While we were on the Big Island of Hawaii, we took a boat trip to view the lava flows.  It was spectacular to witness ... one of the most amazing acts of nature we have ever seen!

I want to start this post by saying that in no way, shape, or form did we harm this beautiful owl!!!  Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love all animals, especially birds!

On New Years Eve, after Arizona's big winter storm, we hiked into the mountains northeast of Phoenix in search of a nice landscape photo of Four Peaks Mountain with rare snowfall on it.  While waiting for the light and searching out the perfect composition, I turned to see a fence ... and a strange shape hanging from it.  On closer inspection we found that it was a Great Horned Owl.  At first I thought it might have inadvertently flown into the fence, killing it but we soon came to realize that the bird had been affixed to the fence.  The scene was odd and disturbing as I wondered how the bird died and why someone would then strap it to a fence in the middle of nowhere.  The owl showed no obvious signs of trauma, so I guess I will never know.  I took the photo above for my decades-old, on going personal project, "Casualties of War."  It documents man's impact on the wild world and the damage we inflict, whether by purpose or not.

Fast forward a couple of days and I got it in my head that it would make for a really cool shoot!  I had an image of a high fashion look with really dark eye makeup and a somber, yet avant-garde look to the final photographs.  I got a hold of our associate photographer, Angie, and asked her if she would pose for the photos.  She agreed, and on absolutely no notice, she came over, I did her makeup, we drove out to the site, hiked in, put my wedding dress on her and did the shoot.  We arrived just in time for sunset, took the photographs, and hiked out through the cactus fields, in the cold, dark of night :-).  At the end of the shoot, Angie asked if I would take a few photos of her beautiful tatoo using the scene.  It was blue hour by this point and it worked perfectly for that set of images!

For me, the spring and fall wedding seasons of 2010 pretty much blurred together and I never really felt caught up.  I became terribly exhausted and sick and I am just now getting to where I mentally and physically feel a bit better.  Sometimes as photographers, and artists, we need to take a step back to regroup so we can come back in fresh.  I really needed a shoot like this ... something out of the box and edgy.  Angie, thank you so much for trusting in my vision - both the shoot and the makeup :-) - and for so willing trekking into the wilderness on a cold day to see this shoot through!  You look amazing in these photos!!!!

We would like to extend our best wishes to everyone for a happy and safe holiday season!!

For Christmas Eve we decided to take a road trip south of Tucson to visit Tumacacori National Historic Park for their festive luminaria display.  This is an annual event held each year on Christmas Eve and it was spectacular to witness!!

Happy Halloween from Sierra Blanco Photography and our "mascot", Yoshi!  He is a shark if you can't tell ... it is hard to find costumes that fit him :-)!

My best friend in the whole world :-), Daniela, came out from her home in Chicago to help me out with a wedding (more on that in the next posting) in November.  She was only here for 3 days and it was the first time she had ever been out west.  She is originally from Brazil and given the fact that her time spent in the US has always been on the East Coast or in the Midwest, the Wild West was a little different for her.  She loved it from the moment her plane touched down in Phoenix!  Given the short time span I had to show her around, I had to be selective about where to take her.  The obvious choice was the Grand Canyon, so off we went, straight from the airport to the canyon.  She was mesmerized, as most people are who see it for the first time!  Here are a few shots we took while we were there.

Daniela and I at my favorite tree :-)!