The Christmas Kiss

The day before Christmas Eve my brother was flying in late at night and I had decided to go see my boyfriend before making my way to the airport. We had decided to go around and look at all the Christmas lights in his area and I had this picture in mind for a while so I asked him if we could try it. It took a while to get the lighting right and the owners of the house probably thought we were creepers with our camera set up, but I absolutely LOVE this shot!

Enjoy!

Christmas with the family!

Since it's Christmas time I thought I better make a "Christmas special Blog"! So here it is! This year I spent Christmas with all my siblings (besides my sister Darcy who spent Christmas in rainy California) so I decided to do a photo for each member of my family on Christmas day, so here they are!!

My nephew Joe loves guns of all sorts. When he went to see Santa at Cabela's he told him that he wanted a machine gun, a shot gun, and a rifle. And of course his little sister Courtney wanted everything that he wanted..in Pink. My aunt, uncle, and cousins got him a Nerf machine gun for Christmas (which he loved of course). And my siblings and I got my dad a new shot gun and scope. So we had Joe and Grandpa pose for a picture with their guns. But of course the way Joe was holding his gun made it look like he was about to shoot my dad in the face!

Not only does Joe love guns but he is also into the Star Wars movies right now. So my brother Jeff and I were the great aunt and uncle that we are and decided to get him a light saber. These light sabers are battery powered so they light up. This light saber can also turn into two separate sabers so you can fight and they have sensors in them that make sounds when you hit them together. Joe was definitely not bored on Christmas day with all his toys.

And also you can see in this picture that we did NOT have a white Christmas =(

I woke up in the morning to see the ground covered in white but when I looked a little closer I realized it was just frost from the fog the night before. It was nice enough on our Colorado Christmas day for Joe and I to be outside without a coat on.

Joe also got a Darth Vadar helmet, which my brother, Mark, is fixing in the picture above and my brother Nick, is wearing in the picture below. It has buttons that make it talk like Darth Vadar and also has a voice changer to make you sound like him when you're wearing it.

My niece, Courtney, absolutely loves my sister-in-law, Alisha.

Miss Courtney snuggling with Aunt Alisha on the floor.

You can't have Christmas without naps! My sister-in-law, Stephanie, was taking a nap on the couch and Courtney was climbing in and out of her lap the whole time. When we told her, "leave your mommy alone so she can sleep", she'd still climb right up in her lap and squirm around.

My mom gave Courtney a 'granddaughter' bracelet so she was helping her put it on.

Boys will be boys... Joe had sweet talked my brother, Jeff, into playing light sabers with him outside. When Jeff saw me taking pictures he threatened me to a duel.

Bina Family Photos

Talk about a flash back! Rachel had messaged me on facebook a couple weeks ago asking to meet up to do family pictures while they were home for Christmas. During our sessions I was thinking the whole time about the first time I photographed this family. Rachel and Spencer got married back in 2006 and it was my very first wedding I shot! I had helped my sister photograph Rachel and Spencer as they were taking the first step to starting their family and now they have two adorable kids!

Natalie was so adorable when we were starting pictures. We decided to go to our church to get some pictures with the Christmas decorations and while Rachel and Spencer were in the back talking to our priest, Natalie walked up to me as I was getting my camera out of my bag and watched me as I attached my lens, flash, and put a memory card and when I asked her if she was ready for pictures she smiled and said "YES!" She sat down right where I asked her and was ready to pose!

Here are a few pictures of the family!

Baby Jack!

After pictures at the church we decided to go to the town park to get some of the kids outside. Although it was too cold to get picture of baby Jack outside, I did get some shots of Natalie playing on the playground!

Wild Basin hiking trip

Talk about a beautiful hike! On Saturday my boyfriend, his best friend, and I went on a photography/hiking trip to the Wild Basin/Calypso Cascades and boy was it beautiful!! The snow was falling straight down the whole time, it was a little cold but we were all bundled up so it was no problem, and the scenery was beautiful!!

It took us about 2.5- 3 hours to hike about 2.5 miles up to our destination while we stopped for breaks to catch our breath (and fix my socks to try and stop the blister on my heal from growing), take some pictures, and enjoy the scenery. When we got to our destination we stopped to sit on the side of the path to eat some lunch before starting our journey back home.

It took us about an hour to hike back to the car (most of which was downhill, luckily) because we only stopped once or twice to rest our legs before continuing on. By the time we got to the car I was dead! I had a blister on one of my heals the size of a quarter and another one started on the other heal about the size of a dime from my not so warn in snow boots. My hips hurt so bad that I could barely move! That night my boyfriend and I went to the light show at the Botanical Gardens in Denver and we were both so sore we looked like an 80 year old couple limping around!

