Corey & Somer Colbert lured me out to Lake Fayetteville, which, believe it or not, I had never been to in my 8 years in Northwest Arkansas. A great place to shoot, I’m sure I’ll be back soon. Their son, Gray, was a great sport like his folks as we walked through mud, and trotted down steep hills to get to the perfect spots. As you can tell, we lost Gray’s attention towards the end, but it still made for great pics of him.

View the photos

Hal and Kimberly are great friends of ours and asked us to come out to their property in Siloam Springs to snap a few family photos. Talk about gorgeous! With about 15 minutes of daylight the kids did great and this is what we captured.

View the photos

The family is changing and taking pics once a year is now officially not enough. They’re getting so big, and while I love seeing them grow up, it makes me sad all the same. Thanks to Miguel for taking the photos of Kara and I and the family portrait. Great job as always!

See the entire shoot here

Tiff and Matt came back out to the house tonight to try and retake pics of Eli. He was a bit cranky and I was a bit unprepared. He did great tonight and we had a great time as usual. Click here to see the photos form the shoot.

Kyle and Sarah are getting married in January and they’re the type of couple that looks like they just “fit together”. After climbing a 6 ft fence in my dress clothes, stepping in a pile of horse doo-doo, and laying on the ground, this is what we got!!

Ha ha- it really was a lot of fun and well worth it! Thanks for the adventure guys!!

Sunday as i was sitting in my office, i noticed the house was quite quiet, so I grabbed my camera and headed in the direction of the kitchen to try and capture what exactly was (or wasn’t) going on. If you click the pic below you can see a few shots I took. Hope you enjoy them.

Elizabeth and I headed to The Inn at Carnall Hall and the Legacy Building in Fayetteville last Saturday.

Click here to see her photos

Victor Wooten came to town and man… this was one of the best days of my life. Aaron, Greg and I met up with Vic at channel 5 earlier in the day for Aaron to interview him and we got some personal time with him… it was unreal, and getting to hear him do Amazing Grace live, and in such a small room, with an audience of 3…. wow… incredible… a dream come true… really. The second half of pics are from the live show at George’s that night.. he tore it up and signed a poster I made of a photo I took of him earlier in the day. I’m going to frame it, and hang it in my office with a label that says 1 of 1. It’s an Armas original, no other copies, and it’s signed by the man… wow! Click the pic to see them all.

So Kara and I spent the weekend in Branson and we had a great time. We had never been to the Landing before, and to be honest we were pleasantly surprised. The Hilton was amazing … lots of textures and colors. Click her picture to see the whole shoot.

I had a great Christmas this year. In fact, I think it was the best Christmas I have had as a married adult. My kids got great gifts from “Santa” and I got a great gift from my folks: A Red Sox Team Jacket that is wicked warm and bright red that screams Sox Fan! My brother got one too, and of course my dad (he got the blue “Boston” version, so we posed for a pic.  We had a great time playing cards, scrabble, family fued, and eating like crazy. Pics to come tonight… 

This Christmas I decided to put our cameras to use. We have thousands of dollars worth of gear and we rarely use it to capture our life events. This year it is going to change. Stay tuned for pics of our entire Christmas!

For now, enjoy this card we made … if you got an actually print then you are super special because we only made about 30 of them and half of those went to family members.Merry Christmas everybody!

Click here or the pic below to see their engagement photos

Now, of course, I can’t show the pics we took today because we are pre-wedding, but I took a few shots without said bride, and I can post those so here they are!

To see their pics, just click on their pic below.

Well, this was just too good to not put in a blog. This morning I had the opportunity to speak with Greg Packer, a native to Long Island, NY. He is officially the first person in line for the iPhone. Greg lined up at 5 a.m. EST on Monday, June 25th … that’s 4 1/2 days early. There has been much ridicule, obviously because this guy is giving up over 100 hours to stand in line for something he can eventually get in a 20 minute drive to the store … none the less, it is interesting.

