arizona wedding photography ~ brenda eden photography

Hello and welcome to my blog! 

I'm posting something new every day in 2012, so check back every day to see something new! 

I am a wedding and portrait photographer and I post my photography work here. My sister Becky is a photographer too and she teams up with me to shoot weddings. View our website here to see more of our work. We live in the metro Phoenix area and are available to travel to events all over Arizona.

I post a lot of personal photography work, but if you would like to just see weddings and engagements, then click here. 

And if you would like to contact us about photographing your wedding, engagement session or portraits, then email or call us. :)

~Brenda

480.326.8385 | brenda.eden@gmail.com | website: Brenda Eden Photography  

{Evans Churchill Neighborhood}

I took photos of buildings in the Evans Churchill neighborhood for the upcoming tour of the neighborhood.

Love how they turned out!

{light where there wasn't light before}

This is blog post is a repost of what I wrote in 2008.

So the story goes something like this*, Ansel Adams had been out photographing all Halloween day in 1941 in the Chama Valley, north of Santa Fe, in New Mexico, and didn't really think he had gotten anything that he was going to like. He had been photographing some trees (they might have been cottonwoods) but what he was thinking about in his head just wasn't really working, so he called it a day and was heading back to the hotel in Santa Fe, driving really fast in his car, when he came up upon the little town of Hernandez, New Mexico.

The moon was rising. The sun was setting. There were these incredible clouds low in the sky and these crosses in the cemetary of the town and everything was just getting lit up incredibly. He drove over to the side of the road and jumped out to get his camera and tripod and equipment set up, knowing that the sun and the moon were going quick. His boy Michael, who was 8, and his friend Cedric jumped out to help him. Ansel wasn't able to meter the light but he remembered some formula for the moon's light and took the shot at 1 second, f/32 with ASA 64 film with an 8x10 negative. He would have exposed another negative, but by the time he got the first one done, the sun was gone.

When I think about this story, I kinda picture it all in black and white. The car screeching to the side of the road, gravel flying, the little boy jumping out of the car to help, totally excited because his dad is all excited. I imagine the crispness of the air that evening, think about how you might smell wood fire smoke and hear a rooster crowing, but at the same time there would be this great amazing stillness. 

I imagine the darkness completely falling and everyone getting back in the car, heading to a diner in Santa Fe maybe, the adults drinking their coffee black. I don't imagine that Michael went trick or treating that night, but I guess you never know.......

Ansel Adams didn't keep track of when he took his pictures, but later on it was figured out by the placement of the moon and an analysis of the site that the negative was exposed at 4:05 pm, local time, on Friday October 31st, 1941. When I first read about this picture and realized that someone could figure out the time the picture was taken just by the position of the moon, I was absolutely AMAZED and the idea stuck in my head that the moon is so dynamic, that time and space and light and everything is so constantly changing and it seems so wonderful and mind-boggling.

           .        .         .      .      .     .     .     .      .      .     .    .      .     .     .      .    .     .      .

So, the other day, Columbus Day actually, but I didn't realize it, I was heading to my bus stop on Central. The streets were so quiet, there was hardly anybody else about, there were almost no cars going by. (Later on I realized that it was because most people who work around there work at banks and law offices and had the day off.)

I crossed the street headed to my bus stop and was suddenly aware that there was light all over the parking lot. In the time I have been coming to this bus stop, there has NEVER been light here. All the tall buildings block it out. It is actually why I come to this bus stop and not another closer one, cuz when it's over 100 degrees, you want all the shade you can get.  So here is a picture of the area from google maps, and at the time of day that I am usually there, everything is in shade.

 light where the blue-green lines are

Except not when I got there that day. I seriously stopped in my tracks. Where was all this light coming from? Why had I never noticed light here before? I literally looked around at the people standing around the bus bay to see if everyone was standing in wonder mesmerized by all this new light! (Um, nobody seemed to notice!)

Gorgeous sunshine was pouring in thru these buildings across the street that are all closely standing together. And I guess I had just never been there at the right time of year and time of day to see light hit thru there.

 

I noticed something else was happening with the light that I had never seen before either. It was hitting off this building to the south and the reflection of the light was hitting off the windows and back on to the benches for the new light rail across the street from me.

 

So from the building pictured above back to the parking lot below where the blue arrow is pointing.....

 

and onto these benches. Oh my! Sunlight reflected by tall building windows can be so pretty. Airy and magical like moonlight. The light only stayed there for about 5 minutes. By the time the bus finally came it was all but gone. I kept thinking those benches with that light would be amazing for taking pictures of people...would it be possible to get people here in such a tiny window of time? Who knows, but it would be soooo fun to take pictures here when the light is hitting just so.

 

* If you are like, possibly, writing a report about Ansel Adams, please do not take what I say here for absolute truth about what happened that evening in New Mexico. I am writing that all down from memory and even though I was reading a lot about the making of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico lately, I can't say I am remembering perfectly everything I read!

{Marisa and Jade and Mr. Bean}

Marisa and Jade and Marisa's pup Mr. Bean at the Sunflower Picnic!

Adorbs! I got to sit outside Angel Trumpet Ale House with Marisa and Mr. Bean. It's so cool they let you bring dogs there. 

It was soooooo dark when I took these photos. I love how my camera can "see" better in the dark than I can, and how Photoshop will bring out the colors....but that does explain why these images are so grainy.

{Joanne}

I first met Joanne when my friends Brendan and Josh asked me to photograph the Phoenix Style Collective's event at Growop this past January.

You can check out Joanne's writing about fashion online here at her blog Fabulously Average and her Facebook . 

Since we met, we have gotten together a couple times for photoshoots and dinner at Postino (which ended up being free because we had to wait a really long time!)

Here are images from my most recent photoshoot with Joanne, just minutes before the sun went down.

Joanne had written on her blog and on Instagram about workout clothes and at the time I was having trouble finding what I was looking for - a red  shirt to play in my ultimate frisbee games. Joanne had lots of ideas about places to get affordable workout clothes. Thanks Joanne! So then I asked her to model some of hers. All pink was my choice, not hers! Thanks for going along with that Joanne! I love how the pink is so bright in the last light of the day.

