Wedding Photographer.

Today I had the privilege of photographing my very first wedding. The bride and groom were absolutely adorable and so in love. I am so glad to not only have gotten to take pictures of their special day, but to just be there to witness such a strong and sacred bond. My heart is so full. I was so excited when they asked me to be their photographer but along with the excitement came the nervousness. I have done little shoots for friends (engagements, family portraits, parties, etc.) before but nothing this significant. Nothing this meaningful. Nothing this sacred. I prayed many times that I would at least get some decent photos. One thing that I learned today was that being a photographer is not easy! The lighting (and temperature) conditions were less than ideal. It was flipping hot! and besides the fact that I am pretty sure I was on the verge of having a heat stroke by the end of it, I really surprised myself. I learned that I needed to be assertive. It's hard to get everyone to cooperate! I also learned that while everyone was miserable out in that heat (especially me) I had to put that aside and be happy, fun, and slightly ridiculous. There were times when I looked through my viewfinder all I saw were unhappy faces. I had to crack jokes and basically make a fool of myself in front of a bunch of strangers and friends to get them to remember (or at least look like they remembered) what a happy occasion it was.

Today helped me to realize a lot of things. As much as I love being behind the camera, I don't think I wan to do this as a career. Or at least the wedding aspect. All my friends keep telling me to start and "on the side" photography business. Don't get me wrong, that is a great idea! but today helped me to realize that photography will always be a hobby for me. I don't mind (and frankly, would love) to photograph for friends and family, but not for a career. For all you professionals out there, you guys are saints. It's not as easy as you make it look. Thanks for being the person to capture so much.

Congrats Phillip and Damaris!

Carli

Maybe I'll post a couple of the photos I took...

Photo A Day.

I decided to do a photo a day challenge and honestly it is not very easy... but I love it! It is hard because most of my days are almost exact replicas of every other day (i.e. sleep, school, homework, dinner, sleep) but this project has really helped me to pick out the little things that were great about those normal uneventful days and even those really eventful days. I have seen some other bloggers posting their January photo a day post and their pictures are really creative and beautiful. It seems as if they are doing the challenge to better their photography skills and strengthen their creativity! It is so awesome! but that's not what my photo a day challenge is about. I am doing it because of what I said before. I want to pick out the little things in each day that were great, inspiring, beautiful, relaxing, etc and take a photo of them. It is nice to look back through the pictures and be able to remember that small little thing that made me happy, rather than all those hard and stressful things I had to do that day. 

I don't know how long I am going to be able to keep it up, but if you want to follow along I am putting all my photos on instagram (typically very late in the evening). Follow me @carlifries84

Carli

Insta-life.

It finally happened... I got an iPhone. I'm in love. Also, Instagram is literally the best thing ever... Insta-life:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 1. Kitten love. 2. Lighting. 3. Fabric. 4. Sewing project. 5. Crown of flowers. 6. All the broken watches that my brother fixed. 7. Mom's lunch. 8. My lunch, Fairchild with mango chutney. 9. Portrait. 10. New shoes. 11. Grandmother. 12. Stacked. 13. Sun flare. 14. Coast. 15. Sunday morning. 16. Favorite plaid dress. 17. Packing brooch collection. 18. Happy doll family. 19. Reading. 20. Paint organization.

Sorry for the enormous amounts of photographs. Also, are you on Instagram? Let's be friends. My username is carlifries84. Leave me a comment with yours. 

Carli

Flashback Friday: Siblings.

(Not that I am biased or anything... but I think I was an incredibly cute baby.)

My hunt for old family photographs led me to a ton of fairly unseen photographs of my brother and I. My dad is a photographer, yet somehow our house ended up not having a million photographs of the family hanging throughout the house. As I am sitting here typing this I can only recall a few photos that have graced us with their presence over the years. I attribute this to the fact that my dad took so many pictures of us kids that my parents had no idea what to do with them. 

You know how at other people's houses, or maybe even your house, the parents (or your parents, or you) have hung a bunch of school photographs, family portraits, and a few vacation photos? Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it always seemed so weird to me. It just seems like after a few years you have to replace those pictures with more recent ones. A more recent school photo, family portrait, and a couple pictures from the most recent family vacation. I even saw someone just stick the newest photos on top of the last one inside the picture frame. She has years of school photos in that one frame. It was almost like the wall of photos grew with the family. That sounds way cooler than I originally thought it was. 

(In front of Mr. Pea's house. I really had a neighbor with that name. He kept his yard so nice.)

(Us kids in balloon fiesta shirts again. My dad was so creative with us looking through a rain drop window.)

Maybe this is just my opinion, but I think that instead of hanging a bunch of formal photographs, that need to be replaced with time, around the house, hang the timeless photos. The ones that were taken from a real life moment. From the time the kids got played in a muddy rain puddle, or from the back yard BBQ with neighbors. Because that's really what life is isn't it?

Carli

Texas Love: The Gazebo

Lately I have been on a mission to visit all the places that my besties and I would hang out back when we were all together.

So today I was laying on my bed listening to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero's new cd (which Andy gave me :) Thanks!), which by the way is amazing and you should buy it and listen to it, and my neighbor decides to mow his lawn right outside my window... When I get a new record I like to lay there and just listen, but with all that racket I couldn't. So I decided to get out of the house and go somewhere. So grabbed my sunnies, ipod, a journal, my camera and a strawberry lemonade from Sonic and headed to the Gazebo which is a place I found a couple years ago by accident. It's on the Texas A&M Corpus Christi campus right off a jogging trail and it over looks the laguna. It's so lovely.

