Erin and Michael in Boise

c

My other June wedding was in Boise, too. Erin and Michael got married in St. John's Cathedral and it was like a royal wedding. So different from Zeke and AnnMarie, but funny enough, they wanted the same song for their slideshow. Hey, our country roots run deep here in Idaho. This was probably one of the toughest (logistically and lighting wise) but I had Tai Kerbs as the second shooter, so I wasn't worried. Great families on both sides, and the party went LATE NIGHT, as these fun folks were still doing shotskiis in the parking lot at 2am. By the end, I had to be 'superThia' as it was a 15 hour day for me -omg! Erin's sister, a fashion designer, made the wedding dress and all the brides maids dresses!!! Wow! Fabulous job!

Zeke and Annmarie in Boise

Ok, so I think I fell in love with both AnnMarie and Zeke by the end of their wedding day. One of the funnest couples EVER. AnnMarie took the looming rain clouds in stride, and the bridal party ROCKED for putting up with the drizzle for the train track shot and the football field shot. We moved the wedding inside the Train Depot, but it all worked out seemlessly, thanks to the great team at Bliss Events. 

AnnMarie is the event coordinator for Boise State, so the reception was held at the new Stuekle Center overlooking all of Boise (complete with a chocolate fountain, photo booth, and the best band ever). Perfect! So glad not to be in a soggy tent as the rain poured down after we got inside. I brought in Tai Kerbs from Santa Barbara, and Charlie Baser from her new job in Colorado, as second shooters. LOVE working with these girls! They are fantastic photogs (and great people!) and I can't say enough good things about them. We were the dream team, indeed! 

I cried myself when I made the slide show, so check it out.

To see my wedding portfolio, click on thiakonigphotography.com

Just because I'm a Sun Valley wedding photographer, doesn't mean I can't travel anywhere in the world. With airplanes, anything is possible.

Casey & Megan featured in theKnot Real Weddings

click the above image to view the whole piece

When Rebecca Crumley, the photo editor at theKnot, contacted me for selects from Megan & Casey's wedding shoot to be featured in the 'Real Wedding' section, I was psyched. She came across an old blog post of mine where I showed a slideshow of their Coffee Table Book Style Wedding Album. Thank god I had worked on my meta tags that day, as she was surfing looking for real Idaho weddings. Megan and Casey were such great people, and there was such a lot of love around, they made my job a joy that day. And, it really helps when clever creative people give me lots of beautiful things to shoot, as the folks at Delphine really outdid themselves with the escort cards and all things papery.

Kiteboarding in the Bahamas

On a working holiday for my 44th birthday, I found myself teaming up with my good buddy Gary who runs Exumakiteboarding.com. His company is on Exuma, a quaint little isle in the Bahamas with the best water and beaches for kiteboarding vacations, kiteboarding lesson packages, and kiteventures.

meet my buddy, Gary Sweeting....

Exuma is the most perfect place to learn to kiteboard. The water is warm, shallow, and beautiful aqua blue.

Even on no-wind days, we would take the boat out and have wakeboarding adventures, conch salad, and pet tame sting rays. Life does not suck here in the Bahamas.

Alex Korch heading out to rip it up at Runaway Bay

Not only did I learn to kiteboard - (I've always wanted to!) - I discovered all the shades of blue I never knew existed, and were living here in the Bahamas all along. This is the most beautiful water in the world. It's now my official favorite color.

As birthdays are concerned, I always want to keep on learning/exploring/living, seeing each birthday as another opportunity to learn something new. What have YOU always wanted to learn?

click here for more pics of The Bahamas

Photoshop workshop with Jonathan Kingston

Great thing about Ketchum/Sun Valley, is that we don't have to go very far to learn from brilliant, talented people, because they always come to visit US.  Such is the case with Jonathan Kingston, a documentary and underwater photographer and photoshop guru who gave his Photoshop CS4 basics and beyond training at my studio. I got to sit in for free (part student, part TA) since I transformed my studio/gallery into a classroom for 5 days. I even helped out when I could, because as they say, you can learn a lot when you teach.  Some lecture, some shooting, some practicing, some wax on - wax off, ....grasshoppahhhhh......

We even had Paul Liebhardt in the class (thank god, who knew photoshop could be so funny?!) Paul was both Jonathan and my favorite professor at Brooks Institute of Photography, BACK IN THE DAY. (a wonderful photographer with a great sense of humor-check him out!) Tables have turned, and now we're teaching the 'old dog' some new digital tricks. Class was small, so that left a lot of time for questions and personal attention. We had a great group of intelligent students, and we would even discuss the philosopy of color management?!

After 5 days of geeking out together, it felt like family, and we celebrated at Rasberry's for a wonderful farewell dinner (thanks Alfredo!!)

Photos Do Not Bend Studio was a great venue for the workshop - we'll be doing more here, so stay tuned.

But for now.... ahhh, back to normal (and back to work) 

A Great Cancer Survivor Story

What's so great about this image? It's a year and a half after we took these (below), again with her loving brother. During her chemotherapy, Jim shaved his head, too, and surprised her for her 31st birthday party in Sun Valley. That's love. Both were visiting Sun Valley again recently, so we had to do a follow up portrait! I gave Sunshine (no, that's her name, really!) all the high res files, and she's going to make a blurb book herself from her favorites. I love happy endings.

Thia wins another award!

I have to be honest - I was a  little bummed when I didn't win first, second, or third in the PX3 WATER competition - but when I saw the caliber of the honorable mentions, I was very proud. It turns out there were almost 40,000 entries worldwide.

This image is of a shark tank in the middle of a swimming pool at the Golden Nugget, downtown Las Vegas. Oh yeah, AND there is a waterslide running through it, too! Only in Vegas, baby. I spent HOURS in the pool trying to catch people/sharks/somebody in the waterslide for a perfect moment (but that's what I do for fun). 

For more great winners of other Px3 contests click here