Helping the community....An Auction.

I really believe that it is important to support and help our community and I really try to do as much as I can to help out.

Dan and Kristin Albers, from Domestic Bliss, contacted me awhile back to let me know about a family that was in a horrible plane crash in August. They have a ton of medical expenses and need the community's help in order to recover from this accident.

On October 18th, Domestic Bliss of Mesa Arizona, will be hosting a Nie Recovery Carnival Style Fundraiser as part of their Fall Blissfest. Part of the festivities will include a silent auction.

They asked if I would help out and donate something for an auction and of course I said that I would help out.

I am donating a portrait session and a $150 credit for prints. If you would like to bid on this all you have to do is go to the Nielsen Auction Blog and bid on the session. This item is worth $450 so be as generous as you can to help this family! I will not be taking any of the money... all money will be paid directly to the Nielsen Fund.

I will also have a few more auctions that I will be doing to help other families this fall. Please stay tuned for more information about them.

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A little more about the Nielsen Family

On Saturday, August 16, 2008, Stephanie Nielson was in a plane crash with her husband, Christian Nielson, and his flight instructor, Doug Kinneard, near St. Johns, Arizona. Doug Kinneard passed away soon after arriving at the Maricopa County Hospital.

Christian & Stephanie remain in critical condition at Maricopa Burn Center. Christian has sustained burns on over 30% of his body. His wife Stephanie’s body was burned over 80%.

To read more about the Nielsens please go to their blog.

Christmas Cards!!

Well it's that time of the year again.... time to order your Christmas Cards!!!

This year we have a tone of great options for Christmas cards and i'm so excited to show them all to you!

I will shortly be posting a little information about the dates still available for Portrait Sessions, but until then you can all look at these great cards.

These cards are great for Christmas if you got family portraits, wedding pictures, or engagement pictures done this year. It's very easy to print them, so just let me know what images you would like to use from your session and which card you would like to use.

If you would like to schedule a session and order cards just email me.

These are just a few of the cards.. we will be adding more in the next few days.

Card Pricing

25 Cards ....... $125
50 Cards ....... $225
75 Cards ....... $325
100 Cards ...... $425

Update on Aaron Robinson

If you have been following my blog you know that one of my past clients (3 year old Aaron Robinson) has just been diagnosed with cancer. It has been so hard on him and his family and I want to do everything possible that I can to help them out. They are of course having financial difficulties because of the expenses that occur with Cancer treatments.

One way that you can all help is to log into his Care Page that Barbara, Aaron's mom, has created for them. The more support they have from the community the better and the more people that know of Aaron's disease, the better it will be financially to support the family. This way you can also be updated on his status.

If you would like to log into his care page you can view it at: http://www.carepages.com/carepages/AaronRobinson

You will have to create an account, but it will give you all the updates on this little guy! Please stand in prayer and faith with us on this!

Also, coming very soon I will be announcing another way that you can help Aaron and also get some great pictures out of it!

Tommy and Christa in Sedona... a little rain never hurt anyone!!!

Oh so much to say about this wedding.. so much!

Sedona . Gorgeous Bride . Killer Cake . Rain . Family and Friends . Fun Times .

First of all I need to Thank Kimberly Bee for coming along with me on this wedding and 2nd shooting.. she got some amazing shots and I had to include a few of them. I will try to point them out so you can see what a great shooter she is! Thanks Kim:)

I met Christa and Tommy last week also for the first time. I had been talking to Christa for about 4 months, but we decided to do an engagement session last week... (it's one of the engagement sessions I just posted)... we had a great time and talked a ton about their wedding. I have been looking forward to the wedding because it was in Sedona (one of my favorite places to shoot). They got me even more excited about everything that they had planned.

I showed up Friday night and stayed at the same Resort that the wedding party and family were at, Oak Creek Terrace Resort. I was able to go to the Rehearsal dinner and meet everyone! I loved it because I felt like part of the family and everyone was so nice.


On Saturday morning we woke up very early and started shooting the getting ready section of the day.











Christa and Tommy wanted to see each other ahead of time so we also did all of the portraits before the ceremony.











Kimberly Bee got this amazing moment!



Gorgeous Bride!!! I Love these!





This is from Kimberly Bee as well... Love it!


Christa has 2 wonderful kids and we had to get a family picture. I Love this one!


