arizona wedding photography ~ brenda eden photography

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!

Light at night

 

I love finding light at night and seeing what I get from my camera when I photograph it. The first couple frames are the sunset on a very hot evening. The last frame is what glow sticks being swung around look like when you keep your shutter open for about thirty seconds! 

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.

{San Diego}

Images from my trip to San Diego.

Here is my sister Becky at the Embaradero where we walked around.

Me (below). It's blurry but that makes it dreamy and so I like it.

 

When I got to go to San Diego, I brought my brand new Canon L 50 mm 1.2 lens to try out.  I love how it takes really beautiful and sharp photos in low light.

After I had been in San Diego for a few days, my sister met up with me and we went around the Embarcadero Park Marina waterfront and to Balboa Park.

Balboa Park has such fun stuff to do all day long. We went to see a HUGE fig tree, the science museum, the photography museum, the Prado Restaurant, the Asian art museum and a showing of Thoroughly Modern Millie at a theatre, but my favorite, absolutely favorite part of our day was when we went to see the Old Cactus Garden, which these last few images show. I'm so in awe of the natural world and so thankful for the unusual beauty that abounds on this planet when I see something like the Cactus Garden. Don't think I am too strange, but some day I am going to go and stay there all day from sunrise to sunset and then stick around while the stars come out. Ha! At least that is one of my many dreamy plans. Some people want to spend all day on the beach (and I do too) but I also want to spend a day here amongst all the beautiful and strange (to me) cactus, preferably in early Spring when they are all in bloom. I will bring my camera, for sure. 

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!

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