Claim to Fame

I'm totally famous. As in, front page of the good ol' Daily Herald. Red the story (and see the normal size pictures)here.


(Not really sure what I'm doing here. Rest assured, I do not walk with a limp or any other ogre-like quality, as this picture suggests. I 'm pretty sure I walk perfectly normal.)


(HMM. And I am a lot more helpful than this picture would suggest)




Okay so even thought I look a little handicapped and totally worthless in both pictures, were YOU on the front page of the Daily Herald this morning?

Didn't think so.

Here is a link to the funniest blonde joke ever!

AWWW little baby....

Awww...these are from my photoshoot with lil baby Tyson last week.

















(click on to view full size)



Isn't he the cutest thing you ever saw! (albeit he is a little furry, but he is still a cutie pie) As you can see he was less than thrilled with being naked in a suitcase at first. But after peeing all over us 5 or 6 times and eating a few more, he decided it wasn't so bad was a champ for the rest. Unfortunately we never could get him to go to sleep, but he was a trooper.

Salt Flats Adventure

Nobody can say I do not suffer for my art.

If we aren't being eaten alive by brine flies, hiking up the side of a mountain with a wedding dress or ruining our clothing in a dirty train yard...

we are doing this.



And I'm pretty sure it was worth the 2 hour drive, my ruined pants, my torn up little toes, and all the millions salt particles left in my car. (Who knew vast stretches of pure salt could rip your feet to shreds?) Poor Sam's cousins. They are such troopers!

In other news...

We got our lighting kit!! YAY!!! (and a day early, too!) We now have the capabilities to do a studio photo shoot, on-location...your house, my house, or the park down the street! We actually took it along to the salt flats, but, um...couldn't figure out how to work it.

We'll have to take a gander at the ol' instructional video again. Even if we didn't know how to use it; though, you better believe we looked PROFESSIONAL with it all set up alongside us.

We have another photo shoot this Friday that I am way excited about. I am shooting Jason's cousins brand new little baby. He is only like a week and a half old, I can't wait! So stay tuned for those.

In other news...hmm. There really isn't a whole lot of other news in my life lately. It seems like everything is completely revolving around trying to get this business off the ground. I am even taking a few days off work this week to stay home, regroup, put my house back in order (I believe I have 6 loads of clean laundry to put away), and get my studio ready for li'l baby Tyson on Friday.

Also...only 5 days until Sam's birthday! AND only 8 days until Moab. I have never actually been to Moab for vacation-related purposed (just passed through) so I'm pretty excited. And hopefully I can get some cool shots with all the neat scenery down there.

Latest obsession

Okay, so I feel a little lame admitting this, but I am in love with these books.

I know.

They totally make you want nothing more than to be bitten by your delicious perfection of a vampire boyfriend.

I said I know

Seriously, though. They are written so well, and they are just the thing to fill the Harry Potter-sized void in my life. (not that I ever wanted Harry as a boyfriend...completely different story)
I started the first one halfheartedly, and only because I had heard from a few different people they were worth reading. After the first 100 pages or so I was an addict. I could barely sleep that first night because I hadn't finished it and I was mulling it all over in my head. With the second book I simply stayed up till the crack o' dawn so as to not stress over what would happen.
I am excercising somuch self control to not rush out like a strung-out crack whore looking for her next fix to buy the third book. I have alot to get done this week and the first two experiences taught me that I become completely worthless as soon as the spine of the book is cracked.

My happy cup runneth over. (Don't judge me until you read them)

In other news...
I took my brother out for a photo shoot today. Other than leaving with out clothes and hands blackened from the dirt, I think it turned out fairly well.

(he's single too...!)


And a few more shots from this past week

Photoshoots galore!

What a busy, sometimes smelly, sometimes crazy, altogether FUN week!

First, I had an impromptu photo shoot with my little brother. He happened to be with a few friends so I packed them all ni the car and took them along. I learned that 4 nine year old little boys running around a park is NOT ideal conditions for any type of photo to be taken, other than blurry ones. There was a lot of "hey, get back here! turn around! Stop hitting him and look at me! No, dont get off the rock yet! DO YOU WANT YOUR PICTURES TAKEN OR NOT!??!

I kinda forgot that I made them come with me, and they never actually asked for a photoshoot in the first place. oops.

Here is a picture of Stewart and Mitchell, two very cute brothers (cute anyway, when frozen in a picture....)

For our photo class on saturday we went to the Great Salt Lake. Read the full rendition of the adventure here....it was interesting. Never have I smelled something so rotten, sunk in "sand" I later learned to be made from the waste of brine shrimp, and been accosted with billions of tiny brine flies every step I took, all in a ten minute window.

but the pictures turned out okay, no?




