Eddie + Kirsten | S. Lake Tahoe Engagment Session { Sneak Peek }

Yesterday I had the honor to do an engagement session with Eddie & Kirsten. Kirsten and I were best friends in elementary & middle school, then lost touch for a few years. Last year we began hanging out again and she is just as amazing as she was when we were kids. She's sweet, humble, completely adorable, and now engaged to Eddie, who is her perfect match. The two of them are so beautiful, and as if that isn't enough... they were so excited about the shoot that they planned out multiple locations, outfits, and specific ideas for their session. I seriously couldn't ask for a better engagement session.

Here's a sneak peek from their shoot!




More to come!

Ray + Jeanne | Carson Valley Wedding { Sneak Peek }

Here’s a sneak peek of yesterday’s gorgeous wedding in set in the backyard of a vintage ranch house in Gardnerville, NV.



More to come soon! ;]

Nightmare

Last night I had the worst dream.

This Saturday I will shoot my first wedding with my new camera. I am so excited. I adore weddings, and this will be my first of the year (sad, but true.. I've been so busy with school I stopped doing almost any photoshoots, and I've only begun to start scheduling them again). [[plug - please help me fill my calendar and book your shoot today! ;] end plug]]

Anyways, so I dreamt I showed up and it was this incredibly elaborate wedding (one of those weddings that ever photographer dreams of). Their was a fancy staircase outside that had been set up for the ceremony. It was covered with ivy and lights, and surrounded by gazebos. Before the beginning of the ceremony, I climbed the staircase and announced to the entire crowd that I was the wedding photographer [so embarassing to share.. I would NEVER do this], and that I would do my best to stay out of their way, and asked that they excuse the moments when I had to step in front of them to get 'the shot'. During the dream it seemed like this was a completely normal thing to do.. although after I woke up I had to scratch my head and wonder what goes on in my subconcious.

The next thing I remember is waking up (still in the dream) many hours later, and realizing the wedding was over. As I tried to recall where I was and what had happened, I remembered that I was at the elaborate wedding. I scrambled to my feet, looked around, and realized the wedding was over. Fear gripped me. I grabbed my camera, saying a quick prayer that I hadn't missed the entire wedding. But to my alarm, my memory card only contained 5 photographs. I had missed the entire wedding and captured only five images! I was terrified. I assumed (or knew inately) that I had passed out due to vertigo [likely a distant memory from my trip to Las Vegas]. I wondered why the guests hadn't woken me up or noticed I wasn't shooting during the wedding.

I woke up (real life now) in a sweat, freaking out. I spent a couple minutes in the dazed in-between state where you can't remember if the dream was real or not and you're not sure what day it is or where you are. Thankfully when I came to solid consciousness I realized it was Thursday, not Saturday; that the nightmare had been just that; and that I didn't make a complete cheesy fool of myself in front of an entire wedding group. However, I am now a little bit more nervous than I was yesterday about this upcoming wedding. Thankfully my husband will be coming with me, so if I do pass out [highly unlikely.. haven't had vertigo since a week after my trip] he'll be there to wake me up. ;]

Workouts, dreams, and postcards

I feel complexly out of it this morning.

Yesterday I pushed myself really hard in my workout. I played tennis with a friend in the morning, and then headed to the gym in the afternoon. I split a 2.5-mile run around a Core Building class. It was a hard workout, and I was tired and achy everywhere yesterday evening. This morning, I feel like I got hit by a bus. Every muscle on my body aches (except for maybe my fingers), but really everything else hurts.

Last night I had weird dreams – kind of inception based, but then also about college, video games, hostage situations, and the end of the world. To make it more interesting I heard a song by India Arie yesterday, and so the song, along with her name were interlaced throughout my entire dream, and the song was playing in my head when I woke up this morning.

To make this morning even more complex, today is my one day off of work this week – which means intense cleaning and photo business work. And Jeff decided to call in. He came home for a half day yesterday, and then this morning decided he wasn’t feeling well enough to go back to work yet. So rather than getting up at 7 and getting moving, I slept in with my hubby. Until 9:30. Ugh.

And even 9:30 was a hard wake up. You know how you feel after you take a long nap in the middle of the day? A nap that should have lasted 30 minutes but ended up being 3 hours? Where you feel even more drowsy and tired than you did before you went to sleep and your body is completely sluggish? That’s what happened at 9:30 this morning.

But now I’m up and went straight to it. (yes I’m blogging, but I’m multitasking so its okay!) I’m printing postcards for a wedding this Saturday, hoping my dandy little printer doesn’t run out of ink before I print enough of these cards! (It has been saying Ink is low for the last couple days, but I’ve printed over ten full page, double sided color prints and it isn’t empty yet!). I can’t wait to share these postcards with you and all the guests at Saturday’s wedding! Now off to work around the house!

Camera is here. For real.

I have to apologize... for acting somewhat childish and complaining (a lot) about camera #1 not working. I should have been patient, and I wasn't. I'm sorry.

In other news... Camera #2 is here. And it works. And its awesome.

.... More to come soon. ;]

Troubleshooting, day 2

Last night I stayed up till 2 in the morning troubleshooting and reading forums. Canon technical support was closed so I was left to my own devices. When I finally went to bed I had dreams that I fixed the camera and it was fully functional and working. I woke up with hope, but to my dissapointment, my dreams did not come true.

