Band-aid

I am the band-aid for the Band UNA....

If you know me personally you know that I think my Husband is HOT! I will  tell almost anyone this in the third conversation after meeting them... I think he is even hotter when he has a guitar in his hands (which is every wednesday night and the occasional friday when he has a practice or a show). Mark has been in a band ever since I have known him. He was a guitar major at Biola University and he has always found a way to play his guitar through out the week. 

Well this past week I took the opportunity to shoot some updated "Band Photos". He has an upcoming show this week and they felt inspired to spice up their image. So if you would like to join us, and see the Mark, of "mark brooke photography" rock his heart out then here are the details. 

Location:  THE WIRE 247 N. 2nd Ave, Upland, CA 91786, CA 91786

When: Friday, November 14, 7:00PM

Personal updates...

To be honest I feel like Mark and I have been absent from the world for the last two months. I was just on the phone the other day with a good friend (Ashley ann) and she repremanded us for being "missing"  for so long. The truth is we have given our heats and soul into our business and we know the hard work mixed with lots of fun will pay off. So here is what has been going on. 

1. We finally finished our studio! It look's out of this world awesome. I am so excited to have something that screams "US".  We will be posting photos of it very soon (all the wedding post come first).

2. we have been traveling our butts off. We still have to post two RAD destination weddings, so stay tuned.  Two weeks ago we went to Cabo and now we are sitting in Cancun. And I have had the great opportunity to shoot with Jessica Claire at a few of her destination weddings these past few weeks. 

3. Mark celebrated his 24th B-day. which was off the hook! I have known and dated mark since he was 16, so to have him turn 24 seemed so weird (time flies). We have so many memories together of his past birthdays and I feel blessed to be celebrating another birthday with him as his WIFE. 

4. I have a HUGE project that I am personally working on. I am super excited and I cannot wait to officially announce it in a few weeks. When Mark is on the "Man trip" I will be driving down to LA every day to finalize things and make some VERY big decisions.  

5. Jeffrey our puppy has Seizors! Yep, you heard me! It is soooo sad. We have medication for it but I am not sure what the long term out come will be. 

6. We finally decided to pay the BIG BUCKS and get Red Door to do ALL our branding, website, and marketing. He has done all fo the branding for Becker and Jessica and shootsac! We also know the owner Tim, and he is a great guy. Mark and I both feel we did the smart thing by keeping our site simple and inexpensive until now.... But as our prices go up, and our number of clientele goes up, we feel it is important to put a new, "permanent" face to Mark Brooke Photographers. As far as we know everything is changing except our Grey and Teal colors. 

7. HOLY COW!!  over 500 people voted on the first day of the Nosering poll!!!! Now.... what to do with this information.... hmmmmmmmm.


 

 

So I think this is all the exciting news that is going on with us. We are excited for things to slow down so we can catch our breath and hang out with our family and great friends....But I am not quite sure when that will happen :)

Here is just a sneak peek at a few the up coming shoots on our blog! [don't worry we still have a bunch of other rad shoots to in the blog-pipes]

Kirk and Nicole [Newport beach, Ca]:

Alex and Marlena [Cancun, Mexico]:

Nicole and Brian [Cabo san lucas, Mexico]:

Lindsay and Ben [Costa mesa, Ca]:

Would you like a little more sneak with your peek?

...
... more will come soon soon, i promise!

riding the waves...yeahhhhh

So this past week we had a blast entertaining people on our parents duffy bout (a duffy is a small bout, but, its just as cool as the jungle cruise bout at D-land).  Amelia and justin have been our great, great, great, friends ever since the day we bumped into them. And maybe even before that when everyone was saying that Candice looked identical to this "amazing photographer" named Amelia.  

We have done so many rad date nights, family outings, Sundays, and even fathers day together! Justin and I are working on a top secret project that will be reveled shortly... No hints for now, sorry. I promise that you head will explode when we do... so the wait is well worth it!

Later that night, i went to download the pictures from my card and there were only these 4 pictures.....  what a bummer!  So here they are enjoy 'em!!!!!  

**since i lost all of mine...i grabbed these off of Amelia's blog**

My camera was out of reach so i grabbed Amelia's and basically held down the shutter button to capture Hudson going ape-s**t on the duffy pillows!!!!!!!

1980: year of the AWESOME!

So, last week i went up to Utah with my good friend Justin Lyon to work on a new project [soon to be reviled, and it is so awesome!]. We had a radical time!!!!  we set up a couple of fun photo-shoots while we were there...  

Here is the first...and most badical one:

CLICK HERE FOR A RAD TIME!!!!!

CLICK HERE FOR A RAD TIME!!!!!

Virgin islands....

In three hours from now Mark and I are jumping on a plane and heading to St Croix, Virgin Island! we are super super excited! 

Has anyone ever heard of Trade to Travel? Well its this program where you can list your house on a website and people can stay in your house a week while you stay in theirs. And you get points for every time someone stays in your house. Well My grandparents have a house in NY that is in a Hot locations so we are swaptin' with someone in the Virgin Islands.

I am soooooo excited! I bought brand new pink water shoes and a pink snorkel (these items should look good with my bathing suites) and I found someone to watch Jeffrey (our dog). Everything is good to go. We leave Thursday night and get back Jun 28Th. So please be patient if we don't have Internet or phone service. We have lined a few shoots up while we are out there. So we will be posting them when we get back. 

I want to see colorful fish!

Vegas update

So it took me a while to post about our Vegas experience because we had a much different vacation then Jessica and Becker. And it is kinda embarrassing for us to admit what happened.  As you know Jessica won enough money to be in the world series...but us...well not so much. In my previous post I mentioned that I am a master at being "one with the board" well....I guess not this time. Mark and I lost every single time we hit a table (an exception of a few hands of black jack). And for those of you who have come to Vegas with us in the past you know this is very very very weird!  

