elizabeth henry-hooker photography

Aimee & Jon’s Happily Ever After

2011-09-06T16:27:00.000-06:00

Two weekends ago, I had the great pleasure of being both a bridesmaid and the photographer at my best friend’s wedding. I’ve known Aimee for 23 years, and I love her like a sister. Over the years, we have spent countless days together, playing board games, splashing in the pool, working on school projects...we went to summer camp together when we were kids, and were roommates our freshman year of college. It was such an honor to stand up beside her on the last Saturday of August and watch her exchange vows with one of the sweetest men I have ever met.

Aimee and Jon’s wedding was beautiful. The weather was perfect (especially lucky, considering that Hurricane Irene hit the state hard the following day), the setting was charming, and the bride was gorgeous. Aimee and Jon know a lot of talented people, and as a result the wedding was not only beautiful but also full of personality, and obviously created with a lot of love. Friends were involved in the creation of floral arrangements, the cake baking, dj-ing, tent decoration, application of make-up and hair styling, and photography. Aimee’s mother has a nice large back yard with a pond that created a lovely backdrop for the ceremony, and after the dancing died down and the music stopped, a bonfire was lit for the guests to relax around. The day was a joy to be a part of, and I am so happy for Aimee and Jon. I hope they enjoy many, many years of happiness together. Best wishes and love to both.

Thanks to Margaret of Margaret Michael Photography for being my second shooter.

Summer Reading

2011-07-12T12:36:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading Summer Sisters for the eighth time. It has been one of my favorites for nearly fifteen years, and is the only non-children's book I have read with such regularity. The first time I read it I was 15, and I read it every summer for the next seven years. I am on my fourth copy because I love it so much that I am constantly lending it out and forgetting to whom I loaned it. It is a great story about the power of friendship, the importance of the decisions we make throughout our lives, and the way we impact the lives of others. I wasn't expecting anything different this time through, but after the 7 years that passed since my last reading, I found myself not only seeing the girls' perspective, but identifying more with the adult figures in the story. That was an interesting shift in my experience of the book, and it makes me wonder how it will change for me again in another seven years. I am sure some things will remain the same, though--I will only be able to read it during the summer, and I will still cry at the end.

Monday Morning Coffee

2011-07-11T12:00:00.001-06:00

This is my favorite coffee mug in the world. It used to be my dad's, and I'm not sure how I ended up with it, but I'm glad I did. It makes me happy every time I drink out of it, so it's especially good for Monday mornings when it takes a little extra kick-start to get going. Happy Monday!

Sunday Morning

2011-07-10T14:21:00.000-06:00

Happy Anniversary, Dads!

2011-07-04T13:09:00.000-06:00

Today is the first wedding anniversary of my two dads. They have had a partnership for fifteen years, and were civil union-ed in 2001, but it has been only one year since they were legally wed by the state of Vermont. On this day when we celebrate our country's freedom, let us not forget all of our citizens who are denied freedom--freedom to love, freedom to live without fear, freedom most of us take for granted. Let us vow to continue working toward a world in which everyone is granted equal rights, and no one is shamed for who they love, or who they are. Let us remember how lucky we are to live in this great nation, but not forget how much work we have left to do.

I wish all of you a happy, safe holiday full of love and light.

Adventures in Photography

2011-07-01T12:46:00.000-06:00

I can’t believe it’s July already. The year is half gone, the days are getting shorter again, and summer is in full swing here in Boulder. Back in January, I made myself a list of goals for the next two years, and now seems like a good time to check in with myself and see how I’m doing.

One of my first goals was to continue donating my time to worthy causes at least twice a year, and I am happy to say that over the past six months I have had the opportunity to work with two incredible causes four times. In March, I photographed an event for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in Denver. In January, April, and June I worked with the Boulder County AIDS Project, an organization I connected with in 2010 and have enjoyed working with several times since.

