Yuriy Manchik Photography: April 2008

Euro Pics Part III

I've got so many awesome pictures of Paris that I decided to post some more. This will be the last post of Paris, Munich is next.

The last image is my favorite image from the whole trip.

Whistler Mountain

I love Whistler. From my first time there with a bunch of friends, for snowboarding, to the most recent trip, it just gets better and better. You've got incredible skiing in the winter, and you also meet some awesome people from all over the world (there has never been a time where I didn't meet somebody from either Australia or the UK). In the summer, there is some of the most extreme mountain biking too be had (not to mention the kayaking, hiking, rock climbing, horseback, and so on). If you ever get the chance to go....GO! it's only a 5 hour road trip away and well worth it. I just got back a few weeks ago from Whistler, I was up there shooting the TELUS Ski and Snowboard Festival. Awesome time (will post some pics later).

I dug up some of these shots of Whistler and the surrounding area from last year, check 'em out-

Yelena & Eric

I had an awesome time with Yelena & Eric yesterday, shooting their engagement session. They drove up from Portland and we spent a couple hours having a lot of fun, I can honestly say this was one of the easiest and funnest session's I've had. Yelena had an awesome laugh and she laughed often. Not only where they fun but they are both extremely good looking, makes my job really easy. We did some shooting in the studio then headed out to this little deserted barn by my place to do some more shooting but the cold made it quite short.

I'm really looking forward to their wedding, if the engagement session was this much fun than the wedding should be a freaking blast.

Hair and make-up were done by the very talented and beautiful Lana Muzan, if you're in the Portland area, check out her new and remodeled salon on 23rd ave. For more info go here.

Here are quite a bit of images from our time together-

Shannon & Pablo

Here are some images from a beautiful wedding that were taken last summer, I forgot all about them until I came across them on my harddrive.
Susie Hamidi asked me to second-shoot and I was glad to help her. This was my first time shooting with Susie, and I had a great time. Including learning the best flash set-up ever (Thanks Susie).

Shannon and Pablo were married August 11, 2007 at the Bassetti Crooked Arbor Gardens in Woodinville. It's a beautiful location, I had a chance to talk with the owner, Leanette Bassetti, and I was blown away by her. She and her husband, Bill Berleman, opened the nursery up in 1983 and have been running it ever since. It's the perfect place for a little stroll through the garden, to get your mind off things and go off in your own little fantasy world. I'm not going to give away everything, check out the link to learn more including directions, or better yet just head out there one sunny afternoon, you'll be amazed. You might even catch Leanette, with her garden gloves, planting some new plants in her beautiful garden.

Afterward we headed off to Willows Lodge for the reception. Another amazing place like none other, but don't take my word for it -

"Ranked #80 best hotel in the world and #12 best hotel in the US and Canada" Travel + Leisure

I don't know much about flowers but I've seen enough bouquets and flowers to know what is spectacular and what isn't. Shannon's bouquet was beyond spectacular. TJ Montague of Garden Party did the floral design. Amazing job TJ.

Check out Shannon's hair, I don't know who did her hair but whoever it was did an awesome job.

I had an amazing time and want to thank Susie once again for letting me assist her at this beautiful wedding. To view the slideshow from the wedding click on the link below.

View slideshow

Margaret & Christian

Here are some images from Margaret and Christian's wedding back in February. They were an awesome couple, very laid back and easy-going, I had a great time hanging out with them. The wedding took place at the Courtyard Hall in Bothell and catering was provided by Celestial Catering.

Surfing in Santa Cruz

I recently arrived back from the most amazing 10-day road trip ever. I borrowed my mom's little Toyota Rav4 (much more gas-efficient than my car) and took off. First stop was in Boise, to visit some friends and do some incredible skiing at Tamarack and Bogus Mountain. Then down to Vegas for WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International). For those of you who aren't photographers, WPPI is the biggest and best conference/convention for photographers. My first time in Vegas was amazing. I had an incredible time hanging out with some awesome photographers and meeting a lot of new friends (I'll post more pictures from Vegas soon).

My uncle and cousin flew into Vegas and joined me on the last half of my road-trip. From Vegas we headed up to Sacramento. I visited a lot of family that I haven't seen in a long time in Sacramento. We also met up with some friends and went on a day trip to Santa Cruz to do some surfing. Water was cold but it's amazing what a wet-suit can do. My first time surfing was a very good experience, I think I did okay and am excited to go again sometime soon (Anybody wanna join me for some surfing in Westport, WA?????
). After that we headed up to San Francisco and from there we came home.

Road-trip stat's-

---States visited - 4
---Miles - 3250
---Gallons of Gas - 135

Images from the rest of the road-trip coming soon.

Here are some images from our surfing trip to Santa Cruz. Most of these shots where taken by Anna and Inna, I was too busy surfing.....

Cowell's Surf Shop awesome little place where we rented our boards and suits. If your bored or trying to fall asleep, go onto their website and listen to their "surf" music, it's really cool, I've been listening to it for the past 30 minutes and I feel like I'm sitting on a beach somewhere typing on my laptop....all I'm missing is a drink with an umbrella.