June 2009

Megan and Garrett Haake Wedding – Dallas, Texas

I had the pleasure of photographing Megan and Garrett Haake wedding in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, May 9, 2009. The wedding ceremony was in the beautiful Perkins Chapel on the campus of SMU and the reception was at the Belo Mansion.

A good time was had by all, and I have the images to prove it!

Orange County Rescue Mission’s Village of Hope

During early May I had the privilege of again working for Roberta and Howard Ahmanson photographing the reinstallation of the stain glass windows in the chapel at the Orange County Rescue Mission, Village of Hope in Tustin by Danish artist Peter Brandes. He was also here to install stained glass windows in the new Ahmanson home which I also photographed. The best part was to get the whole story behind each piece from Peter.
The Village of Hope is a 200-person residential facility for homeless families located at the former Tustin Marine Corps Air Base. The Ahmanson’s have been long-time supporters of the OC Rescue Mission and were a big part of helping to build the Village of Hope. https://www.rescuemission.org/

Tour de Force: A Dance Spectacular

A whole host of Russian ballet stars put on an amazing one night only show in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center last month.
I have had the opportunity while working at the OCPAC for the last 8 years to photograph many great dance programs, and this was one of the best. Check out more about this show and others to come by visiting the OCPAC website: www.ocpac.org.

Jane Griffin, PhD.

Congratulations to our “niece”, Jane Griffin, who received here PhD from UCI this last week. After the usual boring ceremony, but we had a great party on the beach that was attended by lots of family and friends.
Jane is the daughter of our dear friends Wayne and Susie Griffin who live on Catalina Island. Susie is one of the Innkeepers at the Inn on Mt Ada, www.innonmtada.com which was the old Wrigley Mansion and is now a four star six room bed and breakfast. While Wayne heads up the Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Bureau, www.catalinachamber.com.
As many of you know, I have been teaching an extension class at UCI over the last 8 years. So, over the last 5 years as she complete her studies, Jane and I would have dinner together at In n’ Out Burger on the UCI campus before I would teach my class. We would solve all the world’s problems by the time I had to go to class, and so I will miss my “dinner dates” with Jane as she now moves on to teach at the University of Indiana.
All the best Jane!

ACES Photography Club

Last year I had the pleasure of judging the print competition at the ACES Photography Club in Garden Grove, and this year they invited me to speak. www.aces-photo.com
I choose to speak about something that I know a lot about, but is rarely talked about, Low Light Photography.
With all types of photography, at the beginning and end of the day, inside and out, you work with low light all the time.
The room was full and everyone said they enjoyed the program. I enjoyed talking to this very nice, passionate group of photographers and hope to have a chance to do it again.
Look for an announcement soon about more of my private classes held here at my home studio over the summer. www.douggiffordphoto.com

PPA International Print Competition

June 13-17 found me heading to Atlanta, Georgia, to judge the International Print Competition for the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) www.ppa.com. I was one of 40 judges selected from a total list of only 125 qualified jurors who, over a four-day period, judged over 5,000 entries from PPA’s 20,000 plus members. To become part of this esteemed group of jurors, I first had to become a Master Craftsmen Photographer with PPA, then judge for many years at the local, state, and regional competitions, followed by completing a series of judging classes, and finally a review of my background and submissions of my work for review by other judges. Over the years, I have also had many opportunities to judge the international print competition for the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI). By judging these international print competitions, I get to see thousands of prints from photographers around the world. This allows me to stay in touch with the latest trends and styles in photography and, most of all, to always provide fresh perspectives and ideas for my clients.

Morning Light is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray

Morning Light is a documentary sailing movie by Roy E. Disney. I had a chance to work on it shooting stills with my friend, and long-time yacht photographer, Sharon Green (www.ultimatesailing.com). It is available on DVD and Blu-Ray.

The movie is about a young crew of sailors that are on the yacht Morning Light in the Trans Pac Yacht Race that sails from Los Angeles, California to Honolulu, Hawaii every other year. The movie follows 15 young sailors through the selection process in August 2005, their training in Hawaii and Long Beach, and sailing the race in July 2006. http://disneydvd.disney.go.com/morning-light.html

Friends of Dorothy

June 11, 2009, found me at the Impulse for Spring Fashion Show for the Friends of Dorothy Guild at Macy’s in South Coast Plaza. The guild has raised a whopping $245,500 to date for Aids Services Foundation.

As you can see from the other posts in this blog, I have been supporting this organization proudly for the last year and an half.

