Merry Christmas from the Clarks

A copy of our Holiday card...

Thanks for the photos, Dawn Kish Photography

My little One

My daughter Naomi, 5 years old, is in her first year of ballet and had the opportunity to be in the Nutcracker this year. I feel like I've transitioned into a whole new world of motherhood this week. My baby is a little girl. It's so much fun! I snuck in for a few photos during their dress rehearsal to play with the new D3- these were all hand held shot at 6400 ISO. Not too bad.

8 months in 2 days... REALLY? Yes, really

Time for cuteness. Okay, I am NOT one of those people who dresses their baby is in their college Alma mater insignia left and right. Hey, if you are, more power to you, I'm just not that attached to the University of Georgia and I don't like to "brand" my child so much, nope--just not my particular style. HOWEVER, Aunt Collette hand knit this sweater without a pattern and well, it's pretty darn cute.

I remember the first time I was on campus with my pal Jon McKenna, we were actually in Athens for a mountain bike ride from the ATL and it went something like this...

JM: "Hey Cameron, stick your head out the window at those people and yell GO DAWGS and bark."

me: I am not barking at strangers out a car window.

JM: (sticks head out window) "GO DAWGS SICK 'EM WOOF WOOF WOOF!!"

me: slinking down in my seat, look-of-disbelief

strangers: hands in air, pumping fists, "WOOF WOOF WOOF"

The only UGA game I ever went to I was on the field photographing it for the Athens Banner-Herald. That was a joke, but for another blog post. Let's just say the editor said,

"I'll send you to games for features not sports, Cameron."

I mean who can pay attention to every first down, every play? it's exhausting and not to mention riddled with macho male shooters. You have to be the ULTIMATE fan to photograph football. Opinion mia.

31, that's me

So I'm 31 today. Yup. 31. So if you have any decency, please send me a comment. I love comments. I LIVE for comments on my blog. Helllloooooo out there????

Studio update and computers

So we finally got the computers into the studio yesterday and today they got networked and a little TLC --Thanks Peter! Some bad bad program had turned on some annoying hidden folders thing and it was driving me crazy. Anyway, it's fixed and Jamelle can now access my files and vice versa. THANK GOODNESS!!! HD is fixed, DSL line coming Friday....phone line sometime next week and until then I'm stealing my neighbor's DSL.... (they know so maybe it's not stealing). So tomorrow (my birthday) will be the FIRST day of work in the studio. So if you are patiently waiting for something from me, I assure you, you won't wait much longer. I'm back on the train. PHEW. This studio thing has been tougher than I thought. So much jumbling up and disrupting my already insanly disrupped (ah-hem, Owen) life. I feel HIGH productively coming my way... so watch out... and put Nov. 13th on your calendar -- it's our GRAND OPENING PARTY!! So fun. So fun. Can't wait... tons of wedding peeps, friends, countrymen, etc.

VOTE!

Snagged this from Jessica Claire's blog. I encourage you to register to vote and VOTE. Ask your whole family if they are registered, then get everyone to vote. It's fun. It's history, people. Arizona deadline to register is this Monday!

Owen's daily grind

I thought I'd just post a few cute ones of the boy. Two are from regular bath time. We get in the bath with him and have fun. He likes to stand up and hold the edge now. Also he's "into" reading a book with little furry patches while I change his diaper. Middle image thanks to Daddy Clark. :)

back to school cold and merger update

Matt, my husband, is a teacher. He's been back at school for a month now and we got sick this week... a 'back to school' cold as I've been calling it. So I've been trying really hard to recover fast and I've been sleeping during Owen's naps instead of working. It hit me hard on Wednesday and I'm starting to feel better tonight. It certainly does NOT help that Owen is teething (big time) and up every hour every night this week. Poor little guy, he's cutting the top four teeth-- big ones--! At any rate, I'm going to bed... hopefully the boy and I will sleep.

Good news! Gran Clark is coming for a week and I will hopefully catch up on lots of editing. She is ticked pink to watch Owen while I work.

Update on the merger... I'm merging my business with my assistant, Jamelle Kelly. We are becoming Cameron and Kelly Studios. Jamelle will be expanding the portrait experience so I'll be officially offering kids, babies, doggies, high school seniors, etc. Our new pad in downtown Flagstaff just got painted (brown and blue, of course). Now we are sanding the floors... photos to come tomorrow. The talented Kim Duncan is doing the interiror design.

