Pumpkin Farm with Kate

I was just thinking the other day, I dont really do much personal work. I have my reasons. For one, I dont get much pleasure photographing things or landscapes or sunsets even. I only love to shoot people. I try my best to not break out the big gun while on vacation and such because the vacation turns into a full on photo shoot. Its hard for me to take it easy. So I guess that the closest thing to my personal work would be my new family. This is my niece, Kate. Cute as a button, but growing so fast that I feel compelled to capture each little stage of her existence. When my wife and I were dating she insisted that she be my girlfriend too. We even took her on her own dates away from her siblings. She was a bit confused, however, when we got married and she couldnt get married too. I had to convince her that having me as an uncle instead of a boyfriend was a way better deal. Some of the shots of my wife Anna and I were taken by little 6 year old Kate. She loves using my camera even though she can barely hold it. The lens we were using is my fixed 35mm. Its taken me awhile to get the hang of it, but it is quickly becoming on of my favorite lenses.

Meet David

Meet David. He is perhaps the coolest 9 year old I know. He is my nephew as of 7 months ago. Recently he told his grandma, {I want to be a photographer when I grow up, but my parents wont buy me a camera.} Kids say the darn-dest things when they want stuff! (Ahh, I miss the days of easy-to-manipulate grandparents.) So she gave him her old Polaroid camera; complete with a couple of rolls of old film.

Sunday afternoon while we were hanging out with the family I told him we needed to go on a photography adventure. We walked down the street looking for good light and sweet spots. I would point out where the light filtered through the trees nicely and suggest shooting there to start. Then I would ask him where he wanted to shoot. Here is the first shot he snapped of me. I love it! I am so going to make him my photo-assistant slave someday!

That camera hanging around my neck was passed on to me by Annas grandmother who just left this world. I am excited to buy some old film and start shooting with it in honor of lovely Genevieve!

Happy Mother's Day!

Here is a friendly reminder that I found on a gate at The Dana Power's House a couple of weeks ago whilst shooting a wedding. I really should call my mother more. I can't imagine having a kid that lives 30 minutes away and rarely seeing him. Thinking about this whole 'Mother's Day business' I realized that everyday is 'Kid's Day' and we only celebrate mothers once a year. Up until our 18th birthday we get 6,552 days devoted to us as kids and moms get a measly 18 during our childhood lives. Kinda jacked if you ask me! Unconditional motherly love is really something priceless that we will never be able to justly repay. So this goes out to my most amazing and selfless mother as well as mothers everywhere who are undervalued and underappreciated, THANK YOU!

Today we are taking my mother to the Elfin Forest for a picnic overlooking gorgeousness. Picnics are one of her favorite things! I will try my best to be extra special nice to my mother today...considering it's her day and all.

Ethan Chase; Nephew #4

Since I'm on the topic... Allow me to introduce you to my newest family member; Ethan Chase Kriwinski. He is a soon-to-be. It looks like he will be making his big debut within the next few weeks. Joel and Morgan are my new brother and sister! I am so excited to be adopted into my wife's family because all of a sudden my family just quadrupled!

Getting married has changed my life in so many ways... including my business life! I am a completely new man. Anna has come in and organized my office, my books, my business. It has been such a relief to share my passion and work with my best friend. Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects is Anna's desire to begin using the camera. She actually shot this pregnancy session! I just went along to back her up and help her out. Only 2 of these photos are from me. The rest are 100% Anna Ingalls! Five bucks to the person who can tell me which 2 are mine.

Can I just show and tell for a minute? Thanks.

Two years ago when Anna and I were pretending to the world that we were 'just friends' my friend Kenny Morgan gave me an encouraging word over some coffee about my wife-to-be. After I denied any 'serious' interest in my best friend Kenny asked me some pretty direct questions like... 'What is it that you want in a wife?' While the list included many qualities that Anna possessed one of the biggies was something that Anna claimed to not possess; creativity. Kenny boldly shared what he was seeing.

He told me, 'Cameron, Anna is fertile soil. Whatever you sow, you will reap a hundred fold. You want a creative wife? You sow creativity.'

Then he dropped the bomb.

