Carrie Elton Photography

Naomi....you and your wardrobe demands.

2012-03-01T10:49:00.008-08:00

The beautiful W family and their new cherub baby H

2012-02-27T15:11:00.011-08:00

It is so much fun to be shooting again. This was my first real family shoot in Colorado Springs. Aren't they gorgeous! The two little rascals you see were hilarious...The girl kept calling me Carrie like I was her best friend and getting so mad at her mom when she would call me sister Elton...If I hadn't been so busy concentrating I would have been laughing my head off. I don't catch a lot of the humor in shoots like this because I am under a lot of stress...and then I get home and laugh to myself the whole time I'm editing. Weird. Any...enjoy this Beautiful Family!

Side Note:
Someone said to me recently, I think your photos are beautiful I really want you to do our family but I saw your price list and I just can't imagine paying that much. This came out of my mouth...."This might be easier for you to imagine. You're 75 years old, all your babies are gone and you are sitting on your front porch...... and you think "I wish I had beautiful pictures of me with my children....what she was charging is nothing to me now!" It was one of like 3 times in my life when I said the right thing in the moment and didn't think of it 3 days later! They booked the next day :) I sure hope I captured your family at this time so you can remember it forever W family!

A study in the longest eyelashes in creation and the infamous green blanky.

2012-02-23T15:30:00.003-08:00

Excuse me while I post some personal photos and musings :)

My beautiful baby boy, you are turning 4 very soon and since you no longer like to have your picture taken I thought I better take advantage of your terrible flu and get some of you sleeping in the middle of the day.

You love this green blanket so much. Someday, something will happen to it and it will be gone, I'm glad I got some pictures of you doing what you love to do best...snuggling under it's fleecy sage goodness.

You talk in a baby voice which drives me and especially your Dad, bonkers.

You adore life and love your older brother David most in the world.

You are either torturing your little sister Naomi or smothering her with love.

You and your older sister Coco will will one day be great friends but for now..not so much.

You constantly have stuff on your face, sucker, bruises, scrapes and you pretty much always have rosy cheeks. Please don't grow up anymore. No I'm serious I can't bear it.

In home mini-shoot!

2012-02-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

This beautiful woman is also a photog so naturally I was a bit nervous to do this little mini -session of her gorgeous family....she was also king enough to let me use her fabulous light filled bedroom for a commercial job I am involved in and so I got to take some shots of her fan while we were at! Thanks Jasmine! Try not to be jealous of how beautiful her children are!

Every Woman is beautiful! First Session!

2012-02-04T20:24:00.002-08:00

A long time ago my fellow photog and friend Angie talked a lot about how we wanted to take women out and take beautiful pictures of them and for that matter ourselves!....mostly because we feel strung out, tired and ugly a lot of the time and wouldn't it be great to take beautiful pictures of women who aren't models, who don't schedule photoshoots all the time but who work so hard bringing up their children and serving everyone around them. That is where really beauty lies....Aren't these women gorgeous? This was my first attempt at my Every Woman is Beautiful gallery. If there is enough interest in the future I will be offering this kind of shoot a few times a year at hugely discounted prices!....my only regret? We didn't get ti together enough Ang...to do it together !

Still Scouting!

2012-02-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

You know what is hard? Moving to a new State and trying to find really great photo spots. I once again dragged my youngest kids out to scout out locations....as you can see by the pictures, they are not loving these little adventures when we have them 3 times a week! But I'm a bit tires of smiles...and I love getting frowns once in a while.

They're finally here!

2012-01-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

You know when you take a picture of some celebrity to your hairdresser and tell her you want your hair just like that and your stylist gives you that look that you know she is thinking, "Girl you don't look like that movie star and you certainly aren't going to look like her just because you get your hair cut like that." YOu know what I am talking about? Or does that just happen to me? Anyway...when I do a shoot like this, I think OK I am going to hire someone to do a shoot for me just like this....duh...that's all I am going to say...duh.:)

More of these beauties....

2012-01-20T08:15:00.000-08:00

S&L and getting married!

2012-01-17T10:08:00.000-08:00

Sneak Peeks for The W family!

2012-01-16T21:24:00.000-08:00

How to make Great Cookies

2012-01-10T11:43:00.000-08:00

I am posting this on my new blog 1.beacuse I have been asked recently for it and 2.I still get about 40 hits a day on my old blog from this post so here it is on my new blog!

Have you ever wanted to be a master cookie maker? Well I'm about to make your dreams come true. I take a special pride in my cookie making mostly because I've got to take pride in something. I never became a famous singer, a doctor, or a world renowned hairstylist, (all dreams of mine) so I have to focus on the little things that I have become, not the least of which is a master cookie maker.

