Nua Music

We visited my family in the Phoenix area recently. While we were there we photographed our brother Telepeti "Bet" Fanua. He writes and records and produces music. He is always writing and producing but most of the recording has been for other people. We convinced him to start recording so he whipped out this song in the course of a day or two and sent it to us. Take a listen! We are trying to get him to write and record more so if you like it please leave a comment and let us know. Also since this his his freshman attempt recording in this genre, any comments or suggestions on making it better would be greatly appreciated!!
Bet and my mom Cindy-Rae own and operate Nua Music Design. If you need some music for your website, film, or video projects, slide shows, TV spots, or you just need some custom music for any reason, get in touch with them. They can talk with you about what you need and get you set up!!
listen to bets song here:



Here are some images we did of Bet out at Tempe town lake near ASU. Enjoy!!

I'm no professional but... oh yes, in fact I AM a professional and this is some pretty sweet lighting. First person to tell me how I did this image below, what type of light i used and where, I will send them a crisp clean one dolla bill!

This image below also had some magic light, any guesses?

last but not least, under the tracks. This lighting was pretty obvious! and no I didn't use my super wonderful speed lights.

Normally Desiree is shooting with me but for this, I dragged her out of bed to come be my mobile light stand! Bravo Desiree not only is she one of my all time favorite photographers, she is my new favorite light stand!

Just for fun

Just a quick post. We had an Intimate session the other day. At the end of the session I remembered about this mask that we had for a bridal show a number of years ago. I pulled it out and asked if we could get a few pics with the mask. I shot 6 or 7 images and here are two of them, I dig 'em hope you do too!
Yes, these were shot in our studio.

Motley Family

A few weeks ago we had another opportunity to work with some great people and good friends. The Motley family met us out at the petroglyph park and we took the evening to photograph their family before Terrance left on a church mission. He will be gone for two years in Italy teaching about the birth, teachings, atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. It's an amazing thing to see a 19 year old young man have such a dedication and love for the gospel that he will dedicate two years of his life to it. We wish him all the best and hope that his family doesn't miss him too much!
We look forward to when Terrance comes home so we can do another session with the entire family.

Legacy

The wrinkles in Flora's hands were more evident against the young skin of baby Olivia. Though they are separated by 97 years, they are connected through the blood that runs through their veins. Four generations of women, four lives, though each different, are tied together as family.
We had an amazing honor of photographing a four generation family as part of our Legacy session.

We are re-introducing our Legacy Limited Edition Session this month. This is an amazing opportunity for us to capture the relationship we share with one another before it becomes too late.
Desiree will be sharing, in an upcoming post and email, her story of why we are so passionate about these sessions. Her story comes from her regret in not taking the time to bring her grandmother into the studio to get pictures with our grandsons before it was too late.
The Medina family took advantage of the time they still had and we were able to capture their relationship and preserve that for their family forever!

HS Senior Ambassadors

We are looking for HS Senior ambassadors who can help us promote our senior portrait program within certain High Schools. If you are interested in changing the way seniors still think about their senior photos, and think a few extra bucks in your pocket sounds nice, call us for more information on our senior ambassador program. We are still looking for a few more students from a number of High Schools in the area!

Finally the Frushours!

We shot another family for our Legacy collection! We ran into the Frushours at the mall on crazy tax free weekend and they mentioned they haven't had pictures done of Hayden since he was born. We figured that since he's now two, it was time. We had a wonderful time shooting and playing, even though Hayden was more interested in eating cookies than doing pictures! It was a great opportunity for them to enjoy time together as a family and have great images to show for it. Thanks guys for coming in, and enjoy!

