Hi all!

Last month I had the amazing privilege of being able to shoot the wedding of an old friend in Rochester, NY. Jen and I shared the same dorm hall in college. I remember her always being so kind and always smiling. She always had so much joy.

She has such a heart for the Lord, and after visiting Egypt with some of our closest friends, God also gave her a heart for that country.

I had such an amazing time getting to know her family and Mark, and seeing their amazing house, it was all such a blessing to be a part of!

Thanks you guys!

Well well well,

Long time no see little blog. How I missed you! Man, I am REALLY slacking with this whole "blogging" thing. I almost forgot what it was. Someone asked me last week if I blogged and I thought they were asking me if I knew how to do some swedish dance. Just kidding. Lame joke.

On Memorial day weekend, I had the privilege of traveling back to my home state of New Mexico to shoot one of the most beautiful destination weddings I've ever seen.

Madeline and Jay are both live in Texas. They met in college after Jay saw Madeline in a crowd and yelled something really romantic out like, "Hey YOU! I know you!" That little story made me laugh.

These two are SO creative! Madeline MADE her own wedding dress, and it was absolutely amazing. This wedding had a very Victorian feel to it, and it was even a little Steampunk inspired, which I LOVE! Jay had on a really timeless vest, while both of their mothers were decked out in Victorian garb. It was amazing.

The wedding was set at the beautiful Pecos National Monument, and let me say folks, after living in New Mexico for over 20 years, I'd never visited this place and it was absolutely stunning. I could have spent all afternoon there just hanging out and taking pics.

For the short time that I got to spend getting to know Jay and Madeline and their family, I really loved it all. What a great and creative couple, and I was seriously honored to be able to be a part of their wedding day.

Congrats you guys, and happy 4th. I hope you like the pics. :)

Let me set the scene for you.

Nashville, TN

The Historic Cedarwood. Towering trees, a huge mansion, rolling hills and a huge red barn. This was the amazing wedding I had the privilege of shooting for Gary and Coburn!

I met Gary when he came down to Santa Fe to help serve Youth With a Mission. He's a very handy guy who loves horses and he's a generally outdoorsy type of guy.

Gary met Coburn while he was working at a barn where Coburn rode for the Auburn Equestrian Team. Apparently they really hit it off because they're married now... ;)

They went on their first date on August 18th, 2007, which is awesome that they know the exact date of their first date. It had to have been really special!

These two are great. Very fun loving, and totally in love. I don't think I've had a bride and groom who loved looking into each other's eyes as much as these two. My favorite part of the day was watching their faces light up each time they saw each other. So fun.

On to the slideshow! Have fun getting to know Gary and Coburn, and enjoy reliving their special day with them!

“A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” - George Moore

Well, this blog entry is really just to share something kind of old, but very dear to my heart. I could gush about how much I love Las Vegas and the people there, but I think I've done that enough.

Instead, I wanted to share my all time favorite video that I've ever made, because it reminds me of friends, fun, travel, adventure, and a certain romance I have with the fall and visiting places. I really do feel like Las Vegas is my second home, and sometime soon it may be my primary home. :)

This video illustrates everything I love. I feel it brings an adventurous and an artistic romance with it. Every time I watch it, I fall in love again with the song, the time of year, the people, and I'm reminded of all the feelings I had the week we shot it. I loved this trip, and I can't believe I haven't shared it on here before!

After you watch the video, you'll know why I called this "Life In Reverse"! Well folks, one of my favorite people visited last week, and it was her birthday! Dominique Elise (Please visit http://www.dominiqueelisephotography.com), my best friend and second shooter turned 25 on January 23rd. It was a great week and we had a blast taking pics, and bowling, and watching lots and lots of Lost.

Lets just make this entire post about Dominique. She's one of the most passionate people I know. She helped found an organization called Never Silence Life, which was a prolife movement headed up by my other best friend's band BarlowGirl (http://www.barlowgirl.com). She is also an amazing drummer....like AMAZING, seriously one of the best drummers I've heard, she's been in a ton of bands, (Listen to "Write Love On Her Arms" from her band From The Ashes HERE), oh and have I mentioned she's a great photographer?! Well, she is. I don't know how I'd get through my big weddings without her.

