brenda eden photography

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am a wedding and event photographer and I will be posting my photography work here, as well as stuff that I find interesting!

If you want photographs taken, I would love to talk to you and find out more. I love to photograph weddings, engagement sessions, quinceañeras and family & individual portraits. My sister Becky is a photographer too and she teams up with me to shoot. View our website here to see more of our work.

We live in the metro Phoenix area and are available to travel to events anywhere in Arizona.

It's my resolution for 2009 to post frequently on this blog, so come back to see more! :)

~Brenda

480.326.8385 | beden.photography@gmail.com | website: Brenda Eden Photography

 

     

{Red Velvet Cupcakes}

I'm so happy and anxious and excited to see Jessica and Stan, all dressed up and ready to be bride and groom today, with their friends and family from all over the world in town to see them.

But I will just tell you this: I'm also really excited for red velvet cupcakes! Jess's cake will be red velvet cupcakes and I can't wait to have one! LOL!

Here is Jessica's adorable Save the Date, that she created using an engagement photo that we took. She's an incredible artist and I can't wait to see all the cool ideas she has dreamed up and spent months preparing at the wedding today!

Rebecca & Chris {June Wedding in Ahwatukee, Arizona}

Rebecca planned her June wedding to Chris for the anniversary of the day that they began their relationship.

 

Signing their marriage license:

I love the way he looks at her!

Such a gorgeous bride!

 

This is one of my favorite images. Rebecca and Chris had a backyard wedding at their home in Ahwatukee, but Rebecca planned for Becky and me to get photos under this gorgeous tree. This tree is really something else. It must be really old and has all these swirling branches that go all over the place, down to the ground and back up again. And lots of wildlife lived around this tree--I saw rabbits, adorable ground squirrels and birds. I love trees so much and living here in the desert in Arizona, big old trees are not so easy to find, so I was so excited by Rebecca's discovery of this tree and that she wanted to come here and get photos right after the ceremony.

(Note to brides and grooms: Know of a cool place you would love to get photos of the two of you? Even if it's not at the location of your ceremony or reception, make time for it on your wedding day and we would love to photograph you there. And we are always happy to do day-after-the-wedding shoots too! Check out our wedding website to make contact with us. )

Becky got this image while I was photographing them on the other side of this amazing tree. I love Becky's perspective here, the tree seems so monumental and I always love images with the sun pouring in.

Thank you Rebecca and Chris for having Becky and me be your photographers on your wedding day. What I think I will remember most is when I first met you guys to talk about your photography. Walking around that beautiful ancient tree and learning about your lives was truly fun. I'm always a little nervous to meet people at first, but you guys put me at ease in telling me about how you met and what you liked and loved and did together and just about your lives. It was fun to hear about your sweet, smart dog and then to actually get to see her on your wedding day! I wish you guys the absolute best in your life together!

This Explains Everything! {Musings on Light during the last hours of Summer and upon the occasion of the Autumnal Equinox}

 (I started writing this on the autumn equinox, but am just posting it now.)

As a photographer, I'm a little obsessed with light. Okay, maybe I am really obsessed. My eyes are always searching for pretty light, for light from buildings hitting other buildings and creating water-y reflections, for trees and hair back lit by the sun, for ambient light and natural light, for the catch light  in people's eyes. Here's an example. This morning I got up early to put gas in my mom's car before she had to go to work. I got to the gas station while it was still dark, but as I was filling up, the sun's light was just starting to appear over and around the Superstition Mountains. And in one moment the gas station was only lit by the fluorescent lights above and then! and then, everything was ever so softly illuminated by the sun rise. So gorgeous.
　

The other day I was talking with a bride about the photography timeline for her wedding and we were figuring out when sunset would be on her wedding day. In my head I can usually kinda figure it out. I know that on October 15th, it will be dark by about 6 and so then I will just take away a minute for every day any time after that up until around December 22nd, the longest night of the year.

Or so I thought!

I always knew that Winter starts around December 21st/22nd/23rd and that that day is the longest night of the year and the shortest day of the year. But what I always figured was that the first day of Winter was also when darkness arrived the earliest. I knew that around June 21st was when Summer started, so I figured the longest day of the year was also the day the sunlight stayed the latest....

But I've been wrong this whole time.

And, actually, it's kind of a relief.

