Peace, please, peace

For the last several months a Good friend of mine and his beautiful family have been going through one of the most painful, struggles imaginable.
Several years ago Brent and amber thought they were done with kids. They had three kids already and the last one pregnancy was so rough that they knew, they were not able to have more. Somehow though deep down they knew that their family was not complete.
After much prayer and soul searching they were lead to an orphanage in china and to their waiting son. Stephen was already a special little kid. Like memo, he has a lucky fin, his right hand did not develop as it should have.
They brought him back to his new life and new family and life was alright. That is until late last year.
Toward the end of the year Stephen was having some pretty bad headaches and nausea. They got so bad they took him in and discovered a baseball size tumor in Stephen's brain.
They had surgery right away and removed a good chunk of it, but this type of tumor is so rare that it was outside of the abilities of the local drs to take care of. Stephen was transferred to to st Jude's children's research center in Memphis. The he had another surgery and underwent a high level radiation on his brain to get rid of the cancer. Because of the rarity and the rapid speed of this cancer, it has been an uphill battle.
Most recently they have hit some road bumps, well maybe even road blocks. They had finished with the radiation and took a make a wish trip to Disney world. They had no sooner finished the trip when Stephen started suffering severe sciatic nerve pain. He was suppose to return to st Jude's but was delayed because of the pain and other related nerve problems. They were finally able to dial in a good mix of pain killers nerve blockers and steroids to get his to be able to travel to st Jude's. When he arrived they went right in to diagnosing the new pain and doing other tests to get him ready for his chemo. They discovered that the nerve pain was being caused by an egg sized tumor on his pelvis
This tumor looks to be at/rt because of the speed of growth. This tumor in tangled up in major nerves and arteries and will be a beast to get rid of. On top of that they found another trouble spot in Stephens brain. Which is likely either a fungal infection or another tumor. Either scenario is not good. That combined with the pelvic tumor adds up to a less than hopeful scenario.
We have all been praying for the family, even little Eden ask heavenly father to bless Stephen. The family is asking for prayers still and maybe now more than ever. The prayers they ask for now are ones of peace and comfort. There is always a chance that things will work out fine. But the most likely is they will soon be home on hospice spending as much time with their sweet son as possible.
So please, pray for their family pray for comfort for them and a peace for Stephen. So that the pain he must suffer will be lightened.
Thank you.
And if you want to read the story of Stephen's journey and struggle through this, through the eyes of his parents, visit their blog.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/stephenpeterson/journal

2011, another year of....

Has it been another year already?
It's amazing that the older we get the faster time seems to pass. It seems like our little girl was just recently born, but she is already two! We have an almost teenager and two other boys who wont stop growing; especially their feet... It seems that we go through shoes like crazy!

Work continues to grow too. We still love the intimacy of our boutique studio, and have fought expansion all year. It's hard to find that balance. We don't want to be managers of other photographers. Yet we struggle to get all of the busy work done. We are artists who got into photography for our love of the medium and our love for the subjects, we are not business people who got into it as an easy way to make a buck.
So hopefully this year we will be able to find that medium and balance our work life with the life our kids need from us! A 8:00am to 1:00am work schedule is not a good schedule for raising kids!

That said, we have loved almost every minute of being able to work with so many great families again this year! But before I give a run down of our work life, I wanted to give y'all the family life for the year.

So this year Kimball, our oldest turned 12. He has decided to grow his hair out and even though I try to cut it every few months, he does look a little better with the long hair. I just get a little tired of the hair whipping to keep it out of his eye! I think he's going to end up with neck problems... Turning 12 is a big milestone for us. At church he is old enough to receive the Aaronic priesthood and administer the sacrament on Sundays. He is is 7th grade, and is doing ok. He and school are not the best of friends. He would rather be taking something apart, building something or shooting something. He is also a boyscout, and loves going to scouts each week and going on camp outs.
It's hard being parents to the tween age. We can see him grow and start those changes that will take him into manhood and that is awesome, but then we also see that pushing of boundaries that come along with the growth and sometimes that makes us want to drop him off in the middle of the desert... He is however amazing with Eden. He loves and protects her so well. It's so cute to see her give him hugs and kisses.

Ammon, is now 10. It seems, however, that he is hitting puberty before his big brother. Picking up the boys from school after a hot date is not a pleasant olfactory experience. The car smells like a whopper with extra onions. Anyway, Ammon is doing great in school, he continues to be on the school council and getting great grades. He is in cub scouts and is still on the illusive 1st place trophy for the pinewood derby. Evidently winning requires a lot more fatherly 'participation' than what is suggested in the derby outline...  He loves his airsoft guns as much as his older brother and although he still loves star wars, he is not as fanatic as in previous years.

