Busy Busy Busy

It's been wild in the Bob Coates photography world here in Sedona, Arizona. I've been on shoots everyday and sometimes more this week. I've just been ceating images of some high end properties for members of the Sedona Real Estate Luxury Professionals. There are some gorgeous homes in this area. I'll post some of those images after I get them processed. There tends to be a lot of production when you do a lot of shooting. I'll show you some work in a couple of days. The commercial work that I do is great because it helps me to think about creating really nice backgrounds for my bride and groom when I do my wedding photography. Thanks for taking the time to check out this blog. If you know of anyone else who might be interested in this work why don't you send them an email with the address right now??

Debbie and Michael

It's a really beautiful time of year for outdoor photography here in Sedona. The leaves have changed color, temperature has dropped but is still comfortable. That makes for some pretty cool photos. These images of Debbie and Michael were for their pre-wedding and reception. They are getting a large portrait for the reception so their guests can see where they live. (They are getting married in Miami) It will make for a big change 'cause most of the reception display images in Florida are shot on the beach. They are also doing some mini photos in frames to give to their guests as keepsakes.

Family Portrait Testimonial

I did some commercial photography work for Mark and Tammie making images for their Bed and Breakfast at the Creekside Inn. We hit it off pretty well and they decided to have some family portraits created with a little nudge from me. Here's Mark to tell you more......
"We had come to the decision that now that our two boys were on there way to college it was now or never if we were to have a chance of getting the whole family together for a portrait. Once that decision was made we had to figure out who would do it. In the past we had never had time to do anything other than whip into a department store to get our holiday pictures taken. This time was different, firstly there was no department store to whip into and secondly this was a once in a life time opportunity to have an art grade portrait done. After researching the many options in Sedona we selected Bob. Not only where his qualifications way above any other in town, his style was just what we were looking for.
The extra challenge we had given him was to include our two dogs, Bandit and Opal, as we considered them “family”. Our whole experience could not have been better, what a fun session we had. Not only were the dogs a little challenging to get to pose, but our two identical twin boys decided to do some clothes swapping outside just to throw Bob off. Of course Bob, with his eye for detail, cottoned onto it pretty quickly. He took it all in his stride and everyone including Bob I suspect, had fun.
As to the result, stunning!!! Not only did we take “the family portrait” but we ordered a series of portraits of family members and family groups: kids, boys, mum and dad etc and now have them proudly displayed around our home.  We also have some of the out takes, not perhaps for display, but certainly a fond reminder of our session with Bob. Mark Charlesworth Creekside Inn Sedona, AZ"



The dogs were definately a challenge. As soon as the first flash went off it was basically over! The dogs were running around and crazy. Luckily we got a good portrait from the first exposure. Here's one from when we were still trying to get the dogs in place after the first flash.

Bride's Mom & Dad Thanks

This was from the bride's parents.... I especially like to get notes from people other than the bride and groom as it shows we've really touched their hearts-it's like a bonus!
"Dear Bob, Jim and I want you to express thanks for the wonderful photographs of Tami's wedding in Sedona. It was very dificult to choose. Your photographers and you captured so much. There was a variety of backgrounds, outside photographs have such a beautiful background. So many individual ones of the family and friends will be cherished! Bob you were pleasant to work with. Good luck in the future. We would recommend you at any time! Sincerely, Jim & Ellen Close"

Here are a few images from Tami and Christopher's wedding. It was held at the St. John Vianny Catholic Church and the reception was at the Tequa Ballroom at the Hilton in Sedona.

Sunfellow Family Portrait

Here's the image that David's family picked for the master portrait along with an email from him.... From: David Sunfellow
Date: October 16, 2006 8:55:09 PM MST
To: Bob Coates
Conversation: Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.
Subject: Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

Brother Bob,

2 AM and time for me to head for bed, but before I do I want to thank you for the outstanding prints you made for me and my family. The 20x30 print was especially fabulous. It turned out better than I expected -- so good, in fact, that I dropped everything I was doing so I could take it up to Flagstaff to show my oldest daughter, and then drop it off to be framed. I can't wait to get it up on our living room wall and expect that it will be in our family for many generations to come...
Thanks, Bob. Really nice.
Your brother,
David

Cristin & Mark's wedding album

Bob,
We love the album. The only change that we wanted to make was the large picture of Mark and Morgan on page 40-41.
Do you have a different picture with the kids or maybe we could make the picture of the 3 kids the big photo on the page and the one of Mark and Morgan smaller?

Please let me know what our options are.  We would really like to have this for Christmas.
It is wonderful, we love it!
THANK YOU!
Cristin
Here are a few album spread images from their wedding album. I love the emotion that comes through when a couple is really in love and not afraid to show it! They have chosen to get the wedding album that we produce in Italy. Every page is a spread with no break in the middle and is printed on textured linen paper. This is a stunning treatment for saving wedding memories and since it is printed on a press the book will last generations.

Wedding Testimonial from mom

Here is an email I received from a bride's mother while we were away.... "Hi Bob, I just want to say what a GREAT job you did at Holly and Stephen's wedding. You are s terrific photographer and I really appreciate the kindness and caring shown to both of them and to us as a family. It was nice to meet you and to know how much effort and time you put into their wedding. Again "thanks" for a great job and day. Sincerely, Shirley (Holly's mother)" This wedding was a blast. Holly and Stephen were great to work with. I really enjoyed the time with them and look forward to spending some more time with them in the future!

the trip part Four......

We did one shore excursion on a train. The views were a bit obscured by the clouds. The conductor was cool and I was able to collect a lot of texture images for my files. the train itself was interesting and I did a bunch of studies, one of which I will share here and then we were on our way home. I passed this area in the airport that really nice colors and was able to capture some silhouettes of fellow travelers. Tomorrow I'll show you things that came into my photography business while we were away on vacation.......

The trip part Three......

On board the ship I found some interesting images. As we were waiting for the ship to leave I was exploring the reflections on the water.... The golden stripes are actually silver poles that separate the walkway on deck. I caught them with the setting sun adding that delicious glow. When we were traveling in Alaska the fog was often present and led to this nicely layered scenic. Princess is the only cruise line that goes up to the glacier so you get to see ice formations like these. There's lots of water and rain up there.... Definitely more than we get in the desert in Arizona. They have a line they use up there if you see the sun it's considered cloud failure!

Trip part two

If you get to Seattle and like Sushi there's a bar across from the market on the waterfront that has a great happy hour prices and a wonderful bartender name of Kathy. She was a bit shy and would only let me photograph her through the beer taps.....

The trip part One......

I know I've promised before to keep up the blog but life seems to come at me fast lately. Now I really mean it. I'll be on top of this more because there is so much to share. When we last left off on the blog - Holly (my wife) and I went on a cruise to Alaska on the Princess Cruise line. We had a great time. Food was awesome. (had to walk the steps instead of taking the elevator in order to not return in the shape of a large balloon!) We went to Seattle the night before we were to embark and wandered around the market. Coming from a small place like Sedona it was pretty impressive. All the color, variety and masses of people are at once interesting and overwhelming to the senses. Here are some images from the market......... The flowers were awesome, fruit and vegetables plentiful and the bounty from the sea blew me away. I really enjoy the juxtaposition between the old buldings and the modern. When I go on holiday it really allows me to play capturing photographs with no pressure of assignment and I've found the experimentation leads to better images in the future in my paid work.