Oh, and she plays the banjo by the way.

I first shot with her a year ago. That was the first time I’ve ever gone out of the ‘hide in my cave’ comfort zone and asked someone if I they’d mind a little photo shoot. I’ve come a long way since then and this second time around helped me realize the journey I’ve been on with this here photography thing. Here’s a handful of my favorites, all polaroid and film.

Hope you enjoy!

I’ve been out of town for a whole week. In Anaheim for NAMM 2012 with DPA Microphones. I have a very hard time being away from my family. The day before I left for this trip I took this photo with Impossible Projects PX680. I’m happy to be heading home tonight:)

Playin catch up a bit with blog postings.

Here are some frames from some time I spent with Courtney Reed back in August. It was a bit before her wedding to a great friend of mine Chris Nicoletti. She grew up in the mighty fine South and it is quite the tradition to get a bridal shoot in for the parents. Whats not so traditional is most of the shots we got:) haha. She was a sport and wanted to have some fun and get those not so traditional shots in. I was more than fine with that.

So, I was pretty excited when Chris Brown of Refueled Magazine contacted me about some photos of mine that he really dug. He wanted to pull some polaroids and digital shots I had taken with the super rad Natasha Terry for his 8th issue. There’s a little spread above for yah:) He placed a hand full of shots smack in the middle amongst some great stories you just have to check out… I happened to already be familiar with Roy Slaper of Roy Denim and photographer Laura Dart so to say the least, Im very honored to be in the midst of these artists!

Check out the latest issue HERE and keep up with Chris on Facebook! The guy has a great sense of art and style.

Last year I grew out of my 10 year phase of only wearing black and white Chuck Taylors. I was even got married in them. Anyways… This past year was met with both a pair of brown Ranger Mocs and black Ranger Boots from LL.Bean Signature. I absolutely love them, most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn… but both are made for spring, summer and fall. Not so much for winter, my feet end up cold and wet from the snow.

In comes the hunt for a pair of Loggers. Yah see my brother got a pair of Nicks a few years back for wildfire fighting and ever since I’ve wanted a pair. Price is steep though, coming in at around $450 a pair. Then again its a pair for a lifetime but I just wanted something to replace my lame Timberland hiking boots and to keep my feet dry and stable in snow around town or hiking through the mountains. I found these Chippewas at a local place and they happen to carry one pair of loggers, they happen to fit and I happen to have enough Christmas cash to buy’em.

Can’t recommend a pair of loggers enough. Its a whole different world of boot. It lengthens your gait and gives you a couple good inches of height. You’ll want to charge a mountain and swing an axe or better yet fire up a 48″ chainsaw while your beard grows at double speed.

Where’s my flapjacks?!

The first polaroid above was on his third birthday. He was proud:)

Been in one of those nostalgic moods lately. After getting back from hangin with my brother I started going through photos… old photos…. new photos. Came across a few of Olive that I just totally love. It surely captures her spirit. The girl lives in such a magical world, and it is. This place. I feel like as adults we can so easily forget that. Lets remember what its like to be the princess or the hero. yah?

Long story short this is a tip of the hat to my brother. An upstanding man whos heart is for God and family and works harder than anyone I’ve ever met. The boy is a forest fire fighter that risks his life and can run a 42″ chainsaw for 16 hours straight and not complain about the $16 an hour. I miss the hell out of him and hate that we live so far apart right now. We’ve got one of those bonds that in unexplainable and I tend to think that had to do with the way our parents brought us up. We were always together, always best friends, got in and out of many many predicaments.

So… last week we spent about 4 days in the beautiful mountains of Montana with a house full of kiddos which was just awesome and humbling to think we’re in charge of these little ones for some years. The wives had some good bonding time cooking up an amazing Thanksgiving dinner and me and Matt were able to go out hunting one morning and two afternoons, hiked up and down steep terrain covered with snow, came across wolf tracks and finally got us a deer.

Here’s a couple polaroids.

Just can’t believe my baby turned four this past weekend. So weird. Doesnt make sense! Literally feels like yesterday I was working construction from 6am to 3pm then at starbucks from 6pm to 10pm to get me and tess ready for this little baby that was on its way. Well, now we’ve got three:) All beautiful. All so happy. All so adventurous. This little girl, she has my heart.

End it with a polaroid. Shes so proud:)

These two on Polaroid. They love each other so freakin much its beautiful. See next post for some fun lovin digital shots. These here were shot through my trusty Polaroid 195 although the last two are through a Cambo Large Format beast of an awesome camera:)

Some amazing friends of mine got engaged to be married. So unbelievably happy for them!

Chris Nicoletti & Courtney Reed

Here are some digital frames from our time together.

My dad is a carpenter. I grew up noticing how tough his hands looked. I could always smell the sawdust on his clothes. He usually had a beard and sometimes a mullet. His boots were always muddy and his truck smelled like coffee and sweat. Oh, and he knew Karate hence my dad being tougher than your dad.

I’ve tried my hand at carpentry, while in high school I spent three months helping my dad and grandfather build my uncles house back in Charlton Massachusetts. I never felt more like one of the guys as then. That was a great time. Oh and when me and Tess had Olive, our first little kiddo…. We needed to make some extra money so I worked construction for a summer. It was good. It was tough.