Senior portrait sessions

Our ( j ) senior sessions mailer went out this week. It's the first this school year. Because we only do custom work for our seniors, we have not been advertising and only work with a select few seniors on a referral basis only. Because of the demand among groups of kids who want that total personalization with their senior photos, we are dedicating more time to our senior sessions in order to accommodate a few more people. This has also allowed us to do a bit of advertising.
We are very lucky in that we are able to work with only a select group of kids. Not so lucky when we have to turn so many away. But it works out well for us and all those that we are able to work with.
We have the ability to give all of our seniors a completely personal session, shot on nearly any location that they can imagine, using anything they want in the picture to show their personality.
To give you an idea: We have shot in bedrooms, on the mesa, in the canyons, in the foothills, downtown, oldtown, bosque, backyard, in a tree, rock climbing, in clubs, in cars, on cars, in dance schools, building tops, back alleys, botanical garden and in the middle of the street between traffic. Yes, we also shoot in the studio. Those sessions are usually done when our senior has a very specific vision that can only be captured in the studio. We have also shot with all sorts of imaginable props: cars, camping equipment, motorcycles, umbrellas books, cellos, friends, couches, chairs, microphones, bubblegum.
One of the beauties of life is it's diversity. We are all individuals with our own needs, wants, personalities, and passions. There is no reason that we can't express those traits that make us who we are. We have great opportunity to work with people to do just that; express themselves and have it captured, to be enjoyed forever.
Please contact us to get your senior sessions scheduled. Or if you know of someone graduating this year and know that the standard/traditional yearbook picture and session just won't do them justice, please contact us.

Four generations of strong women

I had the opportunity today to photograph four generations of Moody women. I had a wonderful time watching Rebe and Ally play with their great grandma. We were told before hand that Grammy wasn't "photogenic" but it's amazing when you concentrate on the feelings that one generation has for another, it doesn't matter. Grammy was beautiful, all smiles and love for her great grand daughters. Thank you for sharing your legacy with us!
We are so privileged to be able to be a part of the lives of so many people. To see and know a family like this and be able to provide them with images of the family legacy is a great blessing.
There is always time in our lives that we can take away from the daily grind and spend with our families. Take some time with them and have it captured, to be remembered for generations - a testament of your family's love.
Thanks again for letting us be a part of your families.
Desiree

A "Legacy" series

We are releasing our legacy series in the close future and have been shooting some families, in the mean time, to use for our promo material. Today we were able to shoot the Fausett family. I have been looking forward to this shoot because I have not had a chance to spend much time with the youngest, Willy. He was a perfect model for the shoot this morning. Everything that we asked him to do, he did. He was easy to communicate with and in a great mood. --which can be, as most of us parents know, a real hit-n-miss at that age.
Anyway we had a great time look forward to looking through the rest of the images.


Thanks again you guys for coming over for our shoot this morning. I really enjoyed it! don't let it be so long before the next time we do your pictures!! Trisdan, we are going to be starting our photo classes soon, let me know if you want some information.
Your kids are truly beautiful, you are pretty blessed parents!
Take care!

On the river bank

It has been a while since we shot in this particular spot on the river. It was really overgrown with trees and weeds since we were there last, which made things a bit more challenging. Anyway we were able to meet up with the Gale family before sunset and take advantage of the light to get some really nice images of the family. Aside from the grumpy older brother, everything went well. The twins are way cute, each with such different personalities. It is really nice to shoot such a cute family! (next time we'll have to shoot your family in the morning before any of the kids run off to the pool and stay all day without telling you) Take care you guys!! We look forward to getting the rest of your images ready and out to you!

MOM-E-2-B

OK Stephanie, here is your sneak preview of your images. I just randomly went through the session and pulled out three that popped out at me. I know going into the session you weren't quite sure what direction you wanted to take it so hopefully we were able to capture something that you will love.
I look forward to looking at the rest of the images and getting them ready for you. I am also looking forward to September when we can welcome Daddy's little boy, and photograph his first few days with you two. Keep resting, keep your skinny ankles! You look great. Derek, you should be proud that you have such a hot pregnant wife!!
Thanks again you two, we had a great time.

Long delayed post

We had a visit today from one of our favorite clients ( we have many favorite clients). We have had the great pleasure of working with her family for a while now and have been able to photograph them a few times. They have been blessed to two very cute girls and one devil. (most almost two year olds are devils though) Anyway, our last shoot was at the park where we were able to capture the kids just playing together.
We look forward to working with you guy again Mika. (sorry for the delay)!!!

Easton 6 Months

Yesterday we had another opportunity to photograph a baby from a couple whose wedding we had the honor to capture. Chad and Marissa are the lucky parents of little Easton, a six month old who is all boy. We shot in his bedroom which made the shoot very easy. Babies are most comfortable at home in a familiar setting. Instead of looking around at all of the unfamiliar things, Easton was completely relaxed, letting his personality show like nothing else. I know I say this of a lot of babies but Easton was a real pleasure to work with. He is a very hansom young man and Chad and Marissa are very lucky.
We are looking forward to our next shoot!

