~ Danni and AJ ~

Here is more from Danni and AJ's wedding photo edits. :)

~ Mom and Dad arrive Tomorrow ~

I am so excited, my Mom and Dad arrive tomorrow. My Dad is a Seventhday Adventist Pastor who has been living and working in the States for quite a long time. They went down while I was in my final years of University. So, they've lived in Washington State for quite a long time. It's a long drive and my folks are not getting any younger. My prayers go out to them as they finish the final leg of their trip tomorrow. Jenn and I spent today getting ready for them, so it'll be awesome to spend some time with my parents. They do so much for me and I love them dearly. I hope to get some GREAT portraits of them while they are here. They inspire me.

~ Danni and AJ Wedding ~

Good news on the computer front. BestBuy is awesome, their GeekSquad installed a new power supply. Turns out the one HP had in there was not a very good one....meaning it wasn't very capable of handling the power of the system, I have an awesome setup but the power supply wasn't great for the power of it. So I have an upgraded one and it seems to be hanging in there so far. No loud sound. So I am back editing and hoping this system stays healthy.....makes me worried a bit. I am thinking a major backup of files is in order in the VERY near future. Just need to save some cash for a good drive now to backup to. :)

Anyway, here are some current shots of AJ and his beautiful bride Danni. :)
-Randy

~ HP Computer RANT ~

Okay.....so.......let me just say grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I love technology but when it is not working it is frustrating. Especially for a photographer/artist who LOVES using his "new" computer. So this morning I walk in to my office and hear the tower of my computer HUMMMMING loudly. I figured right away it was a fan inside but wasn't sure which one. I googled a bit on the laptop and found out it's probably a fan in my power supply that has a problem.

I got this system back in August of 2008, so it is still under warranty. What does that "awesome" HP warranty provide me with? Well, it provides me with customer service in the form of an automated answering service that takes at least 4-5 steps of me saying what I want to a computer before I get a human to talk with. Once I am connected with their customer service rep...I realize they are not even living in the country I live in. I have nothing against people in other countries, but it's tough to explain I got the computer in Edmonton and I live in Vegreville, when they can not even say or spell the names of those places. I also have to ask them to repeat themselves more then once because I am speaking with people who's primary language is not english and accents make it tough for me to understand.

Okay, what else do I get from this warranty? Well, after talking to a guy for about 20 minutes we come to the conclusion that it is the power supply that needs repair. He tells me I have to ship it away...so they will send me a shipping box. Once it's shipped the estimated repair time is 79 days. Also, they will reformat my hard drive and send me it back in factory condition. So here is what I have to do:
- back up my hp 750gig hard drive to an external drive, which I'd have to buy because I have noe external drives with free space to backup to....approx. $100-200 for a good sized one
- wait 79 days
- have to re-install and setup my system again when it arrives back...which will take a lot of time.....

OR

I called BestBuy where I got the computer and the GEEK SQUAD told me that I could bring the computer in that day and within 20 minutes they would replace the power supply. They would NOT reformat my hard drive and I'd be good to go. The only issue is if I go with the HP Warranty my cost is $0.00, they pay for shipping and everything. If I go for BestBuy and the ready in 20 minutes option....it's going to cost me the time of the install + the price of the power supply. Which I believe would be about the cost of an external drive anyway. So, I think it's a no brainer to go with BestBuy. The stoooopid thing is I have to pay....even though BestBuy is an authorized HP repair center, if I go for warranty they have to ship the part....or something dumb like that and it will be more time wasting so basically the same as if I go with shipping it myself. Dumb, dumb, dumb....but I have to do something as I need to have my computer and it's no use to me as a paper weight.

So hopefully when Jenn and I go in to Edmonton tomorrow for the hockey game, we can find a place to fix it. I'll try BestBuy and maybe Future Shop or somewhere else that can repair computers as I am sure they all have similar prices/services. It's just frustrating when technology doesn't work.

Until further notice, I'll be offline in the sense of not being able to do any photography work. I will use the laptop and our older desktop to update my blog....etc. but images are going to be suspended until my desktop is back. I just have my lightroom and CS4 setup perfectly to edit and no computer we have comes close to the power of my desktop. I'll just go weep softly and hope that I can have my desktop back again soon, without sounding like it's about to go KABOOOOOOM!!!!!!

