Sharing a story

Yesterday I was sitting at *bucks catching up with a buddy and I noticed these words on my cup. They sum up exactly why I am a photographer. It's my joy to be able to share stories. Have a great Xmas everyone.

Moto Show - Seattle

Two weeks ago I took the boys to the moto show. It was like going to the amusement park. Yes they loved the ATV and dirt bikes the most. Boys after their dad's hear. Haha, someday!
Corey

Haiti Relief Show - Q Café

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege to offer my services and document a Haiti Relief Benefit show at the Q Café. I really enjoy the opportunities to offer my services for causes like these. We heard a first hand story of a woman who was actually in Haiti and trapped in a building when the earthquake hit. Enjoy some of these images and video from the evening. Remember: Don't forget Haiti.





Corey

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Remembering A Life

A year ago today my grandpa passed away. So today I continue to celebrate the life he lived, the example & legacy he left behind, and the future joy of seeing him again. I love you.



Photo taken by Joy Marie.

A Little Zoo Trip

Just a little Zoo trip we took last weekend. These were all shot while holding one boy and/or pushing the stroller.




Tech Specs:
Canon 7D
Canon 50mm 1.4

Here Often...

What does this image say to you?

I find myself here a lot with all that is going on around me. I captured this image for a project my wife is working on. It speaks to me on so many levels.

Corey

A letter to Haiti

I find myself heartbroken, feeling helpless for Haiti. If it was in my power I would pack a bag right now and get down there any way I could. But that's not realistic for me. My wife wrote a beautiful letter on her blog that sums up how my heart feels right now too....
Dear Haiti,

I do not know you well.  I don’t know much of your story.  I’ve never had the chance to visit you and see your beautiful home.  I hear it’s wonderful.  I hear your story is one of heartbreak and struggle to persevere and unity with your family.  I hate that this tragedy has struck you.  I hate that I sit on a soft couch in a warm building, drinking coffee, knowing that as helpful as my money may be, nothing I send you can take away your pain.  I want to take you home with me.  I want to clothe you and feed you, and sing songs to you like I do my own children.  Haiti, I am sorry that the world has ignored your needs for so long.  As awful as this sounds, maybe the beauty from the ashes is that this time, your needs won’t go unnoticed.  Maybe this is the season for the world to step up and face their fear of failure, give away their need for power and control, sacrifice more than seems possible, and open their arms to strangers without calculating the costs first.  Maybe this is the season that the heart will lead and it will not be a hardened heart, but a broken heart, a remorseful heart.  A reconciling heart.

Haiti you have a very amazing creator.  He thinks your special.  He has given you both your inner beauty and outer beauty.  He has given you inner strength, when your outer strength crumbles.  If you don’t know him, you should meet him.  He’ll walk with you through this storm closer than anyone else.

Haiti.  I am sorry.  I wish I could do more.  Someday I will come meet you and I hope we will be good friends.
I support an organization called One Day's Wages. Each year I commit to donating a % of earnings to them. With the recent events they have already setup an Emergency Haiti Relief Fund where you can go and donate to help relief efforts. If all we can do right now is help fund the efforts that more then just sitting still. If you haven't already and can, give. If you can't then keep yourself informed of what is happening over there on a day to day basis. We all have a voice and can all make a difference in our own way.

Maybe as a photography community we could all pick a date this year and donate all proceeds to help. Who's in for a"Your Wedding for Haiti" program?

Corey

Merry Christmas To All Our Family & Friends!

Merry Christmas and Happy Year Year to all our family and friends. Thanks for making 2009 another amazing year. And Thank You for all your love and support. We are so blessed.
May 2010 be filled with many new adventures and experiences!
~ The Hages

Photobooth Fun - now for 2010 weddings!

We had a little fun today with our very own photobooth. You can now have this setup at your wedding reception and get some of the fun/funniest moments. I will be offering this for my 2010 weddings.