Believe it or not, I found a post with his phone number, and decided to call him. After 2 rings a very tired sounding Packer answered “Hello”,

“Hello, is this Greg Packer?”
“Yes is it”
“Are you freaking kidding me? This is really your number?”
“It’s really me”
“Are you still in line?”
“Still in line… yup.. still in line”
“Man your phone number is all over the internet”
“….. huh…”
“Well good luck – hang in there”
“Thank you. thank you.”
“Take care”
“Alright. Take care”

So that was interesting… and kinda cool. Now you try it!
Greg Packer 631.291.2603

But, what a cool thing to be able to witness first hand. God is awesome…

With so much attention on the southern border with Mexico and the millions of illegals (many nationalities) living among us, more public and bold statements seem to fly out of peoples mouth, citing free speech. Don’t get me wrong‚Äì I think that as Americans we are entilted to our opinions, and illegal immigration us definately a growing problem. But the part that concerns me is the generalization that all Hispanics are trash and create problems. Sure, stereotypes come from somewhere, but does a national issue such as this give every american the right to throw flaming arrows at other citizens?

It is apparent to me that the real issue is the lack of control people have over their own thoughts. It is easy to poke fun at the kid that doesn’t bathe, or that is overweight … because everyone else is doing it, just as it’s hard to stand up for him because no one else it. The sad thing is this seems to be more prevelant in the bible belt of our nation. Interesting, is it not?
Anyways … the point is this: Illegals are coming from many different nations, and immigration shouldn’t give us a reason to vent racist thoughts towards a specific group of people you don’t like. If you’re going to be a racist, then go for it, but spread the love … I dare you.

Mondays are crazy. Besides being the first day back after a lazy (or not) weekend, it is also the day that I have to coach instructional soccer to a pack of wild 6 yr olds. Since my two eldest children both play upward soccer at FBC Springdale, it is reasonable that I pick them up from school and allow them to hang out in my office during that last 1 1/2 hours of the day. This can be a chore in itself, but top it off with 4 kids running loose on the sports complex at Springdale while I coach soccer and Kara plays softball… it’s just a full day.

We ate dinner in the van, doors open, and without napkins. Of course, we’re out of groceries, so Kara decided to run on the way home and let me take the kids home… you know… so they won’t get tired… right. Well, knowing the yelling and tears that awaited me upon our arrival at home this evening, I took a welcomed and unplanned detour at exit 83. Our church, The Church at Pinnacle Hills, is a new campus, and I love it. It seems that everyone and their dog is taking pictures of the crosses these days, but I have yet to see a really good “night shot”, so I decided to take a stab at it. Hope you likes….

We’ll take your Senior Pics for free, and even throw in your wallets… and all you have to do is give those wallets out to your friends. It gets even better… if one of your friends books their Senior Pics with us, we’ll give you $50.00 … CASH MONEY.

So you interested? Yeah… thought so. But this is a limited deal, and not all that ask can be chosen, so get back in touch with me, and tell your friends about it. We’ll post the lucky “scouts” right here in a few days.

Hope to hear from you soon… Brian & Kara

Facebook gets live updates via RSS when I post a new a blog on brianarmas.com, automatically posting it as a “note” on my profile. Now, I’ve set up my blog to automatically import my photo albums from FaceBook… it’s a thing of beauty and they play very well together, and I don’t have to do much…

My guess is that the only people that will find that useful and interesting will be Clint Branham and Israel Jernigan… heh.

On the dream-come-true list today was a Nikon D200 with the 18-200mm Nikkor… it is a thing of beauty. As it happens, yesterday I picked up the new 105mm VR Micro-Nikkor lens for the church, which we will be using to shoot product and stock, among other things. My new camera, the church’s new lens, and a new SB800 AF Speedlight mounted on my new Manfrotto Joystick Head produced the following images… I’m loving it already!

I’ve been running all day today, trying to get all settled before my vacation. From fast user switching on my Mac to 90 MPH on I-40. When we walked into Kara’s grandmother’s house we went straight to the plates and were eating an early Thanksgiving meal within 5 minutes.

Dinner lasted about 50 minutes and just as it felt things might calm down I heard the unmistakable sound of child hitting concrete.

Hannah was wrestling with her cousin, Emily, when she tripped, fell, and decided to break her fall with her head on a brick step. The aforementioned brick left it’s fingerprint on my 3 year old daughter’s forehead in the form of a perfect horizontal slit.

Lots of blood, lots of heart racing, lots of waiting room music, and lots of tears ‚Ķ But it looks like she’s going to be fine. Thank God for his protection and favor. Now check out the pic

Anyways … Here are some pics I snapped during the storm, including the kids in the hallway due to the tornado warning…

Today was like any other day: deadlines, rumors, victories and complaints. But today it all took place around me. It had been some time since I had simply allowed the day to happen without me. I was distracted mostly with a single “task” that I just couldn’t shake, and so I gave it my undivided attention, forgetting everyone else and everything they had to say. During that time, I had a few companions, known to the world as “Simple Minds”. After purchasing their greatest hits album, I felt it necessary to get my money’s worth, so I pressed the magic repeat button and went on with my day.

