Annie & Brian - a HOT shoot in a very cold room

"and we shall all wear funny hats and have a merry time!" is what I cried aloud in a voice that was a bad cross between Malcolm McDowell and the Mad Hatter.  We recently worked with Annie and Brian at the Red Square bar in Las Vegas' beautiful Mandalay Bay hotel and the experience and the people were absolutely wonderful.  The kind management at Red Square allowed us in an hour before the bar opened, which meant that we had the entire bar all to ourselves!  Oh, what mischief could we get up to in an hour?

If you haven't had the opportunity to check out Red Square, one of its defining characteristics is the 'zero degree' room - it typically requires the purchase of a bottle of vodka to enter, which runs somewhere between an arm and a leg and a firstborn child, but like everything in Vegas, is made 100% worthwhile by the unique charm.  It's an experience that must be tried, regardless of cost.

As the name would suggest, the room is kept at zero degrees, however since the bar was not yet open and the cooler had just been turned on, the zero degree room was kept at a rather balmy 8 degrees Fahrenheit; hot enough to make this Wisconsin born photographer sweat.  I know, only 24 degrees *below* freezing!

Maybe it was the intense heat that went straight to my head, but Sarah and I got a little silly on this shoot.  You see, Red Square provides a variety of hats and coats to patrons of the zero degree room and we outfitted Annie with a fetching fur coat with matching hat and Brian with a rather cool looking trench coat that reminded me of Captain Jack Harkness from one of my favorite BBC programs, Torchwood (it's a running joke that while I am American born, I have a British last name and am obsessed with all things British, especially entertainment). 

While none of the pictures will show this (and another running joke is that, ironically, I am terrified of having my picture taken!) I myself selected a bombardier's hat and we spent the next hour having the time of our lives, the four of us laughing together and taking  great photos in our funny hats and coats.

I really loved working with these two and I know that I use that line quite often, but I feel that we have been blessed with some of the greatest clients a photographer could ever ask for.  So much so that I tried to convince them to go on another shoot with us at no charge, but being from Orange County, time unfortunately was not on our side.

On the other hand, Annie and Brian will be wed in Orange County this summer and so we'll be seeing more from these two.  I for one cannot wait and already have a charming little hat picked out for the wedding!

Brandy & Roger - wedding portraits at Red Rock Canyon

...And I wonder, still I wonder, "who'll stop the raaaain?"

(I was going to quote lyrics from that Alanis Morisette song, but decided that starting a sentence with a conjunction was a lesser offense than referencing examples of cosmic irony; besides, Credence Clearwater Revival trumps all!)



Wow, for a week there, I was beginning to wonder if I'd need to begin loading my birds and cat onto some sort of ship and set sail; it not only rained in Las Vegas, but it rained *a lot*! Our corner of the Mojave desert has seen a deluge the likes of which I cannot remember, but Brandy and Roger parted the clouds with their warm personalities and glowing smiles just long enough for us to slip away to Red Rock Canyon for a post-wedding portrait session.





Brandy and Roger were dressed in vintage wedding garb that looked amazing - the black shirt/white tie and suspenders on Roger inspired me to pick up a similar outfit (only I'm sad to say that I don't pull it off nearly as well) and Brandy's veil, fur coat and form fitting dress was on fire!!!




The use of shapes and layers adds a lot of interest to a photo and lengthens out the bodies; coupled with great fun loving personalities, you have a perfect shoot.



I love Red Rock Canyon; the whole area is an amazing 360 degree vista with dozens of photo opportunities and I've always found that our clients are immediately comfortable there. I highly recommend the experience not only to get off the strip and into the the beauty of desert nature, but to add variety and a sense of wonder to your photo session.

Light is the hero of photography and the best time for photography at Red Rock Canyon is late morning, when the sun is just creeping over the rocks without being directly in the subject's eyes, or flooding the delicate hues of pink, orange and yellow rocks with punishing desert sunlight.

We had the added bonus of a thick blanket of angry clouds that moved in midway through our shoot and we took advantage of that with some moody ethereal shots. What's so neat is that one one side of us we had a cheery sunny day, while on the other side, we had these creepy looking clouds, which gave a surreal look to Brandy's pose. I used the surrounding brush in the foreground and a baby tree to form a natural frame to the image and give an impression of miniaturization.





I had wanted to extend the shoot a bit longer, but mother nature had other ideas in mind and towards the end of our shoot, the rain made its return and we decided to pack up before we'd need to swim back to the studio :)

Mazel Tov, you two!!

Katie & Zach - Las Vegas Engagement photography at Tule Springs

This shoot bears the subtitles: "A goose nearly cooked" and "Peacocks came cavortin'"....Read on, dear friends!

Frank Lamb Park at Tule Springs is one of my favorite recommendations for clients looking to get off the strip and do something truly unique. A little variety really adds something to a shoot and it gives me a chance to show that yes, there IS nature in Las Vegas.

