Before getting into the specifics of this post, I must really say that Washington is the absolute favorite place I’ve ever been in my entire life. Second only to the 5 minutes I spent in Portland as I drove through it on my way to Washington a few months back. It truly is a wondrous place and does put a serious challenge to Northern California in terms of beauty.

Now to the meat of the post, the last few months in Washington, I’ve lived in a small suburban town called Federal Way. Not not cup of tea at all, it is hardly even considered a town by my standards. Still a beautiful area, very close to the sound, and trees more numerous to count! People in Phoenix just do not seem to understand that the majestic beauty of Washington makes Arizona look like they are literally living in a characterture of hell.

While in Washington, I’ve been all over, Seattle is a fantastic city and has a lot to offer, but I’m not sure I am ready for the expensive big city life yet. Yesterday, I was able to check out a fantastic area called Kirkland, which is right next to Redmond (the home of Microsoft), and has the cutest little downtown I’ve ever seen in my life. Took a quick trip to Marina Park and snapped a few photos. I was delighted to find out that there was a very large gazebo nearby for weddings! Then a chapel just down the street, I have to tell you. I was AM excited about my move to Kirkland!

One of the most populated little areas within Kirkland was Marina Park, just off the main downtown area of Kirkland. Basically just an area with a bunch of benches, some sand, and a dock. Maybe I have been sheltered my entire life, but I’ve never really been to an area like this where everything seemed so vibrant and full of life. Trees everywhere, HUGE lake, and people being happy all over the place!

Yesterday, the dock was very busy and there were plenty of people launching their boats!

I took a walk around the dock myself and snapped a few more shots that I found amusing.

I am absolutely jazzed about being a community like Kirkland, I do not want to settle down in my life by any means but I do enjoy the thought of being able to live the life I’ve never really experienced before. Really get involved with the community and meet lots of new people. If I can keep that kind of energy up, I feel like I will be able to start a solid wedding photography business in Kirkland and really be able to move things up!

On a slightly random note, Microsoft recently launched their bing.com search engine to compete with google and they just had this truck parked outside of Marina Park, maybe only because I am a nerd do I enjoy the silliness of the marketing?

Well, I’ve been in Washington for just about a week now! It is honestly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life and It is like everyday is just another rebirth for me as I discover more of this fantastic state. I truly feel sorry for my friends whom I left behind in the sweltering desert.

Currently, I am spending most of my time in the Tacoma area and am looking around for a place to live. Yes, I am a little bit crazy doing the looking AFTER my arrival but I think that has just made things all that more interesting!

Speaking of interesting, as you can see, I took a trip up to Seattle yesterday for the first time! Seattle is a majestic city and downtown Seattle makes downtown Phoenix look truly immature by comparison. Phoenix, you really need to get your act together and really deliver on that culture!

Having skimped previously on my actual drive up here; (I got very few photos), I was very happy to take my camera up to Seattle to really show off my little mini adventure.

Upon arrival in the downtown-ish area, we were greeted with traffic, I truthfully hadn’t dealt with traffic for at least a few weeks since I was in Phoenix and it was almost CUTE that I got to enjoy the traffic in Seattle.

After arriving within downtown Seattle and finding a spot to park(lets not get started on THAT), we began to head off to the famous Pike Place Market, but before we got there, a homeless man befriended me and seemed to want to argue the finer points of salad dressing. He then told me I should photograph him, I did and then he sort of disappeared following that. Quite the abrupt entrance and exit into my little reality but it was interesting!

Pike Place Market is a famous market in downtown Seattle that has all kinds of super fresh produce and other great items for purchase. Here is also where I saw the fishmongers throw fish and they had a sizable crowd just watching. Since I terribly despise fish, it was sort of torture just standing there having to take in that smell.. ew… So I just turned and walked away to find more to gawk at.

Stopped by one of the restaurants that was nearby called “Steelhead Diner“, which was okay food but not all that great to be quite honest. I really did enjoy my Strawberry Lemonade however!

After lunch, we headed over to the ferry to take a trip across the water over to Bainbridge Island and the trip yielded some simply “to die for” photographs that I just love.

Something really cool about the ferry ride were the seagulls that were flying with the boat and just gliding through the air. I was able to capture a few decent shots of them after an extended period in which I considered myself basically blinded and freezing to death after standing on the front of the boat, taking the full brunt of the ice cold water wind. So after all that, I was lucky to even see the seagulls!

Something interesting that I did was pull a somewhat “creepster” move by photographing a couple while on the boat and I just like the photo so much, I really feel like I must throw it on here as well.

