...my name is Derek and thank's for stopping by my new blogsite. There’s a saying that goes something like "find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life." Well that “something” for me is photography. I have admired different forms of atristry ever since I was old enough to appreciate it but it wasn’t until recently that I discovered my passion for photography. Since then, I haven't put a camera down and my obsession continues to grow every time I step behind the lens. I’m just one person doing what he loves in life and I hope to bring you along to enjoy the ride. Feel free to take a look around and leave a comment if you feel compelled to do so or just send an e-mail and say "HI". I look forward to meeting each and every one of you and hope to hear from you soon!
Wow, June is already half over and I’m totally slackin’ on posting an end of the month wrap up on my Project 365. If you are one of my lucky friends on facebook or follow my business page, you will know that May and June have been packed full of activities to say the very least. I don’t think I’ve been home for one weekend to catch up on stuff since the first weekend of May and the forecast calls for at least another two weekends of madness then back to “normal”, YIKES!
Anyways, enough chatting… I got some work to catch up on, injoy.
Tiffany - What a fun concept! You truly have such an original style - the more we see of your stuff, the more we love it! So lucky to have found you and your gifts!
Sara and Mike hold the prestigious honor or being my first wedding of 2010 and what a blast it was. You may remember them from awhile back when we shot their engagement session in Clovis. Their wedding was held at Holland Park West which never seems to disappoint on some delicious grub ;) Enough rambling for now, here’s a few pics from their day!
Sara looking absolutely stunning!
…as well as the bridesmaids.
Mike, leader of…
…the Mafia.
Some first look lovin’.
The sisters had quite the hilarious and well written speech, mostly ragging on Mike a little but all in love.
Nothing ends the night better than a little crazy bouquet tossin’!
Talia and Ryan finally tied the knot at their wedding last weekend at Sunnyside Country Club, right here in Fresno! It was full of good food, beer, weather, and ever better people. More pics soon to follow but for now this will have to suffice…
I’ll be out of town for a week or so and wanted to get a quick preview up of Sara and Mike‘s wedding at Holland Park West, Fresno. More to come soon so stay tuned and check back for more!!
Nina and Vinnie’s engagement session was quite unique and interesting to say the least. We got took some goofy pictures, fun pictures, drama pictures, laughed at each other, got rained on, ate some delicious pizza and hot wings, got dressed up, took some more pictures, took a trauma access elevator to the top of a hospital, took more pictures on the helipad, then had some bombskizzle tea at teazers! I would say we we made a pretty awesome kick ass team for the day!
We started out at the crazy looking spaceship that is Fresno’s City Hall. The 4 dimensions (nina+vinnie, cloud reflection, building, and sky) in the image above made this one of my many favorites from the day’s session. Nina and Vinnie call this their “Asian Pose”, haha!
We took cover as we hid from the downpour and still got some sweet pics. They said they don’t photograph well and aren’t photogenic. I think the following two images help prove otherwise!! You two are smokin’ hot!
Since nina is a nurse, we were able to get on the helipad for just a few minutes before we ran out of light and had to head back down, but made the best of it! I was hoping that we would have had a helicopter to play with but i guess some random photographer on top of a hospital building with no railing crawling around on a helicopter was some wort of liability issue… ehh, ohh well, we got to shoot on a helipad, heck yes!!
P.S. Quote of the session… “Awww, we’re your first asians. How sweet!” ~Nina :)
This project has come to make me realize just how fast time passes through our lives. April 30th marked day 120 of 2010. You have now had over 120 days to work on all those New Year’s resolutions you set on day 1.
Where have you succeeded?
Where have you failed?
Do you even remember what those goals were?
Did you write them down?
Did you try any of the tips that I mentioned in THIS previous blog post?
How important are those goals to you?
If everything changed tomorrow would you be satisfied with what you accomplished in the last 120 days?
I am full of questions today. Questions I don’t necessarily have an answer to. Take a moment and reflect on the past 120 days, appreciate what you have been given, pat yourself on the back for your accomplishments, and push yourself to take the following 8 months and reach those goals you’ve been slacking on finishing or maybe haven’t even started. You can’t go back and start a new beginning, but you CAN start today and make a new ending.
as i’m loading the gear into my truck i run back inside for one last thing, come back out and its hailing, uh oh. by the time i met up with shelley and her mom for her senior pictures, it’s no longer hailing but pouring rain! oh well, no biggie. we just sat in the car for a half hour and got to chat. no pictures, just talk. it was nice. i would like to do that more often and maybe i just will.
we waited out the storm and im glad we did because we got some awesome big skies and with a little help from mother nature a free wind machine! we made the best of the situation and shelley knocked it out of the park with this one. what a great person and if you know her you’ll know that she has such an addictive laugh, you can’t help but laugh right along. we had a good time that’s for sure. shelley, here’s your preview. many more comin’ your way! injoy
…you know you can’t help but smile when you see this picture :)
maybe my favorite shot of the day.
in between rain events we had such an amazing canvas to work with!
I got to get out of Fresno and head south to Tulare Union High to hang out with Jordan and grab a few senior pictures before he graduates and heads down south to pursue his basketball career. Seniors are so much fun to shoot. With so much ahead of them, they have the world at their fingertips to pursue dreams and aspirations. Be on the lookout for Jordan during March madness in the upcoming years ;) InJoy these for now!
Something about all the hard lines and shadows with this shot that i totally dig.
This was literally the last image of the day, i think it was a good one to end on. All Jordan needs here is a spear, shield, and helmet and i’m thinkin’ he’ll fit right in the movie 300!
When it came to planning Kara and Justin‘s engagement session, we weren’t exactly sure what we were going to do… until i found out that they love to go to the movies! So, how much more appropriate than to shoot in a theater!? I had to pull quite a few string to make it happen, but it all worked out and we got some killer images to prove it. Kara and Justin are two amazing, gorgeous people inside and out made for each other. There are soo many more awesome pics but here’s a few of my favorites. InJoy!
This next shot kind of reminds me of a scene in Twilight with Bella and Edward for some reason, NOT that I like those chic flick vampire love story movies or anything (unlike my wife who has a major love crush on Robert Pattinson), pshh!
We made our way up to the forest for a few shots ;)
How stinkin’ cool is this tree!? Oh yeah… Kara and Justin, you guys look pretty cool too!
What’s a movie if it’s not in 3D? I told them to pretend they were watching the funniest movie they have ever seen and Justin starts laughing out loud, REALLY LOUD, which got us all laughing. I wish i had a video of this one because it was hilarious, haha! I wont be forgetting this shot anytime soon!
The end.
Thank you to Laura for getting us into the top secret theater location to shoot and to Alecks Lara for being my light boy and sharin’ a beer with me!
Alecks - DUDE! They came out awesome!! I love the last shot of them in the hallway!
Thanks for letting me help!! Justin and Kara where super cool!
Derek Lapsley - anytime justin, hope you had as much fun as i did!
justin deffebach - these are awesome! thank you for taking the time and for the creative energy you spent to make these look so good. we have some awesome memories in these pics.
March was full of new relationships and fun adventures. I attended my first ever WPPI convention, got to hang out with some amazing people, washed my truck for the first time since last summer, drank green beer, plenty of awesome photoshoots, grub, and family. Life doesn’t get a whole lot better than this :)
by Derek Lapsley
1 comment
add a comment link to this post email a friend