Every once in a while, I am able to do a facebook, so until it slows down, keep up with me here

See you on the other side...

Kidding, kidding.

But like when we are only one of the select few photographers who are asked to join www.photographik.org I'd also like to say a great congratulations and thank you to the staff for earning the Best of Project Wedding award for 2008.

This award only goes out to what Project Wedding considers to be the top 5 percent of wedding vendors, so I just want to say thanks to them, and again, thanks to our staff who makes all of these kinds of things possible.  

And of course, all of the glory to God.

I was blessed during my lifetime to have a wonderful man as my father...a fair, hard working, fantastic role model who I still learn all of life's lessons from.

Yeah, there was that 7 or 8 year period where we never spoke, mostly because of the length of my hair.  Geesh.  That seems like forever ago.  OK, OK, it was, I know.

But to dads everywhere, thanks for doing what you do and for being the backbone when it's not the easiest thing in the world to do.  And especially, thanks for paying for your daughter's wedding.  That helps a lot :>)

So let me answer a few inquiries, and report on the sever hosting problem.  Our hosting company, Oregon Hosting, had a huge meltdown on May 28th, and we lost our website and our e-mail.  To some businesses, losing your website and e-mail is huge, and to others, it's a minor inconvenience.

Obviously, to a business like ours, it's almost life and death stuff, or at least it seems that way.  But at any rate, my only real contact with the outside world for over a week was this blog, and so I tried to kind of let everyone know what was up through this.  

In doing so, I tried to remain positive and supportive of my vendor, since I would want any of my clients to do the same for me.  And I guess Oregon Hosting wasn't getting a lot of their clients remaining calm, since they were getting death threats and other nonsense like that.  

But the weird twist was because I reported the action on my blog and because we were being cool about the disaster, a lot of my readers wrote very nice e-mails to me saying really neat stuff about us because of the way we handled the crisis.  So thanks everyone for being so complimentary, when actually, that response was about the last thing we expected.  We were just trying to let you know what was going on and that we weren't panicking.

To get everyone up to speed, after over a week of being down and the vendor not being able to remedy the situation, it occurred to me that we had our website code still on the servers of our original hosting company, so while Oregon worked out the kinks, we could get back online at the first company, which we did.  I communicated this to Oregon, and let them know not to worry about keeping us in the loop, go ahead and do what they have to do, and they could get back with us when the dust settles.  It's my understanding from looking at their website that they are still not completely restored, so I am not sure exactly what's up there.

But I did receive a few questions about the status, so I wanted to fill ya in.

JC at Oregon has been extremely good to us the time that we have been working with them, and so I feel so bad for him that he is having without a doubt the worst week of his professional life.  I have an IT background, so I understand what he must be going through.  Everytime you do something, it fails.  Every time based calculation you make, you see that you had bad info with which to calculate up from.

Many people using OH are losing their minds right now.  I was one of the 800 or so who called yesterday, and I was one of the ones who JC called back to give a personal update.  He didn't have to, but he did, and he was so tired he seemed punch drunk.

So why am I so willing, having lost no telling how many thousands of $$$ of bookings this week, to pray for JC rather than dog cuss him?  Because I have more money than I know what to do with.  OK, that was a big joke.  And most definitely not true.

I am able to be calm and paitent and understanding because amidst all of the bummers that we all deal with on a daily basis, I have concluded you have to also keep in mind the immeasurable blessings that we also receive.

And that's a great segue to my next subject.

One of the coolest things about doing what we do is that we get to meet so many interesting and terrific people.  Last July, I had the priviledge of photographing Dan and Amanda's wedding.  Now this wedding was a little different.  Among the unusualness, it was held at Razzoo's in Lewisville.  It seems that Dan and Amanda 'adopted' the place while they were dating.  They not only fell in love with each other, but also the Razzoo mud bugs.  Yep, they eat crawfish.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Ah, it's just not for me.

Anyhoo, Amanda and Jacki both went to Arts Magnet in Dallas, although a few years apart, so they hit it off well, and Dan and I did likewise.  So since their wedding last July, we've all been trying to work out 4 ridiculous schedules to make a dinner date happen.

Well, we finally did.  And where else to eat?  Razzoo's, of course.  And just like the night we first met, we all ended up hanging around and chatting, and they closed the place down around us.

Dan and Amanda were so thoughtful to give us a framed photo that was a collage of all of the wedding photos of them that I did last year.  There were hundreds of photos in the collage.  Now Dan is waaay too A.D.D. to do it by hand, but still, they went out of their way to be kind, and it's a photo that jimmages will diisplay in our studio forever.  Thanks guys.  It is awesome.

