Here are a few of my favorites from a wedding I shot several weeks ago. Amanda and Jordan were truly wonderful to work with. Their wedding took place in a small town right on the border of Oregon and Idaho. It had a very quaint, backyard-wedding feel to it, which I found to be quite pleasant – especially since I’ve been seeing a lot of glitzy, Vegas chapel weddings lately. I was very impressed with how they were able to dress up the reception hall, which was actually a Japanese cultural center (picture a big, community-center style room). They covered the tables with red and white tablecloth and topped each table off with impressive Japanese inspired centerpieces. My favorite part was how they hung beautiful red lanterns and over 1,000 hand-made paper cranes from the ceiling as a sign of good luck. 1,124, to be exact. You wouldn’t know it, but Jordan can be pretty precise – a characteristic that his friends and family seemed to like to joke about. (Hi, Jordan!) I thought the cranes were such a great idea and really showed how much time and effort was put into everything. I’m glad to have been able to photograph their wedding day. Jordan and Amanda have an album on the way and it’s going to look great.

So I finally gave in to all the rave reviews and went to see the new Batman movie. I would say that it was well worth the $20. I mean, who doesn’t love a good comic book movie? (Oh wait, I believe the preferred term is graphic novel.) If you are a fan of Batman, or if you just like some good old on-screen action, this movie won’t disappoint. It is dark and sinister with a villain that makes all other comic book screen villains look like Baby Huey, as Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips puts it. Definitely not for kids. Heath Ledger really did do an incredible job at playing the Joker. Even the makeup job was so good that you wouldn’t know it was him. Now I’m inspired to go save Gotham.

Synopsis: Director Christopher Nolan returns to Gotham City with this sequel to the critical and fan favorite Batman Begins. Batman, played by Christian Bale, joins forces with Lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman) and a fearless district attorney (Aaron Eckhart) to take on new foe: Gotham underworld and a wild-card villain, the Joker (played by the late Heath Ledger).

And just for kicks, my favorite Batman movie promo:

Just finished another Bridal Spectacular show this weekend. As always, we had a great time meeting some fantastic brides (and grooms)-to-be. As one soon-to-be groom pointed out, it’s not just about the brides, right? I wouldn’t know anything about that – after all I’m just the photographer. It was also great meeting a few other industry pros. Las Vegas has a number of very talented wedding vendors. If you were in attendance, I’m sure you weren’t disappointed and I hope you were able to find everything you were looking for. Here’s a look at the JMP exhibit from the previous show. We decided to stick with the same setup this time around and got a lot of positive feedback since it seems to fit our style – simple and elegant. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth – we hope to hear from you soon! Best wishes, John.

Is it 4th of July again already? Time sure does fly. I remember going out to watch the fireworks just last year with k_kidd, JMP’s creative director (below, left). I would love to be heading out to the coast for the weekend, but with work (and the ridiculous gas prices), I’ll be staying right here at home this year. Once again, happy 4th of July everyone! Hope you all enjoy the 3-day weekend. As for me, I’ll be working all weekend (but hey – I’m not complaining). Have fun and be safe! ;-P