We're back from Flagstaff but I wanted to share some fun shots from the trip. Sarah brought her yellow lab, Cyrus, and I brought Dixie. We all packed into Ryan's 2 door Honda Civic--Sarah and Cyrus in the back, me and Dixie in the passenger seat and Ryan driving. It was cozy! Cyrus is like 85 pounds of dog or something crazy like that. He liked to put his head up by Ryan and watch the road while we were driving.
And when he wanted to rest:
Pretty cute.
We stayed up in Flagstaff at Sarah's dad and step-mom's house. It was so relaxing and Dixie had a great time. Sarah's dad has a golden retriever named Wesley so Dixie had two huge playmates:
I've had Dixie for a little over a month now. She's turning out to be such a great dog! She's already grown about 3 times as big as when I got her. I couldn't resist sharing a few cute shots:
Yesterday we took a boat out on Lake Mary and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The dogs had fun running around. Check out how beautiful it was: Everybody getting settled on the boat:
Sarah and Ryan:
Dixie's first boat ride! She's looking a little wind-blown :).
I love this one with Wesley's nose in the lower right corner:
Me and my sweetie:
We had such a fun weekend! Thanks Bob and Jean for your hospitality!
Last night I got to shoot Ryan & Sarah's engagement shoot in Flagstaff, Arizona. I feel so blessed to be here--it's perfect weather and I feel like I'm on vacation or something. Plus Sarah & Ryan are friends and I really enjoy spending time with them. This is the Sarah, by the way, who designed my website. She's super-talented.
Downtown Flagstaff is where we spent most of our time and there were tons of fun places to shoot. We started out where every good engagement shoot should--at a huge mural of a cow painted on the side of a building.
Being goofy:
Sarah & Ryan are perfect for one another. She admits to being more pessimistic by nature whereas Ryan is optimistic. They claim they balance each other out. We saw these shirts at two different stores across the street and had to shoot a few shots with them:
Here's a close-up in case you can't read them:
This is totally unrelated to the shoot, but as we were walking around we came across this newspaper distribution-thingy (what do you call these things anyway?):
Ok, now down to the serious business. Check out how gorgeous Sarah looks here. I love her eyes.
Ryan's not bad looking either :).
More cute photos:
We had fun by the railroad tracks which were surprisingly busy:
I played around with a slow shutter speed to get the movement of the train as it passed by:
At the end of the shoot Sarah and I got Ryan to take a shot of us.
Oh--and this was my first shoot using my new Shootsac by Jessica Claire. It worked great! Here's me modeling it although I also had a black sweatshirt around my waist so it doesn't show off the bag that well:
What a fun shoot! I wish I could stay in Flagstaff all summer...
So the flu is gone. I'm feeling better which I'm thankful for.
Yesterday the ladies who clean my house were over and while reaching to clean a window, one of them put her weight on my desk and broke it causing my 21" monitor to fall and break along with a few other things. Ahhh!!!!! Why does everything happen all at once!?!
I took my monitor in to the friendly guys at the Apple store and they are hooking me up with a new foot for it (basically a plastic part that helps it stand up) for $100. Thankfully the monitor itself is alright. But the desk is being held up temporarily by some album boxes and now I'm in Flagstaff for the weekend :).
I'm here with my friends Sarah and Ryan who are getting hitched in August. Sarah's dad lives up here and we thought it would be a fun place to do their engagement shoot.
So hopefully bad things really do happen in threes and my grandpa's heart attack, the flu and the destruction of my office are it for me this week :).
Thanks for your prayers everyone. My grandpa is stable. It turns out he called 911 and was taken to the hospital where he had two stints put in an artery that had a clot. Unfortunately, he did sustain some heart damage and we're waiting to find out if he's going to ever have the surgery that was planned for Friday.
My parents flew out to Florida yesterday. I prayed about flying out too but didn't feel a peace about it. And now I have the flu! So I guess it's good I didn't go. I'm pretty sure this is the flu that my relatives had in Minnesota while I was there--it's been about 10 days.
I promise I have more fun things to blog about but they'll have to wait....
If any of you are pray-ers out there, please pray for my grandpa. My mom just called and my aunt is taking him to the hospital--he is having a heart attack. He is 75 and lives in Florida. A few weeks ago he was having a routine appointment and they found blockage and he was scheduled to have bypass surgery this Friday.
