'Tis the season to...

... love.

Do I think about this, now in the season of Advent leading up to Christmas?  Sometimes, but not particularly.  I've been occupied with wrapping gifts and writing cards, scheduling dinner dates and planning our honeymoon.  None of these are bad things, really, and they do give joy to others and even myself.  But in midst of this, I'm reminded that there are still more opportunities to show love, maybe to those I don't think of first: the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the lonely, the marginalized, the powerless.

A video by Advent Conspiracy, with a song by Chris Tomlin on the topic.  Enjoy!

Preview of the Mr. and Mrs.

People keep asking me, "Where are your wedding photos?  Can I see them?"  And my answer is "... not yet!  Unless you want to see slightly shaky iPhone shots of us taken by guests."  Smiley face.

These types proliferate in social media, but the benefit and negative to having a professional wedding and editorial photographer take your pictures is that 1) he likely took thousands of photos from the wedding and needs to sift through them to find the good ones and touch them up, and 2) because he does wedding photography, he is also off just about every weekend shooting other weddings and being a photojournalist .. meaning there is a back log of work.  And your photos are not always hovering at the top of his to do list.

But no matter.  I'm patient.  And there is at least one photo I can present as a preview!  I requested a shot to use in time for Christmas, and here it is:

Photo by Sandor Welsh Photography

I should note that I was VERY cold.  My goosebumps are probably visible in the RAW file of this image.  But this shot still makes for a good "first look" :)  You can imagine what our dialogue must have been like.

[the big day] Married indeed

"If I get married, I want to be very married."

// Audrey Hepburn

Indeed!  :)

[the big day] Couple photo

Marcus and I have a tendency to take particular sorts of "couple photos" -- not typically ones of us caught in some tight embrace, but rather of the impersonal sort without either of us in them.  I don't remember when this developed, but we got in the habit of finding two objects of the same type but different sizes -- and laughing hilariously while taking pictures of those items.  People in cafes, grocery stores, and other places must have found us weird.

During our semi-impromptu engagement photo session with Po-Ru all those months back this summer, what good fortune did we have but to find an awesome couple photo awaiting us in the Toah Nipi kitchen?  Industrial sized spice jug meets tiny household spice rack inhabitant.  A spicy mix!

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Photo by Po-Ru Loh, who was a good sport about indulging our idiosyncrasies.