Kelsyn, our youngest son, is 7 and getting ready to be baptized this summer. He is in third grade and the only one left at his school. He is pound for pound the toughest of the three boys. It comes with being the youngest and faced with the survival of the fittest. His foot length to body height ratio is also the greatest. He has little hobbit feet. I think he might be able to walk on water, given the proper motivation! He is doing great in school as well and is pretty smart, just a little lazy with the homework!  He loves being a big brother and is excited to hang out with his little sister!

Eden just turned two and is well into the terrible twos. I think it is true about he red hair and attitude. She is crazy!!! This year she broke her both collar bones. The doctor thinks she will probably have the most broken bones just because she is being raised by a few rough and tumble boys so she thinks she is a big boy in a tough body. Not a little girl in a more petite body. Anyway, she is also so freakin sweet. there are few joys greater than having her wrap her arms around your neck and say 'iyuvyu da-ee' We also recently started potty training. it seems a bit early but she is the one who initiated so we are going with the 'flow'.

Together the kids are all doing well, outside of the house they are all pretty well mannered kids who are helpful, courteous, and kind. In the house they can be hells demons incarnate... This year we took the kids with us on one of our work trips through Texas. They had a great time, we went to schlitterbahn and they loved it. They got to spend time hanging out in phoenix and Carlsbad with both sets of grandparents and have had all in all a pretty good year!

So for work we had a pretty great and pretty domestic year. We normally travel quite a bit with work, this year was a bit different. Most of our work was in New Mexico and we only shot outside of NM a half a dozen times or so. This year we were in Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and California for work. It was nice! This next year looks to take us to the US virgin islands, Texas, California, Utah, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, And more that likely back to Europe. So if you are going to be in Italy or Germany in October, let us know and we'll set up some time for photos!


We are still cutting down on weddings and adding more portrait sessions into our schedule. we love weddings so much but they can be really work intensive and emotionally and physically taxing, so we are going to start being a bit more selective on the wedding commissions we accept.


Desiree is really getting into a groove with her New Day birth photography, it has really been fun for her to experience this huge joy in the lives of her families.


We have been doing a ton of Red Label sessions as well. The boudoir genre is really gaining in popularity and we have a style that id really becoming popular as well!


We have also won a number of competitions with our work,  both Desiree and I have placed in the top ten and even first place in international competitions of the worlds best wedding photographers.

We have shot in bathrooms, bedrooms, ballrooms, and beaches. Ancient ruins, mountain tops, snowfields, deserts, and ghost towns. We have photographed mothers, and Mayors, babies, and NFL Ball players. We have seen births and deaths, and everything in between. We have driven and flown thousands of miles, taken hundreds of thousands of images and filled up numerous hard drives. Work continues to be both challenging and rewarding. We are loving life and although we anticipate 2012 being a year of many changes we are looking forward to all that it might bring!

a blessed life?

I admit I have not been posting as I should! It has been two months without a post!!! I have actually been posting more on Facebook instead and realized there are still so many more people who read are blog than are fans on Facebook!
With that I am recommitting myself to post more frequently so that folks can see what we have been up to and where our work is going.
I am also changing up my posts and being more true to who I am! I will write about what I think and feel and what want to write about!
That said, here is my return post, and it's a bit more personal.

I often get asked "How do I get your job?"
There are many out there that assume being a photographer is a glamorous, blessed life where we travel around the world photographing beautiful people, and living it up.
Well, that is not all true. Yes we travel a lot. It's always coach, and almost always the cheapest airline we can find. We do stay in comfortable hotels, but not too swanky, unless it is the same resort where our clients are staying. We also usually fly or drive straight home so we can be with our family. Ultimately that is why we do this.
We are also not always photographing the perfect people. We photograph people and that includes everyone! We don't refuse to work with someone based on race, religion, culture, orientation, financial status. We will refuse to work with someone based on their attitude. I don't like working with mean people... That is not fun for us and when we are not having fun the quality of our images can suffer. We also don't work with people who we don't feel would be a good match for us, our style, or our personality!
Anyway, Desiree and I work incredibly hard to make this our living. I often find myself working from 7:00AM until midnight or later, just to get caught up on the work I have. Desiree takes care of 4 kids including an 8 month old baby, prepares meals, cleans the house, gets kids back and forth to school, and..and...and, She is also the area supervisor for the charity NILMDTS.org and still finds the time to meet with clients, Design cards, albums, return email and phone messages. Not an easy or glamorous life at all.
So what is the payoff?
Well we both love art and we both love love. We are able to be a part of the life and the love of so many people. We are able to sit in dressing rooms watching the pre wedding nerves run wild, we are able to sit in the delivering rooms watching moms and dads cry with joy when they look into the eyes of their baby for the first time. We are able to touch the lives of people who have been married for years and see the love they have come alive again!
We also get the satisfaction knowing that when people ask us what our dream job is, we can say we are doing it. And our kids know that, even though we get insanely busy, we are doing this for them and we are doing what we love. so when we ask them what they want to be when they grow up, and they say "I want to be an artist." we can look at them and say, 'cool!' And know that they don't all have to be computer engineers, they really can do what they want if they work hard enough for it.

So a blessed life,well, maybe not in the eyes of the twenty something year old single art student reading blogs of the SI swimsuit photographers, but in our eyes, absolutely. We have a beautiful family, beautiful friends, and beautiful clients, who most often become our friends. All that and we are doing what we love.
Of course that is just what I think!

So, I feel bad doing a post with no picture so I thought I would post one of the four reasons we are even working at all. This is a picture of our youngest; Eden Ainsley. She is almost 9 months old. She has one tooth and lots of rolls. She is our only girl and as such is completely spoiled by us and her three older brothers. It was hard to imagine myself a father, then as a father of three boys, and especially the father of a little girl but now that I am, I can't imagine myself as anything else.
So here she is.

Motley Family

A few weeks ago we had another opportunity to work with some great people and good friends. The Motley family met us out at the petroglyph park and we took the evening to photograph their family before Terrance left on a church mission. He will be gone for two years in Italy teaching about the birth, teachings, atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. It's an amazing thing to see a 19 year old young man have such a dedication and love for the gospel that he will dedicate two years of his life to it. We wish him all the best and hope that his family doesn't miss him too much!
We look forward to when Terrance comes home so we can do another session with the entire family.

Legacy

The wrinkles in Flora's hands were more evident against the young skin of baby Olivia. Though they are separated by 97 years, they are connected through the blood that runs through their veins. Four generations of women, four lives, though each different, are tied together as family.
We had an amazing honor of photographing a four generation family as part of our Legacy session.

We are re-introducing our Legacy Limited Edition Session this month. This is an amazing opportunity for us to capture the relationship we share with one another before it becomes too late.
Desiree will be sharing, in an upcoming post and email, her story of why we are so passionate about these sessions. Her story comes from her regret in not taking the time to bring her grandmother into the studio to get pictures with our grandsons before it was too late.
The Medina family took advantage of the time they still had and we were able to capture their relationship and preserve that for their family forever!

The jones holidays

This year we took some time off to spend with our boys... Finally, the last two years we didn't even decorate inside our house because we were so busy with work. This year we had to put everything on hold and spend the time with our boys that they need and deserve!
For thanks giving we went down to visit family in El Paso. This was the first time since Desiree and I were married that we had a big holiday dinner with all of her dad's family. We had a great time, it was a little less formal than what we are used to but it was pretty nice all the same.



Ammon took a picture of me with the obligatory green bean Casserole.



Ryan, my brother in law and Gregg, my father in law drove out to Phoenix the day after thanksgiving to pickup the boat that Ryan bought for himself. We ate at RA a pretty descent sushi place on Mill street in Mesa, If you happen by there get the Tootsie Roll it's on my top 5 specialty rolls. The Rainbow roll at Hiro Sushi in flagstaff is in my top 5 also (i'll have to do a sushi blog). For a pretty dry state they sure can roll the sushi!


After we got back in town we took a Friday off to go get our Christmas tree. We have made it a family tradition with our kids to go up into the Jemez mountains and cut a tree. This time we thought we would save some time and go to a little closer than we normally do. We found nothing...


The sun looks misleading... it was way cold!


Kelsyn fell on some ice and almost busted his tooth out and it was a pretty unhappy time.

The kids started their winter break in the middle of the month so the fist day of vacation we went to the dentist to have Ammon's two front teeth pulled (they were way overdue to fall out) and go get our tree. We really didn't have any other time to do it and that day was a huge snow storm.



We went all the way up into the Jemez where we traditionally go and took some sleds and the dog, and had a crazy fun time in 18 inches of fresh snow.



Everybody had a blast, Desiree and I about had a heart attack when Kimball went Evel Knievel on us and flew down a way too steep hill into a pile of boulders, fortunately the almost 2' of snow softened the stop.


The brown fur ball behind the tree is Rocket the wonder puppy, he has been in the family since 2001 when we adopted him from the shelter. He loved the snow!


We drove home on completely snow packed roads. Half way down the mountain we finally saw the snow plows parked in front of a cafe. The chocolate was probably pretty hot... can ya blame 'em. we made it home just fine in 4wd once we got into ABQ cars were all over the road.


Christmas Eve came and Desiree's sister and Brother in law came into town. We went up to Santa Fe to the national cemetery to leave a poinsettia for Grandma and Grandpa Speers.



The area where they were was covered in a few inches of snow. I forgot to take my GPS so we didn't have an exact location with us. We went to the general area and started kicking the snow off the headstones. Desiree's mom was worried that it would probably take a while to find the plot and we had to get back to get dinner on. She shuffled her feet and noticed that she had walked out and stood right on top of the grave marker. We left the flowers Kimball made them a little snow man and we same a Christmas song and got a burrito at Bumble Bee before we headed home.



Christmas Eve we traditionally open a present, PJs. The kids were really excited to open a present and pretty disappointed when they saw it was just PJs.





One of these years they will catch on. After we all got in our jammies, Desiree read the Cajun night before Christmas and Breanne read the Polar express to the boys.


Even Scruffy got in on some unwrapping action!


We had a great Christmas, we all got what we wanted and the kids got more than they should have. We are now back at work and preparing for our bridal shows, it was nice to have a few days just to enjoy life and our family.
Next year we'll probably just get a cabin again and hope to get snowed in!

Finally the Frushours!

We shot another family for our Legacy collection! We ran into the Frushours at the mall on crazy tax free weekend and they mentioned they haven't had pictures done of Hayden since he was born. We figured that since he's now two, it was time. We had a wonderful time shooting and playing, even though Hayden was more interested in eating cookies than doing pictures! It was a great opportunity for them to enjoy time together as a family and have great images to show for it. Thanks guys for coming in, and enjoy!

Four generations of strong women

I had the opportunity today to photograph four generations of Moody women. I had a wonderful time watching Rebe and Ally play with their great grandma. We were told before hand that Grammy wasn't "photogenic" but it's amazing when you concentrate on the feelings that one generation has for another, it doesn't matter. Grammy was beautiful, all smiles and love for her great grand daughters. Thank you for sharing your legacy with us!
We are so privileged to be able to be a part of the lives of so many people. To see and know a family like this and be able to provide them with images of the family legacy is a great blessing.
There is always time in our lives that we can take away from the daily grind and spend with our families. Take some time with them and have it captured, to be remembered for generations - a testament of your family's love.
Thanks again for letting us be a part of your families.
Desiree

A "Legacy" series

We are releasing our legacy series in the close future and have been shooting some families, in the mean time, to use for our promo material. Today we were able to shoot the Fausett family. I have been looking forward to this shoot because I have not had a chance to spend much time with the youngest, Willy. He was a perfect model for the shoot this morning. Everything that we asked him to do, he did. He was easy to communicate with and in a great mood. --which can be, as most of us parents know, a real hit-n-miss at that age.
Anyway we had a great time look forward to looking through the rest of the images.


Thanks again you guys for coming over for our shoot this morning. I really enjoyed it! don't let it be so long before the next time we do your pictures!! Trisdan, we are going to be starting our photo classes soon, let me know if you want some information.
Your kids are truly beautiful, you are pretty blessed parents!
Take care!

On the river bank

It has been a while since we shot in this particular spot on the river. It was really overgrown with trees and weeds since we were there last, which made things a bit more challenging. Anyway we were able to meet up with the Gale family before sunset and take advantage of the light to get some really nice images of the family. Aside from the grumpy older brother, everything went well. The twins are way cute, each with such different personalities. It is really nice to shoot such a cute family! (next time we'll have to shoot your family in the morning before any of the kids run off to the pool and stay all day without telling you) Take care you guys!! We look forward to getting the rest of your images ready and out to you!

MOM-E-2-B

OK Stephanie, here is your sneak preview of your images. I just randomly went through the session and pulled out three that popped out at me. I know going into the session you weren't quite sure what direction you wanted to take it so hopefully we were able to capture something that you will love.
I look forward to looking at the rest of the images and getting them ready for you. I am also looking forward to September when we can welcome Daddy's little boy, and photograph his first few days with you two. Keep resting, keep your skinny ankles! You look great. Derek, you should be proud that you have such a hot pregnant wife!!
Thanks again you two, we had a great time.

Long delayed post

We had a visit today from one of our favorite clients ( we have many favorite clients). We have had the great pleasure of working with her family for a while now and have been able to photograph them a few times. They have been blessed to two very cute girls and one devil. (most almost two year olds are devils though) Anyway, our last shoot was at the park where we were able to capture the kids just playing together.
We look forward to working with you guy again Mika. (sorry for the delay)!!!

A honeymoon baby?

Today was a great day. Lance and Megan, a beautiful couple we had the great pleasure to photograph came in today with their beautiful little boy Jackson. Born 9 months and 15 days after their wedding. Jackson is one of the best babies that we have been blessed to be able to work with. He was very good and we took a ton of pictures of him. I pulled this image out of the many just randomly. He had so many great images that I would have been proud to show any. A baby like this makes my job easy!!
Megan and Lance, you are two very lucky new parents. Congratulations!!