CEDARHILL

An unexpected shot

I ran over to the Golden Oldies car show in Miami yesterday to get a few quick shots for this Edition of the paper and when I got back and downloaded shots, I got this un-expected surprise. The reflection of Miami in the hi-gloss shine of this 1930's Ford.  Love it.  (Still on deadline with the paper, so I'll post this now...and  catch up on the rest of my blogging next week)

Lasting Images

I'm going through my images and cleaning out many of them...but this one is a classic of the view from my house.

When storms roll in the clouds seem to settle in the valleys and along the hilltops. Makes for stunning view!

Also- I got the wedding pics uploaded to PICTAGE and placed a few of my favorites on my blog:  see Photo Albums on the left side:  Christa & Tad

A perspective on wedding phtography

I was thinking back on the wedding this weekend and my role as a photographer.

Photographing weddings is kind of like giving birth to a baby. Or what I imagine (since I never have.) Months of giddy,expectant anticipation of the Big Day. Reading how-to books and making preparations.... and of course, Buying Stuff.In my case it would be extra flash cards, reflectors and another lens.

Then there are those sleepless nights where you lie awake wondering if you'll be a Good-Enough mother-and-or-photographer and feeling the weight on your shoulders.

When the actual Bid Day/ Big Moment does arrive there is no time to think. Just do. And while up for the task...your body does weigh in with its own voice.... somewhere around that 15th hour of labor. And, you notice its not fun anymore...or atleast...its not as fun as it might be....if your feet weren't so numb.

The next day - as I sat and nursed my still-sore feet...the volume of photographs still in their little flash cards cried out for attention. Much like having babies again... The big job is not having the baby - but raising the baby!  In photography that involves something called Digital Workflow, although in my experience, there is no "flow"  to the term Digitial Workflow.

It is about this time that I find myself swearing that I'll never do another wedding. I've heard that women feel this way during childbirth. NO more babies after this! Photographers could relate to this.Even within those first few days of gazing at a baby or your images that you created and make you smile...the inspiration to do it all over again doesn't come back right away.  No... it still takes awhile. As a photographer, it's not enough to have the images. I have to get them sent off to Pictage, so the B&G can view them. Again- much like a newborn baby, which, while babies are a miracle for sure....some can be quite ugly at first. Nothing alittle scrubbing and cute baby clothes can't fix. Same thing for pics! This process of sprucing up the baby takes around 3 days to a week- at which point mothers-and-photographers breathe a sigh of contentment and it is ONLY at this point that the pleasure of producing a memorable image (or baby) begins ever so slightly to outweigh any pain associated with the production there of.

And THAT is why babies are still being born.... and I will still be saying yes...to photographing weddings.

christa & tad's wedding

This weekend the Damolins and the Drydens came together on the Dryden ranch when Christa(Damolin) married Tad(Dryden) on the family's ranch in Thatcher. All in all it was a perfect occassion. The fall weather was beautiful...and the diffused clouds which Deb and I had prayed for... CAME!

We rented more equipment from Tempe Camera cause it seems you never have all the equipment you want - or can afford. For this one, we got Canon's 70-200mm lens f2.8 lens and a few extra diffusers. And more flash cards. And xtra help. To schlep equipments, ladders, diffusers, extra flash cards etc whenever we needed it. And we needed it!

What was most fun about the wedding were the two families, and the friends who came out from New York and the distinct feeling of tradition and family ties.

All mixed with a good dose of humour and "gittin er done."

Here is a shot of the groomsmen that morning who were accomodating my request for group shots.... but when I asked them what else they wanted to do...they said.. "Let's bring out the guns!"... (Tad, the groomsman, wanted to stage a "shotgun wedding shot with the Brides dad after the ceremony... which would have been a hoot...but there was no time. Photographing 2 families - both of which go back three generations - took all the "portrait time we had!)

.. so more on the wedding and our grand weekend later, but for now I have to return equipment and run errands.

  Donna and Torrie came in. Donna and I actually drove down there Friday afternoon and

Sticking my head in the sand...

I am sitting here editing photos from this weekend and listening to NPR and the latest on the California fires.  I can hardly take in the news and the ramifications of having a million people displaced and hundreds of homes burned. It's easier to deal with adobephoto shop. And smile at a little boy who had a grand time with a toy fire engine!

Playing with my new lens

I got a new lens for my Canon yesterday and roped in Donna and guy to test it out. It is a F1.8, so this was taken with available light up in my studio.

I don't think I'd ever realized that we all have very brown eyes. And Donna has that wonderfully clear skin of her French heritage.

Wine at Kim's

And Syndey..... again...

The Boyz...

The Wilson boys threw their mom a suprise birthday party and I was asked to come along and take some pre-dinner photos of everyone.

A mother should be proud of producing three such handsome sons.... who also had the good taste to choose the women they have in their lives, and be the patient fathers to they are to their kids.

What a great group of people to photograph!

~L