I just got back from an awesome weekend camping up in the Show Low area. I grew up camping quite a bit in Minnesota and some in Florida but I think the last time I was camping was back in college in Ensenada, Mexico. So I put this goal on my 101 in 1001 list because I really enjoy getting away and soaking in nature.
Some of my close friends--Erik & Marisa Spletter--who have 3 kids just got some camping equipment and are planning to do a lot of family vacationing camping-style. And they invited me along! I was excited because not only was I going camping and spending some time with friends, but I also got the chance to cheer Erik on as he did an Olympic triathlon (quarter of the length of an Iron Man). But I'll get to that in a minute.
The top photo is the view from our campsite. Can you believe how beautiful it was!? Erik & Marisa just brought along their five-year-old, Karina, and left the other kids with grandpa and grandma.
Karina is quite the rock climber for her age!
Marisa enjoying the view:
Erik and Karina checking out the sunset:
This is what it looked like from where they were standing:
On Saturday, Erik did his triathlon and it was super-fun cheering him on and documenting the race. He completed the 1500 meter swim, 20-some mile bike and 8-some mile run in under 3 hours! I can't even imagine trying this but he's done it a number of times!
I love this shot of the race starting:
And this was total luck, but I caught Erik giving us a thumbs up as he swam past!
Here he is heading out on the bike:
And starting the run:
And finally crossing the finish line:
A congratulatory hug from Marisa afterwards:
Way to go Erik! You're amazing!!
The only bummer about the three nights we spent out there was that there was a fire restriction in effect and we were only able to have a campfire one night :(. So I felt a little jipped about that. But we kept ourselves busy with some fun games most of the time:
And I turned my camera over to Erik for one fun shot of me and Marisa:
Thanks so much for the fun time guys!! I can't wait to do it again sometime!
In other news, my email is back up and I have a bunch of emails waiting for me in my inbox from when I was gone. I'm not sure if I'm missing any so if you don't hear back from me in the next day or two, try resending. Thanks for your patience!!
This past week I got to see my 86-year-old grandpa up in Minnesota. After he put his teeth and hearing aid in, we got to sit down and talk. I think old people tell some of the best stories so I asked him about how he met my grandma (who died 10 years ago). And he told me the story of how they dated and eventually eloped! I think it's pretty cute how he tells it.
He went on to tell the story of how he served in WWII as a medic for the red cross but unfortunately my SD card ran out of space. Anyhow, the part I got is 9 minutes long so I guess that's enough to put up here. Hopefully it's not too boring for you since you don't know my grandpa :).
Yesterday I shot my cousin Laura's wedding in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. It was a rough week for Laura and Nate leading up to the wedding. Nate was in a motorcycle accident and thankfully was wearing a helmet and leather jacket but still broke his shoulder blade and bruised himself up pretty good. Pain killers helped him through the wedding. And the morning of the wedding Laura woke up struggling to swallow and went to the doctor only to find out she had mono! So they were both on drugs but the wedding went well and I honestly couldn't tell that Laura was sick. Plus Lee, Laura's brother, who was supposed to be an usher, came down with a violent flu bug on the day of the wedding and was completely out of commission. I'm still up here one more day with my aunt and uncle and now my uncle has the flu! Hopefully I won't be bringing it back to share with all of you in Arizona :).
The wedding was very simple but also very special with many family and friends in attendance.
This is my gorgeous cousin Amanda up from Nebraska:
The dress:
Getting the dress on without messing up the hair is always a fun challenge:
Laura & Nate seeing each other for the first time:
We just walked around the church grounds for portraits but I loved what I had to work with:
Laura & Nate were so sweet together.
Here's the bridal party:
The groomsmen:
The bridesmaids:
Laura's dad walked her down the isle to the country song "I loved her first." It was a tear-jerker.
The cute ring-bearer:
And the sweet flower girl:
I've never seen Laura happier:
Finally married and off to nurse each other back to health :).
If you'd like to see a slideshow with more photos from the day, click here.
Today I spent some time exploring my aunt & uncle's property where I'm staying for a few days. My uncle used to run a lumber mill and used a bunch of equipment on his property over 20 years ago to build their log home. And it's still there along with a bunch of other junk that has accumulated over the years. I enjoy photographing old stuff just for the fun of it so I felt like I hit the jackpot today!
