arizona wedding photography ~ brenda eden photography

{Martha + Cindy engaged}

Engagement photos for Cindy and Martha!

I've known Martha since I took a photo class at Chandler Gilbert Community College years ago. The class met on a high school campus and Martha was one of the high school kids who would come in to use the photo lab after school when our class was meeting. Martha and Cindy met  while taking classes at ASU. 

We started out in Phoenix at this painted wall that had caught my eye and then we went back to my house (which is pretty much my favorite place to create photos) and finally we went to a carnival.

I asked Cindy to dance for these photos and I didn't have to ask twice.

This is a me-checking-the-light photo. So it's not something I ever meant to process and give them. And I know Martha's eyes are closed. But I post it as message to myself: the message being, Don't be afraid to shoot in open, mid-day light at wide f-stops, just because you think you can't get anything good in that kind of light, because clearly, done right, that kind of light can be really pretty and even dreamy.

Cindy wanted orange trees in her engagement shoot. Yeah, orange trees and oranges are kinda trendy in engagement shoots, but I thought it was a cute idea and wanted to also. So it turns out I have a bunch of orange trees and thought they would be perfect for the shoot. What I didn't realize is that my orange trees weren't looking so great and the oranges weren't either, but I guess you can't really tell from the photos, can you? 

Beautiful girls. Beautiful winter light.

I love the catch-light in their eyes here in this one (below). And I love the framing.  Actually, I just flat out love it.

I've always wanted to shoot engagement photos at a carnival. Turns out there was a carnival that weekend and Martha and Cindy and I went there and walked around. And they kindly put up with my one more photo, wait just one more, ok I promise, just go stand over there and it will be the last one, remember how I said, just one more, well yeah, just one more. ;) 

Thanks you guys! We had such a fun day! I always regret I never get to see you both nearly as much as I would like to, which made spending the better part of a day with you totally sweet and fun. We have to do it again soon!

Crystal and Jerry {Mesa Temple engagement session}

Engagement session time for my cousin Crystal and her fiancé Jerry!

We met up at the Temple in Mesa, Arizona where they are getting married next month for engagement photos of the two of them. The Temple grounds was such a beautiful location for engagement photos.  There are gorgeous flowers and plants there that I have never seen growing anywhere else. Before Crystal and Jerry got there I walked around taking in all the beauty of the flowers. Our grandmother (my grandmother/Crystal's great-grandmother) would have found the flowers as enchanting as I did. There were even flowers and cat tails near the reflecting pool there were almost black in color. Pretty amazing looking! I would love to go back there to do more engagement sessions. And I would love to do bridal sessions there! It was very hot that evening, but Crystal and Jerry rocked it and made it look easy! Just as were leaving, the clouds started rolling in and not long after we left there was a summer monsoon. It was a very lovely summer evening for all of us and I can't wait for their late summer wedding!

♥♥♥ Are you planning a wedding and searching for your photographers? Click HERE to contact us. Just fill out the form and Brenda or Becky will send you more information. :)  ♥♥♥

Natasha + Josh

Natasha and Josh are getting married this summer in Iowa. Whoever their lucky photographer is, he is going to have a fabulous time with them! I really wish I could be at the wedding---hey Natasha and Josh, can I get an invite??!! You probably think I'm kidding! But I think it would be awesome to go to a wedding in Iowa in the summer! A long summer day in a place I have always assumed is gorgeous! And I would so love to see Natasha in her wedding dress---she described it and it sounded so beautiful. :)

(I've only been to Iowa once and it was night----my friend and I were driving through on the way to Chicago and we kept on stopping at motels and every one we went to was fully occupied. There was some huge convention going on and there was no where to stay! We were exhausted but we just kept driving and the sun was coming up as we were getting into Illinois.)

Natasha wanted to get engagement photos here in Arizona and searched for a photographer. She came across our blog and website and emailed me about meeting up for photos. I'm so glad she did, because we had such a fun time with them. It was such a gorgeous day with amazing sunshine, since it had rained the day before. Thanks Natasha and Josh! I hope you guys have a wonderful wedding this summer! 

   

I used my last polaroid on these two! And was glad to do it. Someday I'll get more. :)

....Wait for it!

I've posted this one before but I wanted to see how it went along with the others. I really, really, really want to do more night photography like this. Night photography like this takes long exposures, meaning we keep the camera aperture open for a few seconds to even longer, like half a minute, so our subjects have to stay frozen still for a while. In this image, Josh moved the flashlight in a heart shape for about 8 seconds and otherwise stayed perfectly still, as did Natasha. Good job, guys! 