Now there are a ton of great cookie recipes and I am sure some of you are thinking, " Oh mine are probably better than her's." While I won't deny that is possible... I get asked for cookie recipes often. Shortly after, I also get a lot of calls with the complaint that their batch just wasn't the same. Well, from this I have deduced that much rests on the actually manner of preparation which you will see below.

So get your chef's hat on (figurative of course) and go to the store and get these ingredients:

Salted butter
Full fat margarine (none of this country crock stuff) (you can use all butter...I seem to be doing that these days)
light brown sugar
extra fine granulated sugar (regular can be used)
vanilla
baking soda
salt
eggs
quick oats
(depending on what kind of cookie you want to make): chocolate chips ( I prefer milk chocolate ghiridelli, heath toffee bits, almonds, raisins)

Whip out your kitchenaid, bosch, even your hand mixer and roll up your sleeves, here we go...

Put in one cube of margarine, 2 cubes of butter in the micro until softened not melted (use 2 cubes of margarine for chewier cookies or 2 cubes of butter for crispier cookies)

Add 1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar- (my belief is you can never pack brown sugar too tightly.)
And 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla (I spelled it out for all of you who have a mental block differentiating tsp and tbls).

This is where it gets complicated.....just kidding, come back to the computer, it's really easy.

Whip the sugar and butter until you can't take it anymore. 5 minutes on high should suffice. This step is key as this is what give the cookie its smooth,
(not grainy) chewy texture.

Then add in the 2 eggs

Whip this until you feel like your whole day is going to be taken up making these stupid cookies (5 more full minutes will suffice, no really, a full 5 minutes, not like the 5 minutes you tell your child they will have to sit on time-out)
This step is crucial because this will make your cookies like little fluffy clouds of deliciousness.

Then add 2 teaspoons baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt. I'm against sifting with the flour. Its a real waste of time. :)

Slowly add 1 3/4 cups flour as you continue mixing

Then add 5 cups oatmeal (If you dont want oatmeal but plain old fashioned Choco Chip add 2 1/4 cup more flour and slowly mix in.....and mix for a while)

Here comes the creative part. Add whatever you want as mix-ins. Pretend you are an employee of Coldstone and have been given the assignment of creating the greatest combination ever to grace their coldstone creation board. Me? I like to add large milk chocolate chips, heath toffee bits and chopped up roasted almonds.

The next step is optional but in my opinion it takes the cookies to the next level and is also the key to getting picture perfect cookies at high altitude...

I like to call it marinating the scrumpdidiliumptious dough....the experts also call it that but let's just pretend I made that up :)
Refridgerate the dough over night. Yup thats right. ANd I heard that annoyed sigh... I forgive you and you will forgive me for even suggesting delayed gratification once you taste the difference....See...its all about molecules...there are positive ones and negative ones...I'm totally kidding...really it just allows the flour to absorb all the flavors of the vanilla and brown sugar...The best cookies I ever made were this recipe. I put them in the fridge for 2 days, then I decided...hmmm.....I'm not going to cook these up right way, so I put them in the freezer for a week....then my husband called and asked if I could whip up a batch for his boss...I remembered...hey I have some in the freezer! I took them out, let them thaw a bit and baked them up. I have never been asked so much for my recipe! It was as thought the dough had been "aged" to perfection:)

I also love my twist on cinnamon raisin cookies- add cinammon to taste- what the heck does that mean? - a couple of teaspoons should suffice. Add as many raisins as you like, then for the grand finale, roll each cookie in a hefty coating of brown sugar. This will give the cookie the most delightful, original crunch. If you want a real farmhouse/grandma worthy tasting cookie, add some nutmeg.

Et voila your dough is perfect.

Here comes another essential- you can't just slap your cookies on any old pan. YOu need a good cookie pan to finish with a product you are proud to take to you visiting teachees. Roll into perfect balls and place on the cookie sheet- bake on 350 until they look like this or what you think they should look like.

P.P.S If you are wondering what my small children are doing while I am doing this, well...it's not pretty.

Naomi is Two....take two with the addition of her older bro GABE.

