Manti, Utah Bed and Breakfast

I stayed at a little Bed and Breakfast in Manti, Utah last weekend. It was so cute I found myself taking pictures of everything. In fact, the whole town was terribly cute. I declare Manti the cutest Utah town; never seen one better. Our Bed and Breakfast was called the Yardley Inn. There are actually a surprising amount of sweet little B&B's in the area. The Yardley Inn house, I was told, is over a hundred years old.

We stayed in the English Ivy room. Which I loved. When I was a girl my mother decorated my room just the same. (Well, similar anyways.)

The purpose of driving up to Manti was to see the Mormon Miracle Pageant. Which was wonderful. And in the morning we visited the beautiful LDS temple and the perfect little cemetery next to it.

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Fellow Photographer Portraits

Photographer's need portraits too. And taking your own portraits can proof challenging. So photographs usually get another photographer who's work they admire and take each other's portraits. Thus I did with my photographer friend, Lorraine Lee. These are the portraits I shot of her earlier this week. Isn't she the cutest?! I think these really show off her personality. And I can't wait to see the pictures Lorraine did of me!

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B Weddings Magazine Publication

The wonderful B Wedding Magazine from Ireland has published one of my images in their summer magazine! That excites me!

Mine is the image with the bride in the blue rocks, Heather from her wedding at the Springs Preserve last September.

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Vintage Redone

We had a fortuitous day earlier this week. Carmen, my usual second-shooter and best friend, brought over a wonderful vintage suitcase she had acquired, hoping we could collectively come up with a way of painting on it. Even though we are both creative people, we are not painter's. By happenstance my wonderful cousin Ann, who is an artist, and her husband, Brian, were in town and dropped by. The day turned into a awesome art project day. Not only did the suitcase end up looking way better than Carmen or I could have done my ourselves but we all did a bunch of other fun projects and had a great day!

I love serendipity!

Ann is just starting an Etsy storefront at www.etsy.com/shop/BlueDeskDesigns. And you can view her blog at thebluedesk.blogspot.com.

Carmen is so excited about this suitcase. She was telling me that she may plan a trip just so we can sport this!

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Her Empty Chair

I am not a big 'air all your dirty laundry online' girl. My Facebook posts are usually short and sweet. And although I share plenty here on my blog, none of it is too deep. However this series is so personal to me, that I almost hesitate to share it. But I am so in love with the images that came out of it that I want to share them and the images almost beg the question "What's the story behind this?" So I guess I'll bare everything and tell all.

 A long time friend of mine died last month and we had to travel to California for the funeral. I painted and took this chair with me. I took pictures with it along the way. At first taking the images wasn't really the main idea. I just needed a way to express my grief. I needed something physical to focus on. I dragged this red chair around as if to say to her "Wish you were here, I saved you a seat." 

I made my poor traveling companions pull over on the I-15, pull that chair out of the trunk and set it up on the side of the road more than a few times. The beach was our final destination before we started the drive back and I had planned to take the chair home with me. But once I was there on that beach I felt such peace. So I left that red chair right on the beach. I left all my burdens right at the edge of the water and said goodbye to my friend. 

'The Beach'

'The Field'

'The Street'

'The Trees'

'The Water'

My New Horse!

I finally took some pictures of my new horse. I've had him almost 2 months now. He's on the small side, even for an Arabian. (He could almost pass for a pony.) He's a cutest horse I've ever seen in my whole life. I'm completely in love with him! His name is Eugenides. I know it's a weird name, I got it from one of my favorite books, The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. (Go read the series and then I can explain to you why his name is so perfect for him.)

As a little girl I was crazy about horses but never had the opportunity to learn to ride. So it's such a joy to know how to train and ride my own horse now!

True, that I may be totally biased, but I think he's the loveliest horse ever!

