It’s been so long since I’ve posted any images of my daughter Elliott that I’m ashamed! After she turned one, things got busy and I just started slacking when it comes to taking her picture, and posting updates. While I’m posting a couple of pictures here, the best place to see images of her is still her blog over at www.elliottlarsen.com
Here are a couple of shots from yesterday at the park! On a side note, she is 17 months old today.
Filed Under Personal
I’ve just arrived to my destination in rural northern Alaska for yet another two week shoot for the US Army. This trip is was scheduled at the last minute, and I was initially bummed at the prospect of having to leave town yet again, leaving my wife and daughter behind. While that is still a major bummer, the surroundings here in Alaska are absolutely AMAZING. I’ve never been to Alaska, and so far it is not disappointing me in the least.
I’m staying in a lodge about a 1/4 mile from where I’ll be shooting. Other than those two places, there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING in the way of civilization in any direction for at least a hundred miles. But, the lodge is fantastic, and the scenery is unmatched. I have cel service, internet, and food, so I’m good. I think I can deal without having TV for a few days, although I’m not too stoked about that. : )
I’ll be taking plenty of pictures while I’m out here, but for now, here’s one simple shot of my view from the outside deck of the 9-room lodge I’m staying in:
This shot was taken at 10:30pm, and there’s still plenty of light outside now at 11:30! It’s messing with my internal clock a little, but worth it to have more time to take in the beauty of my surroundings.
Check back in the coming days for more images!
PS – I’m working on my brand new laptop, and forgot to bring the file I use to watermark my images, so please don’t steal it! ; )
View/Leave Comments (9)Filed Under Personal
I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve posted to my blog. A hectic work and travel schedule have kept me away for far too long! I have several things to blog, and in order to start catching up on things, I need to post some images from my daughter’s first birthday party!
A couple of weeks ago, my wife Jen and I threw a little (ok, BIG) shindig for our little girl Elliott. She turned a year old on April 13, and he following Saturday we invited over a bunch of our friends and family to help celebrate. I really can’t believe it’s been an entire year since she was born. Everything our fellow parents told us about time flying was absolutely true! I didn’t shoot a ton of pictures, as I wanted to spend most of my day relaxing with friends, and simply enjoying the party. But here are just a few that I was able to snap throughout the day…
First of all, check out this AWESOME custom cake and cupcakes made by our good friend and professional baker Erica! (If you want her contact info, please let me know!). We’re so lucky to have her as a friend, and for all the hard work she put into all the desserts!
She also made these beautiful “thank you” cookies for all of the guests to take when they left the party:
Here’s a shot that’s been on Elliot’s Blog for a few days of her in her birthday shirt!
Opening presents with mommy!
Having fun opening her new laptop while our good friends Emily and Chad help out with the mini Flip camera!
I love this shot of her with her wrapping paper looking at her mom. So cute!
Anticipating the cake!!!
Nom nom nom!!!
The aftermath:
I also took a few instant photos using my vintage Polaroid 250 Land Camera. I haven’t used it in years, but I LOVE the look and feel of the old-school instant prints.
I want to say a belated thank you to everyone that came out and shared the day with our little girl. Thanks for all of the gifts, laughs and advice. You all mean so much to us!
View/Leave Comments (3)Filed Under Personal
My wife Jen, daughter Elliott and I just returned home from a 5 day vacation in Sedona, AZ. I shot an engagement session in Sedona a couple of years ago, and told Jen that it was gorgeous and that I had to take her there some day. We spent our days relaxing, taking in the beautiful surroundings, and enjoying some great food. This was our first trip as a family, and Elliott’s first time traveling in an airplane. She was her usual happy self, and had an amazing time! While I didn’t shoot that many images on this trip (I wanted to do more relaxing than shooting), I thought I would post a few shots from the first couple of days. We started out by visiting Jerome, AZ, a tiny mountain mining town, and then toured Sedona and the surrounding area.
Here are a few images, starting with a few from quirky little Jerome, AZ.
A cute shot of my girls, strollin’.
On the second day of our trip we visited Slide Rock, a beautiful spot a few miles outside of Sedona. You can hike down to a shallow section of river and walk along the red rock river bank. In the summer you can actually get in the water and swim, but it was a little too cold for that this time of year.
Here are Jen and Elliott, ready to make the trek down to the river:
Elliott LOVES riding in her hiking pack!
And here’s what we journeyed down to see:
The rocks are so gorgeous!
And here’s a little self shot family portrait next to the river:
We had such an amazing time, and I know we’ll be back in the future. Jen said that she’d easily be willing to retire there some day! Who knows… : )
On a side note for photographers, all of these images were processed using TRA’s Totally Rad Actions. I’m mentioning this for two reasons. One, I’m often asked what I use to process my images to achieve the look I get. I can honestly say that I use at least one of these actions on EVERY SINGLE image I process in Photoshop, and usually several. They are an indispensable part of my digital photographic workflow. Secondly, TRA has released a brand new set of Adobe Lightroom Presets, TODAY! They have created a brand new set of Lightroom presets that closely resemble the same effects that can be achieved through their actions in Photoshop. If you’d like to pick them up (as well as the actions sets I use), click on the banner below!
In the realm of full disclosure, if you click on the link and purchase any of the actions or presets, I will receive monetary compensation as an affiliate. But please note that I would never endorse any product that I did not completely LOVE and use myself, no matter what. These tools are amazing, and I could not work without them!
View/Leave Comments (6)Filed Under Personal
Happy New Year everyone!