'Anna is a woman who you probably underestimate now, but one day... say when you are like 35, you are going to realize all that she is made up of and all that she is capable of. And on that day you will find yourself desperately aware that you are not worthy!'

Wow! Chills ran up my neck and I had that feeling that Kenny's words were not his own.

Well, today is our 2-month Anna-versary and I am already seeing such a multiplication of the few seeds of creativity that I have sown in my lovely wife. It is becoming quickly evident that she has more creativity than she ever dreamed. She is a quick learner. She shoots engagement sessions with me and has been practicing on our nephews.

It’s funny because back when we were just friends she would sit by me at my computer and ask all kinds of questions about how I shot pictures and how I processed those pictures in Photoshop. She always asked the best questions and I thought it was because I was immensely interesting. One day I asked her why she always asked so many questions, she told me calmly… ‘It’s because I’m going to steal your business.’ And that she has...along with my heart. ;)






We are thrilled to meet Ethan in person! Come out... Come out... Come out!!!

Uncle Sauce

I love being an uncle! Getting married has initiated my adoption into uncle-dome. I have a niece, 3 nephews and a 4th on the way. We had such an awesome spring day Sunday afternoon with the Delmore tribe over at our house. Katie squeezed about a hundred lemons to make lemonade from our trees in the front yard. Wyatt did a lot of smiling and drooling while the two other boys were running wild shooting bee-bee guns in the backyard and hitching scooter rides with their dad and me.

Oh yeah, they call me ‘Uncle Sauce’. It started with my random nickname ‘Camsauce’ which they used to call me in the pre-marriage stage. The oldest kid, David, couldn’t wait to call me Uncle and often got scolded by his mother because he started with the ‘Uncle-Sauce-business’ while Anna and I were still just dating. Now they can call me Uncle-whatever-they-want-to and I love it!

Wyatt is un-officially sponsored by Toothless Heros.


Here is the Delmore tribe (minus Wyatt) in all their glory just 2 months ago at my wedding.

Film is Not Dead

The one and only, awe-inspiring Jose Villa just posted these sweet shots from our wedding on his blog. He originally came out to shoot Super 8 video but couldn't leave the medium format camera at home. We ended up with some bonus images that are breathtaking and as 'fine art' as 'fine art' gets. It's a little weird seeing my wife and I looking all elegant and very 'Jose Villa'.

Jose is an incredible photographer and an amazing new friend. Even after the wedding industry turned to digital Jose has held on to his love and passion for the look and feel of film. Almost unexpectedly this has created a niche for Jose as a 100% film shooter in an otherwise digital industry. There have been countless articles published about Jose's work and he is beginning to speak across the country about the continued relevance of film.

We are both thrilled and honored to have Jose in our lives as an inspiration and a friend.

Mr. & Mrs. Ingalls.

Hi Everyone! This is Jeff and I am officially hijacking Camerons' blog. This saturday, I had the enormous honor of attending one of the coolest weddings in the history of the world. There simply couldn't have been a more perfect day for two of the most awesome people I know. BTW... Anna looked AMAZING! Just hit play for 100% pure awesome. I'm going to write and show a little more on my blog. Leave Cameron and Anna some love, they deserve it all!

What a freaking honor it was for me to shoot this!!!



Love, Jeff

I'm Getting Married!!!

In just a few hours I am getting married! I'm really really really really excited! So pleased to start spending the rest of my life getting to know my best friend. Everything has come together amazingly...miraculously really. So many people have pulled together to make my wedding possible. We are getting married in the most beautiful field out in the middle of nowhere. The owners call it God's Country and it truly is. This is the field where we will be wed this afternoon. Jeff Newsom will be posting some shots of the big event within the next couple of days. I will be out of the country enjoying my HONEYMOON for the next 2 weeks. If you are interested in booking me... please be patient. Email me and I will followup when I return from Canada.



Here's a little clip from the bachelor party. Simon Jones jumped through the flaming Christmas tree. It was a big hit!

Operation Demolition.

