Howdy folks! Well, its LIVE now! Head on over to…

http://chelseahudson.com/blog

http://chelseahudson.com/blog

http://chelseahudson.com/blog

…for the newest and freshest CHP blog experience. 

** please update your favorites list or blogroll if I happen to be one of your chosen ones:) **

** also, please note that my portfolio website, www.chelseahudson.com, is still under construction while  being renovated… it should be updated soon-ish. **

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!

Please excuse the dust.

Easter Sunday was spent here:

(yes, my daughter is holding, and eating, a snowball in her hand… in arizona…go figure)

Yes, website and blog changes are STILL coming in the near future….

But for now, I just had to post a peek at Brian and Gwendolyn’s A W E S O M E wedding album! Wowza!! This is an example of a “flush mount” album for any of you who are interested.

Here are some views of the actual album. Unfortunately, I see that my red walls in my dining room produce funky color distortions, so, sorry about that. The cover is a yummy, dark brown smooth leather. Really, makes you want to just eat it. Brian and Gwen, like I told you, these pics are NOTHING compared to how cool this album is in real life. I will be getting it in the mail asap this week to you!

The Specs:

10×10″ leather flush mount album

26 spreads

PRICELESS representation of the most significant day of their lives

And here are a couple of my favorite spreads from Brian and Gwendolyn’s album!

Stay Tuned!

I had the pleasure of meeting Abby Tracy a couple of months ago. This young twenty-somthings girl with a heart literally the size of Africa, FOR Africa, really inspired me. She has given her life, her heart and her time to the abandoned kids on the streets of Kampala, Uganda. Kids that are hated, ignored, harassed and abused. The beads used in the following pictures are made by Ugandans trying to support themselves so they don’t have to stay on the streets. What Abby (and others partnering with her) has been able to do with the proceeds of this jewelry is just amazing. Abby explained it here:

The beads are made from rolled up pieces of magazines by local artists in downtown Kampala. The carved pieces are made out of wood or the enormous horns of the Ugandan cattle. To make the paper beads you cut a tapered piece of paper and then roll it around a needle, dab a but of paint to hold the end down and then string it on fishing wire. Once there is a sizable amount you paint the beads with a clear shalack and then string them together! The money from the necklaces alone was enough to purchase a plot of land, build a family home on it, and take 16 kids off of the street. The home is run through the sale of the necklaces although it is our goal in the next year to start up many income generating activities. We have just purchased a large plot of land again through the sale of the necklaces and have many things we are planning to use it for like planting crops, raising cattle, and having fishpons where we raise and harvest fish! We are currently in the middle of starting a new program with older street youth 18 and older that have shown initiative and a desire to change their lives around through Calvary Church’s street children program to put them in a program where they make the necklaces and the money that they earn from them goes to getting them off the street, in transitional housing and then off of the streets for good by letting them choose from job training, a paid apprentiship, help starting up their own business or store, or help going back to their village and farming.

Abby is currently in Arizona raising support to be able to return to Uganda fulltime. She works with a Ugandan organization called Africa Hearts. She sells the jewelry around the USA via friends and family who have connected with her vision and passion. Currently, she is working on getting a website up and running to be able to sell the jewelry to a broader audience. The proceeds of these necklaces, bracelets and earrings are truly giving desperate Ugandans hope and freedom from life on the streets. I will certainly update this blog when the website is up and running.

Personally, I have bought several of these necklaces for friends and family and I wear one of two of them nearly everyday. And I ALWAYS get asked about them when I am out and about… I hope I have successfully piqued your interest and hope you will buy some of your own in the near future (when online purchases are possible). Who doesn’t like cool, unique, stylish jewelry, especially when you KNOW that this jewelry is in a small way providing freedom where there was bondage, hope where there was despair. 

Check out more of Abby’s story HERE. 

I usually blog about our family adventures and life in general over at my OTHER BLOG, but I thought I would include a little snapshot here as well. 

Spring in Phoenix is really near perfect. And our family has been diligently taking advantage of it since we KNOW what is to come in less than a month (heat, heat, and more extreme heat). 

