cherelynn

Big thanks to Tammy Cochran of Dollface Bettys for the pictures in this holiday series.

Wow, it’s been such an amazing year and I know that it’s only going to get better before it’s over.

I truly do love giving more than getting! I’m busy with shoots the next few weeks and I’ll have the pics up as soon as possible.

I’m taking a few spokesmodeling events and have two Friday evenings open if you have a party that needs hosting. Email me for details!

Then do some shopping!

ta da! Any guesses to what is in it? More pics and shoots to come!

I was waiting until December 1st to put up the Christmas photos, but I just couldn’t wait!

Enjoy and stay tuned for more shoots coming your way!

Woo hoo! It’s here! Christmas time is finally here! I love this time of year! The parties! The presents! The celebrations!

Ok, stay tuned…I have several photoshoots coming up and one of them is for Pin Up Lifestyle “In the Kitchen” contest.  So come back soon for  new pics!

The Arizona State Fair Grandstands held a full capacity crowd waiting to see Figure 8 racing. Similar to NASCAR fans, and I’m pretty sure a cross breed of them, were seated well before the racing started.

I love the smell of the Fair with it’s grease, salt, sweet and motor oil mixed with dusty air. At least that is what it smelled like as I entered the racing pit to meet with drivers and their cars for the Saturday night Figure 8 racing at the Arizona State Fair Grandstand.

In tow I have a photographer, Josh Taylor and my son Noah who loves cars and to take pictures. So far, everybody is happy.

I wasn’t sure what I would find in interviews but what I was looking for was a “true grit” family story and that is what I found and then some. The question is: if the family that plays together stays together, what about the family that races together?

For the teams that come in and race, this night of Figure 8 racing is one of many races and qualifying rounds that they have ran in this season. The teams have a full pit crew, family and friends, plus the car and driver. I’m pictured with the wrecking crew because someone has to pull the cars off the track if there is a crash. There is always a crash!

Many of the racing teams have won titles in other events and come back again and again to race for the fans, themselves and against long standing rivalries and friendships.

The #26 car is  driven by a retired Mesa Arizona police Seargent  Terry Mumaugh whose family and friends were there to support him along with his sponsors Prattster Graphics and SugarJacks.com. After all, rah rah support is great, though sponsorships are needed to keep the car running!

The #5 car is driven by Eddy Madrid. He was a racer of few words, though performed well on the track.

Though it’s the #133 car that really caught my ear for a story: see, this family has been racing for over 20 years as a team and against each other. The entire family is in on it: Grandpa and Grandma, aunts and uncles, the nephews with nieces, and kids too.  All wives and husbands are married into the racing and were proud supporters that evening.

The driver for the #133 car is Bobby Taylor, a three time champion at the now closed Manzanita raceway and  will compete next at the November 6-7^th SCRA in Tucson.  What made his story different than the rest was not the fact that up to 40 family members come out to each race, but that this man has been in a severe car crash that caught on fire and burned over 30% of his body.  That didn’t stop him from getting back behind the wheel and cranking out another set of race chases to the checkers for more wins.

When Bobby Taylor was diagnosed with tongue cancer and underwent extensive chemotherapy that racked his body with sickness, hair and weight loss which eventually caused him to need to  re-learn to eat and speak, it was the love of racing that kept him alive.

That explains why the race car fan is more than an average fan and also why race fans tend to run as a family. I hear it again and again, on and off the track, the thrill of the chase is always out gunned by the love of racing.

Til next time!

See you at the NASCAR Auto Parts 500 by Pennzoil out at Phoenix International Raceway in November!

All photos are courtesy of Joshua Taylor and you can see the full index of pictures at http://shutternaut.com/azfair/index.html and to book him for your next photo event please contact him through Model Mayhem #1320456

Hello! I love this picture. Silly and odd images are always more captivating to me vs. “pretty”.  Look closely at it and comment if you think you have figured out how we shot it!

In this series of photos with Brandy of As You Wish Photograhy (http://www.modelmayhem.com/531521  …there is also a link to myspace on MM page) we had to use what was available literally because the car show that we planned to shoot at didn’t happen. Literally! There was one car that showed up late to an event that was supposed to have 30-60 cars.  So we ended up down town Phoenix and shot locations as we found them. Enjoy the interview and the pictures! If you would like to book Brandy to capture your next event, please contact her through MM or the myspace link.

 

1. Why photography when it comes to self expression and release of creativity?  Well, I can’t draw.  I can’t sing.  I don’t play a musical instrument.  I can’t dance and I’m not a very convincing actress.  So photography it is, right? 

