(please click to view on black // canon 5d mark ii, canon 70-200 2.8 is l, 105mm, iso 100, f/8.0, 1/800 sec // buy print)

Picacho Peak is an iconic mountain between Phoenix and Tucson. People love to hike it. I never have, but to me it’s sort of a midway marker…when I see it, I know half my journey is over.

Despite it being such a popular mountain, I’ve only taken 1-2 images of it and never anything worth keeping. But last week I finally came upon it with boiling thunderstorms building up overhead.

What I didn’t realize until processing this image was that you can actually make out a wall of dust approaching Picacho Peak. It’s low on the left side and higher on the right. After taking the photo, I left and turned back north towards Phoenix and within a few minutes I saw it in my rearview mirror. That’s when I started outracing the thing and then timelapsed it.

Was nice to get an early, monsoon-like sky this year. Usually it’s dull around here until July, so stormy clouds, a dust storm…was all a nice treat!

This was my first time doing this at a wedding and I have to say, it’s something I’d love clients to start doing more. People LOVE photobooths. They get all kinds of crazy in front of them. It takes pressure off the photographers to make sure they get candid photos of everyone throughout the day. These are fun, easy and you get memories that will last forever.

If I’m shooting your upcoming wedding and you want one of these, drop me a note and we’ll talk!

Special thanks to my second shooter Jeff Ambrose for helping get this setup, and to my wife Jina for taking it over and having a blast with it.

Here are a few of my favs (and PG-rated) images from the photobooth.

(click the pic to fit your monitor or see full size!)

I was shocked seeing the little man with his crazy head of hair. He had a fauxhawk back last fall and I almost didn’t recognize him! Not to mention how much he’s grown. Dude makes you laugh all the time.

The two girls were pretty much the same. Lili has this quiet stubbornness about her. You have to be sneaky to snap photos of her and I think we pulled it off yet again. And Jayden is just easy. I think she already understands posing and how to get a good photograph, so I don’t even have to try with her!

We did the shoot out at the Desert Botanical Gardens, where the girls dressed up as butterfly’s for the last day of the Butterfly Exhibit. Afterwards, we just wandered around, played in water, looked at flowers and snapped photos of course! It was a tad on the warm side, but I had a great time and we even saw a pretty crazy lizard at the very end, so obviously it was worth it

Thanks for bringing me along guys, I’m sure we’ll see each other again down the road!

It didn’t last too long, another wave of thick dust was a few minutes away, but for a second the sky appeared to show a giant dust tower reaching for clouds. Without the color, it almost looked like a bomb or something, with a giant mushroom cloud at the top.

If you missed the timelapse from yesterday, check it out here.

Please click on the photo to view full size/and so it fits your screen!

I got hit by and outraced this dust storm three times. First time I saw it and got hit was down by Eloy. I sped ahead of it on I-10, pulled over on highway 387 and shot it while looking west. I loved the juxtaposition of the cloud moving west while the dust storm moved north-northwest. That’s the first half of the timelapse.

Then I raced up I-10 again and pull over on Queen Creek Road as it rolled into Phoenix. When you watch, notice the little “gust-nadoes” spinning along the front of the dust wall!

Hope you enjoy! This is only May for the love!

Update: Here’s a zoomed in look at the gustnados. Those cars and that sign are Interstate 10.

We met up in downtown Phoenix, along with their two doggies, Abby (bigger mutt) and Carlos (smaller Beagle). They got a little stir crazy with all the grass and people around, so we didn’t get them to sit still too long. They calmed down later and helped us explore some railroad tracks.

Oh and when ASU says no parking in their lots, they mean it! That was a random fun-fact just for you.

Major thanks guys for letting me snap some photos of the four of you! Love those dogs!

I’ve known Rachel for over a year now. I first met her at a First Friday gallery showing at my churches’ studio downtown. She was being featured and I helped her hang some beautiful images of children from her travels with Food for the Hungry. It took me all of five minutes to realize she was OCD about how perfectly aligned her frames were and I made fun of her about it for the rest of the night. Ah good times.

Last fall she decided I was going to shoot her wedding and I couldn’t wait. She’s a budding photographer herself (check out her work right here) and I think we exchanged a bazillion emails not just about her big day, but also on the subject of taking pictures. She even second shot a couple of weddings this spring with me!

I got to know Scott a bit more last fall when the three of us ventured down to the Pima Air Museum for some engagement photos. Scott flies for US Airways and planes are in his blood. I made the mistake when we first met of bringing up Southwest Airlines, but I think he still likes me anyways. Right Scott?

This wedding was Rachel’s dream. All the way down to the minute details on every table and everywhere you looked. It was beautiful. Flowers, antique place settings, floating candles, old airplanes, a vintage guestbook typewriter…she spent so much time finding all these things and it turned out AMAZING.  Her dress was vintage lace and along with the pearl earrings and bird cage veil, she looked radiant. And I can’t forget Scott’s tie that matched Rachel’s shoes, plus those rocking All-Stars.

Funny. I’m kind of emotional about this one. It was such a journey with these two, such a long process, so much planning and dreaming…it’s hard to let it go.

I need to thank Alejandra Vidal for her amazing second shooting abilities. She really killed it and I couldn’t have done it without her. Thanks my friend!

Look at the bottom for all the vendor names and links! Thank you Rachel and Scott for letting me be a part of your day. Honestly, it was such a honor for me and I wish you both the best of luck. I knew when I saw you two praying outside before the wedding that you were off to an awesome start.

(scroll through the images or click the first to bring up a manual slideshow! Also click “play” below to listen to “Faithfully” by Journey, the song Rachel and Scott danced to)