New website, new prints, new albums, new, new, new! We will have our soft opening Oct. 1 and Grand Opening in Nov. More news to follow... stay tuned.

101 in 1001, stolen post

I wrote these goals in November 2007 when I was pregnant and not sure if I wanted to tell the whole world wide web (AKA I was in denial re: pregnancy). Anyway, goals are to be shouted from the mountain tops and thus, you will fulfill them (at least that's how it works for me). So I give you... my goals, in life, love, business and baby... all there for me to live up too. What's neat is that I haven't read them since I wrote them in November and now I'm going to make them part of my blog much like photographers Melissa Jill and Jessica Claire have. When I am at a loss for a post, I'm going to do one on a goal I've completed. I need to catch up on these...
P.S. those highlighted in yellow are completed and will be blogged eventually with photos... the red one is impossible now, I didn't complete it, probably because I didn't post these goals :( Anyway, it was interesting to read these after not looking at them since November. I realized that I work towards my goals (slowly) without posting them. It will be interesting to see if I motor through more of them now that the WWW knows. **side note** when I started these, I thought, "this is going to take forever to write 101 goals." I think it took me 15 minutes... they just kept coming to me in no particular order... so TRY IT. It's inspiring.

101 in 1001 (1001 days is 2.74 years)
today is Nov 4, 2007

1. Get a studio downtown
2. Get a new blog
3. Teach a workshop
4. Teach a DWF workshop
5. Update website with new 2007 images
6. travel back to Spain
7. finish a personal documentary project
8. Pay off all debt
9. Read 1 new personal book a month for 3 months
10. Read 3 business books in 12 months
11. Design MY wedding album
12. Ride my mountain bike 30 times in 2008
13. Run a marathon
14. Do the cream puff 100 mile mountain bike race in OR
15. Covert a bike/buy a single speed mtb
16. Ride my bike everywhere for two weeks
17. Get back to my goal weight post baby
18. Breastfeed for 8 months
19. Deliver this baby without drugs
20. Grow a garden with mint, basil, tomatoes, oregano, thyme
21. Plant some vegetables
22. FINISH landscaping around house (especially SIDE YARD)
23. Buy a new Mark III or Mark II
24. Buy a Canon 5D
25. Shoot 3 portraits in the studio
26. Find an internet money-making muse
27. Work 50% less hours in 2008
28. Convert business into LLC or s-corp
29. Sell more prints online
30. Blog at least once a day for a month
31. Take a photograph of myself pregnant once a week from 6 months to delivery
32. Do a new self portrait every year (long term)
33. Save 15% of my total income for 12 months
34. Set up 1% for the planet membership
35. Get Patagonia to speak at the Flagstaff Film Festival
36. Attend an AWESOME workshop that helps my business
37. Cook dinner for Matt twice a week for 3 months
38. Think of something awesome for Matt’s birthday
39. Make a portrait of Matt
40. Schedule a photo session with photographers for belly shots
41. Buy some of Emma’s work
42. Buy some of Raechel’s work
43. Collect two more photojournalism books
44. Trade prints with Running
45. Get freelance work for a magazine
46. Get published in the Daily Sun
47. Don’t use any plastic bags from stores for 2 months (make habit)
48. Create an awesome self-promotional piece
49. Finish decorating my office
50. Find a free intern
51. Get published in the New York Times
52. Freelance for the Arizona Republic
53. Attend an NPPA event or conference
54. Go to New Zealand
55. Go to Japan
56. Get a FABULOUS destination wedding in Mexico or Hawaii
57. Get a show at Flagstaff Photography Center
58. Make sample albums for three Sedona Vendors
59. Paint bathroom
60. Rip out shower in bathroom
61. Tile bathroom
62. Do 3 art projects with Matt
63. Get published in Martha Stewart Weddings
64. Get published in Grace Ormonde
65. Get published in Arizona Weddings
66. Get published in Arizona Bride
67. Cook 3 new recipes from Sunset Magazine
68. Buy a hybrid vehicle
69. Hike rim to rim at Grand Canyon (again)
70. Visit Antelope Canyon
71. Do some charity photography work
72. Give away a free wedding package to a client
73. Re-organize the garage
74. Build bookshelves in bedroom
75. Take a relaxing weekend vacation
76. Decorate the baby’s room
77. Rock climb with Dawn
78. GET ON A RIVER TRIP in the GC so I can say “I just got off the river”
79. Make “I just got off the river T-shirts”
80. Visit with Sara O’Brien
81. Visit with Kathleen
82. Visit my grandmother with the new baby
83. Write letter to someone regarding teachers and exempting from taxes
84. Get published with Patagonia
85. Have 5 networking meetings with other photographers
86. Shop at Farmer’s market 5 Sundays next summer
87. Win a medallion on WPJA!!
88. Buy information about building an GREEN eco home
89. Get solar panels
90. Get compost bucket thingy from city of Flagstaff
91. Water garden with roof water
92. Teach Kaibee a new obedience trick
93. Take a PhotoShop course, learn more techniques
94. Do yoga 2 times a week for 8 weeks.
95. Make homemade baby food
96. Make a baby quilt
97. Finish CCP operating manual and put together as a notebook
98. Get a completely new website
99. Write 10 love letters to Matt
100. Surprise Matt with 5 nice things
101. Buy 5 photography books