Corey

PS: This is not a box you sit in and close the curtain. More fun than that! :)

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Fantasy Football - Never Again

I have officially decided that I won't play fantasy football anymore. Someone keep me accountable to that, please. I don't know why I do it cause every year I always regret it. I will admit that my team isn't the greatest but when the bench scores more points then the starters there is a serious issue. Maybe is just me. I'm a competitive person and I don't like to loose; FF does not help that at all. It's not only the loosing that I hate about it, it's the fact that I can't sit and enjoy a game without thinking about how this guys is doing or how that defense is doing and then getting upset when they aren't performing. That totally takes the enjoyment out of it for me. So today I decided that I will not play FF again.

On a good note, Thanksgiving was awesome. We had 2 turkey dinners plus all the leftovers. Good eating all around!

Corey

PS: This is probably good indication I could never be a head coach of a football team. Wouldn't that be fun though?!

I'm A Superhero's Side-kick

Yep that's right, I am a superhero! I have always wanted to be a superhero and last Saturday I was. Well I only got to be a Superhero's side-kick but that cool too. Especially since my superhero son was THE superhero. I think I know how Robin felt being Batman's side-kick. :) My Son was so excited about his superhero costume, which was homemade by my wife. Don't mistake him for one of the Incredibles, because wasn't one, he was Might Max. And I was Might Max's Super Side-kick!

We had a blast at our church's Trunk-or-Treat event. It was a great atmosphere for him to have fun with his friends, get candy, and play fun games. I loved watching him get excited about his bucket of candy. I had one of those moments, where I saw myself on the floor (just like he was) with wide eyes looking at what I got. Life is getting more and more exciting as he and his brother grow.

It was a super fun weekend. And I have my share of candy to eat too!

Corey

PS: Only one more month before the holidays are here. Get your family portraits done! Mention this post for a discount.

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Welcome One Days Wages

I am proud to write about an amazing organization that launched today. Eugene & Minhee, who founded this organization are really good friends of ours. I'm excited about what they're doing & even more excited about partnering with them on many levels. Below's a note from Eugene about the launch. Please take the time to read it and also take part in the fight.
One Day's Wages - an international grassroots movement dedicated to ending extreme global poverty.  We are certainly not the first and thankfully, not the last...

Here are 5 simple ways you can help:

1.  Visit the website - onedayswages.org and create an account.
2.  Make a donation. Calculate your day's wages on the website or make another donation. You can choose to invest in one of the organizations/projects highlighted on the website. 100% of your donations (minus transaction costs) go directly to these projects.

3.  Be a FAN on Facebook: facebook.com/onedayswages
4.  Spread the word. Use the tools on our website (like Twitter) to spread the movement with your friends and network.
5.  Forward this email.

The numbers regarding extreme global poverty are overwhelming but there is some good news. There are already individuals and organizations around the world doing amazing work to fight extreme global poverty. We're not trying to re-invent the wheel but rather to collaborate and partner with others and inviting you to join this movement dedicated to ending extreme global poverty.

We know that the issues are very complex but it’s also very simple:  It shouldn’t be this way and doesn’t have to be this way. In our lifetime, we can end extreme global poverty.
As I write this I think about the cup of coffee next to me and how much it costs. What's disturbing about it is that we don't think about what a cup of coffee costs us, we need it in the morning to get going. At least I have something to get going for right? Please take the time to spread the word and join the fight. You won't regret it.

Corey

PS: If you want a good cup of coffee go to the Q Café, they give 10% back to outside causes.

Happy 1st B-day Little Man!

To my little man,

Happy 1st Birthday! What a year it's been. You have grown so much. Each day is a new adventure for us. I am so blessed to call you my son. Your smile, laugh, dancing and more are such a joy in my life. Momma & I love you more than you could ever imagine. We celebrate you today!

Love,

Dadda

Unreal...Miracle, I say so....