The April and June projects for BCAP allowed me the opportunity to work with a couple of talented drag performers, which also furthered my mission to work with 3 new artists, photographers, or business people each year. I completed that goal when I worked with Tara Rynders and her fellow dancers and artists to capture their performance, “you & me”, a show created to “explore intimacy in performance look specifically at spatial relationships and the use of technology to augment an intimate relationship”. It was a beautiful opportunity to connect with my love of dance, meet new artists, and to feed my own artist’s spirit.

This fall, I have been privileged to book the wedding of my good friends Matt and Kelly, who will be wed in the great state of Maine. In the past I have only visited Maine for camping weekends, so in September I will be fulfilling my goal of working in a new location once a year.

While I have not had a chance to get back into a chemical dark room, I have been working with black and white film again by way of having my old film developed and scanned into digital files. There is nothing like the smell and feel of a real dark room, but it’s a start, and rewarding in it's own way.

The last goal that I have made progress on this year is to learn something new each month. I subscribed to a series of DVDs, arriving in my mailbox monthly, each containing interviews with successful photographers on their various specialties. I have learned quite a bit from the discs, and have also kept up on my reading of professional trade magazines and business books.

So there it is. 6 months into my 2 year plan; 4.5 items down, 10.5 to go. I have enjoyed the way these goals have encouraged me to reach out, build new relationships with new people, and explore my photography in ways I may not have last year. The growth I have experienced as a photographer and business owner since January has given me more confidence and excitement about my work, and I can’t wait to see where I’ll be in December. Not a bad year so far. Happy July, everyone!

Poster design by Tony Sutera, photography by Elizabeth Henry-Hooker.

Endless Summer

2011-06-22T14:52:00.000-06:00

Recently, I found a box containing nearly twenty rolls of film that had been shot but never processed. I didn’t know how old they were, but I have been shooting largely digital for several years now, so I knew it was like finding a time capsule of my pre-Colorado life. I started taking them in two at a time to have them developed, and it has been an interesting experience receiving the photos.

The most recent roll is from the summer after I finished high school, shot with the Nikon FM-10 my dads bought me for graduation. The photos document our annual summer trek to Indiana to visit grandparents, and I believe this might have been the last time we went, just before the grandparents relocated to Vermont to be near the family.

I have such fond memories of these yearly vacations, which were largely spent on the lake (whichever lake we had rented a cabin on that particular summer; it varied) and digging through thrift stores looking for the best, most interesting finds. The first year was a bit rough-- nothing tests the limits of a new step-family like putting three girls, ages 11, 14 and 16 in the back seat of a Chevy, with no air-conditioning and only one music player between the three of us, and driving half-way across the country-- but the experience grew on me in only the way a family summer ritual can. I miss those days of canoeing the lakes, looking for turtles, taking evening walks or runs with my sisters, baking cookies in a slightly musty, hideous rented cabin with orange shag carpet, mirrored walls, and bats flying around the living room. Now that my sisters and I are spread (literally) across the world, I especially long for those summer days, with no school, before we had jobs and grown-up lives to worry about.

Maybe some day my sisters and I will be able to take a trip together again, maybe to some exotic place where we can start building new traditions and memories. In the mean time, though, I’m sure glad I found these photos.

Matt, Jennie, and Powell

2011-05-14T11:07:00.000-06:00

This weekend, I had the opportunity to photograph a wonderful family in Chautauqua Park. Matt and Jennie and their son recently moved here from Arizona, and we chose the park in order to get some photos of the family in their new surroundings. The Flatirons offered a beautiful backdrop, and the weather held out for us, even though it rained more in the past week than I think it has in the last 6 months in Boulder. Powell was full of energy, and his obvious interest in the rocks and plants made for some great photographs. I enjoyed following him around the trails, watching while his parents played with him. It was great working with such a friendly, happy family. I hope they enjoyed the experience as much as I did!