Then after the ferry arrived back to Seattle, we walked around for a while, I checked out a bridal store named Cicada which does custom bridal designs. I was very impressed by their store and I’m going to be contacting Elizabeth Klob & Jennifer Gay to see if we can work some kind of business arrangement out! I really feel like I was sort of guided to their store.

So that is great, following, we found an interesting message on the wall that made me laugh a little bit. But, I am guessing that an event like the end of the world would cause Twitter to overload with tweets rather than the radios being paid any attention.

Again, I founded a couple that just seemed so cute so I felt like I had to use my ninja shooting from the hip skills to capture them without arousing their suspicion that I was taking the photo. It turned out rather well, if I don’t say so myself…

As a closing note, I’d just like to invite any and all Washington brides/couples to contact me about their wedding! I’ll be willing to travel back up to Washington following my stay here in Washington during the summer. I am not entirely sure of my plans for 2010 but I more than welcome both Washington AND Arizona brides. Heck, lets throw in some California brides in there while we’re at it..

Leave me a message with all the pertinent information here!

Desiring a real change in my life, I have decided to take a summer in a place I’ve never even been before, let alone lived in.

Along with this, I am driving up to Washington and along the way, I hope to get some photos to post of my travels. I have never driven this far before, my longest drive before this was to Las Vegas and that was an annoying drive. But Tacoma, Washington is a 24 hour drive. I’m splitting the drive up into several days to make it easy to digest, but I am still pretty sure I am going to go mad driving by myself.

Oh, didn’t I mention I am going by myself? To most this seems like an insane idea and I must concur, I will be a very angry tired person upon my arrival in Washington.

Last fall I took this photograph of my friend Susie’s baby, Nathan. Looking back, even though it is radically different than the majority of the subject matter found in my other work, it has to be one of my favorite pieces ever. This was even further cemented when I got Daily Deviation over on Deviantart which can be seen here.

Amazingly enough, it was one of the simple photos I have ever taken in my life! I had only spent around 5 minutes taking around 50 shots of the baby and this one is the shining beacon out of all of them. It was probably the simplest setup of any shoot I’ve ever had in my life.

First, I took a futon mattress I had and slumped up against a wall and threw a black pillowcase pillow down. Still with me?
Then I took my Alienbees B400 with a fairly large softbox and placed it above where the infant’s head would be. It ended up creating such rich shadow and contrast to the skin that it just makes it feel like you’re looking at reality on your computer screen.

Such success with this infant photograph endears me to want to continue to photograph infants once in a while and just keep my online display of photographs a wee bit more varied. It makes me wonder if I have a parental instinct, afterall.

After Zack Arias posted his most excellent video on Scott Kelby’s blog and I watched it about 12 times in a row, things felt weird. Zack had nailed exactly what it felt like to be an emerging photographer, an emerging artist for that matter. Defining yourself seems to be an interesting spree of narcissism.

There I was, laying in bed awake for hours and hours in a sweat thinking about what I should take away from this video. It got me thinking about the nature of art itself and what art I found myself liking most often. Successful art, as I see it, is more than something that is beautiful or appealing visually (though still valid), it should be something that makes a bold statement about the world and the people in it. Photography typically does not transcend the “beautiful” dynamic and usually has very little to say. Again, this is not to say it doesn’t happen, on the contrary, it does quite often but I suppose it just doesn’t seem to be what is most popular.
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Over the course of my life, I’ve always been a thinker. Realizations and intelligent thought raced through my mind even before I could really understood what they meant. Over the course of the last year I’ve made several large leaps and bounds about the true essence of the reality of life. Most of my life I was oblivious just like most others, but soon came the realization that everything I had known up to that point was not correct. The conventions of a child and teenager that were painted by parents/society/school were grossly wrong when it came to being an adult living in the “real world.”

Part of my realization and growth is having these ideas that I understand but have not yet implemented in my own life for whatever reason. Among these things I wrote are presented below and are a result of a very sweaty night last summer. They made me cry, made me laugh, but most of all made me think and know that there is power in being a Human Being. Never forget this. You are power incarnate.

They might seem a bit cliché, but I think they stand to be restated for you and everyone you know so they too might be able to change their way of thinking for a moment. Live a changed life, live a positive life where you give and get much in return. Giving something that I think has real value for the people that might read it and the knowledge that I truly helped the life of a stranger that I may never meet thrills me.

1. Be Confident above all else, fake it if you have to.
Over the course of your life, who are you drawn to most often? Those among us whom are strong and strength is found in your ability to be confident in situations throughout your life. You must be confident in all situations throughout your life and never give room for doubt.