We learned many valuable lessons while living in Europe from 2005-2007, one of which was to really get out and experience your city, state, country (and in Europe’s case, the countries around you!). And we did that there. And we are trying to do that here in Arizona as well. 

A few of our recent outings have led us north of Carefree, AZ, north of Payson, AZ, and northeast of Apache Junction, AZ. All of them are easy day trips and we love, love, love driving somewhere new and just playing in this new (to us) and fascinating environment (everything from desert to tall pines and snow in March!). 

Here are some snapshots of our family hard at play.

Ok, not yet… but two of my wedding photos have been selected as finalists in a national wedding photo contest! Apparently over 3000 submissions came in and two out of the three of mine were selected as finalists…. in my book, that is already a major WIN! I am honored!

Please go to the WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTORY and vote for your favorite wedding photos…. I sure hope you will vote for mine, but as you will see, there are some AMAZING shots being featured!  If you have the time and opinion, there is a place to critique the photos… I would love to hear what you have to say. Here are the two finalists of the three I submitted:

from Greg and Susan’s wedding:

from Joe and Anne’s wedding:

These are from a little spot we found a little over and hour’s drive from our house and basically in the middle of nowhere! It was such a fun find! We plan to have many a weekend trip out this way in the near future! 

This is our little oasis: Seven Springs Rec Area

And the following shots just make me smile so much…. I love the vibrant colors, especially the “new growth” green!

Sometimes, as a people photographer, I find myself getting “stuck.” The more photographers I talk to, the more I realize I am not alone in this. Same kinds of sessions, same locations, same shots…. No matter how “good” the photographs are, I still find myself in need of new and fresh inspiration. You would think that grabbing a friend and going out and shooting somewhere new would be a great way to gain that inspiration. But for me, I have to look somewhere other than people. Landscapes, nature, architecture, abstract, patterns, textures, colors….. all provide me with immeasurable amounts of fresh inspiration. I have found myself anxiously looking for spare moments to hop in the car and drive to a new park, preserve or recreation area to look for my inspiration. And boy have I found it. God’s world is a spectacular work of art. And I revel in it when its just me, God, His artwork and my camera (and even a baby on my back and a kid hanging onto my leg). Learning and practicing new techniques (technical stuff with my camera and lenses) I have long been avoiding are now exciting and challenging to me. I want to get out there and try this function, that set up, this technique and then I can’t wait to get home and upload my cards and see what I just tried to do and what I actually captured. Its been fun. Really fun. And my passion for people photography is reborn as well. Maybe its just a spring thing… I don’t know.

But I am pumped and ready to take on new, fun, challenging and exciting sessions, weddings and other photo projects. Contact me if you have been mulling over the thought of hiring a photographer for whatever reason – I’m your girl and this is a GREAT time to tap into my renewed creativity and passion for photography! 

I hope you will enjoy just a few of the most inspiring pictures I have to show for these last few weeks…. they make me really, really happy. I am smiling even as I write this. Yes, THAT happy. 

Phoenix is amazing this time of year – AMAZING. All of these sets of pictures were taken within an hour and 20 minute drive of our house. Some in our backyard preserve, some in the north Scottsdale area, and some further north out in the “wilderness.” 

We’ll start with closest to home (on a walk last night at sunset):

I think this is seriously my all time favorite flower picture I have ever seen. Can you believe these are right in our front yard??

And then came the sunset…….

And then we go to Scottsdale, to the Pinnacle Peak Park (sidenote: the wind was insane. it actually blew me over when I was shooting a picture near the top… not really good when you have a one year old in a backpack on your back and a 3 year old clinging to your leg so she didn’t blow off the path…. it was intense to say the least… even the park service lady made a comment when we got back down the path… that she was “sure glad you made it back, young lady.”)

Um, ok this is the second FAVE of all faves (as of today)  - I LOVE the perspective of looking at a flower or cactus or whatever straight on… 

Yeah, right… it wouldn’t be a problem without the wind. 

Ok, this little human does give me inspiration…. continually! 

Coming Soon….. pictures from the sticks and beyond! Stay tuned!