We had an absolute blast today chowing down on yummy food and just enjoying good times with a bunch of amazing friends here in SB.

These are the quick pictures we took of each other to use as wine glass tags so we could keep track of who’s glass was who’s. Ended up being pretty fun.

If you like our work and feel like voting click this link and give us a quick vote! Who knows, maybe if we win we’ll throw a huge pizza party at our office and invite all of the blog readers to cruise in? (or, if I’m in a super happy mood, I might take everyone to Arigato!!! – ok, so I’m eating there tonight, but I LOVE that place!!!)

WOW!!!

Seriously, WOW!!!

Cheryl and I drove down to Torrance a little over a week back now to photograph Josh and Michelle’s baby boy Milo. We shot their wedding last year in Palm Springs at the Vice Roy and had such a great time with them then, that we were biting at the bit to get some fun pictures of their little boy this year!!

Needless to say, we were chatting with them, and the subject of the iPod came up. We had just managed to lose our two-year-old iPod somehow and were trying to decide if we should jump and get one right away. They kept telling us how cool the iPod touch was, and how similar it is to the iPhone. (ALL of my wedding photographer buddies have iPhones and I’ve not fully caught onto the craze – until now!!)

Josh and Michele and Milo stoked us out sooooo much when out of the blue they got us an iPod touch!! It arrived at our doorstep the day after we did their portraits!

Having now played with the iPod touch I’m having a really really hard time holding back from wanting the iPhone. Basically the only difference is that the touch does not have 1)Mac Mail, 2)a phone, 3) a camera. Besides that, it’s basically an iPhone. It has wireless connectivity which is WAY awesome!!!

Now if I can just keep my money in my pocket until the second gen. iPhone comes out I should be pretty set!

THANK YOU Josh and Michelle and Milo!!!!!

As a wedding photographer, you expect that people will find your site by searching for “Santa Barbara Wedding Photographers” or some other variation of that search…

I’ve posted before and mentioned some of the VERY strange search terms people have used to find my site, but I was pretty proud today when someone searched “Tough” and came up with my website!!! I guess the working out has been paying off! (well… if you call a hike and two xc mountain bike rides this week working out??)

Some other random search terms include: 98, four, zkike(come on… who searches for zkike??), holga, class, and a ton of others… too crazy!! but soooo fun to watch!!

I know quite a few of the readers of this blog have their own blogs and websites… what are some odd search terms people have used and ended up on your site with??

Pictures to come after tomorrow’s wedding!

Oh… actually, I’ll share some pictures from this past weekend’s wedding asap!! How could I forget!!

Seriously, today we get to go spent the entire afternoon on a real ranch photographing a beautiful wedding just over the hill from Santa Barbara! It’s the perfect weather, I’ve got all my new fun gear, and I’m just excited to be taking pictures of a couple who is in love and ready to be married! (wow… that sounds a bit cheesy huh? maybe there’s a reason I do this for a living) ;-)

Also, it’s fun as a photographer when your work is on display, be it in the office, in a gallery setting, or online on your own website. This week Cheryl’s new website went live!!! It’s based off of my current website, so now we have matching sites. :-) And!!! We’re finally getting everything combined so that instead of being our own separate entities, we are now Halberg Photographers! Check out the new splash page at http://www.halbergphotographers.com

I feel soooo priveledged to be able to make a living as a wedding photographer here in Santa Barbara! What a blessing and what a fun time!! So many awesome industry professionals surrounding you to share the business with and such good friends to!

So the day after the wedding we photographed here on Maui we decided to take a beautiful full-day sail with Trilogy to the island of Lana’i for some snorkeling, a tour of the Island and a bbq.

This was a huge 60′x30′ sailing boat/catamaran? (I have no clue… maybe one of my sailing buddies will correct me?)

It’s soo funny, people constantly see us taking self portraits and ask us if they can help by taking a picture for us, but the catch is, we don’t want a shot that has us and then a ton of junk in the background, we like these shots, so we’re always turning these kind people down. Sometimes I feel bad, but we’re always stoked on the pictures we get (so long as I remember to look up and not down – gotta watch that neck skin)

Hopefully you all have seen my beautiful lady:

I swear every time I get on a sail boat I can’t help but take pictures of the rigging and sails:

This is the view we woke up to every morning from our condo on the beach. Falling asleep to the sound of splashing waves is very relaxing!