A few weeks ago there was a nice little severe event that happened in southern New Mexico. I had always told myself if there was a chance of good storms, maybe even a tornado, in New Mexico, I’d make the drive over. It’s only a bit over four hours to Lordsburg, so I figured why not?

Sadly, I’m not a forecaster and the storms started going nuts before noon. We got there just after 1pm and saw some great stuff, but things started dying out a little bit after 2:30. At least where we were.

I found a couple of spots to do some timelapsing, the first two clips above were of a severe warned storm and then after that is mostly just some cloud development and movement.

Planned to stay in a hotel that night, but since things ended early, my daughter and I headed back to Phoenix. A long day, many miles, but it was just nice to get out and see some weather!

Nothing earth-shattering in these timelapses, just some beautiful cloud motion, which I love.

Adoptions aren’t always the same. Ours was through an attorney and we had a bit of a warning (albeit it only a few weeks) that Eli was on his way. For Ben and Alisha, they got a call one day from their agency to say there was a baby boy in Tucson that needed a home, were they interested?

Can you imagine one day your phone ringing and then a few hours later you are in a city 90 minutes away holding a baby that is suddenly your responsibility?

It’s such an amazing thing. It’s been so much fun seeing the couples from our adoption class get placed with babies. I was blessed to photograph Nathan in his first few weeks and last Thursday it was an honor to be there with the entire family to celebrate the last step in making him officially Ben and Alisha’s little boy.

This court hearing is in front of a judge who officially recognizes and finalizes the adoption. It’s such a blast because the entire family can come in, you grab pictures with the judge and it’s just a huge moment in this little guy’s life. Someday he’ll be able to see these photos and all the people who were there to love him and support him from the very beginning.

So happy for Ben, Alisha and Nathan….I know you guys are moving soon and I wish you all the best of luck! Thanks so much for letting me tag along to take some photos.

(please click to view on black // canon 5d mark ii, canon 17-40 l, 17mm, iso 50, f/22, 1/15 // buy print)

If you are new to the blog, I usually reserve Wednesdays for movie themed images…something I like to call Movie Title Wednesdays. Genius right? I’ve been doing this for quite awhile now…in fact, if you click on the tag at the bottom of the page for “movie title series” you can look back at all of them.

This week we’ve got Unforgiven, a Clint Eastwood film that came out my junior year of high school. Crazy long time ago. Probably the fact that I was 17 and a moron, led me to feel like the movie was boring at the time. And then it won an Oscar for Best Picture. I’ve still only seen it that one time. I would love to re-watch it someday and find out why it got that Oscar. Likely due to the fact it was a sick cast of Eastwood, Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman I reckon.

So when I finished this image up and was thinking about a movie title, Unforgiven immediately came to mind. This desolate beach landscape on the western shores of the Salton Sea was almost like something out of a nightmare. Crunchy ground, soft in places, the smells of dead fish and fowl filled your nostrils…and then you see all these dead trees that appear to have had their tops sheared off as it from a bomb blast.

Definitely an unforgiving world…and unforgiving landscape.

Chris and Gretchen feel like old friends. The first time I met them, we spent roughly a hour talking about their wedding and then two hours of them showing me the coolest places in downtown Phoenix, like The Roosevelt, Carly’s Bistro and the Film Bar. I remember walking into the Roosevelt with them and the waitress brought beers without them even seeing her.

I guess that’s what amazing about these two. Everyone feels like their friend. And that made this wedding extra special for me. Yes, of course the fact that it was at The Icehouse ramped up the coolness factor. Definitely one of the more awesome venues in town. And the details/decorations by Angelic Grove were simply amazing.

But what made it extra awesome was that you felt like a part of the wedding. They made every vendor feel special. The day didn’t feel rushed or busy. It was like hanging out with friends at a party. I don’t know that I’ve ever been that relaxed at a wedding before. Heck, I never drink at weddings, even when the bride and groom beg me, but I had a beer towards the end of this one. Felt like the thing you do when you’re chillin’ with friends.

Also adding to the day was Gretchen’s son Spencer. I helped him tie his slightly-too-big tie. He was such a good boy and a total rock star. Walking his mom down the aisle, being brave. And the biggest moment of all…saying “And they lived happily ever after” into the microphone right after Chris and Gretchen kissed. I think everyone was crying.

