THE NEW BLOG!!

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Biz card winners + The Hinkley Family

The votes are in! Man was it a close race. The photo with the most votes was #3. Second most votes was a tie between #5 and #7 and the third most votes went to #4! I think these photos will tell definitely show the different things I do so thank you to EVERYONE who voted! Here are your winners in all their radness. It’s so hard to choose photos for these cards, so I might just have to order more sooner rather than later! Then everyone will be happy

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At the beginning of the month I headed out to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort to shoot The Hinkley family! They were having a sort of reunion for Mary and Lew’s 50th anniversary! They were a huge and fun family and here are some of my favorites.

All the grandkids!

This is Mary and Lew, married for 50 years!!

The whole gang…

This morning I got a tweet from Digit Rev sharing this story about an Afghan policeman who pulled his gun on two photojournalists. They also shared this story about a photographer who pulled a gun on a homeowner whose house he was photographing. Then they tweeted one of my new favorite quotes…

And lastly, I’m selling my Canon 50mm macro lens. It’s in perfect condition, used probably 10 times. If you’re interested comment below or shoot me an email (caroline@carolinefontenot.com)

!! VOTE !!

Today I started making new business cards since I’m almost out. The front of my cards will stay the same. But if you’ve ever seen the back of my cards, I choose different photos for each cards, and I can choose up to 5. Like this…

This is where you come in! I’ve narrowed down the photos I’d like to use, but since I can only have 5 I need your help! One I am for sure using is this one…

Below are the 7 images I’m torn between. I figured I’d give my readers the chance to choose their favorites out of some of my favorites. The 4 highest voted for will win a place on my business card! The only exception is if 2 of the highest votes are of the same couple (I like having different couples on each card) and if that happens, I’ll just go to the second highest vote. SO PLEASE VOTE FOR YOUR 4 FAVORITES!!! Here’s a good example of what you can say: “Hey Caroline. I think you’re neat. My four favorites are #1, #4, #5 and #7. Yipee!”

To vote, just COMMENT BELOW! Please do! I’ll be taking votes until tomorrow because I really need to get them ordered ASAP. Here are the contestants…

And if you know what’s good for you, you will CLICK HERE and stream Fun’s album, Aim and Ignite. It’s the best thing to happen since Nate Ruess left The Format, which makes sense, because this is his new band. I literally can’t stop listening to it. AND VOTE!!!

BLOG.CAROLINEFONTENOT.COM TEMPORARILY DISABLED!!

Hey folks! My new super awesome blog is officially under construction which means that the url blog.carolinefontenot.com is not going to work until the new blog is launched. So, if you have it in bookmarks or anything like that, temporarily change it to carolinefontenot.wordpress.com.

Once the new blog is launched, the .wordpress will forever go away! I’ll keep you updated on the construction!

Also, I got an iTouch with my new computer and am having a great time pretending it’s an iPhone (since we don’t have AT&T). Comment below if you have any great APPs you want to share!

And the winner is…

Wow. Sorry this is a little late people, but the winner has been chosen! If you’re ready to find out, watch the video below…

And, though embarrassing, please watch the out takes. They’re ridiculous.

I’m so excited about photographing the Stites family! As I was uploading this video to blip.tv, I got an email saying I had a comment on my post from yesterday. Awesomely (new word), Caitie Grissom was commenting to say the suspense was killing them, so that’s all the more reason I’m stoked that they won!

In other super exciting news, I’m blogging this from my BRAND NEW 24” iMAC!! Man, it is amazing.

Also, I’m listening to the new Third Eye Blind album that I downloaded for $3.99 on Amazon! Get it here.

Dave + Meredith :: Engaged!!

I knew they were going to be awesome clients when these were the first two sentences of the first email I got from her: “My Goodness your photography is fresh!  This is exactly what I was looking for and worried I wouldn’t be able to find close to Buena Vista!” It’s hard to start a business, especially when you’re new in town, and especially when you want to bring something new to a place that’s pretty old school. Think of a small town with one stoplight…any small town…that’s where we live. And then I get an inquiry from a couple who lives in Chicago who want a small wedding in the mountains, but at the same time, want the photography to be fresh. I was floored! We began emailing and I was so excited to hear what she’s planning: renting houses in the mountains, a ceremony with about 20 people, sharing their love of the outdoors with their families, a hike in lue of a rehearsal dinner. C’mon, how cool!

