Man, I love me some World Cup.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a complete novice when it comes to all things soccer, but I can still appreciate a sporting event that brings the entire globe together.  Plus, there’s nothing better than a pint of Guinness at the pub first thing in the morning while being surrounded by footie enthusiasts and cheering for countries I can’t even point out on the map.  Here’s hoping our boys in red, white and blue can pull out a victory tomorrow against Algeria and thus advance into the next round.   But either way, I’ll be happy to keep watching regardless of who’s playing cause it’s the World Cup, y’all!

Above: a Mexican fan loudly sings his country’s national anthem before the start of the game.

“There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him (her) to sleep.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.”

- Joyce Brothers

Karen Graci, associate producer of the soon-to-be-released film, Mother and Child, holding her own gorgeous child, Keely.  Gotta love it when life imitates art.

“The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, ‘Daddy, I need to ask you something,’ he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan.” - Garrison Keillor

A few weeks ago, my good friends, Karen & Brian, asked me to take some shots of their beautiful little girl, Keely.  Needless to say, with a kid this cute, my job was made easy!

Here’s a shot of my dad as he walked in on the waiting surprise party to celebrate his turning 60.  He had absolutely no idea that fifty or so of his closest friends and family were in on the surprise, and it showed.  He must have stood in that doorway for a good thirty seconds, speechless.  It was a moment I’ll never forget, nor will he I would imagine.  Kudos to my mom for pulling the whole thing off without him catching a whiff of it.

Today is Kim’s birthday, and to celebrate I thought I’d post one of my favorite photos that I’ve ever taken of her.  The above was back in ‘05, when we were lucky enough to take a trip together to the Four Seasons on the Big Island, courtesy of my old boss.

Happy Birthday, Pahu i’a!

Go Canada, eh?

Speaking of the Angeles National Forest, in ‘08 I shot a music video up there for the artist Ben Wise.  The song, called “Ride On“, was the last track on Ben’s debut record Beside the Dial.  It’s a fairly straight-forward track, with a beautiful Beach Boys-esque harmony, and so I thought it would be nice to shoot something equally simplistic against the beautiful landscape of the Angeles National Forest.

Dear lord though, was it cold out to start the day at sunrise when we got our first shot off, which happens to be the last shot in the video.  I felt so bad for Ben having to ride that bike all day, truly suffering for his art.  I do think it was worth the pain though, and I’m still really happy with what we were able to achieve.  Especially when you consider there were only four of us out there (Ben included), and we didn’t have a permit for anything!