Fourth of July Weekend in Flagstaff, AZ

Amanda, Rocher (our french bulldog) and I took advantage of the 3-day Fourth of July weekend and headed up to Flagstaff for some rest from the Phoenix heat. We tried out two new dog-friendly hiking trails--Bismarck Lake and Walker Lake--both of which are small seasonal water holes that have formed in collapsed cinder cones. They were quite beautiful and Rocher enjoyed frolicking off-lead in the grass and water! We were also treated to a good soaking rainstorm which brought out the fresh scent of the ponderosa pine needles.

On Saturday we drove up Mount Elden in the hopes of seeing Flagstaff's fireworks from overhead. We learned two things; Mount Elden has two peaks, one of which blocked our view of the fireworks, and fireworks don't go up that high. We were maybe 1700 feet above Flagstaff and the fireworks didn't clear the hill in front of us. Still, we had an exceptional view of the city lights and Route 66, and even caught the tiny bursts of fireworks at distant Lake Mary and Winslow!

New Jewelry by Carolyn Henderson

I recently photographed some amazingly colorful and fun jewelry designs by Carolyn Henderson of Artistic Beadwear. These pieces are handcrafted using lampworked glass beads and anodized aluminum. To see more of Carolyn's work and find her at a show, visit: http://www.artisticbeadwear.com/

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/

Love Story Book

Thanks to everyone who came out and visited us at the Bridal Fashion Debut show this past Sunday! We hope you met lots of great vendors and found everything you were looking for!

We just received our latest hard bound Love Story Book from our lab a few days ago and wanted to share it with you. This is a 10x14" book with a leather photo wrap cover. Amanda does all the graphic design herself (we don't outsource). We can't wait to create one of these books from our own wedding!

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!

Sabering and an Exploding Cake

Dianne's wedding took place in her father's cozy backyard. Her dad is a set designer, and the yard had several great western-themed backdrops, including a miniature Alamo!

Dianne's family introduced us to the "sport" of sabering, taking off the cork and top of a champagne bottle with a sharp knife! (Don't try this at home.)

The best surprise of the day was a bomb-shaped groom's cake. Little did the groom know that when he cut into this cake that it would actually explode!

Cutting the fuse! For instructions on how to make your own "bomb" cake, check out our next email newsletter! (Sign up on the side).

No, these are not all Dianne's kids, but what a cute photo!

Earth Day 2009

Here are some images that have yet to see the light of day, archived deep in our hard drive. These are from our past Christmas holiday in Escondido. The first image is Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute, shot with a fish eye lens. The second image is Rocher's first time at the beach! She wasn't too sure what to make of the waves but loved running herself silly!