A few weeks ago, I got the unique opportunity to photograph the homecoming of an Army soldier. His wife Katharine had emailed me many months ago to see if I would be willing to photograph his homecoming from deployment and I felt I couldn’t pass up such a fun experience! I had met Katharine and her hubby Zim a few years ago after they had just been stationed in Alaska. We had a fun beginning-of-winter shoot at the UAF Botanical Gardens and shortly after that, Zim left for deployment while Katharine spent time with family in the Lower 48.
Katharine kept me posted about when the big day would be, which kept changing of course — you know how the military likes to keep you on your toes! The morning of the homecoming, I met up with Katharine and we decided to do some quick photos before meeting up with Katharine’s girlfriends, who were also eagerly awaiting their spouses.
I knew from Katharine’s Facebook page that she had bought a new outfit for the occasion and she made a sign, so I wanted to capture those things outside in the pretty light (since the homecoming would actually be in a dark warehouse)…
After our 10 minute shoot in the park, we hopped back in the car and met up with Katharine’s girlfriends. All the gals are wives of soldier’s in Zim’s unit, and they had all dressed up and met together to welcome their husbands home.
This little girl was so cute, carrying her sign for her daddy…
Once inside, there wasn’t much to do but sit, wait and chat with friends…
Well, I guess there was some dancing…
Happen to recognize that vibrant red hair? It’s Ashley from my recent shoot with Tiffany Hair Co. I had no idea she was friends with Katharine and we laughed about how small a world Fairbanks really is.
After waiting quite some time, the band started to play…
And everyone got really excited (especially Katharine)… 
So, in case you’ve never been to this sort of thing, the guys all come out marching and aren’t allowed to find their families until they are given the okay. I had originally thought I would be able to take photos of the guys in formation and maybe even luck out and find Zim and photograph him in line, but let me tell you, chaos ensued once they were given the okay. The room that I once had to capture the best shot was quickly taken up with families and kids and signs and soldiers. Katharine and I looked at each other wide-eyed for a moment and I told her to just do her thing and I would follow her.
So we started to wade through the throng of people, trying to find a soldier that, well, looked like all the other ones there. Add to that the fact that I’m not even 5′ 4 and I couldn’t see a thing other then a sea of camouflage and Katharine. But somehow, miraculously, she spotted Zim and then…SOMEONE REALLY TALL SQUEEZED RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! Panic!!!! Seriously, I about freaked out on this person — people, I’m trying to photograph here!!!
I lost Katharine for just a brief moment but was able to catch the tail end of her jump into Zim’s arms…
Love…
After the crowd started to die down, Katharine and Zim headed off to get Zim’s gear. I decided to just tag along and capture some shots, all paparazzi style…(and for those who are curious, it was so dark in there that I used my Canon 580 EX flash on my camera. But once I was sure I had some great shots, I turned it off and did some available light shots. This shot below was with the my flash, and the black and white one below that (and the rest of the images in this post) was without the flash)….
I just love this shot of them walking away…
Once the soldiers were allowed out of formation, we lost sight of all of Katharine’s friends. But we did wind up seeing Ashley’s little girl, who carried in the sign for her daddy, walking hand-in-hand with her daddy to their car. So precious…
Thanks Katharine for thinking of me to shoot this important day for you and Zim — it was a lot of fun! And thank you Zim for being willing to serve your country — enjoy your adventure in Alaska!
Yesterday, my little girl turned 2. Um…what? How did THAT happen? Life with kids is…fast…
So to celebrate our little girl’s second party, I threw a small get-together at our apartment on Sunday for some close friends and family. I have been pinning ideas on my pinterest boards for months and spent the week before her party making decorations and trying to figure out what the heck to feed people (I hate planning food, I just want to plan decor — that’s how I roll).
I had a completely different decor theme in mind when I found a gaudy vintage floral print tablecloth at Value Village that fit my table per-fect-ly. It was $2.99 and I fell in love with it and all it’s crazy hot pink glory (which is saying a lot for a girl who has spent her life avoiding the color pink). Joe was with me at Value Village and was not catching the vision…. “You want to waste $2.99 on that ugly thing?” he said aghast as I excitedly placed it in my red cart. That’s when I put Joe in charge of the food menu for the day….