To start with, here's the beautiful log home he built:
And the driveway looking out toward the highway:
This is a tractor that my uncle claims is rare. I'll have to take his word for it.
The caterpillar's treads:
And a bunch of other rusty stuff that is foreign to me but was fun to shoot:
And old army truck cab that my uncle bought for parts:
After all that trekking through the brush, I attracted a community of wood ticks--7 is the total count that was extracted from my person. Fun stuff! Thus is life in Northern Minnesota :).
I decided to name my new puppy Dixie. It's a fun name that fits her personality, I like the south and she's tiny like a dixie cup. I don't have any deeper reasons for picking the name. Thanks to everyone who weighed in on the decision. It definitely helped me a lot to have so many ideas pouring in!
I caught this video of Dixie tonight finding the "other dog" in my office. It's hilarious.
Isn't she SOOOO cute!? Now if I could just get her potty trained and get some work done....
Happy Mother's Day to my amazing mom and all the other great moms out there!
Tonight we're celebrating at my sister's house and it's a double-whammy because my mom's 53rd birthday is tomorrow as well! I am very close to my mom and appreciate her strength and support SO much. Over the past 5 years, she has taken on the role of the rock in our family after my dad had a brain aneurysm and nearly died. She has been so amazing through the whole thing and it has really brought us closer together. I'm so thankful for her!
On another note, I just got home from an amazing wedding in Sedona yesterday. It will take me a few days to post up some photos and a slideshow but I'll try to get those up soon.
Today started out like any normal day. I helped my sister bring my nephews to the doctor and then we stopped at the mall to pick up a mother's day and birthday present for my mom. We stopped by the pet store in the mall and I honestly didn't plan on getting a dog--just oohing and ahhing at all the cuteness. But they had the most adorable little minature schnauzers! I've grown up with these dogs--they are perfect cuddling size, don't shed, and are super-cute. So I spent some time with three different dogs and ended up falling in love with this little sweetie. She's only 2 months old and very tiny. She has a really calm disposition and snuggles right up to you instantly. And she wants to be as close as possible to you. Right now she's asleep on my lap as I'm typing.
As of yet she has no name yet. So if you have any ideas, please comment! I don't really like people names for dogs and no food items or typical dog names. But I need to come up with something soon! Right now she's just "sweetie" or "puppy."
So tonight was a first for me. I attended my friends Sarah and Reuben's wedding as a GUEST. Very strange. I am trying to remember....I think this may be the first time I've been a guest at a wedding since I started my business 4 years ago. I have a bad memory though so feel free to correct me. But I think it may be.
It was a beautiful wedding that brought together a lot of old friends. Pictured above from left to right: Natalie--my sister, Shauna--a friend, Sarah--the bride, me, Lindsay--a friend, and Ellen--a friend who came down from Portland. My friend Laura, from Portland was also here as well as my friend Flaco, up from Mexico. It was fun but I almost didn't know what to do with myself--I kept checking out the photographers to make sure they were doing their job :).
Congratulations Reuben & Sarah! I'm so glad I was able to come and celebrate!
So I guess I over-did-it this weekend. Thirteen hours of shooting and yesterday I got hit with a sore throat and all that a head cold brings with it. Not fun. I've had to cancel some of my plans in order to lay low. Tonight I was supposed to get together with my friend and wedding coordinator extraordinaire, Liene Stevens. But I had to reschedule. So Liene texts me and I open my front door to find this:
HOW SWEET IS THAT? I have to say, that's over and above the call of friend duty. I consider myself to be a pretty good friend. But I never leave goodie baskets on friends' doorsteps when they're sick.
Wow--thanks Liene!! You're awesome! I definitely feel better already :).
My friend Jared was trying out a Leica camera at WPPI last month so I did a little modeling for him. I guess watching "America's Next Top Model" is finally paying off.
I know all of you are going to want to hire me now that the cat is out of the bag. But this level of skill doesn't come cheap. Feel free to inquire and if the price is right--I'm all yours :).
I'm out in San Diego for a few days. Tonight and tomorrow I have a photo seminar that I'm excited about. But I came out a bit early to hang out with my friends David & Becky. After I got my tickets I found out that they were going to be in Phoenix for the weekend so I ended up staying in their downtown condo and just relaxing for the past couple days. It's been great. I've been getting some reading done and yesterday I took a walk to the bay and shot a few photos. It was such a gorgeous day out. I really enjoyed being out and about. It was a great day for flying kites too. I saw some kids doing just that and got this fun shot:
Then I grabbed a late lunch at this place, looked out at the boats and did some more reading.
