Team Me Ra Koh Photography

Getting Ready

Me Ra and Brian

Us with awesome photographer Steve Smith

Mt. Adams Climb

2007-09-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

Okay from the beginning - I've been planning on
climbing the North Cleaver Route on Mt. Adams
all summer and finally found the oppurtunity. Mt. Adams is the second highest mountain
in the Cascades it is about 2000 feet shorter than Mt. Rainer. I was able to convince one other friend to come along for the adventure, my oldest friend Dan (met Dan in 4th grade).

So on Septtember 12th, Dan and I stopped by REI
and stocked up on some Clif Bars
, Clif Gel Shots and other little accessories that would make our
trip more pleasant. We headed out to Mt. Adams, after 3 hours of very
fun driving (really twisty roads which I couldn't resist but take the
corners a little faster than legal limits suggested). We got to the
Killen Creek Trailhead. After loading everything into our hiking
backpacks, which weighed anywhere from 25-30 lbs. we set off.

There are two routes to get to the summit of Mt. Adams, the South Side
which is shorter and the easier of the two. And there is the North
Cleaver route, which is recommended for experts with previous experience and mountaineering skills. Which Dan and I had neither of; I'm sure you can guess which
route we took. We started our voyage at 6:30 PM and after hiking the
Killen Creek Trail for 3.1 miles which wasn't too challenging we got
to High Camp trail which was another two mile's practically straight
up, we finally stopped around 7000' feet elevation. By this time it
was dark and we had our headlamps on. It was one of those occasions
that make you very grateful to be alive and just stand in awe of the
silence, the darkness and the magnificent stars in the middle of
nowhere somewhere in the wild. I wish I was better with words so that
I can describe the feeling to you but no can do.

So after finding a flat area with a somewhat soft surface we pitched
our tent. We passed out as soon as we got into our sleeping bags (8:30
PM the earliest I have ever been to sleep since.....). We both had
trouble falling asleep because of the cold and hard ground and Dan's
occasional snoring but it didn't matter because at 5 AM we woke up,
broke down our tent and got ready to start our 4.5 mile climb to
12276' to the summit of Mt. Adams. When we woke up it was dark and the
first 30 minutes of our hike was also in darkness so we had our
headlamps on. But we saw one of the most magnificent sunrise's.

Let me tell you a little about our tortures climb. It was the hardest
4.5 miles I have ever done, I was expecting it to be hard but nothing
like this. On top of that once you hit 9000' feet you are at risk of
getting altitude sickness, which I think we both got because there
were points in the climb were we got very light-headed and dizzy so we
took quite a few breaks. It got extremely windy the higher we went,
but both of us were dressed quite well to battle the cold. Every once
in awhile we would just stop climbing, turn around, sit down and
admire the beauty of what is known as the great state of Washington. Once
we got to 11500' it got a little easier because it was all covered in
snow which had frozen over and made it a little easier to walk on with
our boots and ice-axes. We got to the summit just a little before
noon, and took a little break on the roof of this little shady lookout
cabin that looks like it's straight from a movie. The view from 12276'
feet is incredible, we could see Mt. Rainer, Mt. St. Helens, Bachelor
and Hood in Oregon and as hard as I tried I just couldn't make out
anything in Idaho. So after eating some Clif Bars
and getting a little
re-energized, we hit a few golf balls from the top of the summit (Yes,
we brought a golf club and balls with us; extra weight but it was
definently worth it). I'm not going to lie, out of the three balls I
hit, only one is worth bragging about, but it was probably the best
hit I've had in a long time.

We were planning on glissading (sliding on your butt and using your
ice-axe as a brake) down the mountain and being down very shortly but
the snow was way too hard on our fragile little tail-bones. So we
started trekking down and we decided to take a short cut (the
stupidest idea Dan and I have ever had in our life). The first couple
hundred yards weren't bad, we were just sliding down some loose rocks
but once the loose rocks ended and we looked around and saw we were on
some very steep cliffs, we started to worry. After some thinking and
realizing that we were almost out of water and there was no way we can
go back up the way we came down because it would honestly take about
an two hours. We somehow found a shorter cliff and slid/fell/rolled down,
after dusting off and making sure nothing was broken, we kept going to
come to even steeper and more dangerous cliffs. At this point we also
saw the biggest avalanche right in front of our eyes, the noise is
incredibly loud once all the ice breaks and falls. Dan and I just
stared in awe and it finally hit us that we got ourselves into some
deep trouble.

