San Diego, California – February 5, 2011 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Jon Chan Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Wedding Photography!

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

Jon Chan Photography stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Jon Chan Photography for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

We are happy to announce that Jon Chan Photography is among the very best within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

Karma running low?

Feel like doing some good?

Want to get your learn on, all the while supporting a great cause?

Perfect.

Thirst relief is having their annual mentor auction. So if you’re a photographer and want to support a great cause, jump over to their website. You’ll find everything from shooting seminars to personal consultations with the industry’s best and brightest. [For the most part ]. Last year I was fortunate enough to attend one of their sessions with Mike Colon and David/Luke Edmonson. I promise it will change the way you see things. and the world around you.

But like most good parents, they did not let my crime spree carry on unchecked. They would always tell me: Put your money where you mouth is. Meaning? Back up your talk. Everyone can talk a good game. Few actually go through with it.

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to attend the Thirst Relief Benefit Shoot at WPPI. When I say fortunate, I mean Lucky. You see, spots to the benefit shoot had been auctioned off to raise money to bring clean water solutions to people in need. Typically 3rd world countries. Try as I did, I didn’t get a spot. Bummed.

So on the day of the shoot, I randomly ran into Mike Colon…who was one of the instructors. I had attended one of Mike’s workshops earlier in the year. And Mike isn’t hard to miss. He’s over 6ft. So I told him about how I was bummed about missing the shoot. Then he said that a spot had opened up last minute. And that they were meeting in the lobby. Right now.

I sprint upstairs. Grab my gear. Run back down. And somehow make it.

Through out the day, I had a great time learning from Mike [Celebrity Photographer. need I say more?] and David/Luke Edmonson. [They're a father-son studio out of Texas. Two of the most amazing, yet humble photographers you'll ever meet]. But more importantly, I had a chance to sit down and chat with the founders of Thirst Relief during dinner. I got to hear firsthand why they started Thirst. The need that drives them. The impact they’re making. Their Vision.

It struck me. Sincerity. They saw a problem, and did something about it. Which made me think. Most people [myself included] talk a good talk when it comes to giving back and helping. Everyone knows giving back is a GOOD thing. But if one doesn’t take immediate steps to change once we’ve been touched….the ebb and flow of our busy lives will quickly wipe away that desire.

I don’t want that to happen. So I’m putting my money where my mouth is. As some of my recent brides already know….a minimum 2% of every wedding booked will go towards clean water projects with Thirst Relief/Charity:Water.

Imagine what could happen if we all put our money where our mouth is.

No post is complete with images. Here are some from the Shoot. On the left….David + Luke Edmonson. Right, Mike Colon

The first question most people ask, why all the stuff? This vid from their website genuinely explains it better than I ever could.

They do such wonderful work in showing love to the community. Providing furniture, clothing, food or anything else that might be needed by distressed families in transition/resettled refugees in the United States. When my friend Daniel asked me to come along and photograph their daily workings, I was excited. Its always so inspiring to see people follow their calling and make a difference in the live of others. Here are some of the images from the day….

Let me be the first to tell you, it won’t let you down. Only Pixar could come up with an ending as endearing and as touching as this one. If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the trailer. Watch it, then go and buy your movie tickets! You won’t regret it.

Our story begins with cupid – also known as William Sam. What? You didn’t know his middle name was Cupid? Well luckily for me, William was born and had a birthday party, which was where I met my soul mate. Yes, I really did just use the words “soul mate” in a sentence. *gag*

>> Really Steph? This is a big deal for her. To say the word “soul” followed by the word “mate” is no joking matter. Although she left out that WIlliam and I are BFF’s. Since middle school. We went to the same school….church…and even played on the same worship team. But let there be no mistake. I was the good one, he was the troublemaker. . So at William’s birthday dinner, Steph wants you to think that our eyes met across the oily smoke of Korean BBQ. Truth be told, I didn’t notice her until later. I was too focused on eating and drinking. Typical guy.

Fast forward a few years to April 8, 2010 – I come home from work to find Jonathan’s car in my driveway. This is odd because it’s a Thursday night AND because he lives in SD. When I go inside I see he has made himself at home (he’s watching TV and his stuff is everywhere). My Monica Gellar OCD-ism almost takes over but I push past the urge to tidy everything up.

>> She did tidy up. Just when I wasn’t looking. Anyways, back to the story. Little does she know, I’ve taken friday off for her. Her Bosses were AWESOME at keeping a secret and not letting her schedule anything on that day. Thanks Lance and Brad!