Despite the pain it was all worth it because the view was beautiful!

Here are a few pictures from our adventure to Wild Basin.

Annual Christmas photos with Joe and Courtney

It's Christmas time already and I can't believe it!! The past four months have flown by since school has started and the last five years seem to have gone by just as fast!! I've been doing pictures every Christmas for my niece and nephew since Joe's first Christmas back in 2005! The other day I looked back at some of the pictures I did of Joe his first Christmas and I couldn't believe how much he's grown! It has been so awesome to watch these two grow up over the years and be able to record those years with pictures!!

Here are a few pictures from our Sunday night session! Enjoy!

Sunset Reunion

Oh how I've missed the Peetz sunsets! Sunset is my favorite time of day and since I've been at school I've been missing it! My second day back home for Christmas break we had this lovely sunset! My mom and I were sitting in the living room and could see the colors on the wall and I ran to the window and instantly ran to my room and grabbed my camera. If I had been there about two minutes earlier it would have been perfect but it was still amazing!

Here it is!

The sticky adventure

For my last project in my graphic design class we were supposed to make a packaging design for some kind of produce. I juggled a few different ideas around but finally settled on dried fruit. I wanted to design something that is wedding photographer friendly. So I figured dried fruit is something that you can keep in your bag for a few weeks without ending up with green fuzzy camera equipment. I also wanted my package to be easy to open with one hand and quiet so if you're at a wedding and haven't eaten all day, you can grab a quick snack to keep you going without being the center of attention.

I got the idea of using a rosary holder or eye glass case lid as the top. Something that you can just squeeze the ends and open it up. I didn't have much luck finding either of these items so I just put a strip of magnets across the top for a quiet and easy opening! The plastic is a pillow box styled container that I made using plastic, transparency type paper.

I had a little bit of an adhesive problem when it came to attaching everything together. I started off by going to Target and found some Krazy glue. I got home, put glue on the plastic, held it together for 30 seconds and let go to find that the glue didn't stick at all. My next idea was a hot glue gun, I wanted to see if it would melt the plastic or not, but it was clear, which was exactly what I needed. I had a hot glue gun back home and my mom was going to be in town so I asked her to bring it up for me. When she got to town we went to my photo show at school and then went out to eat. About an hour after she left I was sitting in my room and realized she'd left without giving me my glue gun. Needless to say I had to think of a second plan. I ran to Michael's and found the glue section and asked the lady working there if Tacky glue would dry clear. I had used it many years ago but didn't remember if it dried clear or not. The lady swore up and down that it dried clear so I bought the bottle and headed home for another gluing adventure. I put a strip of glue on my plastic, noticing that it was white and not clear, and decided to leave it for a few hours, hoping that it would dry clear. When I returned I still had a white strip of glue on my plastic. So I headed to Wal-mart for hopefully my last adhesive purchase. I stood in the aisle reading the backs of every bottle of glue in the aisle hoping to see it say "This glue will dry clear, with work on all plastics, and help you get a solid A+ on your project!" Of course none of them said that, but I decided to get a bottle of super glue and headed home yet again to glue my project.

And guess what! It worked! Oh boy did it work! It stuck to everything, the plastic, the paper under my project, the stick of wood I was using to flatten it out, and of course my fingers! Despite the fact that I had glue everywhere, I was SOO happy to finally find a glue that worked!!

Here is my final project, Tavalo, meaning table in Italian, was the brand name that our class picked to use for all our products. And Tavalo's latest release is Sunbaked raisins, cherries, and apricots!

The day after I finished my roommate came into my room and asked me if I had any glue she could use to glue her picture frame back together. I opened my drawer and asked her, "Well what kind of glue are you looking for?" =)

Photo session with Scott and Monica

My roommate Monica had asked my boyfriend, Scott, and I if we would be willing to do pictures of her to send to her boyfriend for Christmas since he is in Germany. Since I was spending Thanksgiving weekend in Denver for the wedding with my sister we figured it would be a perfect chance for all of us to meet up since Scott and Monica both live in the Denver area. We started out in the Highlands Ranch and ended up on the DU campus.

It was a blast spending the day with Scott and Monica as we traveled through the city trying to find places to stop and take pictures. Monica couldn't be a better model for us as Scott and I asked her to sit in a drain, sit in a field, jump across streams and hold still so we could use the bottom of a metal chair as a reflector!

Here are a few photos from our day! Enjoy!

