picture this

Emily has had the fun opportunity to participate in a teen photography workshop taught by the sweet Sandi Gentry.  This workshop couldn't have come at a better time.

Emily has had a desire to learn photography for some time now.  She constantly wants to use my "good" camera and is saving up her hard earned cash to buy her own.  We were trying to figure out some way for Emily to learn the technical in and outs of photography when Sandi's class came along.

The pictures below are from Emily's first homework assignment.  She set up the photo shoot, gathering things from our house (and balloons) that she wanted to use.  She arranged to have Megan serve as model.  I was the driver and holder of props.  I tried to insert teaching comments here and there but my independent little Emily nicely informed me that if she needed help she'd let me know (she really was nice about it so I just tried to bite my tongue)  I'm glad I did...I love what Emily came up with.

She still has technical things to learn and master but that will come.  What I love is that she has a creative eye.  I love what she captured through her lens...what she sees.  

Here are some of my favorite shots that she took.  Her homework shots were unedited, these however are all edited with instagram (our family has a current obsession with the look of instagramed photos)  I'm excited to see the progression of Emily's talent as she continues to explore photography.  Can't wait to frame some of her photography! 

senior portraits (kind of - megan's not a senior)

My apologies for the photo overload of this post but these kids are just too cute to not share.

Meg's friend Abbie has a great sense of style...a cute, fun indie vibe.  I was wanting to practice my photography and I knew she'd be a good one to shoot cause she wouldn't expect perfection from me and she likes things a bit quirky and off beat - we'd be perfect together.

We didn't actually end up doing the shoot I envision for her (centered around music - her love, that shoot will happen soon) but we did get some cute shots of her as we walked around San Juan Capistrano.

Abbie (and Megan for that matter) are into a 70's type of editing for photos so thats what I went with.  I think the look and feel of this photos totally captures who Abbie is...cute & fun with a bit of edge.

picture below is one of my favorites...

another favorite below (I have come to realize when I look at pictures I've taken I gravitate toward the detail shots.  I think I like the little glimpse they give you of who the person is and they leave you wanting to know more about them) 

I also did a shoot with Megan because she need photos of herself for a recognition night at church (more on that later)  We went to a tick and rattlesnake infested field right by home and had a great time.

I love the picture below but it leaves me feeling a little sad...soon she'll be packed up and heading off to college.  Miss her already!

Did I mention that in addition to ticks and rattlesnakes there were thorns...lots of them!!  Gotta love this candid shot of Megan pulling some of those thorny buggers out of her body.

I got to go back to that neighborhood field and shoot another of Megan's friends...Travis.  Unfortunatley most of the photos we snapped were lost.  They were on the CF card when we got home but they would not download onto the computer.  Eventually they were lost on the card as well.  Not sure how we messed that all up.  We ended up with only about 15 or so photos.

So here's a few of handsome Travis.  The girls at BYU are gonna love him!

behind the camera

I used to take photos a lot.  I was even in a photography class and loved it but months of health problems have kept me from doing much of anything lately.  Some days the fog of illness lifts and on just such a day a few weeks back I grabbed the girls and we headed to some abandoned warehouses that I've always thought would be great for a photo shoot.  The location didn't disappoint - until a police officer showed up to let us know we were in a restricted area.  Umm, oops!

Technically the pictures aren't great.  To be honest, it's been so long since I've really used my camera that I can't remember anything about f-stops, iso, light metering, etc.  I just kinda snapped and hoped for the best.  Regardless of the technical merit I love having these pictures of my girlies!

holding the record for longest birthday post ever

I'm not feeling fully recovered from the festivities of the weekend but if I don't post now it'll never get done.

Does she look like she had fun?  

She did!

Megan's party was Friday night and I think the celebration was everything her 16 year old heart could wish for.

(A big thank you to Shelley for all the great photos of the kids and party set-up)

We celebrated her sweet 16 with sweets...lots of them!  There was not lots of party prep time due to my vertigo and our family trip to Havasupai so nothing was homemade (except for the cupcakes and a friend made those for me (and also mopped my floor) - thanks Leslie!)  I liked going the store bought route it made it all a bit easier.

Reese's Peanut Butter cups (Meg's favorite), taffy, giant pixie stixs, lollipops and Little debbie cakes.  Thanks to Michelle for helping with all the food set-up.

The sugary goodness didn't end with the dessert table...we had a table full of sodas

as well as smores by the fire pit

The hit of the "sweets" though was these two.

No, not the kids although they both are sweet - the wax mustaches and lips.  The kids pulled those of the dessert table almost immediately.  They provided plenty of great photo ops.

Then we went a little red neck and served some canned nacho cheese.  In my defense I made it a bit ritzier by serving it in my chocolate fountain.  You're jealous, I know.  When the teenagers are here we almost always serve this golden, gooey, goodness of yellow cheesiness.  They love it.

We served some other savory snacks...peanuts, pickles, taquitos, veggies (most of which were left at the end of the night)  Those teens are going to pay when they hit 40 and their metabolism slows.  They'll wish they had eaten their veggies instead of the abundance of nacho cheese.

We didn't plan much in the way of activities as we knew the kids would mostly just want to hang out.  We had foosball (thanks for the table Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jill) and air hockey (thanks Smiths)

I had also purchased some fortune teller fish that I remembered playing with when I was younger.  We put them out around the lounge areas and the kids had fun finding out their fortunes.

The night mostly consisted of a lot of hanging out with friends

as well as some hanging out with family

cousin Dusty with his friend Carson

cousin Tyler with some of his college buddies - they drove all the way from Utah

for Megan's sweet 16...that's what we're telling ourselves anyway :)

We also had a few party crashers

These 3 obviously found a way to get around the strict high school kids only (unless you are a college aged cousin) rule.  

In Mackenzie's defense she was invited by Emily.  

Gorilla boy?  Well, how can you not let in the gorilla that crashes through the back gate and terrorizes all the party guests?  I guess it's one of the perks of having the Chamberlins as neighbors :)  we're glad you stopped by gorilla boy!

And Zane?  We'll excuse his party crashing too since this picture is priceless.  It is so getting blown up for his 16 birthday.

Did you notice a pattern in the above pictures?  Same backdrop?  Hands down, the best part of the night was the photo booth we put up.  I am so planning on doing this for more parties.  The kids at the party took over 2,000 photos (no exaggeration) and now Megan has photo memories that she will treasure.

We rented pipe and drape from a local rental company and set up a 9x9 room in the front room.  3 walls with black curtains and one with striped fabric and some pendants that I made.  I set up my camera on a tripod (thanks Rona) and added a corded shutter release button for the kids to push for pictures.  

For some fun we threw in some chalkboard thought bubbles that a friend cut out (thanks Herk) and that I painted with chalkboard paint and added a handle to the back of.  These were used to write notes to the birthday girl, funny sayings or my favorite...

Kids would be set for a picture and then friends would write comments on the chalkboard without the picture people knowing what they said - they just had to hold the sign and smile for the camera.  There were some funny things said and even funnier photos taken.

I realize that this post is already waaaaay too long and I have no intention of posting all 2,000+ photo booth photos but I have to post some.  You are free to leave now (if you haven't already)

I'm unable to load anymore photos on this post - seems I have hit the limit.  Stay tuned for further photo booth posts - you don't want to miss some great pictures.