Born and raised in Las Vegas, NV, she's also an expert with anything Apple. Currently she works in Las Vegas as a Family Room Specialist at an Apple store, soooo of course she gets me the hook up on anything I need. iPad anyone?! ;) Just kidding Cheekee.

Anyways, all that to say, she's one amazing person.

Check out all the media below, and don't miss out on the Birthday Vid! Its one of my favs.

Well Friends,

Its been awhile. Life has been good, its been bad, its been crazy! I've got several different blogs coming up. A few tutorials, a few couple's shoots, and 1 or 2 blog posts about some amazing friends of mine. Hopefully for those of you who are faithful readers, it'll be a bit more eventful around here!

A few weeks ago I spent the week with one of my closest friends up in Chicago. I love that city. I love how different it is from Santa Fe. The weather, the people, the architecture, its all amazing to me. I always have a different experience when I go, and I think thats cool. Most of the week was spent just relaxing and eating amazing food, but I thought I'd share a bit of the week here.

I made a little video blog, and I hope you all like it. I certainly feel like my week in Chicago was a good experience, and I learned alot about myself too, so thats good.

Enjoy!

Well,

It had to happen. I love my iPhone so much, I had to incorporate it SOMEHOW with my photography! Let me start by just being blunt about it: the iPhone camera app leaves much to be desired. It doesn't have great depth of field, the shutter speed isn't great, and the color is awful. However, as far as mobile phone cameras are concerned, I can't really complain.

Whats great about the iPhone is, of course, there are thousands of apps to add to your phone to make it even more amazing than it already was!

We live in the digital age of photography. With that said, digital photography is just as much about the post production process as it is about actually getting the perfect shot.

Well, I thought it would be fun to give you guys a few tips on creating great pictures by using your iphone camera, then editing your pictures purely with your iphone. Because if you're a photographer like me, you cringe when you have to take a point and shoot shot. Where's the art?! After these few post editing steps the results are pretty cool, for a cell phone. ;)

Here's what you'll need:

An iPhone (pretty obvious, hehe)
Tiltshift Generator
Shakeitphoto
Photoshop Mobile

Enjoy!

Tutorial - How to take better pictures with your iPhone from Danette Chappell on Vimeo.

Let me first say, I've been looking forward to doing this wedding for MONTHS!

Jenny & Steven are absolutely one of the funniest couples I've ever met. You can really see that they love life, they love being together, and they make me want to live life to its fullest! I felt like their whole ceremony was a celebration!

They met 3 years ago on July 4th, and I'm pretty sure Steven has been making Jenny laugh every single day since that first day they met.

And lets talk about photogenic. Seriously, they're so much fun to shoot. Jenny comes up with the cutest ideas and I love it! I wish I could bring her on all my shoots so she can tell me some cute poses!!! ;)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the pictures, and the slideshow.

A special thanks to Dominique (Dominique Elise Photography) and to Chris Chappell for both of their awesome second shooter skills!!!

Ooooohhhhh yeeeeeeeaaaahhhh, for the first time ever, we did video at a wedding. Its a surprise to Jenny & Steven, so this is the first time they're hearing about it. But I hope they love it. It was just a little video that we did, trying to capture the essence of the night, in the midst of taking some fun pictures!

Enjoy!!!

Hi everyone!

Well, a few weeks ago I had the privilege of shooting a gorgeous wedding in Maine. I'd never been to New England before, and let me tell you, its like a whole other world compared to the one I'm from. It was GORGEOUS. I've never seen so many different colored trees before! Absolutely amazing.

Anyways, let me tell you about my bride & groom. Hilary and Joel are two amazing people. Just from the handful of times that I'd gotten to talk to them, I can see that they have hearts of gold. They both love the Lord and are passionately involved in outreach. I loved their ceremony. Everyone took a few minutes to worship God in the midst of the entire ceremony which was awesome. It was so cool seeing Hilary & Joel up on the alter totally focused on God. So so cool. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was watching Joel look at Hilary. I can't help but smile every time I think of his face, or see a picture of him looking at her. They're both so IN LOVE! I had a blast shooting with them, and can honestly say that it was an unforgettable experience.