We tried lots of things to get out of the cliffs, we finally started
climbing up (again). I decided to try and go across and see if I had
any luck. The part of the mountain were I decided to go across was at
about a 50 degree angle and it was loose rock with ice. After getting
about three feet out I slipped and slid a good 10 feet before I was
finally able to grab some ice and hold on for dear-life. I forgot to
mention that the cliffs were about 20 feet from us and they dropped a
good couple hundred feet (in other words, death). I scratched my hands
up pretty good while this happened, I have never been so scared in my
life, I really wish I could see the expression on my face while I was
sliding down. After calming down and saying another prayer (this was
probably the tenth one that hour) I tried again and had better luck
until I got to another part that was very hard to cross and super-man
me decided to just run across a 50 degree angle wall of loose rock to
what I thought looked like a safe place. This time I slipped and sled
about 15 feet and I honestly must say that it felt like I was sliding
for 5 minutes before I could throw my ice-axe into something that
would hold. After Dan saw me attempting this and coming really close
to falling and dying, he took the smarter but harder route and kept
climbing up.

Once we more or less got back to where we should have been had we
never taken the "short-cut" we were a little more relaxed. The
short-cut took an extra 3 hours, lots of very-scary heart-gripping
moments, some scratched up hands and beat up knees and the last of
whatever energy Dan and I had left. At this point we had about 8 oz.
of water between the both of us and we still had about 8 miles and
5000' of elevation to get down. This time we stayed on the beaten path
and with whatever energy we had left we tried to get down. We were out
of water at this point, and were melting and drinking icicles; which
there wasn't much off. Both our legs were dead, they felt like jelly
and as soon as we took a break they would just start twitching while
we sat there and wouldn't stop until we got up again. I have never
been this dehydrated in my life, my mouth was dry as sandpaper and it
hurt to swallow. Forgot to mention, although it was windy it was clear
sky's and sun was beating down pretty hard.

I'm going to skip alot and get to the part were we finally found a
stream and filled our bottles with the water, there was quite a bit of
dirt in the water but as Dan put it - "God made dirt, dirt don't hurt"
we drank it down and tried to not taste the dirt; until we clenced our
teeth and felt all the dirt in our mouth. We finally got to the High
Camp Trail and started the last 4 miles back to our car. The first
mile was brutal and hard but the last three were a little easier. By
the time we started the last 3 miles we were out of our dirt water and
needed water quick. We came across a little creek that had water in
it, which we filled our bottles with, this water was a lot cleaner but
it had a very weird after-taste, we decided that it was the moss
because the water ran over some rocks with moss on them. We kept telling ourselves we would know if there were bacteria or other unsafe hazards in the water the next morning.

After walking the last 40 minutes in the dark because we had no energy
left to take out our head-lamps, we finally reached our car and we
both felt like hugging each other and singing "Glory, Glory,
Hallelujah" but we didn't have any energy left. We each drank some
clean water that we had in the car and headed home, but not before
eating the best looking thing Dan and I have seen in days; foot-long
Italian BMT sub on herbs and cheese, with Pepperjack cheese, toasted,
tomotoes, onions, cucumbers, green bell peppers, peppercini's, and
pickles with a little mayo from Subway.

On the way home we did some number crunching, in two days we
hiked/climbed a little less than 20 miles, and today alone we did 15
miles and have been climbing from 5:30 AM to 8:15 PM. We are both dead
tired and feeling pretty sick. I've had a head-ache all day from
dehydration and I feel a fever coming on from the sun-burn on my face
and the cold wind against our sweaty back was probably not the
smartest thing as well. After taking a hot shower and rubbing IcyHotall over my aching muscles I went to sleep

While we were climbing we both decided that this was the stupidest idea we ever had and we would never mountaineer again. But the next day we had different views. We're planning on doing Mt. Rainer next summer. Anybody want to join?

Whistler Mountain Bike Trip

2007-09-03T23:44:00.000-07:00

Victor, Dan and I decided to take a little trip up to Whistler
to do some extreme downhill MTBiking last weekend. This would be Victor and Dan's first time MTBiking on Whistler. The first day there we did some single-track riding on the Lost Lake Trails. Which are exteremely twisty with a lot of man-made bridges and quite a bit of short but steep uphill climbs which broke a sweat in all of us and got us ready for the next day. We stayed the night at the Fireside Lodge which we were very happy with and plan on staying there again in the near future.

