representing that 1st and 15th...

i scrambled to contact lupe fiasco's publicist in time for last wednesday's show. they blessed me with a ticket and photopass (and aftershow pass?!) and below are the images from the house of blues. i ran into steve osemwenkhae of mindlessphotos and we watched the show, adding comedic commentary when necessary. lots of laughs.

i'm a fan to sneaking out the door a few songs before the end (especially if i have to ride the train home), but the security dude said that the aftershow pass would allow us to meet lupe when the show was done. very good. i'm staying!  :)

a.) B.O.B's set surprised me. he went from rapper dude to acoustic guitarist dude to electric guitarist dude to shirt-off-standing-in-the-crowd dude.  it was like TI meets Wyclef meets John Mayer. i wasn't expecting that. his song, BEAUTIFUL GIRLS is all over the radio. he'll do great things. 

b.) lupe fiasco's stage show made me tired! this dude can move! he was moving from stage left to right and back so fast. such energy. and his lyrics have depth. love it!  he took the time out to appreciate the fans. brought a ton of them on stage for a full song and they all got to sing daydreamin'. hilarious. great show. don't miss it. 

and now....click on the image below to read the official examiner.com review.



and you know how i like my slideshows....

hey! you know that awesome, fantastic, super-nice wedding photographer, agnieszka wormus? you might know her as the lady behind A BRILLIANT PHOTO? omg! she had a beautiful baby girl! miss darcy babers threw her a wonderful baby shower and i attended with the photo crew: geneve rege and lori steigerwald. yeah, imagine 5 photographers around a table of crazy-good food. we talked about lenses, f-stops and....babies!  :)  some things you'll notice in the images below: sidney (darcy's daughter) and her artwork. chef darcy's creations. and camera-shy photographers.

congrats you two. enjoy parenthood and stuff. KMD




it's time for a sliiiiiideeeshowwww!  yes, that's ham.

hello blog. it's me, karin. i'm trying to get used to you. you're lucky i hate the new facebook uploader. because i normally post there first and then forget about the blog. :) here we are.

my little cousin janae is already 2 years old! donna, uncle magee and aunt nancy threw the little misses a party at the church. there was cake and balloons and family. i took a few photos and without further ado...ado?  adoo?  ...eh.  here are some of the images:

...goes up on this blog. i've never been to vegas before. this was my first time. i've memorized movies like casino and oceans 11. i've watched leaving las vegas and very bad things.  21 (read the book too) and of course, the hangover. for years i've wanted to go. and i've also wanted to see what all the hype was about at WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers
International). 2 birds one stone. what a crazy place. i collected a ton of hooker ads for my brother. haha. i need to go back, that's for sure. i probably walked 9 miles and only saw 1/4 of the city. if that much. what a special place. i gave them my money. i won it back. and then gave it away again.  the house always wins. always bet on black. and so on.  :)

run that slideshow:



if you watched the slideshow, yes, i was excited to meet some of those rockstar/celebrity photographers. they have mastered marketing and getting you to buy their stuff. i appreciate what they've done and they do make beautiful images. shoutouts to: the image is found, jessica claire, amelia lyon, jasmine star, jesh de rox, matthew jordan smith and those are my favorites.  the image is found is #1. i personally think their work stands out and i like their style. i think i told them that. it was more like: YOU GUYS ARE MY FAVORITE $#*@ING PHOTOGRAPHERS EVER. I LOVE YOU GUYS. my bad. it's weird to admire their success from afar and then be standing in line for a burger next to them. i dunno. it was different. i've been reading their blogs since i was a baby photographer. there were so many awesome photographers in one building. it was a cool experience.



and jesh de rox made me cry my face off during his beloved session.  i've always loved his images. what a great speaker. i can't say that for all the WPPI panel members. haha. during one of the business platform classes, i attempted to stick a pen in my eye.



yes, that is a chocolate fountain above.

all of the platform speakers were trying to sell their CDs or DVDs or books or what have you. i fought the power and held off, otherwise i'd walk home with impulse buys. i tend to do that. the tradeshow was overwhelming.  crowded and i wanted to buy everything.



i had to go to one party and chose 'airhorns and lasers'. i didn't really have anyone to go with. my roomie wanted to go to the welcome dinner. so i went on my own and met up with phoenix mcpeek and her friend daria bishop. they only stayed for an hour, just as the dj was getting started. um, the dj was FANTASTIC (the flashdance), so i stayed.  made new friends. felt awkward by myself. whatever. i paid $50 and i was going to get my $50 worth! p.s. the wynn is a beautiful hotel. unlike the mgm, where the toilets overflow and the lady at the front desk tests your patience. oh! and the luxor was cool. i've ALWAYS wanted to go there.



they kept beating in the importance of social media during the conference, so i started using twitter again. and RANDOMLY, my cousin bianca tweeted "viva las vegas".  my little mini-me cousin was in vegas, in the mgm (same hotel) and thanks to twitter, i found her!  :)  we walked around the bellagio.
 


oh vegas. you're so expensive. but we shall meet again. and i'll be ready. below is rob van petten's photo. he was one of my instructors at CDIA. i want my photos sponsored by nikon. #justsaying. :)



more shoutouts:  cheryl colombo, josh kane, jennifer hudson, ck, marilyn nakazato and that's all i got.

omg. if i don't post about my trip out west, my father will shoot me. he has become a facebook stalker. "where are the pics?"  "waiting patiently." HERE THEY ARE PA DUKES!  :)

ok. so my father-father moved out to AZ at the end of october. i tried to plan a trip out there around the WPPI las vegas weekend to do both in a week.  boston has had a pretty mild winter in terms of snow, but it was great to get out of the cold and get some sun!

why not check out a video of the entire trip here.  the song makes you want to dance with glow sticks, right? this is 7 LONG minutes. sorry. the first one i made was 2 minutes and waay too fast. my father is probably the only one who will watch. stalker.




it almost never rains in arizona. it's the desert. my first day there...it poured.  so i helped my father with some construction on his home theatre project. when i say help, i mean watch him do most of the work. the image below is a smudge of adhesive that marred his masterpiece.  :(



i got to use a power saw thingy and a caulking gun. and a nail gun.  w00t!  my father has been smoking since...FOREVER.  why not send him an email, reminding him of the dangers.  md1953 at yahoo dot com.  :)





reppin' the patriots in AZ. i sent this to him for christmas.