There are three parts to this card. Some of the people who look at this blog already received the actual card in the mail, but for those of you who have not… this should be fun.

I’l be back to explain… later.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 I hope you are where you want to be doing what you feel you want to be doing for this wonderful holiday!

Thank you all for making this year so wonderful for us. 2012 promises to be an exciting year!

Now then, where was I? Oh yeah, about to come back from Japan…

Really, there is not much of a story to tell here, so I will bring you up to date on some of the work we have done since September. Enjoy.

These good friends have amazing timing. Their #1 was born Christmas Eve. This #2 was born Halloween. How cool is that?!

If you know me, you probably know Clay. He’s got himself a gorgeous girlfriend. He’s proof, for the doubters out there.

My sister needed some updates too…

I need to do a proper blog to share this family’s story.

and one of me…

Ok. See you Christmas Day.

Happiest Holidays!!

You’ve twisted my arm long enough…. ok, no one has said anything, but that’s ok, because I wasn’t thinking about it either… obviously.

I started building a new website that would incorporate this blog, but Sho was not in love with how it was turning out and then the summer got crazy busy and I haven’t touched it since. Our photography has been semi-busy too. Sorry. Anyway, here’s a sum up.

First I went to Japan for work. It was a LONG and HO~T month to be working mostly outside in Japan. But it was a great experience. The student run conference that I manage went really well. I am just amazed at the level of dedication and ability of the student leaders. They became very good friends and I hope they remain so.

One of my jobs during the conference was to get a lot of good material for my organization’s new website. I did all of the photography and videography on the site. I am actually pretty happy with it all. The videos are… alright. I’m working on it. Even simple interviews are a pretty big production if you want them to look  right… so they don’t all look right. Anyway, pictures from the 63rd Japan-America Student Conference (JASC).

Did I mention that this conference is kind of a big deal? Especially in Japan. Anyway, these two were the chairs of the conference. They are unbelieveably capable and responsible. Far more than I am. I got to spend a lot of time with them, mostly carrying water for the rest of the delegation but I don’t bemoan a minute of it cause they made it so much fun.

When the conference finished, I put the students on a plane back for the U.S. and I slept for about 40 hours straight.

Then Sho came. And we mucked around in Japan for a couple weeks.

That is Sho’s mother on the left. She is amazing and amazingly fun. The friend on the right met us up north in the tsunami stricken area where Sho’s amazing parents had moved for six months to do volunteer work through the LDS church. We tried to do our part by spending one day aiding in reconstructing their cities, and one day reconstructing their economy by doing touristy things. The people there were so grateful for customers. It was a pleasure to visit their temples and eat in their resturaunts.

Words canNOT describe what we saw there. It was just shockingly unbelievable. This used to be a string of pretty houses and a city on a bay. In the distance you can see what remains of the tsunami wall that the wave broke through.

This last one was taken no where near the ocean. That boat does NOT belong there.

We felt guilty that we had done so little to help. I didn’t mean to be such a downer.. I just needed to show  a little of what we did. Let’s see what else…

Sho got a haircut. She refuses to get one anywhere but Japan.

Then we did some work for some people in Osaka and Hamamatsu. Wonderful familes we did work for a couple years ago. They were so gracious in working with us again. I hpe they see improvment in our work from two years ago!

This is the view behind Sho’s family home where she grew up. How amazing would that be?!

We ate a lot… mostly tasty meat.

We hung out with Sho’s brother (Left of me) and sister (Right of Sho) and cousin (on the far left). That was really cool. We’ve never been able to do that before.

We did Tokyo Disneyland with our good friends. They have the cutest kids. I could play with them all day! I just don’t want to spin in that cup anymore than I have to.

I don’t think their little girl is quite ready for big costumes… or at least big noses. Maybe that’s why she didn’t like me too much either. She likes Sho a lot though. Sho has a small nose.

We went to a festival and danced with the locals.

Japan is just a really amazing place.

Complex, yet stunningly simple. Warm and considerate, but oddly able to permit everyone their space. I like it… I could live there.

We will have this all sorted out with updated galleries as soon as possible.

In the meantime, if you would like more information or would like to schedule a photo session, please email us at info[at]oscarsonphotography.com.

It can be hard to look at my photography from even a year ago as I have worked very hard to improve both technically and aesthetic, but when I brushed the dust off and bothered running them thru a little proper processing, some of these surprised me.

What makes it meaningful, though, is that I get to stand there with my closest friends.

We went to Utah, visitied family, and I spent a weekend the my best of friends in Moab. It was quite and adventure. I have a pile of photos that I am still working on, but I thought I would share this one first. It is a different kind of photo from the rest and thought it deserved its own post.

This is the kind of photo that gets me all excited. This is the kind of photo I could spend hours taking to try to get it just right.

My sister asked me to do a simple portrait with her and her husband in some period clothes she made as a reference for a painting she wants to do… yes she made those clothes. If you look closely, you’ll even see the clothes pin I just realized I didn’t take out in post… maybe I’ll repost this when that is done. Anyway, I still like it.

Some of the coolest people we know moved to Germany this week. We have few ‘couple friends’ that we hang out with often so it hurts when they leave. But before they went, I got another couple shots with their amazingly adorable boy who turns 1 year old this next week.

I have been making good use of our seamless white backdrop. Looking at this picture made me realize that I was so over my micro gotee that it was shaved off the next day. It is a natural part of the beard cycle, so I’m not too sad about it.