I just found out that I was named one of the Knot’s Top Wedding Photographer’s for 2009! That was such a cool surprise as I really had no idea! Here is what the email said…

“We are proud to announce that KJImages Photography has been rated by local brides and voted The Knot Best of Weddings 2008/2009 Pick. Please pick up a copy of The Knot Best of Weddings 2009 magazine and check out our listing.”

They even sent me a cool plaque in the mail today!

Thanks to all of the wonderful brides that voted for me as I truly appreciate all of the kind words!

I am truly honored to be featured on Pocketwizard’s website!!  For those of you that don’t know, Pocketwizard is one of the biggest names in the photography industry and their products are used by almost every photographer out there!  When I was in Vegas last month, the company approached me and wanted me to test the new Mini and Flex units in downtown Vegas and I gladly accepted!  The new units work VERY well and I have integrated them into all of my weddings since then!  The ability to have wireless ETTL with my flashes has really made my reception shooting a total joy!! In fact, all of my reception shots from the last few weddings have  been shot using the new Mini and Flex units!!

Here is a quick video from the Pocket Wizard site that shows me shooting the new units…

OK, a lot of you know I have a soft spot in my heart for animals(Especially Lions and Monkeys!)  Well, my friends Melissa and Stephanie sent me a link to this remarkable story of this Lion named “Christian”.  I think Oprah, as well as a few other shows have aired the story, but I thought I would post the quick video for those who haven’t seen it yet.

Yes, I admit, I teared up too!!

Enjoy…

Christian the Lion from Hans Lehmann on Vimeo

WOW, what an incredible 8 days in Vegas!! WPPI is our annual International Photography convention in which over 12,000 photographers attended this year! Alycia and I had one of the most hectic schedules of anyone there, but we had so much fun meeting everyone and teaching all of our classes! Here is a breakdown of our week…

Wednesday night - We had a chance to meet all of the PLUS class attendees at a cocktail reception as well as see some old friends! Alycia and I then had a WONDERFUL dinner at Emeril’s(courtesy of Skip Cohen) with some of the BEST photographers in the world!(Who I am proud to also call my friends.)

Thursday and Friday - We had the most awesome PLUS class!! I think we had folks from over 5 countries represented in our class alone!(The Marshall Islands, The Philippines, Malaysia, Canada, Guatamala, and the US!) Everyone was so eager to learn and asked some great questions!! Thanks also to our amazing Sponsors who gave us a TON of cool door prizes(I think everyone in the class won something!!)

I even got WPPI’s own Shauna Harris to do a little modeling for the class! Here is a fun shot in front of MGM…

Here is a shot of Alycia and I with our class on the last day…

Saturday - I judged the Print Competition this year and saw some AMAZING images!! The quality simply keeps getting better EVERY year!!  Since it was Valentine’s Day, Alycia and I went out to dinner at Craftsteak and then had front row seats to the Wayne Brady show at the Venetian!  First off, the steaks at Craftsteak were awesome to say the least!!   We will definitely be eating there again!

Next, we went to the Wayne Brady show and had a total blast!!  Wayne is so incredibly talented, it’s crazy!!  Almost the whole show is improv and I don’t remember laughing that much in a long time!!  He is such a great guy as well as we hung out with him a little after the show!

Here’s a shot of us with Wayne Brady…

Sunday - I judged the Print competition all day and then was invited by the great folks at Pocketwizard to test out some new products with a live shoot on the Vegas Strip!  I had a blast and the new stuff is totally exciting!!  In fact, I will blog about the products soon!

Monday - Alycia and I attended a cool focus group meeting during the day and then had our Platform Class at night!  We had a total blast with everyone and the feedback has been tremendous!! A special thanks to Laura, Lowell, Shannon, Starla,  and Melissa for helping us with everything!  I also want to give a special shoutout to the guys at Dury’s who went above and beyond to support us as did the folks at Azura albums!  Thanks also to all of our great sponsors who provided great doorprizes!!  The footballs were a hit and the Apple ITouch that WHCC gave us to give away went over quite well!

Thanks to Shannon for the following 2 pics of us at our Platform class…

Me answering  questions afterwards…

Kenny Kim got this one of me throwing some footballs during our program!  The footballs were a hit!!

Tuesday - Both Alycia and I spoke at the WHCC booth(Which looked incredible BTW!)  and then we finally had a chance to walk around the tradeshow for a bit before heading off to speak at a WPPI Townhall meeting that night.  We then had dinner with our WONDERFUL album company - AZURA Albums!  It was great getting to know Lek and Shelly better and the sample albums they made for us looked incredible!!  Here is a shot of the booth with our images and then all of us…

Wednesday - We spoke at the WHCC booth again and then walked around the tradeshow some more before attending the awards ceremony.  Our equipment supplier, Dury’s, seemed jam packed everytime we walked by!  We are not surprised as we feel that they are the best in the business and we wouldn’t get our camera gear anywhere else!!  Here are a couple of quick shots of Ron and his crew in action!!(Look at all the people!!)

