Leah found an organization a while ago called Operation Smile that we thought was awesome. They are headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia and provide free, much needed surgery to children born with cleft lip and other mouth deformities.

A surgery can be sponsored for $240 to help these children do something they never could before…smile. As I play with my kids I am reminded of what a precious gift that is which we take for granted (among many other things).

This charity has helped over 98,000 kids in America and twenty-four other countries around the world. An amazing 86% of all profits go directly to helping the children. The volunteer medical professionals generously give their skill, time, and love.

An organization of professional photographers that I belong to called the Digital Wedding Forum also supports Operation Smile as it is such a worthy cause.

Please check them out and consider donating to this wonderful group!

You are getting a first glimpse of the new Michael Escalera Photography logo (in the banner above) and the new blog! I am SO EXCITED about this release and am thrilled with the entire look. My new website should be released in about a week, but I’ll definitely post something about that as well.

I wanted my logo to look modern, fresh, unique and represent the different type of vision that I bring to my photography. I think it does exactly that!

As always, this blog would not look this incredible without the brains of my incredible web guru Ben! He has put in so much time putting up with me that I might just take him to BW’s! (Any excuse will do.)

In a world where so much of the “customer service” (a lot of them I label as customer dis-service) and technical support industry is outsourced to a someone in a country on the other side of the world, I have to give a HUGE shout out to my web hosting company - Bluehost.

Their customer service is great and their technical support staff is always helpful - they just rock! I just got an e-mail saying they now offer 24/7 technical support, and it’s to the same great location I always call.

Matt Heaton is the president of Bluehost and I am really loving this company even more after reading what he writes on his blog. Very rarely do you encounter someone with such good business sense and ethics.

It is truly a pleasure doing business with them. Check them out!

Guess where I ate yesterday?! I got a few weird looks when photographing their menu but that’s okay.

David Lee and I went and hung out at BW’s for a while chatting about Nikon gear, weddings, how we have the coolest job in the known universe, etc.

It’s nice chatting with other photographers in this area because there is always a professional and helping attitude between us. Let’s face it, there are a TON of weddings here every year so there is abosolutely no reason to be nasty with each other (not that I am like that anyway).

Anyway, good times, good people!

I just wanted to share our most recent family portrait! My friend Kevin Hurley did a session for us at his awesome studio in Historic Southwest Roanoke. I appreciate Kevin not only for the great photographer that he is, but also because he is such a down to earth, considerate guy. We shot a wedding together back in November last year and that was a blast!

Anyway, back to the family portrait. As a lot of you know, I like funky, different styles of images (Leah does too) and so this image fits us perfectly!

Thanks again Kevin!