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Welcome to Amen Photography's Blogsite!Amen Photography specializes in classic/contemporary location portrait photography in and around Reno and Lake Tahoe. We now offer WEDDING Photography, with packages catered specifically to your own personal preferences and budget. If you are interested in booking with us, please email us at amenphotography@hotmail.com or go to the 'contact us' page of the site. Check back often for updates and specials on portrait packages. |
Brandon & Caitlin’s Engagement Portraits – Sneak Peek! | Reno and Lake Tahoe Engagement Photographer
Posted on April 7, 2011
The transition period between winter and spring here in Reno is always a tough time for location photographers. You never know until the day of the shoot whether or not you will be needing a thick coat and snow boots, a raincoat, or shorts and flip flops. Brandon and Caitlin were nice enough to work with Mother Nature’s crazy schedule, even though she did give us a nice dumping of snow just a few days before their engagement session. I love the “Twilight” feel to the shots, mostly because I am in love with the Twilight series 
Lake Tahoe was also gorgeous this time of year, with the snowcapped mountains making for a great backdrop for pictures.
Tags: engagement photographer, Lake Tahoe, NV, Reno, snow
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Standout Competition Pieces | Reno, NV Baby and Children Photographer
Posted on February 22, 2011
Every once in a while, I like to jazz up my photos more than usual to practice some new editing skills and to try to score some accolade points from fellow professional photographers. In the process, I spend hours going through my whole archive of photos to find the ones that, in my opinion, more accurately represent what I am all about as a photographer: fun, classic, and heartwarming. Here are three of my favorite children’s portraits from the past year. The wedding/family/engagement/seniors categories are going to have to wait for the next time I get some “extra” time in my hands
Tags: NV, Reno, Reno children's photographer
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Snowmelt | Reno, NV Photographer
Posted on February 22, 2011
After a couple of weeks of Spring-like weather, we were greeted once again by snow. There is a blanket of white outside my house right now, and everywhere I look, I see Christmas card scenes! Just for fun, I went out to my backyard and practiced some good old fashioned “still-life” photography. It is truly amazing how much beauty there is in the simple little things, like melting icicles.
Tags: droplet, ice, icicles, melt, suspended, water
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Galena Senior Portraits – Sneak Peek | Reno, NV High School Senior Photographer
Posted on February 22, 2011
I am getting the hang of Senior Portrait Photography! High school seniors are the easiest subjects to photograph – they are in that stage of life where the world is their oyster and they are coming into their own as far as style, personality, and character. They pretty much own the session, and I am just the lucky person who gets to press the shutter. Super cool!
Tags: downtown, NV high school senior photographer, Reno
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Dave and Lacey’s Engagement – Sneak Peek! | Reno, NV Engagement and Wedding Photographer
Posted on February 22, 2011
I am super excited that Dave and Lacey asked me to be their wedding photographer. They are the cutest couple ever!!! I mean, seriously, I had a hard time narrowing down their “teasers” to just a few, because it was difficult to take a bad photo of them. Looking forward to photographing their wedding this summer!!! :-)
Tags: downtown, engagement photographer, NV, Reno
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Brother and Sister | Reno, NV Baby and Children Photographer
Posted on February 22, 2011
I love new babies! They are so delicate and pure and easy to photograph (especially when they are asleep). I had the rare privilege of photographing this brand new set of twins lately, and although they were challenging at first (yep, I got pooped, peed, and puked on all in one session, twice!), they gave me some really cute poses only a twosome can pull off. Don’t worry, everything’s been laundered since then, and all we have left are these beautiful shots. 
Tags: Babies, brother, sister, twins
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Babies and Birthdays | Reno, NV Baby and Children Photographer
Posted on January 3, 2011
Babies and kids are the most challenging subjects to photograph. My style in photographing them is to get them in as natural a state as I possibly could. It is definitely a worthwhile investment to document kids’ birthdays with a special portrait shoot. These photos make great gifts to family and friends, and I am sure you will be cherishing them in years to come.
Tags: baby photographer, birthday portraits, children photographer, Families, Kids
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Looking for Senior Reps for 2011! – Reno, NV High School Senior Portrait Photographer
Posted on January 3, 2011
If you or your group of friends are interested in becoming my first-ever Amen Photography senior reps for the school year 2011-12, give me a shout-out on my Facebook page, or email me, and we’ll set you up with a discounted photo session and some other fun perks! There will only be a few spots available for senior reps, and I will post further details in the next couple of months on how to win a spot.
Tags: high school, reps, senior portrait photographer, senior representatives
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Christmas Card Portrait Sessions – Sneak Peeks | Reno, NV Family Photographer
Posted on December 31, 2010
2010 has been an amazing year for me, personally and professionally. It’s been an absolute pleasure to meet so many families this year — new babies, newly engaged, newly-weds, graduating seniors, and everyone else in between… It is such a great feeling to know that my work has given people such joy and that, somehow, I’ve played a small part in helping to document their stories. The following are just a few of the more than 45 families I’ve had the honor of capturing in the past couple of months alone, which I like to call “Christmas card months.” I look forward to 2011 and the new memories I get to help capture. Thank you to my clients, for trusting me with your stories. It’s been a privilege to serve you!!!
