Urban Location Options {Gilbert, AZ}

This is my counterpart to the Natural Locations post.  Those locations seem to be our default choice here in AZ.  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we are just getting out of a long and hot summer during which we were stuck inside for months.  By the time Fall rolls around, all we want to do is hang out outside and enjoy nature.

But when you've done the pretty nature family photographs thing for a few years in a row, you're ready for something new.  Something modern and fresh and a little different.  That's when it's time to try some Urban family picture locations.

Many times the best part of the urban photography location is that you can get so many different looks in one small area. 

 

The senior boy above and the family below are in the same location.  In fact, just around the corner from each other.  But you'd never guess.  When variety is paramount (mostly senior photos) an urban location is just the ticket.

 

Sometimes all you need is a great wall.  It can be any solid color you want.  Or if your photographer is really tricky, it can even be a totally different material.  Hello brick!

 

One my favorite family photo locations, super popular as well.  But so many fun, modern looks in one spot.

 

Vintage meets modern.  One downtown location.  It can really make your family and their styling POP!

When modern for you is a mid-century look, this location can steal the show.  Love this spot for some fun family photography!

 

Using a single prop, an awesome fedora, as the inspiration for your family pictures is an excellent idea!  It can lead you to such a fun and memorable location.

 

So what do you think?  Which location will it be for your family pictures this year?

Natural Location Options {Gilbert AZ Photographer}

As we get cranked up and ready for the fall family photo season, it's time to get organized!  When my clients and I start talking location options, I first ask them to decide between "natural" and "urban". 

Many times this is dictated by the clothing choices they've already made (because who do we dress first?  altogether now:  MOM!).  If we're going with boots and scarves and fall colors, you better believe your photographs will look best in a natural setting.  If we've got motorcycle jackets, funky jewelry, and sunglasses, only urban will really work.  (been there, tried that.  The orchard just doesn't make leather and chrome look good, friends.)

So here's a round up of some of my favorite and best au natural photography locations here in Gilbert and the surrounding areas.

(If you're looking for the Urban choices, check them out here.)

This awesome orchard is totally green in the summer and dead in the winter.  Sometimes the leaves are still on the ground, sometimes not.  No fee but they do ask for a donation.

This beautiful spot with the young lady and the cute family below is the same location.  It's huge so there are lots of different options.  No fee.

This one with the little boy is a lovely little area but it needs the exact right light.  When you get it, it's just yummy.  No fee.

This location is absolutely amazing for family portraits, truly one of the best in the area.  There is a reasonable fee, which you can also pay by buying dinner at the local (super yummy) restaurant.  This family hauled in their own couch. 

This location is stunning, mostly in the Spring though when the yellow flowers are out.  It feels like a lush desert with a gorgeous stream, waterfall, and lake.  No fee.

This is a favorite of mine.  woodsy, and beautiful, near a river.  Both sunset and sunrise light are just stunning there.  Small fee.  So beautiful. 

This place is lovely but tiny.  Be prepared to jockey for a spot with other families.  It looks so out of the way but it's really close and easy to get to.  No fee.

And my very best photography spot for families is..... well, it deserves it's own post, right here. 

 

Project 10 - September

One of the best things about photography is the community it creates.  When you find a group of friends that you can talk shop with, people who will discuss lenses ad nauseum so your hubby can quit pretending he's interested, then you know you're having a good time!

Every month we do a 10 photo round up and link up with each other.  It's a great way to see some quality photography and keep up with each other's progress.  It is so fun to watch other people's interpretation of lifestyle photography from around the nation, and see how it inspires my own version here in Gilbert AZ.


So here's my 10.  My favorite photos I've done in the last month or so.  Some are clients.  Some are my own littles.  All of them captured my heart a little bit.

Next up is Kristin B Photography, in Edmonton Alberta Canada! 

The best kind of newborn photography {Gilbert AZ}

Does this story sound familiar?  The pregnancy which you thought would take forever, went by in a blink of an eye and all the sudden she's here.  And then all the sudden, she's three weeks old and the photos of her only exist on a cell phone, because hello?!  There's three other kiddos running around and their world has been rocked too!

That's where lifestyle newborn photography comes in.  A super nice photographer comes to your home.  She plays with your kids while Baby finishes her nap and eats her next meal.  Instead of growls from the three year old, you hear "Take my picture too!".  Everyone has fun for an hour and then she leaves, and you wonder "Was that really family pictures?  That was too easy." 

Even better.  Those are photographs that you wish you could take while you're busy living life.  You try to burn them in your brain:  how your son looks with his favorite Superman cape on, how your daughter looks twirling in the sunlight, how your oldest boy scrunches his eyebrows when he's playing Star Wars on the piano.  Those are the scenes that you feel slipping through your fingers as time marches on.

But now they're caught.  Now you have them forever and ever.  You know, teenage blackmail if needed.  But more likely, that wedding video when Superman is all grown up and wearing a much different kind of suit.

 

 

 

 This photo shoot was done as assignment for an awesome class I took through Chic Critique forum with the amazing Lindsay Silsby (Pied Piper Photography) and Summer Murdock Photography. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published? Check!

I am so excited to check one thing off my bucket list this year.  I have been published in Denim & Grace magazine.  It's a publication for other photographers, and frankly pretty small.  Also, mine is one of the "filler" images, used in between the real articles about much better photographers than me. 

But I was included nonetheless, and I'm pretty dang excited!  My name is up there with Freshly Wed and Lisa Holloway, see?!

What image was it, you ask?  Pretty much my best photo of my entire year. 

 

 

Thank you so much Palfreeman family.  You brought the magic and you made my year a success!