Flagstaff Photography Center-- Photo Booth Night

The Flagstaff Photography Center blasted off this week with a full schedule of events including Knights of the Light Table, a mentor talk, a portfolio review and a photo booth fun night. June 2, Dawn Kish will have a black and white photography show for first Friday at FPC.

That's my sister Kate, Dawn and Raechel Running playing around in the booth.

Chase & Keven

Chase did some amazing planning for her wedding which included details like stenciling the table cloths (amazing). It was another great wedding in the calle de independencia at Tlaquepaque in Sedona. Showstoppers did the gorgeous flowers, Sedona Cake Couture created a delicious cake, Karen Lynn coordinated the event day and the scrumptuous food was provided by Heartline Cafe. Just posting a few of my favorite shots to see more view the slideshow here.

I love peonies

Trying out my new pocket wizards... I've been using a lot of off camera flash in the last two years, but not radio transceivers, like I have now... it does cool stuff like this shot above.

Navasana

Yoga coming in handy here...
Final image-- I will post this wedding and slideshow tomorrow (fingers crossed) shot about 3,000 images. YIKES. Dawn Kish, my second shooter for the this wedding and the next two shot that. Matt is still working to wrap up his school year but will be on full time after June 9, 2007.

Dawn Kish

Viva Mexico

Matt and I drove down to Mexico last Thursday to Sunday (May 17-20th). We experienced a much needed break from internet, computers, cell phones, and the real world. It's was my only Saturday off within 10 weeks. We entered the Sonoran desert on Thursday afternoon and begin to unwind. It was amazing, the water so blue, the ocean breeze so friendly. We stayed in a house just outside of Rocky Point, Mexico in a sleepy beachfront community with practically the whole beach to ourselves. Pretty sweet to DRIVE to Mexico!

I realize many of these images are of Kaibee...but admit, she is cute! She was the entertainment for the vacation and she even we went sea kayaking with us-- so funny! At first she was scared to death when I physically put her in the boat, but then was fine when SHE decided to jump into the ship herself. Hum, lessons in life from dogs.

Eco-side note: all the houses in this beach community are "off the grid" getting their power as everyone in the desert could do--with solar cells (I include myself in that). Ah, renewable energy. I just love the thought of it. It makes you consider where the power comes from when you flip that switch attached to your own solar panel. It makes you turn off your lights faster when you don't use them and think twice about that extra long shower when your water isn't city-provided and your water pump is solar powered. I love that. I have dreams of building a *Green* eco-house and would take great pleasure in collecting solar energy for power. Am I scaring you yet? Hang on... here comes political diatribe: It's sad when our developers and governments don't use the natural resources and technologies at their fingertips to benift the greater good. Blah blah alternative energy and recycling...don't get me started. Wait one more plug: BUY PATAGONIA. I've begun to covet a hybrid vehicle now that gas prices are skyrocking on a daily basis...good thing I drive about once a week. I want an AWD Subaru hybrid and that doesn't exhist (but could). Gas is $3.20/gallon here in Flagstaff. I know it's way worse in California. I peeked over and saw the bill after a large SUV filled up next to me: total $85.00 --- OUCH... hope that isn't their commuter vehicle.

Bike to Work Week

downtown Flagstaff at the bike swap on Sunday

don't forget your helmet- those are the ballons they attached to my bike...

If you didn't know this about me, I'm a bike enthuasist. Ever since I realized at the ripe age of 7 that my pink Huffy would transport me to my friend's house, I've been hooked. I was on the club bike team in college and have had the serious cyclist bug ever since. I still teach spinning (indoor cycling) once a week at the local athletic club. (ahhem gets me a free membership). I am a member of the Flagstaff Biking Organization (biking advocacy group) and this past Sunday myself and a couple others lead a bike parade to kick off Bike to Work Week with one of my four bikes. Yes, I have four bikes. A road bike, a geared mountain bike (being built), a single speed mountain bike, a communter hybrid, and finally a cruiser bike. Matt and I are hoping to add a tandem bike to the collection. Matt rides his bike 6 miles to work everyday. GO MATT. Obviously, I can't ride my bike to work, since I work about 20 feet from where I sleep.

Ask yourself, how often you could ride your bike to work? What is stopping you? Is it your bike, it is where you live? Fear of cars? Is it your "stuff" -- all of those obstacles can be overcome. Later I'll post some of my friend's commuter bike set-ups. Here in Flagstaff where everything is 5 miles away and usually accesible by urban trail a lot of folks ride bikes everywhere (unless it's snowing). Since I work from home, I cannot bike to work, but I do bike to the gym, bike to the trails do personal errands on my bike. I may try to post some video footage, something I've never done before.... it may prove to be too time consuming -- I've got to edit 2,500 pictures...

Expert Advice - picking a gown

I am starting a new feature of my blog, called Expert Advice. I'll feature wedding vendors I work with frequently and ask them to donate their expert advice.

So my first blog about this will be concerning brides and wedding gowns. Now I bet many of you probably think "oh it's because of ME that Cameron is writing this..." In a way it is, but no one in particular...I see dress issues almost every week, so I thought I'd offer my heartfelt advice.

