Julia’s Blogfest

Exactly 12 years ago today, February 22nd, my father passed away after a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease.  He was 72.  It’s an awful disease b/c it’s long and drawn out and one’s body slowly loses muscle control and memory.  He was a fighter all his life and even fought the medications prescribed to him — going on and off them throughout his battle and ultimately giving up.  Didn’t make it easy for my mom and me to help him along the way but I guess in retrospect, I can’t imagine him doing it any other way.  I say that b/c I am clearly a product of him.  I wish I had more of my mom in me (she is easy going, laid back, non-confrontational and mellow) but I’m hard wired like he was — stubborn, a perfectionist, a stickler for being on-time, all the time, and always moving….with a little bit of my mom thrown in there for good measure.  Right, mom?

Dad was born in Glassport, PA (outside of Pittsburgh) in 1924….spent time there before going to Mercersburg Academy (a boarding school and also my alma mater) for high school, graduated in 1943, then to Duke for undergrad and some summer studies at Columbia.  He served a couple years in WWII and then following that worked overseas, ultimately meeting my mom in Manila in 1956 when he was in his early 30s doing geophysics.

So I just wanted to post some fun photos I have of him which I scanned in last month.  My mom and I have been scanning very old images to preserve them.  My dad was a photo hobbyist with moving film as well as stills so there are A LOT of images of us growing up, my mom, and even himself.  This is what spurred my own interest when I was a kid.   I shot on 110, 126, disk and eventually 35mm.  How crazy is that?!

Anyway, he was a hottie.  Really great hollywood-good-looks and he and my mom made quiet a pair so I don’t know what happened to me.

yeah, he seemed to like the pretty ladies.

This must have been his passport photo.  He had awesome, hazel eyes.

In the outer banks of NC EVERY summer.  Note he is wearing MY hat.

I took this photo of him when I was studying photography and printing my own work in 1996 — about one year before he passed away.  I love this photo of him.  He has a TINY smirk on his face.  He was a very serious and stern man but had a very understated and witty side and this smirk popped thru every so often.  You really had to be listening to ‘get’ his humor.

He and my mom when she was prego with my brother in 1957.

This week I had the good fortune to attend the largest photographers convention in the world — WPPI | Wedding & Portrait Photographers International at the MGM Grand Hotel.  This convention is always held in Las Vegas due to sheer size of attendees.  I heard that this year there were between 12,000-15,000!!  I expected there to be fewer than in past years given the economy but photographers are passionate peeps and clearly, insist upon educating themselves and networking to better their business!  It was 3 days – or I chose to attend 3 days, but it’s actually about a week long with optional classes and a judged competition before the official trade show begins.  I took a few “Master Classes” (small 2 hour classes by selected pro’s with no more than 50 attending) with Susan Stripling, Jose Villa and MeRa Koh.  All incredible photographers and humans.  And throughout the convention sat in on other “Platform” classes which were part of admission — Alicia and Todd Brook, Mitche Graf, Michele Celentano, Alycia Alvarez and Bruce Dorn.  These are much larger – anywhere from 200 to 700 or 1000 in a room.  The Trade show was a big component of this convention with nearly 300 vendors — my hope was to look for new album vendors as well as business mgmt software and some other goodies.  I also volutneered at the NILMDTS booth for 2 1 /2 hours one day and 2 the next and probably should have scaled back b/c it really cut into my time walking the floor.  But so be it.  It was a full schedule indeed — up at 7am and going until midnight.  That city is CRAZY!

I met many wonderful, amazing photographers and had fun getting to know where everyone was from and what they specialized in.  I spent most of my time with my good friend Kimberly Brooke who lives north of Baltimore and her new assistant, Kelly who modeled for us one night.  As well as Kelly Holder from Kansas.  One our last night — and LATE — we took Kelly out for some off-camera lighting practice.  She brought her awesome wedding gown (she got hitched last summer!) and about 6 of us poked and proded her to do this and that for our practice!  She was a trooper!  We started around 10pm and on day #3, everyone is just slammed tired so I can’t believe we even did that.  I have to give credit to Kim for bring props and showing us some ideas for off-camera lighting! Technically, these are not perfect on my end, but that’s why it’s practice!  Thanks to Kelly Utz for really being a great sport and a smashing bride again!

Isnt she a dead ringer for Demi Moore???

and of course us in action — laughing and being silly.

Scrumptious.  That’s all I can say to describe this big, little boy.  Fletcher’s mom is one of my good friends who makes many appearances on this blog.  I love when the pressure is off to take photos so we just took our time and let Master Fletcher sleep and sleep which is what he did.  Here is is 7 days old.  Congrats on #3 Heather!

This week has been great b/c I have received a couple nice moments of recognition.  The first one is from Weddingwire.com where I have a listing (along with MANY other wedding photographers and vendors).  It’s a great rating-based system whereby previous clients can rate one’s work and comment on it as well.  I love this feature and it’s worked well for me.  Here is the press release and I want to sincerely thank my brides who took the time to write something as it makes a HUGE difference.  And I hope those of you I will be working with in 2009, will remember to do this.

