Well the funny christmas cards have started again. We took a year off in 2013 after our destination wedding, planning a fun house party reception and opening a new studio in AZ. But the over the top ridiculous Brett and Liz Christmas cards are back on. To answer everyones questions yes we wear lederhosens on a daily basis and spend a lot of time standing around petting chickens. I mean what else do you expect photographers to do in their spare time. Wonder what craziness is coming next christmas? us too.
Here are some of the totally ridiculous out takes from our funny christmas card photoshoot…. Enjoy, we certainly had a good time.
Some have been wondering where the chickens came from in our christmas card this year. Well we live in an awesome little Agrihood with an organic farm in the middle and happy chickens running around the orchards. There are some truly wonderful people working on at our neighborhood farm that were happy to laugh at our crazy outfits and wrangle up some chickens for our photos. A bit thanks to our farm friends!
One year ago today we dragged eight of our closest friends and family up into the Scottish hills and pledged our love for one another forever in front of a man wearing a kilt. We get asked a lot which one of us is Scottish, and the answer is really neither. We wanted our wedding to be something special and unique to us. We were looking at a number of places in Europe to say our I Do’s but the green countryside, rainy weather and crumbling castles of Scotland stole our hearts. Your thinking did I just read rainy weather? Yes we are major fans of rain, fog and incredibly puffy clouds. Like the sometimes last minute people that we can be, we planned our destination wedding in 8 short weeks. We found all of our vendors online, because lets face it you can’t taste cake or get a make up trial from an entire continent away. But the internet is an incredible tool and we found some absolutely amazing vendors.
Our flights were a joke. Two planes broke down before they could take off, we were re-routed to airports we weren’t supposed to be at, missed an international flight, got put up in a hotel in Chicago and eventually had to drop the “we are on our way to get married” card so that a nice man at the help counter would put us on a plane to Glasgow. Our original destination airport was Edinburgh so we picked up a one way rental car in Glasgow and drove ourselves to the Edinburgh airport to pick up our scheduled rental car and our friends that had been waiting for us for over 2 hours. As you may have figured by now, our luggage got very very lost. But don’t fret we were smart enough to pack our wedding attire in our carry on bag.
Well Scotland was incredible. We rented a flat in Edinburgh with our friends and lived the local life for a few days. We walked to pubs and found small eateries in the neighborhood. During the day we adventured out into the lush countryside where most of our time was spent taking pictures of sheep and exploring old castles.
Choosing the location for our ceremony came down to one thing, a car. Brett had found this vintage 1960’s Austin Healey 3000 two seater convertible that he wanted to rent for the day. Well this amazing little car was an hour outside of Edinburgh so to make the time line of our wedding day run smoothly we had to find a spot to get married that was close to where we would pick up the car. It made the search criteria pretty interesting. Luck would have it though and we found the perfect castle just 10 minutes from the Healey.
Our wedding day was very relaxed. We chose to do a first look on the royal mile just outside of The Witchery where we were taking everyone for dinner. It was important to us to spend as much of our wedding day together as we could. In the afternoon we met our rag tag little group of guests at Castle Campbell where we were blessed with beautiful clouds and some serious wind but no rain. Our Humanist celebrant Peter in his awesome kilt led our little group up a dirt trail and out onto the grassy hills overlooking our Castle. When everyone was set and ready Brett and I walked up arm in arm with our bagpiper Andrew in tow. To this day (which is still fresh at only 365 days sense) Brett and I both get chills and brought right back to that moment when we hear bagpipe music. We highly recommend if you ever find yourself venturing into the Scottish hillside on vacation, to hire a bagpiper to follow you around. So worth it. The ceremony felt surreal as I’m sure lots of brides will tell you. And the rest of the day flew by. We got one last jaunt in the Healey before returning it, and with the big moment over we put the top down and let the wind have at my hair. Dinner at The Witchery was fantastic. Our group was so small that we just reserved a long table in their dining room and let our guests choose what struck their fancy off the menu. Lets just say a lot of Whisky was tried by all.
We want to say a big Thanks to all of the wonderful vendors that made our day happen!
