An Interview with Flower Farmer Susannah from Calhoun Flower Farms and Floriography

We have been quoted many times for saying how important photography is in a wedding, but there are some wedding details that can really make wedding photos pop. Flowers tend to be the most influential wedding décor. From centerpieces to the bridal bouquet, your florist can make or break the look of your wedding. Which is why we recommend Floriography. Not only are they a family owned business, but their flowers are grown locally, and their flower arrangements are out of this world. I interviewed Susannah Calhoun from Floriography to give you the low down on who they are, what they do and how they do it that separates them from other florists.

Floriography’s Story

Floriography started when Emily Calhoun traveled to Ecuador. She worked on a flower farm and visited several other flower farms noticing a common thread. It turns out, women and children under poor working and pay conditions are the source of our flowers. I say our flowers, because the chances are that if you have purchased flowers in the USA, they probably came from Ecuador. “About 80% of America’s flowers are grown in Ecuador” Susannah stated glumly, “we want to flip the percentage to have 80% grown in America”. Which is why Emily started a flower farm on the side of her Grandma’s house when she returned to the U.S.

Grown in New Mexico

Since then, Floriography has grown so much that they broke it up into two businesses: Floriography specializes on design and arrangements, and Calhoun Flower Farms focuses on farming and growing flowers. “New Mexico is already recognized for having a great farming community, but we just wanted to create another avenue to get recognized of this great state that we all live in. We have created the flower farming movement in New Mexico to really help the economy and grow a local community that appreciates flowers along with all of the other things that New Mexico can bring to the country.”

Providing guilt free locally grown flowers may be the largest difference between Floriography and other florists, but the blooms they offer are far more beautiful than you would expect. “We're trying to emphasize natural beauty and appreciation of our surroundings instead of making this artificial view of what we're supposed to like. For example, I have brides that will ask “Why are your tulips floppy?” A lot of people don't know that tulips are naturally floppy and gracefully going in different directions. A lot of the time you'll get flowers in the store that are actually wired to be straight.”

If you appreciate natural beauty and prefer to support the shop local movement, we recommend Floriography for your wedding flower needs. Help them flip the flower import export percentage by supporting their business. 

Check out Floriography for your wedding flower arrangements at http://www.floriographyflowers.com/

And check out their family farm, Calhoun Flower Farms, where they grow their flowers at http://www.calhounflowerfarms.com/

A Time for Slow - Personal Photo Project

I have been stumped on which direction I should take with my next personal photo project. I loved working on the Project 52. Some of my favorite portraits of Skye and Melody were created during that project. 

When I saw this print from Merely Modern the message hit a nerve. I tend to get caught up in the addictiveness of crossing things off my to-do list, even when it may come at the expense of the simple pleasures of life. I am working on finding ways to slow down in my life. Slowing my mind, slowing my schedule, and slowing my need to hurry so that I can find the simple pleasures of life. 

After thinking of this idea of slowing down, I finally figured out what my next personal photo project should be. I am going to apply a process of slowness to my photographic eye by working with film. Because of the immediateness of digital photography it can be easy to fall into a routine of rush or hurry through the creative process of composing the frame. I am hoping working with film will encourage me to slow down and listen closer to emotions as I work towards creating thoughtful images. It has been awhile since I last worked with film in art school but I am excited to stretch outside of my routine and comfort zone.

I am going to be using a Holga camera and the old Canon A-1 my dad gave me. I am looking forward to sharing my scans with you. I hope you will take a moment to think about ways you may be able to slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. I would love to hear what you come up with, please tell me about it in the comments!

*I am happy to be a brand ambassador for the lovely home decor shop Merely Modern.* :)

Our Family's Tradition of Framed Photographs

Do you remember these, those little foldable picture frames that can fit in your pocket? My Mom has one carrying photos of her parents. These are the only photos I have seen of them so young. And I only know about these photos because they are framed printed photographs on display in my parents’ home on a book shelf. Every time I visit my parents, I see these images of my grandparents. I didn’t ever meet them when they looked like that. My earliest memories of my grandma, mostly consist of her struggling with Alzheimer’s. She would yell out of the blue, she was scary for a six year old. My grandpa wasn’t much better. When we would visit them, he would wander around the house clearing his throat everywhere he went. I still can hear the sound of him mustering up a great ball of snot out of his throat with a deep grunt followed by a firm spitting sound. I just thought he walked around spitting everywhere, but I don’t remember ever finding any evidence of that, not that I looked for it.

Now that I am older, many blind spots I had as a kid let up. My grandpa must have loved my grandma so much, as he took care of her himself at home rather than putting her in an assisted living home like so many people do. He took care of her for years. She scared me. But I can’t imagine how painful it was for him, to witness the love of his life lose memory of who he was, and what he was doing for her. His sacrifice isn’t shown in these little pictures my mom is holding, but you can see it in her eyes.