The little guy!


Christa planned this wedding all by herself. She came up with all the decorations and made them all herself as well. The details were AMAZING!


And the CAKE!!!! Look at the Cake!!! Sedona Cake Couture did a phenomenal job with the cake. I have never seen anything like it! Tommy is a fire fighter for the surprise Fire Department and the girls at Sedona Cake Couture created an exact replica of his fire truck!!! AMAZING!


The flowers were amazing as well. Angel Floral in Sedona did a great job!


Now for the crazy part....

The day called for possible rain and Christa was concerned the entire time because the ceremony and reception were all outside, with no place to go if it rained. We all prayed that the rain would stay away... but unfortunately we weren't that lucky. About 30 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to begin it started to rain... first a little sprinkle and then a downpour.

Christa was amazing, she kept her cool and decided just to go on with everything. They braved the rain and she and her father walked down the aisle with an umbrella. All the guests huddled under whatever they could find to stay dry, and Kimberly Bee (my second shooter) and I did everything we could to protect our gear so that we could still shoot.


















Everything did get a little wet... hmmm.... but it all worked out in the end.


After the ceremony everyone was soaked. Christa came up to me and said, "my dress is already trashed, can we go trash it more in the creek?". This is my kind of bride. We headed out to the creek and Tommy and Christa crossed over to the rock where Tommy proposed to her and we got some really fun sexy pictures.















I think the rain was worth it to get these pictures... whatcha think????

And in the end, it all worked out! Everyone changed into jeans, they moved the party up on the patio, and everyone ate and had a great time.... the kids for sure enjoyed it!



And although this is pretty much blackmail, pictures of Kim and I, I have to show our rain attire. I was covered with bags and panchos to protect all of my gear and we totally ghetto rigged the bags over our cameras. But it worked... everything stayed dry!



Thanks Tommy and Christa... we had a total blast!!!!

Michelle and Paul at the Hotel Valley Ho

A few months ago I was contacted by Michelle asking me to photograph their wedding... they wouldn't be in town until the week of the wedding but were sure that they wanted me to be the photographer. Of course I said yes! They planned their entire wedding from San Francisco! They had never even seen the venue, the Hotel Valley Ho, until the Wednesday before their wedding. His mother found it and told them about it! What a trusting bride huh?

I really wanted to meet them before the big day, so the Wednesday before their wedding I met up with them for Dinner at Trader Vics, near the Valley Ho. We had a great dinner and had a wonderful time chatting and getting to know each other! It made the day of the wedding so much easier! I LOVE getting to know my bride and grooms!

So the day of the wedding came, September 27th, and we got some great amazing shots. I had a great time with all of Michelle and Pauls family and friends!! I LOVE my job!

I am so thankful too that my friend and photographer, Michael Chansley, could come and help me shoot the wedding. He hung out with the guys and got some great shots.

This is one of the shots Michael got of Paul with their daughter.. isn't she so cute?





I loved the rooms at the Hotel Valley Ho, they were so modern and unique.. a perfect spot to take great dress pictures!








A favorite shot!





Dawn, the wedding coordinator at the Hotel Valley Ho, was wonderful and helped it all go smoothly.. she even sent Michelle and Paul a nice card and some wonderful Chocolate covered strawberries that Michelle and the little flower girls devoured!


Michelle had to help to make sure that the chocolate and strawberries didn't get all over the dress!





Love this shot of Michelle!


Michelle and Paul decided to see each other before hand (which I LOVE). We got some great moments of them together!


A Very large wedding party! Lots and Lots of kids!


And then my favorite time of the day... the Bride and Groom time!!








Favorite!!!



The ceremony was on top of the roof at the Hotel.. it was spectacular! This is Michelle getting ready to walk up the aisle.


It was pretty dark by the time the ceremony started so we had to get creative with lighting to make sure we could capture the whole Ceremony! These next few shots are some of my favorite Ceremony pictures ever!





They had a really cool Candy bar at the reception.. lots of yummy goodness!



And the cake was gorgeous... however, towards the end of the night the cake decided it didn't want to stand up straight anymore. Luckily we had already taken a before shot... so this is before....




and this is after! Michelle and Paul had to hold up the cake for their cake cutting! I've never seen this before:) Awesome! What great troopers!



Thank you guys for a great wedding!! I enjoyed it tons!