arizona wedding photography ~ brenda eden photography

Dec 26} quick trip to Miami and Globe

Outside an antique shop, it started to snow just a little bit.

We went to a pizza place called De Marco's. While we were placing our order, it was snowing outside. I came outside to take pictures, but it had stopped snowing and melted immediately---nevertheless, it was super cold.

 

The pizza? Really good, I would go back.

We left to go to Globe around 3:15 in the afternoon and didn't have time to do much there. We went to an antique store, drove up to the top of a hill where you could see the whole neighborhood below, drove by an old school house that has been turned into a bed and breakfast and stopped for pizza. On the way back home I took pictures almost the whole way....

25} Merry Christmas Baby

 

  

   

 

 

Merry Christmas Eve!

Lan's baby girl's birthday . 1999 .

:: blue horse ::

Of all the non-silver printing processes that I got to try at ASU, cyanotype was the easiest to do and I think maybe you could do it at home pretty easily, you wouldn't need a school lab. The coolest part? You use sunlight to expose your paper! 

I used polaroid positive/negative film that I exposed in a pinhole camera, cuz you kinda need a larger negative for this process, so now I'm thinking maybe this wouldn't be so easy to do, since that process itself was kinda difficult and polaroid is discontinuing their analog products.....okay so I just was trying to see if you could still buy this film and somebody was selling a box of 50 (that's expired) for $255 on ebay. Ha! Wish I had crazy money like that to spend! So, anyways, the cyanotype process was not that hard once I ordered the chemicals, but I think getting a big negative would be the hard part since it would mean renting a large format camera....except now that I think about it even more, the worse part about large format film cameras was getting the exposure half-way decent, and now I would just use my digital camera to figure out exposure so.... LONG . STORY . SHORT : some far off day when I have free time (& money!), I would try this process again!

{?}

So there is this photography convention happening in Phoenix early next year. I just heard about it. It's called Imaging USA. I'm not linking to it or anything else right now cuz my computer is being so slow ....but it sounds like a pretty big convention; lots of classes and speakers and it's downtown at the new Sheraton (which is ooh la la new, shiny and pretty) just a short walk from the brand new light rail. It sounds cool, but I'm okay with not going to the whole thing, especially since I just learned about it. But I would like to go to one of the pre-convention classes. A class by Jesh De Rox, whose work I really love and I should link to---totally worth looking up if you have never seen it, especially his flickr site. But here's the thing: Jesh De Rox's class is listed on the list of classes but not in the registration form. I called the convention number and the person I talked to said they would have to get back to me. I think I will call again tomorrow though because they haven't called back....

{ <3 }

Drool. I just love these photos.  I came across these photographers recently but then I couldn't remember their names to find them again. Well somehow I did find them and now I'm linking to a bridal session of theirs that I am just kitty-drool about. I love these photos. 

. J & N family portraits .

The weekend before Thanksgiving we took some pictures of J and N and their baby girl and J's mom.

Baby girl on a blanket in the park. Swirly clouds up above.

Baby girl had a few wardrobe changes. I'm all for wardrobe changes when I take people's pictures. If you want to change your outfit 99 times, more than fine by me! :)

 

J's mom made the outfit changes quick and easy.

   

 

 

  I loved the trees and light in this park. If you go back right now (I went there earlier today) some of the trees are practically on fire---their leaves are turning eye-popping bright buttery golden yellow.

      

So these  next pictures? Truly love them, but I was getting the exposure really wrong. f2.5 at 1/3200 sec, ISO 100. When I opened the raw file I ended up sliding the exposure over to 4 to get these. Ah, I  seriously wish I had looked back down at my camera and I did a second or so later.... 

  

  

Becky was shooting them at the same time and got what I wish I had gotten. 

Baby girl and her parents pondering complexities.

     So that's it for now. Next time? More with J's mom and a few more Christmas baby pictures.

   

   

{Amber and Isaac's Wedding}

Amber and Isaac were married in October in a beautiful house out in the desert north of Phoenix. It was a perfect October day to get married in Arizona; the day was warm enough and the evening had that wonderful October chill that everyone who lives in Arizona waits all summer long for. It was a joy to create images for Amber and Isaac, they are so in love and their families were so sweet. Thank you Amber and Isaac for having us there to document your beautiful wedding! 

Amber's aunt created her gorgeous dress. 

Oh Amber, you are so gorgeous!

I love this one of her grandfather giving her a hug.