The truth of the matter is, that here in Arizona, the first day that night arrives the earliest this year will be November 29th. Sunset is at 5:20 pm that day. And sunset will continue to be at 5:20 for ten days, until December 8th. And then on December 9th, sunset will happen at 5:21 and every day after that until July 6th sunset will arrive later and later, by about a minute.

From June 22 to July 6, sunset will arrive at 7:42.  So for 15 whole days, sunset will arrive at 7:42. And then on July 7, sunset will arrive at 7:41.

Figuring this out seems like such a relief or revelation or epiphany or something to me. I always had this sense that early December was the hardest time of year and that by Christmas things felt lighter. I always just associated it with early December being the time for school finals and the time when some get-together or party is planned every . single . night . And that's kind of overwhelming.

But really, why does winter and summer just hang there? 10 days for winter, 15 days for summer and all the other days of the year are stair-stepping up or down by a minute or two or so. ( In order to see what I mean, take a look at this site: Time and Date .)　

I wish I knew somebody who could explain this to me.

Somebody who could take a beach ball and maybe a flash light or a laser pointer (the kind you use to play with cats) and be like, Okay so this is the Earth, and this is the Plane of the Ecliptic and this is how the earth is tilted and this is the Sun and the Sun is moving like this, and the Earth is turning like this and we're all moving and this is how the Sunlight hits the earth at such and such time of year....and blah blah and blah.

And when they were done it would make perfect sense why the sunset just kinda hangs there in early December and late June.

I went to Jerome and Prescott this past July 6th, the last Summer night when the dark arrived the latest. Past Jerome is Mingus Mountain. Here are some photos from Elk Well on Mingus Mountain:

 

Sun outside a restaurant in Prescott:

 

Watson Lake. This place is so enchanting-looking to me. I would love to do bridal portraits or an engagement session or a trash the dress there. This girl was waiting for the kids to come down off the rocks---I know you can't tell from the image so much, but her salmon-colored skirt had silver wric-wrac on it. Now I want a skirt with silver wric-wrac on it!

Le Full Moon!

View of Prescott Valley from the 4th floor of the Comfort Inn and Suites (a hotel where they put out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches around 10 at night for night owls to enjoy).

and here is light from the sunrise from the next morning, the morning that night would start arriving sooner and keep arriving sooner until December 9th, when night starts to arrive later, if only by about a minute....

The Blue Hour

 

The other day I was trying to figure out the meaning of the word twilight. I thought I knew what it meant. I thought it only referred to the time after sunset until it gets completely dark. And then I heard the word used in reference to the time right before sunrise.

So this is what Wikipedia says about twilight:

Twilight is the time between dawn and sunrise, and the time between sunset and dusk. Sunlight scattered in the upper atmosphere illuminates the lower atmosphere, and the surface of the Earth is neither completely lit nor completely dark. The sun itself is not actually visible because it is below the horizon. Due to the unusual and romantic quality of the ambient light at this time, twilight has long been popular with photographers and painters, who refer to it as "sweet light" or the "blue hour", after the French expression l'heure bleue. Twilight is technically defined as the period before sunrise and again after sunset during which there is natural light provided by the upper atmosphere, which does receive direct sunlight and reflects part of it toward the Earth's surface.

That phrase, the blue hour, just sounds so cool to me. I took my camera out at the blue hour a lot this past summer and so here above is one image from the blue hour, from back in July.

Jackie & Frank's wedding in Gilbert, Arizona

Brenda has asked me (Becky, her 2nd shooter) to blog this wedding several times and I now am finally getting around to it! These are photographs of Jackie and Frank's wedding, a nice (young!) couple who I shot with Andrea Whittle . It was so beautiful that day! These are my memories of their beautiful wedding: red barn, yellow rose bushes, green grass and snow white clouds in a baby blue sky.

 

  
 
   
 

 
 
 

 

 

 

Deborah's Trash the Dress {Downtown Phoenix}

I got to gether with some other photographers to shoot these images of Deborah in her wedding dress in downtown Phoenix, near the Icehouse. She got married a few years ago, so I think it was fun for her to have a chance to get more photos in her dress.

If you are interested in doing a Trash the Dress session, enter my Trash the Dress contest here. Winners will be drawn on December 26th, 2009 and photo sessions will be done sometime in 2010.

To enter the contest, you tell me where you think it would be cool to have a Trash the Dress session and what other ideas you might have. So if you like graffitti and urban areas, like we did for Deborah's photos, tell me about that. But if you prefer more out in nature images, tell me about that too.

There will be two winners.