I also took Kam and Loni on a little jaunt up Provo Canyon. We went to this cool place a friend told me about...all in all we ended up getting chewed out by this little old man for trespassing on his property. Pretty sure he would have beat us down had he not been, like, ninety. And had we not brought along our trusty big brown guy, Jason.



And then...the crowning glory of my week. We somehow talked Sam's cousin Alexis into donning a wedding gown from the D.I. and playing "bridal photo shoot" with us. Not only did the dress fit her to perfection, she was the best model we have had to date, I think. She was so natural in her expressions, and we hardly had to pose her. She should look into a career as a fake-bride model. Is there such a thing? We took the pictures at this old decrepit mine. Now, I love how the pictures turned out, but in oreder to get to said mine you have to scale a small mountain and climb all over hige slabs of graffiti'd cement. All in the blazing heat, should you choose to do it in the hot afternoon August sun.

I'm thinking if we ever convince a REAL bride to go there, we should probably work out a pretty detailed Waiver of Liability form. Something along the lines of "...cannot hold us responsible for the ruining of your dress, the sweat pouring down your face, the inevitable trips and falls, and possible need for a tetanus shot soon after...."

We'll have to look into that.

In the meantime...


(click on this one to see it full size and fully appreciate it)





(click here for more bridal-y goodness)

*sniff*

I went on a great photoshoot today. And I'm so excited for the pictures. My computer at work; however, does not understand the emotion of excitement and therefore has decided that reading my USB cable to upload my pictures just isn't going to happen. Tonight has been so wasted.

Alas, you can see Sam's versions of said photoshoot here.

And tomorrow I will be bringing in the reinforcements (computer, that is) and spending the vast majority of the time that should be spent working, editing.

This past week has been awe-some. I shot my vert first wedding...ordered my new camera, camera bag, and flash and took some spectacular shots that I am danged proud of.

SEE!!!

(for some more neat-o wedding shots, visit Sam's page.)

We also took Sophie on a little impromptu mini-shoot. We have been searching for a field to take pictures in (and not get arrested for trespassing....) and we have found it! Alas, they will probably mow it down to nothingness soon to make way for new homes, but in the meantime....




And finally...We had fire training again on friday, this time we actually burned down the entire house. I got some pretty bad-A pics, but this...oh this. This lil' treasure is my new pride and joy. I love how it all turned out. Maybe you have to be directly involved with firefighting/EMS...I dunno. Tell me what you think.

Active Recruitment

Well the plans are underway. So far we have worked out a rough pricing schedule, some cool places to shoot, narrowed it down to 2 names (hmmm...perhaps a future post for votes on the names?), and have a whole list of things that need to be done but haven't necessarily been done. (less fun things, such as opening a bank account and getting a business license.) OH and we bought a really cute desktop calendar to keep track of the many upcoming photoshoots we have scheduled. Don't make fun of me.

Progress.

We have arranged a couple cool shoots to get our portfolio built up. Jenny (Sam's cousin) was fun to shoot and the location was awesome. (so awesome, in fact, we are keeping it totally secret and will probably go to the lengths of blind-folding any future clients going there just so they can't divulge the location. It will be like the bat-cave.)

Exciting stuff, no? We are also helping shoot a wedding tomorrow morning, as well as the Miss American Fork pageant in September. I am very excited for that. (again, all thanks to my cool hubby, see below post)

We are still looking for models to build our portfolio. If you live in or around Utah County and would be willing to donate yourself, child, spouse, yourself and your spouse or any combination of the above to the interest of our adventure, please do let us know!

In other news....Sarah over at Hollywood Flakes deserves a big kudos for sharing this little treat. It keeps track of all the blogs you stalk read and lets you know when someone has posted something new. It's pretty convenient to have it all at once click and not have to go rooting around for people who have new posts. I'm a fan.

The Best

Can I just say, I have the coolest husband ever!


Reasons why he rocks:



1. He has been super supportive of my latest scheme to start my own business (a photography studio with Sam ...very exciting but scary and intimidating stuff)



2. Not only has he been supportive, he just so happens to know some of the coolest places (and coolest people) to photograph, and has arranged for some awesome photo shoots for us.

3. When I thought all hope was lost when my digital camera deleted 500 of my vacation photos, he figured out how to get them recovered for me and brought them home to surprise me


4. He knows EVERYONE....seriously. It doesn't matter what city or state we are in, he will run into his junior high football coach, the lady who cut his hair as a kid, the girl he took to junior prom, and/or a host of other characters from years past. He remembers everyone...and everyone remembers him.

5. Come to think of it....he is actually really supportive of most of my schemes, ideas and quirks. Its a really good feeling to know you have a good man standing behind you, whatever you do. (especially when that man is a big brown guy who can look really mean and intimidating, should you ever need him to stand up for you.)


okay so thats not all the reasons why he rocks, but those are the main ones that are sticking in my head right now.