Go check out Joanne's work here:

 her blog Fabulously Average and her Facebook !

{Joseph's Birthday at the Phoenix Center for the Arts}

My friend Heather threw a most amazing birthday for her husband Joseph.

Months and months before the event, she told us about her plans: she was going to fill the Phoenix Center for the Arts with all Joseph's friends, family, and co-workers and people from the community to surprise him for his 40th birthday. There were a couple times when Joseph might have found out, but her plan worked. The night of Joseph's birthday so many people came from all over to celebrate him and he was totally surprised. Joseph is the director (hope that is the right title) for the Phoenix Center for the Arts and so it was very cool to see the theatre filled just for him. Friends and family got up and talked about Joseph, there was a film of images of Joseph's life, a film about the Center, music, spoken word poetry, and the ladies pictured in the first image danced to Michael Jackson's Thriller and Joseph joined them onstage at the end.

If you ever meet Heather, ask her about the story of how she and Joseph ended up together. It's a really cool storybook type of story!

Click HERE to see the images or copy/paste this link

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/av0ddrbc0iodrjf/6BMB1IpbKW/JosephBenesh%20Birthday

And then you can copy/paste your images to your computer.

Heather and her kiddos:

Okay! So as I uploading these photos I am listening to Thriller. So lemme link to the video so you can listen to the song while you look at these images! 

Joseph breakdancing. I am truly impressed.

 From the video for the Center:

After the films and dance and presentation, we walked over from the Theatre to the back of the Phoenix Center for the Art's courtyard for cake and music. And I took photobooth style photos.

Palm trees and downtown city lights. Swoon!

Heather, you are a beauty.

One of Joseph's birthday presents? A bow tie!

Actors and dancers are so much fun to do photobooth style photos of. It doesn't take much direction to get them to pose and be silly. Good job, you guys!

These three were amaaaazing at silly poses. 

Joseph's family.

Heather and Joseph, you guys rock and I am so very, very, very glad to know you.

You guys are both so creative and kind and warm and generous and entertaining and just so downright sweet. 

{Parking Day 2011}

When I was a kid getting endlessly dragged around places like Price Club and football games and tailgate parties and the grocery store, I would think about how, if I had to, I could make parts of the places where I was at into a living space in the case of some catastrophic event like war or fires or flood or alien invasion. I would look around at what was available and think about what I would use for furniture and bedding and think about just how I would reorder the space into a living space. I also thought a lot about what I would do if I got marooned on a desert island. I remember putting things in my backpack that would be handy in case of an emergency if I ever got stranded in some remote place. 

I don't know if it was because of the books I read, or because we went camping a lot, or because my neighborhood friends and I would build forts all the time from blankets and chairs and other found materials....I'm pretty sure I thought about this sort of thing  A LOT, because I can still go into stores in Tempe that I got taken to as a kid and I will involuntarily remember exactly what my plans for the space were. 

So I love the idea of Parking Day. Summed up really quickly, I think it's just a day to think differently about how we use space. We have given so much space over to cars in our country, but of course there are other ways to get around and we really need to think about those other methods. Trains, biking, walking!

Parking Day 2012 is this coming Friday, September, 21st.

Here is your invitation:

Click here or copy/paste

http://www.facebook.com/events/262908967163236/

Here are images from Parking Day 2011, across the street from City Hall in Phoenix.

If you are in these photos, please copy and keep them and link to me if you use them online.

David brought cupcakes. I remember I got one, but then ended up giving it to someone and never got to taste it. :(

Courtney's park was inspired by Willy Wonka.

I've been dreaming up what kind of Parking Day space I would create for Parking Day 2012.. Hmmmm....I have this really cool looking yellow and white, vintage-y lounge chair and I have lots and lots of sidewalk chalk - which could both come be good for Parking Day.

If I can, I am going to make a space, but if I don't have time, I am definitely going to visit other people's spaces.

Two Palms

{Valley of the Sunflowers}

More photos of people at the Valley of the Sunflowers :)

These first two young ladies are sisters, and I love following them on Instagram. Belen and Anel get up early (very early), they ride their bikes everywhere, and take awesome sunrise pics. Eventually, we are going to organize a soccer game in a park in Phoenix, so let me know if you want to join us!

Oh Baby! and his momma Stephanie!

Brian and Christina! Brian creates these pieces of art to wear- go here to see his Esty Store.      

{The Transit of Venus}

{The 1882 Transit of Venus reanimated. From 140 glass plate negatives* that were made in Mount Hood, California on December 6th, 1882} via

 

Here goes, I'm giving myself 25 minutes to write this. So if it doesn't make sense, well 25 minutes isn't much.

Back in June, Venus traversed the sun. (Or something like that.) For days I kept hearing about the Transit ofVenus and then I heard you could go and see it through a telescope at a college really far north of the valley. Black Mountain Campus of Paradise Valley College, I think. And so I thought about driving out there.

 I was staying the night with my mom at Mayo Hospital, so it wasn't actually that much further up the road, maybe 15 miles. Because of the name, Black Mountain, I pictured classrooms on the side of a mountain, practically in a cave, and telescopes on a landing and professors and students and astronomy geeks all gathered around a telescope laughing and clinking glasses of champagne. And a few candles, just so people could see their way around in the very dark. Very Fin de siècle.

But then I got invited to a birthday. A birthday of a girl I secretly call a cousin-girl. She doesn't know I call her that. A cousin-girl is a girl who is so exciting to be around, that you anticipate hanging out with so much, that you feel like you felt when you were a kid and heard your older girl cousins were coming to visit and you spent all day cleaning your room and putting out your cool stuff and making signs for your bedroom door, because surely they would think that was cool.

So I wore my gold-skirted dress and gold dangly-like-chandeliers earrings and went to her birthday at a tiny little restaurant owned by a family from a far-away land.  And since I got there early, I sat at the middle-most seat, because I knew I would be very fascinated to see who my cousin-girl's friends all were. And they started pouring in, this cast of characters, that's what her friends are. And the young girl who works there remembered me. This I could hardly believe. I had been there twice before and I had talked to the girl for a while, but it was back on February 27th (another time my mom was in the hospital), how could she possibly remember me?!! She had told me that her family was selling the restaurant, then they would travel, she would get to go to Bahrain and she would get to go shopping in Dubai! I think we had bonded in our first conversation in talking about wearing boots in the winter and how we were sad that soon it would be too hot to wear our fantastic boots. And about shopping for shoes. In Dubai! (Apparently the family decided not to sell the restaurant.)