2011-05-09T00:23:00.000-06:00

I had dinner last week with my girlfriends to celebrate a birthday, and somehow I got to talking about my mom. It came up how, when we were kids, my mother used tell us "good skills" before each test, dance recital, band concert, or sporting event. She thought saying "good luck" was giving all the credit to luck, when what was really important was our intelligence, skill, and preparation. I really appreciate the meaning behind her words, and in honor of today, I wanted to share it with all of you. I hope you all have mothers who are, in their own way, as loving and supportive as mine. Thank you, Mama, for all you have done for us. I love you!

Memories of Mexico

2011-04-18T10:23:00.000-06:00

I’ve spent a lot of time recently digging through boxes of old photos, and the other day I came across the photographs I took in 2004 when I was studying in Mexico as part of an art history class.

At the time I enrolled in the class, the only cameras I owned were the nice SLR my dad had given me when I graduated from high school, and a cheap plastic point-and-shoot that took 4 photos in one second and compiled them all into one frame. Traveling with the SLR was more difficult than it is with digital, and I couldn’t depend on the plastic camera for travel documentation, so I had asked my dad for another camera for Christmas.

The resulting gift was a Nikon L35 point-and-shoot camera, and I packed it, along with 6 rolls of film, in my carry-on for the trip. I’ve owned many cameras in my life, and the L35 is still one of my favorites. It was, at the time, a fairly compact camera (the claim no longer holds up now that you can get cameras practically the size of your bank card), and it is sturdy and reliable. The photos I got on that trip came back from the developers crisp and clear, with vivid colors and strong black and white contrast.

I decided the other day to scan a few of my favorite photographs from that trip and play around with them in photoshop. Mexico has a long and interesting history, and some of the photos I took could have been from any time in the last few hundred years. The intentional aging adds to the perceptual confusion of time. I would love to see these photographs printed on 18” x 24” sheets of watercolor paper with soft, torn edges, displayed on a gallery wall without a frame. I plan to make a series of a dozen or more of these photos, but for now I’m going to share just the first few. If you have never been to Mexico, I hope these can transport you there now.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, Valentine's Day was always prefaced with a week long take-over of the kitchen table. My mother would get out her boxes of special stuff, and my sister and I would sit down with her every night, cutting and pasting pictures from old cards, flower catalogues, and magazine ads. The cards would be enhanced with stickers, glitter (always lots of glitter), and doilies, before being set out to dry, then carefully addressed with colored markers and pens. After the Valentine making, the table had to be cleared so we could start in on the cookies or cupcakes. One year we had a cookie decorating party, with little bowls full of colored sugar and sprinkles and the little "Be Mine" hearts that taste like chalk.

However you choose to celebrate (or not) the day, I hope it brings you a smile, a hug from a loved one, and a good start to your week. Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Aruba, Jamaica, ooo I want to take you...

2011-02-05T11:55:00.001-07:00

This past week was the coldest one we’ve had yet this winter, at least here in Boulder. I know a lot of the country has been fighting off the snow and ice and below zero temperatures for weeks, so we can’t complain much, especially when we have been promised (based on groundhog events in Pennsylvania on Wednesday,) that spring is around the corner. But while we all wait for the sun to return and the ice to melt away, I thought I would take this opportunity to share some of the photos I took when Nick and I were on our honeymoon in Aruba back in November. Maybe they will help warm you up a little on the inside.

Inspirational Litter

2011-01-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was walking to the store when I came across this piece of paper lying in a pile of dead leaves. I snapped this photo with my cell phone before picking up the paper and sticking it in my bag.

Some of you will remember when I used to blog a photo a day from my cell phone. It was a fun exercise for a while, but eventually I became bored with the project. Sometimes I miss it, and I am trying to think of a way to refresh the "assignment" and make it new and interesting agin. (If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment below, I'd love to hear them!)

This morning I realized the memory in my cell phone is full. This happens from time to time, and the first things to go are always old text messages and photos. Before they go, I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you here.

Real Vermonters...

