Shabby Shoot!

Last Saturday I helped photograph an upcoming Shabby Apple line! John was sweet and volunteered to assist me. This was my first all day shoot and was such an awesome learning experience! Nicole Gerulat was the primary shooter (I was a bit in awe watching her work) and I photographed the outfits for the front, side, and back views with a couple of editorial shots.

Love that big model hair.

Sophia was our expert make-up artist. This woman has skills!

Accessories! 

Ashlyn's cool pop art make-up.

Alexia getting a hair touch-up. She teaches dance at my school and dances professionally herself.

There were a lot of interns and assistants on set during the day.  They helped a ton with outfit changes, pinning, blowing bubbles, and holding up swaths of fabric while balancing on step ladders. While Nicole shot a lot of us looked like this.

John got to assist Nicole! "Aziz, LIGHT!" Anyone else remember watching The Fifth Element? 

John also helped keep track of the bouncy balls that we used as props. They kept blowing away, but also made a good arm rest.

Some lessons learned: 

Bring a camp chair!
Wearing a hat saved my face from being burned off.
Sunscreen and a lot more sunscreen. In fact I want to order some powdered sunscreen for quicker, greaseless reapplication.
Lots of water and bringing a cooler with iced water and Gatorade is so nice when the sun is beating down.
Converse are always a good idea.
Your own make-up will sweat off by midday and you'll feel a just little un-cute next to all the done up models.
Bringing a husband along is great for company :) 

Made in America

When Shabby Apple asked if I would be interested in taking some black and white photos of their new warehouse for their Made in the USA landing page, I jumped at the chance! B&W in my mind always equals film and it was a perfect opportunity to work on some of my photo goals.

I probably went a little overboard, and all the pictures couldn't fit on a page banner, but it was a fun artistic challenge and I loved the results. I used Ilford HP5 film shot on a Mamiya 645 AF as well as some color negative BW400CN (which sadly they've discontinued in our local drug store!) on my Pentax ZX-5 for the rest.

So, if you're looking for some cute dresses that are made in the good 'ol U.S. of A. take a look at Shabby Apple's selection sometime!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From January and February

Here my quarterly guilt fest.

Since the start of the year, I have not shot very much film or shot much in general. I blame it on my calling, work, and medical appointments. There's always an excuse.

But no more! I'm looking forward to stepping it up (at least by summer) by taking a photo class at SLCC (equipment and lighting), reading more *books, and getting a finally getting a camera bag. I also ordered a Bill Maxwell bright screen, suggested by Jonathan Canlas, for my Mamiya 645 AF. Yay for more medium format!

In the meantime here are some pictures from the roll that I've been posting off of lately.

One of John's Christmas presents were tickets to BYU's production of Phantom of the Opera. They did an amazing job! It's always a little fun and a little weird to go back to campus.

 

One of our usual Jordan River trail walks.

*Photography books:

• Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers by Martin Evening - got this last year at Angie's suggestion. I have used it (thankful for the tips about getting rid of digital noise!) but need to read through it more. I also still really need/want to take a photoshop class. 
• The Luminous Portrait by Elizabeth Messina - shooting film in natural light; got this for Valentine's Day. Lovely photographs and a style and technique that resonate with me.
• People Pictures by Chris Orwig - great assignments to practice. A birthday gift from Amanda. We might be doing this one together! 
• Fine Art Wedding Photography by Jose Villa - I want to get this one because I love his work, even if I don't think I want to ever shoot weddings. 
• The Art of Photography by Bruce Barnbaum - another one I need to get my hands on eventually. Full of lovely classic B&W photographs and concentrates on mastering the basics. I saw my teacher reference this during our lesson on the zone system.

The LeSueurs in Estes Park

These are almost a year old now, but I wanted to still put them up! We had a lovely vacation with the LeSueur side of the family this last summer and took some group pictures. One was used by John's mom as a Christmas card, so I had planned on waiting until after the holidays to post, but then just forgot. So here is us last summer with the kids and babies looking littler than they are now.

