That time I was desperate.....

There was this one time (last Sunday)

When I was desperate to clear up some space on my 'start up disc'

I frantically deleted pictures thinking they were saved on my external.

They weren't.

I deleted beautiful pictures of my cousin Bryton.

Fabulous pictures of my sister Natalie (sorry Nat, haven't told you yet).

And last but not least stunning pictures of my friend Talor (whom I asked to pose for my portfolio)

Thank heavens I didn't delete pics of things that can not be replaced.

I can always have Bryton and Nat pose for me.

But I was really bummed about Talor's pics.

Because Talor is fabulous.

She plays softball for ASU and she is super good.

She's gonna get me backstage passes to one of their games next year.

But on top of those fun facts Talor is beautiful and sweet.

AND SWEET.

She is so dang sweet?

Aren't people that good looking supposed to be rotten inside so the rest of us feel better about ourselves?

I already messaged her and she said she would pose for me again.

Thank heavens.

And she didn't even judge me for being such a moron that I deleted the pics.

What a gem.

This is the only picture I managed to salvage of her.

Most of you have seen it since it was posted on Busy Bee.

But I wanted to post it here as well.

Thanks Talor for always being such a fun and genuine person to be around.

Christmas in the Desert

Oh how I miss the desert.....just not in July. While Minnesota was getting record snowfall, my precious and me were able to spend the holiday in sunny AZ. Temperatures were perfect, nights were cool, and family was amazing. We took well over 1,000 shots and these are some of our favorites.

We woke up early one morning but not early enough to catch the sunrise over Usery Pass. We paid 6 dollars to enter the park, and it was worth every penny. While Taylor and Maddy were practicing yoga on the rocks....I was able to frame up some good pics.

It is so much fun to experiment with different F-stops, shutter speeds, and use different lenses. The cacti were shot with a 50MM prime lense and landscapes all shot at 24MM....I was hoping for a 16-35MM Canon L lens for Xmas but that didn't happen:(










We missed the sunrise but were still able to get some pictures. The sky in Arizona is amazing at sunrise and sunset.....so many different colors.




Salt River shot midday.....the AZ sky is so blue once you leave the city. We met a guy named Dean from Minnesota who was squatting with his camper. He was building a pyramid of Budweiser cans with his poodle, after all, it was noon on Christmas Eve. He said he had our backs if the "five oh" showed up giving parking tickets. The fine to park was $100 but worth the risk to get the picture. Thanks Dean.




Just pulled off the road north of Saguaro Lake to get this picture of 4 peaks. Nothing special....I'm sure many tripods have been setup in this parking spot.



I convinced Ivy to walk out into the desert with me on this one. We didn't have a gun or a flashlight and it was pitch black. We weaved through cactus and brush hoping we didn't stumble upon a rattlesnake or coyote. Ivy was a brave soul and took the lead because I was a little scared. We setup several shots with long exposures without being able to see anything until the picture came up in our LCD screen.

It got a little awkward when a truck pulled up next to Krystle and Taylor. They were waiting in the car for fear of snakes and serial killers. Ivy and I decided to leave our post and venture back to the road. The old couple from Iowa in the truck looked at me strangely as I walked out of the dark desert with an 11 year old, camera, and tripod. It then occurred to me how potentially bad this looked. I immediately made small talk with my Minnesota accent and showed the old couple my pictures on the LCD screen of my camera. They were impressed and hopefully let go of any suspicions of me being "the creeper with the camera."





Our Christmas night venture started late for our mission was to go deep into the Superstitions and find the perfect shot. We started at Canyon Lake and it was really dark. The only light we could find was in the marina and we were quickly booted out of there. We made our way back toward town when I glanced to the south and noticed the moon coming up. I thought to myself that it might be cool to try and get to the west side of the Superstitions and get the moon from behind. We found a spot in the back parking lot of an Apache Junction VFW club along with several other squatters. I'm sure they had permission to be there but we didn't. I could see old people peeking through the windows of their house on wheels. I was waiting for a drunken blue hair to storm out of his mobile home with a shotgun in hand but luckily that never happened. I just hope they were able to witness the moon rise over the Superstitions like we did.



This picture is just a longer exposure.




Post by Corey Johnson

Miss Tude

Bryton Brown.

I would totally be fine if one day I woke up and my face looked like yours.

Burning at both ends....

I am exhausted.

I have been working hard with photography/hair.

I have been up until at least 4 am every morning.

It was so worth it.

I heart my job.

Both of them.

One of my genius clients informed me that I'm burning the candle at both ends.

She said her mother used to have a candle stick with a wic on both ends.

She used to light each end on fire and let it burn to the middle.

Then the flames would meet .......

And nothing would be left.

I have got to work a little smarter.

That way nothing gets neglected/left behind/ or forgotten.

I am sorry to any of my friends out there if you have been neglected and/or forgotten this week.

I've had nothing left.

But, I just perused through my external hard drive and I've found some inspiration.

I am inspired again.

I am renewed.

And on top of that guess what?

My ovaries are aching.

I want one of these for myself.

What do you think?

Recent Stuff

Just came across some of my favorites on the computer.

Thought the blog could use a new post.

And since I look scary as crap today;

Here are some real good lookin people for you to stare at

Enjoy.