 It was so perfect. It was so peaceful. I sat there listening to my music and writing down goals, ideas, and plans for the future of this blog, life, and business. There was even a sweet little kitty family that came up to me for a pet. I really need to do this more often.

Carli

Too Long.

Last night when I got home from work I noticed my lonely little camera bag sitting in a far corner of the room & inside that lonely little camera bag was an even lonelier camera that has not had the opportunity to snap a photograph in far too long. I then ran to that far corner grabbed that lonely bag pulled out that lonelier camera and beheld it in my capable hands and said “I am sorry for paying no attention to you. Will you forgive me?” If that lonelier little camera could talk he would say “Take a picture and I will forgive you.” 

That is exactly what I did. Since it was cold outside and I rarely like to venture up the stairs and into the cold, I settled for taking pictures of my home…

Can we just take a moment to admire these lovely plates and bowls that I found at the DI for way cheap. I love that they are modern with a touch of vintage.

Can we also take a moment to admire the lovely Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup print? This is another of my most prized thrifted items.

Feist Metals poster.

Before Courtney’s wedding I decided to make her a felt flower bouquet… Saying that it didn’t work out is an understatement. It killed me to know how much time was wasted making those and they weren’t even used. So I made a garland. :) 

Dwight. Gift from Whitney.

I just love getting notes from my roomy on big test days.

I honestly need to start taking more pictures again…

Happy Wednesday!

Carli

The Other Stuff.

The wedding was not the only thing I had going on this weekend. My Dad came in to town! He was the official wedding photographer. When he drove me up to Utah in February we had hardly had any time to explore Salt Lake together. We only got to go to Temple Square for roughly 30 minutes before it closed. My Dad didn’t get to stay too long this time either, but it was much longer then the couple hours we had in February.

 Friday I took him to down town Salt Lake, showed him my school, got some grub sandwiches and then went to Liberty Park to eat them. The weather was stunning, except for the heat… I am now a pansy when it comes to the heat. Ridiculous right?! We did have a great time. Of course Friday night and all day Saturday was dedicated to the wedding, but Sunday we were free to do as we pleased. I took my Dad out to Antelope Island so that he could experience the unusual beauty of the Salt Lake. We had a great time. The following are several pictures from the island.

So all along the shore were these little black rocks. When I got closer to them they started moving. It felt like I was parting the seas as I walked. They weren’t rocks. They were gnats. Bellow is a photograph that is intended to capture this sickness. I think  I succeeded.

The heat was like a dementor sucking the life out of our bodies. I got tired really quick, but I was enjoying the time with my Dad and the scenery. I particularly love how the mountains and clouds are reflected in the water, and how the road curves with the terrain. My dad taught me some photography techniques that will come in handy next time I photograph scenery.

The only thing that upset me was the fact that we didn’t see many buffalo. We saw a few but they were all far away….

Already missing my daddy.

Carli

Memorial Weekend.

Here are several photographs to illustrate our Memorial day weekend adventures. We did tons of sight seeing, and I took tons of pictures. I turned into my father who I always laughed at for pulling over all the time to take pictures, and getting excited about junk (that term is literal) and taking pictures of it. I basically had my camera around my neck all weekend.

We headed up to Moroni and stayed with Ben’s family, did a little rock band (well tried to…), then a little geo-cashing, and then took some extremely long scenic routes through the mountains driving on tiny switchback roads only to find out that we could not go any farther because the snow had not melted off the road yet. But it was all worth it. Standing on a mountain and looking out over the valley to the neighboring mountains could never get old to me. There is just so much to see. I have fallen in love with the mountains. Sorry Corpus… your beaches cannot beat the views I was blessed to see this weekend. 

I absolutely love traveling. Getting to experience new things. It is not just the place your going, but the road traveled as well. I hardly ever get bored riding in the car. You are probably wondering how…

Here are a few suggestions to keeping your car ride interesting.

1. Listen to your favorite jams. Today mine included Rooney, and Vampire Weekend. I just needed something that would keep me and Courtney (the driver) awake. 

2. Playing car games such as the license plate game, or Would You Rather.

3. Stopping often. If you see a place that catches your eye, don’t just drive on by it. Stop and see what it is. If it is not that cool then just get back in the car and keep going, but if it is cool stay a while and explore. Some of the most amazing things are in between you and your destination.

4. My personal favorite (don’t judge). I like to look out the window at the scenery passing by and imagine myself out there doing extraordinary things. While driving through these wide valleys I imagined myself as a cowgirl being chased by bandits. I sat backwards on my horse, dogged bullets, and sent some flying. Once the gun smoke cleared I discovered that I had came out victorious over all 88 of them bandits. I then stopped at the nearest saloon, walked in through the swinging doors, and ordered me a Sasperilla. Calamity Carli was my name. 

If that is too extreme as a pass time for you then you might as well be bored. 

Don’t get so caught up in moving from point A to point B that you don’t see what your passing by. Sometimes what you overlook could be much better then you destination.

Thats all for now,

   Calamity Carli.