I hope to see you at the next event! For information: www.ocasf.org/dorothy.htm

Sad News

Chloe Blom lost her battle with cancer and passed away on Friday, June 19th. She and her husband, John, have been dear friends and colleagues for the last 28 years. For 30 years, John and Chloe have owned and operated John L. Blom Photography in Corona del Mar.
Chloe started out only running the business side, but soon picked up a camera and started producing some beautiful images. They were a great team at providing some of the best photographic services in the country.
Chloe was very loved and will be deeply missed by all of us who knew her.
Our prayers are with John and the family.

Hoag Hospital Scanner Magazine cover

I am proud to have an image on the cover of the Spring 2009 Scanner Magazine, with another image used inside with the article about the Toshiba Golf Classic event. Both images are of Eduardo Romero who was the winner of this year’s event.

This is the second time I have had an image on the cover of Scanner, the first one was of Roy E. Disney’s yacht Pyewacket sailing in the Hoag Cup in 2005 with Hoag Hospital in the background.

Scanner magazine is published quarterly by the Hoag Hospital Foundation in support of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian. www.hoaghospitalfoundation.org

April 2009– Good and sad news to report

UCI Extension Class – “Keeping it Simple: Photographing People”

Class began April 9th with 10 students in my basic portrait photography class for the UCI Extension program. From students to retirees, this year class is as diverse as all the others have been over the last 8 years. Some come wanting to just learn how to do a better job of taking their snap shots of their family and friends, and others want to make a living with a camera like me. My hope each semester is that I can share what I know and help them all enjoy taking better photographs of the people that end up in front of their lens, for fun or profit.

If you would like more information about the UCI extension classes please call 949.824.5414, or go online at www.extension.uci.edu.



35th Grand Prix of Long Beach

Wow! It is hard to believe it has been 35 years that they have been racing through the streets of Long Beach. I have had the pleasure of being a staff photographer for the last 28 years, from the days of F-1 to now with the Indy Cars.

This is the first year that the newly united open wheel race teams of Indy Car were racing on the streets in Long Beach. It was great to have the “family” back together again and to see all the familiar faces again, Tony Kanaan, Justin Wilson, Dario Franchitti and, of course, Danica Patrick.

Besides the Indy Cars, we had the Indy Lights, American Le Mans series, Speed World Challenge, Drifting, and, of course, the Pro Celebrity race with Keanuu Reeves.

The weekend started out with beautiful weather and then it got hot. It was over 100 degrees on Saturday and Sunday. I got to the track at about 6:30am in the cool of the morning and left about 6:30pm at night, when it was still 85. Despite the long hot days of work involved, it is still a lot of fun being a part of the Indianapolis 500 of the West Coast.

Come out next year and join in the party! www.gplb.com

Karen’s Birthday!

My wife Karen had her birthday in April and we went to Disneyland to celebrate. For those of you that don’t know, you can sign up to get a free pass to go to Disneyland on your birthday. www.disneyland.disney.go.com

Her birthday fell on one of those hot days we had and so we didn’t go to the park until later in the day to avoid the heat. We got the pass, then went to dinner at the Grand Californian Hotel, before going into the park. We had a great time.

The other big news from Karen’s birthday was that I gave her a digital camera. It was time for her to go to the digital side and now she is learning to love it.


“ Morning Light” on DVD

The Roy E Disney documentary movie, “Morning Light” that I did the still photography on, and was in theaters this last October, is being released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 15th. www.amazon.com – morning light

This movie is about the casting, training and the participation of 15 young sailors in the Trans Pac yacht race that sails from Long Beach to Honolulu, Hawaii every other year.

Of course I love it because I was involved in it, but it is a great story about an amazing group of young adults. You don’t have to be a sailor to enjoy it.


Sad News!

My mentor and friend in photography of 28 years, who is one of the premiere portrait photographers in the world, Joyce Wilson, lost here husband to cancer in April.

Tom Holt, was a wonderful man. I meet him soon after I met Joyce. He loved a lot of the same things I loved so we got along great. He loved life, family, golf, fishing, good wine and single malt scotch, and of course Joyce.

They moved from Indianapolis to Santa Barbara where Joyce taught for awhile at Brook’s School of Photography. As much as Tom loved the Mid West, he grew to love the weather and the wine of California.

A couple of months ago we had the pleasure of having Joyce and Tom stay with us. We had just pruned our roses back, but Tom showed us how to do it better. I had forgotten that he had owned a garden shop before they moved out West from Indy and so he knew what he was talking about. As Tom’s condition became worse we sent him a picture of how well the roses had come back in. I had a chance to talk to him just before his passing and he was happy to see how beautiful the roses were, and happy that his knowledge had helped. We now have a beautiful way of remembering him.

A wonderful service was held in Tom’s honor in Santa Barbara which Karen and I attended.

He will be missed.


Spring Cleaning

If you or anyone that you know would like to buy their negatives from any type of work that we have done over the last 28 years, now is the time to talk to us.

