arizona wedding photography ~ brenda eden photography

{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 [email protected]

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 [email protected] 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}