The night before the party, I stayed up late and cleaned and decorated, and Joe was kind enough to ignore the crazy tablecloth on the table and help me pin things to the ceiling. The next morning, we got the girls all dressed up and I captured the look on Evie’s face when she came into the room. She loves “boos” (which is “balloon” in Evie language…of course it also stands for “spoon”, “blue”, “moose”, “cows” and “forks”….)
Even Promise was getting into this whole “boo” business….
She was so into the “boos” that it took her a while to notice all the other decorations…
Ta-da!
I went through my mom’s fabric stash and cut out vintage fabric triangles and sewed them together with rick-rack and other ribbons I had. The poof balls are made from tissue paper and of course, there are more “boos”…
The mantel-scape (did I mention that Joe built me an awesome faux mantel?)…
Since I knew who was coming to our party, I pre-wrote out their names on their cups…I’m classy that way. Oh and I made that wreath by wrapping hot pink yarn around it and hot gluing it and then taking some extra triangles and pinning them to the wreath…. Note to self: next time buy fat yarn…
Oh, oh, OH–that cool owl statue? $4.99 at Value Village. I spray painted him white (also those plates hanging above the mirror–um, have I mentioned my latest obsession with spray paint? moving on)…
The drink table set up on my vintage sewing machine cabinet…
So while I was busy photographing details, Evie was busy peeking at her presents, which is code for throwing them on the ground.
Ok fine, you’ve opened one, now you have to wait on the rest…you stinker…
Our wonderful guests started to arrive, making Promise a happy baby…
After our lunch (yummy grill food that Joe made, which I didn’t even bother to photograph because that’s how much I care about food at parties–opps), I had Evie and her good buddy Aiden open their presents for outside…
Frisbees and bubbles! Mom you shouldn’t have!
I sent the dad’s and Grandpa Keith outside with the munchkins to play so that I could clean up and get the dessert and presents ready. Joe took these fun outdoor shots…
Ok, this photo of Aiden slays me…“Come on Evie! Let’s play!”
After the kids were sufficiently pooped done having fun outside, the boys brought them back for cake and ice cream…
Here is the dessert table, in all its glory. I made those meringue cookies on a whim that morning and put them on the little yellow cake stand I made and spray painted for $2…
Doesn’t that tablecloth make you want to kiss your Grandma? Auntie Monika made the cake and cupcakes and I butchered made the frosting…
The other cake plate I made…
Don’t look at that frosting too closely…I should have left things like food prep to the professionals…
And I made these chair covers on a whim a few days before the party thanks to my pinterest board. I was going to do flowers on all the covers but well, I ran out time. Maybe next year…
Last year for Evie’s party, she grabbed the candle and burned her hand before I could stop her. So this year her dad physically restrained her while she blew out her candle…
And because they are 2 peas in a pod, they had to sit, back to back, and eat their cupcakes. So. Freakin. Cute…
All this party stuff is exhausting…
Joe and Aiden helped Evie open her presents…
This kid is addicted to Winnie the Pooh. All she says is “pooh? Tigr? Eyor?”…oh and “boo”…
It was a wonderful party and I’m so thankful to our friends and family who could make it (we had a few people out of town or sick, but it’s probably for the best because we’re not sure where we would have put them…).
Happy Birthday my little Evie-girl. I love you more then I thought was ever possible….
In December of this past year, after having Promise, I decided to take up Zumba. And by “decided to take up Zumba”, I mean, I decided to give it a try after my mom nagged asked me to go. I needed to start getting back in shape after having a baby and so I figured, what the heck, Zumba can’t be that hard right? My mom had started going to Zumba about a year ago and loved it and well, let’s just say I thought she was a bit crazy about it. And then I went to one class… and then I KNEW she was crazy…
I hated it. HATED it.
