I introduced Shontionn and Maria as a couple in this previous post. I now have the pleasure of sharing the images from my maternity session with Shontionn and Maria. We did the session at a familiar place tor me and … Continue reading
Readers were introduced to this young couple in my blog post on April 15, linked here. The big day finally arrived on June 7th. The wedding was held at Sahuaro Ranch Park in Glendale. The day went off with just a minor hitch. Mother Nature blessed us with a 112 degree day. But we live in a desert and are aware of the things we need to do to survive and found as much open shade as we could at 4 in the afternoon to get the early photo session out of the way.
The venue for the wedding was the fruit packing shed at the park. It was a great little place to have the ceremony and the reception. The shed and the surrounding area allow for rustic looking photographs using the antique buildings and equipment as props. We also had access to the vineyards to use as a backdrop for some of the images we took. And the park is not nicknamed “Peacock Park” for no reason. The many peacocks that live on the ranch decided to show up and watch the “goings on” of the afternoon.
Because Katie is a former student athlete of mine, there were many guests at the wedding that are also former students and athletes that I haven’t seen in quite awhile. It was great seeing them and catching up with their lives. My little Hawklings have all grown up…sniff. It is great to see how these young men and women have grown out of that “floppy puppy” person they were as Freshmen.
I want to thank Katie and Jason for the opportunity to photograph their wedding and share in that magical time of their lives. They are a great couple who display a great enthusiasm for each other and for Jason’s son, Andrew. I wish them the best as they start on this new journey as a family.
The beautiful bride
The handsome groom
The Groom and his Men
The Bride and her Lovely Ladies
The wedding was soccer themed, as the couple met at a soccer tournament they were both playing in.
The Family Hyatt
2013 version of American Gothic
Katie’s grandfather’s Bible
Sealed the deal on the Bible
It was a donut that started it all…great things start out as simple things
All wedding portraits should look like this. Fun was the keyword of the evening.
The main event of the reception dance. Andrew calls his dad out for a dance-off. As I remember it, Andrew won.
Wedding photography was done by Tim Poole of Poole Photography LLC
Thanks to my second shooter Brianna Yahraus for all her help that night.
WHEELS
Feeling the urge to write something today desirous of keeping the 5 or 6 consistent readers of my humble little blog happy.
The Photographers Adventure Club, which I have mentioned in several previous posts, has a weekly photography theme that members are encouraged to submit photographs that fit the theme. I like the idea, but admittedly I am not very consistent…oh who am I kidding, I rarely, if ever post photographs to the site.
This week, I decided to go shoot some images for this weeks’ theme of “Wheels”
I took a trip down to Sahuaro Ranch Park in Glendale. They have some antique farm equipment that made for some good shooting for this topic. I converted 3 of the images to black and white or sepia in order to give the photos an old time feeling.
“PIGEONS FROM HELL”
Sahuaro Ranch Park has some marvelous old buildings on the grounds. While working my photographic magic (sorry, a bit of shameless self promotion here) I noticed a gathering of pigeons on the roof of a nearby building. Whenever I see pigeons on the roof I am reminded one of the scariest television show episodes I have ever seen. It was the show “Thriller” hosted by Boris Karloff, who played the original Frankenstein and Mummy and was in a host of other B grade horror flicks in the 30’s and 40’s. The episode was called “Pigeons from Hell”. I saw this scary little gem when the family was visiting my uncle back in Michigan the summer before the sixth grade.
The gist of the show is that wherever these pigeons appear on the roof, someone is murdered. Now I know that with shows like “The Walking Dead” and other splatter movies etc., that a man walking down the stairs with an ax in is head is pretty tame stuff, but in 1961 it scared the holy heck out of me.
And thanks to “the time machine of my life” You Tube, I can watch the whole episode. Haven’t worked up the courage yet, but someday…
This is the opening sequence of “Pigeons from Hell” episode. {link}
Played hooky from blogging yesterday. Falling asleep and doing a faceplant into the keyboard is not a good thing. Self preservation above all. Busy days both yesterday and today. I was away from my computer so long that I lost my place in Facebook. My computer left a message for me that it was putting my face on a milk carton.
CADILLAC RANCH
I went to my first Chat and Mingle sponsored by the Photographers Adventure Club Friday night at the Cadillac Ranch in Tempe. I will tell you right now, I spent most of my time in Phoenix making it a point not to go east of I-17. I never lived more than 5 miles from where I worked. When I did travel to the east side, it was usually on a yellow school bus. I really hated it at the end of track season that we didn’t have enough people going to State to get a bus so I ended up driving the District’s prison van. When I looked up the address for the Cadillac Ranch, I realized that I had been to the Tempe Marketplace before and knew how to get there. Wrong. Needless to say I got lost. But I did have a good drive in and around Tempe and saw some nice things.