I have now come to the conclusion that the best song I have ever heard is “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”. Why? For the very reason you are now thinking about The Breakfast Club‚Ķ It sets a string of memories in to motion. You think about Bender walking by the football field with his hand clinched in the air, after putting Claire’s earring in his own. And that thought leads to another.. and another- until you remember when you were however old you were when you first watched that film… I can almost smell the hallways of Pine Tree Junior High…

I’m not going to go into the path, emotions, beliefs, and changes which occurred in my life today, because there are some things that are just too personal to share on the web, but they happened. Who were you back then? What is the same? What do you wish was different? What do you wish had not changed? heh…

Well tonight the saga you know little about (due to me not telling you) continued. Several months ago I heard very unpleasant news that a former classmate had been murdered in cold blood outside of a Dallas night club. I was very upset to say the least, and I often wondered what this person’s last moments might have been like. Was she scared?… did she know?… did anyone ignore her pleas for help?… I am serious folks… I was upset about it…

Well, tonight I got the chance to ask her. Yeah- she’s alive. Apparently, it was a sick rumor, and I hate that I even thought about it. Needless to say (but I guess I will anyway), I was very happy to know that my friend Heather is indeed “alive and kicking” as she put it.

So to my friend, Heather… Cheers, and I’m glad you are well. I pray God’s blessings on your life, with many great years to follow.

My little girl, Hannah, is about to turn 3 years old, and my head is filled with nothing but old clich?©s. Time flies, and it seems like only yesterday that I was holding her in my arms for the very first time. Take a look at this photo kara snapped of me and my angel while celebrating early with her family‚Ķ

Hmm … funny that today this photo is being used to share a moment with friends and family, but one day will be used in a desperate attempt to relive a moment I will never get to experience again. Hug your babies … they grow up so fast.

On the way down this past weekend we stopped at what some might refer to as a “county store”. It was a log-style building that offered everything from gasoline to fishing lures, and I couldn’t help but get lost in the moment. How simple life must have been for people just 50 years ago. Stores such as this were the norm, and Wal-Marts had yet to appear, so many of the clerks were indeed the owners, and would call you by name each time you entered.

When I pulled in to the gravel parking lot, I noticed a man sitting on an old wooden church pew which was now a makeshift bench outside of the building. He was wearing denim suspenders, a tractor hat, and large frame glasses. The USA Today was open to the sports section and he didn’t even look up when I pulled my vehicle within a few feet of him. I sat in the van and just watched him for a few minutes, immediately envious of this man who didn’t seem to have a care in the world. No cell phone on his belt. No satchel near is feet. Nothing but the paper, and a pen that sat neatly tucked in to his center pocket.

I would eventually approach my new idol and introduce myself. He was more than friendly, not stopping until I finally told him I had to leave about 20 minutes later. We talked about the weather, his children, our home towns, and How much Hwy 59 had changed over the past 20 years, which now connects Longview, TX to Heavner, OK. Eventually I gathered up the courage to ask if I could photograph him. When he asked why, I explained that I found it fascinating that in a world that moves 1000 miles per hour, he seemed to be cruising comfortably at 35. His response was worth the 20 minute detour in my tight schedule:

“No- I don’t carry a cell phone. Well, I have one, but I don’t ever use it‚Ķ I guess it’s there in case I should ever need it, but I don’t. I don’t need it, truth be told. I don’t need a computer, or the internet, or any of that. Everything I need is right here, within a few minutes of my house, by way of a road no greater than 2 lanes. My closest neighbor is this store, so i come here to enjoy the breeze on this old church pew.”

But, I have to say that over the years, there is 1 thing that has really stayed the same for me… the feeling of being home. I love the smell of dinner cooking, while watching the evening news, and the racket my kids make while running around, hurting each other. I am convinced that when I grow old and gray, those are the moments that I will remember and miss the most. For some reason it’s taken me so long to realize that it’s what happens everyday…. the bumps, the bruises, the kisses, the smiles, the sounds, the smells… that I need to treasure the most.

I gotta get my camcorder… I’m missing everything!! ahhhhhh….