So the whole time I was sitting with my cousin-girl and her cast-of-character friends eating the most delicious food on the planet, I was totally aware that out there in the universe the planet of Venus was traversing the sun. I just could picture the huge gold sun and this ultra-pink-violet planet up there, out there. I mean, I know they are always up there, out there moving, doing their thing, but I had such a sense of it. Such a strange sense of being at the center of where I am and all this crazy commotion up above, crazy, but also very all-in-a-direction, a dance of star and planet.... And then my attention would come back to the table and the food and the people at the table .... and then it would drift off again to what I knew was happening up there, out there. I am so daydreamy and oh! sometimes it's a battle to be present.

After dinner, after I drank coke and ate food and ate so much baklava I thought I would die, after I Instagrammed my dinner, I went over to the house where my cousin-girl's's friends were having her birthday cake.

There were two cakes and a pie. Two ridiculously perfect cakes and a fantastically perfect pie, that I could tell came from Lux. And a house full of amazing art and kids and pets and people so happy to celebrate my friend.

Sick on baklava, I still ate a piece of each cake and a slice of pie and took some on a plate that the woman whose house it was made for me.

Finally most of the guests were saying their goodbyes and I was silently congratulating myself that I had not left too quickly, like I so frequently do, that instead I had lingered, and just soaked in the early summer night

And I was driving away, windows down, back to the hospital, and it was hot, but not too bad, because it was still just June, and there didn't seem to be anybody on the roads, and I was driving through a magical neighborhood that I had been to a few times, (but I didn't realize that I would end up in that neighborhood and to end up there again had me all wistful at its magicalness, feeling very Late Night Maudlin Street - which is a Morrisey song and I understand this sentence probably makes almost no sense) and I was just looking at the houses and the lights, and the world was asleep, there was just nobody out and about, save for a few cats.

I drove for a while and then I just had to know if anyone had liked the photo of my food and of the cakes on Instagram, so I parked under a tree on a the side of the road to check my phone . Please tell me you do this sort of thing, too.

And a girl had left a comment on my picture of the cake. This girl I follow on Instagram who grew up on an apple farm, climbs mountains at 4-something in the morning and has a golden doodle and three kids that she calls her littles. She said she had made the cake and she didn't realize that when she was making it, that it was for my cousin-girl and that she loved my cousin-girl. Everybody does!

I left a comment saying how much I loved her cake and the pie, that I was eating some more that very minute in my jeep, that it was the most incredible cake I had ever tasted. You guys, butter cream frosting. Freaking amaaazing. And she wrote back immediately saying thank you, that she was glad I liked them.

So I'm sitting in my car conversing with a girl I had never met, but realizing that since she works at Lux I've eaten the delicious things she has made. And looking at the green-lit numbers on the clock in my jeep and realizing that Venus has completed its transit of the Sun. And loving the connectedness that comes from creating these ephemeral little pictures on Instagram and putting them out into the universe, creating postcards about my life for people I know and people I don't know.

I turn the keys in the ignition, head to the hospital, go through security and up to my mom's hospital room and lie down on my little couch bed and look at my phone and see that a girl I started following named @ofmountains has an Instagram about how the next day on her blog there will be a post about the Transit of Venus. And I can't wait to read it.

 You can see her post here. And you can her online store here.

Recently I met Of Mountains. She's a desert girl who writes the prettiest words and creates the kind of images I heart like crazy - moody and science-y and still and vast.

 My mom was in the hospital almost all of June and since I was never home, and I was coming and going so much, I never got around to looking at @ofmountain's post, except on my phone. Which, you know, it's kind of hard to look at a blog post on a phone...so then I after I met Of Mountains, I was reminded to look at her post. 

Reading it takes me back to that early summer evening.

[This took longer than 25 minutes to write! TO BE CONTINUED!]

{Carly and her daughter at the Valley of the Sunflowers}

I got to meet Carly and her daughter at the Valley of the Sunflowers Picnic and take photos of them. Carly has a restaurant: Carly's Bistro in Roosevelt Row in Phoenix. (128 E. Roosevelt) Have you been? I love the place, it's so chill and the food is sooooo beyond good.  

You should definitely go!

One of my favorite memories is just killing time there one afternoon reading this book called Paris Noir, while I was waiting to go somewhere else. And another favorite memory is of going there with my friend Eddy - we led a discussion on Twitter about downtown Phoenix and it was cool to see the city skyline at night while we were discussing our city.

So go to Carly's!

And now on to the photos of Carly and her daughter at the Sunflower Picnic. 

(If I have photos of you from the Sunflowers, I definitely have not forgotten - although I know it seems like it - and you will be getting your photos. If you think I might not have your email address, please email me at brenda.eden@gmail.com - thanks!)

Giggly girls in summer dresses!

Running through a field of sunflowers! Don't you kind of wish that is what you were doing right now?

I use a photoshop plugin called Exposure 4 by Alien Skin to get these photos to have that look of film from the 1800's.

And she's off!

Thanks Carly! I had a blast taking photos of you and your girl.

Go HERE to see more images from the Valley of the Sunflowers.

{Number 63 on the Jackelope Ranch list of 100 Creative People}

Have I really not posted anything in over 40 days?

And for almost 5 months I posted something almost once a day on my blog? PROOF.

I think it's 'cause I started posting photos to Instagram. It's a pretty fun creative outlet and it made me forget my blog. And then I smashed my phone and I can't use Instagram and I remembered I have a blog.

So much happened the last 40 days.

My mom came home from the hospital after being there for almost a month, I babysat my friend's house, I went to a bunch of art openings in downtown Phoenix, I fell in love with the music of Frank Ocean, I played ultimate frisbee at least once a week, I did a bunch of photography work, I pretty much never cleaned house and the one time I tried to mow the lawn I ran over the soaker hose, I bought way too much nail polish and painted my nails way too much, I went swimming, to belly dance-yoga classes, hiking Camelback, went disco dancing - it's been really, really hard to sit still these past couple months. (Which is one reason I am still getting to editing photos from the Sunflower Picnic, so if I owe you photos, I haven't forgotten.)