This seagull kept an eye on me from behind glass my entire meal. I'm not sure what he was thinking because even if I wanted to, I couldn't feed him anything. I don't think he got the concept of glass.
April is Autism Awareness month. These are my two nephews: Elijah (5) and Noah (6). They are the loves of my life. They are SO sweet and full of love and I couldn't adore anything more. They are both autistic. And it absolutely breaks my heart. I've been laying in bed unable to get to sleep the last two nights because I'm so angry about Autism. Let me fill you in on some of the basics about this disorder and hopefully it will help you to understand why.
Autism is a complex disorder that has no known cause or cure.
1 in 150 children are diagnosed with some form of autism. For boys, the number is 1 in 94. This makes it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined.
Symptoms can range from mild to severe and span 3 general areas: -Language development -Social development and behavior -Repetitive and odd behaviors
No two children with autism are alike. My nephew Elijah is more severe than his older brother, Noah. Elijah is 5 and is nonverbal, not yet potty trained and has difficulty being in new environments with people who are unfamiliar to him. He is very frustrated with his inability to communicate his needs. He loves to do certain activities over and over again such as watch the same videos endlessly, throw rocks, and jump in the pool over and over.
Noah is 6 and now has a large vocabulary of words. He is still unable to form spontaneous sentences and largely communicates through one or two word phrases. He is potty trained and loves to help his younger brother. Both he and Elijah are in special classes in the public schools with one on one attention from teachers. Noah loves to learn and enjoys practicing his flash cards of vocabulary words, shooting basketball hoops and lining up his toys in certain patterns.
There are some theories about the potential causes of autism. It is generally agreed that there is a genetic predisposition in children with autism that causes them to be susceptible to environmental triggers. A controversial theory that has been refuted by the medical community but is strongly held by a group of parents and a few scientists is that immunization shots given at a young age trigger autism. This is a lengthy discussion that I'm not going to go into here, but if you're interested, here are a few videos to check out on the subject:
I help my sister take the boys to a doctors appointment every week where they get chelation treatment. They are injected with a medication that helps rid their body of the poisonous toxins such as mercury and lead that their bodies are unable to process on their own. Their urine is collected and tested and we get reports of the amount and types of metals that are coming out of their bodies. This is somewhat of an experimental treatment but seems to be helping many children with autism.
One last thing I wanted to share on autism--and if you're still reading at this point, you are awesome!--are some early signs of Autism. These are important to know so that you can watch your own children and possibly help other parents out who you know. The earlier Autism is detected the more successful treatment can be. Here are some "red flags" to be on the watch for:
No big smiles or other warm, joyful expressions by six months or thereafter
No back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles, or other facial expressions by nine months or thereafter
No babbling by 12 months
No back-and-forth gestures, such as pointing, showing, reaching, or waving by 12 months
No words by 16 months
No two-word meaningful phrases (without imitating or repeating) by 24 months
Any loss of speech or babbling or social skills at any age
Remember that Autism is very complex and mysterious at this time so no two children will display the exact same behaviors or symptoms. But these are some general things to look for.
One of the most frustrating things to me is that this epidemic is largely ignored by the medical community. Doctors are not taught about it in medical school. Parents take their children in to their pediatrician with concerns about their child's development and they are told that they are over-reacting and not to worry about it. And there is very little being done to find a cure. The effort is definitely out of proportion to the size and extremity of the epidemic. It breaks my heart to think of what we, as a society, may be unknowingly doing to an entire generation of children. We've got to put an end to this disorder.
If you are interested in finding out more about what you can do to be involved, check out these sites:
I just got my Toyota washed on Tuesday for the first time in over a month and last night it rains. Not only does it rain, but there's a huge dust storm. So this is what my car looks like now:
I swear I have special powers.
On a totally unrelated note, I took my friend Teri out to lunch today and I think she forgave me for being a loser friend and forgetting her 30th birthday last week. So that's good. Her 2 year old, Kailey, was with us and she just totally brightens my day every time I see her. She is total preciousness.
She sang "Jesus Loves Me" during lunch and I got it on video. SO CUTE! I think she was a little distracted by the Mexican food (understandably).