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

Being photographers means many things to me and Desiree. First, we have a great blessing, being able to do what we both love and spending our entire day together. In the almost ten years we have been together, we have spent more time with each other than a lot of couples married 3 times longer. We also get to work everyday with amazing people, sharing parts of their lives - that a lot of people don't get to see.
Being a photographer also brings a great responsibility. We have a gift to be able to share memories with generations. We have the ability to capture times in people's life that are both overwhelmingly joyous and overwhelmingly tragic. We are there with the joining of two lives, we are there at the birth of new life, and we are now there at the loss of new life. For some time now Desiree and I (mostly Desiree) have been a part an amazing organization. NILMDTS, Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, is a fairly new charity started by a beautifully talented and compassionate photographer from the Denver, CO area. As part of this charity we offer our photography 24 hours a day, seven days a week to parents in the hospital who are about to or who have just lost their new baby. Often these precious lives come with just enough time to look into their parents eyes before God brings them home again. The memories of these few minutes often fade in time and the emotions are dampened. Which is a good thing - time heals the deepest wounds. It can, however, take the memories away that we want to treasure.
We get a call from the hospital and with in a few minutes Desiree is there with a camera, documenting the precious moments shared as a family. We hold onto these images until the family is ready to view them. The photography and the images are given to them at no charge. Often these things happen unexpectedly and can cause a great financial problem.
We have been blessed with a great ability and this is the least we can do. There is now an overwhelming need for this service and it keeps the few photographers here in NM that are members, very busy. Please visit http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/
find out what you can do to help us with this truly great thing.
The greatest gift that Desiree and I can give is a way to remember triumph and tragedy, success and sadness, love and loss. We give this with both humility and pride. we are proud to have worked so hard to develop our talents, and humble to have been given stewardship over these talents.

Everyone has a gift whether immediately recognized or not. Everyone has the ability to lift the hands of those who may hang. It is our responsibility, as part of humanity, to do what we can, regardless of how little or great, to help others find the joy in life that we are all meant to feel.

A honeymoon baby?

Today was a great day. Lance and Megan, a beautiful couple we had the great pleasure to photograph came in today with their beautiful little boy Jackson. Born 9 months and 15 days after their wedding. Jackson is one of the best babies that we have been blessed to be able to work with. He was very good and we took a ton of pictures of him. I pulled this image out of the many just randomly. He had so many great images that I would have been proud to show any. A baby like this makes my job easy!!
Megan and Lance, you are two very lucky new parents. Congratulations!!

more NOLA

I'm slowly working through my new Orleans images. As I complete them I will post a few of the images that I like. I am working on a book and an exhibition please comment on the images and let me know what you think as they come up. I would appreciate any input!
Thanks

Snowy May Afternoon

Liz & Coleman are gettin' hitched in a couple of weeks. (very very short weeks, if you ask Liz) Anyway, we had a chance to shoot a session of their entire (soon to be) family. We did this at the top of Sandia Crest. It was cold and snowy but we had a great time. I had had oral surgery just an hour before the shoot and was afraid that the pain and/or numbness would alter the outcome of the shoot. Well, with all the hiking my blood started to flow and the numbness quickly went away. the cold also kept the pain down. All in all it was a great shoot. Liz and Coleman make quite a couple and Desiree and I are really looking forward to shooting their wedding.
You can't tell from the images but it really did snow and it was very cold!!

00 -'g-town'

On a soccer scholarship to Georgetown, Seth is waiting for high school to end. He came to us with some ideas for a cool photo shoot and we had a great time making his ideas come to life.
We started the shoot at his high school soccer field and ended up in the alley next to our studio with some lights and a fog machine (a James Bond-esque look.) It was fun to be challenged with a shoot like that.
Good luck at School Seth. We'll see you in the MLS soon!

A beautiful time

Lately we have found ourselves shooting more and more portrait sessions - which Seth loves a lot. We are able to really open up our creative minds and run with ideas and interests. We had the chance to work with one of our favorite clients this week - Teal and her daughter Alyssa.

This session found us all in Teal's bathroom shooting her and Alyssa in the shower. Aside from the lighting difficulties we had to work through, the images came our beautifully. It was truly a pleasure to be able to preserve these intimate moments for teal and her daughter.

Unfortunatly, moments like these are what we so long to remeber but too often forget. We are so blessed in what we do to be able to ensure that these memories will not be forgotton but live on eternally. Thanks teal!