Tommy! Tommy! Tommy!

Tommy loves records, Tommy loves Mommy & Daddy, Tommy loves Curious George. My pal, Mary Jessica, who used to be my favorite reporter when I worked at the Athens Banner-Herald, has been kind enough to contribute to my baby business blog. While I was in Athens last month I photographed her precious child. To all you mommies out there I know how hard it is to snap that shutter fast enough to catch a two year old. Practically impossible without a professional camera. Good thing for f-stop 1.2 and my 85. I can't love that lens enough.

Edie Lynn Hines

My good friend, Wendy, just had a baby girl 10 days ago. Here is a sneak peak.

Sunflowers and Shoot-Q in Flagstaff

Ah the Sunflowers... more sunflower photos. Katrina and Hollye, two of my best friends in the wedding photo industry, came up to Flag for a visit. We don't see each other enough.

When I'm not tending to the baby, attempting to nourish myself, working on my business, shooting photos, or sleeping, I'm mountain biking. I even rode 17 miles this past Saturday. It was 4 hours and yes, I thought I might die during the first hour; however, I pulled through like a champ, came home, put the baby down for a nap, and took one myself. That's what I do on non-wedding-Saturdays while Shoot-Q is working for me. Mountain biking is made possible by my beloved husband, Matt. Thanks honey for babysitting our boy.

There are a few shots of me mountain biking in the sunflowers... Thanks to my local adventure photographer friend, Dawn Kish. She shot some video for the Shoot-Q ad campaign (they asked me to participate). The question I was supposed to answer was "What were you doing while Shoot-Q worked for you?" but Dawn asked me "How does that make you feel booking a wedding through Shoot-Q, and I answer...(this is obviously a blooper)

(if you are wondering, and I know you are... the awesome salmon colored custom bike you covet in this video is a Coconino... get yourself one, they rule!!)

last two photos © 2008 dawn kish photography

Cousins

On the way back from Athens to the Atlanta airport we spent the night with Matt's cousin Chris and his wife, Taylor and their daughter, Evy. Evy was very interested in holding the baby, feeding the baby and overall was a great big helper. I heard she cried a lot the day we left. I was at Chris and Taylor's house for a total of 5 hours before I went to sleep, 2 of which had natural light. We got up the next day and left. I promise to take more photos next time I see cute little Evelyn!

P.S Evy is HYPER camera aware. Many four to five year old suffer from this "affliction." It's hilarious-- she is like a little model; however, it does makes the documentary photos hard... see example below -- hee hee.

Summertime: vacation & Owen

If you are wondering where your June wedding photos are... they are coming THIS WEEK! I took a personal vacation for 10 days back East, so I'm about 10 days behind.