We had an awesome time on Whistler the following day. Dan took quite a fall but got back up and finished the day without any major problems. I was very impressed by both of them, they did incredibly well for their first time on Whistler but it doesn't come as a surprise, they're both very athletic. I had a few bike problems (bent wheel, bent derailluer, broken shifter) but there was no way I was going to quit, so I had to do with a somewhat diffucult bike. We had lots of fun and Victor and Dan plan on coming back again every summer with me, hopefully more than once. Our last day we hung out in Vancouver, did some long-boarding at Stanley Park, did some shopping on Robson Street, had dinner and called it a day.

Here are some images from the trip

Me in the red, Victor in the middle, Dan on the right

Dan and Victor on the lift

Me taking a little jump

Dan showing us what he's made of

This is what an extreme MTBiker looks like.....Victor

Me a split second before I went off the edge, I landed without a problem, thank you for the concern

Me in action

Victor and Dan, longboarding in Stanley Park, Vancouver

California Days

2007-07-20T14:27:00.000-07:00

I took a little trip to California to visit family and friends last week. My mom's side of the family is all in Sacramento and my Dad's side is here in Washington. When I was younger we used to go at least once a year to visit but this recent trip was my first in 3 years. I had a lot of fun, the weater was great, made some new friends, and spent some time with the newest additions (Emma and Isabella)to the ever-increasing family; Emma is 2 weeks old and Isabella is 6 months. Here are some random pictures from the trip in no particular order.

This is 6 month old Isabella

This is my aunt spitting some fresh sunflower seeds, from an actual sunflower that my Grandpa grows

Thats my very cool little cousion Liana at Auburn River in Eastern California

Liana trying to put sunblock on her nose

My uncle's Doberman, Tuse is a very big dog and quite mean looking at that. But he is the most friendliest dog I've met. All he ever wants to do is play and have his belly rubbed. Very awesome dog.

Rope swing at Auburn River

My cousin Alex flying off of the rope swing into the river

Ummm...Honey Bucket!

Self Portrait, driving around California

Longboard Story

2007-07-17T14:50:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago my friend Victor purchased a longboard (not a skateboard but a surfboard on wheels). So we went riding down a hill (this was my first time riding one of these and for some reason I decided to go down long hill). Well have way down the hill I hit one of those little man-hole covers and went flying off the board and landed on some very hard pavement. Please see the pictures below. After lots of painful cleaning of the wounds my other friend Viktor (who currently works at Valley Medical) did some of his magic on my wounds and I was more-less back to new.

So the next week after my accident, I went out to Zumiez and bought my own longboard. Since then, about 4 other friends have purchased long-boards and we have a blast riding them at Alki Beach and wherever else we can.

Viktor (soon to be a Registered Nurse) did some of his handy work on me

Alex, Me, Slavik and Dan long-boarding at Alki July 4th

Boarding in California

Fireworks

2007-07-06T17:25:00.000-07:00

After spending the whole day at Alki Beach playing volleyball, long-boarding, kayaking and hanging out, it was fun to just lay back and watch the fireworks. As fun as it was I don't think it was worth it because getting out of Alki was not easy, all roads were gridlocked and it took at least two hours to finally get out of there. Here are some pictures from that night

Alana & Vitaly Part II

2007-07-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

On our your second shoot together, Alana, Vitaly and I decided on Golden Gardensin Ballard. This was my first time here but I plan on coming here more often, this is an awesome place to hang out and also take pictures. Other than almost getting run over by a train this was a very fun shoot and I can't wait for their wedding. You can see the images from our first shoot here

Here are some images from the Golden Gardens shoot-

DeMo & Thanh Prom '07

2007-06-25T15:01:00.000-07:00

I met DeMo when we were both working at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. DeMo was one of the nicest guys at work, he was always smiling and fun to talk to. When I finally left SBRI I told DeMo to give me a call whenever he wanted to do a photo-shoot. So he called me recently and asked If I would be willing to do Prom pictures with his girlfriend. I was excited to do them and we had a great time at it as well, check out some of my favorite pics below-

Alana & Vitaly

2007-06-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

I met Alana way back when we worked together at Albertsons and I recently got back in contact with her and found out she was getting married. So we got together to hang out and talk some more, I had the pleasure of meeting her future-husband Vitaly, he is a very down-to-earth awesome guy. I am very happy for both of them and am very excited for the wedding. They are both very comfortable around each other and make it very easy to to get those incredible romantic shots.