There is a part of me that wants to rip some wood on a table saw and hammer some nails and it peaks its head out every once in a while. More so lately. Its nostalgic for me to smell saw dust. I’ve been mounting my prints on birch as of late and its been really fun and it’s a nice change from normal framing of photos. I get my prints done through Wallblank. Archival inks on heavy duty archival paper. Then using some acid free sealant I seal off the sanded birch and use an acid free adhesive to get the print to stick. Drill a small hole in the back and you’ve got a mounted photo hanging flush on the wall. Sliiiiick.

It’s a gift and honor for me to shoot peoples portraits nevermind have the trust of photographing a wedding.  My reason and love for photography stems from my love for people, emotion and creativity. Personal touches are awesome and fun.

This is a little wedding gift I put together for couple whose wedding I recently shot. Im constantly in and out of thrift and antique shops just looking for things that catch my eye. I used to run a vintage tee store on Ebay back before I got hitched. It was epic and that thrift store bug has never left. So while looking for cool things that may suit my style I also look for little things that I can personalize specifically for my family, friends AND clients.

I scored this cool little box that just looks awesome. Found some old vintage stock cards that show off some Colorado landscapes (where this couple spent quality dating time). I pulled some inspiration from Caseys (the groom) amazing beard and searched out an old pocket knife. Every guy needs a good pocket knife. And for Aimee (the bride), her great dreads and cool style helped me find this little feather neclace.

Finishing touches of shredded kraft paper (recycled!), personalized price tags, old string, and a note on thin basswood brings the whole thing home.

Figured I’d share. Thanks for reading!

I’m starting with a post about Day 2 because that is the day that is ending. It’s all fresh and also this day has been very laid back for the most part. I’m tired but really wanted to post a brief with some photos. Yesterday was straight crazy…AMAZING though. Just too much for me to write about now since its about 12:30am and I’ll be waking up in a handful of hours.

Today we spent at a youth center in an area of Rio that was once the most dangerous slum in Brazil. This slowly changed over a period of the last 20 years when an old woman was fed up with the drug running and violence that was taking place. She started to prayer walk and preach the gospel of Jesus. Loving people. When we stepped foot here there was a spirit of calmness and of joy. I was amazed first by the steepness of the streets and old architecture. Buildings crammed on buildings with walkways and stairs just wide enough for one person. I was also taken back by the bright colors. So brilliant. The place glowed.

We were led up into the housing and fed a delicious meal before heading back down to the youth center.

The  youth center. The kids. Great great time. Our hearts were to just plain have fun with these kids and teach them of the Fathers true love. Most of the children are fatherless. This seems to be a running theme down here. So showing them Gods love has been our heart.

I can’t even explain to you the joy in these kids eyes yet also the depth. Things go deep with these little souls. Blows me away. All of this.

Good ole Aaron Strumpel sang some songs to kick off the day with Nick Kofahl dropping the beats on a djembe. These kiddos loved it. Singing, whistling, dancing. Then we went on and played some games with some giant beach balls, had a face painting station and story time.

Throughout the time I was taking photos and along with that I had a Canon i90 printer with me and was printing off 4×6′s to give to the kids. Humbling.

Thank all of you who helped get this team down there. Some wonderful things are happening. Most of all we are seeing joy in the eyes of people. Gods people. We are all Gods people. Lets keep loving.

Here are a few shots.

This camera… I have just started shooting with it and figured I’d throw down a blog post.

So whats so special about the 195? It’s one of Polaroid’s ‘PROFESSIONAL’ models. Ohhhh Ahhhhh. Okay, but how good  can it be? Polaroid Film is dead, right? Nope. Heck no. First off check out the Impossible Project, second off, Fuji still makes peel apart film. Both the Polaroid 180 and 195 were their professional models, meaning the lens is top notch compared to their other models, sharp lens with a much wider aperature. The 195′s got a f3.8 going which will give some some great bokah. The other big thing is that the shutter/aperture is completely manual. Manual is good because that means you are in control. I’ve always loved both my model 100 and 250 which were automatic and can produce awesome results but the control of this camera takes peel apart film to another level.

I’m really stoked to shoot this more often!

For those who may be dipping their toes into photography or polaroid. Here is a couple of examples of what Im talking about as far as having the ability to control exposure.

- So with these two shots below. An automatic exposure will get you the shot on the right. The whole foreground is nice and exposed, detailed and such… which looks great but say you wanted to really catch the depth of the scene and bring out the mountains further out there… which brings you the shot on the left… technically underexposed over all… but there is some drama that is brought into the scene.

- These next 3 shots of my kids. I had them just inside of our sliding glass door. The sunsetting light was catching their face and bodies and the dining room behind them was fairly dark. If I would have shot with with an automatic exposing camera their faces would end up being overexposed, blown out and undetailed because the majority of the frame is the ‘darker room’ behind them so that is what the camera would most care about. With the manual exposure I exposed for their skin which ends up bringing that room completely black.

