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/

springtime, aka multiple personality disorder

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): [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGQjyGT1-mc&w=640&h=360]

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

i'm going to africa!!

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!

key west

This post is LONG overdue!  Zach and I cashed in our frequent flyer miles and headed to Key West for Christmas & New Year's.  We hadn't been before, and this place was even more amazing than I had prepared myself for.  It's a pretty small island (roughly 2 miles by 4 miles), so we did lots of walking, and got to see a large portion of the island as we wandered around town.  I know it has a reputation as being a crazy party town, and while you can definitely find that if you're looking for it, that's not the majority of the town - most of the drunken "spring break woohoo!!" types of places are limited to few touristy blocks on the far side of town.Key West has so much Caribbean charm and fun, brightly-colored, sun-faded architecture.  It felt like another country (in a good way).  Everyone we encountered was SO pleasant, and went way out of their way to be friendly to us.  The small town side of things made us feel right at home.  Everyone seemed to know each other around town, and by the end of the trip, we were running into our waitresses and hotel-mates at the grocery store :)

We saw this boat speeding in as we were eating lunch on the dock.  I'm so curious about the name :)

At sunset, Mallory Square fills up with street performers:

We took a schooner ride!

Christmas morning mimosas on the beach!

Thanks to Zach for this awesome shot of me while we were stand up paddling:

If you make it down to Key West, you HAVE to check out Dry Tortugas / Fort Jefferson.  It's an old Civil  War - era fort that takes up an entire small island a few hours off of Key West.  You can snorkel around the moat, and it's one of the coolest places I've ever been.  The colors of the water are UNREAL.

I kind of want to live on this boat.