About this time every year, I go a little bit crazy :)  I have a bad case of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder- self-diagnosed, okay), meaning that winters leave me mopey and lethargic and feeling hopeless about everything, and as soon as I get a little bit of sunshine, I’m a completely different person.  When we were living in Buena Vista, that was especially hard – the winters there last forever!  Sometimes I wouldn’t see green grass until the end of May.  Imagine my delight when I realized that the trees were starting to grow leaves like THREE WEEKS AGO.  I couldn’t believe it, and as soon as I realized this amazing weather wasn’t a fluke, my personality kind of did a 180.  All my black clothes are now in the back of the closet, and I’m wearing neon everything, and I have SO MUCH ENERGY I don’t really know what to do with myself.  Warmth and sunshine make me REALLY HYPER, as you may have noticed from my EXCESSIVE USE OF CAPS.

I love it.  I love springtime, I love the sunshine, and I feel SO EXCITED about this upcoming year.  This video  is a pretty accurate representation of what’s going on inside of my happy little head right now (although the eggs, that’s a little weird):

Anyway, happy spring!  Hope you guys are out there doing lots of fun things and playing in the sun :)

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zach April 9th, 2012

lol. yes yes. Love the pics, and the neon clothes.

Cedar House Photography Blog » Blog Archive » rainy springtime shoot May 10th, 2012

[...] get to work with some of the sweetest, most photogenic girls on the planet.  You might remember my near-obsession with springtime, and ever since the weather started warming up and I started seeing little tips of green grass, [...]

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The lovely Katie is another one of my Senior Models! Gaah, it’s been so wonderful getting to meet & work with all of these girls – they’re all so wonderful!  I loved Katie’s color combo of shades of blue.  What a great smile!

Thanks, Katie!!

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l.o. April 20th, 2012

very nice1 What great colors!

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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!

. comments .

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 recently asked by a client about my editing / retouching policy.  I hated that the first thing I had to say was, “You’ll still look like you”.  She nodded in relief.  It’s so weird to me that there are photographers out there who specialize in making you look like a computerized Barbie version of yourself!  I want you to look like yourself, your REAL self, on your best, happiest day.  I want your friends to look at an image and say, “Oh my gosh, that’s such a good picture of you!” rather than saying, “Wow… what great Photoshop work!  You look great… after all that editing!”

I do edit and retouch images, but I try to be light-handed about it.   I want you to look GOOD!   We’ll get rid of your breakouts, edit that stain on your shirt, and fix weird lumps in your clothing that are distracting, but I want your skin to look like skin, not plastic.  I want your face to look like YOUR face, not some weird anime version of your face.  This is why I still call myself a photographer, and not a “digital artist” or something.

For some of you, your truest, most authentic beauty is found in a huge smiley grin.  For others of you, it’s that wave in your hair, or a moment of intense eye contact.  Sometimes it’s the expression on your face when you think I’m just screwing around,  and you laugh at me.  Seriously!  I love it when people laugh, (at me, or with me!)  Every person has their own, individual beauty, and it’s my job to find that and broadcast it.  Sometimes it’s a quiet presence and graceful movements.  Sometimes it’s sequins and glitter, and spotlights, and neon… awesome!! It doesn’t matter.   What makes you the most beautiful is when you look like yourself, loving life.

To edit the absolute  crap out of you would be saying that I thought you were maybe okay-looking, but not quite beautiful enough.  It would be saying that, “the way you look in reality is fine, I guess, but your face would look so much better made out of plastic”… which is not something I believe AT ALL.  The people I’m the most drawn to and find the most beautiful, my best friends, who I love and do life with, are REAL.  LIVE.  PEOPLE… and I love them for it!

I will make you look like a real person.  You look better that way… I promise.

* sidenote – despite the title of this post, I don’t want to make your skin look like paper, either.  It was just a catchier title than “Real live skin or plastic?”  ;)

OH MY GOSH every single one of my senior models I’ve been able to meet so far is amazingly beautiful and has been so much fun to work with!  This is making me SO stoked for the summer – senior portrait season is my favorite time of year! Who am I kidding, it’s pretty much summer right now.  Anyway, Rachel is no exception!  This lovely lady drove up from Pueblo, and met me halfway in Colorado Springs for her mini-session.  We were planning to meet at one of my (formerly) favorite spots in the Springs – the cool woven sculptures on the CC campus – and I got there, and they were gone!  I knew they wouldn’t last forever, but I had no idea they’d be gone so soon :(  Well, we made a last minute change of plans and found some other amazing spots in downtown Colorado Springs :)

We’ve had a really, really early spring here, which I’m freaking out about, so I had to find some blossoms, because I’m just a little bit obsessed.  But first: Rachel, you are SOOO gorgeous!!

Sometimes, I think the greatest measure of beauty is what happens when your subject isn’t aware and posing for you … those small in-between moments of gracefulness, of beauty, are so true and authentic and un-fakeable.  For example: one of my favorites-

And another lovely in-between shots shot:

OMG straight out of a movie scene:

So lovely!

What a great mini-session!  Can’t wait for the real thing :)