The sugar overdose is sure to set in... I don't imagine these kids quietly reading a book or minding their manners for at least 3 days. I'm glad they are my new family and it's nice that at the end of the Christmas adventure I was able to go home to my lonely house. It's a weird thing that getting married means I automatically am adopting 3 nephews, a niece, and whatever other children Anna's siblings can bring into this world. I really love these kids and enjoy being called 'Uncle Sauce' (a dirivitave a my nickname 'Cam-sauce').

I admit there is some serious emotional adjusting going on for me; aquiring all of this excess family. I come from a pretty simple 2 children home with only a couple cousins that I barely know and lots of passed away members. It has been a dream of mine from childhood to have large family Christmas' again with kids all over the place, presents under the tree, wine flowing like milk and enough food to feed an elfin army. Anna's family has made me feel more than welcome and has been patient enough to allow me to adjust in my time. I am excited to adopt and be adopted into this loving family. Christmas was really good for me to just saturate in their presence. My mom and dad even came over for Christmas breakfast and we had a great time introducing them to each other.

Here is a fun video of the gingerbread house's demolition. This is one of those silly traditions that they do every year, which I kinda made fun of them for at first. However, after seeing just how it brings everyone together in the creativity/destruction, I really have begun to understand and appreciate it. It is so much better than just plugging into television and sacrificing intimacy during one of the greatest divine celebrations of our year.

Thanks to the Kriwinskis and Delmores for loving me into the family and reminding me all that CHRISTmas is about. I feel closer to Christ's love because of you guys.

I wish I were 2 inches tall.

This is the amazing gingerbread house that my Fiance's cousin and mother made this year. Anna's brother Joel even got into it and did a bit of structural engineering work on the layout. It's a yearly tradition and a pretty cool one at that. Just wanted to share a little Christmas Eve love with you all!

Under Construction!

I feel like my life has been turned upside down, shaken together and poured out all over the table and now I'm trying to reassemble the peices into a new almost married orderly fashion. So I might be a little melodramatic, but getting engaged really has ruined my life!... and I know it is all for the better. Since coming home from New York a month ago we have hit the ground running with wedding planning. Within the first week we booked our venue and the rest of our vendors. We even began looking for houses to move me and my business into until Anna joins me after the wedding. The first place we found we fell in love with! A 100 year-old house downtown San Luis Obispo complete with hardwood floors, broken fireplace, dining room, 3 bedrooms, rickety garage, front porch, and a couple of lemon trees barely making it in a suffering brown front lawn. It was really hard to walk through it and not plan out where my office would be and how we could fix up the guest room AND it has a garage for our scooters too!!! Well, we applied for it with one other couple before us on the list and prayed as many times as we either thought or talked about it, which was a lot! We didn't even want to look at anything else.


About a week later we got the call, 'Do you want to live on Toro street?!' We just couldn't believe it! Everything seemed to be falling perfectly into place. God was really blessing us with instant provision. Just 2 weeks after getting engaged we got this house that would be perfect for both of our businesses and our brand-new-ly-wedded-selves. We signed the lease just a couple days before going on a week's thanksgiving trip to my friend's house in Bend, Oregon. We were welcomed across the border by a Oregonian posing as a hot-air-sumo-wrestler. We thought it weird but people just do things differently in Oregon. It was an awesome week spent with family and friends at my friend Jesse's house. I was awoke every morning to the sound of munchkins screaming and playing or calling my name, 'Tio Cameron!' I love being an uncle, even if I am just a funkle (fake+uncle=uncle). Here are some pictures and videos from my time in Oregon. The breaker is my bro-in-law, Toby. He and my sister are amazingly good at break dancing....for white people. ;) And a little love from my good friend from high school, Andy Weber. This is his 'sexy dance'.






Since coming home from Bend I have been moving my belongings and office and cleaning up the old Cameron Ingalls headquarters and trying my best to make this 100 year-old house into a home. I actually hate moving. Reason being that for the month or so it takes to move I suffer from Displacement-Syndrome. What is Displacement-Syndrome, or DS, as we call it? It is when I pack up everything that makes my current dwelling a 'home' into boxes and drive these possesions across town. Then I fill this new house with all my stuff and it doesn't really feel like home until everything is set up and has its place. After a couple weeks of stumbling around looking for things I finally develop systems and habits that make the house into a home and by then the DS usually subsides.



