Hey gang! Along with Long Beach locals NOZZA Studio and Bella Fiore, I’m super excited to announce one of the many new things The Wedding Clique is bringing to the wedding industry in 2010. In addition to providing advice, resources, and our own services to brides and grooms, we really want to help industry members connect with each other. We’re starting the new year with a bang by hosting TWO mixers this month, one on Friday, January 15th and another the following Friday on January 22nd.

What: The Wedding Clique 2010 Mixer

When: Friday, January 15th for wedding vendors and Friday January 22nd for brides and grooms, from 7PM-midnight

Where: NOZZA Studio and Henry Chen Photography Studio at: 133 The Promenade North, Suites 101 and 104, Long Beach, CA 90802

Bring yourself, your colleagues, and don’t forget your business cards to pass out to new friends at the mixer. We’ve already mailed out the RSVP invitations and are expecting a really great turn out but would love to invite as many interested people as possible. Food and drinks will be provided.

So if you haven’t signed up yet but would like to stop by or have any questions, please e-mail henry[at]henrychenphotography[dot]com with your name, company info, and number of guests by this Monday, January 11th. Although we invite you to both mixers, we’re encourage wedding vendors to attend the one on the 15th and brides and grooms to attend the one on the 22nd of January. Looking forward to meeting you!

What’s better than having a 2008 Blogstalkers E-Session Contest? One for 2009! I’m feeling a bit lazy so I’ll just copy and paste what I wrote last year with a few modifications ;). I know I’m a few days late on announcing this contest but hey, better late than never right?

THE WHAT

Starting right now, everyone who follows this blog will have the chance to win a portrait session package from me, which includes the following:

- 2-hour portrait session at the location(s) of your choice.

- Either a 9×12” or 10×10” digital or matted custom-designed album with your favorite images.

- DVD of all the high-resolution images, including the fully-retouched ones from the album.

Since the reasoning behind this contest is on giving back and just helping a lending hand to two individuals who may have not had their engagement/anniversary/family photos taken for various reasons, the winner will be chosen based on the following: have gone out of their way to do something remarkable for someone or something :).

THE RULES

You or someone you know can enter this contest. Perhaps a fellow friend, co-worker, or family member whom you’d like to recognize for their good deeds? In order to participate, please submit the following to me by midnight of January 31st, 2010: an e-mail to henry@henrychenphotography.com with your full name, your location, contact info, a photo of you and your significant other or the couple that you’re nominating, and a 2-3 paragraph on why you/they deserve this prize :).

The winning couple will be selected in early February and notified immediately. Their portrait session will hopefully be set up shortly afterwards, and of course I’ll be sharing their story and their photos here on the blog. Oh yeah, although I’m based in Los Angeles, you don’t have to be :). However, if you’re the winner and choose to have your session outside of Southern California, then some travel fees may apply. Questions? Comments? Let me have them below in the comment section :). Remember, the deadline is midnight of January 31st, 2010.

Dina and Lyndon were the winners from last year’s contest. I’m so glad I did this thing a year ago as it gave me the opportunity to meet two inspiring and wonderful people in Dina and Lyndon (as well as their three sons Deon, Dale, and Dave). Okay gang, if you’re reading this, I hope to hear from you for this year’s contest. Good luck!

It’s kinda rare for me to escape the cold and run towards the heat but that’s exactly what I’ll be doing this month. As much as I love the 50-60 degree weather in the winter time, I’ll be running towards the warm climates of South Africa from December 9th through the 23rd.

For the first half of the trip, I’ll be in the Johannesburg/Pretoria areas photographing Vasti (sister/sister-in-law of Lonngren and Anna) and Pieter’s engagement session and wedding. Woohoo! And during the second half of the trip in Cape Town and its surrounding areas, I have the pleasure and honor of second shooting THREE weddings with one of South Africa’s very best wedding photographer Christine Meintjes. I can’t thank Vasti and Pieter enough for flying me out to their home town to document their day and also Christine for giving me such an amazing opportunity to shoot alongside her.

Okay let’s get down to business :). I’ll be around the rest of this week until Saturday morning, when I have a quick destination wedding in Sacramento. I’ll be back Monday afternoon so if you need me for anything (prints, albums, files, etc.) PLEASE let me know like…NOW, since I won’t be too helpful from the 9th on. Sorry for the sudden notice but I thought sneaking up on you would be the nicest way to go about with all of this ;).

While in South Africa, I’ll have limited phone/e-mail/Internet access ($120 for 100MB of iPhone data should help but not too much Twittering or GPS-ing for me :P). I can’t promise a quick response or that I’ll pick up my phone, but I’ll definitely do my best to get back to you asap as well as post some teasers on this blog. Thanks so much in advance!

Keeping up with the video I did last year, here’s one for 2009. Sorry in advance if I forgot anyone and also for the yellow cast in the video – I’m a photographer not a videographer jk :P. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! See you on the other side :).

What I’m Thankful For – 2009 from Henry Chen Photography on Vimeo.