I have thought a lot about this printing fad my parents were a part of. Now we just post photos online, in Facebook or Instagram, and store them on our phones. It is cheap and convenient even for my parents. But my parents still have printed photographs throughout their home. And what if they didn’t? This photograph is the only digital copy I have of these pictures of my grandparents. If these pictures were never printed and framed, I wouldn’t be reminded of them every time I visit my parents, or even know what my grandparents looked like at that age. In this simple way of making a photograph a keepsake, my parents keep our dead alive. Now what once was a fad due to limited technology, is now a Taylor family tradition. My kids won’t realize until they are much older, how much we decorate our home with our favorite family photographs.

Keeping the visual memory of our families alive through framed photographic prints seams dated to the generation I find myself in. Is it really that rare to have framed photographs of our parents? Elise and I have decided to make a short film highlighting this dying tradition. If you have a framed picture of your parents or grandparents, we would like to record you holding it. The older the better. On April 30, please join us at the handball courts by the tennis courts at Lion’s Park (701 W Picacho Ave). Dress nicely, but wear whatever you are comfortable with, and bring a framed photograph of your parents or grandparents with you. The first twenty volunteers to RSVP (in Facebook) and come to the video shoot will receive a $50 print credit from Taylor’d Photography (see more info in facebook announcement). I know I am not the only person out there that has a portrait of my young parents from the sixties. Bring yours and let’s record a little bit of history together. 

Celebrating Love Since 2009

Some people really hate Valentine’s Day. For me it holds a tender place in my thoughts. Valentine’s Day was the first “legit” date I had with Nate. We can just say his Chicken Alfredo won me over. But that’s not the only reason I don’t cringe when this holiday rolls around. On February 14th in 2009 I photographed my very first wedding. 

I was reflecting back on that time in our lives recently. So much has changed, we have grown so much and in so many ways. I was still in school and had very recently changed my degree from Journalism to Art so I could have the opportunity to take more photography classes. I really had no interest in wedding photography but was willing to give it a try once.

Since that eventful day six years ago I have fallen in love with creating portraits, especially weddings. I have also fallen in love with two munchkins. I guess it is not surprising that my two daughters changed the way I look at life, and love for that matter. Photography isn’t simply about selfishly creating beautiful scenes. It is a tool in our battle, and eventual failure, of remembering. I am deeply humbled to help families and lovers remember moments that would otherwise fade to gray. 

So cheers, to all of my clients, past and present. Thank you so much for choosing me to photograph your grandest and simplest moments. The future is full of adventure and I eagerly welcome continual growth and change. 

Here is a behind the scenes video Nate put together to celebrate the sixth anniversary of our business. :)

Why Print Photos?

Sometimes…I worry that most people think we are just trying to sell them something when we talk about why it is so important to print photographs, rather than just store them digitally. The crazy looks some people give us is what gives it away. When you hear things from people like Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist of Google, say things like he fears our century will be a “digital dark age” in history for our descendants, it grabs my attention.

 “We have various formats for digital photographs and movies and those formats need software to correctly render those objects. Sometimes the standards we use to produce those objects fade away and are replaced by other alternatives and then software that is supposed to render images can’t render older formats, so the images are no longer visible.

This is starting to happen to people who are saving a lot of their digital photographs because they are just files of bits. The file system doesn’t know how to interpret them, you need software to do that. Now you’ve lost the photograph in effect.

If there are pictures that you really really care about then creating a physical instance is probably a good idea. Print them out, literally.”

So you might say I buy into Vint Cerf’s concept of “Digital Vellum”, but every DIY archivist out there can admit, that despite limiting the probability of data loss, the larger problem for our generation now is curating the massive amounts of digital garbage we are storing thinking it may be valuable to someone (or ourselves at least) in the future. “Individuals rarely view their own stuff as requiring curation: curation is for objects in museums.” Wrote Catherine C. Marshall, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Corporation, in her article titled “Rethinking Personal Digital Archiving”. “Most people prefer to treat their personal artifacts casually; they are aware that some of the things they save will be valuable to them or their families in the future, but they don't have the time or the patience to invest the upstream effort, nor do they have the prescience to know which things they will eventually care about”.

So that wedding album your photographer won't shut up about, is not just a physical photo archive with a long shelf life, it is a full curating service for one of life's most important milestones. All of us have tons of digital photographs and we are backing them up so someday we can hand our kids a monster capacity of the future usb or external hard drive of some sort. So is a photo album really a family’s first heirloom? As cool as it sounds to be handed a hard drive with all of your parent’s photos for the past however many decades, ponder this: If you aren’t willing to curate the photographs of your own fond memories, will your children?