We did two engagement sessions. Our first session was at Discovery Park, and luckily we got done just in time before it started raining. Here are some images from that day. I will post images from our second session on a later blog.

Heidi & Brian

2007-06-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

I recently shot Heidi & Brian's wedding at the Sorrento Hotel in downtown Seattle. This was definitely one of the better and more luxurious hotel's I've been in, once you step into the hotel you feel like you just went back to the 20's. Everything is dimly lit and exquisitely designed; not that I know what the 20's were like but from what I've seen in movies, I would imagine the Sorrento Hotel would have fit the bill perfectly. Heidi and Brian were very fun to work with and very easygoing. The funniest story I've ever heard at a wedding was most likely at this wedding when Brian's mom talked about him when he was a newborn. I wish I could retell it but it just wouldn't be the same.

Heidi and Brian also just opened a restaurant in Edmunds called Shell Creek Grill & Wine Bar. A couple other interesting things from the wedding was instead of having an original guest book for guests to sign, they had a magnum bottle of wine that the guests signed. When it came time to cut the cake, Heidi and Brian used a naval sword that was used by Brian's father. Overall it was a very fun wedding and I'm glad I could have been part of their special day.

Here are some images from Heidi & Brian's day-

06/05/07

2007-06-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

WOW...........I am very sorry that this is the first post since Christmas. I've had a lot of things going on in my life and just couldn't find the time to get on and blog. I understand that that's not a very great excuse but from now on I promise I'll post at least 2-3 times a week.

I actually just had Comcast come out and hook-up internet. I got tired of "borrowing" my neighbors internet and decided it was time to take the plunge and sign up for internet. And this is the first thing that I'm doing on the internet; posting to my long-forgotten blog.

I've got a ton of images that I need to post and I will try to post some images with every post. They might not be topic related but nonetheless, they're images. Here are a couple pano images from my Belize trip (I'll talk more about it on a different post). I personally love panoroomic images. If I could, I would just shoot pano's all day, I don't know what it is about them but they just appeal to the eye, maybe because it actually takes more than just a second to take everything in.

If you ever stumble across my blog, PLEASE post a comment, doesn't matter if it's just a Hi or a two-page letter, I really appreciate it. It's very encouraging to know that somebody out there is actually reading what I'm doing. And if I haven't posted in more than 3 days then please comment and remind me so that I get on it. Okay, that's enough talking, the rest of the posts will have more images and less words, promise.

12/15/06

2006-12-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

So I went and got my first Christmas tree yesterday, I found the perfect one to, I didn't go and chop it down like I was planning on doing but I did the second best thing, went out and bought one. I had fun decorating but the best thing of all is the smell; as soon as you walk in you can smell that pine scent. I don't plan on getting rid of the tree until Febraury or until it dies, whatever comes first.

Here's a picture of my Christmas tree-

12/07/06

2006-12-07T12:12:00.000-08:00

I had a couple friends (Katya and Lily) come over and we spent an hour or so just taking pictures in the studio. It was fun although we did have trouble coming up with new poses. But here is what we got-

Here are some of Katya-

And Lily-

11/30/06

2006-11-30T15:13:00.000-08:00

I don't have much time to read but I try whenever I possibly can. I just finished a VERY good book today; titled "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert T. Kiyosaki. It was on the New York Times Bestseller list and I highly recommend it to everybody not just business owners and investors. Here's a great quote by the author, Robert T. Kiyosaki-

"The main reason people struggle financially is because they spent years in school but learned nothing about money. The result is, people learn to work for money...but never learn to have money work for them."

This book has opened my eyes on my own finances and revealed some of the things I would like to change about the way I handle my finances. I received the the sequel to this book titled "Cashflow Quadrant" for my birthday a couple weeks ago and I can't wait to get started on it.

For more information you can go to the following website - Rich Dad.

I highly recommend this book. If you've read this book, please let me know what you think. I would love to have somebody to share some thoughts and ideas about the book

11/20/06

2006-11-20T18:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not posting in the past couple of weeks. I haven't shot any weddings recently and don't have any planned for the rest of 2006. But I still love to take my camera with me wherever I go and keep my eyes open for great photo moments.

