Phoenix, AZ Haboob Saturday 7/21/12

Our buddy Erik called from his home in east Mesa to let us know a huge haboob was blowing in. I quickly scaled the roof of our house in central Mesa (not such a great idea if you haven't done it in a while!) and here are some of the views I got as the haboob rolled in from the east valley and moved west toward Phoenix. Let's hope it is followed by some serious monsoon rain!

Another Phoenix Haboob

I've lost count of the extreme dust storms we've had this summer of 2011, but it seems like we're up to at least seven here in September. Amanda and I saw this haboob about 6:30pm as we drove toward Tempe, on our way to scout out Mill Avenue for an upcoming engagement session. This storm wasn't nearly as impressive as the July haboob, but it was still pretty amazing as it rolled over the Salt River and swallowed the sunset.

Handcrafted Metal Jewelry by Bonnie Beyer

I recently had the opportunity to photograph some of Bonnie Beyer's unique, handcrafted jewelry. Bonnie has been designing pieces for 33 years using a variety of materials such as Swedish horseshoe nails, hand-hammered brass and copper, sterling silver and wire. If you happen to be in Chautauqua, NY, you can check out Bonnie's one-of-a-kind, seasonal art gallery/gift shop, the Art Loft. The spacious gallery has 40-foot ceilings, 5 rooms, and represents the work of over 100 artists in all mediums.

Thank you for visiting us at the Bridal Fashion Debut show

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth this past weekend at the Bridal Fashion Debut show in the Phoenix Convention Center. It was great meeting all of you and hearing your plans! We are looking forward to a year filled with many beautiful weddings!

Baby Portraits

It's been nearly three years since we photographed Susan and Eugene's wedding, and they recently invited us into their home to photograph their adorable 3-month-old baby Ethan! I brought my studio lights and backdrop and set up in their living room. We had a good time catching up with each other and keeping little Ethan entertained.

GPS and Digital Frame Product Photography

Here are a couple of products I photographed in the studio for a client's marketing campaign. Each of these images required multiple exposures to capture the right lighting balance for the product, reflection, and LED screen.

Jewelry Photography for Metal Heads / Feats of Clay Postcard

These are some jewelry images I recently shot for a postcard project for the group Metal Heads/Feats of Clay, the Phoenix chapter of the PMC Guild. Members of the this group specialize in jewelry made with silver clay (precious metal clay). As you can see, they have achieved some beautiful results with their talents! The pieces, from top to bottom, were created by Diane Sepanski, Donna Lewis, Gretchen Olberding, Cindi Shaffer, Lynn A. Strolin, Tina Christie, and Florence Coleman.

Student Portraits for Western Maricopa Education Center

I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph current and former students of the Western Maricopa Education Center. The students dressed up to represent their fields of study. The graphic designer will be putting together a recruitment/promotional poster with the students "inside" plastic display boxes like toy action figures. I can't wait to see the final concept! For more information on West-MEC and their great programs, visit: http://www.west-mec.org/

Creepy Crawlies, Part 2

I wanted to share some recent images from one of my personal projects. This project is "personal" in the sense that it is another exercise in conquering my own fear, of spiders to be specific (some of you may remember the scorpions from last summer.)

Be warned, these images are not for the faint of heart! I've started off with what I think is a fuzzier, more innocuous looking spider, from a recent trip we made to Boyce Thompson Arboretum. We attended a slide show that day from renown bird and nature photographer EJ Peiker, whose work is absolutely amazing. Armed with inspiration from his lecture that morning, I set out to catalog the fauna of the garden, this spider being one of the better images I got (my birds still need some practice!)



These other two much more frightening black widow spiders are from our very own backyard. They are nocturnal and are quite skittish when they feel the vibrations of someone walking nearby. It took a couple of tries before I could sneak up on these guys (gals rather) and get a shot without them slipping away. The first black widow is a juvenile about 1" across from the tips of the legs (notice that the black and red coloring hasn't fully developed yet.)



I used an LED flashlight to help me focus the macro lens in the dark. Am I any less scared of spiders now that I've successfully photographed them--and not been bitten in the process? Not really!