They came out to Salida last weekend to get some wedding stuff done and we squeezed in one of the coolest e-sessions I’ve ever done. This was my first “blind date” session, meaning I’d never met them in person before the shoot. So we enjoyed drinks with them at a bar in town before the shoot and ended it the same way! It’s safe to say we hit it off.

One of my favorite things about e-sessions is not only interacting with the couple, but exploring the location(s) that we’re shooting! Mark and I found so many unique places in Salida that we’d driven past before, but never really stopped to take in. Alleys, walls, staircases, we couldn’t get enough! It was the perfect setting for a couple who lives in downtown Chicago but truly loves small town Colorado.

It’s time to flood this post with favorite images now…enjoy!

We found these old bleacher chairs hiding by a fence so we dragged them in front of this backdrop. So cool right now.

Different chair, different great backdrop.

By the way, Dave and Meredith were the perfect couple to photograph because I’m pretty sure I only told them what to do a handful of times. Every time we’d switch locations they’d just start being awesome and ‘posing’ all on their own! Um, yes please!

Hello, blue eyes!

This alley is ah-ma-zang! There is something I love so much about junky alleys, especially when you put two people in them beautifying it up.

When we were in the alley we kept hearing someone saying “oh that’s beautiful, what a great shot, wow, you guys are just beautiful.” At first I thought it was Mark behind me and I was really confused…but then we looked up and saw that guy!

More chairs, more goodness…

I love off camera flash, I love off camera flash, I love off camera flash!

I love off camera flash, I love off camera flash, I love off camera flash!

I loved all the colors happening in this alley. The bright light, the blue dusk seeping down. I like it so much, you get to see two versions of the same photo.

Something about the feel of the original shot was very vintage looking to me, so I had some fun with it.

And last, a fun shot of the end of the night.

The best last line

From James the Giant Peach:

And because so many of them were always begging him to tell and tell again the story of his adventures on the peach, he thought it would be nice if one day he sat down and wrote it as a book.
So he did.
And that is what you have just finished reading.

What a great last sentence of a book! I felt so accomplished like, “Yes! It is what I just finished reading!” Thanks for that, Ronald Dahl.

Songs of the Week:

• Angus & Julie Stone – “Mango Tree”
• Gary Go – “Wonderful” (free single of the week on iTunes!)
• Gary Go – “Just Dance”
• Trevor Hall – “Where’s the Love”

By the way, I only have ONE PERSON in the running for half off a photo session to celebrate my Photoversary (read post below). C’mon, people. Of the 150+ of you who have read this in the past two days, nobody wants a half off session? Pass it on!!!

ONE YEAR PHOTOVERSARY!

One year ago I shot my first wedding, the awesome Dillenders!

I’ll never forget how terrified I was, how unprepared I was, and in the end, how sure I was that I wanted to shoot weddings forever. Looking back over the year, I’m embarrassed by the job I’ve done on certain shoots, I’m amazed at how much I’ve learned, and I’m excited about what’s to come.

Photography has been one of the only hobbies that I had as a kid and have stuck with. If you know me well at all, you know I get really passionate about things for a certain period of time, and then it fades away as quickly as it came. I’ll “get into something” and be all about it, hardcore, the biggest fan, and then fizzle, it’s gone. Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes I just wish I could stick with things. But photography is a love I’ve had since my first digital camera (because, really, how into it could I be with the throw aways?) Yes, I still have my first digital camera. And yes, it is a Nikon. And no, it doesn’t work.

In high school, my dad gave me his old 35. I hope that every person who is “into” photography has shot film at some point, and if not, do it. I want to start using this bad boy more often…

I want to be 100 times better than I am, and I want to already be at the place I’ll be in 2 years. But despite certain frustrations and my own feelings of ‘not being good enough’ at times, I feel so amazingly blessed that am still booking clients who want me to capture their Big Day. I pray that this will continue and I really will be able to do this forever (or at least until my back, fingers, and feet can’t take it anymore).

