Happy Friday

Here's your gratuitous picture for the day...

Happy Friday!

Calla Lily



Sealife

I thought this was cool.  Yesterday on my bike ride to the beach I decided to take a stroll on the beach to look for cool shells.  I got excited when I came across a rare whole shell but then flipped it over and saw that it was still home to a little hermit type crab.  So I chucked it back in the water before the seagulls got to it but not before I snapped a picture of it with my phone.

Bride's Choice Award

I am excited to excited to announce that Forget Me Knott Photography has been chosen to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards^™ 2011. This award recognizes the top 5 percent of local wedding professionals from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate quality and service excellence in the wedding industry.

Thanks to all of you who have helped me win this award for the second straight year!

Visit me on WeddingWire today!

Self portrait contest - win a free portrait session!

OK I'm feeling creative today and thought I'd try to inspire all of you.  So I'm going to propose a self portrait contest!  Get as creative as you want - in fact the more the better I think.  Take whatever camera you have, turn it around and snap away.  No rules really other than it has to be of YOU and taken by YOU (well, and family friendly of course).  Have fun with it.

I'll post all the entrants and we'll all vote for the winner in a couple weeks.  Please email me your image so I can put it on a site for all to view/vote at brian@fmkphoto.com.

Guidelines are at the bottom of the page...

Here's some inspiration for you hopefully.  This is what I make my wife do everywhere we go!

Contest guidelines:

1. The picture must be taken by you of you.

2. Family friendly

3. Winner will be determined by votes from the public - so tell your friends about it!

4. Session must be redeemed within 6 months of winning.

5. Email me a jpeg or link to the jpeg that I can download at brian@FMKPhoto.com

6. By submitting your picture you give me the right to publish it via my websites for display and promotional purposes.

7. Winner will receive a free one hour portrait session which includes edited images posted on a private website for viewing and sharing.  Be creative!

8. A disc of images is extra.

9. Extended travel might be extra.

Love Birds

Here's a couple shots I took a while back at The Aquarium of the Pacific.  Yes, these Lorikeets are at the Aquarium in Long Beach.  If you haven't been go check it out!  You can actually feed them in an aviary - and they will land right on you to eat up their sugar syrupy stuff.  It's really pretty cool.  Great for kids.

Lorikeets are from the Parrot family and are native to the Australasian region.

Sweet Nothings

Loitering Lorikeets

Snowy Egret Profile

Snowy Egret Profile

Just another day at the local wildlife reserve, I was looking for something interesting of course.  I knew it would be a good day when in the first few minutes this Snowy Egret landed on the bridge next to me.  He was not camera shy!

Anna's Hummingbird

Neon Feathers

Snowy Egret Marsh

I usually try to stay away from bird portraits unless there's something interesting about it but this particular one caught my eye.  I couldn't pass up the the color with the reflection surrounding the Egret.

Romantic Walk on the Beach (Maui, Hawaii)

I saw this couple walking down the beach in Ka'anapali, Maui and I could resist snapping a shot with the good light and the waves in the background.

Osprey with fish

Osprey with fish

After a slow morning (bird-wise) at Bolsa Chica Reserve in Huntington Beach I found this Osprey just before leaving.  I waited for about 30 minutes while it just sat around and then finally it dove off it's perch and snatched up this fish.  Then like a good obedient Osprey it flew back to the tree I was standing under and gave me a bit of a show for the next 45 minutes while it ate the fish!

Body boarding at Ka'anapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii.

Here's a few more from the body boarder series at Ka'anapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii.

Top 10 of 2010!

 So I decided to look back at a great year in images.  Here's my top 10 from 2010 (in no particular order).  Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed shooting them!

Thanks to those you you that shared the year with me!