And I got put on Jackelope Ranch's list of 100 creative people in Phoenix!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

See that post HERE. I am so beyond delighted to have been included.

All those exclamation points are there to give you an idea of how delighted. (But it's more like this: ! x 10^10000000000000. Delight the font size of the universe!)

Thank you Claire Lawton for making me Number 63!

Number 63 seems like the perfect number to me because 1963 is the year my dad won a Cadillac. Long silver boat of a behemoth Cadillac.

Didn't buy it, people, he won it. How lucky is that?!

He's the man in the middle and ooh la la, he looks so Mad Men! 

Leave me a comment! I LOOOOVE comments!!!!! I also like it when you click on that Like button. That's like second best.

{Sarai at the Valley of the Sunflowers}

{Girls at the Valley of the Sunflowers}

Eloise and her friends at the Valley of the Sunflowers.

{New Windsor Hotel}

Oooh, how I love Instagram. Taking photos with my phone and putting them on the little blog of Instagram has been really fun. I think I am a little obsessed.

{Sativa and her daughter in the Sunflowers}

Sativa and her daughter at the Sunflower Picnic. 

Go read Sativa's blog - she is a fantastic writer and I am so glad to have met her. We both go to Lux Central in Phoenix for coffee and to work - her on writing and me on editing photos. From reading pretty much every word of her blog I came to like her so very much (well from that and from talking to her).

I can't wait to read the book she is working on.

{Luisa in the Sunflowers}

Luisa in the Sunflowers.

{Chelsea in the Sunflowers}

Chelsea in the Sunflowers.

Oh yeah....my blog....

So my idea of posting every day in 2012 went pretty well for January through April. I know I missed some days here and there, but had a post for most of them. But by May, I missed a bunch of days and now it's already the third day of June.

I am going to try to start posting every day again.

I just got on Instagram, so I think, possibly I will be posting a bunch of Instagram pics and blogging more about what I am doing.

{Pic: I went swimming earlier and on the way to the pool I passed these palm trees as the moon was rising.}

{Turning Brown Lots Green in Roosevelt Row}

Kenny asked me to take photos at Roosevelt Row's annual fundraiser and I was so happy to do so. The party happened at Bliss/Rebar.

To see all the photos click HERE here or copy/paste this link: 

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/4780490/1/ROOSEVELT%20ROW?h=8f2b8b

You can copy/save your photos onto your computer. They are large files, so they are good for printing out. You can put them online, like on Facebook, but since they are large files, they might look a little compressed or strangely sharpened. Or they might not. Just depends. If you need smaller files that have been sharpened for the web, just let me know. Also, if you need a copyright release for printing or images on CD, let me know. Email me at brenda.eden@gmail.com

Tonight - Sunday, May 27th 2012, in Roosevelt Row, at the Valley of the Sunflowers, we are having a picnic. You are invited! Here is your invite or copy/paste this link: 

http://www.facebook.com/events/417845918239055/

Here are a few of the images from the night.

I got to meet the girls (in the first image below) Susan and Violet - they gave me samples of perfume from their store in Roosevelt Row called Revera Beauty - I went there a couple days ago and I will definitely go back. You can get beauty products and perfume there. And you can create your own perfume!

One of the perfumes smelled like being in the woods. Have you been to the woods and there is just that fragrance and there is nothing else like it in the world? That's what one of the perfumes reminded me of immediately when I smelled it. So pretty.

Susan was expecting and she just had her son, Violet told me.

Cupcake wars.

See how the fence behind these people and the baby is turquoise with an orange and white design? My eyes were bouncing between the colors of the fence and the baby's clothes and I kinda wanted to be like, Hey! Your baby's outfit matches that fence! Let's go take photos over there!

But...well... I didn't.

Shannon (pictured below) loves sunflowers as much as I do.

Josh and Claire toasting with peanut butter cupcakes.

Violet from Revera Beauty.

{You can always see the sun, day or night}

 

When I was 16, I heard that there was going to be a total eclipse and the best place in the world to see it would be Mexico.

For years (and years and years and years) my dad had talked about wanting to go to Mazatlan.

 

It was March, and the eclipse would be happening in July. So I found out everything I could about how much it would be to go there and told my dad everything I found out and he started looking into it and making phone calls and one day I came home from school and he told me we were going to Mexico to see the eclipse.

We did go to Mexico. But he had ended up getting the tickets for June, not July, and so we didn't see the eclipse in Mexico, tickets were just cheaper in June and it was going to be an easier time to go. Nevertheless we had the greatest time. We stayed at a hotel on the beach and the things that stick out to me now are a bus tour, drinking orange juice every morning and getting stung by a jellyfish.

 

We watched the eclipse at home. Standing out on the lawn of sun-bleached bermuda grass without a monsoon cloud in sight, we waited for the light to go out. After weeks of avoiding daylight hours (I became completely nocturnal during high school summers), we were prepared with the glasses my dad used for welding and pieces of paper stuck with a needle to create pinholes. I remember it seemed like it got cloudy, very cloudy, but without any clouds and it was strangely quiet.

*********************************************************

I met my friends on the rooftop of the Clarendon to see this most recent eclipse. When I first got there they were playing that Prince song that has the lyrics "You can always see the sun, day or night" - then I kept listening to all the other songs to see if they had lyrics with the word "sun" in them. I went downstairs to Gallo Blanco to get beans and guacamole, because they have the best beans and guacamole you could ever hope for. I kept thinking about that eclipse that happened when I was a teenager that made my dad take us to Mexico. 

 

I started taking photos of the people on the roof. Everyone was seriously! so! excited! to be there to see an eclipse that it really was not hard to take photos of them, even though I didn't know them.  

Jennifer and Jennifer and Amy.

People on the roof were really excited about how their shadows were shimmery and just kind of weird.

 

Me. Thanks, Amy, for taking a picture of me.

The eclipse through really thick, dark plastic that one of the people on the roof handed to me, asking if I could take a picture through it. 

