Holy crap! Remember when she was this little? This picture marks the first time she’s slept in her “big girl” bed… which makes me wonder: what are we gonna call the actual big girl bed, once she moves into that? hahah.

I was just editing a few detail shots from Andy & Rachel’s Yosemite wedding and came across a few that just blew me away.  Taking these photos was fun – but opening them up on the big screen is a whole other level!

You got to love the 80′s throwback look on that ring shot and the dusty glow on Rachel’s shoes! This is the best occupation we could ever ask for – AAAHHH, Awesome

Side note: The testimonials page is back up and running.  Happy Memorial Day!

Feels good to see our name in print!  Thanks to our brides for talking about us on The Knot!

If you missed out on yesterday’s event at the University Club, you missed a great show! Armando, from Alegria by Design, totally transformed the property and successfully raised the bar for bridal shows with his Santa Barbara Wedding Coutureshow.  Every room had it’s own look and feel and it was an honor to be among such quality wedding vendors!

We had a rad booth furnished by Fusion Event Rentals (thanks Nick!), and most importantly – we had tons of fun.  Thanks everyone for showing up!  It was especially cool to meet some of the couples we had been emailing back and forth

We will definitely be there next year, and we hope you will too.

My brother Garret and I went out the other night with our cameras – man, that was fun! It felt good to experiment and play. I believe it was Craig Swan who told me that “R&R = R&D” and it’s so true. Playing around IS growing. Rest is reflection. Time off is time well spent. Etcetera, etcetera.

Anyway, here are a few of my favorites from the night:

Exciting: Garret and I had a really great idea and spent most of the night talking about it… but you’ll have to wait to hear more about that

Wow. Sometimes, when editing a photo, the perfect song comes on…

The song, btw is called “Jamais Vu” by Dredg. Dredg is one of those bands that inspires your heart to keep loving.

We got this an email a few days ago:

“Congrats! Austin and Dara Photography will be listed as one of the BEST PHOTOGRAPHERS in the Santa Barbara/Los Angeles area for Best of Weddings 2010! WAY TO GO! Our “knotties” think you’re one of the BEST and we will be spreading the word online and we will be emailing our brides about all of the prestigious winners the beginning of January right in the peak of engagement season!”

“One of the best wedding photographers in Santa Barbara”?  Haha – Well, there really is a lot of us I’m sure!  Especially since this award covers Santa Barbara County all the way down to L.A.  Thanks to anyone who might of voted for us – this came as a complete surprise!

I know that we used theknot.com to plan our wedding back in the day – anyone else using it?  If so, let us know if you voted for us.  We should have you over to celebrate!  Also, let us know how you went into the future to make us “best of” in 2010 – I’m still baffled by that part.

Love, A&D

We know you’re hungry to see what we’re working on, and so are we… WE ARE SLAMMED right now editing everyone’s weddings with the holidays right around the corner!  Nevertheless, we thought we’d slip you guys a few teasers on some recent shoots.  BTW, if you want to see teasers faster, make sure to join our facebook fan page.  Love, A&D

Yes! This is exciting stuff. Here is Dara and I shooting Corrie & Jessie’s wedding! Thanks to Andrew from Smith Pixels for flying out and doing such a rad job on this video

Austin & Dara – Wedding Photography from Andrew PC Smith // SMITH PIXELS on Vimeo.

Austin & Dara are wedding photographers in Santa Barbara. They are more fun than several barrels full of monkeys, and are talented out the wazoo. Hire them at austindara.com

I forgot to mention that Dara has been incredible lately – doing so much with photos, aliyah and making sure our war zone of a house is kept at bay. I don’t know how she does it all!