Archive for September, 2010
I have spent the last couple of weeks in Houston and will be here for one more. I would love to share more images from the past couple weeks but my laptop is on strike (once again) and it is taking far too long to process images.
So until I am back home …
I seriously need to come up with another name for these types of sessions. Trash the Dress does not suit them. Maybe, Bridals After the Wedding Session or One Last Chance Before You Get Your Dress Preserved and Packaged Session.
I have been wanting to go to the the Lighthouse in Palo Duro Canyon with a bride ever since I did the hike a year ago. When I approached the newly married Anna about it not only was she excited and enthusiastic but also totally willing to tackle any obstacles to make it happen.
Her uber-cool husband Ryon had the honor of rucking her 9-million pound dress the almost three miles to our location.
Dustin hiked down to the bottom to get the epic landscape shot while I stayed up top. Yes, Dustin did the harder work but I got pretty close to the edge, that should count for something…
Can you guess which is Dustin’s and which is mine?
I have been forcing myself to shoot outside of my comfort zone and these pictures are proof of that. Direct sunlight on a white dress leads to blown out spots and loss of detail but I still think the images were worth it. Sometimes my rebelliousness shocks me.
Looking back I probably should have re-schedued this shoot. I knew I would have to leave the location at a certain time and I knew that time would be right in the middle of the most beautiful light of the day. but I was eager to finally get to the location. We had a blast but my mind keeps thinking about the pictures that got away. The ones I never took because of our hasty time line.
See wasn’t the light pretty?!
I lamented about our missed pictures on the hike back and Ryon assured me several times that we got some great pictures. He reminded me to think about what I had and not what I didn’t have. Darn him. It is really hard t o pout when you are walking next to someone who refuses to dwell on the negative. Grrrr.
So this is my last picture of the night. The light was gorgeous and I was in denial that I had to stop shooting. Dustin scolded me about putting the camera away so I could walk instead of breaking my neck while capturing the perfect shot.
Best thing about this session is that Anna and Ryon are going to join us again for a couples session in another awesome location. I so can’t wait and you better bet that I will have things worked out so that I can be there in the “good light”!
Anna and Ryon we loved hanging out with you! Thanks for all your hard work and for being so easy going. You seriously rock. Next time we owe you drinks.
Thanks goodness for people like Anna and Ryon.
Willing to do some major work for this location…
I have not even had the chance to look through all the pictures from this day. I can’t wait to see what is on our cameras!
I will continue the post soon…
Twelve years ago I was a Specialist in the Army stationed at Ft. Hood. I had a boyfriend at the time. His name was Dustin. We liked to fish together, eat blizzards, travel around the hill country of Texas and occasionally chase a tornado. One day in September, the second to be exact, we decided to go out and grab a quick lunch at Jack In the Box. He was set to deploy to Bosnia two days later and I had orders for Germany. Our time together was limited and we had no clue when and if we would see each other again. At some point during lunch we decided; hey, nothing else is going on. Why don’t we stop at the Justice of the Peace on the way back to the Post and you know, get married! So we did.
The Justice of the Peace asked us if we had rings. Umm…no, those things are so over-rated! Right and it wasn’t like we were engaged! So no, no rings.
Okay, you can still get married he said. Do you have family or witnesses here?
Umm yeah, we kind of haven’t mentioned this to our families. His last question and the one I really, REALLY, wish we could have said yes to.
Do you have a camera so we can get a picture?
Camera? Yeah, left that back at the barracks. So ring less, witness-less, and camera-less we said “I do” before rushing back to work.
After living in Germany for a year and a half we visited the states where my Mom, who is an incredible and giving person, surprised us with wedding pictures. She had a tux rented for Dustin and a dress, veil, and bouquet for me. We went to a local portrait studio and got this…
I refuse to get all sappy and wax poetics about what a marvelous and extraordinary man my husband is. I won’t mention, how being married to him has made me a far better person. How everyday he encourages me, cares for me and loves me. I won’t mention that, because that would seem so uncomfortably out of character and he may worry about my mental health.
We talked last night about our wedding day, If we could do things differently would we have? We agreed, that Yes, we would have. We would have brought my camera and got a picture of us dressed in our BDU’s, my hair pulled back in a tight regulation approved bun, Dustin looking so nervous and pale that I thought he might pass out. Not sure if we should kiss because we were in uniform. We would have gotten a picture of that so that we could look back and laugh at how crazy-in-love, foolish and desperate we were to stay together.
Twelve years later and I am still pretty crazy, foolish and desperate to be with him but we wont mention that.
When I was pregnant with my first child, I was told many times to read while I had the chance because once I had kids I would never. read. again. Apparently, it is believed that when children enter your life your brain metamorphosed into an illiterate pile of mush. Well, when people tell me I can’t do something I usually make sure I do it just to prove my point.
Even if I have no point.
Children certainly have me juggling priorities but reading has managed to stay, firmly planted in my life. I mean not reading is like… I don’t know… not eating, or even more overly-dramatic, NOT BREATHING!! I simply can not do it! That being said I still read. A lot. I think I’m rubbing off, though. Gavin and Adalay seem to be heading down the same path. Even Dustin has come around to sticking his nose (or ears) in a good book.
Yesterday, the Amazon-fairy left these on my doorstep and I am very much excited for you to meet them…
Mocking Jay is the third and final book in The Hunger Games trilogy. If you like a story full of break-neck action and suspense, then these are the books for you. Who cares about Edward and Jacob?! What I want to know is who will Katniss choose, Peeta or Gale? Sure Gale is the obvious choice, but Peeta, what about poor PEETA!! I have a feeling I will know the answer within the next 48 hours, because Im pretty sure I will have the book finished by then!
A friend of mine forced me to read The Hunger Games and after becoming enaormed with them, I feel like I need to return the favor to her. SO I ordered one of my favorite fiction books of ALL time, Life Epectancy by Dean Koontz for her to borrow. I even ordered it in paperback (against Dustin’s wishes, he has this weird thing for hardbacks) so that I could highlight important segments. I have this serious issue with highlighting in hardbacks. It just seems wrong. If you have not been introduced to the life of Jimmy Tock then use the nearest car, bike or trapeze to get it. Seriously, if you don’t like it, you’re just weird.
I recently completed an exhausting personality test that labeled me as a loyalist. This is not too surprising to me. I think this is one of the reasons why you will see me blogging on the same people, websites, blogs. Once I find some one I like, I stick with them as long as they will have me, sometimes longer. I blogged about David duChemin before and was lucky enough to watch his live workshop through Creative Live several weeks ago. Amazing guy willing to share everything he knows about the art and practice of photography. I was especially excited about his third book Vision and Voice: refining your vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Now when it comes to post-processing, I am a Lightroom girl. Photoshop is great for when I want to do something special with one or two photos but I don’t consider it convenient or as easy to use as Lightroom. Lightroom has changed my (photography) life. and so I can’t wait to see how duChemin illustrates using this awesome editing tool.
Now of course I have to mention my sewing books! Every week or two I get a coupon in the mail from JoAnn’s our local fabric store and I almost always use that coupon to purchase a new book from their selectopn. At 40-50% off, I can’t even beat that by scouring the internet. I have had my eye on Martha Stewarts Encyclopedia of Sewing and fabric crafts for quite awhile and I made that jump after seeing it blogged about. I also picked up Sewing Clothes Kids Love because I am somewhat delusional and think I can actually sew something like this.
Yes this post was longer then I planned but what can I say I am serious about books. Now I am going to sit down with Katniss and figure out this whole Peeta/Gale mess.