I swore I would never go back. How did I miss the part about it being a Latin-inspired aerobic workout (insert REAL Latin dance moves, like salsa steps). Was I suppose to have taken Latin Dance 101 before showing up? And apparently I didn’t make it clear that I don’t dance. EVER. If I hadn’t been stuck in the front (thanks a lot mom) I would have made an early exit…
The next day, I received an email from a friend who had been in the Zumba class. She wrote all these lovely things about me. Such as, “don’t worry, no one noticed you,” which was funny since SHE noticed me and she was ACROSS THE ROOM… need I say more about my performance? She said I had to give Zumba at least 5 tries before deciding it was torture not for me.
So I did. I gave it a few more tries. And turns out, she was right. After about 5 or 6 classes, I was actually enjoying myself. Shocking, I know…
Now it’s April and I’ve not only learned several dance steps, I’ve met lots of great gals and can say with confidence that working out is legitimately fun. Which brings me to the real point of this post…
The other day, Phoebe (of Zumba with Phoebe May) said, “Hey, you do photography right? Could you photograph our Zumba party?” Heck yes! I had been secretly wanting to photograph a Zumba class because I LOVE photographing dancing. The dancing at wedding receptions is one of my favorite parts of a wedding (seriously, I love it). And this Zumba class was special because Madalene Aponte, a special Zumba guest from Hawaii, was going to be teaching the class.
I arrived early on Saturday to set up my lighting. *Ok, here’s a bit of nerd-speak so feel free to skip this part if you don’t care. For my off-camera lighting I use Radio Poppers (which turn the Canon infrared system of my flashes into a radio wave). Basically, Canon has a infrared system that allows the flashes to “talk” to each other, but that means that the flashes and my camera have to be able to “see” each other. When I first started using off camera lighting to photograph reception dancing, I had a huge problem with my flashes not firing if someone danced in between me (my camera) and one of my flashes. Radio Poppers put an end to that because they convert the infrared signal to a radio wave, thereby eliminating the need for my camera and flashes to physically see each other. The result? Awesome off-camera lighting I can trigger from anywhere in the room, no matter where my flashes are in relation to my camera. For this shoot, I set up 2 off-camera Canon 430ex II flashes on tripods at the front of the room (and partially hid them behind the speakers up front to cut down on the extra light being reflected in the mirrors) and alternated using my 580ex flash and my ST-E2 transmitter to trigger the lights, depending on whether I needed more or less light for where I was in the room. Nerd speak done…;)
Now for the photos! The evening started off with Phoebe May, Michael Flanagan (Phoebe’s husband and fellow trainer at Personal Fitness Center) and Madalene Aponte giving out some great door prizes and chatting to the 100 people who made it to the event at The Artisan’s Courtyard.
The guests arrived super early to secure their spots on the dance floor and spent the extra time chatting and snapping photos…
Soon the evening was in full swing…
This photo was taken from the back of the room. Remember what I said about my flashes? If I was using only the Canon infrared system, this photo would not have happened since my camera is near the floor with 100 people dancing in front of my flashes… yay Radio Poppers!
I love the motion blur in this shot of Angie…
Ok so Madalene? She’s…extreme…and looks KILLER in some of these shots…
LOVE this one in front of the mirror…can you feel the energy?
The Zumba guests also did an awesome job keeping up with Madalene…
I was so happy I grabbed this shot. I thought this gal’s outfit was so awesome (and again, notice the hair light coming from behind her head? Only possible with the Radio Poppers…*maybe they should pay me to be a spokesperson? haha!)
This next series of shots of Madalene are some of my favorites…
I love color photographs (especially with all the color that Zumba wear brings to the shot) but I am IN LOVE with this photo in black and white…
Then Phoebe took over for a few songs…
I feel saying this is obvious, but Phoebe’s hair looks sooooo cool…
Michael and Madalene couldn’t resist getting in on the action…
And here are some more shots from around the room…
And here’s the group photo at the end of an intense yet fun workout. Thanks Phoebe and Madalene for letting me show up with my cameras and flashes. And thanks to all my “models” who really worked it for themselves and my camera…:)
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