adventures in africa: part four (the boys' home)

Love these kind-hearted, inquisitive, goofy boys... we spent a lot of our time talking about Jackie Chan, dancing, and showing off our sweet fight moves.  They're REALLY good dancers.  Me... not so much :)

A note from a sponsor:

Again, to all of you who donated cameras, THANK YOU.  Some of the more advanced cameras went to the older boys, who spent hours with us poring over the manuals and asking detailed questions.  It was so amazing to watch others experiment and fall in love with photography!

Yikes, I miss these guys!

For more Africa posts, check out Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

persephone shoot

This fall, I had the privilege of collaborating on a shoot with a few of my photographer friends.  We styled a shoot based on the myth of Persephone and Hades, and our prints were displayed at a local coffee shop.  So much fun!  A special thanks to our lovely models (Taylor as Persephone and Alex as Hades), who made the shoot what it was.The myth of Persephone (loosely paraphrased) is that Persephone, the beautiful daughter of Zeus and Demeter, is seduced / kidnapped by Hades, the god of the underworld, using a poisoned pomegranate.  She disappears to go live with Hades, and the world plunges into winter.  Her mother, Demeter, comes to her rescue, and strikes a deal with Hades to let Persephone live above-ground for half of the year and then she'll return to the underworld for the other half of the year.  This is one of many explanations for the changing seasons.  For some reason, I've loved this myth ever since I was a kid.  Cheers!

I also shot some video during this shoot, and I hope to be able to put it together soon!

pix magazine & industry drama

Every industry has its own unique forms of drama, and ours is no exception - the latest being the debut of PIX magazine, which is billed as a magazine for "women in photography".  Now, first, let me say that although I have some serious issues with this magazine, I have absolutely no beef with any of the photographers / companies / etc featured inside, so this isn't meant to come across as picking on anyone in particular.  I'm sure they had no idea what they'd be getting themselves into.

So what are my issues?  First of all, the name irks me.  I don't "snap pix", I create photographs.  "Pix" are what come out of your cell phone, and when I'm on a shoot, I may make it look easy, but I know what I'm doing.  I don't walk around just "snapping pix" randomly.  The cover model is a nameless, faceless woman, wearing floral print, using a small camera with a crappy kit lens.  If this is supposed to be a magazine tailored to professional photographers, let's at least have her using some serious-looking gear.   Now, take a look at the featured articles: Makeup tips.  Craft ideas.  "Irresistible accessories".  Fashion tips.  Wait, what?

If you check out the table of contents, you'll find:

ELEVEN articles about fashion, personal style, or accessories

THREE articles about interior design, and...

TWO articles actually relating to photography.

So, first of all, I'm really not sure there's a need to single us women out.  Can't we all just be professional photographers?  But if for some reason women photographers did need their own magazine... is this really what they think of us?  No one would take me seriously as a pro if I talked about these topics in this proportion.  I would assume that PDN, a respected industry giant, would create the premier issue of this magazine with the intent to wow us, to draw us in, to show off their best and incentivize us to come back for more.  Is this all they could come up with?  I have no problems at all with any of the content;  it might not all be for me, but, fine.   What I do have a problem with is the content that was excluded.  No business articles.  No gear reviews.  No new software programs.   No posing ideas of substance.  No... really... anything, of substance.  I'm getting the message that my equipment can be crap, my images can be crap, my business model can be crap, just as long as my makeup isn't smudged and I remember to wear this season's "in" color with some sparkly blingy accessories.  Because we're girls!  Teehee.

Now, again, I'm not trying to bash anyone - I do have one of those camera bags that looks like a giant purse, because sometimes I'm shooting in situations or locations where it pays to be discreet and not have my appearance shout, "OMG over here look at all my gear!!$$$"  But I also am going to need waaaay more than fashion tips to run a successful business.    So, rather than just get offended and criticize (although that's tempting), what would you like to see in the next issue of PIX (assuming it sticks around for a second issue)?

ufo watchtower / gator farm photographer's road trip!

I love crazy.  I do.  If you have a crazy uncle who wants to talk about DIA conspiracy theories, be sure to introduce me, because I'm totally fascinated by things that are crazy/ creepy/ weird/ unbelieveable, whether I personally agree with them or not.  I'm so fascinated by weird, random roadside attractions, too, and one night I was meeting with a group of photographer friends when I may have gotten a little too excited describing the awesome weirdness of Colorado's own UFO watchtower, and the gator farm down the road.  That, combined with my trying to explain ultra-small town life to my friends in "The City" (as we small mountain town people call it, doesn't really matter which city), and we decided they just had to see it all for themselves.What followed was a road trip of epic proportions - I seriously don't think I've ever crammed so much into two days.

We drove through Leadville where I attempted to explain ski jorring, stopped for coffee in my hometown of Buena Vista where our coffee was served by the mayor, and then we walked across the street to visit the old brothel (which apparently is a weird thing to refer to casually), then on to Colorado Gators!  We spent the afternoon cuddling baby gators and making friends with the gator wranglers, then headed to the UFO watchtower, where we put on crazy outfits, took some pictures in the sunset, danced around in their vortex garden at night, camped, woke up, encountered a fellow UFOer who refused to tell us his real name but said, "Some people call me Fez,", and  then went to the Sand Dunes where we were, by far, the most unusually-dressed hikers.  On the way back, I took them to the ghost town of St. Elmo, where we got curious and learned via Wikipedia that St. Elmo was named after a Victorian novel, not a saint, but that St. Elmo himself is actually the patron saint of sailors.  Curious, given that St. Elmo town is in a landlocked state at an elevation of 10,000 feet.  We drove back through the real South Park, knocking off an item from Heather's bucket list- she had never seen a ghost town before, and now she's seen two!  Phew.