The sunset after the eclipse. 

{Briana's Quince Años - images from November 2008}

Lately I am going back and looking at old projects and blog posts that I put in a draft form and never published.

This is one photoshoot that I never have shown anyone (except the woman I was shooting for.)

It's of Briana's Quince Años and it's from 2008.

I was the second photographer for Kim, who later became one of my brides. It was early November, right around the time of the presidential election, actually I think the weekend before the election. I remember it was really hot for November.

It was the first time I had done multiple photo sessions in one weekend, it was the first time I shot with a 135 mm Canon L 2.0 lens (LOVE that lens more that I can say) and it was the first time I carried two cameras around so that I wouldn't have to constantly change lenses. All stuff I still do today. So I feel I learned a lot from this shoot. I remember being obsessed with looking for leading lines, framing and the rule of thirds idea - and I am looking at these images now and realizing I got tons of portraits. It can be really hard to balance out the need for portraits and what I LOVE to do and really want to do, which is take photojournalistic shots that employ the rules I just listed.

I look at these photos and wonder what would I do differently if I was photographing this Quince today. I know my Photoshopping processing has changed a lot. I know more ways to use photoshop; I also have way more Photoshop tools and a better sense of how I like images to look. And I also know more about getting the right color balance. But I still really like them, and I absolutely love this first one - I would say it has that "decisive moment" quality that one of my favorite photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson talked about and was always on the look out for. Plus it has the framing I remember being obsessed with finding! 

ALL OF the rest of the text is from when I first started making this blog post, from 3.5 years ago.

All of Briana's court, her godparents and and many of her relatives met up at Heritage Square in Phoenix before going to the church, so we got group photos.

 

 

 

 

  

   

  

  

Briana's cousins

 

Briana's cousin and her aunt: 

  

Briana and all her girls!

  

Briana and her cousin rode to the church in the coolest classic car. Where ever Briana went her little cousin went with her. You could tell they were really close.

  

  

   

Briana helping her mom get ready.

 

Her parents escorting her into the church.

 And then two more thru the door before the ceremony began.

 

  

I love how this image looks in black and white.

 

 

   

  

   

   

  

 After the ceremony at the church, everyone went back to Heritage Square and the big birthday party celebration was getting started.

By the end of the night, hundreds and hundreds of friends, family, teachers, and classmates showed up for Briana's birthday.

 

   

   

   

 

   

 

 

 

 

Briana and all the boys and girls who made up her Court went and waited in a garden courtyard area before they were all called out and introduced at the banquet.

They all had to wait a pretty long time and at first all the kids were pretty calm and quiet but after a while it got a little crazy, but totally fun, too

   

 

   

 

  

It was cute to see these three transform from being totally silly to very on-their-best-behavior as they walked out into the crowd.

  

Briana entering with her parents.

 

Briana holding the doll, her "last doll" that she gave to her little cousins as part of the ceremony. Her dad was placing high heels on her feet. 

 

Some of the guests watching.

Briana's little brother gave a sweet speech that had everyone laughing. 

 

The Quinceañera dancing with her Chambelan. 

 

Briana with her mom. To me this has kinda a glamourous, old Hollywood movie feel to it. 

  

  

  

This little brother and sister were so cute.

They had been enjoying the whole day, but by now it was almost midnight and they had fallen asleep, which was kinda amazing because the DJ was still playing really loud dance music.

 

Sugar stars on Briana's cake!  

    

I left the party around midnight and as I was leaving I looked across 7th St at the Monroe School, which was built in 1913. It's still a place for kids, it's now the Children's Museum of Phoenix. I've never been there, but it looks like fun, except at night it looks a little haunted, with lights in different colors turning on and off. I stopped and got some slow shutter speed images of cars driving past the building, that's what those streaks of light in front of the building are.

Are you planning a Quince and need a photographer? Email brenda.eden@gmail.com to get more information about my photography. :)

Did you like this post? Let me know by leaving a comment or clicking that Like button!

{Fashion and Frisbee}

More photos from the Arizona Bloggers Convention.

Soon I get to see some of these people at the Madewell store event. And then I go play frisbee on the other side of town. It will be a busy day.

{Valley of the Sunflowers photos from December}

The sunflowers at the Valley of the Sunflowers have started to bloom!

Which means it's time for a Sunflower Picnic. 

Here's an image from my cell phone of the first blooms this Spring at the Valley of the Sunflowers. Can you tell how hot and hazy the day is just by looking at this pic? Hot in the hundreds and hazy from the fires around the state. I took this picture yesterday at the VOS. I was so excited to read that the sunflowers had started to bloom and I had to go see. Some of them are already so tall.

One of Hillary's cats. I always see him and his cat-friend hunting/lounging/wandering around the VOS.

I wanted to see what this photo would like if I processed it to look like a daguerrotype. 

All of the photos below are from December 2011.

The ones of Hillary and me are from December 2nd and the others are from December 28th. (Not that I remember the dates - I just looked at the metadata.) 

For some reason, I wasn't wearing shoes at the VOS. I have no idea why. I do remember it was pretty cold that day.

What I remember about taking photos with Hillary is that it rained for a while. And that Hillary waited patiently while I cleared photos of my kitten Kiki off of my completely full memory card, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to take pictures.

Hillary, you are so beautiful.

Thanks for taking photos of me! I always feel like I never have any photos of myself, because I am always the one taking the pictures.

Daguerrotype-style photos of Hillary and me.

The light that December day was amazing.

I like how you can see the Westward Ho to the west in this photo.

By the time I took the photos below it was SO very dark that the images did not come out all that well. I tried working with them in Photoshop, but wasn't really liking what I was getting, so I changed them to look like old daguerrotypes, which I think really makes them more readable and just kind of cool looking. If you know anyone in the photos, tell them to come see their pics. And if they are of you, please copy/save them to your computer.

Sean is in the middle of this image. He's one of the project managers.

Brendan.

Georgina the hen. She lives at the Growhouse. She didn't really care for me taking her picture.

She was like, Girl, why are you chasing me around with that toy camera? Don't you know news station camera crews with 50 K video cameras have been out to see me?!?