We also took a quick shot of the Photoidentities booth(who provide my blog!!)  They used a bunch of our images as well and it looked really cool!  Vera and Max do a fantastic job with websites and blogs, so if you need one, contact them asap as they had some amazing deals!!

OK, so then we made our way to the Awards ceremony.  I didn’t really expect to win anything this year since I only entered a few prints, but I was pleasantly surprised when I won 2nd place in the high school senior category and 3rd place in the animal/pets category!  I was shocked to say the least, but I won’t complain!! =)

Here are my winning images…

It was a crazy busy week, but a ton of fun!  It was also great to see a lot of old friends and to meet new ones!  I am already looking forward to our trip next year!

I am VERY excited about getting to Vegas tomorrow!

….for all you photographers who are attending… Here is my speaking schedule for the week…I would love to meet you guys!! I can’t wait to see everyone, including my amazing vendors, sponsors, and friends!!

2/12 - Plus Class - Sold Out
2/13 - Plus Class - Sold Out
2/14 - Print Judging
2/15 - Print Judging
2/16 - Rings to Rattles Platform Class with Alycia - 6:15pm rm #319/320!
2/17 - WHCC Tradeshow Booth - 1:15pm-1:45pm
2/17 - WPPI TownHall Meeting 6:15-8:15 MGM Conference Center, 3rd Floor Ballroom.
2/18 - WHCC Tradeshow Booth - 1:15pm-1:45pm
2/18 - Meet the Speaker 3pm-5pm

Feel free to visit www.wppionline to get more information!

For my clients, I will check my email in the evenings and will still have my cell phone around in case of anything urgent.

Thanks and I can’t wait to see everyone this week!

When I was In Tampa last week,  Alycia and I thought it might be fun to take the crew to the hockey game.(Especially since my beloved Dallas Stars were the opponent that night!)  Well, Olaf and Christin Kolzig surprised us with a cool luxury suite for the game!!

For those of you that don’t know, Olaf Kolzig played goalie most of his life for the NHL’s Washington Capitals but now has a one year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning this year.  Most of you know him by “Olie the Goalie”.    Alycia and I met Christin Kolzig(a great photographer herself), at one of our recent “Rings to Rattles” workshops in Tampa and we all just hit it off from the start!

Here’s Aly and I from the luxury suite and Olie and I.(Dang, I look short next to him!)

And the 4 of us…

Alycia just recently photographed one of the first TRUE family portraits of the Kolzigs in her studio!(What a gorgeous family btw…!)  Click on the photo below to see a few more of Alycia’s beautiful shots!

On another note, I wanted to write this blog to let everyone know about the Carson Kolzig Foundation.  Christin and Olie started this nonprofit foundation in honor of their son Carson, who has Autism.   It is a great cause and I know I will do what I can to help support their efforts.  Here is a link to the site…

Carson Kolzig Foundation

I have been truly honored and blessed to be asked to speak on behalf of so many QUALITY companies and businesses the last few months! I thought I would share just a couple of cool new ads that just came out in several photography magazines around the country! How cool is that!!

Dury’s is one of my favorite companies to work with as Ron and his crew do a fantastic job of getting me all of my equipment whenever I need stuff! Not to mention that their customer service is simply AMAZING!!

This Wells Fargo ad JUST came out this month in the latest Rangefinder magazine!(I think it’s the best photography magazine around hands down!)

I had the opportunity to photograph Kelli a few months ago for her new website and it was great getting to know all about her life as a sports agent!! For those of you that don’t know, Kelli was a former Miss Oklahoma who has since become a lawyer and now a very successful sports agent!(Yes, I tease her about Arliss and Jerry Mcguire all the time!)

For all of you athletes out there who need a trustworthy, hard working, very dependable, and most of all ethical agent, I encourage you contact Kelli. She is one of the most hard working people I know and would represent you well! In fact, I already know of some BIG NAME athletes that will be signing with her soon and it is really exciting!!(Sorry, I cannot say yet, but I look forward to shooting their Portraits and Weddings!!)

Check out Kelli’s website at the following link to catch up with her latest news, signings, and travels!

KELLI MASTERS MANAGEMENT

Here are a couple of shots from our session…

As many of you know, Andrew and I have been working with the Dallas Stars this year and loving every minute of it.  Shooting sports has always been fun for me and it’s not that much unlike shooting weddings in that you really have to anticipate the moment before it happens and be ready to capture the shot.  Anyway, I thought I would post a few of my early season favorites…

And one Andrew took of me in action…

Congratulations to Myndi and Chris as their wedding was selected as a FEATURED wedding in the new Knot Texas magazine that just hit the newsstands!  They had such a beautiful wedding and we had tons of amazing details to shoot!  It always helps when you have awesome vendors to work with and we had some of my favorite folks working with us on this one!  Here are the pages as well as a link to the online version…

ONLINE Version