Instead, Canon technical support told me I had already tried everything that I could do from my end. (I replaced the date/time battery and went to the local photostore and tried another main battery). They told me I could ship the camera to them and then it would be another 5-7 days for turnaround. They also said to call B&H becase they would likely be able to just replace it. But of course... today has to be the ONLY day of the week that B&H is CLOSED!

Needless to say, today I've been feeling grumpy and bummed out. I had to remind myself that it isn't the end of the world. The camera is a lemon and it will be replaced. I still have another great camera that allows me to create great images. And on a larger scale... life isn't any worse than it was two days ago when I didn't have the camera at all... I'm loved by God, I'm adored by my husband, I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and food in my fridge. And I need to be thankful.

Yay Camera is Here!!!! ...NOT.

What a day of mixed emotions. Anxious, excited, stressed, giddy, happy, let down, hopeful, bummed, more bummed, extremely dissapointed.

7:00a awake, getting ready, cannot believe today has finally arrived... the day my new camera will arrive!

8:00 Jeff left for work. I'm left in an empty house to prepare for hosting bunko.
next few hours spent cleaning and working on my new website layout, all the time anxiously watching the clock and wondering when UPS will arrive.

12:00p cleaning, finding subs for bunko.

3:30 UPS arrives. hardly able to contain my excitement as I sign the UPS person's tablet. bring box inside. jump up and down (literally) while screaming giddily like a little girl)

3:35p Unpacked the box (which was more round that box shaped due to the amount of air bubbles inside to protect my order)
assembled the lens filters on the two lenses, put the strap on the camera, put in the memory card, and finally the battery.
flipped switch to on. nothing happens. dissapointment.
plug battery into charger into wall and sit anxiously.

6:15 battery charger light turns green (battery fully charged. put in camera, turn switch to on, nothing. try everything - take apart reassemble, etc... nothing.

6:30 bunko. camera troubleshooting.

11:00 lookup possible battery replacement fix. Walmart with Jeff. they don't carry proper battery size. really bummed.

12:00am lookup troubleshooting on forums, canon website, call canon tech support (closed). retake apart everything from box position. reassemble, still nothing.

12:30 defeat. extremely dissapointed.

I know Canon will replace the camera/battery/etc if it is faulty. But I'm just really dissapointed that the camera I've been saving for for almost 2 years is finally here. [can I stress the finally? ...like this purchase is a huge step for me] And I can't even get the camera to turn on. There are all these buttons I want to figure out. All these dials I want to customize. A super awesome lens I want to experiment with. Oh and did I mention I now have a camera that can shoot video? Definately need to play with that. But I can't. And so it all just sits here. Its too late to do anything because nobody is open. :[

I'm thankful that I'm blessed enough to have been able to save money to buy this camera. I'm blessed that I live in a place that I can purchase a camera and have it delivered to my house. I'm thankful that if it is faulty it will be replaced.

I just wish it would have worked perfectly from the get-go. Maybe tomorrow everything will work itself out. I hope.

A new camera? Oh yeah... No big deal. {oh and 20% off portrait sessions}

I've been saving for a new camera &/or computer for quite some time now. All my birthday and christmas money along with all my photoshoot funds and extra scholarship money were set aside. With my recent graduation, I finally reached the tipping point - and was faced with the decision of purchasing a camera or a computer.

Those of you that know me or have had any class with me, would instantly tell me my decision is a no-brainer... my dinosaur of a computer needs to be replaced. And I agree, my computer does need to be replaced, much more than my camera does.

However, I can't decide what kind of computer I want. An iMac would be great because i would have an amazing screen, an all in one compact space saving, but still an editing machine. It would give me enough mobility to work in my office or living room or dining room as I pleased. A Macbook pro would also be awesome. Smaller screen, but even more portable- meaning I can edit at Starbucks or on a trip or wherever I want. Or I can get a custom built pc with windows7. The benefit of this is its much cheaper... My dad is a software engineer and so I'd only pay for parts. The computer would be incredibly fast and yet super cheap (in comparison) but I would still need to buy a nice monitor and if I wanted to be portable, I'd be stuck using my current dinosaur laptop. So I haven't been able to decide.

However when it came to a new camera, I knew exactly what I wanted. 3 words... Full frame sensor. So my options were Nikon D700 or Canon 5D Mark ii. Nikon meant I could use same lenses, Canon meant video and slightly cheaper, plus a wider use (to my knowledge) by photographers I respect and look up to. Canon won.

I wanted to wait until I had my official business stuff setup so that it could be a legit business expense. A couple weeks ago I setup my business bank account, but wasn't able to use it because I was stuck waiting for my card. I was looking at my photoshoot schedule and realized I couldn't put off purchasing it any longer if I wanted to use my new camera. Miraculously that day my card came in the mail!!!

That night I hopped on, and with little thought or deliberation, ordered the Mark ii, with the 24-105 lens, the 50 mm lens, a memory card and some uv filters. It was kind of odd to spend such a large chunk of the money I've been saving these past couple years with only a couple clicks of the mouse. I got an email today stating my entire order shipped and should arrive Friday!!!! I'm so excited. :D

I am definitely looking forward to my upcoming photoshoots. And since I'm so gosh darn excited about my camera and want to get started on lots of photoshoots asap, I'm going to offer 20% off any family, engagement, or senior portrait session booked by next Friday for a summer photoshoot!!

Email me for first choice of photoshoot dates! And check back for sneak peaks!