 

2. Who’s work do you admire?  I admire anyone whose images captivate me over and over .  I love Ellen von Unwerth, Annie Liebovitz, Andy Hartmark, and anyone else who really loves what they do and their images make me feel something, even it I hate it.. it made me feel SOMETHING and that’s what I strive to do as well.

 

3. Where does inspiration come from?  Inspiration?  I’d have to say there is no one direct source.  Sounds, music, color, movies, paintings, buildings, animals, models ideas, other photographers..  anything that makes me think of how I can do a shoot to incorporate an image in my head.

 

4. What are your favorite types of shoots/scenes setups? Indoors or outdoors?  I prefer outdoors mostly, the challenge of the right lighting and the right angle with daily life whizzing by and sometimes getting in the way.  However, if the image in my head calls for indoors, I will go to great lengths to make the indoor shot work.

5. Tell me the story of how you got started in photography?  I have grown up with cameras.  My dad has always had a camera with him. When I was 6 years old, he took me to the San Diego Zoo and Universal Studios. He put a disposable camera in my hand.  One of the first pictures I ever took was on the “Jaws” boat ride.  When the shark jumped out of the water at us, I screamed (as any 6 year old would) the gum fell out of my mouth into the mechanical shark, and I snapped the picture.  I’ve pretty much always had a camera in my hand ever since.

6. What’s next for you in photography?  I really don’t know.  I do it because I love it.  If someone wanted to pay me for it, that would be great!  But until then I’m going to keep improving my craft, and challenging myself to make better and better images.

7.  If you could name any way/shape/form/person/set up/scene/wardrobe for the “ultimate dream come true shoot”, what would it be?  That’s really hard to say.  I wouldn’t want to settle on just one.  I’d love to have the unlimited funds and resources of something like America’s Next Top Model, to be able to just go anywhere and have an elaborate set, makeup, wardrobe and beautiful models at my whim to make whatever image pops into my head come alive.

 

7a. Now what needs to happen to make that come true?  Um, I’d need to be discovered by someone who wants to give me said funds and resources?  Haha, I don’t know.  I love what I do and I’m going to keep doing it whether anyone else does or not.

I hope you enjoyed the interview and the pictures. They are some of my favorites! Now, stay tuned…because my Fair story from the Figure 8 racing will  be up soon and I have pictures of course!

I’m taking a few more photoshoot bookings for November and December, but not booking anything past the 15th and won’t set up the new year until, well, it’s the new year.

Thanks for visiting and I love your comments! Keep’ em coming!

You know I love doing a series of photos in a concept or theme and this series is based on my love for old Hollywood glamour.

The inspiration came from the black and white noir films where mystery mixed with romance and suspense! The lead actress always wore gloves and a hat, with rolled hair.

Well, back to reality: photographer Josh Taylor and I shot on a moments notice downtown with nothing but our wits about us and a camera.  These images are a result of what happened after Jennyvi’s Arizona Bridal Week event where we shot some stock photos for the new, yet to be launched DIY Bridal Makeup site.

Enjoy!

1. Why photography when it comes to self expression and release of creativity?

Well, I can’t draw or paint, and I definitely don’t have an ear for music. I always liked taking pictures, and one day sprung for a DSLR to take pictures during a gaming convention. I only brought it out for conventions for some time, and then thought I should make use of it. So far so good, although I wouldn’t say what I’m doing is that creative or a real self expression. Artists are good at doing that, I’m no artist, just a guy who takes pictures.

2. Who’s work do you admire?

Zack Arias and Chase Jarvis have been helpful from what I’ve gleamed from their respective blogs. In terms of the famous/heavy hitters, I have a terrible memory when it comes to names. There is this one guy who recently died who took amazing portraits of very famous people, I also like pictures by these guys who took pictures of trains a long time ago. And, of course, Ansel Adams.

3. Where does inspiration come from?

The original inspiration was to make use of the equipment I bought, my new inspiration is looking at the pictures I take and thinking I can do better. I too grounded to the point I don’t think I could make a living doing this, so it’s not for money, I would like to get to the point where I can take great pictures.

 

 4. What are your favorite types of shoots/scenes setups? Indoors or outdoors?

I like outdoors, I don’t have a studio, or the amount of lighting equipment necessary for a studio. I like the single flash through a 60″ shoot through umbrella, although I think I’ll have to start mixing it up. Right now I shoot mostly pictures of people dressed nicely, and I’d like to get to the point of perfecting that before trying out other things.