Here are a few shots I took while killing some time in Downtown Seattle-

11/11/06

2006-11-11T15:17:00.000-08:00

Well last Saturday I photographed the wedding of Brittney and Paul. I want to thank Steve Smith for letting me come along with him on this shoot. It wasn't the greatest day for a wedding, weather-wise but what can you expect in November. We still had a lot of fun and captured some great pictures.

The wedding was at the always beautiful Tracy Castle; this was my second time shooting here this year, quite the popular location. The whole staff at Tracy Castle is very good at what they do and very courteous, from the valet guys to the DJ, they're all fun to work with.

Here are some pictures from Brittney and Paul's wedding-

11/10/06

2006-11-10T13:35:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more Autumn pictures that I recently took by my home-

11/03/06

2006-11-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

My friend Yuriy (no joke, his name is Yuriy also) called me a couple days ago with some very exciting news. He went out and bought a kitten and wanted me to come over and see it. Yuriy gets very excited about a lot of things; but he was really excited about this kitten. So I stopped by one night and I could see why he was so excited. This was one cute little thing. Although I'm not sure about the name is wife Nikki gave the kitten; let's just say I've heard better names than "Oopsy".

Here is a picture of Oopsy-

11/01/06

2006-11-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

Well Halloween was fun...although this was only my second time actually dressing up for Halloween.

I come from a very religious family and my parent's would never let us participate in anything that had to do with Halloween. My mom actually didn't even let us go to school on Halloween until we (me and my younger brothers) hit middle school. To my parent's this was a "satanic" day. We couldn't eat/have any candy that were associated with Halloween; my parent's would never even open the door to trick'or'treater's.

Personnaly, I don't think Halloween is all that great of a day either but I do like to dress up and go have fun; so that's what I did. I decided to dress up as an 80's basketball player mostly because that's what I usually play ball in (except the short shorts and afro). Before I went out, I went down to my studio and took some pictures.

Here you go-

10/27/06

2006-10-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

I was driving home a couple days ago; very overcast/gloomy-type of day, when I noticed how brilliant the leaves looked on all the trees (okay, I noticed earlier but for some reason I noticed it even more this day). I went home, grabbed my camera and had fun shooting pictures of some beautiful trees and the changing color. The color of the leaves really stood out against the grayish background of the sky.

I love this time of year; the crispness of the air, that "very rare" rain that we got once in a while, and of course the beautiful scenery that we have here in the Pacific Northwest.

Here are a few pictures from that day-

2006-10-16T23:49:00.000-07:00

10/10/06

2006-10-10T16:43:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning up my harddrive a little (trying to get pictures in the right folders and all organized) today and ran across the following pictures which I scanned almost a year ago. Not the best scanner but I think they turned out okay. These were all taken back in Ukraine -

This is one of my favorites. My dad took this picture of my Mom, my two brothers and me cleaning corn. That's my brother (Igor) on the right with his stomach and tongue sticking out. Pavel is in the middle and I'm on the left

This was taken in a studio in Ukraine in 1991, right before we left for America (my dad was a good looking man, if I say so myself)

I think my dad took this picture as well. My brother is in the carriage and I'm standing. That crossed-leg thing...still doing it today

10/09/06

2006-10-09T16:46:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures I took a couple months ago at the wedding of Ilona and Yuriy. They're both very awesome people, may God bless them richly in all aspects of their life. They also live in a very beautiful home just down the street from me; we're practically neighbors.

10/05/06

2006-10-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a very busy couple a weeks but they were well worth it. I was able to finish up the last few things on the site and get it on-line. Check it out - Yuriy Manchik Photography. Sorry for the long load time, I'm trying to figure out how to make it load faster, an improved version will be up soon.

I also entered a piece of my work in a photography contest going on at the Ravenna Gallery, we'll see how that goes, I'll keep you updated. I also had a good talk with the owner, Julia, about galleries, submissions, consignments, etc; I always wanted to put some of my work in galleries and coffee shops around Seattle but I had no idea on how to go about it. Now that I've been schooled in Showcasing Your Work 101, I think I'm going to be doing a lot more of it.