Thank you both for your hospitality, and for the absolute privilege of shooting the two of you. Also a special thanks to Hilary and Joel's families for all the amazing accommodations!

On to the slideshow, I hope you all like it!

Well, I've been a busy busy little bee the last couple of weeks. I spent the end of September with one of my best friends, Dominique, in Las Vegas, then went straight from Vegas to shoot a wedding in Maine where one of my other best friends, Cassie & her husband Caleb, just happened to be. And actually, funny enough, Cassie & Caleb are the faces of my blog. (see up there on the big banner....those beautiful faces...thats them.) ;)

It was AMAZING! I can't begin to even say how thankful I am for the time I got to spend with some of my closest friends. Just being able to spend time with them, and catch up, and make new memories with them was priceless.

Not to mention how gorgeous the weather was in Vegas and how beautiful EVERYTHING was in Maine. I shot one of the most gorgeous weddings I've ever done, and spent most of my time on the coast of New England eating seafood almost everyday.

While I was in Vegas I spent the whole time enjoying amazing company, and making hilarious new memories. It was the best. Seriously. Here is a slideshow from the last two weeks of all the beautiful faces I got to pass the time with, they're some of my favs, and also a random video with a bunch of random clips from my iphone, just for fun....if you're bored.

Hola Everyone!

I've been toying with the idea for awhile about starting a series of tutorials for the budding photographer out there and today I decided to follow through with that idea. I've created a tutorial that is a basic rundown of editing a photo in Lightroom w/ a followup edit in photoshop.

This tutorial isn't meant to be an advanced look into Lightroom, but its meant for those who really want to start getting into digital photography. Its a good start.

I'm sorry to say that the video quality isn't as high as I would have liked it, I'll have to figure that out for my next tutorial so you'll most likely want to watch in full screen mode.

Also, something definitely worth mentioning that I didn't mention in the tutorial is that if possible, you ALWAYS want to edit in RAW format. A RAW file is not compressed and flattened like a JPEG so the editing process is much smoother.

I've included the picture that I used in the tutorial in RAW format so you can follow along with the tutorial if you'd like to compare results:

Click here to download picture

Also, you can download a free trial of both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop here:

http://www.adobe.com

OH! And, here is the link to the awesome Lightroom tips website I LOVE:

http://www.lightroomkillertips.com

SO I hope this is a successful tutorial! Be gentle on me! Its my first!

Before:


After:


And last but not least, the tutorial!

Basic Photo Edit in Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorial from Danette Chappell on Vimeo.

Hello Blog World!

A few weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to fly out to Baltimore and shoot an old friend's wedding. Carolyn and I met back in 2003 when I was attending Liberty University. Right away I could tell that this girl was F-U-N. She seriously is the life of the party. Whenever she was around, she kicked it up a notch and made whatever she was doing a party. I love her.

When she asked me if I would consider shooting her wedding I got so excited! I knew it was gonna be a nonstop fun time the entire time I was with her.

Let me tell you, Daniel and Carolyn's wedding party are insane! I loved all of them. They are surrounded by amazing friends and family that love them very much. I enjoyed meeting and getting to know them all!

So on to the slideshow, I had so much fun shooting! I hope everyone enjoys it!

Hey Everybody!

I had such an amazing time at this wedding! A few posts down you may have seen the recent couples' shoot I did with Matt and Amy. Well, its been kind of a whirlwind batch of photoshoots with them, but they're just so darn photogenic, I had to torture them with a couples' shoot and their wedding day pics all in the same week. ;)

This couple is seriously amazing! With just the little amount of time I've been able to spend with them, I can totally tell that they have a blast together. Their wedding day was so fun, and it was full of just family and friends spending time and enjoying each other's company in the moment.

Matt is a cowboy, and Amy is a city girl and its so awesome to see both of their styles and personalities collide. They really compliment each other very well.

I enjoyed every moment I got to spend shooting them, and I'm really glad I got to know them a bit, and share in their special day.

Enjoy the pics and slideshow!