Chicago to meet a bride

So I was picked up at the airport by Jen and her finance, Tony. Together we scouted the fabulous Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago, and then on to the St. Patricks Cathedral. 

They are actually not crazy about having their picture taken, so I snuck off some engagement pics for them when they weren't looking....

In between the Drake and the church I was whisked around downtown and had a whirlwind tour from the back of their car.....

So instead of doing a full blown engagement session, they took me back to the beach house and I did some pics of the family, and a lot of their little neice, who kinda stole my heart. It was so great to meet the family - I'm SO looking forward to shooting their wedding in JANUARY?! Well, that's when they have their break from school, and they don't want to wait for next summer. Besides, in the fabulous Drake Hotel, it will all be grand.

I gave both Jen and her mom a dvd of all the high res images I took that weekend. It's so fun to give people the rock star treatment.... after all, they signed up for the Rock Star Wedding Package. I'll be flying in Tai Kerbs from Santa Barbara, and a whole box of hand warmers from Costco.

Another award from PDN! - the Faces contest...

Wow. I got ANOTHER call from PDN (Photo District News - THE trade mag for the photo industry) that the judges had chosen this image as a finalist in the Faces competion. These boys at a road stop in the middle of nowhere didn't know what to think of me.... driving ALONE in a pickup? ... with no MAN?!! ("Do you need a man? I could be your man!") Sometimes women would see me and give me a proud 'go girl' thumbs up!! Lesotho (pronounced Le-sutu) is a land-locked country within South Africa, all of which is above 6,000ft. Because of this elevation, this 'national blanket' is standard issue. One of the coldest nights of my life was in the middle of summer in Africa. 

For more pics from the Tribes series, 

check out my 'projects' on my website 

To see more awesome pics from last years faces winners gallery, 

check out pdn

Erin and Michael in Boise

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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)