♥♥♥ Are you planning a wedding and searching for your photographers? Or searching for an engagement session photographer? Click HERE to contact us. Just fill out the form and Brenda or Becky will send you more information. :)  ♥♥♥

Lois + Wes

 

Paris and Wes ~~~~ engagement session at the Millennium Hotel and Intercontinental Montelucia in Paradise Valley, Arizona

Paris and Wes met up with us very, very early in the morning in early August to do their engagement photos. We usually only shoot afternoon and evening engagement sessions, so I was so glad they were willing to meet up so early, before the rest of the world was awake, because we were able to get beautiful morning light and because it really was at the coolest time of the day. 

First we met at the Millennium Hotel for some photos by the water's edge, and then we went to the InterContinental Montelucia for more photos. I think I am in love with that place. I want to move into one of the rooms and live there permanently. Near the base of Camelback Mountain, it's so gorgeous. 

Paris's colors for her wedding are yellow and red. There were a lot of yellow and red backgrounds at the InterContinental Montelucia and I love creating engagement photos that incorporate the same colors that will be in the wedding. 

  

Paris and Wes, you rocked this! Thank you so much for laughing at all the silly things I was saying. You were laughing so much at my attempts at humor, Paris, that for days afterward I kept thinking, Hey I must actually be pretty funny and good at making people laugh! 

We can't wait for your wedding in October! 

{They got married! Go here to see Paris and Wes's gorgeous sunset wedding!}

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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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{LOVE Birds ~Jessica + Stan's Engagement Session}

Spring had popped like a baby chick out of an egg the day that Becky and I met up with Jessica and Stan for their engagement session. The weekend before I had gone scouting for locations for their engagement session and it was a dreary, gray day with clouds and rain, which of course in Arizona you have to be pretty happy to have. Because a couple days later when we met them, the skies were super bright blue and blossoms were starting to appear on the trees. 

Jessica had found our blog when searching for wedding photographers and really like some of our "vintage" photographs that we had created when we were doing a fun photo shoot with some of our photographer friends. She thought that our style would work well for the DIY style of wedding that she was creating. The theme for her wedding was Love Birds and if you scroll down you can see how birds really showed up for her engagement shoot!

Jessica told me that the color for her wedding would be red and so I wanted to find red backgrounds for her images. I love finding out what colors brides are using for their weddings and then I try to incorporate those colors into the engagement shoot. Becky and I found an elevator with red walls when we were scouting around the main campus of Arizona State University. Jessica knew about the LOVE statue at Scottsdale Civic Center Park and wanted to start out the photo session there.

I love how they turned out! Jessica and Stan, your wedding is going to be as bright and beautiful and fun as you two are!

Update! They got married! To see more of Jessica and Stan,  click on these links ->

Jessica and Stan's Wedding 

Jessica getting ready for the Wedding

Jessica and Stan's Engagement Session Sneak Peek

Jessica and Stan's Save the Dates  

Jessica and Stan's Day After Party and Photo Shoot

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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! :)

  

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{amber and isaac's engagement session}

Amber and Isaac are getting married next month! We had so much fun taking their pictures. We met up with them at Olive and Ivy  in Scottsdale and then walked around there getting pictures and after that we went to Arizona Falls. Amber's cousin Christine, who we've known since we were in high school, came with us. 

It was around 110 degrees that whole weekend, which kinda freaked me out when I saw on the weather station that it was going to be that hot. The weekend before we had had a storm, so it was much more comfortable, in the lower 90s. Even when it's hot, when I start taking pictures, I am having so much fun and I am so focused on the job that I can kinda forget how hot it is. But when you are standing there modeling and just having your picture taken over and over, I can imagine it gets really hot and you feel it a lot more than I would. Amber and Isaac, wow, you guys were amazing! I'm so glad you put up with the heat. I love the pictures we got and I had so much fun! 

       

So glad Isaac was up for jumping, I really like this pic Becky got.   

Amber's eyes are so gorgeous. I think this is definitely one of my favorites.

    

I like how it seems like they are kind of playing hide and seek with each other. ;-)

   

So glad they were up for trying this polaroid idea. I've seen this done on other blogs and thought it was so cute, so of course I was looking forward to trying it and I love how Amber's eye is visible in this one....also it was kinda fun to give them polaroids to take home with them.

 

Sexy girl! 

   

I've seen this done on other photographer's blogs and I thought it was so romantic.  I'm glad Amber and Isaac were willing to try it and then it worked just how I hoped it would!   

 

Thanks, Amber and Isaac, for having us take your engagement pictures. We can't wait for your wedding! :-) 

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amber + isaac

Amber and Isaac, you two are so gorgeous, inside and out, and we had so much fun taking pictures of you. :-) I really want to post more of you guys, but here is one for now; it's my favorite.

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