Finally found the place and eventually was able to park in what has to be the most convoluted parking lot in the history of the world. Went upstairs to the Ranch. I had never been there before so I have to say I was quite surprised when I ordered a Coke and the waitress asked for my debit card and my driver’s license. I almost left the Ranch at that moment. I get a bit testy at restaurants when I think they are doing something absurd. The waitress was asking me to violate every rule of caution that I read should be done to protect against identity theft. But I thought, well, Poole, you are meeting most everyone for the first time, it would be bad form to tip over the table and throw a chair against the wall and leave in a huff. They might not invite you back. So I relented and did as required. As we discussed this during the evening, we figured it was because there was a huge number of college kids that patronized the place. So I don’t blame them for coming up with that practice.
But I overcame my getting lost in Tempe and anxiety over identity theft and relaxed and had a great time. Met and mingled with Sharon, Christine, Ash, Lisa, Les and the organizer for the night Evy. Christine, Sharon and Ash were especially helpful with some technical questions I had, although they found out they had too speak very slowly and use small words so I could understand. Christine shared her underwater photographs that she takes. Everybody was showing their new I-phones. Since I only have a Blackberry, I kept it hidden under the table when I checked it.
I am always a bit nervous when I meet new people in strange settings, but I think Evy was more apprehensive than me. Although she knew everyone else pretty well from other meet ups and shoots, this was her first time being the organizer for the Meet and Mingle. She really wanted it to go off well. And it did. She was a splendid hostess, talking with everyone and making me feel very welcomed and right at home like I had been with the group forever. I really appreciated it. I am looking forward to the next M&M that is offered.
Photograph by Sharon Joubert on her I Phone. Me doing what I normally do… smiling and nodding my head knowingly. Plus working on my raising one eyebrow only skills.
WILD WEST FESTIVAL
Saturday was filled with more photographic activities. Although many of the group went up to Oak Creek to do some shooting, I went to the Wild West Festival and Sahuaro Ranch Park. This is my second attempt at shooting an event at Sahuaro Ranch Park, the first one being a folk and bluegrass music festival. Sahuaro Ranch Park is a dry and dusty place. It just doesn’t inspire me to shoot pictures there. I don’t know if that happens to other photographers. I was very hard pressed to choose the few photographs I kept.
GUNSLINGERS
I read every book I can about the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral. I have seen all the movies about the event. (I find it amazing that John Ford personally knew Wyatt Earp and had the first hand account of what actually happened that day, and yet his movie about it bears no resemblance to what actually happened.) Yet with all this interest in the event, I have yet to go down and visit Tombstone. Perhaps I should put that on my bucket list, if I had a bucket list. Tombstone was the best, probably the most historically correct, version. My one pet peeve with Hollywood is that they never seem to get actors close to the age of the participants. Wyatt Earp was 33, Doc Holiday was only 30 and Josie was a mere 20 years old at the time of the gunfight. At the time of shooting Tombstone Kurt Russell (Wyatt) was 42, Val Kilmer (Doc) was 34, and Dana Delany (Josie) was 38.
The WWF had a gunslinging contest. This prompted me to think about the most famous gunfight ever. As you see in the photo, the shooters start out in this strange looking leaning backward position. I do not think that the Earps, Holiday, Clantons and McClaurey’s started out in this weird looking layback position. But maybe they should have. The gunfight lasted 30 seconds with about 30 shots fired. They participants were only 6-10 feet apart. Only 7 bullets hit their target!
GUN SLINGING…GANGNAM STYLE
I saw a few posts on Facebook about something called GANGNAM STYLE. Always wanting to be on the cutting edge of what’s going on, I searched YouTube so I would know what was being talked about. I cannot properly do it justice attempting to describe the Gangnam dance style. I suggest if you haven’t seen the PSY video you should check it out. That is the only way this picture and caption will make any sense to you. This performer was waiting for his show to start (they were 45 minutes ahead of schedule) so he just did a few teasers for the crowd while they were waiting.
One final thought. I now have a reason to regret retiring when I did. When researching GANGNAM STYLE, I found their were a plethora of video parodies using the song, ranging from the mom and son on the Ellen DeGeneres show, to the USNR spirit team as well as the North Korean army. I could have showed a new video everyday in class. I am sure the students would have liked them better than Hell March or William Shatner’s Rocket Man.
Who knew?
Blog Motivation Music for today
Gangnam Style by PSY
This is Sparta! 10 Hour Remix
The Gunfight at OK Corral by Frankie Laine, from the 1957 movie of the same name.
Cadillac Ranch by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Poole Photography 