2011-01-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

I never learned to ski when I was a kid, and when people ask why, I tell them, honestly, “Real Vermonters don’t ski”. I know what you’re thinking; “But my sister/cousin/best friend/college roommate lives in Vermont, and s/he skis!”

Here’s the thing about Vermonters. We have a few rules. Living in Vermont isn’t enough to get you “real Vermonter” status. Real Vermonters were born in Vermont, and so were our parents. It takes at least two generations to count. (I’m lucky; my family has been in VT for seven.) Real Vermonters have parents and grandparents who ran dairy farms. Real Vermonters know how to drive in a snowstorm while maintaining a close relationship with the speed limit. (Here in Boulder, people don’t know how to drive in the snow. They halve the speed limit and drive over the lane lines to be “safe”, which really is just dangerous for the people around them.) Real Vermonters are Red Sox fans, even though we’re closer to New York than Boston. Real Vermonters know the seasons in Vermont aren’t Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, they are Winter, Mud, Black Fly, and Foliage. We know not to start our gardens outside until May, because the plants will just freeze to death. We know that Holstein cattle produce the best milk for drinking, and Jerseys and Guernseys are the best for making butter and ice cream. Real Vermonters don’t buy maple syrup from Canada or cheese from Wisconsin.

I have lived in Boulder for almost six years now, and I just bought my first ever pair of skis. I am determined to learn to ski, even if it will jeopardize my status with other Vermonters. I don’t know if I’ll ever love it as much as my husband does. I don’t know if I’ll ever be excited enough for skiing to voluntarily get up at 5:30 with him and drive for 4 hours to get to the mountain. Right now I only go to a small mountain about 45 minutes away. Yesterday I went for a few hours with my friend Sam, and before the end of the day I was able to do a few runs on a blue trail. (I only fell once.) While we were on the ski lift, I borrowed Sam’s camera and played around, using our ski goggles as filters. It was a fun experiment, and I got some cool shots to remember our ski experience. I hope to get 5-10 uses out of my new skis this year, and maybe I’ll fall in love with the sport. Maybe I will want to go skiing every weekend, and I’ll be setting my alarm for 5:00 a.m. Maybe.

But I’ll never convert to Wisconsin cheddar.

1.11.11 New Year, New Inspiration

2011-01-11T13:47:00.000-07:00

2010 was my first full year as a business owner. It was a busy year for me, working and growing my business, as well as planning my own wedding (from 2,000 miles away). I learned exponentially more about working in the wedding industry than I feel I would have, had I not had the opportunity to view it from both sides simultaneously. It was an exciting experience, and now that my wedding is over, I look forward to gaining new experiences through other channels. With 2011 stretching out, new and fresh, ahead of me, I am at last able to sit down and think about what I can look forward to accomplishing over the next 2-3 years in my business, photography, and art.

Some of the items on this list are more practical than others, some are long term, continuous goals, some are a one time thing. I hope a little of my enthusiasm for these projects and goals will rub off on you, and I hope you will enjoy reading my blog through the next year as I record my experiences here.

Photography/Art/Business Goals, 2011-2013

Display my work in a coffee shop or other small, local business
Continue to donate my time and services at least 2-3 times a year to worthy organizations/causes
Enter my photos in at least one national competition each year
Photograph something in a new location (city, state, or country) once a year
Have a piece of my work in a gallery show
Plan and execute a community event or competition, and get people involved
Learn something new each month (read a book, watch a tutorial video, attend a class, workshop, seminar, etc.)
Blog at least once a week
Work with someone new (photographer/artist/business person) 3 times a year
Re-design my brand (logo, color scheme, website, etc.)
Build a darkroom or belong to a community darkroom and get back into black and white film photography
Learn to use my Brownie
Play with my Polaroid
Attend Imaging USA 2012 in New Orleans or WPPI in Las Vegas to network and learn from the most successful photographers in the industry
Attend at least one arts festival (preferably the Boulder Creek Festival) and exhibit and sell my fine art prints

I know that I may not be able to accomplish everything on this list in the next 2-3 years, and my goals may shift throughout the process, but I also know that with a clear set of goals, I am more likely to grow at a faster rate. This list is coming from a place full of the love and excitement that I have for my work, and I can’t wait to see where my business and I will be six months, a year, 3 years from now.