And I love the sparkly-ness of this one. :)

Late night = you always spy sleeping kids at weddings. So cute.

The desert road outside the house: 

I wanted to see how these images looked in a collage, so here they are. I love it!

To see more of Amber and Isaac, click here to see my favorite image from their engagement session.

and here to see their engagement session in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Searching for photographers for your wedding? Click HERE to contact us.

Just fill out the form and we will be in contact. :)

View more WEDDINGS AND ENGAGEMENT SESSIONS

{fire and snowflakes in the sky}

a couple pictures from my point & shoot camera from tonight's sunset:

 

the sunset really did look like this, although it went quick!

  

   

A & I {wedding!}

 

one more of A & I. more pics soon. really.

. analyzing Barack Obama campaign photos . [I want to be a photojournalist. And your wedding photographer!]

I started to write this last month, right after the presidential elections, but I never posted it. So now I'm posting it.

Something that I absolutely love to do: Read the New York Times online and when I come across a striking photo, I look up the photographer's name online and see what else I can find out about her or him. I always hope I will find their blog, but I never have, but I usually find their website unless they have a really common last name. One of my many kazillion dreams?: go back to school and become a photojournalist!  

Here are some photos by photojournalist Damon Winter . He got to follow Obama's campaign all over the country and took awesome pictures---I am absolutely crazy about how he seems to get these little details, these little quiet moments that everyone else probably missed. I always pay extra attention to photos with big cameras in them, trying to figure out what lens they might be using and if I can learn anything else just by looking at the picture. I don't think I have ever held my arm out that far to get a shot, like the guy in the pic below, but after looking at what he is doing, well now I will maybe think to try that someday if I ever can't get closer to the subject.

 

 

   

 

This photo (below) is by Doug Mills, for the New York Times. (I wish I could link to a website of his, but I can't seem to find anything.) When I am looking at these photos I am running down this check list in my head trying to see what the photographer did and always asking myself, Okay, so you really like this photo, but WHY do you like it so much?

This one below by Mills has everything you always hear to look for: leading lines in the podium and cloud contrails, framing of the people below the stands, rule of thirds with Obama on the further side of the walkway, an unusual angle.

 

 

 

This past Saturday, before I went to shoot a quincenara with a co-worker friend, I told my sister to call me and remind me of anything I might forget to check. So later when I was going back out to my car, I saw this text: "Check your Iso, awb and remember leading lines, framing, rule of thirds + shoot raw".

Okay, check, check, check, check, check check! I was remembering all of that and more and seriously having the best time ever! Can I even begin to tell you how glad I am that I have gotten back into photography this past year?!!!

Kim and her kids! Portraits for Christmas!

Christmas portraits for Kim and her kids! :)

Becky and I had fun roaming around the park with Kim and her children one November afternoon. We got kazillions of images; here are just a few.

I love bringing my polaroid camera to shoots. I definitely need to get more polaroid film; it's so much fun! :)

Thanks Kim! We had so much fun with you guys!

{Want to book a session for family portraits? Email me at [email protected] for more info.}

Boyce Thompson Arboretum and the Picket Post Mansion

Saturday I went to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, Arizona. I'd been before, but never walked around the whole place like I did this time. I've seen this house, the Picket Post Mansion, from the road but never been this close. Construction started on it in 1923 and Boyce Thompson spent part of his last years there. Of course, I am so curious to know what it looks like on the inside. I picture art deco style furnishings like those in the Hearst Castle, but all covered in sheets and inches of dust. Type "Picket Post Mansion" and "haunted" into Google and you don't return anything interesting. I really want to know the stories of this house.

I really wanted to see Fall this year up north. I'm pretty sure I missed it this year. But at the Arboretum, it seemed like it was peak time for the trees turning gold and red. I want to go back so much, but I am not sure if I will make it back there before the leaves all turn and fall. It all seems to happen so quickly. You really have to be paying attention, or you miss it for an entire year.

In July, you don't sit there bemoaning the hundred and fifteen degrees and think I really have to arrange my life so that when it cools off I don't miss Fall. At least I don't, but maybe I should. I kinda think it needs that much advance planning!

So here is what I am planning. Some day this winter it might snow. It might. Remember March 10-11, 2006? Remember later January 2007? It snowed at elevations low enough that you could see snow on the Superstition Mountains. Well if that happens again this year or in 2009, I want to be ready. Even if it means dropping everything and just going. I really, really want to see Boyce Thompson Arboretum after a snow fall.