Kenny. One of the VOS project managers.

I kinda wish I could own this painting that is on the Growhouse wall.

I would love to get to see it everyday, first thing in the morning.

There's a work day at the VOS this Saturday if you want to come help out:

Copy and paste:

http://www.facebook.com/events/230830780365202/

or click HERE to sign up to attend.

And if you liked this post, click that LIKE button down there; it let's me know people actually read this!

{The Peach Trees in my Back Yard}

The images and the text below the images are from a few years ago, I am re-posting a bunch of stuff lately.

I took photos of the moon and the peaches on my tree, posted it and a girl named Tina came across my blog and told me she wanted peaches, so even though I hadn't met her yet (at least I don't think I had), I brought her peaches to a photographer meet-up that we were both attending. And later on she second-shot weddings at the Renaissance Festival and Ashley Manor for me.

Moral of the story: tell me you want peaches off my tree and eventually you will get to work with me on photographing weddings.

I LOVE giving people peaches off my tree this time of year. They are so ridiculously good - hot and juicy and peach-i-liciously amazing, there's nothing like them.

The peaches came a week earlier than they usually do this year (Climate change in my backyard???). Every other year they have come on the trees on about May 20th and last til about May 25th before the birds get them. 

I've started making a peach cobbler in the kitchen and am kind of editing photos at the same time, going back and forth between the two things.....wishing this Sunday evening wouldn't end, you know what I mean?

 

Text from May '09:

Moonrise, fairy grass, new peaches on the tree. 

I was so surprised to see the moon tonight. Does that happen to you? The evening that it is full or almost full, the first time I see it in the sky, my eyes pop out, my head swings back to stare up at it, I know I am making it sound a bit cartoonish, but I am always surprised to see it, kinda like....like it's an alien in the sky, a UFO or something, like oh my goodness what is that up there? Oh yes, the moon. Why, Hello Moon!

 

{Repost from Last Year}

I posted this about a year ago. Reposting it now, cuz it took a hecka long time to actually write it and add the photos - so someone ought to read it! If you read it, click the Like button at the end or leave me a comment!  I love comments! :)

Last weekend was my mom's birthday, so we took her out to breakfast and then we went antique shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All those exclamation points are for my mom 'cause that is how she feels when she gets to go looking at antiques. She really loves to look, even if she doesn't buy anything. This time last year my mom was in the hospital, and her birthday was a pretty awful day for her, so this year we had to make it especially fun, and I think we succeeded. The first store we went to was  Antique Plaza on Main Street in downtown Mesa.

While my sister and mom looked all over the store and were ready to move on to the store next door, I got lost looking at tiny old photos in a cigar box. Hundreds of photos. After a while I figured they must have all been from the same large family. Some had words and dates written on the back; a lot of them didn't. I decided I wanted some, and I would have gotten all of them if I could have, but I had to narrow it down to just a few, so you'll see the ones I got, along with my musings about them.

When I went to purchase them, the store owner told me a few things. I think I will have to go back to the store and ask her about them again, because all that stuck in my head was that one of the men in the family died tragically in a car accident traveling to Florida for vacation. They were a family living in West Orange, New Jersey during the Great Depression and they vacationed in Cuba. Of all the things the store owner told me, the vacationing in Cuba part really stuck out to me, because, can you imagine, pre-Communist Cuba? That sounds so dreamy.

So, here they are -->

This photo was taken on July 9th, 1944, which would have been a Sunday. War time - just weeks before in France allied troops had landed at Normandy and just a few days after the 4th of July. I wonder if they were all together for a big event, like a birthday, or just for Sunday dinner, or did they always have this many family members around. Looking at this photo just seems like looking at Summer. I can feel the humid hotness and how long the day was just looking at this. I love the summer dresses the women are wearing. There's an address on the back of this photo and when I typed it into Google maps, it took me to a neighborhood in New Jersey. I looked at the street view and saw a big white house in a neighborhood. I so wonder if it was theirs. It seemed really kind of surreal and strange to be able to type their address into Google and maybe come across their house.

Big family photos can be so challenging to take, but looking at one like this makes me realize what an awesome keepsake they are and why people really want them. 

Merle Lawrence went to the shore (the Jersey Shore maybe?) in 1931, possibly in June. I wish I could see her face closer. How old does she look? I'm thinking she looks kind of young, 14 or 15 maybe. I actually love how the the girl and the car are centered so much in the middle of the frame. So, I was writing this and thinking, Wait, is Merle even a girl's name? The back of the photo says Merle Lawrence 6-1931. So then I looked up the name Merle on some baby name website and it says that Merle is the French word for blackbird and that between 1910 and 1920, Merle was the 323rd most common name for girls and the 198th most common name for boys. By 1979, it was the 993rd most popular name for boys and didn't even rank in the top 1000 for girls. I think it's pretty. Maybe time to bring it back! I think it would make a good middle name.

 

"Elizabeth Smith, 1919" is what the back of this one reads. This photo got picked because she is petting the dog, who looks like a big puppy. I am really curious about where she is at. Was she on vacation? Is that a cabin or a house behind her? The land looks kinda swampy, like South Georgia or the Western-Northern part of Florida.

 

 The man in the middle - does he have two pipes in his mouth? And is she turning back to see him doing that? I picture the guy with the camera being like, Here, hold this, while I take a picture and she's turning back to laugh. This photo immediately got picked because of the man taking a photograph of whoever was taking a photograph of him. They look like they hiked up to this mountain top area on a windy afternoon for picnicking. Anyone have any idea where they might be? It would probably be somewhere in New York or New Jersey...

And here they are again, posing more properly for the photo, but with the boxy camera laying on the ground, a detail I love. What decade do you think this was?

This one has the date Sunday July 11, 1926 on the back. And that was enough for me to want it because what could be more perfect than a Sunday in July (no matter what decade)? She looks so flapper perfect. They look so style-y, like they were all friends with Tom and Daisy and got invited over all the time to Jay Gatsby's place that one summer a few years back.

See the heart carved in the tree? Love that. I am always on the look out when I take photos of hearts, or something that suggests the shape of a heart. I also like how the shadow of the photographer is just a little bit in the frame. Looks like early Spring, maybe? Since leaves haven't really come on the trees, but her dress doesn't look like something you would wear in the fall. Did she turn her head to the side to get the cute hair style and barrette in the image?

