I got this awesome email from the talented photographer Claire of Rouxby where she mentioned she dug my photos and wanted a 2nd shooter at a certain wedding… that wedding is of Brandon and Christie. So she flew into Denver for an afternoon engagement session where I tagged along slinging so

me film. Now… it was kind of a crazy day… some serious wind was happening… like 80mph wind gusts. The road that I needed to take to meet these folks was closed down and when we all arrived we realized that we were going to be freezing cold with dirt and dust blasting us. We made it quick, there wasn’t much talking or hanging out. It was… get out of the truck and lean into the wind, we should be safe cause no one is wearing these fancy pants.

Along with this quick outdoor session we realized that there was a place close by that we could shoot indoors… well, as soon as we got there and I snapped off a couple shots my wife calls me and is in labor with our 4th little one. Needless to say I asked her over the phone… “So I should probably pack my stuff up and meet you at the hospital?” — it ended up being false labor:)

To top it off, Holly over at Mile High Bride has featured a set from the shoot on the blog!! Go check’em out HERE.

It was a fun time for sure, nice and casual and of course was a pleasure working with Charles, Willow, and Dina Bree. Got a handful of goodies…

Anyways. Wanted to give a shout out to my friend Mark Von Minden as he’s been doing some awesome things with his cameras. First off these two portraits of myself. A week or so ago we jumped into a studio and started messing around with lighting and old cameras while catching up on life and he goes and snags these two shots…I almost died when I saw them, especially this second one. Can’t even tell you how fancy I feel. Amazing. The dude is also featured on the Impossible Projects Blog for his Autumn Songs Series. Here’s a snippit from his site describing a bit about the project:

“autumnsongs is an evolving analog instant photography series by photographer Mark von Minden. Each autumn a set of new instant photographs are paired with a corresponding set of songs by a variety of artists which are then mixed into a DJ set by Mark. While autumn colors and leaves were the original subject matter, there is also a strong element of abstraction within the work. Ultimately, an overall theme of change and progression informs Mark’s approach to the project each year.”

You should surely check it out, browse the photos and soak up the vibey tunes.

“I’ve always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can’t afford it.” What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of “security.” And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine – and before we know it our lives are gone.

What does a man need – really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in – and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all – in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.

The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life? ”
- Sterling Hayden

Here she is. I met her something of 8 years ago and we’ll have been married 7 years this June. Do that math and you’ll see we believed in love at first sight, seemingly set apart for each other by the Almighty:)  I vividly remember the first time she ever walked into the Starbucks I was working at in Las Vegas. Her eyes. Thats what caught me first. The second thing that caught me was her quiet spirit, everyone in Vegas, especially the girls are so damn forward. Anyways… one thing then another thing and POW I’ve spent 8 years of my life with the most wonderful and beautiful girl I could have ever imagined. The girl loves deep. There’s so much compassion, care and encouragement. She really is my safe place and also the courage when I need it.

I’m glad she let me take some intentioned photos with her. By the way… she’s pregnant with our forth little Renaud in these here photos. Pregnancy is beautiful, but bare pregnant bellies flailing out all over the place… uhhhh… not my thing when it comes to photos:)

Here’s a few of my favorites.  Film shot through the Contax G2 and Polaroids either the 195 or SX-70.

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:)

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!

Dahhhhhh. Been really busy. I’ve let the blog go silent for a bit… but that means I’ve got a lot of work to be posting here for a while:) Been really productive, being creative, having lots of great fun.

So theres this thing me and a few guys came up with… BRAZILLASAURUS. Check out our humble beginnings as a blog… it will soon fill up with wonderful things.

Brazillasaurus is the brainchild of four dudes that love God, art, storytelling, and fun. It will be a written-narrative-photographic-outlet for the aforementioned gentlemen. There will be art. There will be stories. There will be love. There will be gnawesomeness. We’ll be heading down to Brazil as a part of the RESOUND team. We’re going to hit the ground in Rio and spend a day in an orphanage just hanging with the little ones, we’ll be spending a day in one of the worst hit areas of a recent tsunami that left massive destruction, and we’ll be putting on a Resound Worship Conference with a focus of spreading the love of Jesus and encouraging creativity in worship.

Now this is all “the plan” although everything and anything can change once there. My focus will be to find stories and follow those threads. We all really want to have very meaningful connections with each person we encounter. I’ll be bringing my cameras to document, to capture stories, to connect with people, to encourage, to instill wonder, fun and love in the hearts of children, youth and adults.

Now… since we’re a bunch of broke artists:) We’ve brainstormed and come up with this crazy thing that I believe will grow because of its massive hunger. Brazillasaurus is an avenue for us to sell off some of our art to raise money so that this trip can actually be paid for. None of us are getting paid to go down there (its a missions trip!) and the only expense that is covered is housing while there.

Head over to our shop and fish around for something. If it catches your eye, dont think twice!! Buy it, pay for it through paypal and you’ll have some awesome art to hang on your wall along with contributing to something much bigger!

PLEASE!! Share the heck out of this post on facebook!!! Link at bottom of post:)

And for some fun follow BSaurus on twitter: @brazillasaurus

I was nervous and slightly intimidated. I’ve never worked with models before. I didn’t know what to expect and was also struggling with the feeling that I had to live up to these girls expectations… they’ve worked with some amazing photographers! Ah the pressure. But its cool. I’ve been able to overcome my fears in situations like this with a humble attitude and remember that Im there because I love to capture honest images. I’m up for the challenge to get that spirit, that something which speaks through a photo and to the viewer. More than anything though Im there to hopefully connect on a relational level with people and have fun. Its all about the process. I feel like I learned a lot this day since we had time to relax and just shoot.

It was an awesome collaboration with photographer Shannon VonEschen from Shalynne Imaging, Natosha Cooke from Aphrodite Affairs, gowns by Alisa Benay, Brandice Rodriguez throwing down killer hair style, Cassandra Rose Events for some charming outdoor decor, and models; the stunning Brytny Shea Marquez,  Luccia Cafiero , and Austin David Schott. 

We took a few hours and shot inside the Boulderado Hotel in Boulder, CO. Great place, great light and vibe. They were awesomely accomodating too! Then we decided we didnt want to be warm and cozzy anymore and would rather freeze our butts off so we moved outside just before sunset… drove up Flagstaff Mountain and had a little setup on a picnic table in the snow! That was sick for sure. Cold… but great. Don’t wear TOMS in the snow… its the same as going barefoot. Literally couldn’t feel my feet for an hour! Anyways… here is a preview by way of Polaroids! My favorite medium. I took some 35mm and digital shots too… I’ll post more soon.

These here are all shot from my Polaroid 250 on some nice and old ID-UV film. Magic. What do you think? The polaroids lend a sense of mystery, eh? More and more I’m understanding the fact that light is the most important tool and so freakin dynamic. It’s never the same. Light is fantastic.