117
The first four months of the year were absolutely crazy.
and fun.
From Guatemala to Canada, Florida, West Virginia and Las Vegas, the slow part of my year was anything but.
The Vegas trip was crazy. Landed, filmed till late, slept, filmed all day till 5 pm and went back to my hotel to edit till about midnight. I waited for approval on the final video for the ACM Awards and flew out the next morning.
I got to see some great people out there and film the show for the troops at Nellis Airforce base, which was pretty great. Dierks Bentley, Montgomery Gentry and a whole bunch of great artists and musicians played for a few hours until I realized the shuttle with Josh had left me behind :0)
I caught the next one and talked with Matt Sayles who is an amazing AP photographer that does celebrity/event work. Matt, good luck finding a wedding photographer! (he's friends with some of the world's best photojournalists)
I also shot a beautiful wedding in Charlottesville, West Viginia at a vineyard that was a scene out of a movie. I'll share what I can with you on that soon.
My nephew Casey Jay turned 1. Him and Grady may be my favorite thing to photograph...
For now, wedding season is in full swing. I think the next 6 or 7 weeks in a row before one weekend off and back into another 6 or 7. So far this year is mostly in kansas city with a couple stops in st. louis too, but I'm thinking another beach wedding needs to happen.
I think I may have a couple dates open in the fall yet, but most of the year is already booked. I'm hoping all the concerts I want to see aren't falling on Saturday nights. Last year Keith Urban was playing the Sprint Center and I was 3 blocks away filming. Talk about bummed. But it was a great wedding :0)
In the meantime I have to tell you about Amy Seeley. She's all over my blog in my videos, but if you haven't heard her other music it's time to stop and do that now.
photo by Jesh De Rox
She has an unbelievable voice and her piano playing is just gorgeous. Lyrically she has a way of taking you on a journey and arranging words in ways that make me smile.
I'm also wrapping up work on a video for Food for the Hungry here in the next few weeks with some awesome motion graphics from Matt White and writing from Rick Mundy with Kansas City Creative. I'm excited to work with those guys more helping non-profit organizations to tell their stories and have more of an impact in the world.
The next several blog posts will be wedding films and a few photo weddings as well. Let me know if I can help in any way for your wedding, even if I'm already booked, I know some incredible folks in town.
and fun.
From Guatemala to Canada, Florida, West Virginia and Las Vegas, the slow part of my year was anything but.
The Vegas trip was crazy. Landed, filmed till late, slept, filmed all day till 5 pm and went back to my hotel to edit till about midnight. I waited for approval on the final video for the ACM Awards and flew out the next morning.
I got to see some great people out there and film the show for the troops at Nellis Airforce base, which was pretty great. Dierks Bentley, Montgomery Gentry and a whole bunch of great artists and musicians played for a few hours until I realized the shuttle with Josh had left me behind :0)
I caught the next one and talked with Matt Sayles who is an amazing AP photographer that does celebrity/event work. Matt, good luck finding a wedding photographer! (he's friends with some of the world's best photojournalists)
I also shot a beautiful wedding in Charlottesville, West Viginia at a vineyard that was a scene out of a movie. I'll share what I can with you on that soon.
My nephew Casey Jay turned 1. Him and Grady may be my favorite thing to photograph...
For now, wedding season is in full swing. I think the next 6 or 7 weeks in a row before one weekend off and back into another 6 or 7. So far this year is mostly in kansas city with a couple stops in st. louis too, but I'm thinking another beach wedding needs to happen.
I think I may have a couple dates open in the fall yet, but most of the year is already booked. I'm hoping all the concerts I want to see aren't falling on Saturday nights. Last year Keith Urban was playing the Sprint Center and I was 3 blocks away filming. Talk about bummed. But it was a great wedding :0)
In the meantime I have to tell you about Amy Seeley. She's all over my blog in my videos, but if you haven't heard her other music it's time to stop and do that now.
photo by Jesh De Rox
She has an unbelievable voice and her piano playing is just gorgeous. Lyrically she has a way of taking you on a journey and arranging words in ways that make me smile.
I'm also wrapping up work on a video for Food for the Hungry here in the next few weeks with some awesome motion graphics from Matt White and writing from Rick Mundy with Kansas City Creative. I'm excited to work with those guys more helping non-profit organizations to tell their stories and have more of an impact in the world.
The next several blog posts will be wedding films and a few photo weddings as well. Let me know if I can help in any way for your wedding, even if I'm already booked, I know some incredible folks in town.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry:
an update.
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109
This was an incredible week. It's hard to describe really. Meeting new people, having an instant connection and sharing amazing experiences and meals together for an entire week really made this special for me. So much so, it really made me forget all about the vacation I had taken the week before.