Poor Jonathan has been trying to throw me off of his scent for over a week. I’ve been suspicious and pestering him relentlessly about what we’re going to do this particular weekend. He tells me that we are going on a road trip to Carmel and that he has already cleared Friday with my bosses so I can have the day off.

>>Steph HATES surprises. She has to know what is going on at all times so she can plan. SO I took great pleasure in making her suffer. muahahah.

But Jon is a tricky man. This trip is obviously a ruse. A farce. A ploy. A LIE. And boy is he a good liar! He has props like road trip munchies (chips, candy, drinks, & fruit) as well as fake maps/directions.

>> Steph is a hard woman to trick. She picks up on everything. So to make the plan work, I had to go all out.

We’ve only been driving for 20 minutes when Jon yawns and says, “I’m tired of driving. Let’s go to LAX instead.” And gee golly, it just so happened that we were conveniently driving by LAX at that precise moment. Clever man.

>> Oh and guess what? The Maps that I just HAPPENED to have take us right by LAX. What a coincidence. Steph was giving me hell for taking a non-optimal/efficient route. I had to endure it for 20 minutes. Technically I was tired. Anyways, got to LAX and headed to the terminal. I had checked us in last night and gotten boarding passes already. Southwest. A-group baby. The only way to travel.

At this point all I know is that we are going to Sacramento and I keep pestering him for hints. The most I can get out of him is that we are going to visit our great state capital and go hunt for Arnold.

>> I kind of blanked here. I mean, seriously how romantic is Sacramento?

After we land and go get our rental car he finally tells me our final destination is Napa. NAPA! YAY! NAPA! (Btw, driving the G37x was Jon’s second favorite part of the trip).

We spend the rest of the day walking around, eating, drinking, and being merry. He’s made some dinner reservations at Bottega and dinner is a 3-hour food fest. We go on a late night walk under the stars. (You can see stars in Napa!!! It’s not like LA where the only things in the sky are airplanes and Goodyear blimps).

>> OMG Reservations. I’m so glad I made reservations rather than winging it. For such a small town, these restaurants get filled to capacity.

As we pass by a park he leads me to a bench where he gets down on one knee and then I black out from excitement. Just kidding. I might not have blacked out but the strongest memory I have is my head moving up and down like a bobble head while a grin stretched across my face from ear to ear.

>> I’m going to set the record straight. She did black out. The shaking of her hand demanding the ring is an involuntary motion. Kind of like how you continue to breathe even when you’re passed out. But honestly, I’ve never seen her so happy before. Ok so up until this point, I’ve been basically flawless. Everything has been awesome. Then when I open the box, the opening is the right way, but the ring is on the wrong side. Woops. Quickly corrected it but I think she noticed.

There you have it folks. The happiest day of my life (thus far) – April 9, 2010.

P.S. Contrary to popular belief I did NOT hit Jonathan and say, “It’s about time.”

>> I do remember her saying “its about time” but there was no hitting.

P.P.S. After I regained consciousness I might have cried.

>>True Story.

The Flight.

Ahhh the famous french laundry garden

Our wine for that night. Yum…stag’s leap

So now that I have had a little time to take it all in and internally process it, I’ve realized that WPPI is very much like high school. Attending your first one makes you feel like a transfer student/freshmen. Everyone seems to know everyone else….and much hugging occurs everywhere. Photographers are pack-animals…meaning that they rarely travel alone. Various groups can be seen congregating together. [Much like how in HS you had the jocks, nerds, band kids etc ]. The need for sugary drinks/caffeine has never been more on display. At 8am the line at Starbucks was like 50 people. [And for those of you know know my dislike of Starbucks...let me explain. There weren't any alternatives! Don't judge me!] Then of course you have the big men on campus. When you wander through the halls…you see luminaries in the photographer industry…and it is such a trip. You see people like David+Luke Edmonson, Jerry Ghionis, Yervant or Joe Buissink. Quite an experience.

While here I attended a two day workshop with Australian Fine Art Photographer Marcus Bell. Marcus is really big on studying art and applying that into photography. Learning from the classical painters and such to learn balance and structure and color and light. Its really interesting because I’ve never really spent any time looking at art. So the first day we had to go around and just look for things that interested us.

Seriously nobody see’s light and angles like Marcus. But what Marcus also stresses is finishing an image. Attention typically is drawn to the brightest and most colorful spot. I got to learn a lot about his work flow and how he works on images. Man…my clients this year are gonna majorly benefit from this

Have a good one!

-JC