So anyways, HAPPY PHOTOVERSARY TO ME (AND TO YOU!!) To celebrate I’m giving away 50% off a shoot (YOU HEARD ME!) That means seniors, engagements, families, kids, bridals, headshots aka Facebook profile photo, you name it, you get half off (except weddings…nice try). To enter what will be a live drawing of the winner, just comment below or shoot me an email (caroline@carolinefontenot.com) with your name and what sort of shoot you’re interested in. And you don’t have to be a regular blog reader to enter, so pass it on to anyone you know who might be interested! And if you live in Texas, you should enter too, because you know I’ll be back at same point! And if you live in Fiji, you should enter, because I want to come there. So seriously, pass it on to anyone and everyone. I’ll blog the live drawing 1 week from today which means the contestants can shoot me their info from now until AUGUST 17TH 12:00 AM (MOUNTAIN TIME, BABY).

Remember my post yesterday where I told people to comment their favorite books? 1 person did it. C’mon people. Don’t make this like that.

Sporadic Sunday

When my parents were in town they bought Mark and I tons of fun stuff! Among those things are two things I’m very excited about.

Exhibit A: Hanging tomato plant! Here is my first handful of delicious backyard tomatoes.

Exhibit B: A hummingbird feeder! As to why I didn’t already have one of these I’ll never know. Hummingbirds are my favorite birds in the world, followed by penguins. Here are are of my favorite things about them…

• Hummingbirds flap their wings 50 to 200 times per second
• They can fly up, down, right, left, backwards, upside down and even loop-de-loops! Amazing!
• They can starve to death in about an hour (that’s not a good thing, but it’s fascinating. Therefore my hummingbird feeder is not only fun to look at, but it saves lives).
• They eat every 10 minutes throughout the day (and now, in front of my window!)
• Their main diet is sugar which they get from plant nectar or from kind-hearted people with feeders (like me!)
• They can fly up to 25-30 mph!

I really could go on because they’re that awesome, but let’s just look at my first hummingbird visitor last week. Soon I plan on perching myself on my porch for a while with a tripod and a zoom lens to get some legit shots, but this will do for now. I took it through the window that I gaze out of throughout the day at my new friends.

Yesterday Mark and I drove to Denver to play all day and go to the Cubs vs Rockies game at night with family and friends. I love Denver a lot. And I love the Rockies stadium a lot, pretty much because of the sweet mountain view you get. Note: these were all taken with my handy point and shoot, which is for sale if you’re interested

Since being married to a Fontenot I’ve learned more about LSU than I ever thought I would. When we go to Rockies games (or Cubs games) we wear LSU shirts to support former LSU players. Hawpe from the Rockies and Theriot and Fontenot (not related) from the Cubs.

Hanging out with Fontenot boys is always a great time! With Ryan, Taylor (Michael’s girlfriend), and Michael.

Michael, Jacque (Mark’s roommate from college) and Mark take their former Tiger photo…

Yes, Mark and I both wore searsucker shorts. We’re cute, we know.

I’m about to finish reading James and the Giant Peach for the first time! Every summer (since last summer…) my goal is to read at least one children’s classic that I never read. Last summer I read Hatchet. James has kept me pretty entertained as you would expect any book that has this sentence on the first page: “Both of them [James' mother and father] got eaten up (in full daylight, mind you, and on a crowded street) by an enormous angry rhinoceros which had escaped from the London Zoo.”

I thought it would be fun if you’d go ahead and comment below what the best book you read this summer is. Do it. Now.

And lastly but absolutely not least, tomorrow is my ONE YEAR PHOTOVERSARY! Come back to the blog tomorrow to see what that might mean for you (if you’re lucky!)

The Elam Family :: Crested Butte Photography!

I met Cale a few years ago through Christie (you know, from the amazing post below). She is super cool and of course, so is her family! She contacted me and said her family would be in Crested Butte and was wondering if I’d make the 2 hour drive over for a little family session. I was really excited because I’d never been to Crested Butte before and man, is it gorgeous! And dang, so is the Elam family. Here are my favorites!

Fake deer head on the barn attracted our attention!

Cale’s mom remembered an Airstream a few blocks off the main strip!

Then they took me to a spot that had an incredible view of Crested Butte! Safe to say the weather was perfect. I mean, c’mon, look at that sky!

Had to snag these…

Incredibly old bottle he snagged from the dirt. I love it!

Thanks, Elam’s, for giving me a reason to visit Crested Butte for a bit!