This past week has been a blur of craziness for our family and I absolutely love it. Christmas is always amazing to me. Seeing my kids wake up, Eden running to the tree in her PJ’s to see if Santa ate his goodies, Huntley opening up his first Christmas package…these moments are priceless. I love the laughter, smiles, good food and most of all the reason for why we celebrate.
I know a lot of photographers who don’t take their “nice” cameras out for family time and some who don’t shoot at all. That’s whack! You had better believe I’m going to be shooting my best at my daughter’s concert and I’m going to bust out the “L” glass on Christmas day (for all of the photo geeks, all of the Christmas day images were shot with the Canon 50 1.2L). Anyhow, here are some images from Eden’s Christmas Concert a few weeks back and then some from our Christmas day. And Eden actually got a real camera this year! I will definitely have to be on my best behavior now. Enjoy.

Eden’s Preschool Concert








Check out my Papa with an iPhone. He’s always keepin’ it cool!

My new assistant in training.

…sitting on my couch with the Mac on my lap typing out a fresh blog post. I just wanted to take some time and out and say a huge MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! It is all of my cool blog followers that make everything worthwhile. All of my amazing clients who I get the pleasure of working with, all of my photographer friends who are too cool for words, all the fresh people in the wedding industry that I share my Saturdays with week in and week out and especially my family who has been rooting for me from the bleachers at baseball games, from the pier when I was surfing and the back of the room when I was spelling out words I’ve long forgotten…its you guys who truly make it happen!
I love Christmas time! I love revisiting the original Christmas story and reflecting on how much that baby born in a dirty stable has affected my life. I love the joy on Eden’s beautiful face when she sees her grandparents and great-grandparents (and vice versa). I love putting out milk and cookies (errr, M&Ms this year) for Santa and some carrots for Rudolph, then waiting for Eden and Huntley to go to bed so I can eat them. I love the looking over at my beautiful wife to see her beaming smile when Eden unwraps her favorite gift. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!
So with that, I leave you a little video I put together from my little ski trip.

TAHOE SKI from Scott Shoemake on Vimeo.

This is the “slow” time for a wedding photographer. Well a gajillion Christmas sessions and card orders, print orders, etc. doesn’t necessarily give me a “slow” feeling, but it is slowing down. I feel blessed to live in California where I can actually shoot weddings in the winter, but it is nice to have a little bit of a break.
So in the “in between” days I’m working on my website. Designing some new sample albums, new client literature, finishing touches on some branding and marketing, magazine submissions, etc. etc. etc. and oh yeah, I gotta get some days in on the hill. I love to ski.
The feeling you get of the cold, the wind biting your cheeks…the exhilaration of flying through the air doing “spinny-flippy things”, dropping into untouched powder and ripping turns through the sugar pines of the Sierra Nevadas. There is simply nothing like it. I can’t wait to shoot some skiing this year and actually it looks like I’ll have some pretty cool commercial projects up in Tahoe this winter. So with that, I’ll see you on the chair lift. Take care and enjoy!