(And don't tell anyone, but if I really like more than a few ideas, well there might be more than a few winners!)

 

Deborah's Trash the Dress at the Icehouse in Downtown Phoenix

  
 

The second image here was taken with a 24mm tilt shift lens that I rented. It was so much fun to play with that lens, but it's definitely a lens you need to use a lot to get a sense of what it can do and how to best use it.

The Candy Dance in Genoa, Nevada. And Pigeons.

Three events happen in September that I have wanted to go and see for years.

They are:

Burning Man around Labor Day in Black Rock City, Nevada (website) and the San Esteban Feast Day (info) at Acoma Pueblo/Sky City in New Mexico on September 2nd.

And one that's coming up this weekend:

The Candy Dance in Genoa, Nevada

According to Genoa's town historian, Billie J. Rightmire :

The Genoa "Candy Dance" originated in 1919 as an effort to raise money to purchase street lights for the small, but enterprising community of Genoa, Nevada's first settlement. Lillian Virgin Finnegan, daughter of then prominent Judge Daniel Webster Virgin, suggested the idea of a dance and making candy to pass around during the dance as an incentive for a good "turn-out" of couples.

With the help of her aunt, Jane Raycraft Campbell, and the female populous of Genoa, delicious samples of candy really made the evening special. Of course, the midnight supper served at the Raycraft Hotel was, as always, a culinary delight. So, if the candy did not entice people to join in the fun, the midnight supper was surely an incentive. 

Candy! A midnight supper! Dancing!

I first read about the Candy Dance years ago when I was at the ASU library. I don't completely remember the details, but this is what I do remember: the ASU libraries are pretty awesome. There's the regular library and then there's the Noble Science and Engineering Library , which don't let the not-very-pleasing(okay, downright aesthetically awful) looks of this library dissuade you from searching there, because there is cool stuff there. Those libraries are where I came across Eugene Peterson's commentary on 1st and 2nd Samuel, books about the Salton Sea, Edward Weston's Daybooks (and fell in love with his photography), books about history and tourism in Nevada (which made me want to visit the Hoover Dam and Genoa for the Candy Dance) and an illustrated book about the pigeons of the world.  

You have no idea how many different types of pigeons exist on the planet.

At least I didn't.

I remember being so enchanted by the very old book and all its color illustrations of pigeons. And I was so fascinated by the letter-carrying abilities of pigeons that I decided to make these little postcards in my letterpress class at ASU using engraving blocks and letterpress type.

LOL, so I am trying to think of something to tie all this together---pigeons, the Candy Dance in Genoa, Nevada, Edward Weston, awesome (but ugly) libraries, letterpress and carving wood blocks...but dude it's hard to tie this all together. Let me just say that if I could I would get in my car tonight and drive like crazy to Nevada and be in time for candy! and dancing! and a midnight supper!

Paris and Wes ~~~~ engagement session

Paris and Wes, you rocked this! We can't wait for your wedding. 

((((Monsoon Clouds))))

Sneak peek for Natasha + Josh from their Engagement Session at the LOVE sculpture in Scottsdale

We had so much fun with Natasha and Josh who are getting married next year in Iowa. Here's just one, a sneak peek of their engagement session.

hollyhocks

Sunset view from Ashley Manor

We had fun meeting up with Lan and Ron at the  Ashley Manor in Chandler, Arizona where they are having their wedding. I got all sorts of ideas for images while we were eating dinner with them and some other friends. From what I understand, Ashley Manor brides and grooms can come and have dinner there once a month to decide what dishes they want to serve their guests on their wedding day.

While everyone was still eating, I left the table for a while to explore. The sun was setting and I thought it was so beautiful. To see the sunset, I had to stand up on a some cushiony chairs that were next to the west wall to actually see this view; I don't think you would be able to see the this view otherwise, because Ashley Manor is surrounded by walls on all sides, giving it it a secret/hidden garden kind of feel.

Fair Trade Cafe Grand Opening

We went to the grand opening of the new Fair Trade Cafe on Friday night. There was a monsoon blowing in so the air was all dusty and smelling of rain and if you live in Arizona you know how much better that makes the evening!

There's a  Fair Trade Cafe location on Roosevelt Avenue that I love to go to and so I am so excited there will be another location in downtown Phoenix. And it's in the coolest location, downstairs of the A. E. England building, built in 1926, in the new Civic Space Park .