We weren't sure we'd make it for our annual trip to Cape Cod with my family this summer. I was very nervous about flying with a five month old. I really didn't want to be the lady on the plane with the crying baby. Turns out that was the least of my problems (he didn't make a peep on any flight). Mostly baby Owen didn't want to sleep in new places. But other than sleep, we had a blast visiting with my Mom & Dad, and my brother and sister-in-law and their two kids: Karolyna and Timmy. We ate lobsters, we walked on the beach... and I ended up napping a lot since Owen wasn't sleeping well. I wanted badly to document Cape Cod and do a photo safari around Harwich but alas, I didn't make much time for it. I did make time to ride Karla's road bike a couple of days and that felt great. In any free time I get, I like to exercise to maintain my sanity and my waistline :)

If you are wondering where the heck sister Kate is... well she is fighting forest fires all summer out West. We have to change our summer beach trip to hang out with Kate and Norm and we are working on it for next year.

lace hydrangeas
Trampolines (they were around when I was a little girl)
Karolyna
lob-STAH

Karla

My Dad with Owen

Karla and Matthew (my brother) with their kids

Owen laughs

good sunset light

Karolyna 5, Tim 2.5 years old

Karolyna on her 5th birthday

the drama of the cake

Matt with his son

Our boy

Jason & Sue | Athens, GA | August 2, 2008

There will be some back blogging, indeed. Sorry, blog-ville, I didn't want to tote my 5 month old AND my laptop and my camera rig on our first baby plane trip. Next time, next time.

Anywhoo, Jason and Sue are married! Our mutual friend Jason "introduced" Matt and I or rather, we met by coincidence at Jason's house 6 years ago. Whatever. We are so happy for Sue and Jason glad they sealed the deal. Needless to say, we couldn't miss this wedding and Matt was a groomsmen...Sue and Jason wanted me to have "fun" at the wedding and not "work" but I took my camera and a couple lenses because I can't just sit there while great moments occur. I ADORE the shot of Sue reaching out to touch Jason as he read his vows. I just shot the ceremony and enjoyed the rest of the evening with friends while Owen hung out with his Gran (Matt's mom lives in Athens). Thank you Gran Sarah for putting our boy to bed and letting us go into a real live bar. We haven't exactly made bar-hopping a priority since the baby was born so that was really fun.

We were in Athens for 2 nights and it wasn't long enough. Next time I'll take some cool shots of one of my favorite towns.

Mobile Me by Apple

If you didn't know, I'm a mac (whoops Apple) girl...I got my first Macintosh sometime in middle school then my OWN laptop when I graduated high school (this was way before macs were cool AND before they called themselves Apple). Yes, I'm a customer evangelist for Apple and they don't even sponsor me. Hello Steve Jobs, are you listening? I should be talking about Apple products at every conference, photo expo, etc. I've already *sold* 10 iPhones by demonstrating it's amazing capacity at parties...

latest and greatest? Try MobileME-- a must for anyone with an iPhone.

July fourth

Um, did I really forget to post a July 4th photo? Indeed, I did. So here you go: Sophia and Nathan on July 4th...

TV online

I'm addicted. I watch LOST on abc.com and I just can't stop. It's so fun-- no commercials (just little 30 second interludes) and the whole episode is done in 42 minutes. If you can imagine saving 18 minutes is a godsend when you have an infant. TV on demand, that's what I'm talking about! I don't even have to have one of those Tivo things. Watching TV is free and it looks awesome on my 23" high def monitor! It's my new reason to love my high speed internet. I've got to stop watching it though, I've got a business to run.

Camping in Hart Prairie | Flagstaff

It seems a tradition that each year we go out to the spot where we got married here in Flagstaff at Hart Prairie and camp out. This year we brought out the vans. D.Kish brought her gimpy arm (went boom boom on a climbing photo shoot) and Benson, Gomez and Erin-Kate brought their Westy (theirs is pretty sweet) and we brought the red stripe (our van). Have I mentioned that Matt is OBSESSED with the GoWesty.com site? He has given up (for now) his sports car addition and traded it for VW vanagon obsession. If Go Westy got a dime for every click Matt clicks on that site, they'd be RICH. Keep in mind an average GoWesty Vanagon costs like $45,000. Yes, I know. I know. Anyway, Owen was chillin' in his bear costume coupled with a cute ears hat that our friend Anne made for him. We hope Anne will make him another one as he outgrows this one and maybe a matching one for Mommy.