  So this guy here kind of looks like the Cake Boss to me. Kind of. A younger version of Buddy Valastro. I don't exactly watch that show, but nevertheless it seems to always be on television, so I think I have seen a lot of it. And Oh! I just noticed something. There's a little black cat in the background. This family must have liked pets. Cats and dogs show up in a lot of their images. There's no date or text on this one.

Don't they all look so smiley and dapper and adorable? I love the men's bow ties. I think I fell in love with this family just looking at their photos. Or at least I fell in love with the stories I made up about them in my head. There's no date or words on the back of this one.  What decade would you guess this one is from? They are all so dressed up and it looks like maybe it was kind of cold, but not so cold that the girl in the middle (Merle, maybe?) isn't wearing a jacket. Maybe it was Easter. 

While I was looking at these photos, I thought of a song I haven't heard of in forever. Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant sing the lyrics, about finding an old photograph and wondering about the girl in the photograph. Have you ever heard the song? It's really pretty and here are the lyrics to it:

I found this photograph,
Underneath the broken picture glass
Tender face of black and white,
Beautiful, a haunting sight
Looked into an angel's smile,
Captivated all the while
From the hair and clothes she wore,
I'd place her in between the wars

Was she willing when she sat
And posed the pretty photograph?
Save her flowering and fair,
The days to come, the days to share
A big smile for the camera,
How did she know?
The moment could be lost forever
Forever more

I found this photograph,
Stashed between the old joist walls,
In a place where time is lost,
Lost behind, where all things fall
Broken books and calendars,
Letters script in careful hand,
Music too, a standard tune by
Some forgotten big brass band

From the threshhold what's to see
Of our brave new century?
The television's just a dream,
The radio, the silver screen
A big smile for the camera,
How did she know?
The moment could be lost forever
Forever more

Was her childhood filled with rhymes,
Stolen looks, impassioned crimes?
Was she innocent or blind
To the cruelty of her time?
Was she fearful in her day,
Was she hopeful, did she pray?
Were there skeletons inside,
Family secrets, sworn to hide?
Did she feel the heat that stirs,
The fall from grace of wayward girls?
Was she tempted to pretend,
The love and laughter, 'til the end?

 

{Sticks and Snails}

It kind of cracks me up how when I take photos at the Place Where the Cottonwood Trees Grown (Nichols Park in Gilbert  - it's next to Gilbert's Water Treatment Plant - and it's a huge retention basin full of trees- it's beautiful), all the kids I take photos of do two things. They find sticks and carry them around and they find snails.

Here's Aimee's son with his snail collection!

{Yellow}

Ever since February I think I have kind of had this obsession with the color pink. I don't know why my brain does that, it just picks a color and sees it everywhere and fixates on it. I wonder if other people do that. Maybe it's part of being an artist? 

Well lately my brain has become fixated with the color yellow. As in sunflowers and sunshine. Probably because summer is coming. So...I kinda want this skirt. Because it's yellow.

fashion bloggers from the Phx Style Collective

I'm adding all the bloggers that I met here. It's taking a while. Eventually all these links will work!

 

www.rumbleandspur.bigcartel.com

rumble and spur

Rumble and Spur

Kristine Biggs - kristineorpolly.com

Kristy Roschke and Jennifer Woolsey - StyleTutor.tumblr.com

Stacy Eden - clutchjewelry.com

Liliana Corona - http://www.facebook.com/Coronacouture

Natasha Marie Rao - www.fashionalities.me

Gabriela Rodiles - gourmetgab.wordpress.com

Julie C. Kent - www.hereonthecorner.com

Angela Palmer - www.fashionforwarddiary.com

http://www.chicheroine.com/

Kat Randall and Erica Tiffany - blog.antiqueplazamesa.com

Matthew T. Storrs - facebook.com/mtstorrs

Lydia Johnston Hill - likefireworks.blogspot.com

Ashley Murphy - goldendivine.blogspot.com

Stephanie - TheNewBeautyReview.com

Petitjoy.com

 http://www.scottsdalefashionista.com

@fashionalities

{Little Dream House in the Woods - post from July 2010}

THIS POST IS FROM JULY 2010 - I started to write it, put it in draft and never published it - finally deciding to publish it.

The evening my mom came home from the hospital after being there for about three months, I made dinner and decorated the back porch and had us eat on the back porch to celebrate. It was just a few weeks ago, back in June, but the weather was really nice that night, not hot at all. I found flowers and pretty grass growing on the side of the road, on the right of way, so I picked some of them and put them in vases. I found some tea light candles and put them in vases and glass bowls. I made a Waldorf salad and other healthy stuff and put out a table cloth and place mats made of sparkly paper. Being and eating outside makes me think of how I was constantly building forts as a kid. I was kind of obsessed with the idea of creating spaces as a child, nowadays I am just interested in seeing unique architectural spaces. But sometimes still I think it would be so fun to build a space to live in - which is why I find this article I am linking to so interesting. I read this article by Joyce Wadler in the New York Times about a woman named Sandra Foster who turned a 14' x 9' hunting cottage into this. If you click on the article, make sure to see the slide show of the inside of the cottage.

Sandra Foster's blog

Image by TREVOR TONDRO PHOTOGRAPHY. If you click on the article, make sure to see the slide show of more photos of the inside of the cottage.

 

{Brenda + Philip}

We wandered around downtown Phoenix and got photos of Brenda and Philip - kind of Rock the Dress type photos.

The first image is outside the Phoenix Convention Center - I had been dying to use the art on the northwest side of the building as a backdrop and I finally got to. The second image is at Civic Space Park - I loved getting there right as the sun was setting and the grass! The grass there is the prettiest, greenest, spring-iest grass on the planet! 

{Video from Pedalcraft}

I've been told I'm in this video by Tim Brennan of the Pedalcraft event, so I keep watching to see. I see some of my friends, but I don't see me.

{Repost from last year's Jane's Walk}

THIS IS A REPOST FROM LAST YEAR OF GOING ON JANE'S WALK - I'm hoping to participate in some Jane's Walk events this coming weekend.