I flew into Guatemala City to spend the week touring the country with Domingo + Kara, plus her Canadian family. I knew we were going to see some stuff leading up to the wedding weekend, but I had no idea what.
It was an adventure, and I was along for the ride - camera in hand.
We started out Monday morning in Antigua, Guatemala.
If you're from Kansas City, picture the plaza, just hundreds of years older with incredible architecture, charming little shops where practically everything is hand made, and oh yeah, volcanoes in the distance. This happens every 15 days apparently, and we happened to be there on one of those days -
We visited a candle maker's shop to pick out a unity candle and anything else that we could use for the wedding:
I love this moment with Kara and her mom, and Andrew's face in the background
We spent a lot of time on this:
Kara + Domingo didn't seem to mind:
The first day we went zip-lining in Panajachel, right off Lake Atitlan which had 3 volcanoes behind it. Imagine flying over the tree line 50-100 feet up and looking down into a valley leading to a lake with volcanoes behind it. It's even more amazing than it sounds. The whole family came along, even Kara's 9 yr-old nephew Andrew who did amazing.
Day 2 began with Domingo loading our luggage on top of the bus
I gave our bus driver Juan my sun glasses because he was cool, and I sat up front with him a lot. "Tu & Yo, Juan" (You and Me) I would say pointing at the horizon and he would laugh as I pretended to have any idea where we were going. He didn't speak a lick of English, and got lost every day of the trip.
We visited a glass blowing shop and I got to shoot them in action -
After that, we hit the hot springs - naturally heated by the volcano.
We drove further north each day getting closer and closer to Nebaj, which is where Domingo is from, and where he and Kara first met.
On the way we stopped by a children's camp to show the family what Kara's dad had been helping with on missions trips, as well as cutting down some bamboo for wedding decorations.
You'll get to see what was done with the the bamboo in the wedding post.
Let me throw in some shots of Domingo + Kara now. I'd take them from time to time, place to place, but we also had an impromptu engagement session right there in the Mayan ruins.
I'm going to leave it at that for now. I'll show you all some wedding photos and maybe some set-up stuff too in the next one...
I flew into Guatemala City to spend the week touring the country with Domingo + Kara, plus her Canadian family. I knew we were going to see some stuff leading up to the wedding weekend, but I had no idea what.
It was an adventure, and I was along for the ride - camera in hand.
We started out Monday morning in Antigua, Guatemala.
If you're from Kansas City, picture the plaza, just hundreds of years older with incredible architecture, charming little shops where practically everything is hand made, and oh yeah, volcanoes in the distance. This happens every 15 days apparently, and we happened to be there on one of those days -
We visited a candle maker's shop to pick out a unity candle and anything else that we could use for the wedding:
I love this moment with Kara and her mom, and Andrew's face in the background
We spent a lot of time on this:
Kara + Domingo didn't seem to mind:
The first day we went zip-lining in Panajachel, right off Lake Atitlan which had 3 volcanoes behind it. Imagine flying over the tree line 50-100 feet up and looking down into a valley leading to a lake with volcanoes behind it. It's even more amazing than it sounds. The whole family came along, even Kara's 9 yr-old nephew Andrew who did amazing.
Day 2 began with Domingo loading our luggage on top of the bus
I gave our bus driver Juan my sun glasses because he was cool, and I sat up front with him a lot. "Tu & Yo, Juan" (You and Me) I would say pointing at the horizon and he would laugh as I pretended to have any idea where we were going. He didn't speak a lick of English, and got lost every day of the trip.
We visited a glass blowing shop and I got to shoot them in action -
After that, we hit the hot springs - naturally heated by the volcano.
We drove further north each day getting closer and closer to Nebaj, which is where Domingo is from, and where he and Kara first met.
On the way we stopped by a children's camp to show the family what Kara's dad had been helping with on missions trips, as well as cutting down some bamboo for wedding decorations.
You'll get to see what was done with the the bamboo in the wedding post.
Let me throw in some shots of Domingo + Kara now. I'd take them from time to time, place to place, but we also had an impromptu engagement session right there in the Mayan ruins.
I'm going to leave it at that for now. I'll show you all some wedding photos and maybe some set-up stuff too in the next one...
amanda van soelen:
beautiful! Can hardly wait to see the wedding shots!
(02.04.10)
Paula:
AMAZING! Thanks for the pics... can I steal some and put them on FB?
(02.04.10)
Kara:
Wow, Mike! You are way too awesome at what you do. I am your biggest fan :) Miss you!
(02.12.10)
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Guatemala
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110
The artist's market.
It's open each day of the week, but even bigger on Thursdays and Sundays.
I got to photograph it on a Thursday.
I'm going to let the images speak for themselves. Color, texture, character, beauty.
It's open each day of the week, but even bigger on Thursdays and Sundays.