Anna has been amazing help as always and is even particular about what 'stuff' I bring into 'our new home.' It has really been an adjustment of perspective. Kinda hard and awkward at times but it is also very good. It is comforting and exciting to know that I will never have to move into another 'new home' alone; that Anna is more my home than any house or condo. I have a lot of learning to do with all of this engagement/marriage stuff. At times I feel like I don't know who I am anymore, being so newly and emphatically engaged, but I think that it is a really important step for me and for us.

I really want to post some pictures of my vacation in Bend and also the progress of the new home, but Blogger is being difficult and I think a bit grumpy since it's cleary past bed-time. Maybe tomorrow I will add the necessary illustrations. Oh, yeah! And I believe my website is temporarily floating lost in cyber-space while my web-master works out some changes before finishing the new site. Did I say NEW WEBSITE?! Stay tuned.

NYC Adventure Highlights

We had such an amazing time exploring and adventuring throughout the great city of NY! I brought my small digital camera to capture a lot of the random moments that I couldn't get with my biggie camera. This was the best work-cation I have taken in ages. It probably helped that I went out and got myself engaged.



On Saturday morning (the day after Scott & Esther's wedding) we all woke up at 5am to watch the sunrise at Battery Park, which was primo proposal location! Here are some videos and shots leading up to the magical moment. I really want to share my excitement about being engaged. I've been hanging out with pre-married couples and married couples for years now and I am just thrilled to be engaged myself. It's not because being engaged is trendy or cool. It's just that I am so excited to start spending the rest of my life with my best friend, Anna.





I really do feel different since I got engaged. My friends have been saying that my countenance has changed. I do feel really blessed and happy during this season because I am allowing myself to let go and begin to more fully give my heart away. This is a fun video. After we got engaged the first thing we did was huddle into a Starbucks to get a cup of tea. I don't know if it was that empty Starbucks, Frank Sinatra, NYC, or my ever-so-recent engagement, perhaps it was the combination, but here we are dancing our first dance as a newly-engaged couple!



And then a sobering walk around Ground Zero. I am amazed the potential humanity has for destruction, yet inspired by their ability to rebuild and choose to hope in the future. It looked like a remnant of an ant hill that some 8 year old smashed with his shoe. We stood at the glass watching the people like ants slowly continue to move the debris to prepare for the re-building.



We got a late afternoon nap and headed back out to the city for a little Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center. Truly an amazingly romantic way to tie up our very special day. I know that I'm making a big deal out of this whole 'engagement thing' but really guys for me THIS IS A BIG DEAL!






New York Ninja was perhaps the coolest restaurant experience I have ever had! was incredible! Upon entering the unassuming restaurant we were immediately ushered into another world; the world of Ninjas! The cave walls were dimly lit with candle light. The hostess called an elevator that took us down a level and opened to reveal a pitch black room. The four of us stared into the darkness awaiting some direction. Suddenly a real-live-Ninja jumped out of nowhere in full Ninja stance and shouted, 'HUH!' We all screamed, and yes, I screamed like a girl. He took our coats and led us up a black corridor and scampered off disappearing into the thin hallway of darkness. Just as I started to get a bit nervous as to where our Ninja guide had run off to he dropped from the ceiling and 'HUH!!!' again provoking more girl-ish screaming. I decided then it wasn't necessary for me to follow directly behind the crafty little Ninja so I pushed Simon to the front and took to protecting our women from the rear.

We were seated in our very own Chinese hut that was nestled in a city of Ninja huts each filled with a dining table and private group of people enjoying their very own Ninja experience. Our Ninja waiter presented our menu on roll out scrolls. There were a few different 5 course meal options complete with Ninja art dishes.

A cooking-Ninja came to make soup right in front of us by dicing the ingredients and boiling the soup by dropping a fire-hot rock into the bamboo pot.


My Ninja art dish came with a samurai sword stabbing a smoking orange. It was WICKED-AWESOME! Anna asked if we could keep the swords. ;) They said 'no' so I took pictures. What would I do without a camera?!