I love the location of this park. It's near the YMCA building, underneath this beautiful piece of art, across from ASU, the Light Rail goes by either side of the park, the Westward Ho building and a beautiful post office are just north of it. And if you are looking at this photo, you may be thinking where exactly is the park? The green spaces are not in the picture, but they do surround the building and well....it's an Arizona park and it's new....the trees are still kinda little but I can picture how they will be someday and they will be gorgeous.

We listened to some guys making music and watched the dogs and their people walk by. I want a dog!

We got some drinks and went to sit under the Giant Jellyfish Monster of Death!

There was a band and people swing dancing in the upstairs part of the building. Swing dancing looks like sooo much fun. I wish I knew how. I took these photos through the window and I like the how they look through the glass.

  

  

The coffee shop is located downstairs in an open court yard area.

The Westward Ho at 1/30 a second. Up until the other day I never let myself shoot anything at less than 1/60 because I like my images being not too soft/fuzzy/unsharp. Even though I am always taking pictures after dark. But! But last week we went to listen to Joe Buissink speak and he kept saying what his settings were and apparently he is definitely not afraid of less than 1/60. So here's the building at 1/30.

 

The storm that had been slowly blowing in was getting really windy and wonderful as we left and then by the time we got to the car and were starting to drive away, the rain started coming down like crazy!

flight patterns by charlie mccarthy {long exposure photographs of insects flying around a street light---this is dazzling}

flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.

moon, moon burning bright

I wanted to try to get the light of the moon to make a star-y shape. So this is about f-16, 3200 ISO, about a second and a half and I was resting the camera on a post, but still shaking it a little as I was breathing, so this is what I got...The squiggly line up there? that's a plane.

{I'm taking pictures of the moon tonight}

How shall we beguile the summer, if not with some delight?

 

Lan + Ron's engagement session

I am so beyond excited for Lan and Ron's wedding coming up in October at the Ashley Manor. Lan is the younger sister of Thuy, one of my best-in-the-whole-wide-world friends. So I've known Lan a long time, since she was seven. I cannot wait to see all of Lan's family all together for the wedding. I am so excited for Lan's big sister to come back to Arizona to be in the wedding. It's been way too long since she was here in Arizona!

Rain was predicted and all day long I was watching the clouds build up and wondering if we would be getting a monsoon. This is how it looked up in the sky about an hour and a half til sunset when we were scheduled to meet up. When we got to the the Coffee Shop, the wind was starting to blow and dust was starting to swirl around. But I wasn't too worried; actually I was relieved, because it would give us a little break from the heat. 

Many, many thanks to Tina Le Burnham for doing Lan's beautiful makeup. Tina's a photographer too and she does hair and make-up. Doesn't Lan look just gorgeous? I LOVE the eyelashes! When Lan first got to the Coffee Shop, Ron was still on his way, so Becky and I started taking photographs of her right away. I love the way the wind was blowing her hair. :)

Once Ron got there, we walked out into the vineyard.

Something magical happened when we got to the vineyard. The sun came out from behind the clouds and gave us the most incredible and enchanting light for a few minutes. 

Thuy and I think Ron looks a little like Tim Robbins, the actor. Has Thuy ever told you that, Ron? :) 

 

This photo (above) was taken with the last light of the day. Minutes later it was completely dark and we went into the the Coffee Shop for drinks and to get out of the heat. And then after a while, we were refreshed and ready to go back out.

So we went out to the picnic tables, where there are a lot of lights strung up between the trees. We went there because I wanted to experiment with getting these heart shapes from the lights. (The lights aren't really heart-shaped, they are just regular bulbs.)

To get heart shapes like this, I cut out a small heart (about half an inch in size) on a piece of cardboard, held it up to my lens, my lens was wide open (f1.2) and I manually focused so that nothing was really in focus, until I saw hearts where the lights were. Becky and I were just talking about this experiment and she thinks we could get the subjects in focus and the hearts too. It would require using our tripod and the bulb setting. We'll experiment on some other lovely couple (anyone out there interested?) and if we figure out how to do it, we'll let you know how.

Okay, so these pictures below? f4 3200 ISO, 1/15th of a second and on my LCD they were completely dark--you couldn't see anything. In camera raw, I push the exposure to almost 4 and slide some other settings around. And so exposure/lighting-wise, you might say these images have some problems and shouldn't be posted. And you know what I say? I say I don't care! They're too cute not to post.

I LOVE these images. Lan and Ron, this is how totally and completely adorable you two are.