2012-01-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

Photography is like any other skill...don't use it and you will lose it. I was painfully reminded of this little tidbit of wisdom last night when I went to audition for the the Colorado Springs Chorale. It didn't help that just before me a woman sang an unbelievable Italian aria and on her way out everyone was oohhing and ahhing...yes just before I stood up and sang my lowly rendition of a song I sang in Israel while on Semester abroad. I thought...hmmmm I was chosen to sing this solo..this will be great...then, while actually singing it it dawned on me me that I may have been chosen because there were only about 150 students in the program and there was only one other girl who was a "singer". Incidentally she sang her own solo in the program and the rocked it....here's a shout out to you Sarah...love you girl, to pieces.
Back to the subject at hand....I wasn't going to say anything about my painful experience because I apparently I have too much pride...but since I had a hefty piece last night, I suppose I'll eat the whole humble pie today and disclose. Years out of college and singing in church choirs will do that to person...make you think you are a lot better than you are...So with that I decided to go out and work on the skill that I am actually progressing at (or at least trying to) and not let it atrophe in a pitiful shadow of what it once was sniff sniff....Of course I am being dramatic, but heck thats what I do best, No friends? Friends....friends are you still with me? So as I was saying, full sun photogrpahy is not easy...it's so not easy that it is hard and very few attempt it on a regular basis....including me. And it is really difficult with a group....thus I rarely take the chance as what a royal pain to have to do your family pictures twice. So because Naomis 2 year old pics were not what I hoped...instead of putting away the laundry and cleaning the toilets, of course I went to this cool ravine/field that my new friend Amy told me about. And don't be jealous, but it was 58 degrees at 10:45 a.m. people on January 5th. Oh how I love Colorado. And with that, enjoy. Oh take note...Naomi was still a bust but my ususally very uncooperative Gabe was awesome.

P.S. I have my favorite, I am so in love with one of these and have already sent it to be printed....which on do you think?

I'm completely devastated.....SHE's 2.

2012-01-04T14:58:00.000-08:00

Today has been a very hard day....my two oldest went back to school...in the cutest uniforms known to man...and I took my Naomi's two year old pictures....why would that be so hard? I feel like a chapter in my life is closing and there's nothing I can do stop it. My baby is no longer a baby and you and I both know I can't have any more babies....for a whole slew of reasons....none of which I will go into here. But this will help explain...

The saddest part of all? For the first time in her precious little cherub life, Naomi would not cooperate with me...thus the sucker, bunny etc...now 3 out of the four are uncooperative! Below is a little taste of her growth in images...I almost started crying looking at all these....

p.s. I better get some Colorado Clients soon or I am going to go photography craving crazy! If you happen to know anyone in this area...pass on my info info to them would you...thanks bunches.

She's 2 and this picture is what I was seeing the most during this shoot....the wonder picture years are over people...over.....

The W family....

2012-01-02T07:36:00.000-08:00

I am finally getting caught up...It has NEVER taken me a whole month to edit a session...I guess thats what you get when I move across the county and have Christmas all during that month!
We did two parts to this sessions because it was FREEZING outside...we did and indoor and a short outdoor. I can't tell you how happy it made me to take and edit these photographs. I actually cried when I first pulled them up...This is my older sister and let's just say there was a time that we were afraid pictures like this may never happen! Can you imagine them not....I can't ...so happy for her and her unbelievably beautiful family...enjoy some of her session!

Sometimes you have to do exactly the opposite of what you should be doing....

2011-12-22T14:31:00.000-08:00

In the long run it will cost you less than a prescription of anti-depressants.

I have really being increasingly upset at Christmas...or should I say all the work that goes into it. I know it's been said before but why the heck do we do all this present stuff....I feel like it is going to give me a coronary this year and possible a 5 lb weight gain. Here's a free tidbit of advise...in the years to come, do all in your power to avoid moving in the month of December...because it might make you hate Christmas too.

On a lighter note, I snubbed the 30 or so boxes I have left to unpack and got out my new back-up camera and practiced with it...cause although it is the same brand...it sure does not operate the same as my D700.

P.S. How the heck did I end up with kids who look like this?

2011-12-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

Try not to keel over at this little babies cuteness....

2011-12-12T14:11:00.000-08:00

THis is my darling sister and her beautiful family. It was so fun to be with them and take their pictures!

2011-12-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

While I was in Boise I had the privilege of photographing this beautiful family. There is nothing I love more than lighting like this...the sun streaming from behind...love them...

Stunning Senior...Enjoy!

2011-10-16T21:21:00.001-07:00

I was lucky enough to get a referral from a photog who was too busy to be able to shoot this gorgeous senior....lucky me! It it was really fun to get out and shoot this fabulous lady even if I did lose my grandpa's mini ladder I use to shoot! And to top it off we got to go downtown (which I absolutely love) and to her school. She is lucky enough to go to an amazing old college converted into an private school...and let me tell you it was awesome! Enjoy!

2011-09-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday night we went to the birthplace of Gerald Ford....yup its in downtown Omaha...Such a beautiful spot. Even 6 months ago I was so overwhelmed by my business but now I am itching to get going again! I miss it so much! SO I have to appease myself with shooting my own family! I have a few shoots coming up and I'll just have to be happy with that!

She is growing up too fast...someone stop this!

2011-01-31T10:06:00.000-08:00

2010-12-05T07:20:00.000-08:00

This was one of my favorite shoots ever!
Taken this summer, they asked me to make a movie from their shoot...and of course I was happy to...this is my wonderful brother and wife...and they will be moving next door soon!

2010-12-03T14:15:00.000-08:00

Loved this shoot....think taking pics in the snow isn't awesome...think again!

