Our good friends Chris and Megan recently got engaged, and we took them on a bit of a bike ride. We've got some more plans for their engagement shoot, so consider these teasers!

Summer's a busy time. In the last couple weeks we've had a number of photo shoots, meetings with brides, some computer & hard drive meltdowns, and processed a thousand or so images!

Keep posted this week because we have a lot in the works. There's a number of shoots we've just completed that we can't wait to post. We've also been talking about a series of posts that are completely different from the what-we've-been-up-to stuff that we've been posting until now, so stay tuned!

Meanwhile, we just delivered images to the Canez family tonight. We could blog favorite photos from this shoot all year. Here are a few that kept grabbing my eye while I was putting their gallery together...

This image just kills me. There's something so intense behind his eyes in every one of the photos he's in. Kid's a thinker.

Photos of the people just before or after a formal portrait are the best. Somehow they tell the story much better than the actual portraits do.

Great moment. Authentic joy. If that wasn't enough, we lucked out and caught one of the purple flowers falling from the tree that the photo was taken underneath!

Instead of posting a few more images from this shoot every week, we'll just share the link to the entire gallery. Take a look here.

Like I said, more great stuff on the way this week so check back soon!

Mel and I were lucky enough to get an invite to help out our good friends and incredibly talented photographers, Bil Zelman and his wife, Megan Power, on a shoot they were doing to help out the Southern Sudanese Community Center (via Scott at The Glue Network).

The photos were for promotional and documentary use for the center. Scott and Dep (the center's director) brought thirty or so kids down to the site to be photographed. The shoot went really well but wasn't without its challenges. Mel and I are used to being on the coast where the wind dies down at sunset. Apparently inland, the opposite happens. We were using a 12' square shade screen that became a very large and powerful sail once propped upright. Even with the heavy duty roller stands and sand bags, there was no way it was going to remain standing without some additional leverage.

Fortunately (and kinda randomly), Bil and Megan drive a car outfitted with a winch. (Sidenote: winchline.com is a very real website, and you guessed it... they just sell winch line.)

The kids were amazing. There was such an incredibly open and present spirit throughout. These were people who seemed completely lacking of hesitation, doubt, or fear that most of us carry into our interactions and relationships with new people.

They loved having their photograph taken, many of them were very big fans of America's Next Top Model, and I heard a number of them express serious interest in getting copies of these photos for their Myspace pages.

I can definitely say with confidence that we've never before spent five hours in the sun doing reasonably tiring work and left feeling more refreshed than when we started. It was a really incredible experience, and both Melanie and I were very grateful to have had the opportunity.

Mel's role was chief child-wrangler. She was tasked with keeping the kids entertained and sending us groups to shoot. Turned out, taking pictures of them was a very useful distraction!

Curious about the outcome? Here are a few shots from Bil:

You can get more information about the Southern Sudanese Center of San Diego here, and the Glue Network here.

More of Bil's work can be viewed at his site as well.