The conch bomb-shell was by far the coolest dish on the menu! Our Ninja cook appeared out of the darkness and without a word (of English) dropped off this plate holding a clam sattay filled conch shell on a bed of sea-salt complete with a fuse which he promptly lit and began counting down (again, not in English). The flame raced across the fuse and blew up the when it reached the conch shell causing more girl-ish screams and then delighted applause. Our cook wrapped the burning fuse around the shell to heat it's contents.



The New York Ninja was such an amazing experience! Everyone needs to check it out. By the end of the evening I began to even adopt the characteristics of a Ninja. I even tried to pull some Ninja surprises on our waiter myself, but failed. I have a lot to learn about being a Ninja! I will practice and return one day to pursue my destiny.



Bowl More was an awesome celebrity acclaimed 2 story neon bowling alley and martini bar. We played about 4 games and by the third game I scored 4 strikes in a row! I don't know what it was... Perhaps the Ninja food began to kick in. Simon got a little carried away on the subway on our way home. We all had a lot of fun exploring New York's many creative and beautiful spots. I recommend everyone go there for a week's vacation. Bring comfortable walking shoes and be prepared to have the best food America has to offer.




And finally we ended our trip with a stroll through central park. After being in the hustle and bustle of the big city all weekend it was so refreshing to be surrounding by green grass, orange colored leaves, and the occasional squirrel running about his business. Fresh air can make you silly.

The Woman of my Dreams!

"An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the das of her life... Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the years to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her house hold and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 'Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.' Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates." ~Proverbs 31


Since childhood I have dreamt of marrying and starting a family. I was the kid who was sure that I would get married by the age 18. Many ex-girlfriends later and a broken and then re-broken heart, I decided I would be happier single. That was a couple years ago and about the same time that I began to hang out with Anna. At first I wasn't interested, just kinda fell into a casual friendship. We began hanging out and then hanging out more. Anna's the kind of woman who makes you feel like you are really something special and that you must do something really important. I found myself calling her or hanging out with her every day. We would go on bike rides down town, watch movies, hang out with friends and laugh all the time. I quickly realized that I had found a friend who was more random and crazy than I! Our friendship grew with the passing months slowly but surely. I was really 'girlfriend shy' and terrified of entering into another relationship. 6 months into our friendship and everyone was asking, 'So are you guys dating or what?!' I was able to stuff it for another 6 until I couldn't resist our developing friendship any longer. I asked Anna to begin dating me just before Christmas last year. I was still half-way terrified that dating would ruin our otherwise amazing friendship. Well, it hasn't been the case! Our friendship has just grown as it has been seasoned with deeper love and compassion for one another.

Which brings me to this weekend in New York City! We flew out to shoot my web-designer's wedding on Friday. Anna and Brooke came out as well to play in the city. I did my best to be secretive and didn't even tell Simon I was planning on proposing until Friday's wedding was coming to a close. The next morning we all woke up at the crack of dawn for a morning trip to Battery Park to watch the sunrise and get engaged! Anna pretended her best to not know what was going on. We sat down on a bench and I told her my heart for her and told her that she is the woman of my dreams. Anna is my best friend in the whole world and a true Proverbs 31 woman. I gave her a New York City scarf and wrapped inside was a little red box with a cream colored ribbon. She opened the box and I asked her to marry me! She said something like, 'Ahhhh..... You're asking me to marry you?!' And then she handed the box back to me and told me that I'm supposed to get down on one knee. Oops! I was so worked up... I kinda forgot about the rules! We have been having an amazing time being engaged and hanging out in the city since Saturday. We are flying home tomorrow and looking forward to seeing family and friends. Everybody is excited and some people are surprised, but mostly everybody agrees that it is just the right time and that we are right for each other.









I am so much looking forward to discovering and knowing Anna more over the coming years. We have some awesome adventures ahead that we don't even know about yet. I am excited to start a family, continue our friendship, and learn more deeply the way of love.

War Hurts... It's a long story.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..................................."

That's the sound of the relief that I feel after a mini vacation visiting my family and friends in Oregon. I had the weekend off for the first time since late May so I booked some plane tickets for my girlfriend and I. It has been so refreshing to breathe mountain air, to see the people I love and to have some time away.