After a nice long break from blogging, a vacation at home with the family, a fantastic Christmas and New Year’s, and a nice semi-break from social networking, it’s great to be be back! I’m incredibly excited about all of the things in store in the coming weeks and months. This blog will soon be getting a facelift, and I’ll also be debuting my brand new main portfolio website! I’m also planning on blogging a lot more this year, (including my daughter’s website). I blogged EVERY SINGLE DAY in the year 2007, but have been a bit of a slacker the last couple of years. It’s time to pick up the pace! I certainly won’t be blogging every single day, but definitely more often.
I also plan on networking more in the new year. Getting out and socializing (in PERSON) with my fellow industry professionals is key being successful these days. In fact, I’m going to try to have lunch with a fellow industry friend at least once per week. If you want join me, let me know!
After the most chaotic, and at the same time the most rewarding year of my life in 2009, I’m looking forward to creating more time for friends and family. I’m hoping this year is both a year of growth, as well as tranquility. All of the hard work and stress is meant to give us the ability to enjoy the little moments spent with the most important people in our lives. And that’s what I hope to do this year… to work hard, but to also make plenty of time for my family and friends. That’s what it all comes down to.
I hope you all had a fabulous holiday season, and that you’re as pumped about this new year as I am! I have several shoots and projects from last month that I’ll be blogging in the next few days, so check back!
And because blog posts without pictures are lame, here are a few shots of my daughter from a couple days ago, tearing apart a teething cookie like only she can:
And just for fun, a super-sized image of the queen of the cookie!
Filed Under Personal
I know I’m a little behind on posting these results. Halloween is over, and everyone has moved on from pumpkins, ghosts, costumes and candy. BUT, it’s still necessary to announce the results. After a week of voting, the people have spoken, and the winner is….
MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here’s the breakdown:
I want to announce the carvers of the 2nd and 3rd place pumpkins, as they really gave me a run for my money. The “howling wolf” pumpkin was carved by last years winner, Courtney. He brought power tools this year, so I was a little scared! 3rd place went to my good friend Paul, who decided to go for the MJ Thriller pumpkin.
I made sure to not influence the voting in any way. I’m sure I’ll be called a cheater by all of the non-winners, but at NO POINT during the voting period did I let anyone know which pumpkin was mine! I went with the cuteness ploy, hoping that Gizmo would bring in a few extra votes. Thanks to everyone who took the time to stop by and vote!
I can’t wait until next year to defend my crown. There’s talk of people wanting to do away with the template based pumpkin carving. I’m not sure about that. It’s not MY contest, so we’ll see what the hosts decide. If the rules are changed, I will adapt, and come back even stronger!
Filed Under Personal
It’s that time of year again! This past Friday night Jen and I hosted the 3rd annual Ritchey Halloween Pumpkin Carving contest. Our good friends Pete and Jena Ritchey have hosted the party the last couple of years, but graciously allowed us to host this year. We had a blast yet again, with everyone bringing their pumpkin carving A-game. If you want to see the contests from the first couple of years you can see those blog posts HERE for ’07, and HERE for ’08.
Now, onto this year’s contestants! Below are the 11 pumpkins up for voting. Glance through all the entries, and even the group shots below the individual images. There’s considerable bragging rights at stake, so please vote for the pumpkin you like the best! They’re displayed in random order, and I can’t give any hints as to who carved which pumpkin. I will say, however, that MY pumpkin is the best of the bunch. So make sure you choose that one. : ) You may only vote once, so make it count!
Here we go!
And some group shots to allow some comparison between the pumpkins:
The voting will be open until this coming Friday at Noon. I’ll post the results shortly thereafter! Thanks so much for stopping by! Please forward this along, as we need as many votes as possible.
Happy Halloween everyone!
View/Leave Comments (10)Filed Under Personal
I can’t believe my little girl is 5 months old! I know it’s a cliche, but it seems like just yesterday Jen and I were bringing her home from the hospital!
After posting her 5 month portrait over on her blog, I thought it might be fun to post a little collage over here on my blog. While I take a lot of pictures of Elliott all the time, I make sure that take a good, standard portrait every month on the 13th, the day she was born. I’m hoping to do something with all of the images when she turns a year old. For now, here’s a little collage of images starting from the day she was born, through this lat Sunday when she turned 5 months old. It’s amazing to see the month by month growth!
And here’s a shot I’ll be posting over on her blog in the next couple of days:
Filed Under Personal
On Friday night, our good friends Kim and Alex gave birth to their for baby, Ellianna Jade. I was in New York on Friday night, but as soon as I arrived back in San Diego on Saturday, Jen and I went to the hospital to see the new happy family, and to take a couple of pictures. My wife Jennifer and Alex have been the best of friends for a very, very long time. I’ve only know Alex for the last few years, but he’s proven to be one of the most down to earth, honest, and all around coolest guys I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Both Jen and I knew that as soon as he met Kim, they were destined to be together. Kim is one of those girls you love to hate because she’s SUCH an amazing person. She’s amazingly kind and generous, and incredibly kind and giving to everyone. Jen and I are blessed to call them our friends, and baby Ellianna is blessed to have them as parents. I was fortunate enough to photograph their wedding day last year, and equally happy to shoot a few images of their new baby girl, just one day old.
With Mom:
Proud Papa:
The happy family:
Congratulations you two! Jen and I couldn’t be happier for the both of you!
View/Leave Comments (1)Filed Under Personal
I’ll post more Army images in the next few days, but today’s post is for my buddy Chad. He tends to get grumpy if I don’t dedicate a post to him every once and awhile. So, here are a couple shots from our trip.
And here he is hanging on to his chopper during the war:
Filed Under Personal
Leave a Reply