Shooting with Miss Darcy

Now that finals are over and I'm on my Christmas break I figured it would be the perfect time to catch up on my blog again!!

The Saturday of Thanksgiving break I helped my big sister photograph a wedding of one of her friends from college. We wanted to try some new lighting techniques for the wedding so we decided to practice at my aunts house during thanksgiving using our family as models. After reading the manuals on both of our cameras and flashes and blinding our entire family with continuous flashing we finally got it figured out! Even though we had struggles with the lighting, I was loving every minute of camera talk with my sister!

I shot my very first wedding with my sister in November of 2006 and we both shot our brothers wedding in 2007 but since she lives in California and I live in Colorado we haven't had a chance to shoot one together in a few years. It was so great to shoot again with the one person who started me into photography. I had a blast at the wedding with Darcy as we taught each other tips and tricks of what has worked for us over the years.

Mary Beth and Donald had a beautiful fall wedding on the Regis University campus. They were very laid back and easy going and were willing to do whatever pictures we wanted. Here are a few picture from the day!!

To view more pictures from the day visit Darcy's website

MissDarcyPhotography

The eyes project

For my final photo project, we are supposed to exhibit four photos that are related, of the same subject, same theme, same topic, whatever it may be. I spent hours trying to figure out what I wanted to do for my project. I thought of doing eyes in the beginning and tried thinking of more ideas but I kept coming back to it. My boyfriend had suggested the idea of eyes as well and I decided to stick to my guts and go with it. I wanted to go for the idea that eyes tell a story. They show a lot about a person without even knowing them. But even more than that, eyes tell age. I decided to use different age groups of people for my project to show the resemblance of eyes and age.

While working on this project I loved it so much I've decided to start an eye project. I was so amazed at the colors, shapes, and designs in peoples eyes! I only photographed five people and I want to turn that into 500! My short term goal is 100 eyes but I want to continue shooting beyond that!

Here are the photos I will be entering in the photo show at my school as well as the start to my 'Eyes project' Enjoy!

This last photo is a little different from the others but I can't get over Garrett's gaze in this photo! Also The colors in his eyes are awesome!

Justin's senior pictures!

A few months back I did senior pictures with Brooklyn and during her session we also did some of her and her boyfriend Jacob. A month or so later I got an e-mail from Jacob's mom who loved the pictures and also wanted some senior pictures of Justin. Since I'm at school now it's been hard for me to meet up with clients. After a while of e-mail tag we finally decided to do pictures the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

I woke up in the morning to find out that it was 12 degrees outside with a freezing wind! I knew my session with Justin would be cold and miserable but if we made it quick we could get through it!

Justin only wanted pictures in a few outfits, (one being his uniform) so we tried out a few locations and I took as many pictures as possible in the shortest amount of time to get us out of the cold as quick as I could. I was wearing my winter coat and gloves and after about 30 minutes I was so cold I couldn't feel myself pushing the shutter button anymore!

Despite the cold I had a great session with Justin! Thanks Justin for taking on the cold for some great photos!

Ejnjoy!

This is probably my favorite picture from our session and I got it just by chance! Justin was talking to his brother as we were walking from one spot to another and he had his flag over his shoulder and I had to take a picture and I ended up loving it!

Fall pictures with Rachael

First of all, I'd just like to celebrate the fact that I'm actually blogging the same night that I took these photos! I don't even remember the last time I did that! It usually takes a few days, if not a few months to blog about my pictures!

Second of all, I decided that if I got a dollar for every picture I ever took of Rachael, I could be a very rich person! I've been doing pictures of Rachael for about five or six months and I'd have to say she's come a long way! Our first photo session it took her about 15-20 minutes to get warmed up to the camera but after a while she got used to it. Now I feel as though she's almost more comfortable with it than I am, and that's saying something!

Rachael had asked me to do fall pictures of her in the leaves about a month ago and between our class schedules, the weather, and the time change we just haven't had the chance to get them done. I was sitting at home today debating on what I wanted to do; work on my graphic design project or start making note cards for my economics test. So I decided to call Rachael and see if she wanted to do fall pictures at her house.

It was a lot colder outside than I had expected so we decided to do fall/bundled up photos in the leaves. Here are a few photos from our session! Enjoy!

After a while outside (and me not having any feelings in my hands) we decided to do some photos inside to stay warm! We went for a glamor style session by just using what lighting we had available in her room. These are probably some of my FAVORITE shots of her from today and may even be my favorites of all time!

And I just made a new watermark! What better way to start it off than with a great model!?