We are cleaning out the storage locker that we have stored all the negatives in and will be destroying the first 15 years (1982 to 1997) of negatives in the next couple months. Over the next year we will be trying to contact clients to give them all one last chance to buy the last 12 years of negatives and then we will be destroying those.


Kristen and Mike

Some dear friends of ours, Kristen and Mike are getting married at the end of May. Enjoy some of the engagement Images I did for them in Laguna Beach.

March, marches on!

Toshiba Golf Classic – Hoag Hospital

I had the pleasure of working with Hoag Hospital again photographing the Toshiba Golf Classic in Newport Beach, CA, March 7th and 8th, 2009. This is a Senior Tour event with well-recognized names who still know how to play the game - really well! They are much more relaxed than the regular tour players because they don’t have to worry about “the cut.” It’s a lot of fun to watch them play and to listen to the banter as they talk to each other around the course.

Hoag desired pictures to tell a story for future marketing – from the golfers to spectators and sponsor signage. I have enjoyed this kind of assignment for many years. One of my longest-running assignments has been as a staff photographer for the Grand Prix of Long Beach. This year will mark my 29th year with that event and is one of the reasons Hoag Hospital trusts me to capture their signature events.




Wild Flowers in Borrego Springs

My wife, Karen, and I took a Sunday road trip to Borrego Springs to photograph the wild flowers. It was a beautiful nearly-Spring day and the flowers were spectacular. To our surprise, there are metal sculptures of prehistoric animals that can be found all over Galleta Meadows. This is land owned by Dennis Avery (of Avery Label lineage) who commissioned these fascinating, life-sized sculptures by artist, Ricardo A. Breceda, of Perris, California and represent animals that first made the valley their home. Although the wild flowers will soon disappear, anytime you are out in Borrego Springs, I would recommend going on “safari” to track down the wild animals that will surprise you year round. They are simply amazing! Thank you Dennis and Ricardo for creating such a whimsical surprise in the Borrego Valley!

To see all the images from our trip to Borrego Springs and to order copies for yourself please follow this link: http://www.printroom.com/ViewGallery.asp?userid=douggifford&gallery_id=1477048&curpage=2

It was a busy second week of February.

Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra
I had the honor and pleasure to photograph the Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra (OCYSO)http://www.ocyso.org/ on Tuesday, February 17th as they performed a concert for a group of young school kids in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (OCPAC)http://www.ocpac.org/ in Costa Mesa. The Anaheim Ballet http://www.anaheimballet.org/ also danced during one of the pieces performed by the OCYSO.
I have had the privilege to hear many wonderful performances working as a photographer for the last 7 years with the OCPAC, and the OCYSO performance was as good as you would hear from any orchestra, of any age.

I very much enjoyed working with everyone and was able to capture some great images of OCYSO performance that they will use to PR.

To see and possible purchase any of those images please follow this link,

www.printroom.com/studio_homepage.asp?userid=&domain_name=douggiffordphotography and look for the name of the event.

Laguna Niguel Girls Softball Opening Day

Play ball! It is that time again, time for opening day for the Laguna Niguel Girls Softball League, http://www.lngs.org/.

This is my second year of photographing this event and it was as fun to witness as last year.

The girls on all of the teams go all out to show there team colors and sprit by decorating themselves with props and make-up. As the teams are introduced with their song playing in the background, the girls coming running on the field all decked out in their team colors, throwing candy at the family members that are cheering them on. After a few speakers and the national anthem that was beautifully sung by one of the girls, it is time to “Play Ball!”

To see and possible purchase any of those images please follow this link, www.printroom.com/studio_homepage.asp?userid=&domain_name=douggiffordphotography and look for the name of the event.

Enrollment opened today for UCI Ext Photography Class

UCI Extension Class – “Keeping it Simple: Photographing People

For the 8th year I will be teaching my basic portrait photography class for the UCI Extension program in the Spring quarter for 6 weeks on Wednesday nights, April 8th to May 13th. The classes are held from 7pm to 9:30pm on the UCI campus in Irvine.

If you would like to sign up or need more information please call 949.824.5414, or go online at www.extension.uci.edu.

I hope to see you in class!

NAWBO- OC Special offer.

Here is my limited time special offer to all the National Association of Woman Business Owners of Orange County (NAWBO) www.nawbo-oc.org members.

Book an Executive Portrait Session before June 30th 2009
and receive a FREE Family Portrait session.

Hurry to book your session today for this great limited time offer!

Call today at 949.362.3661 or e-mail me at doug@douggiffordphoto.com.

Visit our website at http://www.douggiffordphoto.com/ to see all of our other services for your corporate and social photography needs.