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On a more personal note…

Posted on March 29, 2009

I usually blog about our family adventures and life in general over at my OTHER BLOG, but I thought I would include a little snapshot here as well. 

Spring in Phoenix is really near perfect. And our family has been diligently taking advantage of it since we KNOW what is to come in less than a month (heat, heat, and more extreme heat). 

We learned many valuable lessons while living in Europe from 2005-2007, one of which was to really get out and experience your city, state, country (and in Europe’s case, the countries around you!). And we did that there. And we are trying to do that here in Arizona as well. 

A few of our recent outings have led us north of Carefree, AZ, north of Payson, AZ, and northeast of Apache Junction, AZ. All of them are easy day trips and we love, love, love driving somewhere new and just playing in this new (to us) and fascinating environment (everything from desert to tall pines and snow in March!). 

Here are some snapshots of our family hard at play.

 

 

I won! I won!!!!

Posted on March 27, 2009

Ok, not yet… but two of my wedding photos have been selected as finalists in a national wedding photo contest! Apparently over 3000 submissions came in and two out of the three of mine were selected as finalists…. in my book, that is already a major WIN! I am honored!

Please go to the WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTORY and vote for your favorite wedding photos…. I sure hope you will vote for mine, but as you will see, there are some AMAZING shots being featured!  If you have the time and opinion, there is a place to critique the photos… I would love to hear what you have to say. Here are the two finalists of the three I submitted:

from Greg and Susan’s wedding:

from Joe and Anne’s wedding:

Just a few more…

Posted on March 25, 2009

These are from a little spot we found a little over and hour’s drive from our house and basically in the middle of nowhere! It was such a fun find! We plan to have many a weekend trip out this way in the near future! 

This is our little oasis: Seven Springs Rec Area

And the following shots just make me smile so much…. I love the vibrant colors, especially the “new growth” green!

 

Non-Human Inspiration

Posted on March 24, 2009

Sometimes, as a people photographer, I find myself getting “stuck.” The more photographers I talk to, the more I realize I am not alone in this. Same kinds of sessions, same locations, same shots…. No matter how “good” the photographs are, I still find myself in need of new and fresh inspiration. You would think that grabbing a friend and going out and shooting somewhere new would be a great way to gain that inspiration. But for me, I have to look somewhere other than people. Landscapes, nature, architecture, abstract, patterns, textures, colors….. all provide me with immeasurable amounts of fresh inspiration. I have found myself anxiously looking for spare moments to hop in the car and drive to a new park, preserve or recreation area to look for my inspiration. And boy have I found it. God’s world is a spectacular work of art. And I revel in it when its just me, God, His artwork and my camera (and even a baby on my back and a kid hanging onto my leg). Learning and practicing new techniques (technical stuff with my camera and lenses) I have long been avoiding are now exciting and challenging to me. I want to get out there and try this function, that set up, this technique and then I can’t wait to get home and upload my cards and see what I just tried to do and what I actually captured. Its been fun. Really fun. And my passion for people photography is reborn as well. Maybe its just a spring thing… I don’t know.

But I am pumped and ready to take on new, fun, challenging and exciting sessions, weddings and other photo projects. Contact me if you have been mulling over the thought of hiring a photographer for whatever reason - I’m your girl and this is a GREAT time to tap into my renewed creativity and passion for photography! 

I hope you will enjoy just a few of the most inspiring pictures I have to show for these last few weeks…. they make me really, really happy. I am smiling even as I write this. Yes, THAT happy. 

Phoenix is amazing this time of year - AMAZING. All of these sets of pictures were taken within an hour and 20 minute drive of our house. Some in our backyard preserve, some in the north Scottsdale area, and some further north out in the “wilderness.” 

We’ll start with closest to home (on a walk last night at sunset):

I think this is seriously my all time favorite flower picture I have ever seen. Can you believe these are right in our front yard??

   

And then came the sunset…….

And then we go to Scottsdale, to the Pinnacle Peak Park (sidenote: the wind was insane. it actually blew me over when I was shooting a picture near the top… not really good when you have a one year old in a backpack on your back and a 3 year old clinging to your leg so she didn’t blow off the path…. it was intense to say the least… even the park service lady made a comment when we got back down the path… that she was “sure glad you made it back, young lady.”)

Um, ok this is the second FAVE of all faves (as of today)  - I LOVE the perspective of looking at a flower or cactus or whatever straight on… 

Yeah, right… it wouldn’t be a problem without the wind. 

 

 

Ok, this little human does give me inspiration…. continually! 

 

Coming Soon….. pictures from the sticks and beyond! Stay tuned!

Beautiful Couple ~ Beautiful Wedding

Posted on March 20, 2009

Last weekend, I had the privilege of second shooting for a local photographer and friend, Jenny Spires. She was shooting a wedding for some dear friends of hers from her church. The wedding, and all its people, was just beautiful. Everything from the colors, to the style and decor, to the HUGE smiles plastered on the bride and groom’s faces just screamed of JOY and CELEBRATION. This was my first time to be a second shooter, and it was a ton of fun. I focussed more on the candids, details… the fun stuff. When I am the primary photographer at weddings, I rarely get to shoot as many of these kinds of shots that I would want, so I was kinda giddy about it all. Jenny did a fantastic job! Check out more of her work HERE and HERE! It was fun seeing her interact with so many of the guests and wedding party, as most of them were her friends. You can tell there was a huge amount of respect her friends had for her both as a person and as a photographer. Here are just a “few” of my favorites from the day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kyndle & Drew - WOWZA

Posted on March 16, 2009

Please meet our good friends, Kyndle and Drew.  We share the exact same wedding anniversary (day and year). We are in a Sunday School class together at our church. And our kids are friends. I had SO much fun with this couple as they hammed it up in front of the camera and pretty much just let me push and pose and poke and move them however which way I wanted. Those are the best kind of clients, you know. Would you believe these two have two little ones of their own and have a third on the way? Drew and Kyndle, you guys were so much fun to work with and photograph and holy cow… you are just way too easy on the eyes. I had no intention of editing these tonight, but I couldn’t stop looking at these and processing them so I could see the final product of each shot. If you like them even a fraction of how much I am in love with them, then I will be happy. Blessings to you guys! See you in a couple of days.