I got to photograph it on a Thursday.
I'm going to let the images speak for themselves. Color, texture, character, beauty.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry:
Guatemala: Mercado de Atesanias
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108
I have no idea where to begin here.
I'm back in town after two incredible weeks, one that made the other look just silly.
My vacation in the southern caribbean was much overdue and great, but completely overshadowed by an unbelievable week in Guatemala.
There's simply too much to share for one blog post, so several will be coming.
I'm not even going to bother with talking about vacation although it was great to hang with some of my old Nashville friends on some really great islands. (and eat way too much)
I'll include a couple of shots though for those of you stuck in the cold KC weather:
Here is what's to come:
- zip-lining in Guatemala
- a glass blowing factory
- hot springs naturally heated by a volcano
- a Guatemalan market
- being adopted by an incredible Canadian family (practically)
- an unbelievably beautiful wedding with an epic mountain backdrop and over 500 Cala lilies
for now, a scene from Guatemala:
I'm back in town after two incredible weeks, one that made the other look just silly.
My vacation in the southern caribbean was much overdue and great, but completely overshadowed by an unbelievable week in Guatemala.
There's simply too much to share for one blog post, so several will be coming.
I'm not even going to bother with talking about vacation although it was great to hang with some of my old Nashville friends on some really great islands. (and eat way too much)
I'll include a couple of shots though for those of you stuck in the cold KC weather:
Here is what's to come:
- zip-lining in Guatemala
- a glass blowing factory
- hot springs naturally heated by a volcano
- a Guatemalan market
- being adopted by an incredible Canadian family (practically)
- an unbelievably beautiful wedding with an epic mountain backdrop and over 500 Cala lilies
for now, a scene from Guatemala:
(that's a volcano in the background - one of the 6 we saw)
James Fry:
Wow! That's all I can say. Glad to hear the trip went well :) Amazing scenery for sure!
(02.02.10)
amanda van soelen:
Hey Mike, Looking forward to seeing your pics of Guatemala. It was such a blast getting to know you, you are so special!
Love you, my new brother!
Amanda
Domingo Perez Bernal:
Hey buddy, You are the MAN... awesome pictures!
(02.14.10)
Lisa:
Wow, Mike - these pics are beautiful!!! What a great experience.
(02.24.10)
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry:
where to begin
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106
Incase you're trying to reach me, I most likely have no phone or email service until Feb. 2nd.
I believe in working hard, and playing hard. Over the last 6 months the wedding season has been so busy I haven't done a great job at the playing part - SO - after a vacation in the Caribbean with some Nashville friends I'll be back in Guatemala for a little over a week shooting Domingo + Kara's wedding.
I first met Domingo at the Summit conference held by Food for the Hungry last February and was incredibly impressed with his passion for his work against poverty in Guatemala.
I was incredibly excited when I found out I got to spend a week with him last September touring his country with him as an advocate for FH, shooting pictures and video to show the power that Child Sponsorship has in those areas of extreme poverty.
Now, our friendship continues as I tour the country with him and his fiance Kara. Her and her family are from Canada so we'll be touring the beauty that Guatemala has to offer during the week, then their wedding that weekend.
I'm excited to be shooting photos for them of all their experiences, and especially the wedding.
If you're on here because your wedding is this year and you're looking for an incredible video to remember your day, please email me at mikevarel@mac.com (or use the contact button at the top) and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
2010 dates are filling up quickly - I Iook forward to meeting and working with you, or referring you to some of the other incredible photo/video friends of mine!
I believe in working hard, and playing hard. Over the last 6 months the wedding season has been so busy I haven't done a great job at the playing part - SO - after a vacation in the Caribbean with some Nashville friends I'll be back in Guatemala for a little over a week shooting Domingo + Kara's wedding.
I first met Domingo at the Summit conference held by Food for the Hungry last February and was incredibly impressed with his passion for his work against poverty in Guatemala.
I was incredibly excited when I found out I got to spend a week with him last September touring his country with him as an advocate for FH, shooting pictures and video to show the power that Child Sponsorship has in those areas of extreme poverty.
Now, our friendship continues as I tour the country with him and his fiance Kara. Her and her family are from Canada so we'll be touring the beauty that Guatemala has to offer during the week, then their wedding that weekend.
I'm excited to be shooting photos for them of all their experiences, and especially the wedding.
If you're on here because your wedding is this year and you're looking for an incredible video to remember your day, please email me at mikevarel@mac.com (or use the contact button at the top) and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
2010 dates are filling up quickly - I Iook forward to meeting and working with you, or referring you to some of the other incredible photo/video friends of mine!
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry:
Out of the country till Feb 2nd
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I bought her album on your suggestion - loved it! Thanks for sharing!!
(07.19.10)