Goodbye, 2010, Welcome, 2011!

2011-01-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

2010 brought me together with many great new people and opened me up to several wonderful experiences. I feel honored to have been involved in so many special events and meaningful moments this past year. This montage is a tribute to all of the people who shared their lives with me in 2010. I can’t wait to see what and whom 2011 will bring into my life. Will it be you??

Happy New Year!

Solstice Eclipse

2010-12-21T15:58:00.007-07:00

Very early this morning, my friends and I watched the first total lunar eclipse to fall on the winter solstice since 1638. We stayed up late drinking martinis and checking on the moon every 15 minutes until it was in full eclipse and glowed orange in the shadow of the earth. The evening started out quite cloudy, and I was concerned that we wouldn’t be able to see much, but by the time the eclipse had started, the cloud cover started to dissipate. By the end of the night, the clouds were completely gone and I managed to get a few photos with the eclipse and the stars. It was a beautiful event to witness, and a wonderful way to spend the last night with my friends before the group starts to go our separate ways for the holidays. If you didn’t have a chance to see what we saw last night, I hope you enjoy my photos. They don’t do it justice, but they are a good start. Happy solstice!

A RMNP Wedding

2010-12-19T18:15:00.001-07:00

Back in June, I photographed Courtney and Paul’s wedding at the Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado. The park was a stunning backdrop for the intimate family wedding. This video is a compilation of my favorite photos from that day. I hope you enjoy it, too. Happy Sunday!

Jerry's Kids

2010-12-17T14:01:00.002-07:00

Last spring, I was asked to photograph a St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Denver. Unfortunately, I was already booked for that date, so instead, I donated a portrait package to the silent auction. The bash raised over $227,000 to fund research for treatments and cures of ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), and I am happy that I could be a part of that effort. I have already put the 2011 event on my calendar, and will be attending to donate my time as the photographer for the evening.

In November, I had the opportunity to meet the family who won the portrait package at the auction last March. The Martin’s have two adorable sons, and we had a lovely morning working together on their portrait session. These photos are a few of my favorites. I hope you enjoy them, too. Happy weekend!

Freakish Weather

2010-12-15T14:00:00.003-07:00

It has been difficult this week to remember that it is almost the new year. The past few days have been tee-shirt weather. Not sweater weather, which is my favorite, or jacket weather, which would be appropriate, but actually warm enough to wear a tee-shirt without an extra layer on top. But whatever the weather, it is the middle of December, and whether or not we are prepared for it, it will soon be 2011. It is almost the end of the first full year I’ve been in business, and it seems like a good time to look back on what I’ve accomplished this year. For the next few blog posts, I am going to be collecting and posting images from the weddings and portraits I have photographed in 2010.

For today, here are a few photos I took as a second shooter for my friend Heather of Photography by Heather Gray. Tracy and Taylor’s wedding was in June, but I was busy with my own wedding work, and never got around to posting any of the photos, so these will all be new to you. Enjoy!

33 Million

2010-12-02T17:57:00.001-07:00

When I was a kid, my parents brought my sister and I to see the AIDS quilt whenever a piece of it was in Vermont. We must have seen it three or four times, maybe more. If you have never seen the quilt, I recommend the experience. Each panel is 3’ x 6’ and was sewn by a person or group of people in honor of someone they loved who died of AIDS. The whole quilt, when pieced together, is large enough to cover more than 22 football fields, so it travels the country in pieces, and you are unlikely to see the same block twice. Even as a child, too young to really have a sense of mortality or an understanding of the disease, I had a clear grasp of the importance and solemnity of the experience. Reading messages written by strangers, addressed to loved ones who will never have a chance to read them, moves you in a way nothing else can.

