I’m so excited to let you guys know that this November, three lovely photographer friends and I are headed to Kenya!  My friends Nicole, Meredith, Lindsay, and I will be working with Friends Vision, a great organization comprised of volunteers from Kenya and around the world, working to make life brighter for kids at their Children’s Home.

WHAT ARE WE DOING?

We’ll be bringing donated digital cameras & computer equipment with us, and teaching the kids basic photography lessons, hoping to open the door for them to our passion,  and give them a potentially marketable skill.  I really want to see these kids energized by the beauty of photography – I remember how exciting it was (and still is!) for me to take that first good shot, and to start to see the world in a new way.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if some of these kids grew up to be renowned wedding photographers, or award-winning photojournalists?!?

We’ll also be documenting the work that Friends Vision has been doing, through both video and stills, giving them updated images for their website and hopefully a short documentary film as well.  We also hope to shoot individual portraits of the kids for use in their child sponsorship program.  Obviously, we’ll also be helping out however we can around the Children’s Home, too.

(some of the Friends Vision kiddos)

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

We would be so encouraged by your support!  Here are some of the ways you can help:

- Donate your USED (or new!) DIGITAL CAMERAS for us to take with us to give to the kids.  We’re looking for digital cameras in working order with all the necessary parts, if possible (batteries, chargers, cards, card readers, etc.).  It doesn’t matter if they’re cheap point & shoots or big fancy SLRs – I’m sure the kids will love them!  We’re also looking for a few small printers – there are some travel-sized mini-printers that can print straight off of a camera.  We’d love to be able to hand out prints as we shoot.  If we can get our hands on some USED LAPTOPS IN WORKING ORDER, we’ll bring those with us, too!

- Donate your FREQUENT FLYER MILES.  If you have accumulated miles that you’re not going to use, we’d love to have them!  It may help us get over there a bit more cheaply.  Sign up for an account at points.com, or contact your airline / credit card company… here’s some more info about transferring your miles.  If you need my frequent flyer numbers in order to transfer miles, just let me know which airline you’ll be transferring from!

- Donate FINANCIALLY.  You can make donations towards my trip at my YouCaring account.    We’re each trying to raise $2600 to cover airfare, travel costs, food, and lodging.  Any money raised over our goal amounts will go straight to Friends Vision as a donation, or will be used to purchase any accessories necessary for our donated cameras to be useful to the kids.

- Plan to BUY A FRAMED OR MOUNTED PRINT from me when I get back.  I’ll be taking LOTS ( and lots and lots and lots) of pictures, both of the kids and of the scenery, etc, and all proceeds from any Africa print sales will go towards this trip.

- Consider SPONSORING A CHILD through Friends Vision!  If we know who your sponsored child is, we can bring extra letters, etc with us, and make sure to take plenty of portraits of your sponsored child, with you in mind :)

- Join us at a FUNDRAISER EVENT. We have some fun fundraiser ideas planned … we’ll keep you updated on the details as we figure them out!

Thanks so much for your consideration – we’re all so excited about this trip, and can’t wait to share more details with you soon!

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Katie B April 3rd, 2012

How amazing! That is going to be a trip of a lifetime. I’m so excited for you!

Tracy Woodger-Broz April 4th, 2012

So awesome! Keep me posted on the fundraising events. :)

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I was SO thrilled to shoot Cloe’s senior portraits in LA a few weeks ago!  She is an absolutely wonderful person, and just so happens to have a killer sense of style.  We drove / walked / ran / skipped all over the city, and I loved every minute of it :)

Straight out of a magazine!  Seriously.

This is one of my favorites:

Isn’t this coat awesome?!?

I LOVE the California light!  We don’t seem to get these deep, rich sunset colors here in CO.

Also, in case you haven’t seen it, here’s Cloe’s Senior Cinema video!

Cloe from Cedar House Cinema on Vimeo.

Cloe – I love you girl!  Thanks for such a fun fun day and an amazing session!

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Holly March 29th, 2012

These are AWESOME love the one on the rocks by the pier!

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A few more from New Orleans…

Anonymous woman in the red dress… I love you.

My partner in crime, Amanda from Bel Momento Photography:

We totally crashed a wedding!  Well, for a few minutes… haha.

New Orleans, I love you!

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Katja Dietze February 8th, 2012

nice work liked the black and white to

Erik February 13th, 2012

I love the colors you use in your photos and the lighting!

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We had this trip planned for months.  I don’t even remember how we got started talking about it, but as soon as my friend Brynn and I decided to drive down to the annual UFO conference in Roswell, NM, we got hooked on exchanging UFO jokes and sending each other strange YouTube hoax videos… neither of us feels strongly about aliens one way or the other, but after looking at photos from previous conferences, the potential of lots of people in costume got us really excited. We kind of have a thing for costumes.

Oh yeah… did I mention that this happened to land on the exact same weekend we ended up having to move?  And that somehow, despite having grown up in New Mexico, I got Roswell confused with Los Alamos and thought it was only a four hour drive?  Yeah.  Zach insisted that we still go, so we got everything all packed beforehand and Brynn and I made the TEN HOUR drive to Roswell to go participate in such activities as “alien wine tasting and BBQ!!!”

Roswell…it’s (really really) hot, completely centered around UFO culture, and an hour away from Mexico.  Even serious businesses, like banks and doctor’s offices, had UFOs or motherships or cute aliens in their logos.  They closed down Main Street for the festival, and we walked around in the heat checking out local alien-related businesses and getting stared at because, as it turns out, we were some of the only people in costume.  Yep.

On the border of CO and NM:

The “be in touch” mural  became one of our favorites.  We made the security guards take our picture, which is why it’s horribly out of focus.

I’m pretty sure this was the outside of the County Republican building:

One of the few other costumed people:

I got so attached to this blue wig.  Every time I put on costume hair, I get disappointed that it’s not my real hair.  Also, please notice the news crew in the reflection.

We decided this was a great time to go antique shopping.  Obviously.

Inside the UFO museum:

The alien costume contest!  We definitely watched this woman dressed as Blue Cleopatra eat a handful of live crickets onstage.  I’m not sure what this has to do with aliens, but it was entertaining.  I really wanted to find these people after the show and take some photos, but most of them changed out of costume right away :(

Alien wine tasting.

A bunch of storm trooper types just hanging out, waiting for a table at Chili’s.  Totally normal.

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amber July 21st, 2011

i love everything about all of this. if only i lived closer! also, you should dye your hair blue.

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A few images from a quick trip we took back “home” to Santa Fe a few weeks ago.  This is what comes to mind when I think of my childhood – intensely blue skies, rounded soft adobe corners, glorious sunsets…

I love living in the mountains, but I still miss the desert hardcore – especially during sunsets like this one.  I plan on heading back to Santa Fe a few times this summer, so please, please get in touch if you’re in the area and want to schedule a session!

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Becca May 29th, 2011

Oh my gracious Molly! i loveee the car mirror shot :) i love seeing what you see through your lense :) Oh! i also love that teal piece of furniture :) you are amazing never forget that :)

Brooke June 2nd, 2011

So I might just HAVE to have that turquoise chest in the middle picture. Seriously, LOVE it. Awesome photos!

Holly July 8th, 2011

I love New Mexico! It’s full of so much beauty!

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