In its inaugural year, the Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and honors vendors from the WeddingWire Network that demonstrate excellent quality of service, responsiveness, professionalism, value of cost and flexibility. This year’s recipients represent the top 3% of WeddingWire’s vendor community, which includes over 100,000 wedding vendors from across the US. That means Julia MacInnis Photography is one of the very best wedding photographers.

Unlike other awards in which winners are selected by the company, the Bride’s Choice Awards are determined exclusively by recent newlyweds through surveys and reviews.

“We are excited to launch this annual award program to honor high-performing vendors based solely on the experiences of our WeddingWire community,” according to Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “This year’s recipients have set the bar high, exhibiting excellent service and expertise in the wedding industry.”

FInally, most of you know about my involvement with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.  My charity of choice.  As a volunteer photographer and area coordinator, I photograph many stillborn infants for families who have lost.  I also work to recruit new volunteer photographers, talk “up” the charity, present at hospitals about our services, call key staff people to remind them to use us, train photographers how we do what we do, and I also serve on the charity’s Membership Application Committee reviewing new applicants weekly.  I am ever more convicted about the service we provide and I sware that every volutneer I connect with is an AMAZING photographer and human being.  I feel blessed to have this gig and feel tremendously fulfilled by it.  On Sunday morning, my husband woke me up at 7am and threw his laptop into my face which showed a page on the chairty’s website that had my photo under “Volunteer of the Month”.  I was trying hard to pry my eyes open (for one, I have a clincal problem called DRY EYE so I literally could NOT open them!)  to see this HUGE photo of my face with title.  I was blown away.  He was so proud of himself for being ‘in’ on it.  They select one volunteer each month out of, what’s up to, 7,000 photographers worldwide.  Talk about humbling.  So that was really gratifying and just cool b/c while I do NOT do this work for the recognition, it’s certainly nice to know others are watching.

Click here to see the little write-up (*blushing*)

Finally, speaking of the charity, this week Newsweek Magazine published an article on the charity.  My co-area coordinator, Marirosa Anderson, was featured in this article.  Please take a look.

So last week I had an amazing lunch at Windows Catering.  Danielle Couick invited me and my friend/colleague Jamie Windon to a total lunchfest at Windows.  Danielle had commented that, as photographers, she knows we usually get a boxed lunch at the weddings we shoot and rush to eat and wanted us to see and enjoy a Windows Catering lunch as it should be.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but I certainly wasn’t expecting what I got!  After a 3 hour lunch in their ‘tasting room’, I left with a very satiated tummy and extremely high impression of this company.  As a foodie, I am all about the senses that food brings forth — whether it’s memories of your mom’s homemade mac n cheese growing up, (or the special filipino food that I get which reminds me of my roots), or the freshness of a fruit or veggie in-season, the combination of colors and textures and tastes….it really is something for all senses and I really appreciate that.  This meal did not let me down and I felt like I had just left a 4-star restaurant.

The operation there (in Alexandria) is amazing, the kitchen was so cool (again, b/c I love to cook, this was awesome to see) with specific areas for baking, breads, weddings and corporate events.  They do a LOT of events — from corporate to weddings as I just mentioned but also can prepare a Valentine’s dinner for two, for example.  If one is capable of assembling a meal at home, you can pick up everything there and have an amazing meal at home with your sweet love.  Danielle is a Senior Event Coordinator there and does both corporate and weddings so if you are a bride-to-be, or know of one, I highly recommend to go to Windows and talk to them and taste their food.  Danielle Couick is who you need to ask for.  She has done live chats on washingtonian.com about their services and was featured in an article in Catering as well as My Day Magazines so she knows her stuff!  Moreover, Windows is on the BEST OF list for Washington Bride & Groom, Weddingwire.com, theknot.com and on the prestigous Grace Ormande Platium listing.

When I walked in, we were greeted by one of their employees who was in a tux with a silver tray with 4 Mango Bellini’s.  My eyes popped out. Then we were taken to the tasting room to begin our culinary experience.  It was truly royal treatment, esp when you are not expecting it.  Thanks Danielle.

I am not a food photographer but did snap many b/c it was truly art.

Well, it wasn’t just Bellini’s….they served white wine AND red wine too.

The room was decked out with fresh flowers and candles.

This is Strawberry-Tuna: rolled in black and white sesame seeds topped with Driscoll strawberry cloud, drizzed with balsamic vinegar syrup.

This masterpiece was Lobster-Pineapple:  sliced Maine Lobster tail and roasted Hawaiian pineapple on a knotted bamboo skewer with a sesame-soy vinaigrette.

Our first course was Maine Lobster with cannerozzetti pasta in a pink sauce.

Our main course was Filet of Beef on a bed of wild musrooms topped with a red wine reduction accompanied by a pear shaped potato croquette, jumbo asparagus spears and turned baby carrots.

and finally this amazing piece of art was Mango and Cocoa Bomb:  Flourless chocolate cake layered with mango mousse and chocolate cream encased in a gold flecked cocoa glaze.

Okay, I have never eaten anything GOLD so that to me was the TOPPER to my culinary experience.  I was so excited as I have only heard of this and seen it on TV!

And a self-portrait.