In the business world, you hear a lot about "outsourcing." I definitely have embraced this idea of paying other people or companies to do some of the stuff I don't have to do or don't want to do in order to free me up to focus on the things I have to do or want to do. As business grows, there's no way I can do it all. So in order to continue to grow and provide quality service, I need to outsource some parts of my business and life.
Some of the things I outsource are:
Pictage --- Back-end print and order fullfillment and shipping Jamie --- Color correction and editing Fox Peterson --- Accounting Sarah Marsh --- Web design and implementation
And my personal favorite thing to outsource --- housecleaning! I just started outsourcing this about 6 months ago. And just this week I found some great new ladies to clean my house. They do a great job and only charge $50 per time. I have them coming every 2 weeks. What a steal! This is a no-brainer for me. There's no way I could clean my house myself for that value. I make way more focusing on my business for those few hours every other week. And I love when my house is all clean at once.
I encourage you to think about your business and life and what you can outsource in order to free you up to grow and expand. It's definitely the way to go!
I am such a loser friend. In the past month I've totally spaced on two close friends' birthdays. Saturday was my friend Teri's birthday. We've been friends since high school and I was in her wedding and she is always so sweet and thoughtful to me. I think I even talked to her on the phone on or around her birthday! We're doing lunch Friday so I'll have to figure out a way to make it up to her.
I have all my birthdays on my iCal calendar right in front of me everyday yet I'm often so wrapped up in my own world that it's like they're invisible.
Sorry Teri!!! I love you and can't wait to see you!!! Happy belated 30th!!!
Tonight I finally had my friends Matt, Angie & Maddux over. We've been trying to set up a time to hang out for what seems like forever and finally we gott'er done. Matt and Angie are local wedding photographers as well, who I met through the Phoenix PUG (Pictage User Group) and we hit it off right away. Together they make up Sloan Photographers.
Their son, Maddux, is the most angelic child I think I've met to date. I don't think I heard a peep out of him all night and there were no toys in sight. He even sat quietly watching "American Idol" with us. We had chocolate for desert and he got his hands on two mini Twix bars and just hung on all night. Too bad he doesn't know the yumminess hidden underneath the cool, shiny wrappers :).
I'm so thankful for my friendship with Matt & Angie. Not only is it great to have photographers who are friends as we can talk shop and help each other out, but they are just darn good people who make me happy whenever they're around.
Tonight I shot portraits of the definition of cuteness. This little 19 month old is the son of my friends, Carrie and Dorian, who are a part of my church community. Every time I see him at Portico, my heart melts. So I insisted on taking photos of him.
Now, when I say I "shot portraits of him," what I really mean is that I chased him tirelessly around Freestone Park for about 45 minutes. I think he was purposefully trying to lose me :).
Braeden is quite the little package. He is full of energy, knows what he wants, and I can tell he's got a lot going on upstairs. He is a man of many expressions. Here are a few of my faves:
This is the look I like to call, "'Whatchu talkin about Willis?"
So scrumptious!
Thanks, Carrie, for helping me keep him alive during the shoot! (Mom rescued Braeden numerous times from going into the lake after the ducks he was chasing :))
I just want to give a shout out to Jesus and thank you SO much for suffering so much pain, disgrace and rejection -- even from God the Father -- for my sake. Your love literally blows my mind. I am humbled and grateful and SO SO thankful.
Today I took a day trip up north to Jerome and Prescott with my friends Shannon & Greg. Shannon has been a close friend for over 10 years and a roommate for part of that time. And she and Greg are getting married in August! I'm really excited for them. They are perfect for each other and kept me entertained all day with their plethera of "Friends" quotes that they rattle off whenever appropriate.
It was really fun shooting in the town of Jerome. There's SO many cool places there--everything is old and quaint and the town is built into the side of a mountain.
First we started out having lunch in this cute cafe:
Then we just walked around the town and had fun shooting:
Greg has some interesting poses he tried out for me. I guess he felt free to be his goofy self:
Shannon is gorgeous. Not sure how Greg scored her. But well done Greg :). She has beautiful hair and coloring and I love her smile and cheek bones. She looked great in every photo but I thought these next two were amazing:
Jerome was full of color. I love this orange VW van:
Then we moved on to Prescott and ended up just shooting a little there before finding this great Pizza place where we ate dinner. Here's a few of my faves from our time in Prescott:
