For A Moment Photography

Passion. Commitment. Gotta have it!

 

This is a commercial featuring Kevin Pearce, watch it before reading...  He suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2009 preparing for the Olympics.  He's healing has been faster than expected, but he still has a lot of work to do...  I've followed his story in the media and on Facebook...  The recent death of freestyle skier Sarah Burke had me wondering about Kevin's progress.  Burke crashed on the same pipe as Kevin and was in the same hospital as Kevin...  Looks like he is riding again, great news.

As a Mother I think about his Mom and how she is managing the fear I'm sure she has...  She was quoted as saying, "I'm just very proud of him for waiting as long as he has," said his mother Pia. "I don't fully understand the feeling he gets when he snowboards, but it must be a feeling of freedom and happiness and well-being."  He is lucky he to have parents that understand how this dangerous sport is so essential to his well being.

I admire them for their passion and commitment...  I've seen the pipes and jumps they ride in.  My knees get weak looking at the jumps, but the freedom they must feel I believe is immeasurable.  These two stories also reminds me how much I want to give Presley the freedom and confidence to follow her life's passion...  The best way to give her that is by example, the saying "reasons or results" comes to mind.

(Read more about Kevin Pearce's recovery: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/more/12/30/Kevin-Pearce-recovery/index.html#ixzz1kJj3NX15)

Core CrossFit: Best in Phoenix

One of our events

I was so excited ot hear my gym was voted, Best in Phoenix for the Fitness insane.  I think in anything I do it's great when people acknowledge and/or appreciate me/it.  This is why I had to write a post about my "box" (gym)...

So even though the award doesn't grant Core CrossFit anything other than recognition, it stands for much more.  Crossfit is becoming more mainstream, Reebok even has a CrossFit commercial out.  If you haven't heard of it I assume you must be hiding under a rock some where (and not reading this post).  My point being is there are a lot more CrossFit boxes popping up and many more people joining the community.  So for our box to receive this award is saying a lot.  

I love that I can walk into Core, knowing I'm going to be met with a intense workout, coaches to push me, and fellow members to encourage me.  And I can be in and out of the gym in an hour.  It's a bonus that I can grab a piece of fruit after, chat with other members about my diet or recovery techniques...  At this gym you won't see advertisements with "healthy" McDonald choices on the walls.  But you can find information about proper nutrition, how you can be most successful with your goals and people who will hold you accountable.

I'm so happy for Core to receive this award.  Thank you, Kim, Tom, Ali, Santana, D.J., Bryon, Adrian, Preston, Ray and Maya for all your dedication.  Your hard work is appreciated and the community is taking notice...  On a side note, damn you keep the gym clean (I totally appreciate that)!

 

Not Your Average Business Card

This week I've been working hard on several photography jobs.  Now that I'm starting to get caught up I thought I'd blog a little about them...  The photo/business card is a job I just finished.  I've posted before on a few of the cards I've done for MVP Realty Team and this is another one of their cards.

We had decided to step away from industry standard and not put a head shot on their cards.  With Heather's cards I thought of photographing her crystals and use that photo for the card.  The crystals are something important to her and it makes her card more of a conversation piece...  It is no doubt out of the norm for real estate and I love it!  I'm pretty sure if her card was in pile of real estate cards hers would stand out. 

 

 

Will there be any stars.

My beloved grandmother passed on January 3, 2012.  I went to visit her several days before she passed.  I got to spend some time at her bedside and speak to her about my time with her and how much I loved her...  When I left her house I knew it would be the last time I saw her.  It was a difficult time, but I did not like to see her as she was in her finally days.  Because of that I wanted the transition to come sooner rather than later...

My grandmother was very religious and read the bible often.  Before leaving I picked up her bible, my Mom pointed out she too wrote notes along the book edge as I do.  In her bible I found a photo of my Presley and this hymnal.  I decided to snap a photo of it so I could remember the words...

Several weeks prior to all of this, I had been making a move to have a crown be on my logo.  I had also been eyeing a crown I wanted to photograph.  But it ws the holidays and I didn't think it was kosher to buy myself a gift...  The crown I had been looking at is a santos crown.  Santos is a type of religious art of saints carved out of wood.  This crown would be placed on the head of one of the sculpture.  The dolls would be placed on an altar or mantle...

When I saw this hymnal in my grandmothers bible I was reminded of the crown.  I went back to see if the crown had stars, I couldn't remember.  As you see, it does.  I ordered it Jan. 3rd.  ♛

 

 

 

Because we all were kids...

Yoga

This post is purely for me to talk about the great work Core CrossFit and it's nonprofit work in the community.  I don't have a lot of details but I think it is a great story.  With the parents and the gym's consent I stopped in on a class to take some photos for this post.  

At Core we have a kids program several days a week for kids at risk.  The gym had a desire to do something within the community and had done several projects benefiting kids in the area.  This particular program started pretty organically, after school a few kids in the neighborhood would hang around and peek in the windows trying to figure out what was going on in our gym.  

The coaches decided to invite them in, and as the saying goes, the rest is history...  The class is free for the kids that live in the Garfield neighborhood.  It's a neighborhood that can be a bit rough.  The kids come to the gym after school and are given a snack and then do yoga or some other kid friendly workout.  

While I was visiting (photographing) they were doing a yoga class.  As the instructor lead the class she did a nice job of talking to the students about meditation.  She let them know if things around them are too much with school, family or friends they can sit quietly and find the calmness (strength) within...  I guess it sounds pretty basic, I hear that a lot (and I use meditation a lot).  But I have had several teachers, professors that have crossed my path in my youth that made quite an impression on me.  This leads me to believe that maybe it's happening now with at least one of them.  This experience reminded me of being a kid and how good it felt when I found a place to belong to...

If you'd like to hear more about the gym go to www.corecrossfit.com.  If you'd like to contribute to the kids program go to [email protected] on Facebook.  Nothing is expected and everything is appreciated.  

 

The Family Dog

Lenny wearing her dolls shirt.  Presley will tell you it's his pj's.

Clip from a 1987 sitcom, The Family Dog.  It's blurry but the little girl is dressing the family dog.

Presley has been asking for a doog (she drags out the "o" sound) for a while now.  I've been thinking about dogs since giving the little lost dog we found to our friends (where we visit him often).  It was only a few short months ago but it just felt like now we were ready for a doog.

 I was telling my Mom I missed, Hadley (the doggie we found) and was thinking of rescuing a new one.  She mentioned that we could have her miniature doberman pinscher, Lenny (named after John Lennon).  I said we would give it a try, I wasn't sure I wanted a small dog.  Our dogs before were 100 plus pounds, I bought my dog Bailey because I wanted a running partner- not a lap dog.  He hated to run and was pretty much a 115 pound lap dog!..  The dogs on my short list, another wiemaraner, golden or lab.  I figured one would call to us from a rescue shelter.  

I decided (I didn't really mention it to Mark) the way I explained this to Presley was we were going to babysit Lenny.  So if we did need to give the dog back, for whatever reason she would not be upset.  Presley was great, she told my Mom we could only watch him for this many days , holding up her two hands...  Well once he got here, he's been a dream.  I have to admit it was nice to have the unconditional love/joy of a dog in the house again.  Mark enjoys him to and lets him lay with him. 

Lenny is so patient with Presley, she dresses him up in the doll clothes and wants him next to her side at all times.  We even took him to "show and tell" and he let all her classmates pet him.  He learned to use the doggie door the first and hasn't had an accident since the first day.  He was mostly an outside dog so I wasn't sure how he would do.

Lenny sleeps on his bed in Presley's bed.  This arrangement has helped us keep Presley in bed at night.  We may move him to the floor next to her bed, this was the original plan.  But the first night he kept coming to our room.  We put him on her bed and Presley held his collar to keep him in her room.  As long as he stays in his bed I think I'm ok with it...  

