Our Little Trip to Richmond, VA

Christina and I went to Richmond a couple weekends ago for my friend Mike's wedding. The wedding was great and it was really fun to see and catch up with friends from VA. It was also cold! But we enjoyed the [much] cooler weather regardless. We had some time on Saturday since all of the Virginia folks drove home Friday night, so we headed into Richmond to walk around, get some food, and enjoy the brick buildings and beautiful, old homes (Florida is lacking in both of those areas).

We also enjoyed the taste of fall and the oranges and red leaves. I didn't take a ton of pictures - it seems I am just as good at not taking pictures - but here are a few!

Costa Family Portraits - Bal Harbour Beach, Miami, FL

Here are some of my favorites from the recent family session with the Costa's! Such a beautiful and fun family. Grandma was in town from Texas, so she joined for the session and for some of the photos. Enjoy!

Check out my Facebook page for more photos:
http://www.facebook.com/BrettBeckerPhotography

And my Website:
http://www.brettbeckerphotography.com/

National Coffee Day...is TODAY!

Yep, that's right. Today is National Coffee Day 2011! Althought some places said it's International Coffee Day 2011. Not sure many are celebrating - although Caribou is offering buy one get one free, 7-11 was offering free coffee until 11am, and Krispy Kreme offered some sort of free coffee as well. The Washington Post Blog had a little snippet here.

I'm not sure that Americans need a "special day" to drink coffee, right? Most people that drink coffee have it most days and those that don't aren't going to drink it on this nominally special day. But hey, since I drink coffee most days, might as well celebrate...

In honor of NCD (that's what celebrators call it nowadays obviously) here are some places where I have enjoyed a memorable cup of coffee (that I can remember)...

Costa Rica - enjoyed coffee at a hotel, bought 2 lbs of coffee in a market in San Jose, and 3 years later enjoyed Costa Rican coffee on my Honeymoon in Papagayo...

Kenya - big tea drinkers/producers but I enjoyed both in Nairobi...

Haiti - strong and sweet, almost syrup-like sometimes! Gives you enough caffeine for 3-4 days. My friend Thony said he doesn't like to drink it everyday or else he gets a little crazy and then gets headaches.

Go celebrate. Drink some coffee. Most of you already have and/or were already planning on getting your second or third cup today probably. I might go enjoy one cup today, since I've noticed that two cups gives me a headache! At least at Starbucks...

New Domain! BrettBeckerPhotography.com

As you may have noticed in my previous two posts, I started watermarking with "Brett Becker Photography" and some of the new BIG NEWS is I also registered my domain name http://www.brettbeckerphotography.com/ - don't get too excited just yet! It will bring you right back here! But there are some exciting things in the process and will hopefully be unveiled soon. So in the meantime, take a look around and enjoy all the photos I have on this blog already!

But it means there are two ways to get here for now:
http://www.brettbeckerphotography.com/
and
http://lettherebelightphoto.blogspot.com/

In the meantime, here is a photo of my parents from a family wedding last year (such a good looking couple, right?!):

I'll tell you this...since I am now editing with Adobe Lightroom 3, Blogger does NOT do my photos justice. I think they look so much better before they get loaded and compressed into Blogger! But that's okay, I realize that Google is high-powered and all, but not enough to put full-size, all-the-millions-of-pixels-photos on my blog time and time again. There's only so much space I guess!

3 for 3 this week (Monday-Wednesday posting) - not bad!

Some Magazine-Like Photography: From New York

So here they are - a few of the "model-y" shots.
Erin is a GREAT model, huh?! Let me know if you have any favorites - use the comment box!

 Have a great weekend! New posts will be coming soon...that's a GUARANTEE!! Good news is coming too...

Senior Portraits - Erin - taken in Sea Cliff, NY Part II

I wanted to post a few more photos from Erin's photo-shoot, but I caught a fever on Sunday and it seems to be finally gone today, so now I can sit up straight and post!

Here is the link to the first post for Erin:
Senior Portraits - Erin - taken in Sea Cliff, NY Part I

I am thinking I will do one more post of some Erin favorites, she is my cousin after all! The next post will be more of the "artsy" ones that look more like magazine shots than senior photos (in my opinion), but ya never know! Maybe out there in Washington, "artsy" is "in" for senior photos. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Senior Portraits - Erin - taken in Sea Cliff, NY Part I

Senior Portraits 
This is my cousin, Erin - she lives out in Washington state, but was in New York with her family for my brother's wedding and a nice vacation visit and asked if while we were both there I could take her senior portraits - to be used for her yearbook and to give out to friends and family and such.

I only was in New York from Thursday night to Sunday evening, so Erin was a little nervous we wouldn't be able to get her pictures done...but fear not, we did! We took the photos on Friday in Sea Cliff, NY - a nice, quaint, older Long Island town that is just 1 square mile. Lots of Victorian era homes and buildings. I love Sea Cliff and my camera does too. This charming village has SO many great photography spots to choose from and since this was my cousin, we chose any and all we had time for! She and the girls (my wife and sister) had to get their nails done afterwards so we had quite a bit of time, but not unlimited. 


I loved how a lot of the photos came out, but in the end had to choose some favorites. There are ones that are more "Senior-photo-y" and then ones that look more like magazine shots. As you are about to find out, Erin is quite photogenic! Most of the magazine shots are not in this post and I actually haven't edited them yet. As always, I am a "light" editor, meaning I don't use photoshop and put crazy effects and made-up sunlight or anything like that. Just some minor tweaks using Digital Photo Professional by Canon. However, I am looking forward to upgrading to Adobe Lightroom.

