Dillon's

For labor day weekend this year we all packed in the car and headed out to Dillon's beach.  It was a little chilly, but worth it.

Arianna was able to come out for the day!  Such a lovely surprise :)

Ben spent most of the morning all alone, digging a hole. Pretty cool.

Julia :)

The Aunts

We were really cold.

Kara!

Ben ruining our photoshoot.

Moving

Ben and I have moved!  We lived in Rancho Cordova for about two months with my grandfather and now we are living in Lincoln, CA.  I am so glad to be here.  Idaho was just to cold.

My Little Lawn

This is my little lawn that grows on my window sill.

Every few days I have to mow it.

Guy Laramee

Such an amazing book artist.  Someday, I'm going to try this.

Let's have a party ok?

In two weeks, Ben and I will be back in California!  I can't wait to spend the summer there :)

Ten Favorites

1. Watching The Little Mermaid on a lazy Sunday.
2. Dinner Parties
3. Julie B. Beck's fireside yesterday morning - what a great way to start the weekend :)
4. The Bright Bazaar - Such a great blog all about color, interior design, and finding the pretty things in life!  Makes me happy just reading it.
5. Making Cream Puffs - I hope they turn out good!
6. Buying books at Deseret Industries - They are so cheap, I don't feel bad if I end up not liking the book.
7. Moving to California
8. Dressing up for themed Dinner Parties
9. Apartment Therapy - Saving the world, one room at a time!
10. Watching George Lopez with my favorite boy :)

Google

Love google's logo today!  So beautiful.

Oh Pandora...

My Paula Abdul station is my favorite.

My Show!

To see the images from my show and read my artist's statement, click Here

Hey everybody!  So my Bachelor's of Fine Art Show went up last Thursday.  I have been working on it for the past six months and it is such a relief to be done.  It looks so good on the wall.  A lot of my friends and teachers were able to come and my family will be able to come in about two weeks!

I wanted to create work that was beautiful and educational.  I wanted to teach people how simple photography really is and I think I was able to accomplish that.  My favorite part of the show was when parents would come in and tell their kids "Look at these images!  They came from homemade camera's that you can make!  you don't need an expensive camera to make art.  We should try this."

Here is the set up, I have my own hallway on the second floor of the Spori building.  On the left are some camera's that people can pick up and look at.  I felt like that was necessary for people to grasp the concept.  Not shown is a video tutorial I made showing the process of making and taking images with a pinhole camera.

Here is me before the show!  I was so nervous.

Here is Ben before the show!  He was not nervous.

After the show!  Not nervous anymore!

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a wonderful thanksgiving with some friends in the ward and their family.  Here is the beautiful turkey.  It was so very delicious and not a bit dry.

Less than two weeks!

13 days until my show opens at the Spori Gallery here on campus!  I am so excited but so nervous.  Today was spent printing everything.  Tomorrow will be spent framing everything.  And then I have a photoshoot!  Very exciting.

Life here hasn't been all that interesting lately.  Ben and I spend most of our days at school and then we eat and go to sleep.  Weekends are spent cleaning and doing laundry and doing homework.  I cannot wait to get out of school, work on my State Farm license, and finally be a good wife!  I can't wait until Ben and I can both go to work all day and then come home and not worry about it until the next day.  I can't wait to have a clean house that isn't oozing with bookarts tools and dirty dishes.  I can't wait until we move into a more permanent residence so that i won't feel dumb about decorating.  Pretty much, I can't wait to move on to the next big adventure :)

Many of you might remember the little car chaos Ben and I had a few weeks ago.  The first week of school Ben's car got hit while Ben was sitting at a red light.  Dumb?  I know.  So pretty much it was totalled.  And the guy's insurance took forever to contact us and like a week to get us a rental.  So after finally getting a rental they decided to take it away.  And then it took them another month and a half to get us a check to get a new car.  So we had to walk to school.  And you know what?  It was actually not that bad.  Ben and I grew so close on our long walks home from school.  We were able to slow down and talk and it was really rather great.  We started counting our blessings:  We were both safe, we had great friends to take us shopping, we would eventually be getting a better car, we saved so much on gas, and we really started looking out for eachother a lot.  A couple weeks ago we bought a new car!  And even though I am so glad we have it now that it is snowing, I'm kinda glad we were without it for a little while.

