Engagement sessions: Ron Grandia

Ron Grandia, a Phenomenal DJ Posted a great post on his blog about how engagement sessions can be very important.  He posted one of my videos as well.  His words on engagement sessions: "Do it".  Thanks Ron.  As a lot of you know, I LOVE shooting them, they give me the chance to connect with my clients.

View the post here

Promo Video: Jill Johnson Photography

This is a promotional video for the photographer Jill Johnson who lives and works out of San Jose.  She has tons of energy, loves to smile, and loves life.  Jill lives with her Husband Eric and their two sons.  I've had the pleasure of working with Jill a few times over the last year.  For the promo video Jill, Tia and I went to Santa Cruz for a day of shooting during an engagement session.

Check out her work at www.jilljohnsonphotography.com

Jill Johnson Promo Video Final from Luke Goodman on Vimeo.

Engaged the Video: Willa and Francis

As promised, here is Willa and Francis' engagement film.  I had such a great time working with these two.   They are such a blast!  You can view it directly on Vimeo or embedded here:

Engagement Willa and Francis from Luke Goodman on Vimeo.
http://www.vimeo.com/11289291

Japan.

Japan was quite an adventure.  I didn't take the time to blog while in Japan as my internet access was limited.

My first night, we stayed in a capsule hotel.  It was pretty interesting, I am extremely supprised that these don`t exist in the US.

The Japanese culture absolutely fascinates me.  I had some of the best food I have ever tasted.

To round it up, some of the things I tasted;

-Chicken Sashimi (raw chicken)  My friend Aya took me to an amazing chicken restaurant.  Raw chicken has an amazing texture, similar to Maguro (tuna).
-Octopus, squid,
-Traditional Japanese breakfast; raw egg, nato (fermented soybeans), over rice.
-Beef sashimi (and a few other raw red meats I wont mention)
-Tons of curry (infinately delicious).
-Fish.  Sushi.  Sashimi. and more fish.  We visited a fish restaraunt where the owner had worked as a fisherman for decades.  He had great connections to get excellent fish.  I must have ate ten different parts/kinds of fish in that restaraunt alone.

I will be posting more photos and explaining a few things we did in detail.  I believe I may have actually shot more video than photos!  Kind of crazy.  I am SO jetlagged, so It may take me a couple days to start feeling normal again.

I plan to attempt to learn more Japanese over the next year and return to visit again.  Thanks a ton to my cousin Nate who showed me everything there was to see, and got me there.

A still life from the chicken restaurant.

One night we stayed in a great suite after a poker game with my cousins friends (view from the balcony pictured at night and morning).

Always chasing pretty light.

My cousin Nathan, myself and my cousin Mike

Chicken Sashimi, wonderful.

TOKYO!

In less than a week, I'll be flying to Tokyo Japan.  I've dreamed about going to Japan since I was about 5 years old.  I absolutely can't wait!  If anyone has heard anything specific I should see while I'm there, let me know.  Packing tips?  I found a fantastic small-ish camera backpack to use as a day pack while i'm there.

I'm going to take a bajillion (that's a word right?) photos while i'm there, and a bunch of HD video.

...I'm kind of obsessive about packing...I keep packing, then rethinking what I'm bringing....

LEGOS

A good friend of my Steve Young works for a video game company called Net Devil.  He gave me one of the coolest christmas presents ever.  A Starwars collectors edition LEGO Millennium Falcon.  Net Devil is working on the latest MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) for LEGO in the lego universe.  Pretty sweet.

It has well over 5000 pieces and I anticipate it taking upwards of 30+ hours to build.  If I was twelve again, my head might explode.  I spent over three hours just organizing the pieces, and it still feels like a disaster.  Pretty awesome.  More progress as I get there...Great to feel like a kid again.  This feels pretty therapeutic.  Also- "Better" photos later.  I got really lazy...felt more like building!