Yesterday was World AIDS Day, and I had my third opportunity to work with the Boulder County AIDS Project (BCAP). My friend Jenna works for BCAP and happened to mention that she would have a table on Pearl Street yesterday, and would be passing out free hot chocolate and candy canes to help raise awareness. I immediately saw a way that I could help, and the two of us created a plan for a photo project that would allow people on the street to get involved. We started at 8:00 a.m., and armed with warm jackets, gloves, and hot chocolate, we hit the street.

Volunteers and BCAP employees came and went throughout the day, holding signs, passing out red ribbons, hot chocolate, and condoms, and talking with people on the street about HIV infection and prevention. I came prepared with my dry erase board and my camera, and while we collected signatures on an awareness board, we also collected photos of people holding up messages.

I wish that I could work with such an amazing group of people every day; and I’m not just talking about the volunteers and BCAP crew. The individuals and groups who approached our table throughout the day covered a range of ages, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. Some shared stories of his or her personal experience dealing with the disease and subsequent death of a loved one, some gave money, some just signed their names. There was a thrilling sense of community, of breaking down social barriers, of putting yourself out there with a bunch of strangers and finding a common goal in ending HIV. I don’t know how many signatures we collected, but I am willing to bet at least a few hundred.

If you came to Pearl Street yesterday and helped out, whether by holding a sign, mixing packets of hot chocolate, or just showing your support by wearing a red ribbon, or if you celebrated World AIDS Day in some other way, thank you! (Special thanks to Jenna Borys for helping out with the photography.) And if you did not have a chance to be involved, please take a few minutes to watch the video we created and share it with your friends and family. If it can raise awareness or inspire action in just one person, BCAP and I will be grateful!

Post-it Notes, Pizza, and Thanksgiving

2010-11-28T22:04:00.002-07:00

This is the first time in 4 years that my husband and I have not hosted Thanksgiving. It is also the first year we have been married for the holiday season. I had been really looking forward to hosting our first Thanksgiving as husband and wife, with our new matching dishes, using all our wonderful new cookware to create the meal. Unfortunately, all of the ~20 people who usually come to dinner at our place made different plans this year.

We already had our turkey by the time we found this out, so when we were invited to the group gathering at Shady Hollow, we donated our turkey to the feast. Thus we ended up with a roast turkey, a fried turkey, and two smoked turkeys, not to mention huge quantities of side dishes, home made bread, and 3 pies. For 10 people. Only 8 of whom eat meat. (We will be eating a lot of turkey sandwiches this year.)

It was lovely day, and it was a whole lot of fun to have everyone doing their part to pull it together. 4 houses, side by side, with all of us running in and out, sharing ovens and ingredients, trying to keep track of the dogs, playing pass the baby...we couldn’t have had a better day. Thank you to everyone who chipped in to create the experience.

Now, what I really sat down to write was a list of things for which I am thankful this year. So here goes.

My family. The one I was born into, the one I had the great privilege of marrying into, and the one that Nick and I have created by surrounding ourselves with an extensive group of amazing friends.

My health. Aside from the annoyance of bad vision and an astigmatism, I have it good. Wearing glasses and contacts is nothing compared to what some people have to deal with every day. I was reminded of this on Thanksgiving morning, while running the turkey trot. One my fellow runners had synthetic legs, but it didn’t stop him from getting out and doing what he wanted. I will think of this now on mornings when I am having a hard time prying myself out of bed and putting on my running shoes.
My home. I have one. I have several, actually. (See: Family, above.) Most importantly, the apartment I live in with my husband and our cats. It may be small, but it keeps us warm and dry, and it is spacious enough to host gatherings of friends and family. Dinners, game nights, weekly viewings of our favorite T.V. shows...small, yes, but warm and welcoming all the same.
Our car. It is, by my standards, a new car. (It’s from 2005. We bought it new, so to me, it will be new until it needs regular major repairs and is covered in rust.) It runs reliably. It carries everything we need it to, to wherever we are going. The seats fold down to carry furniture when we move, it has survived yearly cross-country road trips to Vermont when we visit our families, it gets us to hard to reach camping locales. It has towed boats and trailers, transported friends and relations, babies, cats, and, on occasion, fish.
My business. It has been alive and well for over a year now, and will continue to grow with me for the next few decades, driven by my love, commitment and hard work. (Sounds like a marriage, and in a way, it is.) I am fortunate to work at something that I love.
My education. I have a college degree. (Two, actually.) I have a high school diploma. Unlike a substantial portion of adults worldwide, I am functionally literate, allowing me to fill out applications for jobs and schools, be transported to other worlds through the reading of books and news articles, and write this blog post.