My sister actually married a good friend of mine from high school, Toby Johnson, and currently live next door to another couple who are good friends since my teens. Funny story about Toby; he was the subject of my very first B&W portrait assignment at Cuesta Community College. He was going through a real Goth stage and I photographed him in a beach town graveyard that I lived nearby. The photos were disturbing and at the same time provoking validating my love for photographing people in their raw element. I was nervous to show my teacher the images thinking he wouldn't approve of my subject matter. Instead, he totally encouraged me saying that I had good composition, depth of field... All of these words that I didn't understand the meaning to at the time. Here are a couple of shots that I made Toby dig up from the archives.


Well, here I am in Oregon almost 9 years later photographing Toby again (with my sister) for a War Hurts catalogue shoot. Both Toby and Jessica are these amazing break dancers so we got some shots of Jessica breaking at this school yard in Bend, Oregon.



My friend Jesse Roberts is launching this clothing line to help support an orphanage in Nicaragua that he has built and is launching this summer. Except it's not really an orphanage, more like a family home that takes in orphans and street kids addicted to glue. I actually went down to Nicaragua a couple of years ago to scope out the land that Jesse purchased to build this family home. Jesse just got back from a month of filming a documentary about the impoverished and abused children that are the repercussion of a civil war almost 25 years ago. Jesse's wife Maria actually escaped by helicopter to America when she was 12 because her family was being hunted by the Sandinistas; a left-wing Nicaraguan political party. Since marrying Maria and learning a bit of Nicaragua's history, Jesse's heart for missions and social justice turned into a heart for creating this family home. It is amazing to be this close to a dream and see it unfold from a visionary stages to a plot of land and into an actually building soon to house about a dozen orphan girls. Jesse has gone to great lengths to developing this dream and even created a non-profit called Rise Up to be the umbrella company of all of his great missions endeavors. Please check out his website and if you have the heart for it, get involved. Affect your world.





Jesse and his familia.

The Rule of 3rds and a Little Backlighting…

So, I did a shoot for my girlfriend’s family last week and it went really well. I don’t do a lot of family shoots because I am so busy working on weddings during the week. After hanging out with Anna’s family I was reminded just how important pictures are for a few reasons. This past week it was Oma’s birthday. The whole family came in….all 18 of them! It’s not often that the whole family gets together and so Anna’s mother felt it important to seize the moment by getting a few group photos. After we got back to the house I put some of the images on my laptop and ran a slideshow. Opa started to cry a bit and said to his granddaughter as he gave her a warm embrace, “The only thing I ever wanted was to make lots of them and I’ve done it!” It’s hard to understand Opa because he has Alzheimers disease but I think he meant that all he ever wanted was to have a large family, to leave a legacy of sorts. For Opa seeing everyone together in a photograph was like viewing an accomplishment that he spent his life achieving. It has been a life well lived.


Another reason I was reminded why photographs are so amazing was Joel & Morgan; Anna’s brother and sister-in-law. After I met them last summer I got the all too familiar comment, “We wish we knew you when we were getting married!” They never had really good pictures taken of them and unfortunately they now regret not hiring a professional to shoot their wedding. After I did the group family pictures I offered them a little after-marriage engagement session. They were blown away! Morgan couldn’t stop saying “Thanks so much, you don’t know how much this means to us!” It was such a pleasure taking a few minutes to capture their still new marriage just before they venture into making babies.


Of course my girlfriend, Anna, wanted a few shots taken of us. The problem is whenever I hand my camera to random friends or clients the shots are always out of focus or bad compositions. Since I felt like I could trust Joel to follow instruction, I gave him a brief photo lesson. I quickly explained to him the law of thirds and back lighting. I showed him the pictures I had just taken of him and Morgan, leaned him against a tree and showed him exactly where to point the big 70-200 lens. The shots came out amazing! I was proud that Joel pulled off the Cameron Ingalls look even with me in front of the lens.


People and time with people are all any of us really have. Everything else is Styrofoam . We really need to value every moment together. Taking pictures is like freezing time and the people we love. I am so honored and blessed to have such a rewarding passion and career. I can’t wait to look back on the legacy I have left one day. Not just having a van-load of kids, but the homes and hallways around America filled with images of loved ones and memories that I had the privilege of preserving.