This is the piece I entered into the Gallery-

09/25/06

2006-09-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

I was just reading Mike Colon's blog and found this very inspirational and powerful story of his here, highly recommended for not just photographers but everyone to read.

I really look up to Mike because of what he has done with his business and how far alone he has come. It was a great privilege to hear him speak at the Pictage Conference, I just wish they had given him more time to talk and share all the useful knowledge and experiences he has had.

It's easy to see that God has defininetly blessed his life. The fact that he is also doing something to give back to world is also very respectable, he is currently working with Thirst Relief Organization, to try and get clean water to places that don't have access to it.

I was always told to find somebody great in the field that you want to work in, and follow in their footsteps. I don't think I could have found anybody better than Mike, not only is he a successful entrepreneur but he is also a good role model.

I know that with God's blessing I can do incredible things and I am very thankful for all the blessings that have already come upon my life.

-Yuriy

09/17/06

2006-09-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I tagged along with Me Ra Koh and Brian to shoot the wedding of Tina and Will. The wedding was at Tracy Castle, very beautiful location. I can't remember the last time I had this much fun at a wedding; Tina and Will are hilarious, it's just fun to watch them around each other. Will's best man performed the wedding, it was quite funny and touching at the same time. Some of the Korean ladies who attended the wedding wore their traditional clothing, honbak, which where quite colorful and breathtaking.

I would like to thank Me Ra Koh Photography for giving me an oppurtunity to tag along on this very fun wedding of Tina and Will.

Here are a few pictures from the day-

09/18/06

2006-09-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

Well Ira and Andriy's was wedding was a quite exciting, it almost rained but we lucked out and only got a little drizzle that lasted a few minutes. I had a lot of fun hanging out with friends and just having a good time. We drove around in a very big and comfortable Excursion Limo. We went down to Point Defiance park in Tacoma for a little photo shoot before the wedding and afterwards went to Alki to take some more pictures during sunset.. I brought along my camera and was able to take some photos.

Good Times! Sergey on the left, me in the middle and Viktor on the right, picture taken by Victor.

09/15/06

2006-09-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well my friend Andrey is getting married this Saturday, I just got back from Men's Wearhouse with my suit. I'm one of his groomsmen so unfortunently I won't be shooting his wedding but I did do their engagement session back in July. Andrey and Ira are both very awesome people and I'm looking forward to having them around. Ira is from New York and they have decided on living here in the beautiful Northwest; very good choice.

Anyways, thats what I'll be doing this Saturday, I'll try to get some pictures to post of the wedding, should be a lot of fun.

09/10/06

2006-09-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from Los Angeles, I was there for an awesome two-day Pictage Partner Conference and I stayed a little longer and just hung out with a few friends.

First off I have to talk about the Conference. It was quite an experience to have an oppurtunity to listen and learn from such great photographers as Mike Colon, Dane Sanders, Denis Reggie and a lot more that I can list. I heard Me Ra gave a very good presentation but I missed it, I'll have to ask her about it next time I see her. I always get very amped and pumped up after these type of things and I don't want that feeling to fade. I can't wait till next year to once again learn from the best and meet even more awesome people.

While in LA I had a lot of time to kill, so I think I practically did everything there was to do. I gotta say, I love the beaches. Out of Malibu, Huntington, Venice, Newport or Laguna I definently think Newport is the best.

Here are some pictures I was able to take while down there-

This was a beautiful sunset at the Newport Beach State Park-

I'm not sure what these are called but this was at Venice Beach at sunset and there was probably 100 people with all sorts of drums and percussion instruments just banging away. It's the coolest thing I've heard. It doesn't stop, there is never a pause. People all around had blankets and were just taking in this awesome spectacle and enjoying the sunset-

This was a lifeguard tower in Malibu (Malibu Seafood, right on HWY 1, had some of the best Clam Chowder I've ever had)-

We were on Hollywood Blvd. and there was this guy dressed up as a monkey from head to toe-

We had to take a picture with Batman, no way we can pass that up (Sergey on the far left). This was at Six Flags Magic Mountain-

09/09/06

2006-09-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Well I decided while I'm having my website built that I'll blog to keep you updated with what I'm doing and whats going on in my life. I'll try to post at least once or twice a week or more if there is a lot going on.

You will find pictures of recent weddings, trips or random other things on here as well as news and updates.

Thank you for visiting and keep checking back for updates

-Yuriy Manchik