Okay, brace yourselves for a gigantic number of images.  First, the gator farm, which is run by nice people with either the least amount of regulation or the best, most subtle sense of humor ever.  Giant tortoises, dogs, and peacocks roam the property freely, and you can pay $100 to take an ALLIGATOR. WRESTLING. CLASS.  Which, no, I have not yet had a chance to do, but yes, I plan on doing in the future.

 A little out of focus, but still fun:

 You could really just reach in and grab this little guy if you wanted to.

Now, the UFO watchtower.  I haven't had any personal experience with actual UFOs, so I can't claim to be a believer, but for some reason I keep ending up at these UFO events...  I don't know.  I think it's the costumes.

 

Self-portrait:

Heather got beamed up! ;)

This shot on the left is so unsettling and slightly creepy and I think it's awesome.

Then, to the Sand Dunes! We planned to shoot for longer, but it got SO.HOT. so quickly that we didn't spend as much times as planned.  Also, we got some pretty awesome looks from the boy scout troop that passed us.

I love these girls!  Be sure to check out their work at http://heathergrayphotography.com/ and http://kelseybigelowphotography.com/.

And I love road trips!  And I love hanging out!  Want to come with me sometime?  I'd be happy to show you around my favorite rural mountain towns, desert destinations, or explore somewhere new.  Just fair warning: I say the word "awesome" too much, you can't take me anywhere in Buena Vista without having to say hi to half the town, I like mimosas in the morning, and the second day of our road trip, I consumed one Rockstar, three Red Bulls, and two americanos without blinking.  So, if that sounds like your kinda party, get in touch!  It'll be awesome.

I grew up in Santa Fe, and I head back a few times a year.  I'm still planning to go this summer, but don't have dates yet.  Anyone wanna come with?  You can check out a few blog posts from previous Santa Fe trips 1. Here 2. Here and 3. Here.  Yay!

doing it over (boulder wedding photographer)

When people find out I'm in the wedding industry, they like to ask about my own wedding, assuming it was this big, epic thing.  After having been through a ridiculous amount of weddings, and after being knee-deep in the wedding industry for the last few years, I've learned a lot.  It's not that I didn't like our wedding.  I loved it, and given where we were in our lives, everything that we did made sense.  But if we were to get married all over again, there are a TON of things that I would do differently.  Hopefully this will help some of you in the planning stage!1.  I would ditch more traditions.

We got married young - we were both still in college - and at that point, I hadn't even attended more than two or three weddings, total.     Neither of us has ever been a super traditional person, but there were a lot of more traditional elements that we included "just because".   In my mind, the white cake, the white dress, the standard tuxes - those were all elements that made a wedding a wedding.  It never occurred to me that I didn't have to do them!

If we were to get married again, I wouldn't be afraid of being my offbeat, weird self.  I would include some awesome statement jewelry and some bright color.  There might be vegetables in my bouquet.  I would ditch the stuffy updo, I might not choose a formal white dress, and I definitely wouldn't wear those  fancy white heels that I wore :)  Those things are just perfect for some people, but I did them just because I thought that's what was most "appropriate" for the occasion and not because I really, really loved them for myself.

2. I would be more laid back.

I wasn't SUPER stressy about the day, but I definitely had my moments.  I think more than anything it was a sort of performance anxiety - I'm not used to being the center of attention and it made me feel pressured and a little uncomfortable to know that everyone was looking at me all day.  But now that I've shot so many weddings, I know that once the walk down the aisle is over, any nerves will disappear, worries will be gone, and the day will dissolve into an awesome party.  I would do everything in my power to focus on having an amazing time, and worry less about things going according to plan.

3. We would do something different with the bridal party.

Again, we went way traditional with this one - guys on Zach's side and girls on mine, in equal numbers.  If we were to do it again, we either wouldn't have a bridal party at all (way too many special people to include!) or we would have one big group standing up there with us, together.  Back then, and even more so these days, there aren't "my friends" and "his friends" - we're lucky enough to get along well with, and have a shared history with, all the same wonderful people.  It would be so hard to make them choose a side!

4.  We would invite fewer people.  Or more people.

I would have loved to either have a much smaller group of 50 or so of our friends and closest family, or a GIANT party.  Or, maybe both.  Which ties into the next point...

5. We probably would have a destination wedding.

Where?  Dunno.  But somewhere awesome.  In thinking about doing it over again, we would have probably had a very small, laid-back destination ceremony and then have a huge party once we got back home.  In my mind, fewer guests = less stress (and for an introvert like me, fewer people watching me walk down the aisle would also be way less intimidating).  I've found that I love shooting smaller weddings, because they're so much more relaxed and intimate.  You really get a chance to be with the people who are most important to you, rather than being forced to say hello to 400 people,  including your older brother's college roommate's drunken girlfriend or whatever.  Again, this is just me, but I love the smaller ones :)

Hope this helps!  If you're looking for more ideas, feel free to check out:

My Pinterest page: http://pinterest.com/cedarhouse/wedding/

Offbeat Bride: http://offbeatbride.com/

Small Wedding Style: http://smallweddingstyle.com/

Intimate Weddings: http://www.intimateweddings.com/