My Miniature Australian Shepherd, Mia!

It's amazing how much a little puppy can add to your life! My Mia is 7mo. old now and I can't imagine life without her. I think she was a gazelle in a previous life because she'll randomly hop over things, sometimes there doesn't even have to be anything there, she'll still hop. She doesn't run, she bounces!

I have an action shot of her chasing after her ball and as you can see, she bounces over the door mat every time. I was shooting some headshots at my home studio and just had to get one of her too! I can't go anywhere with her without getting mugged by everyone wanting to love on her. Life is good with Mia.

Chloe, Ethan, Noah and Ashliegh Troth

I was in Phoenix shooting a good friends grandparent's 50th anniversary renewal of vows. That was a mouthful! I'll get those pictures up soon but I have to rave on about Jason and Keely's kids! They are just way too cute, all 4 of them! Jason and Keely are amazing parents and it shows in their kids. Here are some favorites from the trip.

Now this is fun...

I got a call last month from a good friend of mine that I used to work with at Mercer Global Advisors. I haven't heard from him in forever and he said "If you're not doing anything tomorrow night, we need another team member so you're it!".

I'm always up for anything so I accepted my invitation to join a trap team! Every Wednesday night I go up to the Santa Ynez Gun Club and I'm on team #15 shooting trap. I love it and it's so much fun! It's not me in the pictures but that's what you're supposed to do, hit the clay bird!

McKay Family Portraits

I had the honor of shooting such a wonderful family the other week. We went down to Hendry's Beach, this super dog friendly beach, and had fun shooting some family portraits. They told me this was going to be their last Christmas in Santa Barbara because they're moving to Boston. Here are some of my favs from the shoot.

Sansum Clinic Headshots

I've been pretty busy lately, which I like but time sure does fly by! I can't believe it's already December. One project that I just started working on is shooting the headshots for Sansum Clinic. They're re-branding themselves and they're updating all of their doctor headshots for the files. They're getting a great makeover so check out their new look and logo. Check out the doctor headshots too, some of them might be from their Med School Graduations!

Formerly known as ChadRick Photography...

Well, I'm sure you've noticed that ChadRick Photography has changed it's name to Ricky Mia Photography. The "Rick" in ChadRick is me Ricky Mia and I'm here in Santa Barbara but the "Chad" in ChadRick has moved back to his hometown of St. Louis MO.

Life takes you in all sorts of directions and it brought Chad back to his stomping grounds. This was a sad day for ChadRick Photography. Chad is an incredibly gifted person, a great friend and a talented photographer and I wish him only the best in everything he does. He just recently launched Chad Jeffrey so check him out!

Since St. Louis is a few thousand miles away, we have become separate entities, hence Ricky Mia Photography and the new Chad Jeffrey! It only gets better from here!

Solomiya and Valeriy Goloborodko Wedding

We just shot a beautiful wedding here in Santa Barbara this past weekend. Both families are from the Ukraine and were so wonderful to be with. Here are a few favorites, the slideshow is still to come!

Students with Character

I've been doing some really great ad work with SBCOM lately. Here are some of the student faces of Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine!

Critical Error! This was a bummer!

Well, you always think to yourself, "it won't happen to me" but ... my hard drive crashed on my main computer! This was such a horrible experience! I back up my data especially my photography but there was that 20% that I kept telling myself to make sure and back up. Well, the computer went south and it's been a rocky road to recovery! I have to give kudos to my buddy Mike Murimoto for coming to my rescue at the drop of a hat. He spent many hours weeding through a corrupt drive to restore my files and he did a great job!

Now, I'm on the path of getting my systems up and running again. Things are almost back to normal now but what a pain in the !$$!@#%!#$! I'm master back up man now!

If you haven't been there yet, I've updated the slideshows on the site and Adrian and Gina's wedding is up and running!

Remember, make sure to BACKUP all of your work! I learned my lesson the hard way.

Take care!

Mia, Mia, Mia!

This little dog is the best! As you can see, she's got her favorite spots all over the house. When I'm working and it gets really quiet, I'm sure I can find her in one of many places. Here are a couple of them!

Kauai Hawaii - "secret beach"

Melissa and I went to Kauai for a much needed vacation. It was part vacation and part work though. Melissa, owner of Spa Defined just recently partnered up with Spas of America. She features Santa Barbara area spas and they have a wider scope covering the United States so it was a great fit. Anyway, she enjoyed the facilities and services while doing a review of the Grand Hyatt Anara Spa while we were there, bummer huh?

Kauai was so beautiful and a lot more lush than any of the other Hawaiian Islands I've been too. It's also much more peaceful and relaxing, really laid back. The beaches there are awesome especially one we went to. Kauai seems to be known for it's "secret beach." We finally found it and had to hike down the side of a cliff to get to it but it was worth it. I hiked around with all my camera gear on my back, I'm just stubborn that way! You can see in the pictures that we practically had the whole beach to ourselves! The water was warm and the beach was wide and clean. It was a great trip, oh yeah, check out that wicked spider we found! I used a macro lens to get that shot but when I was done, I didn't realize that my face was about an inch away from it!

Gina and Adrian's wedding

Gina and Adrian were married at Elings Park in Santa Barbara. It was a beautiful day and everyone was so much fun! There were some great t-shirts at the rehearsal and the best man actually had the rings under padlock attached to his belt! Just in case, the bride, groom and the maid of honor also had keys!

Students with Character

"With my education, I want to help people find and develop health and wellness." - Stevie Mason, Fall 06 Applicant

One thing neat about this campaign is that they are running in the local area theaters. The next time you're sitting eating your popcorn waiting for the movie to start, answering all of those celebrity trivia questions, pay attention and you'll see the Students with Character ads!!

Adrian and Gina's Engagement Session

We had alot of fun shooting this engagement session. We walked around at the pier here in Santa Barbara and then all along the beach. We wound up downtown at one of their favorite restaurants. Here are some pics!

Santa Barbara Fiesta Days Rodeo

Ok, well once a year it's time for Fiesta here in Santa Barbara. Lots of festivties, food and fun! Anyway, when it's Fiesta, there's always a rodeo. Now I basically grew up in the city but my girlfriend Melissa, grew up on a ranch so she really enjoys rodeos and now I do too! It just amazes me to see these brave souls ride the bucking broncos and the bulls, I know I couldn't!

One of our favorite events is the mutton bustin! Get this... a bunch of kids get all decked out in their best Fiesta/cowboy outfits, then they get voted on by crowd applause as to who has the best costume on. Here's the best part... now they all line up and ride these huge sheep and see who can stay on the longest! It's so much fun to watch, I just die laughing!

Sometimes the kid wins and makes it for the whole ride but there are the ones that bite the dust right from the start! They get up after they wipe out and brush off the dust and the crowds love it! The kids are watched closely and have protective gear on but I know I'd be scarred for life after wiping out for the first time. The kids love it and can't wait to get out there while they wait watching in the stands! Too much fun!