So when times are tough, and things are getting you down, take a deep breath.  Look to the heavens.  And be grateful that even in these hard economic times that friendships still count for something, and that we aren't yet all forced to eat creatures that we used to shoot with b b guns in creeks when we were groing up.

Here's the photo.

Shalom Dan.  You da man.

Just a quick line to let everyone know that my hosting company, oregonhosting.com is having a once in a lifetime meltdown, and their servers have been down all week!!!!

Which means no jimmages website, no jimmages e-mail, nothing.  I am so bummed out.

But I really feel bad for the guys at OH.  They have been extremely cool with me as long as they've hosted us, and this is the first time anything like this has happened.  I spoke with JC, who owns the place, and he told me their customers are so mad that they have even had death threats.

I have an IT background, and understand how these things can happen, so I am just trying to be patient and supportive.  We hope to be up sometime tomorrow!  Please bear with us.

If you need to communicate with Jacki or me, my old e-mail address still works.  Hit me at jimmillerphotography@mac.com and I'll respond in kind.

Sorry for the inconvenience, and all of us appreciate your patience.

If only they ran mac servers, none of this would have happened :>)

Here are Johnathan and the posse.

Obviously, my kind of guys...

You'd almost think the groom was a little nervous about the ceremony.  Almost.

Kristina is just chillaxing getting a little work done.

Kristina and her Dad seem to be totally relaxed.

Some of the details.

Yep, she wore boots under the dress.  I loved this wedding.

What?  No Dapper Dan?

The wedding was held at White Chapel Estate and Gardens.  It was my first time there, but I sure hope not my last time.  It's a stunningly gorgeous venue, and it appears that it was custom designed just for weddings.  The staff was incredibly easy to work with, too.  A huge plus.

And check out the gazebo.

Very romantic place, indeed!

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this wedding was how the guests liked to perform for each other.  It was really funny to watch them all go at it, kind of like full contact karaoke.  Here are some of the guys in action...

And the girls.

But just trust me when I tell you, at this wedding...nobody's going to outdo the B & G...

But it did have it's slow, sweet moments, too.

Well, that about does it.  What a great wedding and party that was!  Johnathan and Kristina are off to Mexico, and I am off to shoot another great wedding today.  Let's all meet back here soon, safe and sound!  Adios.

First, a big shout out to Jim Wear of the City of Plano.  Since Jim has taken over, the concerts have escalated to a whole new level.  The ampitheater in Plano is a place you can see a great show, AND take your kids to.  So thanks for putting these on for us, Mr. Wear, aka the Big Target.

The sellout, yes - I said sellout - crowd got there early and waited for the sun to go down.

A couple even drove down from Chicago to catch the show.  Go Bears!

Now, let's turn back the hands of time to 1964...

A little Chuck Berry thrown in for good measure...

Even though I love organic photos, you knew I had to trick one of them up...

And throw some detail shots in there, too.

They say clothes make the man.

This is one Beatle, er uh, beetle that wasn't on the program.  You don't think it could be Pete Best, now do you?

Love it when young people have an awareness and appreciation for the classics.

Shalom!

And now, Act II.  Starting with some Seargent Pepper's.

Still, my favorite angle to shoot concerts is from behind the stage.  It has such an insider feel to it...

George and some incense kicked off my favorite era - Abbey Road and the White Album.

And fortunately, no Yoko showed - o.

But of couse, lots of others did.

So once again, a big thanks to Plano Stages.  You guys rock, literally!

My wedding was scheduled to be outside, then under plastic tarps, and finally moved inside.  It was really bad weather... dangerously bad, as evidenced by the collapse earlier in the day at the Cowboys' practice facility.

I actually should have known I was in for trouble when I booked my couple several months ago.  The bride's name is, or was, and I am not kidding one bit, Stormy Cloud!  I have another wedding coming up in a few months, and her name is Candy Cotton.  I am serious guys, I could not make this up!  I am so far ahead in the annual contest amongst local wedding shooters in the cool name game.  And because everything comes in threes, I just met a lady this week unrelated to wedding business whose name was Snow White.  