I wasn't sold on a small dog before Lenny but he's pretty much as easy as a cat.  The great news is my parents and sister-in-law have already offered to watch him when we leave town.  That is something that never happened with our weimaraners!..

Oh since having Lenny he reminded me of this cartoon I saw as a child.  I don't think there are very many episodes.  But I found a few on YouTube.  And the episode I saw showed the little girl torturing, I mean dressing the family dog.  How fitting...

 

    

 

My Office Space

iPhone photos.

It's really been making me nuts on how unorganized my home office is and how bare the walls are.  So I've been working on making it more inviting.  Today my desk organizer arrived from Potterybarn.  I have ot admit it's not the most exciting piece but it's exactly what I needed to gather all my photography "stuff" and things I'd like to display.  I would of much rather found a cool shelf from an antique store but I didn't have the time.  Good news is, it works perfectly.

One of my favorite items are the daguerreotype's given to me by a friend and fellow CrossFitter (Thank you Daniel).  These are the first types of photos introduced in the mid 1800's.  They are very fragile and a little creepy to look at.  the people being photographed never seem to smile.  

On the top of the shelf is a old camera and a santos crown.  I'll blog about the crown later, it's a reminder of my grandmother.  I love it and it makes me smile...  I still have a lot of work ot do so I'll post a blog and photo when it's completed...  I just couldn't wait and wanted to thank Daniel.  I hung the shelf myself so I'm still concerned it might fall!  Once it's been up a few more days I'll add and arrrange my treasures a bit better.  

Good Grief

It's been a great holiday season and a very busy one.  My business has been great and I was lucky to work with a lot of families I really enjoyed.  Presley is at the perfect age and really enjoyed the magic of Christmas.  We were to celebrate the New Year in San Diego, California.  On Friday morning (while in California) I received word my beloved grandmother (abuelita) was very ill and I should come home and see her...

This was news we had been coming to expect, but that didn't matter I have never been able to "prepare" for news like this.  After some discussion Mark and I decided we would spend that day with Presley at the beach and head home the following morning.  She's (Presley's) too young to understand why we had to leave our vacation so early...

I'm so glad we spend the day at the beach.  Being in the ocean, hearing Presley giggle and scream in delight was exactly what I needed.  The pain in my heart melted away with the sun and waves.  I think it's human nature to want to be in a natural environment during times of loss (and joy).  I couldn't help be feel peaceful and that everything was going to be alright.  There was a moment when I closed my eyes trying to force myself to remember the sounds and feel of the ocean and sand.  I knew I'd need that feeling again later... 

It was only when we left the beach that the flood of memories and pitiful thoughts returned.  At times I felt like I wanted to be swallowed up in pain and far away from the outside world.  Only to minutes later to want to be near loved ones and consoled...  It was later that night when I was sitting alone watching the sunset that I realized, all that I was feeling was good.  It was good grief...  It would be far worse if I let my moments of despair take over...  

My grandfather died when I was much younger and I was less able to deal with his death.  I was much more selfish and had more regrets when he passed.  I was suppose to visit him the day he passed, I would visit them on Sundays.  But it was raining out and I decided I wanted to stay in bed and read, and if I want to be really honest it was difficult to see him towards the end.  The circumstance made it more difficult to accept.

Since his passing I was able to spend a summer with my grandmother.  It is a time I will forever be thankful for.  I got to know her and love her even more...  

Today after I got the news of my grandmothers passing I was in my closet and I looked up on my dresser and I have two photos of her staring right at me!  Then I came down stairs and I had a show on for Presley, it's not one we usually watch, "Maya and Miguel".  I just wanted to sit down and close my eyes and find some peace within.  The cartoon must of said abuelita (spanish for grandmother) 20 times...  I think my abuelita has the peace I was hoping for.