Blog Moved to blog.jefflaplante.com

I’m hosting it myself on my own server so go check out the blog on blog.jefflaplante.com instead.

Jeff

Megan & Travis’ Engagement Session

During my whirlwind that was March I had a free day to get together with Megan and Travis to photograph them out in the rain at the UW campus. Now, we really hadn’t planned on doing their engagement session in the rain, it just turned out that way. None the less, we had a great time!

Megan and Travis are both Alumni of UW and we thought it’d be fun to go back to the campus for some shots. The Cherry trees were in full bloom!

After spending some time on campus we decided to try and get onto Husky Stadium field for a few shots before the security guards swept in. As luck would have it we found an open gate and made a break for the 10 yard line.

We were able to get a few shots in before we felt like total trespassers and took off. It was a really fun shoot even though I was completely drenched by the time we finished up. It’s a good thing I brought the Gortex jacket!

Check out their slideshow for more images.

Davis Photography article in Studio Photography Magazine

My good friend Jim Davis-Hicks of Davis Photography is featured on the cover of Studio Photography magazine this month!

In the article, Jim talks about how he built his business on customer service and the need to balance a busy business life with your family life.

ActionRunner 2.0 takes center stage in this balancing act, allowing Jim and his wife Lara to spend less time editing and more time living life.

If you’d like to check out ActionRunner, visit davistools.com or my store for a free trial copy. You can edit 10 images per batch to check out how it works. Register it and you can process unlimited images in a single batch.

It was great of Jim to mention me in the article. (Thanks Jim!) I’ve already gotten a couple of emails from people who saw my name.

Here’s a great testimonial about ActionRunner 2.0 from Heather Kallhoff:

ok, I’M LOVIN IT!!

YOU ROCK…

YOU ARE THE BEST…

YOU ARE MY HERO…

the 2.0 is a HUGE improvement over the 1.0

I THINK I’M IN LOVE!

heather kallhoff
www.kallhoffportrait.com

New WordPress Blog

Hmm, just looking at new blogging software. WordPress is pretty cool.

Mike Colón – Mentoring Session at WPPI

The one and only Mike Colón is auctioning off a private mentoring session at WPPI this year on ebay! Cool Mike! What an awesome idea! He’s even donating part of the proceeds of the auction to Thirst Relief International. So, if you’ve ever wanted a private meeting with Mike, the Southern Californian superstar, now’s your chance. (You have to beat my bid though!)

I attended Mike’s workshop in Newport Beach last year and it was awesome. Mike is a great guy and awesome at what he does.

Go! Bid! Now!

Seattle Bride Magazine – Best of 2006 Awards

I was over reading Susie’s blog and noticed a great post that I totally had to steal.

Seattle Bride Magazine is looking for your help in choosing the Best of 2006 vendor awards! Click on the link above to fill out their questionaire and make your vote count. Votes must be in by February 15th, 2007.

The results will be published in the Fall/Winter 2007 issue of Seattle Bride and will be announced at a special ceremony in the summer of 2007.

(Oh, by the way, there’s NO WAY you’re going to have answers for all of the vendors they ask you about. To vote for me, just fill in my name for photographer and right N/A for any other vendor you don’t have an opinion on. Your vote WILL count.)

Thanks!!

FIOS is Coming, FIOS is Coming !!

I’m so excited! (Geez, I’m a geek…) For the last month or so I’ve been watching with anticipation as the road crews with spools of orange plastic have combed my neighborhood, locating underground power and sewer lines. That reel of orange plastic is the exciting part… Why you ask?! Because! That’s the protective tube they lay fiber optic cable in the ground with, silly!

Right.. Still don’t have you do I.. Verizon is rolling out a HUGE fiber to the home initiative to get lots of residential customers lit up with BLAZING fast internet connections. That’s what all the jumping up and down is about.

In order to get connected to the sweet broadband of fiber, you have to have fiber running down you street, burried in the ground. The crews working outside my house marking everything mean I should be able to get FIOS service to my house in a month or so!

Yay!

Go check out Verizon’s web commercial to learn more : http://www.verizonfios.com

Check it out! Leave me a voicemail online!

Get Your Own Voice PlayerManage

Day in the Life Portraits

My father-in-law just sent me this article he found on msnbc’s website and I thought I would share my thoughts on the subject of hiring a photographer for a long term assignment such as documenting your baby’s first year.

The article is really quite good, you should read it.

I’ve done a few family birth stories and they’re really quite incredible. Bringing in a professional photographer to photograph your kids every three months makes a lot of sense.

First off, you get a pro that can capture those moments like no other and on top of that, YOU get to be in the photos too. I know for example with my own kids, I take LOTS of photos of my son Cam and his little sister Paige, but RARELY do you ever see a picture of ME. Well, that’s because I’m the photographer. When you hire a professional photographer to come in and capture your lives, you are given the great opportunity to be a complete family on film (well, digital film ).

We can capture you interacting with your kids, walking in the park, playing on the beach, running in the woods, hiking up a mountain, skiing, snuggling on the couch, you get the idea. It’s those moments that are so very special in the lives of our families and it’s an awesome challenge to capture them for my clients – I love it.

Anyway, I’d love to hear from you if you’re interested in booking a session like this with me. Ring me at the studio and we can discuss your ideas.

In God’s grace,

Jeff

Davis Tools ActionRunner

I’m excited to announce that my friend Jim Davis-Hicks of Davis Photoraphy and Thirst Relief International has just released DavisTools Action Runner 1.0!

Why am I so excited about this product? Because it makes editing a wedding SO MUCH EASIER! Check out this comment I copied from Jim’s blog:

Jim,

I love the ActionRunner for Macintosh. I have been an avid mac user for years, and ActionRunner works perfectly for me.

I shoot in RAW, and do much of my editing in a RAW Developer progam (Adobe Lightroom), and ActionRunner has become the perfect post-development tool in my workflow. Now, I can develop my images in RAW, and then, after they’re exported to JPEG, use ActionRunner and your custom-designed effects/actions to give my photos more beauty, impact, originality, and all-around quality.

ActionRunner has added more power, confidence, and value to the customer to my RAW-JPEG workflow.

Thanks for following your idea and creating a tool that has had an immediate impact on my life.

Sincerely,

Graham Rouse
Rouse Multimedia

Is that awesome or what?

Now, the other reason why I’m so amped about this product is that had a hand in creating it! I took Jim’s PC version and ported it to MAC! So, hold on to your hats! The Mac version rocks and you can buy it on Jim’s website.

“Wait”, you might be saying, “I thought you were a photographer, how’d you ‘port’ Jim’s PC application to the mac?”

Well, that’s because I’m also a programmer. Yes, yes, the man with many hats. So, after learning that his PC guys didn’t have any experience creating code for the mac, Jim asked me to rewrite the application for the mac. The mac version works with Photoshop CS2 and runs out of a folder in your home directory.

Go check out Jim’s website and buy ActionRunner! It’ll save you hours of editing time! I used it on an event last week and I was blown away with how much time I saved being able to batch everything with ActionRunner.