Anyway, a special thanks to Stormy.  She and her man Dustin along with Jacki and I did some engagment shots a few months ago in Jefferson, TX.  It's Jacki and my favorite all time place in Texas.  We honeymooned there %^&* years ago.   Well, Stormy knew that we were kinda interested in old houses and stuff, and sometimes people think they're haunted, so Stormy gifted me with a book that was written by a man who owns a home in Jefferson that used to be a restaurant where Jacki and I knew the owner.  Sorry for the long story...just wanted to say thanks to Stormy for being so nice to gift us with the book.

Back to the wedding...it was already raining when we got there, but Stormy was not deterred and is prepared for anything.

A couple of hours before the wedding, we were all prepped for a nice outdoor ceremony.

But then, down came the rain, so we had workers up in the rooftops trying to put enough plastic tarps up to keep the rain out.

I know this young lady wants to come out and play, rain or no rain.

Stormy is handling the uncertainty of where the ceremony will be very well it seems.

As is Dustin.

But we ended up having to move it into the chapel in McKinney.  But that doesn't mean we still can't have some fun.

Need a weather report?  Check out how wet my son Pete is just after a couple of quick trips to the car!  Pete is so cool about taking everything in stride.

Let's check out some details...

Love this one.

Time for another weather report.  Let's see if it's letting up any.  Woops!

Here's a man plotting some serious revenge.

Now for some party shots.

Well guys, that's it.  I have to go dry off.  Thanks for the book, and thanks for letting | jimmages | be part of your wedding day.

And the two things that it's really hard not to shoot for me are musical events, and sporting events.

So when one of my future grooms, Prosper's own Brad James was throwing his famous slurve in Frisco, and offered to comp me a couple of seats, I began humming 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' like Harry Carry on a binge.  God rest his soul...

Anyway, Brad pitches for the Corpus Christi Hooks, a farm club for the Astros.  So my good friend and security guard known as The Facilitator and I had the pleasure of watching the game with Brad's fiance and his Mom.  It was a really cool experience, and I can't wait to photograph their wedding.  I just hope there are no clubhouse hijinks aimed toward the photographer :>)

Enjoy some of Brad's work below!

So what did I do with my spare time?  Catch up on some of my editing?  Catch up on some of my yardwork?  Catch up on some of my sleep?

No, no, and sadly, no.  Whenever I catch a weekend with no weddings, I always seem to get the most amazing of other photo assignements.  And today was no exception!

I had the great fortune of photographing two-time Blues Music Award winning blues singer Janiva Magness at the ampitheater in Plano.

The evening weather was spectacular, as was the music.  The opening act was our own Dallas Divas.

And then Janiva's band stormed the stage with all the subtlety of a mack truck...

Then the star of the show demonstrated just how award winners do it...

What a show, what a night.  Almost makes me want to just do weddings part time.

Nah...just kidding.  Rock on.

Thanks!

Well, it's been a long, long time since I have taken the time to blog, and I know I am totally doing this out of sequence, since I have several other weddings I should be blogging first, but I had to share this really awesome wedding I did last night in Grapevine.

The place is called La Buena Vida Winery, and it's this really cool vineyard right there in the heart of Grapevine.  And I had a bit of time before my services were actually required, so I spent some extra time doing some of the details of the venue, plus, I wanted to set my own personal record for how many cool shoe shots I could get from one pair of shoes and one location.

First, some location favorites...

And now that record setting shoe session:  Which one is YOUR favorite?

And now some other random detail shots before we actually get to meet our B & G.

And so without further ado, let's say hello to the lovely Suzanne.  What a beautiful bride she is!

And here's Jim, tbe groom.  Of course, his name is Jim, and my name is Jim, although I spell it more like    | jim |    (It's pronounced the same, the image enhancing lines are silent.)

Still, all I heard all night was 'Jim, you look great tonight.'  And 'Jim, you sure are handsome'.  And 'Jim, you really do clean up so well'.  And stuff like that.  And with BOTH of us named Jim, it did get a little bit confusing.  Can you imagine how awkward Jim must have felt when he came to the realization that everyone was actually talking about ME? ;>)

If a photographer's wedding experience depends in part on how comfortable he was made to feel by the couple, and how often they asked to serve him food and and cake and everything, then I had a great wedding last night.  It's pretty hard to think about anyone else on your wedding day, but Jim and Suzanne went the extra mile to make sure that I was taken good care of, and I always appreciate that!  Now let's see them in action.

And now some random party moments.

Here's Andrew, our DJ for the evening.  He kept us swinging all night long, including a couple of well placed numbers by the Muppets!

And now we must say goodnight.  It was an awesome wedding.  And those can tire a fella out!  Cheers!