we’re still traveling in the middle east, so just one for now!  more to come from this incredible engagement shoot in Cairo, Egypt coming soon!  are you ready?

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walking in, right down the red carpet!

the entrance to the museum of natural history, where the whole event took place!

brooke Shaden and myself giving an interview for the huffington post

lots of interviews after the walk down the red carpet!

after the viewing of the film, Ron, Bryce, the writer of the film and the spokesperson for Canon got up on stage for a panel discussion about what it was like working on this project. they opened it up for the photographers to speak for a moment and (with a little shove from the hubs) i got up and spoke as well.

walking into the After Party in the Whale Room at the museum of natural history. this is a life size replica of a whale, and it was incredible! down below you see the centerpiece to the entire room- a lifesize tree inspired by Kelly's winning photograph, a central role to the film.

i think i was explaining to Ron how i was trying not to sob in the middle of the movie (how embarrassing would that have been!?) and he was saying how he and bryce saw tears anyway... it was an emotionally gripping film! what can i say?!

that woman could not possibly be any more wonderful or lovely. it would be impossible to be any more down-to-earth or kind. love her.

the inCREDIBLE centerpiece to the room- inspired by Kelly's photograph!

the hubs and me

First of all…. i need to say something about my nephew Chet.  i am so far out of pop culture (more on that in a sec) that i have no idea what is going on in the world of this and that.  So, of course, it was my super-hip 11 year old nephew who sent me an email about the Canon imagin8ion project, saying that he thought i should enter.  i have no idea why i did, other than it was my sweet nephew who suggested it, but i can’t believe how it has turned out.

96,362 photos.  after the red carpet we walked down a hallway with each one of them, thumbnail size, lining the walls of the hallway.  people have said that number, but walking down the aisle you saw how truly immense it is, what a sea of photographs it truly was, and then at the end of that hall was each one of the winning photographs.  looking at the thumbnail photographs of all the people who entered- it was astonishing to think someone had viewed each and every one of those, and had believed in mine and pushed it through to semi-finals, then the finals, and finally as a winning photograph.

it was totally surreal, a red carpet, media photographers everywhere, celebs…

but the movie was really the highlight to the entire night.  i can not believe how well they did… to be honest i didnt know really how it was going to turn out.  the thought of taking 8 photographs (especially with the crazy diversity of each one of them) fitting them into extremely specific categories (like relationship, character, and abstract ideas like ‘mood’),  and then using that to create a film….

talk about a difficult excercise.

but, while we were watching the movie you could actually ‘see’ our photographs in the scenes. you could see the look of recognition on the audience’s face when a scene came up that was inspired by one of the photographs.  but not only that, they actually DID use the photographs in the categories that they were submitted in. Meaning, the gate photograph really WAS the obstacle in the film.  the girl looking out the window trying to touch the spaceship really WAS the goal in the film.

my jaw hung open, i was amazed at the level of creativity and talent.

and from the moment the movie began, tears started welling up in my eyes, it was an incredibly emotionally gripping movie about two little girls who have lost their mother.  there were definitely points where i was desperately trying to hold in a sob, not wanting to be ‘that’ person.  especially not sitting in the front row!  the two little girls were amazing (i can not emphasize this enough)  AMAZING actresses, i can not believe the level of talent.  it was very relatable, and i dont believe there was a dry eye in that whole theatre. i cant believe how much emotion they could pack into such a short amount of time (run time i believe is 25 minutes).

after the film, Ron, Bryce, the writers, and a Canon representative sat on stage and talked about what it was like working on this project.  it was brought up that they only found out later that my photograph was (in actuality) a documentation of a birth instead of a death.  When they opened up the mic to the photographers, i stood up and spoke to aknowledge the fact that the fact that they interpreted it as something other than it truly was is part of the beauty of the whole project.  someone once commented to me : “I heard Ron and Bryce got your photograph wrong”  which made me cringe a thousand times over.  I intentionally left the title of the photograph vague so that if it was chosen the title wouldn’t have cornered them into using it a certain way.  imagine if the title would have been “And Then She Had A Baby”.  what wonder does that leave?  what is left for your imagination to conceive?  the entire beauty of the project is that we, as photographers, were somewhat anonymous.  Ron and Bryce got to pick photographs that they felt moved them, in whatever direction they wanted, and had the ability to let their imaginations run wild with creating a film.

the fact that they used my photograph in a different context than it originally was in real life is all the more amazing to me.  and that is what this project ‘imagination’ is really about.

and, it’s a good thing i didn’t know who was really in that crowd, and it’s a good thing that i didn’t know they were going to open the mic up to us before hand, or i would have been too nervous to say anything.  And also, shout out to Mrs. Clarson, my high school english teacher for encouraging me to do Extemporaneous Speaking in forensics.  yeah, that definitely helped (fist pump to english teachers!)

Lastly, THIS ISNT OVER YET!!!!!  i’m so happy to announce that we will be having regional premieres in both Madison Wisconsin as well as Tampa Florida!!  the Canon crew is working right this minute on securing venues and media for the premieres so everyone will be able to view this movie.

PLUS!!!!!  it’s going to premiere at sundance film festival, and is being submitted to the Academy Awards….  so we shall see where that takes us

ok, bless your little hearts for reading this entire novel (if you haven’t stopped already!)  and i promise to resume normal postings soon!  OH!!! and photos we took of NY while we were there.  i love that city.  want to move there.  trying to figure out how in the world we could possibly manage in downtown manhattan with two large active dogs and two wild boys.  dreaming of an exposed brick loft with big old iron windows and wooden floors.  dreaming…. dreaming….

I am literally on the edge of my seat- the premiere is Tuesday, and we’re leaving for NY on sunday! i cant wait to see the full film, it looks like it has turned into an incredible work by Bryce and Ron Howard.

this is all still kind of surreal… did this really happen? pinch me!