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Remember

"This Billy Gilmore Production Video features Brilliant Imagery artist Rachel Garcia in her Vocational prime.  The music video style project  displays the dedication, quality, and inspiring conceptual artistry of her work.  Rachel Garcia Wrote and Vocalized her own Lyrics in the song to portray the Unique stylistic purposes of Brilliant Imagery photography."  -Noah Jensen "Director"  -BILLY GILMORE PRODUCTIONS-.

This was fun project.  It was a group effort from many contributing artists in all aspects and phases.  Hope you enjoy.

Early Valentine's Day

 I never really loved Valentine's Day because it over shadows my birthday. My birthday is the 10th of February and Valentine's Day is the 14th. I know it's not as bad as having your birthday on Christmas or Thanksgiving. (Those poor people!) But I'm a glutton for attention so I've always been a little miffed at Valentine's Day. This year I decided to get over it, by celebrate it a bit early. And what better way to do that than with a Valentine session!

 

 To tell the truth I was going to wait till Valentine's Day to share these images. But I just couldn't help myself. I loved the way this shoot turned out - I couldn't wait to post these for you all!

We combined a lot of different soft themes, like the tea party and the bird, for a sweeter, more innocent Valentine feel.

We had some awesome contributing vendors for this shoot. 'Knick of Time' provided the gorgeous little pink birdcage. They have lots of beautiful, vintage and original wedding decor. 

Another of our Etsy vendors is 'Anista Designs'. She made all the lovely paper products. She even sent us some of her oh-so-fabulous wedding invitation designs. As well as the really cute little paper valentine hearts. I was so impressed with her stuff. She's totally talented!

And last (but certainly not least), Retro Bakery. OH MY! I think I love these people! If you're in the Vegas area, or the next time you come to Las Vegas, get to Retro Bakery. Totally worth it! The best part of the whole shoot may have been the end - when I got to eat one of these little babies.

Don't forget that the Unique Wedding Contest for Photography ends in just a few days. See our last blog post for entry details. Good luck!

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Sneak Peak

Just a little sneak peek at a special session we had this past weekend.

2011 Newsletter

Just wanted to share the 2011 Brilliant Imagery newsletter. Included are a few of our favorite Nevada places to shoot, engagement shoot ideas, some recent features of our work and of course the Wedding Photography Contest! Click here to read the full newsletter.

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Failure in the New Year

The New Year is always a time of making resolutions, goals and looking to the future. And hopefully reflection and learning from the past as well.  The best way to learn is by failing. And I do that a lot so I should be very smart -NOT!
I made a goal early in 2010 and I failed at it. I tried to do the 365 Challange and I made it to mid December. 250 days instead of the full 365. Though I totally failed I feel like it was worth while and I learned ALOT! As I make new goals this years I'm trying to take those mistake from this past year and put those lessons to good use in the future.
Happy New Year! May 2011 be full of joy!

The Best Shoes EVER!

If you've seen my work at all you know that I'm in love with shoes. So when Lauren shows up to her and Mitch's engagement session in hand-painted Toms shoes I, of course, have to comment on them. (You remember Lauren and Mitch's engagement and trash the dress sessions). So course after seeing her cool shoes, I'm jealous and want a pair of my own painted shoes.

When you buy a pair of Toms Shoes they give a new pair of shoes to a child in need. Isn't that the coolest idea? So simple and wonderful! So Lauren being the wonderful girl that she is, wants to encourage you to buy Toms shoes by hand-painting Toms shoes for others.

I bought the shoes online and had them sent straight to Lauren. When I came pick up them up I was SO much more than happy. Like I told Lauren; I expected awesome shoes but these babies far exceeded expectations.

Aren't they gorgeous? Beautiful? Fantastical?!

I love the little twin lens camera painting, I think that's my favorite part.

Lauren painted an awesome, surreal, wedding photography theme especially for me. If you would like your own bad-ass themed hand-painted shoes Lauren is available. She charges $50 an hour. The time differs for each person's unique art work. (My took about 4 hours.)

Lauren Bonner lauren.k.bonner@gmail.com