Welcome to our blog! We are missionaries to Spain who use photography to be a blessing to other missionaries and pastors. Since then, God has truly blessed our hobby and we are enjoying taking pictures even more! Feel free to comment! We love hearing about people and sharing experiences on photography, missions, and God!

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Calvin and Mindy

Last weekend we did a mini-session for Calvin and Mindy! They have been married for two years and we did an in love session for them. It was so fun! As you can see already, they're such a cute couple! I was so excited when Mindy told us that they were interested in getting a mini-session done, cause I knew they could do really cute pics :D We met downtown and found a couple new spots where we hadn't shot before! Like I always say, I just love city pictures and it is where I prefer to shoot the most! 
They look so adorable, just so sweet to each other! I love pictures like that! Thank you Calvin and Mindy! It was fun to do this session with you guys!



I love this one!








Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Don't forget about the mini-sessions!!!!

Remember, they are going to take place only during this weekend! Scroll down to see more information about it!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Esparza Family

This weekend we spent it with my family in Alabama. We love being there, we feel so much peace! We had the opportunity to shoot a family session for the Esparza family. They are a great family!! They go to our church, and since I met them I've seen God's hand work in their lives in a mighty way! I love seeing families being so close to each other, and enjoying one another! and how they love the Lord! it made me think about something we might plan for the future.... I'll let you all know once we get it all planned, but I'm super excited! The photo session was so fun! I loved seeing them pose and just have fun! These photo shoots make me get goose bumps ;) They are just so happy! I hope you all enjoy them! I can't wait to see more pictures!



Monday, September 22, 2008

Our mini-sessions are here!!!!!!

We are happy to announce the dates for our mini sessions!!!! 
September 26th-27th

We have been planning this for a while, and we decided to offer mini-sessions for two days! These mini-sessions will take place in Knoxville (downtown, my favorite spot for pictures!), and each sessions will last for 30 minutes. It will be the same as a regular session, which means that we will try different poses, backgrounds, etc, etc, but it will be more economic and for a shorter period of time! It is perfect if you just want a few pictures instead of a whole session, and of course, for the upcoming Christmas! You can order your Christmas cards with your new pictures! And the coolest thing is that it can be any kind: in love, family, children, or just regular portraits! Let us know if you are interested!!! We have a limited availability!
info@nateandaranchaphotography.com
(256) 684-1076

P.S. Ask us about our special discount for people that participated on the contest!

A winner!!!

Yesterday, after a prayer for the right person, we drew the names for the photo contest! I was so nervous! I don't know why :D And David A. Scott won! Congratulations David!!!! we can't wait to shoot your session!!!! The contest was great! Like I already said on our facebook post, thank you all so much for your comments and for being a part of this contest!!! It was very encouraging to us!!! :D

We have spent the weekend in Huntsville, AL with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We had a great time, like every time we go there! :D Nate had the opportunity to teach Sunday School for the singles/youth class in the Spanish church, and Francisco translated for him. It was great! He talked about not being ashamed of the Gospel of God, and used the story of Daniel and the pit of lions How Daniel went to the same place of worship, in his house, to pray God and thank Him, despite the law of the king, and how the king wanted to deliver him from his enemies (or "friends") Daniel didn't care if people would kill him, throw him to the pit of lions, mock him, ridiculize him... he kept praying and worshipping God, putting God first and knowing and having faith in our great God! It was a blessing to me!

On saturday, we had a family photo session! It was fun! I love taking pictures downtown, and that's what we did, we thought we would try something new for family sessions! And I loved the results! There a lot of pictures that I'll be posting later in the week. These ones I posted yesterday are just a few that I picked out! I'll tell you more about this family on their post!

Have a great day!

Arancha

Friday, September 19, 2008

Photo Contest Update

The photo contest is going great! More people are joining it! Remember that you can still participate during the weekend!
Thank you all for your comments and for participating in this!!! We'll post the name of the winner on monday!!!! I can't wait!!!! I'm already thinking about possible pictures and ideas! Our e-mail address is working again! Feel free to contact us at info@nateandaranchaphotography.com.
You all are great! :D

Arancha

P.S. Right now, the wedding gallery is being the most voted :)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Complimentary photo session contest!

Our new website is up and working! Wohoooo! We are so excited about it! We will be doing some more changes during the week (I'm a little perfectionist ;) ), but we love it! Our e-mail info@nateandaranchaphotography.com is not available yet, but you can e-mail us at nathanandarancha@spainforchrist.com.

As a kind-of-celebration thing for our new website, we are doing a photo contest on our facebook photography page! All you have to do is write on the photography page wall telling us what your favorite photo gallery is. At the end of the week, we will do a random drawing with all the names of the people that wrote on this wall, and the winner will get a complimentary photo session! We don't include weddings here ;) Feel free to tell your friends and family about it! We hope you like our new website!  

Have a great day!  

Arancha

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

No e-mail, nor website...

Sorry for the inconveniences, but our website and email are not working right now. We are in the process of upgrading, so it will be up and going either today or in the next few days. It will be worth it!!!!! 
If you need to contact us, you may e-mail us at nathanandarancha@spainforchrist.com, or call us at (256) 684-1076.

Thank you!

Arancha

Stay tuned for upcoming event!

