A+C

When I was finishing A&C’s proofing gallery I found a few more pictures that I just loved and had to share!

This background was so random and so awesome.  The paint job looked like Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and then Sponge Bob lanterns??  Sweet.

Alex

Oh my was this a fun shoot for me.  I photographed baby Alex a week after she was born (she must be getting so big now!) and she was so wonderful to me.  She slept the entire time.  We took one break for her lunch and then she was back to sleeping.  I could have continued photographing her all day as she continued to sleep peacefully in her bassinet after I left!  I did have the urge to just hold and cuddle her all day.  She’s so quiet nobody would have noticed if I’d packed her up too, right??

This next one is one of my favorites.  So sweet.

Can’t think of a better way to spend a Tuesday.

A’s Maternity Shoot

This shoot got rescheduled at least 3 times due to our perfect record of choosing stormy days!  When it finally worked out the weather was perfect.  Oh, it was so nice.  Not hot, not cold, not too sunny, not too cloudy.  Perfect.  It also allowed this mama-to-be to grow a little more!  She’s nearly 34 weeks here, can you believe it?  She’s so tall that baby has tons of room to stretch out and when she’s sitting or laying she hardly looks pregnant (there are a LOT of jealous women out there A!).

We started off the shoot at her apartment complex.  They were so nice and let us use one of the model apartments.  It was ridiculously cute and had great light!

We finished off the shoot at Uptown Park.  I’ve wanted to shoot here ever since I moved here!  It was really fun and I discovered things I hadn’t noticed before.

This next shot is a good example of some of the wonders of post-processing that I thought people would like to see.  I took this picture (below) knowing that I wanted to bring in the background more, but in order to expose for A’s face, the background has to be over-exposed.  So I exported this image from Lightroom as is,

and then decreased the exposure significantly and exported this one as well.

I put them together and after a little masking and editing, voila.

We happened to be walking by crave cupcake and I suggested that we get a pink cupcake for A’s little cupcake that she’s growing.  She said her husband would really like these shots and I know I do!

C came along again and helped me shoot and grabbed this lovely shot while I was focused on the cupcake.

I can’t wait for baby to get here!  Expect a beautiful new baby girl to grace this blog in June.

Helping Haitians help themselves

I’m a firm believer in helping people become self-sustaining.  I believe the best way to help others is to teach them and give them the resources they need to help themselves.

I’m sure many of you have already pulled out your wallets to send help to Haiti or some of the other regions of the world that have recently sustained damage due to natural disasters and I know your generosity is greatly appreciated by many.  The current economy has affected many people, including members in my immediate family, yet people continue to donate their time and money to help those in need.  What a great country we live in that we’re able to help so many others!  If you’re able and feel so inclined, here’s another great way to help.

One of my past grooms (and a close friend for the last 8 years) has helped build an organization called Sustain Haiti.  He recently served a mission for our Church in Florida, where he learned Haitian Creole and frequently interacted with and taught Haitians and is now looking forward to helping them this summer in their homeland.

This is Craig (and his lovely wife Jackie) back in October:

More than 100 BYU students have formed Sustain Haiti, a group dedicated to helping the victims in Haiti. Led by Warner Woodworth – founder of HELP International and Humanitarian Action Research Team – they are graduate and undergraduate students (some speak French or Haitian Creole and some are native citizens of Haiti ) looking to make a difference to those affected by the earthquake in Leogane.

Their Goals:

1) Provide hands-on education in square-foot gardening.

2) Provide sanitation/hygiene education.

3) Work with and through Haitian micro-finance institutions to identify micro-enterprise.

4) Provide clean water technology.


How You Can Help:

For more information and to make a donation, go to:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Sustain-Haiti

Volunteer!  They’re still looking for volunteers and if anyone is interested in going to Haiti to help out you can contact Craig directly at palssonc (at) gmail (dot) com or you can send me a message from my contact page above and I’ll forward the email.

You can stay current on the project at their blog:

http://sustainhaiti.blogspot.com/

You can read a short news article here:

In the past I’ve been able to travel to the Philippines and Africa to serve in orphanages and I would have never had such an opportunity without the generous donations of others.  Here’s a picture of one of my sweet little African orphans.

While I can’t show you any pictures of the kids from the Philippines (they had a strict picture policy and I made a promise to the nuns; you can’t break a promise made to nuns!), but here’s a shot (back when I shot 100% film) of some other cute kids:

Their goals for Sustain Haiti are so practical in helping the people in Leogane become more self-sufficient.  It sounds like such a great opportunity to all involved.  Go here to donate!

Flushmount Albums

I always get people asking about flush mount albums, and if you haven’t seen one before you probably don’t understand what they’re like.

Here are some examples of some awesome albums!  The pages are designed by me and the pictures are printed on Fuji Crystal Archival paper and mounted right in the album (so it’s not the type of album you stick 4×6’s in).

The pages are sturdy (similar to a child’s board book, but not as thick).

Here are a few more of the designed spreads.