Denver Wedding Photographer – Mark Hayes

I’ve lost my gear – in weight loss as of this week.

Biggest Loser Monday
As some of you know Season 8 last fall of The Biggest Loser really inspired me to start taking control of my weight issues so late last November I started really watching my intake and getting a little more exercise.   Throw in the mix that I’ve received immense support from a wide variety of wedding photographers, both local and nationally, from the Fast Track Photographera group hosted by Dane Sanders.  And if all this wasn’t enough the icing on this cake for change is the fact my friend and often second photographer, Dain Linder, not only being a good friend and excellent photographer, he also has a background in fitness and training and has helped me turn a morning in the gym into a regular routine.

While the small progress each week has been wonderful I was thrilled this week to reach a mini-milestone.

A few weeks back I posted an article on my gear bag and commented on how fully loaded it was about 50 pounds in weight.  Well this week my weight loss as exceeded (well exceeded actually) this number.   The reason this is such a great threshold is this weight loss is something tangible now.  When I have to carry that bag up the stairs I can remind myself that just a few months back I was carrying that much weight up the stairs when it was just me going up the stairs.

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Use The Force Luke

Anybody who follows me on Twitter or Facebook knows last week I had a pretty hair raising experience, well it would have been if I had that much hair anyways.

Last Thursday while driving down the road the steering wheel literally came off in my hand and I found myself going down the highway at 60-ish mph without any way to control the car.  Fortunatly the car just kept veering to the last direction I had pointed it, towards the right, and I was able to safely apply the brakes and the impact with the concrete barricades was pretty gentle.  Most of the damage was taken by one of the front wheels and the tire.

Yup, that’s the steering wheel resting on the dash after I unplugged the air bag wires while waiting for a tow truck.

While it’s tempting to get real upset and blame someone, the car manufacturer, the last mechanic who serviced it, etc., I just am thrilled such an experience ended with no injuries (or worse).  We think we’ve ID’d what event probably started to loosen the bolt and it was just a one in a million chance that it led to this.  Fortanatly I figure the odds of safely pulling over a car on the highway without a steering wheel at about the same one in a million.  It could have been such a terrible event, but ended well – it’s hard not to be happy about that.

Besides I’ve got a great new Facebook avatar.

No, I didn’t remember to go get any lotto tickets that day.

On the flip side if your a gambling person and you want Denver’s Luckiest Wedding Photographer, well I just might be the photographer for you.

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2010 looks to be an amazing year for us, we’re ahead on bookings and expect to hit the closing point much earlier this year since we do cap our total weddings.   June is almost full and July-September is looking great as well.  Add a few early and late weddings and things look good.  Don’t worry though if we’re booked for your wedding day I have a list of referrals to some of the best photographers in town.   We’ll take care of you one way or the other.

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My wife and I are celebrating our 23rd anniversary this week.   Just another example of why I’m the luckiest guy around.

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Another Monday, another Miscellaneous post.

Taste of Dunafon

Brides, Dunafon Castle will be planning another Taste of Dunafon for late February.   If you’re still looking for a venue and want to find one of the most magnificent wedding venues in Colorado for your wedding you’ll want to check this out.   Just go to the website and in the contact area you can get in touch with Annie and Shannon and they’ll get you setup.    This is a great way to view the castle if you’re still looking for a venue and I hope to see some of our clients we’ve already booked for 2010 there as well.

admin

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Biggest Loser Monday

After a few weeks of hitting the gym 6 days a week I am seeing some wonderful results.   The belt I wore for last years wedding season is just about too big for me now.   I started on the second hole and I’m now on the last hole.   The only downside to all this is I’m going to need all new clothes come this seasons weddings at this rate.

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Porthos, aka “Mister Mischief” is now an escape artist

Since our dog Porthos is still a bit of a chewer we typically crate him when we have to leave.    Well the last week or two despite being crated he’s been meeting me at the door, and seems extremely pleased with himself when he does.  We setup a camera on the crate this week and it seems the little guy has figure out how to work the latch wish his nose and teeth.  Once he gets bored of the crate, about 10 minutes, and starts working on the latch he’s out of it inside another 2-3 minutes.

Since he hasn’t chewed anything up after his escapes I’ll let him have this little victory for now and not get a different crate with a better latch.

Sitting here on a chilly Monday morning listening to Christmas with the Rat Pack, Dean Martin’s “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” being one of my favorite versions.  Don’t worry later I’ll be rockin out with some heavy metal influenced classical Trans-Siberian Orchestra music.

When there’s 6″ of fresh snow outside and the temperature is about 6 degree’s it reminds me of how wonderful it is to have a job where I can decide that today will be a work from the home office day.   There’s always bookkeeping and filing to catch up on.

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Over the weekend we did a little early Christmas shopping for the house and purchased a new heating blanket.   Our old one just didn’t cut it anymore and with the back sliding door to take out the dog being IN the bedroom we just really needed every bit of help we could get keeping the bed warm.

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Picked up something new for the business as well, a Garmin Nuvi GPS navigator.   On my recent wedding up in Vail I carpooled up there with my associate shooter Dain and he had one of these in his vehicle.   It did an amazing job of getting us between hotels, chapels, and venues not to mention hunting for coffee on the way home that night.

While I’ve always gotten by well enough with printed maps it looked much easier just to have a display showing the path and telling you about upcomming turns and exits.   Of course being a former IT guy I’m all about backups and redundancy so having some printed maps in the dossier that goes with me on the day of the event is still going to be part of the plan, just in case…..

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With the weddings wrapped up I’ll be working on new studio sample albums this month and doing some “Favorites of 2009″ posts.

Don’t worry though with 3 weddings booked for January I’m going to be hitting the ground running with fresh content in 2010.

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It seems weird to say 2010 without talking about a futuristic science fiction story.   I remember as a kid watching “Space: 1999″ and that seemed so far away.