My expert advice on this subject is to keep it real! Choose a dress that has a similar style and shape that you are comfortable wearing normally. Brides underestimating the importance of what I call DRESS REALITY. Here are empirical facts followed by some tips.

• a bride will wear this gown all day, likely 12 hours or more
• most brides will have to dance in this dress for HOURS at a time
  
• a white gown will get dirty & wrinkled (I'll come back to this one)

Wedding Gown Tips:

1. Undergarments: buy one, buy two, buy 6 different styles, but go ahead and purchase the expensive bra if it means you'll feel secure and comfortable in your gown. TRY UNDERGARMENTS ON WITH YOUR DRESS. This seems obvious but I can't tell you how many disappointed brides I've seen who can't wear those blue panties or who are disappointed their bra shows in certain places... take the final dress fitting seriously and try it all on. remember: support, support, support!
   
2. If you NEVER, ever, ever in your wildest dreams consider wearing a strapless dress in your normal life, don't wear one on your wedding day.
3. If you fall in love with a strapless dress (it happens), make sure to have it altered TIGHT to your torso or chat extensively with an alterations specialist about sewing in support, see Undergarments, above.
   
4. Buy a dress that flatters your shape. Simple. Now stick to it.
   
5. Don't freak out about a little wrinkle or a little dirt. Let's face it, a white dress is going to get dirty and if you walk down the aisle in a 100% white gown, you've probably created stres for yourself & others. On the other hand, don't roll around in mud to get great photos prior to your big debut (do that later).
6. Trust in the dry cleaners... my dress was brown all along the bottom and -POOF- white again. Amazing!
   
7. Consider the Bustle. I can't stress this enough either. In my experience every bustle falls down. Seriously, every last one. My own bustle fell down approximately 6 times throughout the night, despite my efforts ahead of time. This can be annoying for the bride. Solution: have a friend attend the final fitting and actually bustle your dress with their own two hands, watching doesn't count. Stress the importance of a strong bustle to the alterations department, even if it means some small clear buttons on the outside of the dress...
   
8. Dance in the dress at the store. I'm not kidding.
   
9. Don't trust mother nature. Buy a nice sweater or a nice wrap, just in case.
   
10. Spend the money. I don't want to advocate buying a $100.00 dress or buying a $7,000 dress. Just be realistic about your dress budget. Don't blow your budget on a garment that you wear once and that doesn't fit right but on the other hand, don't try to be too frugal because chances are, you won't like the way you look.

Ladies, choose your dress wisely, it is one of the most important decisions that you will make and yet it can be one of the most costly, so plan accordingly. My advice, buy early, pay in installments.

Kim & John

Ahhh a bit of New England right here in Sedona, Arizona. I felt like I was at a family reunion at Kim and John's wedding. They flew in from Boston, MA and the majority of my mother's (pronounce Muth AHs) family is from Beantown. Rewind to DECEMBER of 2005 when I met Kim and John for the first time... she was all business and he was the most helpful groom ever. We waited and waited-- and waited... finally May 5, 2007 arrived and it was a perfect day, indeed, despite some unpredictiable weather. Rains seemed impossible to fight off, and yet, once again brides across Sedona won... the sun came out right as Kim walked down the aisle. Minister, Laura Lane pointed out, they had "some help from upstairs" for that trick. P.S. An overcast day in Sedona is like a miracle for photography-- a blanket of nice soft light envelopes the town at mid-day, which allowed us to climb up to Bell rock at 3PM! I loved the prickly pear margaritas and this couple's love story, which had great reactions! Slideshow is posted!

Frisco Fire Department

I finally... FINALLY made a slideshow of this photo-story and am working on a personal documentary project this year... blogs to follow on that. Last year, I attended the Foundation Workshop in Texas. I don't think FW4, had a spectacular website, like FW5, but never-the-less, you get the idea if you click on the link provided. The Foundation workshop is for wedding photographers who want to learn more about how to shoot more like a photojournalist. We broke into groups lead by photojournlists and talked about how and why to tell a story through photos. Now, obviously since I worked at a newspaper once upon a time, I should've been well versed in the subject, but after shooting weddings and only weddings for years, I needed a refresher course, which is what I got. At any rate, I shot a slice-of-life photo story in two and a half days at the Frisco Fire Department. Frisco got about 2-3 calls while I was there, but no huge structure fire as I was hoping for. Never-the less, I think I captured what it's like to be a firefighter. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad our editors Tim Zielenbach and Cheryl Diaz Meyer kicked our butts. This story was edited tightly by Dallas Morning News pultizer prizer winner, Cheryl Diaz Meyer, who niped and tucked my story down to 19 images. We were assigned to make a portrait of ourselves for this, which is the image after my logo. Slideshow here, it's only 2 minutes.

Haircuts for everyone

Kaibee and I got haircuts recently... I should've taken a before and after of myself, but alas, I didn't...

Guin & Hans

No one loves a Flagstaff wedding more than I do! It's pure luxury to work in my own backyard. This wedding was at Arizona Snowbowl which boasts the best sunset in town and since it's at 9,000 feet you can see for miles. Guin and Hans live in Alaska, but met in Flagstaff at Northern Arizona University. They flew back here to share this gorgeous mountain desert with their family and friends. P.S. Another fabulous cake by Sedona Cake Couture. View slideshow here.