~ SPRING BREAK IS HERE 2009!!!!!! ~

SPRING BREAK BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Took this shot on the way to work today. :) Felt good to finish this week off....gonna stop thinking about work and focus on my STAYCATION!!!

~ Samantha Valentine ~

This girl is just an AWESOME model, makeup artist and from what I have heard a musician too. I've shot with her a few times and she is just amazing at how she can work with a photographer to create some very sweet images. Here are some edits from a shoot a few years back. :)

YAY Calgary lost tonite....heheheh. Love days when the Shames lose.

~ Princess Iginla ~

I work with a teacher who LOVES the Calgary Flames, so as a joke I got her this toy and did some package "decorations" to add to it. heheheh. She had a good laugh, she is fun and takes the rivalry serious.....too bad her team is ranked higher...hoping they meet in the playoffs and Edmonton crushes them. After tonight though, I am losing hope slowly....but they can still make it...hanging on to 7th place by a thread.

~ Monday ~

BUSY week ahead. I have 2 nights where I'll be at work from 7:00am - 8:00pm. For a teacher spending that long at school is not fun. At least I'll have some spring break to relax and visit with my Mom and Dad....can't wait to see them.

I did some edits of Cheryl Lynn....here they are:

Fiddle Medley 2 by Lizzy Hoyt

Lizzy on youtube. :)

~ Oiler WIN!!! ~

Every win now is HUGE for the Oilers. Loved to see them run away with a game after all these O.T. games they lost.

This week at work has been C-R-A-Z-Y busy. LOOKING FORWARD to the weekend.

Here is a Lizzy Hoyt Concert Edit.....:)

~ More Hoyt ~

Today, I think the kids were all LOOPY from St.Patrick's day....so many were off the wall. Anyway, I threw together these edits from the Lizzy Hoyt concert.

~ April Lane ~

Another edit of April.

~ April Lane ~

An edit of a teacher friend April Lane.

~ Jessica and Joel ~

More edits of Jessica and Joel. :)

~ Nestor ~

A picture taken last summer my buddy Nestor and an edit of the awesome Lizzy Hoyt....

~ Lizzy Hoyt Live in Vegreville ~

A talented musician and local talent came out to Vegreville. She played for a SMALL crowd but still managed to give everyone present a wonderful show. I'd like to thank Lizzy for allowing me to bring my camera and take some shots of her performing, those were a lot of fun. The two musicians she played with were also very talented. Here is one of my first few edits, more to come as I get to it. :) Check out Lizzy Hoyt's website at http://www.lizzyhoyt.com/

Ohhhh and to the Oilers, GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, losing another in O.T. again, this is one frustrating hockey club.

~ April Lane ~

An edit from a former shoot with April...she was fun to work with and I just love my new lightroom presets so I was enjoying playing with some of my older shoots.

~ Friday is Here ~

The weekend has arrived. I am so tired, time change, report cards....it just seemed like this week drained a lot out of me. Looking forward to some time to rest and re-charge the batteries.

~ HDR Attempt ~

I am an HDR noob....here is 3 shots I took on my way to work today. I hand held these from my car, too lazy to get the tripod set up, was also late for work.

I had a BAD day at work, hoping to have an awesome weekend and let some stress go. :)

Finally getting some new edits done for Jessica and Joel. They are a lovely couple getting married this summer and guess who has the honor of shooting their wedding? :)

The Cranberries - Zombie

This song is awesome. :)

~ COLD Weather ~

I love Alberta, -40 and then by the end of the week, supposed to be +8. Crazy days of March, March Madness for shure.

I am off to work, just did a quick edit from back when I started doing model photography. I had the chance to shoot with the awesome AntiSaint, aka Christina. She is a talented model, has some really cool ideas and looks when shooting with her. She is a blast to work with and really knows how to give the camera some great looks.

As for the Oilers....they picked up a point in Montreal, I guess it could of been worse. But it was a typical Oiler loss....give up the lead....choke in overtime by taking dumb penalties.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Well, hopefully my report cards can be wrapped up today.....(crossing fingers and toes)
-Randy