This is unreal. Yesterday I was working on editing last weeks wedding on my MBP. It was 1pm, I looked at my clock and it said it was 9pm. I thought that was strange how can that be. So I hit restart on the computer and it wouldn't reboot. I tried everything from disk utility to disk warrior...nothing. So I transferred all my data to my iMac late last night (could still mount it as a firewire drive). This morning I decided to try to repair it from the iMac and still nothing. I hit restart on the iMac hoping to try once more connecting the laptop to it. You won't believe it, the iMac wouldn't reboot now either. What?!!!! Both computers with a gray screen and spinning wheels.... done for sure.

I decided to reinstall the MBP because the little info it had on it was on the iMac and I would go from there. Sitting and watching the system reinstall I still couldn't believe it. Even at one point I thought the install froze. When the install had finished I input all my new info and was hopeful for the fresh start. When the OS booted up you won't believe what I was looking at..... all my files in the same place as before. What?!!! It make no sense. Everything should be gone but not the case. What's even more unreal, I just gambled and reinstalled the iMac and it just did the same thing!

Can your PC do that?! :)

Corey

PS: Have no fear I always have multiple backups of all my images.

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Fishing with Peace

This past weekend I did what I grew up doing.... I went fishing!! I've lived in Seattle for 10 years and this is the first time I went out fishing. I can't believe I waited for so long. My father flew in from Denver for the weekend, so early Friday morning with my brother-in-laws, Mike & Kyle, we all hit the river. The photo above was the early morning light on THE spot. For 6 hours I was out in the water with fish jumping around me and peacefulness in the air. Catching fish after fish was awesome and the perfect pre-wedding relax day. I am going to have to make this a routine for sure.

Corey

PS: Stay tuned for the images I got the next day at Jenny & Ernie's wedding - Breathtaking!

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Backyard Fun

Yesterday had a little fun with the boys out in the backyard. We have to take advantage of the nice weather while it's still around for sure. This is the first photo of Katey & I in a long time. We seem to always take pics of the boys. I better work on that! :)

Corey

PS: You can see that my boys like to put stuff in their mouths.

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Shooting with Jim Garner

If you follow me on twitter you will know that this past weekend I had the opportunity to shoot with one of the coolest guys around, one of the top 10 wedding photographers, Jim Garner. When he asked me to shoot with him I was surprised and excited all at once. If there was one photographer in the industry that I have been following and feel like I connect with the most, it is Jim. One of the things that he really takes pride in is sharing his knowledge with young shooters (all shooter too) in the industry like myself. His recent website launches are goboda.com &  livegoboda.com which has tools to help shooters from shooting to editing to presenting wedding stories. I will first hand say that if you haven't picked up his training DVD Vol. 1, you should. He teaches you everything from shooting a storybook wedding to creating beautiful, award winning albums. If you are starting out or feel like you are up against a wall, go buy the DVD you won't be disappointed.

Unfortunately I have not images to share with you from this epic wedding we shoot. So be sure to check out his blog for the amazing wedding story we captured. The bride and groom were a blast to shoot. Their energy in front of the camera lead to tons of stellar images. This is one story you won't want to miss.

Mini Golfing

This past weekend we had a chance to get out to the mini golf course with the extended family and let the boys have a little fun. I have to say that both boys really loved the golf course. Well maybe that's not true, they like the colored ball and how it floats more!

Working On Rebuilding

If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook, you will know that last week I lost all my Databases on my server. So what does that mean... well I lost my entire blog. All the posts and photos on it were gone. Luckily my site was not hit nor was my image host. Rest assured brides I didn't loose any photos! I am currently working on rebuilding my site/blog into a blog-site. Please bear with me as this process is a little slower then expected since I am in the heart of wedding season. While I am rebuilding lets take a trip down memory lane... This is one of my favorite images from a couple years ago.

Be my everything

A couple of weeks ago I saw this video my friend Justin made that really resonated with me and my hopes for Hage Creative. As I am in the midst of a busy wedding season, this will be my constant prayer. I love what I do but I wouldn’t be able to do it without Him. Take 5 mins to watch this video. I hope you’re encouraged by it, humbled by it, moved by it in some way today.