5. Tell me the story of how you got started in photography?

I’ll expound on what I said in question one; I bought a camera with the purpose of taking pictures of San Francisco and GDC (Game Developers Conference), but thinking back it was actually something before that. I never used SLRs growing up nor took a photography class, my dad liked photography so he had SLRs, but I never used them. One day he got a Nikon D80, and during our annual New York Thanksgiving I went around and took some pictures. Pressing down the shutter button and actually feeling the camera take a picture was addictive, my point and shoots felt dinky after that point. After that I was set on purchasing a DSLR, and I did so for the convention I mentioned previously.

After the convention I let it languish for quite awhile, and then my friends and I started up a gaming website. To draw viewers to the website I decided to hire a model for the purpose of her doing geeky things in a bikini, which worked somewhat. That photoshoot was amazing, it was the most fun I had in a long time, but after that I again let my camera languish for a few months. I decided one day I needed to shoot more models, and after a lot of no answers from friends, I went to the internet for my search. I did an ad on Craigslist and got a photoshoot out of it, and then somehow learned about Model Mayhem (I bet one or two of the people linked to their MM profiles). After that I signed up, MM is a silly place, but that’s how I find all my models now.

 

 

 
6. What’s next for you in photography?

I’d like to hone my skills and my style more, and shoot a lot more in general. I’d like to hook up with local clothing designers as many have really bad pictures of their stuff, and as a bonus the models will always be wearing great clothes. Right now I like fashion, even though I know nothing about fashion in general, so I’ll try to do more fashion-type stuff.

Well, I know you’re going for an answer based in reality, but let’s do an “ultimate dream come true shoot” first. I would recreate this painting as a photograph with all the depicted people:

http://imgur.com/mIftD.jpg

Since there is a follow up question though, I’ll have to come up with something more plausible. It would be more about the subject/s rather than the setting, so anything with any of these people:

Flight of the Conchords
Zooey Deschanel
Clive Owen
Lilly Allen

And so many more, let’s just say lots of famous people. That would be fab.

7a. Now what needs to happen to make that come true?

Well I certainly need to work at it, but really it requires lots of hard work and self promoting. If I really wanted to do it I would immediately move to New York or LA and try to intern for somebody famous. I would then take pictures every second of the day and start a great online presence so I’m known within the photography community. I would then do all sorts of small projects like ‘100 people in 100 days’ or something pretentious like that. I would hook up with as many creative types as possible, and eventually it would happen.

Or I could continue doing IT work in Arizona and take pictures for fun, while 27 isn’t really old it’s a bit too old to go running off to go take photos. I will admit though, it would be quite fun taking photos for a living.

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Thank you photographer Josh Taylor for your time and talent. I love having the NOIR series in my  port.  To see more of his work or to book your photoshoot project with him, visit http://shutternaut.com  or you can find him on Model Mayhem at http://www.modelmayhem.com/1320456

I have upcoming concept shoots at the Arizona State Fair, plus some Pin Up styling possibly in Dollface Bettys clothing, so stay tuned!

If you would like to book me for your next project, email me for rates and dates of availability.

Hello everyone!

Before I post the NOIR photoshoot and interview with photographer Joshua C. Taylor,

check out Amy and I in our ”BlackBerry Loves U2″ wardrobe held at University of Phoenix

stadium in Glendale AZ. This was such a fun event! 

 Okay, here’s the funny thing, every where I go, there are always angels. Yes, this is a pic of Amy and I in our

wardrobe for the event, though check out the wee angel orb on the left side, just past my elbow next to the door hinge.

 Oy! Really, we are as tired as we look! Long day at work, chilly weather ( love it if I weren’t in a wee dress)

and it was sooo loud, and so good! That’s Bono on the big screen behind our heads.

 I put this pic up because it’s filled with angels! We are happy to ’cause the work day is over and on to more U2!

 This is a pic of The Edge singing, and it was amazing. Oh, and the pic is full of angel orbs, look closely just past whoever

this guy is on the corner of the pic.

 Two huge angel orbs in the center of the photo …look there, not at the guy selling beer in the front.

 

 

What a great day! Long and worth it! After the show we stopped for a bite to eat and a Guinness

at McFadden’s in Westgate. Where as the place left much to be desired and I won’t miss not every going there again,

the many angels around us and intense blue one above us makes it worth it!

Stay tuned for the new pic series, and I’m shooting at the fair this week!

I hope you have enjoyed this series of photos from JMG Photo. It was my first sunrise shoot and I love how the light is so much softer than a sunset.

Stay tuned for the upcoming NOIR pictures and photographer interview.

Plus I’m shooting a new series at the Arizona State Fair, fun!

Wee! I like this picture because the expression just looks like it feels good!

Thanks for visiting with me at the Arizona Women’s Expo!