Zach and Katie are everything we love about a couple - gorgeous, in love and fun to work with! Upon arriving at Tule Springs, I was at first disappointed to find that the grass had turned yellow and the leaves had all fallen (fall arrives in February?). We were last there in December and the area was much more lush, but Zack and Katie really made up for it with a deep, rich red dress, colorful tattoos and amazing red hair!

Here's a good example of how vibrant colored clothing can really enhance a shoot; the tendency is usually to wear drab, dark colors, but what you usually end up with is a drab, dark shoot. Red is a bold color that looks great against a blue sky or green grass. It's the color of love and passion and I think it's *very* flattering on both men and women.

Katie was dressed to impress with a pinup style red dress with black polka dots and matching era styled hair in an amazing shade of red! When I saw them step out of the car, I shouted over to Sarah "Wow! Don't they look amazing?!?!" Sarah's eyes nearly popped out and she nodded like a bobblehead doll. within minutes, these two hit their marks like professional models and we had a great bit of fun working with them.


Tule Springs is a very 'un vegas' location, which is its main draw for me. While we haven't explored the area fully, there are several bodies of water filled with cat tails that remind me of growing up in Wisconsin. Once the grass gets green again, I expect we'll make a stop back there to photograph the water and greenery.

One of the unique aspects of Tule Springs is that there are several beautiful horses and wild(ish?) peacocks that roam free. A fast eye and a bit of bread will catch an amazing male albino peacock and the last time we were here, we took some amazing shots of another of our couples feeding the peacocks. A steady, confident hand will encourage these majestic animals to feed right out of your hand!

Well....two things: One is that peacock mating season started early this year. As you likely already know, male peacocks attract a mate by spreading their feathers and doing a little dance.

The dance is hilarious; I mean, I love nature and it's impressive, but the one-two step shuffle had me in tears laughing. Another part of the ritual is when the birds shake their tail feathers (remember the Ike and Tina Turner song?). The birds really liked us in a way that we felt it necessary to remind the peacocks that all of us are spoken for. Seriously, there were no female peacocks present at the time, just me... *gulp*

The other thing is that geese (which normally hang out on the other side of Tule Springs) can smell crackers from like a mile and a half away. No sooner did we start trying to feed the peacocks in the middle of their mating dance that we were attacked by five white geese, with a few Canadian Geese waiting in the wings as backup muscle.

I do mean 'attacked', by the way. These horridly delicious meaty birds ate up all of our crackers and then began trying to eat my client's face, all the while hissing angrily like venomous cobras, tongues poking out and all.

I'm a bird lover, I really am - I have two sweet parakeets, two sweet cockatiels and then I have Piggy, who is also a cockatiel, but has the temperament of a rabid pit bull. He hisses, he bites and he loves crackers and I always likened him to a tiny vulture, but he may actually be a reincarnated goose.

Despite my love of birds, I couldn't help but wonder if an altogether different fowl would adorn the dining room table in the Tyler household this Christmas.

but I digress; Katie and Zach's engagement photography session was an example of a shoot gone amazingly right; interesting location, fun people, cool clothing and wonderful colors. I can't wait to shoot their wedding in May!


For those considering a wedding in Las Vegas and want the lights of the strip in your photo, there are several place to stand at Tule Springs in early twilight that offer a gorgeous view of the strip off in the distance. At any rate, you can't go wrong with photography there, espcially with clients as gorgeous as these two :)

Mazel Tov, everyone!
-Deacon

Christmas gifts and mountain weddings

2010 is really shaping out to be an amazing year and I can't recall having this much optimism and excitement this early!

On Sunday, Sarah and I will be at Mount Charleston Resort to shoot our first wedding of 2010 with Natasha and Jonny and we're going to make use of one of our favorite Christmas gifts of all time!

Melissa and Dwight, two of our favorite clients, sent us two pairs of these amazing gloves as Christmas presents: Freehands

Not only was this one of the most touching gestures ever, it literally changes the way we shoot in the cold! During their shoot my hands became so cold that, towards the end of the evening I had difficulty holding onto the camera, let alone nimbly operating the tiny switches and buttons.

In the past, I've tried thin gloves and fingerless gloves, but they all either lacked the grip to hold onto six or so pounds of camera, flash, lens, bracket, etc or lacked the proper thermal insulation, so I've been gloveless throughout 2009.

The Freehands gloves are made specifically for electronics users and have 'convertible' forefinger and thumbs that give you the fine motor skills to text message or work a camera and the palm side has rubber grips that keep me from dropping $7,000 worth of gear or missing an important shot.

Mount Charleston is typically around 15-20 degrees colder than the valley, so we're sure to see lots of snow and have some fun ideas that I'm excited to implement. This is one of those shoots where my mind is exploding with anticipation in the weeks leading up to it.

Natasha and Jonny are wonderful together, with innocent and natural interactions that bring a smile to my face whenever I see them. I expect that we're going to have some amazing photojournalistic portraits and I can't wait to share them!

Below are a few pics from their engagement shoot (which we also did at Mount Charleston). Shots like this make me want to add a large caption that says "THIS is Las Vegas".