C & G, thanks so much for letting me shoot this for you guys. Everyone there was absolutely amazing to me personally and I’ve never felt so welcomed and loved at something like this before. I will cherish it for a very long time. I hope we meet up again real soon! And I hope your time in Bisbee was fantastic.

I definitely need to thank Jeff Ambrose for once again shooting with me. And to my lovely wife Jina, who ran the photobooth (you can see those photos here).

Please enjoy some music by Blaine Long, who performed live at the wedding, and The Nadas. The first track is a song Blaine wrote specifically for Chris and Gretchen (how awesome is that???) and the second is a track by the Nadas that they had played at the wedding. I always post a lot of pictures, so there’s two songs to get you through this one! Blaine’s music is soooo good, and he’s a local guy here in Phoenix, so please check out his work too!

Vendors:

Flowers/Decor – Angelic Grove
Catering – Copper Square Kitchen
Make-up – Linda Wagner
Hair: Ruca, owner of Hautie Rouge
Venue: Icehouse Art Project
Musicians: Blaine Long (vocals and guitar) and Brad Dilli (harmonica)
Dress from Lillian Lottie Couture, alterations by Sister n Stitches
After Dress: Vintage by Misty
Rehearsal food: Carly’s Bistro

And now look at him! Seven months old and adorable as heck! Are you kidding me?

Yesterday was the official court date for this family where Nathan’s adoption would be finalized on paper and he would be Ben and Alisha’s forever. He was already their baby really, nothing would stop that, but when you go through the adoption process, that last step takes about 4-6 months from when you actually bring your child home. We just went through the same deal with Eli about a month ago. It’s a real sense of closure once you are done with the hearing!

I was honored to be able to take a few photos of these three before the court appointment, and then hang out with them and their family for the hearing itself and then after! Congrats again you guys!

Here’s just a quickie sneak peek from yesterday.

(please click to view on black // canon 5d mark ii, canon 70-200 2.8 is l, 105mm, iso 100, f/8.0, 1/800 sec // buy print)

Picacho Peak is an iconic mountain between Phoenix and Tucson. People love to hike it. I never have, but to me it’s sort of a midway marker…when I see it, I know half my journey is over.

Despite it being such a popular mountain, I’ve only taken 1-2 images of it and never anything worth keeping. But last week I finally came upon it with boiling thunderstorms building up overhead.

What I didn’t realize until processing this image was that you can actually make out a wall of dust approaching Picacho Peak. It’s low on the left side and higher on the right. After taking the photo, I left and turned back north towards Phoenix and within a few minutes I saw it in my rearview mirror. That’s when I started outracing the thing and then timelapsed it.

Was nice to get an early, monsoon-like sky this year. Usually it’s dull around here until July, so stormy clouds, a dust storm…was all a nice treat!

This was my first time doing this at a wedding and I have to say, it’s something I’d love clients to start doing more. People LOVE photobooths. They get all kinds of crazy in front of them. It takes pressure off the photographers to make sure they get candid photos of everyone throughout the day. These are fun, easy and you get memories that will last forever.

If I’m shooting your upcoming wedding and you want one of these, drop me a note and we’ll talk!

Special thanks to my second shooter Jeff Ambrose for helping get this setup, and to my wife Jina for taking it over and having a blast with it.

Here are a few of my favs (and PG-rated) images from the photobooth.

(click the pic to fit your monitor or see full size!)

I was shocked seeing the little man with his crazy head of hair. He had a fauxhawk back last fall and I almost didn’t recognize him! Not to mention how much he’s grown. Dude makes you laugh all the time.

The two girls were pretty much the same. Lili has this quiet stubbornness about her. You have to be sneaky to snap photos of her and I think we pulled it off yet again. And Jayden is just easy. I think she already understands posing and how to get a good photograph, so I don’t even have to try with her!

We did the shoot out at the Desert Botanical Gardens, where the girls dressed up as butterfly’s for the last day of the Butterfly Exhibit. Afterwards, we just wandered around, played in water, looked at flowers and snapped photos of course! It was a tad on the warm side, but I had a great time and we even saw a pretty crazy lizard at the very end, so obviously it was worth it

Thanks for bringing me along guys, I’m sure we’ll see each other again down the road!