 

 

 

 

My Peeps

In the Easter style! Jen and Dave kindly saved us from a lonely holiday dinner over poorly cooked funeral potatoes and invited us to share Easter Sunday with them. Jen has become a crazy good party planner. The table was set so cute and the food was delicious! There were also lots of sides and I was in heaven! I still remember Jen making green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole for our dinner group when we lived together in the Terrace.

 

John hates peeps and decided to attack his immediately! 

Lovely Jen! I love the way film renders color especially for portraits.

Finally got a picture of Brent smiling!

 

A family away from family. 

Well Fed

It's no secret that I like food a lot. I used to sit and draw food with faces on it for hours when I was little. There were also these scratch and sniff stickers that they gave out with the kids meals at Jack In The Box that had food with faces on them that I was obsessed with. I still have them cached away in my old sticker collection.

Anyway, the rest of my birthday revolved around stuffing myself, which I feel is a great way to celebrate any special occasion.

Jen took me out for manicures and Indian food. We chowed down on naan and my favorite Bollywood chicken dish!

 The next day John and I went to Em's, our favorite local restaurant. I love the Manchego cheese stuffed dates appetizer and the lamb.
  

 

And one from the roll of film!

A Walk One Year Older

My birthday ended up in the middle of spring break this year! I am now a huge believer in taking a day off from work to celebrate. It was so nice to not worry about grading, papers, and lesson planning. One of my birthday wishes was to take an easy nature walk (think Hobbiton style, not traipsing the crags of Rohan) with my camera. So, while John was working, I granted my heart's desire.

 

 

 

 

Pheasant nest.

Polygamist farm. I'm a little intrigued by them and there are a lot around these parts.

Post Conference

So, does anyone else get a little antsy after watching TV for 8 hours? Well, at least this was for church! John has a low tolerance for sitting and listening for long periods of time and he was dying by the last part of LDS General Conference.  I do alright, but I also doodle while I listen to keep my hands busy.  There were lots of uplifting and inspiring messages (I have several pages in my notebook to prove it!) but when it was over we were stir crazy and fresh air was needed.

A tiny cluster of grape hyacinths. Spring is barely starting to raise its head in these parts.
 

I brought a baggie of carrots in case we ran into feral bunnies like last time on the trail. I also had a bag of bread for ducks. The ducks were off-ish and there weren't any buns, but we met a friendly mule and lots of hungry horses to make friends with!

Rollin' with my homies.

 

 

Forsythia! 

Before staring onto the trail, I had to go back to the car to find batteries for my camera. Sadly there were none, but as we were searching a man drove up onto the curb of the lot, popped his tire, and screeched around riding on his hubcap before parking next to us. Weirded out, we looked over to see if he needed help, but he just sat there staring forward. An hour later when we returned he was being wheeled into an ambulance, his car was surrounded by policemen and a firetruck and was pulled forward with a pile of what looked like compost under the front wheel. Not sure what happened there.

Sunday Walk

 

Jordan River Trail.

Two birthdays

We had a crazy double birthday weekend!

 First we drove to Murray for Izzy's birthday.  Entertainment included multiple mini basketball hoops for the little kids, large hoop for the adults, popcorn, balloons everywhere, Yo Gabba Gabba bumping in the background, pizza, and lots of cuteness. Jen and Brian sure know how to entertain the 5 and under crowd! 

 

 

Then we drove south to Provo. 

John Nash's Star Wars themed party was next.  Angelica made delicious homemade empanadas, some with Darth Vader stamped on them! The boys were thoroughly entertained by the video games. 

 

 

 

These two buddies are going to be on a pro soccer team together one day. Brent will make sure to get an aging David Beckham's autograph for his mother and Vaughn will let his mom take pictures of all the soccer players' six packs.