 

After experimenting with creating hearts, we all got in our cars and drove to Joe's Real BBQ to have dinner. Lan's brother Ty met up with us.

And then when we were done eating, we went outside and Lan and Ron had to start being my models again.

I like the little crescent moon in the photo below, really low on the horizon and so near the two of them.

The two of them under the Gilbert Water Tower:

Lan and Ron, we had so much fun with you guys and we hope you did too. It was so hot even after dark that I just have to say Good job! You guys rocked this and your wedding is going to be amaaaazing!

40 years ago we went to the moon

Two weeks ago tonight, I was driving away from Watson Lake, when for no reason I looked back. I'm sooooo glad I did because I saw the July moon rising, so huge and magical.

{backyard sunflowers}

A dust storm (or haboob, if you prefer) rolled in & around 7:40 it had turned the sky a magical dusty yellow color. I went outiside to take pictures of my sunflowers. The giant sunflowers have gotten so tall, 12 to 13 feet at least, but now their sunflower crowns are getting pretty droopy.

 

The Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix

I've always wanted to take a tour of the Orpheum Theater in downtown Phoenix and recently I finally did. (If you've read my blog before, then you will recognize the outdoor photos here of the theatre that I took with a tilt shift lens last  year.) The theatre offers tours twice a month in the middle of the day and though I had been there once before at night to hear Rob Bell talk, I didn't get to see the whole place.

The day I went for the tour, they were having a huge open house tour. There were tour guides all over the place telling about the history of the theatre, but you could come and go and explore the whole place on your own, you didn't have to stay with the group.

It's so pretty on the inside. Honestly, it made me feel like I was stepping into some magnificent Disneyland ride! It first opened in 1929 before the Great Depression. It was one of the few places that had air conditioning in the Phoenix area, so you can imagine it was pretty exciting to go there in the summer!

 

This room (below) has a number of names. Two of them are The Kissing Room and The Room of the Young Moderns. The super cool and intriguing thing about this room is that if you stand at the exact center of the room and say something your voice will be amplified just like you are talking into a microphone. The tour guide lady told me to stand in the middle and say something without telling me my voice would be amplified. Kind of a shock to suddenly hear your voice sooo much louder than you expected but really cool too!

 

The red velvet chairs in the theatre are so pretty.

There are a bunch of elliptical staircases. One staircase takes you to the balconies, to the second floor and another takes you to the basement level. When I was heading down to the basement level I saw a bunch of people standing downstairs looking up.

 

This is what they were seeing. These really gorgeous peacocks made of metal foil.

 

 

 

One of the tour guides suggested that since I seemed to love the place so much I should become a tour guide or an usher for event nights. That actually does sound pretty cool, but what I would really like to do is photograph a wedding here. And if I ever do, I will bring wider angle lenses. I was using my 50 mm lens which I am madly in love with, but a wider lens would be good to show the sweeping grandeur of the place.

 

These winged creatures (above) were in a very dark corner and I could barely see them in the dark so I turned my focusing on my camera to manual to take the photo and so when I turned around to take the photo of the stage (below) my focusing was still on manual, so I get this blurry effect,  which I really kinda like.

 

The tour guide lady said that the Orpheum Theatre is unique in this way in particular: there was no one particular inspiration for the style of the theatre. The designers borrowed ideas from all sorts of styles: Spanish Baroque Revival, Egyptian (which was pretty popular in the 1920's), art deco, art nouveau, Roman, Greek, Moroccan, and tons of others I can't remember.

 

The story about the carpet at the Orpheum Theatre goes something like this: When they went to reconstruct the theatre they had no idea what the original carpet looked like but during reconstruction someone discovered some of the old carpet (hidden somewhere under a wall or floor where it was safe from the wear and tear of years), and so they had new carpet created and installed that looked just like the original. 

 

 

 

Tours take place at noon on the first and third Tuesdays of the month (at least they do right now--they seem to switch up tour times every so often). And events happen there all the time.

{Sneak peek for Loraine + Tim}

Just a couple here for Loraine and Tim! I can't wait for you guys to see more soon. :)

 

{1920's music on a Sunday afternoon}

I love Sundays. I wish they would last forever. Especially summer Sundays. It's so hot to be outside right now, but later on I want to go swimming---I am anticipating that wonderful salt watery smell that the pool I go to has. (Instead of chlorine, they use salt.)

