brenda eden photography

Becky and I went over to the S. family house and took pictures of all eleven of the family members (plus two on the way). Annie wanted some pictures to give her parents and siblings before her little family moves to China.

Here's Auntie Helen getting the kids ready for their pictures.

Ali with her grandma and grandpa. (Except she doesn't call them that, but I don't know the name for grandma and grandpa in Chinese!)

 

Okay is everybody looking at the camera? Oh wait! Drewby is looking off to the side. No matter! He's still so cute!

Okay, whew, everyone is looking at the camera!

Okay, everyone, show us silly!

  

Here we have David and his lovely dog Zelda.

 We took a bunch of pictures with each sibling with their spouse and parents. Here's Neil, his beautiful wife Janet and the parents.

   

Then we got a bunch in the backyard. To get the kids' attention Becky stood right behind me and started talking about the fairies and gnomes and magical ladybugs the kids had "seen" when we took their pictures last week. The funny thing is, I think all the crazy talk got the attention of the adults too!

Okay the kids can only take so much! They are ready to jump down and play now....

For fun we had all of them link arms & walk across the yard. Zelda thought this was a simply spectacular idea and wondered why everyone doesn't do this more often! :-)

I'm so excited about the new babies that will be arriving soon for this family.

I love this picture Beck got of me photographing David and Zelda.

Zelda, could you be any more stunning, girl?!! David, you're looking good too! ;-)

We had so much fun taking their pictures. I love this family so much---this whole family has been through so much.. It was so cool to get to see them all in one place at the same time. After taking pictures, Becky and I stayed over for dinner, for the best Chinese food ever! :-)

(I notice that when I put these pictures on the website, they are kinda fragmented. I think that might have to do with the way I am saving them. Luckily my camera raw and photoshop book came in the mail today, so I am really looking forward to reading it. Maybe the book will give me an idea how to save pictures for websites, otherwise I will read around elsewhere and try new stuff to see what I can figure out. Also, I am using typepad's new beta site and they have recently made it easier to show bigger images, so maybe I need to read more about that too.) 

~photography class with jennifer and kim~

A couple weeks ago I went to a photography class taught by Jennifer Bowen and Kimberly Jarman. Go check out their blogs, there are pictures of the class on there and I'm in some of them! The class was held in Kimberly's studio in downtown Mesa---her studio is upstairs in this old brick building--really gorgeous---with high ceilings and with her beautiful photographs on the wall---it was such an inviting space to spend an afternoon in.

    A couple pictures from the class---click to enlarge.  

I came across their blogs in the last couple months or so and I was just so amazed (and thrilled) at how much information they share on their blogs about photography and their business. When I read they were offering a class, I really wanted to go to it. And I am so glad I got to. They were so helpful and so kind to share what they know and so open to answering questions. I definitely came away with more confidence about what I already know, answers to questions I had been aching to find out the answer to and something super-magical happened that weekend that I attribute to 1) their class and 2) taking pictures of Andrew and Alison and this is it: I got unafraid of my camera.

I truly have been afraid of my camera.

Not afraid of the settings, but afraid of dropping it. And absolutely destroying it. It would cost way too much to replace it anytime soon. I have insurance on it, so I would hope that would work, but still.......

When my dad passed away last year, my mom said that my dad had arranged for us to get money---from a life insurance policy or something---honestly I am fuzzy about the details because I really didn't care about money, I just wanted my dad back. My mom took some and dealt with some debts and then gave equal parts to me and my sister. And for the longest time I didn't even transfer the money into my account. I figured I should invest it, but I didn't do anything. Then I had this idea that I got from Becky that I would save some of it and use it to buy a wedding dress someday if I get married. That way, Daddy buys my dress.

I always figured that I would have the most economical wedding but I wouldn't skimp on the dress. I could make the cake. It would be a potluck! In the woods! I'd buy the flowers from the garden center at Home Depot. No wait! They would be flowers from my own garden from seeds from Home Depot! I'd email the invitations! But the dress would be fairytale-magnificent-amazing.

Now that I have been coming across so many gorgeous wedding photographer blogs, I am not sure I could stand to not splurge on the details. I mean I really like fancy cupcakes. And customized invitations. In brown and pink. And shoes that don't really go with the dress but match the bride's colors, like something in bright yellow or hot pink. And parasols. I heart parasols. I want parasols!

But anyways, I did spend the money. On a camera, two lenses and a flash. And I am seriously so glad I did. And somehow two weeks going on three weeks ago, my camera became my dear, dear camera and while I will be absolutely beyond careful with it, I am actually finally excited and so happy about the idea of taking it out and having fun with it. That super-excited feeling that I used to have after developing a roll of black and white film and taking it into the dark room that smelled of dektol is coming back and I can't believe I had so completely forgotten how that feels.

(One other thing to tell you: that night after I went to Kim and Jennifer's class, Becky and I went shopping and she bought a camera too. She had been editing and making illustrations for a book, sometimes while sitting next to our dad in the hospital, and finally she got paid for the job, yay! and now she has a camera too.)

Becky showing Ali and Drew their pictures.