Enjoy!

Stay tuned for a few more "best of's" from Erin's photo shoot!

Rain Photos into Video #2

Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody #11 is playing in the background

So I promised giving it another shot...so here it is! I will probably try again, hopefully getting a little better each time. During our almost daily afternoon shower, I decided to take a few more photos. I really like a few of the series that I included in the video and will probably do some similar shots next time it rains! 

Let me know what you think!

Fun with Photos...and video?! And a business card?!

Since there was a quick rainstorm just a few minutes ago I decided to take a few photos. I also wanted to try a little time-lapse-style video with some of the photos. So here it is! Nothing special, I will probably try again and use more photos which will make it a little better - oh and also do it horizontally of course so it's not a pain to watch. I have never posted a video on my blog, since this is a photography blog, so don't be too disappointed!

I also played around with the idea of a business card - for my photography of course. So I will show you what I came up with! I would absolutely love to upgrade my camera to a Canon 7D, but until I either have a good job or make money off of my photography, that will not be happening! I was reading a blog the other day that recommended upgrading photo equipment every year if you work professionally...but I don't so here we are going into my 5th year! In the meantime I will enjoy my Rebel XTi, and though it has passed its 4th birthday, it is still doing well! The photos in the video above were with my favorite and best lens, 50mm f/1.4 - which has also done me wonders with portraits. Anyways, the business card....

 Front 

The real reverse has my phone number on it so
might as well keep that to myself! But here
is a version without my phone number!

I printed a few out just for fun. The cardstock I used is not quite as thick as a business card normally is and it is slightly gray in color, but I added a little tab just to see what it looked like...any thoughts? Part of me thought it looked good, then I put it down and thought it looked random and out of place. So I don't know - obviously it would be a lot of work to put it on every one, but I tried just for fun! Here are photos of the front and back I took...

Don't mind the colors, they look a little different in person than on the screen and there was no need to edit them to look like they should! I guess I could figure out some kind of logo to put on that little tab - then it would probably look cool. Any thoughts or ideas are greatly appreciated! Otherwise, I am hoping to get a great photo of lightning sometime soon. Florida has so many thunderstorms, which is great for people who like thunder and lightning and rain (like Christina and I). If it weren't for all the mosquitoes, we would probably be on our balcony every time there is a thunderstorm. But there have been some great *potential* lightning photos, but no successful ones as of yet. I'll keep you updated!

Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital Grand Opening Celebration SATURDAY! JDCH Hollywood, FL

So I was able to spend a few hours over at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital on Saturday - a little while of that time getting my "VIP" tour from my lovely wife. The hospital is nothing short of amazing! But I guess $140 million of anything should be! Regardless of constructions costs, this hospital will do what it is designed to do: Make children feel comfortable for any and all medical procedures, from life-changing surgeries to simple tests. I think from the moment you walk in, you feel strangely "at home." As I put it to my wife, I think the rooms have so many distractions and colors that you forget about all the tubes and wires and things connected to the bed and walls (and eventually patients).

The waiting rooms are situated on the side of the building in cylindrical rooms with sweeping views of the property outside. I can imagine that going to the hospital for tests on your child is not something any parent enjoys, however I think this hospital has done a great job of making it an all around better experience for both child and family. Among others, I know the employees are excited to be in the new hospital! One child on the tour told my wife to break his arm so that he could stay overnight! What he didn't know is the hospital is not open and if he broke his arm, he would have to take a trip to the "old" hospital where the ER will remain.

Remember, with giving away free food...comes LONGGGGG LINES!!!!! This is a photo from the 3rd floor looking out on the line. Luckily, when I went a couple hours later it wasn't as bad, but I still had to wait about an hour I think. But, the food was still free.
 

View from the 3rd Floor to the parking lot

 

Here are some of my favorite photos of inside the hospital...

CT scan (CAT scan) - designed as a pirate ship!

Nuclear Medicine machine - jungle themed! So fun - waterfall needs a bit of redesign!

One of the holding rooms

This is a physician-bot (robot). Can't say I fully understand
why this is needed, but it sure does look expensive!

Hotel Room...I mean hospital room! Sorry, my mistake!

They are going for the "hotel feel" - with folded towels, info folders, and room service!

3rd floor is the Orange Floor

Not your average hospital room, right?!

I saw the custom shower curtain and couldn't resist - I mean clearly that is a needed feature in the bathroom! Also
from that keyboard you can access the features on the flat-panel screen the bed faces. Custom room-service is
included...meaning anything you want anytime you want it - I can imagine that is going to be awesome for patients
and a complete nightmare for the kitchen staff!! That same TV also has internet access, TV of course, on-demand
movies and games, hospital services, and more!

One of the many tours going through!

Some of the outdoor activities seen from my bird's eye view...

 Check the guy on the right - not only is he 20+ years older, but
he is mid-break on those little boards!

 

Hope you enjoyed! 

Here are some follow up links and articles...

Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital - Main Website 

Memorial Healthcare System - Main Website 

Sun Sentinel - DiMaggio Children's Hospital expansion to open Thursday

Miami Herald - New children’s hospital opening in Hollywood

NBC Miami - New Children's Hospital Gets Ready to Open