I'm editing photos for Loraine and Tim right now, who had their wedding on July 2nd at the Boojum Tree Hidden Gardens Boojum Tree Hidden Gardens. It was beautiful!

And while I am editing I am listening to music from the 1920's that I came across on the blog Bits of Beauty .  I'm a little obsessed with the idea of the 1920's right now. I keep reading about silent film stars like Olive Thomas. I keep re-reading The Great Gatsby. I keep looking up 1920's fashions on the internet.

Go here to listen to the 1920's music that Ms. Jenn put together:

1920's Jazz-Swing-Dance-Perfect-4th-of-July-Holiday-Music

And since I like having posts with pictures, here is one of my grandmother that I came across. She was in her 20's in the 1920's, although I guess her life wasn't anything like my Great Gatsby ideas of the 1920's. She lived in Texas and had five little children by 1929. I'm guessing this photo is actually from the 1930's.

  

{In summertime, yellow is my favorite color}

Here in Arizona, the valley, where I live, Summer has been ridiculously beautiful and mild and sweet. At least the first three weeks of June were more clement than I can ever remember. The cover of the Arizona Republic said it was the mildest June since 1913.

June 21st, the real first day of Summer, it seemed like it started getting warmer and I know today and last night were pretty suffocating, but tonight there was a dust storm around my house and the air has cooled off a bit. I'm hoping that we get an amazing Monsoon. Ten mile high clouds rising over the Superstitions and rain on the desert with that amazing rain-in-the desert-smell---creosote and ozone. For the cooler air it brings and for the amazing light + skies that rain + clouds make for photographs.

I went and took about a thousand sunflower photos early one (chilly) morning in early June. Here are a couple.

 

Yo D a d d y !

 

We went to Tortilla Flats. It had been raining like crazy the days before and the river was flooded, so went to see all the water.

 

Christmas morning!

 

Birthday at Grannie's house. This photo frightened me as a kid---I thought my dad was catching fire!

 

Noah and his brothers. He's the one with hipster bolo tie. They were so skinny!

 

Daddy, always and I mean always, had a garden. So now I always try to have one too.

 

This one cracks me up. Who knows what I was so upset about?

 

He WON this Cadillac in 1963. He didn't buy it, he won it!!!!

 

We used to always go for drives to little Arizona towns (like Miami in this photo) and I would take photos with my 35 mm Canon film camera or my awesome little Nikon point and shoot.

 

This photo got scanned in with a lot of white space. But I'm posting it anyways.

 

So did this one. We went to a little ghost town called Eden in southern Arizona so many years ago.

 

What a cutie!

 

In Washington DC with my mom, my grandma, aunt, her daughter and a senator from my aunt's state of Arkansas.

 

I love this one.

 

We had just been to the Hearst Castle the day before this photo was taken and we were staying in some little town by the ocean---maybe called San Simeon--I don't remember---and we were just waiting outside the  motel room on the bench under the trees.

I was so blessed to have him as my dad. I deeply, deeply, deeply miss him.

I went for a walk in the woods

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{Kelly + Bill underneath the trees}

Kelly and Bill underneath the trees, just as it was getting dark, not long after this the sun completely set, so I was getting dreamy-end-of-the-day light, which I love. I love how they are looking at each other in that second one---ahhh!

I was taking these photos of them, while Becky and their beautiful curly-haired baby boy were in the grass running around, playing and getting more photos of just him.

More photos of Kelly + Bill to come! 

((Side note story: Years and years ago we went to Hume Lake with Kelly and a bunch of other people from our college group. Bill might have been there (I'm not sure, sorry Bill!)  One story I remember from that trip is that Becky and Kelly and some other girls got up in the middle of the night and TP'ed the building the guys were sleeping in and later on Becky would talk about how much fun Kelly was. Do you remember that Kelly?! It was kinda a long time ago!))

Did you see the moon tonight?

 

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!

{Happy Birthday Becky!}

LOVE {Jesssica + Stan's Engagement session sneak peek}

Just a few here from Jessica and Stan's Engagement---way more to come! We met in Scottsdale at the LOVE sculpture and had so much to talk about immediately because Jessica's brother had just gotten married that weekend! Jessica, I can totally picture you with that feather pen you were talking about, it sounds like your brother's wedding was a blast and it was so cool getting to see Stan's photos of it.

We've got a lot of LOVE photos, but I'm posting this one right now because of the bird flying over. (Start noticing the bird theme in the photos to come!)