Just so everyone is aware...

I have a new blog!  For by business class we have to show our online portfolio to some potential clients and I wasn't sure I wanted clients reading all about my personal life.  It's the perfect time to launch my new blog:

www.rachelbetts.blogspot.com

For now it's just images from my portrait class but expect great things soon...

A Preview...

Matchbox Pinhole Camera - Color Film

BFA

Bachelor of Fine Arts Project
That's what I work on all the time.  And when I'm in other classes it's what I think about.  I'm dying right now because the photo lab is closed on Sundays.  My project will be different from other people's.  The past few days I was a wreck because of how different my images are from other BFA Student's work.  I was worried that people wouldn't appreciate dark, blurry, pinhole images.  For some reason I was also very worried that President Clark would hate it...But I talked to my teacher and he said that once people see the process and time that goes into pinhole photography, they will appreciate the images.  And that's the whole point of my project anyway, to explain the process of creating an image.  It's not just about pointing and clicking a shutter, it's about light, dark, sensors, and pinholes.  I can't wait for you to see my project :)

Our Vacation:

-California
-Boogie Boarding
-Meeting Family
-Beaches
-Rodeo's
-Digging Holes
-Hugging Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents
-The Fair
-Campfires
-Barbeques
-Inception
-Kayaking
-Zoo's
-Baby Zebras
-Bathing Suits
-New Babies
-Old Babies
-Friends!
-Singing
-Playing Nertz, Ticket to Ride, Shanghai Rummy, Monopoly Deal, & Phase 10
-Finally Getting Rid of our Couch
-Sandals
-Working
-Photographing
-Thunderstorms
-Snow Cones
-Farmer's Market Salsa & Tortillas
- And we still have a couple more weeks!

California....

Can't wait for my summer to start <3

labels are very important, but for bottles of wine, not for artists - Jeanne-Claude

Today I developed my own prints in my own darkroom.  It was our family home evening activity.  While rinsing my prints and getting them ready to dry, I shed a little tear.  This has been my dream for years.  I remember peeking into my grandfather's studio when he wasn't looking and wondering why it was always so dark in there.  Later I visited his studio at the university and developed some prints of my own. How incredible!  Images appeared on blank pieces of paper.  How was it possible?  I remember my dad telling my about how he had darkroom supplies growing up.  I wanted to go search my grandma's house for them.  Then I came to school and I learned how to mix the chemicals and expose the paper.  But darkroom's around the country were becoming endangered.  Nobody wanted to use film anymore when computers and digital sensors were so much easier.  I worried that eventually I would have to leave my school and never find a darkroom ever again.  But now I don't have to worry about that.  All you need to develope prints are the right chemicals, a dark room, and a timer.  And that's what I've got. 

It's crazy how in just an hour I've gotten over the fear of the future I had before.  I used to be so scared that once I got out of school, I would be stuck doing weddings and senior portraits.  Now my art will always be with me.  I'll be able to share it with my husband and my children!  I can't wait to go home for the break so that I can develope pictures with my brothers!  While I was in my darkroom today, I imagined a day when Ben would come home from work, knock on the bathroom door, and I would be in there with all my little youngin's yelling "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!  WE'RE MAKING A PRINT!!"  There are a whole new bundle of possibilities coming my way...

A Day on the Farm...

One of my concept images for my commercial photography class is to photograph an illustration of a "Cash Cow" so today we spent the afternoon at a dairy farm!  This is my lovely model "Winter."  Images from the photoshoot will be up once they are edited!

Rexburg Sunset

Lara