So the poll showed that colorful and fun pictures are the most favorite! I though that urban photography was going to win! (I guess because it's my favorite...) I added a new poll gadget, so feel free to vote :)
As some of you know, I've been working on branding, so I hope it can show little by little. I've also upgraded a couple of things that you will find out soon! We are very excited about it!
This week there is going to be a photo contest going on, so stay tuned! I'll give you more details later during the week!
And I'm trying to figure out a date for mini-sessions, so if you think you would like to have a short photo session for your christmas cards, or just to redecorate your house with cool pictures, this is the perfect time! There is a limited availability!
Have a great day!

Arancha

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Our six month anniversary!


Today it has been 6 months since we got married! I know it's not like 20 years, but to us this is a super important day! :D Nate took me to Chilli's to celebrate it and after eating our meals, we got a super cake with white chocolate and extra hot fudge! mmmmmmmmmmm, I loved it! it was perfect! To remember it, we decided to take some random pictures together (with the tripod, hee hee). We took them really quick because we had to go to church and the light wasn't really great, it's getting really dark over here! So we might have to take some better ones!
We hope you all are having a great weekend!!!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Changes

We are on the process of changing our website, so if this week our e-mail or website is down, won't work or won't open, that's why ;) Sorry for the inconvenience! We hope to get it done quick! and it will be worthy! We can't wait! This weekend it will work fine though.

We have prepared a slideshow that will probably be up next week on the blog! And we are still working on our branding, part of that our blog, that's why we keep changing the background ;)

Have a great weekend!!!

Arancha

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Free to Succeed Tour

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to the Free to Succeed seminar! In the beginning it was just going to be me, but the Lord opened doors for Nate to come with me! Now I'm so glad Nate came! The seminar was amazing! David Jay has been doing this tour all over the States during August and September, and he had great things and tips to teach us! For those who don't know who he is, he is a wedding photographer. He is in the top 12 wedding photographers in the world, and I believe the top wedding portrait photographer! Everybody there were great and very real, and he shared with us many things he does, he used to do, what works, what doesn't, etc etc... which we really thank him for! So we were so excited to attend this seminar, and we got so much out of it! We learned new things about marketing, editing, webs, etc etc so many things that I could spend hours talking about it! It was also great because now we know that we are on the right track!! so that's always good to know! Although we want to do some improvements, so we'll be working on that for the next two weeks.! On the way back to the house, Nate and I were just talking about the seminar and our business, coming up with new ideas, looking for ways to apply what we learned to our business, etc etc it was just great! Something he really emphasized in this seminar was that we have to help others in order to succeed in our business. And it's true! And there is a big question we asked ourselves: is what your doing worth giving up your life for? because there are more important things in life that we don't want to miss or regret not doing. It was very encouraging to hear this! For those of you that know us, you know that we looooooove photography, we enjoy photography, and we want to keep using photography to be a blessing to many people! But our first passion and priority is God, and missions! And that's worth giving our lives for! We want to live for Him and serve Him, and we want to always keep it like this! We can't wait to go back to Spain and serve God there! For those that don't know us, I was born and raised in Madrid, so I have a big burden for my country! Nate is from Maine, but God put a burden in his heart for Spain too, which I love and am so thankful for!
We met a lot of great people, and we met more photographers from our area! We're going to be doing some activities together and get to know more photographers!
One thing I did not expect at all was to meet Sarah Barlow. A few months ago, I found her blog and I loved her pictures! I thought, that's the kind of photography I like! That's what I was looking for! It was so encouraging and so inspiring! She is my favorite :D She used to live in Chicago and she just moved to Nashville, and attended the seminar here. So who would have thought the first time I saw her blog, that I would end up meeting her ;)
Well, again, there are so many things that I could take forever to say them all, and you all know I'm not very good at writing! ;)
Thank you again for stopping by! Have a great day!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Nate and Arancha behind de camera!

This might be a little embarrassing, but since I post so many pictures of other people, I figured I should post some pictures of us taking those pictures! We usually don't have anybody else with us, but this time Hannah (Nate's twin sister) came with us and took pictures of everything. There are many more, but you might not wanna see that, lol

I definitely don't have any style at all when I take pictures. Nate took some pictures too, but we didn't get any picture of him...

Here, we're just trying to figure out how they're gonna pose. Nate is about to get ready to use the reflector :D

I was gonna clean the lens a little bit here

Hanna standing in front of us, and trying to take a picture of us 3 (she is supposed to be in the picture, you can see her forehead ;) )

My sweet wonderful husband! I love him so much! Here Hannah was supposed to be in the picture too

Nate and I looking at the historigram and the pictures to make sure they are exposed correctly

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

New gallery and another little sneak peek



I'm still editing Emily and Daniel's pictures, but I liked this one so I thought I would post it really quick ;)
On our website now you can find a new gallery with family pictures! I love this family! They did such a great job!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Back in Knoxville!

Hello!!!! We're back in Knoxville! We spent the weekend in Murfreesboro with my sisters in law!! It was a lot of fun! We did an in love session with Emily and Daniel (sister-in-law and husband). She is going to have a baby in February, she looks so cute with the belly! I love to see ladies that are expecting, I don't know why! I think it's so cute! :D We are so excited about the baby and we can't wait to see him/her!! And to take pictures of the baby! We had a great time with all of them. We hadn't seen them in a long time! We're hoping we'll be able to see them again before Christmas! We'll post a couple of images either tonight or tomorrow ;) And we'll be opening a new gallery on our website for family pictures!
Thanks for stopping by!

Arancha