Doubts serve no purpose other than leading you down a negative road. If you do not create the road, you cannot travel down it. Stay with the positive confident road. Even faking the confidence is better than nothing because it will eventually make itself a part of you.
Stay Strong and Stay Confident.
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Lillian Lottie Couture had their grand opening tonight! When I drove up; I was seriously shocked at how much the place had changed in the last month since I had visited Jenny Pinto and Meghan Lawlor in their store. It was fancy before but now it was just cutting edge glamor and was fantastic! From the cupcakes, to the “candy table”, the fantastic food that was served, the magicians, and the Foto Cabina booth that was present really made the night a fantastic grand opening. Far grander than I was honestly expecting.

For all of your bridal needs:

Heather, who runs Eventfully Yours, Heather was the fabulous event coordinator and totally made sure things went smoothly. Very nice and very laid back/friendly.

Floral arrangements were provided by Terrace Floral Design Group in Scottsdale.

Brian with Ambiance Catering not only provided great food, he was very friendly and very delightful to work with!

Richard Steele was a great magician and was very entertaining for all the guests. Totally recommended for a fun way to spice up an event!

Some great wine/champagne was provided by Barefoot Wines! I, myself, had the Pinot Grigio and it was fantastic!

Something that EVERYONE seemed to love was the photo booth; provided by Foto Cabina! It was used almost 100% of the time! A great way to get instant gratification and provide added fun for guests!

Espresso Subito provided the espresso catering service, I enjoyed a lovely Caramel Macchiato(though someone cleaned it up while I was pulled to photograph some people.. I really wanted to finish! Argh!)

Last but not least: Let Them Eat Cake, Inc provided the delicious cupcakes!

To conclude: I’d like to wish Meghan and Jenny great luck with their bridal store! I very much appreciate them inviting me out to photograph, have a cupcake and use the photobooth 3 times in a row! They’re badass! :) Until next time.. this is Chaz signing off…

Access Zero is a local Phoenix, Arizona area band that has a unique sound that I enjoy. It was a very hectic day: shooting at a location I had no idea about and a location I didn’t have time to scout previous to our shoot. Things turned out far better than I had expceted:

Last Friday, I was a guest of Jennyvi Dizon of Jenny Dizon Coture (www.jennyvi.com) at the Scottsdale Fashion week and I photographed their main runway show that was sponsored by Fox 10.

All the following designs are by Jenny Dizon Couture:

When you are young, the world is so different. Everything seems so simple and so one dimensional, but of course, as we grow up we find this to be the furtherest from the truth. Things can get so multi-dimensional that many of us would start to contemplate string theory existing in the multi-faceted realm of the universe in which we live.

It is no different with photography. As a youngster; it is just a simple magical box that could take a fantastic magical picture with a simple press of a button. As we grew, we found it might be a bit more complicated than this. By the time we are teenagers, we realize it takes skill and talent to really capture the world. It is also a sort of a let down that you cannot just take a good picture without effort, an immature desire, to have everything be easy is natural.

Years later, you’ve chosen to pick up a camera in true pursuit of the moniker “photographer”. But, we live in a digital age of photography. Cameras are heavily available and it is almost “too easy” to take an adequate photograph with almost any digital camera available on the market. Just have it set on “Auto” or “Program.”

As a person who photographs things often and with care given to various camera settings, you begin to see the difference in the “photographers” around you. Along with the prevalence of digital cameras in our age comes the advent of easy sharing of our photographic outputs. Someone in Japan and England can share their photos with someone in America in the snap of a finger.

Soon, you realize that there are “photographers” on the internet that are nothing more than people who just recently got a point & shoot camera. Most people who attempt to make photography a career dismiss these people as just starting out. After all, they have their SLR digital camera bodies, lighting and they photograph their local whatever. So they MUST be photographers, right? With the wave of the trendy Photoshop actions and over-editing; we all seem hell bent on trying to separate ourselves from those with P&S(point and shoot) cameras.

But, I think this is another level of awakening, just like a child thinks what he thinks, many “photographers” nowadays try to rush into something and being what they are not. Does heavy editing make a good photo? Does harsh lighting? Do gimmicks?

Infact, it seems that the Photographic industry is FULL of the “prima donna” types. Pushing a seminar here or some kind of “Uber One of a Kind Photoshop Action” and they make more money from that then they do with photography!

Perhaps today is just a bit of an awakening for me; but I find that too many “photographers” are NOT “photographers”! I sit here looking over at my several SLR bodies questioning weather or not I have really earned the moniker of “photographer”. It feels like I and photographers as a whole are heading down a road of declaring themselves master without going through the correct steps of becoming a master of a craft. Money is not an indication, it is skill, it is attitude and it is BEING the attitude. Capturing the real. Not using photoshop to make it real.

Again, every single photographically related website on the internet is brimming with “photographers” and you really have to ask yourself.

What makes a “photographer” a true real life and golden “photographer”?