2010-12-02T10:36:00.000-08:00

I loved this shoot! Not only did the snow offer something new and the family was darling, but you should have felt the love this family had for each other! It can be hard to leave my family to go do a shoot, especially when James is home (which is hardly ever) but this family reminded me what a family should be. Watching them also made me grateful for my own family. The kids were so kind to each other and you could tell they were really friends. And the parents! Every time I turned around from shooting one of their kids, they were hugging and cooing at each other. I couldn't decide whether to gag or to go throw my arms around them and say thank you! I went straight home and gave James the biggest hug ever. In fact, we may or may not have gone a bit farther than that (wink! wink!) Thanks Cathy and Neil and kids! Can't you just feel the love through these pics!

New In-home Studio!

2010-12-01T09:31:00.000-08:00

I will be opening my in-home studio in the next few weeks and I am excited! It will be a place you can come, not have to wait in line, and have a more enjoyable portrait experience. We will be able to get to know eachother a bit. I practiced this morning, thinking I could get a jumpstart on this little girl's one-year pics. She kills me...

Oh goodness! This kid drives me crazy, but I adore him!

Seniors 2011!

2010-11-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

I really love shooting seniors! Who wouldn't? The models are extremely willing to look their best. This senior (like all of the seniors I have shot thus far) was an absolute beauty! One challenge I tend to have is helping the model feel comfortable in front of the camera. I haven't perfected this yet but I am really excited to practice this a lot this coming year!

This makes me happy

2010-11-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

I have had a very rough 24 hours. It may have something to do with a momentary lapse in judgement which has cost me a lot of money and some of my dignity. That post will come tomorrow if I can not cry about it as soon as I start typing. For now, enjoy this video I made for client who booked a session for her grandkids. She is from New Zealand, so I thought it would be neat for her to be able to send this to people who have never seen her grandkids. Enjoy....

2010-10-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

Thought of the Day
I made a goal to be totally engaged with my children all day and all I can say is, "How in the sam hill do mothers for whom this is normal, do this? I can only take so many games of Duck and Goose!" My 2 year old insists on calling it, "Duck and Goose" and insists on playing it constantly. He even plays it in the car...he pats the heads of his sisters', seated on either side of him. And for the running part? We yell, "Run, Run, Run!!!!" while he laughs hysterically in his carseat. It's a riot. Don't you wish you had my life? He is pretty cute, buck teeth and all.

Image of the Day

Challenge for tomorrow
Get my fat rear end on the treadmill and off of facebook. I'll let you know how that goes. Thank goodness you can hide yourself when you are on that stupid addicting site.

P.S. How many hours of the day do you estimate you are engaged...I mean really engaged with your kids?

Seniors 2010!

2010-10-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

I have one goal when I take shoots for seniors-- I want to capture their true style and personality at this time in their lives. I want their picture shoot to reflect the person they are at this age. For "C", I chose a downtown urban location for the bulk of our time...can you see why? Can you stand what a doll she is? She really is as beautiful inside as she is outside. Know any seniors that need their pics taken? Send them my way, I love shooting them!

The K family....

2010-10-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love most about what I do is that I get to see old friends again. For friends that live far enough away that visiting often is impossible, I am able to get to know their families when I take their pictures. It is strange, after editing 10 photos of my friend's child, I feel like I have connected with them all over again. Of course, they probably don't feel that way...but I enjoy it. I love these pictures! My friend really likes urban locations so we headed to downtown Salt Lake!

The C Family....

2010-10-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

So photography is an interesting little career. Of course, one's professional work will eventually speak for itself but initially, it is all about who you know. It has been difficult for me to get my business going because I don't really know many people in the area where I live.

This family was one of my very first clients. It is strange, the better you know someone, the more you see in their pictures. The more I know about their lives, the more their faces speak to me during their shoot and in their photographs. HHHMMMMmm deep thoughts by Carrie Elton. Now for a few samples....

The S family

2010-10-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

You know when you first meet someone and just have the feeling that you were meant to be friends? This is how I have felt with this girl. She is really one of the neatest people around. And the best thing about her (well not the best....but one of the best) is that she willingly plays the piano for me when I sing. And her family....well, the pictures speak for themselves.

MY NEW BLOG/WEBSITE!

2010-10-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

I finally did it! I am now going to have a blog/website for all things me and my life as a mother and photographer. For all of you who might be wondering if I am going to journal about her life and photography in one blog, my answer is yes. I have decided that I can only do so much in my life. Maintaining two separate blogs makes me want to stick needles in my eyes so, one blog it will have to be. For those of you who have any interest in my life (for what reason I cannot fathom), come here. For those of you interested in my photography, come here too. I hope you enjoy. Until I figure out what I am going to put in my first post.....

Carrie

Welcome to my new blog!

2010-10-18T12:33:00.001-07:00