The first night we were there we actually won $80 (this was the few winning black jack hands) so that bought us a nice dinner with our friends (jess and [b]), but the next night was awful. The boards were weird...The balls did not spin like they usually do. It all made sense when I got home. I read the weather and there were no stars the night we played and their were high winds. So I am assuming that played into my roulette winnings. 

Because of our not so good luck we had to stick to the gorgeous pools, eating out, and shopping. So in the long run it wasn't that bad.  so here is a list of things we did while we were there:

1. swam in three different pools

2. got burnt

3. went shopping

4. hung out with some cactus

5. sweat

6. ate... alot

7. saw the guy with super red hair that does a comedy gig, i think his name is carrot top.

8. watched our friends win lots of money

9. drank (coronas and martinis) 

10. Hung out in the Brookes store, on the message chairs.

11. goofed around with some french fries

So that sums the trip up. Side note: We are doing a really cool E-session tonight so check back tomorrow and the next day. 

p.s. The no hot water situation sucks! I literally made "burrrr" noises the whole time I took a shower today. 

Happy Anniversary Candice!

Mark meets Candice

Candice is feisty

Mark Likes feisty

Mark Loves Candice

Forever.

Dear Wife!

I love you so much!  I can't believe that it is our 1 year anniversary!!! I remember, like it was yesterday, when we were 15 years old; and we met for the first time.  You were like no one i had ever known.  You still are like no one I have ever known... I like that.

YOU mean more than anything in the world to me. I thank God everyday for putting you in my life. I literally would be nowhere without you.  Thank you for understanding who I am and loving me for that. I did not know love until I knew you.  You are the reason that I do all that I do. I WILL love you for the rest of my life. Happy anniversary! 

I LOVE YOU  A 180!!!!

*no i did not take these pictures... Karey Michelle did! She is awesome!

my weekend.....

 Last weekend i had the opportunity to travel with the band that i play guitar in (UNA). While we were traveling we had the opportunity to record at Hume Lake studios, and record two songs.

Also, Jered Scott, an amazing photographer, decided to join us on our adventure. He second shot for me at Adam and Jackie's wedding and did an amazing job. There are wayyyy better shots of the weekend on his blog. you should go over there and have a looksy.

... here are some pictures that my wife had a chance to snap over the weekend!

... the one picture i took all weekend

House shopping!!!!!!!

O.K..... so today was a little different that any other day i have ever had, mainly because i have NEVER  been house shopping before! It was awesome!  I decided to bring my camera and snap a few shots along the way so i could share my lovely experience with all of you dedicated readers/commenters......   and all of you fellow blog-stalkers like myself, (don't even  think for a second that i would forget about you).  

It was our first day out and i think that we found the ONE! It was soooooo random. My wife (the other half of Mark Brooke Photography) and I have always expected to buy a house in two years... well Candice was online the other night and found a "good deal". Next thing I know she has an appointment with a relater...followed by us seeing a great opportunity and wanting to put a bid on the property.... It is a lovely 3 story 2 bedroom condo, that is located on "Quail Hill" in Irvine, Ca.  I could not believe how rad it was!

It has a TON of office space, and a section of the garage that perfect for my mini-lab. 

My wife and I put an offer on the house today.... we are just waiting to sign the docs...ahhh i cant wait!

 Please keep us in your prayers. We love all of you, your support, and your comments :)

Europe!

So, My wife and I went to Paris and London last month and i finally got around to editing the pictures, now that things have slowed down.  It was absolutely fantastic! There are way, way to many stories to tell so i will just tell you guys the BEST one.

To preface the story Paris's underground staff was on strike, while we were there.  Which meant it was free to travel on it, but everything was running at about 10%!

On the last day, Candice and I stepped into the tiny cramped elevator, every single elevator in Europe is about half of the size of any elevator in the States, and  we headed down to the check out desk.  As the doors slid open a slight hint of cigarette smoke filled out nostrils, as was the case of every lobby in France. We had 3 hours to get from our hotel to the CDG airport, which was more than enough time, being as it only takes 30 minutes to get there.

We arrive at the airport after about 1:00 of travel time. We are thinking "no big deal... we still have an hour before check in is closed."  Little did we know that we got dropped off at the wrong terminal, and the airport is as big as Paris itself!  We had to take a tram to get to the right terminal,  and then walk about 1/2 a mile to our gate, only to find out that we were five minutes to late!   

The Flight service personnel told us "It would simply be impossible, and that we should have been on time."  Which was infinitely frustrating because of how snooty they said it.  We were not too worried because, we figured that we could just catch the next flight out in a hour or so. 

We marched over to the ticketing booth, and proceeded to try to book the next flight out.  The staff informed us that Northworst airlines...ahem! I mean Northwest,  only has one flight per day, and all flight were booked for the next 2 days!  Candice had to be back for her job, I had to be back for am engagement shoot,  needless to say we had to leave then and there..  It was Thanksgiving Day weekend and every single hotel in the area was sold out.  We were completely stuck!!!!!!  

 So, short story Long, we had to sleep in the airport for two days.  Yes, we DID sleep within 5 feet of the homeless, that snuck into the airport at night for shelter.   So, after two long days, we got to finally come home and  Oh my goodness it felt so good when we did!  In short the trip was amazing and we now a a hilarious story  to tell.   

Here are some photos of our vacation.

Click Here for the Slideshowwwwwwwwwww!

My wonderful wife...
There was a couple that asked me to Shoot a quick portrait session while we were there.







...Yes we DID try ESCARGOT (snails)   ...yes they WERE good.




There was an awesome rally against terrorism while we were there.