Tags: children, Christmas Cards, family photographer, family portraits, kids photography
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Our Candy Cane Christmas Tree Project!
Posted on December 10, 2010
Since this is predominantly a photo site, I don’t usually post my DIY projects on it… but this one is very special, so I am making an exception. My boys (4 boys and their dad) have this annual tradition of going up to the Sierra Nevada forests on Thanksgiving weekend to hunt down and cut a Christmas tree for us to decorate. Most years, they’ve come home with trees that are over twelve feet tall! This year, though, the Sierras have been pounded with snowstorm after snowstorm, and on the day the boys were supposed to go hunt for the tree, the roads were impossible to drive on.
Also, this year, the boys have an uncharacteristically longer Christmas break from school, so we decided to take the long drive up to Washington state to spend the holidays with the extended Nordhagen family.
Needless to say, my husband and I reluctantly agreed to opt out of having our own “live” tree this year… However, in our effort to find alternatives to a Christmas tree, one of my boys came up with this crazy idea of making one out of candy canes! At first, I dismissed the idea as far-fetched, crazy, impossible. But then I came across a box of candy canes at a grocery store one day and admired how beautifully they looked. Then I thought the candy cane tree wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all!!!
The engineering phase is really the most difficult part of the process. Once I’ve decided which materials to use and how to make the structure stay up and remain stable, the work of assembling the tree was actually a lot of fun. First, a little background on The Candy Cane:
Legend has it that in 1670, a choirmaster at a Cathedral in Cologne, Germany decided to give the children peppermint “sticks” to suck on so that they wouldn’t be too bored during the really long Christmas church services. Then, in 1847, a German-Swedish immigrant decided to hang them up as decorations on his Christmas tree. In the 1920s, Lt. Bob McCormack found a way to mass produce them and distribute them as Christmas treats. It wasn’t until later in the century that more Christian symbolism was attached to the candy cane.
In the modern Christian tradition, the shape of the candy cane, J, stands for Jesus Christ, while the upside down cane symbolizes a shepherd’s crook, for the shepherds who visited the baby Jesus at the manger, and for Jesus’ symbolic role as The Good Shepherd. The red stripes stand for the blood Christ shed for us on the cross, while the white stripes symbolize the purity associated with the cleansing of our sins as a result of His sacrifice.
Whichever way you interpret the meaning of the candy cane, I think it is an essential element of Christmas, and our house is not complete at Christmastime without them.
So, without further ado, here are the steps we took to make our beautiful candy cane tree. There was a lot of trial and error involved, but the final product is nothing short of magnificent, if I do say so myself
Yep, “BOB’S CANDY CANES” still exists… named after the original Lt. Bob McCormack, who came up with the idea of mass producing candy canes.
For the main structure of the tree, I got these styrofoam circles at Michaels, along with a styrofoam cone for the top. Originally, I was going to use the skewers to provide the spaces in between the circles, but that didn’t work out too well… so…
I decided to improvise and use my sons’ Lego blocks instead. I glued them to the styrofoam to keep them from moving and falling apart.
If you don’t have any Legos, you may also purchase these styrofoam blocks from Michaels and cut them to the right height.
Make sure you place the structure at the final display area so that you won’t have to move the entire tree later. Now, the fun begins! I realized too late that I shouldn’t have taken the plastic wrappers off the styrofoam circles, because I wanted to stick each unwrapped candy cane onto the circles with tape. The tape sticks better to plastic than to styrofoam. I will keep this in mind for next time!
It’s nice to have some little helpers, to take the candy canes out of the boxes and straighten out to ends of the plastic wrap for easier taping.
After each layer round is complete, make sure to double up the tape to prevent the candy canes from falling out of place.
After 36 boxes of candy canes, this is how far we got! I needed to go back to the store for more…
Finally, 44 boxes later, the tree has come to life!!!
For the ornaments, we used green pinwheel candies (peppermint-flavored, just like the candy canes!) bought at the bulk section of our local Winco Foods grocery store.
The tree top is simply a miniature candy cane tree, stuck onto the top with lots of tape! (This project could have easily been sponsored by Bob’s Candy Canes AND Scotch Tape.)
Now for the topper…
Soften 4 red Starburst candies (get it, STAR topper out of STARburst!) in the microwave for 15 seconds, then roll them flat on a non-stick surface with a non-stick rolling pin.
Use a star-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the star.
Use coconut flakes to make snow for the base of the tree… (because it’s just not Christmas without SNOW!)
Stick a toothpick into the Starburst star, stick that into another softened Starburst shaped into a cone base, then put that on top of the tree… and TA-DA… We have a Candy Cane Christmas Tree!!!
Tags: Bob's Candy Canes, candy cane Christmas Tree, candy ornaments, candy tree, Christmas Tree, coconut flakes, pinwheel candy
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5 Comments so far
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Wow Ari!!! That is amazing! Love it! xoxo
Thanks, Kate!!!
Fantastic!
[...] This candy cane tree with green peppermint ornaments is amazing! 12: Candy Cane Manger 13: Candy Cane Sleighs [...]
[...] Look at this amazing candy cane Christmas tree! I’m sure this required quite a bit of patience. Not to mention, lots and lots of candy canes. Source: Amen Photography [...]