We’d talked about it. But for sometime down the line, say a year or so from now.

It wasn’t anything serious. We started looking because honestly, who doesn’t like to be around puppies? Harmless enough, right?

Well before we knew it we were bringing home a little floppy-eared ball of heart-melting cuteness! We wanted to make sure we did our due diligence before leaping into such a responsibility, and spent 9 hours going around to various breeders, shelters, and homes looking for the perfect fit for our family.

Lo and behold, we returned that night with Ella (El-la), a Mal-Shih, and we are so thankful to have her! From moment one, we knew that there was something special about her, and she has been the most amazing pup! We can’t wait to share the joys, sleepless nights, and comedy that inevitably comes with being new puppy parents!

Ella hadn’t even been home for an hour before we had to bust out the camera and do our first (but definitely not last) photoshoot with our little fur ball! Don’t worry, we’ll find better light than our kitchen for her next close up…but for now we just had to share the good news!

World…meet Ella

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It’s no secret…if you know me (Gavin), you know that I L-O-V-E cars. It goes God, My wife, my family, photography, and then cars. Fast cars…exotic cars…cars that make you ruin the apholstery when you sit in them. Yeah, those type of cars. Currently my heart is torn and I’m caught in a vicious love triangle between the Lamborghini Gallardo and the Audi R8 as my mid-life crisis of choice. I’ve already got the green light from the wifey that one of them can some day be in the garage, so we’ll see

This love of all things that go vroom-vroom has been instilled, no, indoctrinated into my DNA by my car-crazy family. As long as I can remember, I’ve gone to auto shows and read Road & Track since I could say “Super-charged V8.”

Every year it is a family event to trek up to Los Angeles for the LA International Auto Show. This year it just so happened to fall on my birthday; awesome! Having been made an amazing b-day breakfast by my loving wife, we met up with my family and headed up to see what the Germans and Italians had cooked up this year (sorry Detroit, not a fan)!

I brought along our new Nikon D3 camera and decided to put it through the paces in the low flourecent lighting and see what it could do! It didn’t disappoint

Here are a few images! Sadly, the hot imports were a no show for the first time ever this year….recessions are lame.

P.S. If you have a sweet car, and want some free photos of your baby, shoot me an email at info@gavinwadephoto.com . I work for joyrides

- – The new Porsche Panamera, a 4-door “family” car with a V10 —

- – My true love – -

- – The Bumble Bee Camaro —

- – *sigh* my family, I think I’ll keep them. –

- – My brother Camden, the ultimate package – -

- – Goodbye McLaren SLR… Hello SLS! – -

- – Mid-life crisis candidate #1 – -

- – My father being… well, my father – -

- – It got a bit heated on the slot car raceway – -

The entire time I’ve been writing this blog post I was thinking of this clip…so take two minutes and get in the spirit!

While our tree may not have anything on the Griswald’s, we both had never gone and picked our tree before it had been cut! Combine that with it being our first Christmas together (Erin’s 6th TOTAL), this was a big deal! We were invited to go with veteran tree-pickers and all around awesome neighbors Jenni and Kris and they coached us on! Joining us also on her VERY FIRST Christmas outing was the ever-adorable Zoe (Jenni’s sister’s daughter). So we took turns handing off the baby and the camera between the four of us and had a great time! If you are still looking for a tree, go check out Peltzer Pines across the freeway from the Irvine Spectrum, they had tons left as of last Friday when we went to pick ours up Much to my and Kris’ disappointment, they don’t let you chop down your tree…but just to man up our outing just a bit, we busted out the power saw when we got home and “shaped” our trees, haha.

Here are a few photos from our day! *photogs, I had my D700 with a 50mm 1.4 on the whole time shooting in manual mode with manual kelvin white balance*

**UPDATE: Our tree is decorated and looking pretty!! I’ve added some images our first Christmas tree — these ones were taken with our new D3 with a 24-70 2.8 on there, shooting wide open with auto white balance — **

We went the day after Thanksgiving…apparently this guy is a survivor!

The girls!

“This one looks pretty…can we? Can we please?”

We shall call him Douglas…

The typical Zoe camera photo…deer in the headlights.

** Our First Tree!! **

Don’t hate…you know you love the Santa pants and slippers

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!