On a smaller scale, here are a few things I am thankful for which require less extensive explanation.

-Homemade pumpkin pecan pie

-Not being allergic to cats

-Cable television

-Spinach and mashed potatoes. And spinach mashed potatoes. I love them both, together OR separately.

-The internet

-Still getting real mail occasionally, even with regular emails

-Clean laundry

-Good friends

-Good beer

-A husband who cooks, enjoys it, and is good at it

-Warm oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

-Bacon

-Blue jeans

-Postcards

-Vacations

-Indoor plumbing

-My toothbrush

-Pizza

-Happy babies

-Drive-in movies

-Sunshine

-Sunsets

-Fresh snow

-Norma’s homemade mole and Mexican hot chocolate on Dia de los Muertos

-Dinner parties

-Being the little sister

-Being the big sister (it’s fun to be both)

-Coffee

-The ocean

-Post-it notes

-The reflection of city lights, at night, in the rain

-Baseball

-Warm apple cider

-Sweater weather, when the air is crisp and you can snuggle up in something cozy

-Campfires

-Grandparents

-Being loved.

What are you thankful for this year? Please leave a comment below and share your list. Happy belated Thanksgiving!

*Wedding photo by Mahal Bella Photography

Have you hugged a vet today?

2010-11-11T20:34:00.001-07:00

Today is Veterans Day, a holiday that seems to be be largely forgotten or ignored, at least by my generation. I suppose on some level the idea of Veterans Day is similar to Memorial Day, with a few fundamental differences. One of these is that on Veterans Day some of us are lucky enough to be able to give thanks for and celebrate people we know and love whom are still around to thank. I am personally giving thanks today to my grandfather (WWII), father (Vietnam), and uncles and cousins (Vietnam and the current war in the Middle East) who have served in various military branches and fought in assorted wars. I am grateful to them for their selflessness and hard work, the blood, sweat, and tears they and their fellow soldiers have shed, and for the time they have taken away from their families to give to our country.

No matter how you feel about war (this war or war in general), no matter how you vote, or what you think about politics and taxes, take this day to remember all of the good we have accomplished in this country because of the thousands of men and women who go to work in the armed services each year. Give thanks this day for them. And if you are one of the few lucky enough to have a dear friend or family member who has served, give them a hug and a great big “Thank you”. For all of us.

Halloween at the Hollow

2010-10-31T18:41:00.001-06:00

Last night all of our friends at Shady Hollow co-hosted a Halloween party. I love going to gatherings there, because it's such a great little community of neighbors. This party was mostly located between 3 houses, but there were other neighbors who came to hang out, as well as assorted friends from other parts of town. I managed to capture a few fun costumes before I hid my camera away to protect it from possible beer spillage and cupcake frosting.

Enjoy the photos, and have a fun and safe Halloween!

Meredith and Mike

2010-10-27T12:21:00.000-06:00

On September 4th, Meredith and Mike shared a special day and a beautiful wedding with their friends and relatives in Breckenridge, Colorado. I was honored to be there with them as their photographer, and to have a chance to capture the joy and fun in my photographs. So many happy people, laughing children, and attention seeking dogs were there to contribute to the high sprit of the day! I made this video for them to be able to share and remember the highlights of the day forever.
Happy Wednesday!