At the very last minute this weekend, I decided to go on a walk with a bunch of other people to see what is happening in the neighborhood around 16th St and McDowell in Phoenix. 

The walk started around Way Cool Hair and went north to Barrio Cafe. (Have you ever been to Barrio Cafe? I've only been a couple times, but they have some of the best food I have EVER tasted and I can't wait to go back some day soon.  It's the type of place that you would take friends from out of town to give them a unique Arizona food experience.)

Artist Hugo Medina was the main speaker on the tour, with a few other people talking here and there. I didn't catch all that he said, but he was telling great stories and explaining about plans to revitalize the area and....wait....let me see how Calle 16's facebook page describes it.  Ok, they describe it like this:

 Grass roots community effort to fund and promote a community mural project on 16th Street, Phoenix, Arizona. Showcasing the barrio's voice through art/murals. 

Here are some of the images I took along the way.

So, as we were walking along, someone on the tour pointed to the ground and explained that he had been walking along with a geologist friend, who stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed this strange concrete. Something had caused an electrical pole to topple onto the ground (maybe it was hit by a car?) and the heat of the electricity turned the concrete into glass. There's something delightfully sci-fi and kinda scary knowing that concrete can turn to glass like that right there on the city sidewalk.

Here is Hugo Medina, who spoke on the tour.

I would LOVE to paint a mural. I've thought for a long time that I would. One of my favorite classes that I took at ASU when I was getting a degree in Fine Arts/Photography was my Mexican Art History Class and of course we studied murals quite a bit in that class. I actually have tons (tons!) of cans of spray paint left over from an art project I did about 8 years ago. I wonder if the spray paint would even still work. I have this idea that I would like to paint a mural as a backdrop for a portrait session and then use a tilt-shift lens to create a super dreamy effect. I definitely want to do that someday! 

{April's daughter}

{April's daughter}

{Aimee and her son}

{V hunting for cascarones}

I love how seriously April and Ed's daughter took this egg hunt.

It wasn't fun and games, it was WORK and she was a champ at it.

The eggs were cascarones, confetti-filled eggs, and after she found them, she cracked them open. And took that pretty seriously too.

{Arizona Blogger Convention at the Saguaro Hotel}

Last night I got to photograph the Arizona Blogger Convention at the Saguaro Hotel in Scottsdale. 

{In a round-about way, it's because of the Valley of the Sunflowers, that I got to photograph the first event for the Phoenix Style Collective and then the AZ Blogger Convention- in a month or two, there is going to a Sunflower Picnic and a Sunflower Dinner Party - if either of those events sound like fun to you, email me at brenda.eden@gmail.com to let me know and I will make sure you get invited. :)}

To see my first set of photos from the Conference, go to this gallery here on Dropbox or copy/paste this link into your browser. 

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/4780490/1/AZ%20BLOGGER%20CONFERENCE%201?h=b4bfdb

You can save the images to your computer and then use them however you like.

When you use my photos for your blogs/online/facebook, could you give me credit by saying Brenda Eden took these photos and by linking back to my facebook page?

Thank you and hugs and kisses to you! This is the link for my facebook page: 

http://www.facebook.com/brendaedenphotography 

 

 The Phoenix Style Collective:

They gave away these bags from Madewell.

These girls pictured below are from Savante Salon - Stephanie, pictured on the left is the owner. The salon happens to be right down the street from my house in Gilbert - I definitely will be going there. They were applying hair color to the blogger's hair with these chalk-like pieces that you can buy at Savante Salon. If you go back and read my blog, you will see that back in February/March I was fascinated with the idea of making my hair rainbow colors. I used spray dye to paint it for a Saint Patrick's Day Parade that I was in and that was fun, but the chalk pieces seem so much better - the color is much more saturated and doesn't seem bad for your hair like the spray dye does.

I love the look of the Saguaro Hotel. I remember wandering in there when it was another hotel and the changes they have made seem really great for getting local people to come and visit the hotel, not just for out-of-town tourists. It's kinda retro, really bright, quirky, not too serious and definitely fun. Which made it pretty much perfect for the bright, fun, quirky, retro-y Arizona Blogger's Convention!

 

Interested in having me photograph you? Go HERE for more info!

{Today ~ Tonight}

Tonight I got to photograph the Phoenix Style Collective/Arizona Blogger Conference. And now I am home editing the photos.

Today was so busy. I started out the day with my friend Jennifer - we went to Aster House, the Valley of the Sunflowers, Jobot and the state capitol for an event about legislation that particularly affects women. At the Valley of the Sunflowers, Jennifer helped out by thinning the sunflowers out. I kinda didn't help out and instead went around putting sunflower transplants in coffee cups to take home and put in my garden. In this cell phone pic, I am sitting outside at Aster House on their back patio.

After all that, I came home to get ready for photographing the blogger conference.

I wanted to stay longer tonight at the conference, but I had go home to irrigate - my dad has passed away - but when he was alive, he planted a hundred trees at this house. I just went outside to turn the water in and while I was out I heard the Great Horned Owls that live in the trees around here - there are at least three of them; I've seen three at once - but from the noise they make at night, I think there are probably more.

Outside the air is so lovely and I am so tired and also a little sad I can't be in 3 or 4 places at once. Now that I am home from the AZ Blogger Conference and I've done the irrigation, I've considered going back out since tonight is my friend Amy's birthday party, my friend Suzie's fundraiser for Aids/LifeCycle and my friend-bride Heather's book club - and this month was poetry month and I was going to bring Mary Oliver poems to contribute, because I love her work. But I guess I will be staying in, because I am more than a little exhausted, even though today and tonight were really, really, really fun.

Here's a photo that Courtney McEntire took of me at the event tonight. Thanks Courtney!

{Joanne}

Joanne, at the Valley of the Sunflowers.

Since she was wearing blue and the sky is blue and the school building behind her is painted blue, I wanted to frame her with the building - blue, blue and more blue - I like the way  it turned out.

With this image below, I was learning how to produce a tilt shift effect with Photoshop. Thanks super-awesome Jamie Carey Mulhern for showing me how.

{Joanne}