 

Jessica's colors for her wedding? Red. Which made me want to get some red backgrounds for her and Stan. The walls on this elevator were really red!

 

 

I love her eyes. I love her hair. (I love the dreamy way my camera and lens can make pictures.)

 

Becky was taking photos and I was stepping back to look at my images and adjust settings, while all these birds started flying through.

 

Jessica makes hair adornments (is that what they are called?) and I really really really want to buy some from her. I'll find out the link to her store and you can get some made too! I love this one that she is wearing---with two tiny little Love Birds.

 

Oooh, I still have so many to post, but here is one I love. Sparkly night lights over the Salt River Bridge, an airplane on its way to Sky Harbor, an extremely beautiful couple (inside and out!) in love....we had such a wonderful day and evening with you Jessica and Stan! :)

  

October....

...is going to spectacularly awesome! I never really thought I would get to see U2 again---somehow I managed to get floor general admission seats---I could hardly believe it! I love being in the crowd and Thuy is flying out to see the show too, so it will be twice as fun :) I love this video with Mila Jovavich in it (the second video), I want to take/borrow/steal/appropiate some of the ideas I see here for photos.... (Photos coming soon! We really have been busy with shoots and meeting people and shopping for a computer that will make photo-processing a LOT LOT LOT quicker. I have so much to be thankful for, I can barely even say. Ahh, I would stay on the computer all night watching u2 youtube videos if i could---but i'm off to sleep. Sweet dreams, Internetz!)

Invisible Children

a little bit of this//a little bit of that

Okay here comes the most quickly written blog post! Please don't mind the typos. :)

Becky is second shooting a wedding with Andrea Whittle  tonight and she just twittered that the best part was when the dog ran out across the party. Can't wait to see her pics. But in the meantime I am going to go and try to rent Twilight. I have never seen it and she keeps saying I should rent it so maybe I can rent it before she gets home, hence a super-quick post about a little of my last week or two, since I have been ignoring this blog lately.

I went to a class at the SnapFactory . After the class, everyone went to Mill Avenue in Tempe and the teacher Mark Wallace helped us try out some of the stuff we had learned about our flashes for our cameras. As we were walking along Mill, I shot this pic of a guy going by on a motorcycle. I like the ghostly look of it!

     

Three Cups Of Tea This book is so good. One of the reasons that it is so good is tha the author, David Oliver Relin is an incredible writer. Another reason is that is so incredibly inspiring. It's about Greg Mortenson who was a mountain climber, but now builds schools for the kids in the places where he used to climb, in mountainous regions of Pakistan and all over the country. He is so devoted to bringing schools to kids that don't have schools and it's so inspiring to think of how he has really changed so many lives for the better. Oh yeah, he doesn't just build schools, but medical clinics, bridges, adult education centers and the infrastructure for getting people clean water. Reading about Mortenson makes me feel like eventually I can do something to really help people.

Elvis Perkins I was listening to this guy on the radio. I had never heard of him before but from the first few notes of his music I knew I wanted to hear more. I'm trying to link to this song on youtube While You Were Sleeping, but I can't make it embed. Not sure what I am doing wrong, it usually works! His father was the guy from Psycho the movie and his mother was in one of planes brought down on Sept 11th. Some of the lyrics (this song is really long):

while you were sleeping
the babies grew
the stars shined and the shadows moved
time flew, the phone rang
there was a silence when the kitchen sang
its songs competed like kids for space

Bat Mitzvah : I read this cutest article about the upcoming Bat Mitzvahs of Evelyn, Ann, Eva, Mintsy, Millie, Fay, Belva and Molly. They were girls during the Great Depression and are now in their 90's. They never got to have their own. Love this, from the article:

After Sunday’s ceremony, each woman is to receive a certificate with words from Psalm 92: “They shall be fruitful even in old age; vigorous and fresh they shall be to proclaim that the Lord is Just. He is my strength.”

Lula magazine This magazine is SO pretty and so girly and it barely has ANY ads at all. It's from England and it's mostly just fairy-tale-like fashion, plus a few articles and it's super thick, more like a book than a magazine. I can already tell I am being very inspired by it when it comes to photography.

 

{Camille}

July {in Sedona}

 

 

I thought July was so striking and gorgeous, I really wish I had got to photograph her for longer. She is one of the many people I met at the Photographer meet-up in Sedona last month. Here is a link to her business where she sells swaroski crystals. Check it out, they are beautiful.