One more life list goal accomplished in California – drive the west coast!

Chris and I drove from San Diego to LA. Then left LA and drove up Highway 1 to San Francisco. It was the most beautiful drive we’ve ever been on. We must have stopped 100 different times. We weren’t sure we would do it at first, but I’m so glad we did. Especially in a convertible!

Here’s an instax of Chris at one of our favorite spots.

Not only Jason Mraz, but Bushwalla, Dawn Mitschele, Anya Marina, etc. I knew if I visited San Diego I’d want to check out the local music scene. I follow a blog called San Diego:Dialed In and checked it while we were there. I found out one of my favorites, Gregory Page, would be playing at Java Joe’s.

So Chris and I went. He was amazing to say the least. Plus, I got to meet him!

allie

Since I was in California, I obviously had the chance to accomplish certain things on my life list. Like watching the sunset over the Pacific. I actually prefer it to getting up early to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic. Who wouldn’t? Plus… the views are more magnificent.

Chris and I went to the best place in San Diego to experience it… Sunset Cliffs. I snagged this photo while we were watching:

For those of you who know me well (or even just a little bit), I have always wanted to visit California. I’ve always had a fascination with the west coast since I was little and learned my mom was born there. After finding out SoCal has perfect weather 24/7, I started an obsession with San Diego.

Chris and I had been talking about taking a mini-vacation to San Diego for a while, but over Christmas we found an awesome deal on a flight. So we booked the flight Christmas Eve Eve and then flew out on Christmas night! And just for the record, spontaneous trips are awesome! We didn’t have any plans, but had a few friends that we stayed with. We drove up and down the coast and it was truly the trip of a lifetime!

I fulfilled a few more life list goals while I was there, but I’ll be posting those a little later. For now, you can see some of our old school photos we took with a Diana lens on our blog here, here, and here with more to come!

allie

Own the entire Harry Potter collection… check!

My parents got me all the hardback books for Christmas and I’m ready to start the series all over again! I’ve only read through each book once. While I know the overall story, it’s the little things that I’ve forgotten and am excited to read again.

On another note – if you’re not a crazy Harry Potter fan like me, you might not know about Universal Studio’s Harry Potter world that’s opening this spring. My best friend, Katie, so kindly reminded me (a Harry Potter junkie herself) that we’ll both be too pregnant to attend when it opens. Ugh. Oh well, we’re planning a special trip later down the road. It shall be awesome.

Love me some Harry Potter. 4 other life list goals coming soon!

allie

A little more than a year ago (September of 2008), I posted this on my blog. Since then we’ve put our heart and souls into both being full-time and having our own business. We’ve been busy – maybe a little too busy – but that comes with starting a business. We re-branded from Allie Marie Photography to The Reason, started a new blog and website(s), and started booking weddings. A few months later, Chris was able to quit his day job and focus only on photography. I had to hang in a little longer to make sure things would work out. I’m EXTREMELY happy to tell you that the day has come! I am officially a full time photographer!!

Since it’s also the Thanksgiving season, I’m writing this to say THANK YOU…

… to all of our brides and grooms. You rock. You don’t know how much your compliments have helped us take steps forward. And for those who constantly spread the word about The Reason, we can’t do it without you.

… to all the bosses and colleagues at all the jobs I had before reaching this point. For the friendships I gained out of it. For knowing what I was working towards and being understanding when the time came to move forward.

… to my friends for being interested and understanding how busy we are. For never giving up on us, always asking how the business is going, and believing in us.

… to my family for being so supportive, believing in me, helping us when things were crazy, and offering advice. I can’t believe I was blessed with such a great one.

… to Chris for being the love of my life. For his willingness to learn something new just to spend more time with me (and being ridiculously amazing at it). For his ability to be great at anything he puts his mind to and for challenging me to be the best I can be.

And also… thank you to our blog readers. We know you’re out there, we have the proof. Thank you for being interested at all, leaving comment love (you know we love it!), spreading the word, and cheering us on.

Annnnnnd… here’s ALL the links you’ll need to stay in touch and up to date with The Reason!

Blog

Weddings

Portraits

Facebook Fan Page

I LOVE MY JOB!

allie

More Holga photos came in the mail today! Love it when that happens. These are kind of random.

Max’s adventure out on the deck:

I feel like I need to explain why he has a cone and big blue thing around his neck. He had sores on his back because he was licking himself over and over again. He has healed since then and looks much cuter.

I love owls. My parents got me this to hang in our backyard. cute, eh?

Not sure what happened here… I know they’re Katie’s sunglasses though! Haha.

Love this one of Chris!

My awesome dad! Love this one of him too!

For some reason I love power line towers. Especially the ones that are out in the middle of the woods and make a long clearing up the side of mountains. I really liked the way the clouds looked too.

This little guy lived next to a gas station on the way to St. Simons!

The next two are on the drive to St. Simons.

I’m getting better, woohoo!

allie

Listen to the song that inspired the name of my blog here. It’s called “Sunshine Song.” I stalk www.archive.org for Mraz recordings (he’s awesome and lets people record and share). This song showed up on one of his set lists at the beginning of the year and I’ve been listening to a crappy recording of it for the past few months. When he played it at the show in July I was so happy! So, now it’s being released on his new Live CD. Yay!

This CD/DVD are definitely on my Christmas List… such an awesome tour.

I’ve been really inspired by silent films lately. For those of you who don’t know me very well, I have a major in Film Studies. I watched many, many silent films in my film history classes during college and learned to appreciate them. I’ve just recently been reminded how wonderful they are. Because the actors had to use so much body language and facial expressions, I figured the stills of these silent films would be awesome inspiration for my photography. So I Googled, and found this website! Check out these photos (all taken from the site):

So what do you think? Could any of these stills be translated into engagement or wedding photos today?

Did you know you can watch a lot of silent films online? Yep, go to http://retrovision.tv/movies/silent.

allie

The view from where we ate lunch:

Downtown. It was so windy, and there were a million sailboats… you can’t really see them in this photo. I could’ve sat there for a long time, it was awesome.

So… South Carolina ended up being the first state we travelled to for a wedding. Thanks to Heather and Tim for bringing us there! Next year we’re already booked for Oklahoma, Colorado, and Alabama! So excited!

allie