By the way. These are all shot on Polaroid Chocolate 100 film. Its hard to get, I think The Impossible Project has some left. I love the film. It can give you some great contrast and amazing sharpness.

Thoughts? Are posts like this helpful? Let me know!! Drop a quick comment.

And hey! Thanks for reading!

So got this trip to Brazil coming up very quickly and I needed a bag that could hold a good amount of photography gear along with my 15″ Macbook. Up to this point I’ve been patiently waiting and watching and straight up searching for a legit old school leather bag that would not only be functional but have some real history to it. I didn’t want a brand spanking new bag. I dont really like new things all that much, I’m shying away more and more from being a straight consumer enticed by the glitter and gold. BUT with this whole trip sneaking up on me and since I couldnt find anything that I really really felt for. This is what I got.

The Kelly Moore Boy Bag

I’ve seen it around the blogs lately and a couple of my favorite photographers, Sarah and Chris Rhodes sport these… so figured I’d give it a committed whirl. I needed a bag asap.

My random thoughts on the bag for you who may be wanting one:

Right out of the box, the thing is SHINY!! So slick and shiny looking. Its faux leather which… eh… whatever, of course I’d rather it be real leather. If you care about it looking like real leather, it does the job. Since Im going to be in Brazil with some expensive gear on my shoulder I wanted something that didnt really look like it held some precious items so I took this thing out back into my garden:)

Yep. I threw it down in the dirt, scooped up some soil on this bad boy and started stomping away. haha. This was working pretty good but to really scruff it up I grabbed some 100 grit sandpaper and started scrubbing. My goal of breaking in some faux years to this thing worked out pretty well. All this faux-ness. Its like those jeans we all used to buy from Abercrombie that were $119 and had holes all over the place. Like that.

Well, did it fit what I needed? Yep. Totally does. In the main compartment I can get my Mackbook with Wacom, Canon 5dMKII with the 24-70 2.8 lens, a 580exII flash, either my Polaroid SX-70 or Polaroid 195 Land Camera with some boxes of film and my Yashica t-3 PS. In the back sleeve I’ve got my Dot Grid book and in the smaller pockets I can fit macbook charger, CF cards and reader, 35mm film, earbuds, batteries, the small stuff… you get the picture.

It’s a great bag for sure especially if you are looking for something that will hold a few things to a whole mess of things including a 15″ or smaller laptop. I’m happy with it overall.

Now. My honest opinion also includes somethings that I’m not too fond of. The problem is that I’ve got a Fullgive which is an amazing handmade 100% leather and brass bag for my Macbook. So that is where my perspective comes into play as far as Boy Bags construction goes. First is the strap. Its nylon. Feels and looks really cheap which is a bummer. It’s slick and slippery although its got a slighty padded sleeve that is for your shoulder, eh. The second thing is that when I’ve got my laptop in there along with my Canon the flap stays loose, you see, the flap is magnetized to stay “shut’ for the most part and does if I dont have my laptop in there. It’s def not the end of the world but just for my sake I’m going to have snapping brass buttons installed in place of the magnets.

So overall. This thing absolutely ROCKS when you’ve just got your cams an lenses in there… say for a shoot. If you want a Traveling messenger that will hold much more… it works, but for me, I’ll get the magnets switched out for buttons and deal with the, ehhhh, strap.

Let me know if you have any other questions about it!

So check it out. Shot this quaint little wedding last month. I woke up at 5am, brewed some coffee and hit the road to Breckenridge for the day. I know you’re totally wondering about what I listened to on the drive up there soooo ahhh… I busted out all my old CD’s… MXPX, Jars of Clay, The O.C. Supertones… Ha, it was awesome. On the road into the mountains I went and a thousand youthful memories came flooding back. It was great:)

On the wedding side of things. It was really low key. Casey and Aimee had their friends and family staying at this private lodge for the weekend. It was slightly traditional as far as the ceremony went but above and beyond that it was very humble. Not much in the way of decoration, no bridesmaids, no groomsmen. The heart of the wedding was the hearts of the people. Thats sounds profound in a funny way. But its true. So here are some shots from the day. Keeping it simple.

Had a good mix of digital and film going on.

BTW. If you like some of this stuff?! Click the SHARE on FACEBOOK  or TWITTER button at the end. You’ll get a neat little surprise if you do. Try it out:)

The end. ahhhh. wait. Only the beginning. Ha. Congrats you two:)

Sunset Glow

Aimee and Casey. Amazing people who have such a fun love for each other. Aimee is an artsist with some awesomely long dreads… check out her ceramics here. Casey, he’s got a killer beard that would make any man envy. Their love runs deep and is connected by a very true, humble, and strong love for God, their families, and their friends. With 30 or so of their friends and family they rented out a lodge up near Breckenridge Colorado for a few days. Amazing setting to say the least. Leading up to the wedding they made memories by way of foosball, snowshoeing and laughter over coffee while staying comfy in their pajamas (by the fire!) Shoot what a perfect setting for quality family time and a close intimate wedding!

So anyways…Here is a little preview to this little wedding I shot last weekend! Some polaroids for you to check out as I finish up sorting through the many many other shots from the day.

Some real Polaroids for ya with a cam that was off focus. yet i still love these.