Longer days and warm summer nights gets me itching for a camping adventure. With our wedding in spring and clients coming first there hasn’t been time yet this year for Brett and I to air out our tent and head off on an outdoor adventure. The closest this year I could come to camping was sharing some of our star trails and night photography from the epic road trip we took last fall. We put 6000 miles on our truck starting the epic trip in San Diego then winding our way up through Colorado to stay the night in a teepee. Then we boogied to South Dakota for the evening in an old grain silo turned bed and breakfast. We stayed in Minnesota for the changing of the leaves. Saw lake Superior for the first time where we camped for a couple nights where we were awoken by geese each morning. Popped into Nebraska for a Wedding. Did a couple long driving days to get into the mountains of New Mexico, and cruised into Phoenix for another wedding before making out way back to San Diego. I became our official tent set up expert and Brett rocked at starting the fire and prepping dinner. I’m starting to ponder where our next road trip adventure will take us. The amazing 16 foot tipi that we found on Air Bnb in Glenwood Springs Colorado. We fell asleep looking up at the stars through the smoke trap and listening to the the colorado rivier rush by. Our first night of camping on Lake Superior at the Lamb’s Resort. Camp site #55 This would be us making dinner with our funny little head lamps on. The Historic Herrick Grain Elevator. It has been converted into a cozy place to stay in South Dakota.
Burlington Bay Campground on Lake Superior Warming our little tosies by the camp fire.These beautiful falls were a mile hike away from our camp site at Willow River State Park Campground in Wisconsin. We made camp just before sunset and challenged ourselves to get to the falls before dark. We were rewarded by catching the moon rising over the waterfall.The Ackerhurst-Eipperhurst Dairy Barn in Bennington NebraskaDevils Canyon Campground in UtahMoon rising in Bemidji Minnesota Kanopolis Lake State Park, KansasCimarron Canyon Stat Park Campground, New Mexico.Jacks Creek Campground. One of the most beautiful placed we camped on the trip but the directions to get there were so complicated. About an hour into to trying to find Jacks Creek I was telling Brett we should turn around and just stay at one of the 7 campgrounds we had already passed. He pushed to go just a little further and we were rewarded.
I will find any excuse to wear rain boots and walk in puddles. From my perspective San Diego only gets about 5 rainy days a year (not nearly enough if you ask me). Yet I own 2 pairs of rain boots and about 10 different umbrellas. Mostly because we have found ourselves somewhere other than San Diego when it’s raining and havent thought to bring an umbrella. Each of our umbrellas is different and reminds me of whatever trip we were on where we had to purchase it. My yellow umbrella reminds me of our october Nebraska road trip. My favorite striped umbrella always makes me think of Paris. I purchased it at a little corner market when it began to pour one afternoon.
I was thoroughly excited on Tuesday when the weather man forecasted rain all day. The sky got dark and stormy but no rain really came until late afternoon. At 4:30 it started coming down and I ran into our closet for my rain boots all the while yelling for Brett to put his shoes on so we could venture out. By the time we made it the 5 minute drive into Down Town La Jolla the rain was more of a light mist. But the air had that wonderful smell after fresh rain and we still strolled arm in arm down the wet sidewalks. This time of year the white flowers on the Oriental Pear Trees around town are in full bloom. We had to stop to enjoy their beauty and watch the wind steal petals and blow them playfully.
Yes we shoot with our vintage Polaroid. But it also makes a good prop. I’m trying to carry it with me and shoot with it often. A current side project of ours is testing with Polaroid emulsion transfers and lifts. I’ll let you know how that goes. On our way back home it seemed a must to drive by our local Windansea Beach to take a peak at what the storm was doing to the ocean. It was certainly worth the slight detour. The clouds were ominous and amazing. A small strip of sky on the horizon was clear and the sun managed to blaze through.
Here are some of the totally ridiculous out takes from our funny christmas card photoshoot…. Enjoy, we certainly had a good time.
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.jpg "Rain Boots and Puddles, “these are a few of my favorite things” – Liz & Brett")