Sunrise in January

Traci and Jay, some awesome clients from last year, referred Brian and his family.  Brian is a cop for the city of Gilbert, so his family photo shoot was complimentary.  I only have two of those shoots a month so they had to wait quite awhile but hopefully, it was worth it.  :)

We had a great time shivering in the Arizona sunrise.  The kids took turns jumping out of the car and flashing me some great grins, then running back to warm up.  By the end, we were just all goof balls, enjoying the sunshine.

Thanks Brian and Jennifer and family.  I had an awesome time and I wish you all the best with the upcoming adventures.

February: Celebrating Single Parent Families

I was raised by a very busy single mom, and a dad who struggled trying to connect with his teenage daughter.  I have very few photographs of me with them for over a decade.  Basically until I was old enough to want to document our relationship.

So I decided that the month of February is the time to support single parents in capturing the love of their own sweet families.  All family session fees will be $100 off for single parent families, and will include a 16x20 or 11x14 print of the their choice.

So single parents celebrate the month of February with the ones you will always love, and do it for half price because I know how hard you work to make your moments count!

Baby B is here!!!

When the hubs and I were in college and moved into family student housing, we were told by numerous people "The friends you make here will be lifelong friends."  And it is so true.  When you live on top of each other (three stories of cinder block), scrimp to make rent every month, endure the torture of finals together again and again and again, pray for babies together, pray for strength together, those are people that will always, always be part of your life. 

Even though the Reynolds family lives hundreds of miles away, and has for years, I know we'll always be close.  I know they waited for years for the this miracle baby.  And I feel crazy blessed to be able to take his pictures.  What an amazing baby!  And what an awesome family.  Hope you like the pictures.  (an extra big sneak peek for you, since the disk has to be mailed a couple hundred miles.  :)

Nominee #20

Pure joy, Mommy throwing her into the trees.  I've photographed this girl since she was crawling and getting a smile from her is like getting my 7 year old to make his bed.  Darn near impossible.  But the second Mom threw her in the air, I had another split second to catch that enormous grin.  And catch it, we did!

Nominee #19

I told them I was checking my light.  Which was true!  It just happened to be the light was spot on, Mom and Sister shared the sweetest look, and Dad talked to brother.  This photo was a huge boost for me, right in the middle of the holiday season.  It reminded me how to find emotion in the moment.  Pure love.

Nominee #18

Mama held her high in the air and she grabbed a blossom.  She discovered flowers on trees that day.  And I know I will treasure this photo forever and ever. 

Nominee #17

There are no words.  The colors.  The emotion.  Aah.  One of my earliest shots, taken last spring.  And still one of my absolute favorites. 

Nominee #16

Sometimes, the only way to get a smile is with a little peek a boo.  Around Mom's legs.  We happened to catch Dad in the background, which made this my favorite peek a boo shot of the season.

Nominee #15

A big group hug.  And the littlest was almost swallowed up.  Within moments, the sister had grabbed the light saber and was swatting with it.  But in this blink of an eye, we caught the love. 

Nominee #14

Sometimes.  Ok most of the time, babies are not happy!  I love how Dad was willing to do whatever it took to get a smile, if an upside down one.  You can tell brother is so jealous, sister is trying not to laugh, and mom is ever-composed.  Such a great capture-the-moment shot.

Nominee #13

Traipsing around Arizona State campus, trying to find some great shots.  I look from his shirt to the chairs and back again.  Are you kidding me?!  The day I took this is the day I felt proud of my composition. And that confidence affected the whole rest of the shoot.  One of my best of the year.

Nominee #12

I asked him to tell me a joke.  So he thought.  And he thought.  And he thought.  I can't remember the joke he finally told me but I'll always remember the boy who sat on the rock.  And thought.

Nominee #11

This young lady grinned like a cheshire cat the day she realized she was taller than me.  Her 12th birthday.  :)  Full of beauty and grace, she gave me one of my favorite photos of the season.

Nominee #10

There has only been less than a handful of times, that while editing a photo, I've started crying.  I think it really hit me with this one, how fleeting her childhood is.  Matt will always be Matt, smart, successful and funny.  But Gracie will soon have this photo at her wedding.  And sharing a kiss goodbye.  Oh, kill me now!

Nominee #9

The trick on this one was that she was running towards me.  So it was going to be pure chance to catch the focus on her, with her parents lined up just right and not too crazy blurry.  I'm still shocked it actually worked.  Luckily her big brown eyes can make any photo look perfect.

Nominee #8

Motherhood is intense.  And emotional.  And real. And this mom knows it.  One of my favorite baby shots of the whole year.

Nominee #7

There were plenty of "cute" photos from this shoot.  But this one was so real and so genuine.  While wrestling two crazy kids, they happened to catch each other's eye.  So sweet.

Nominee #6

A girl growing up way too fast.  We tried to make her smile.  Then we just got on outright giggle and laugh.  And it was awesome! This time next year, she'll be a young lady.  But we caught her being a kid just in time.

Nominee #5

This sweet boy brought his very best friend on the photo shoot.  When we pulled him out of the stroller, Dylan's eyes got so big and happy.  Blink and it was gone.  One of my very favorite shots.

Nominee #4

Daddy was deployed for a full year.  Finally home and a bouncing baby boy came along soon after.  This was an awesome afternoon at the lake, with Dad making Mom laugh about every 10 seconds. 

Nominee #3

My first senior shoot.  This family spends a lot of time cooking in the kitchen.  And Lexi was just chatting with Mom.  It was the reflection in the mircrowave, along with her relaxed time with her mom that made me taken a second look at this photo.  Lexi will be gone in the blink of an eye, off to college and then to run the world.  So happy to have caught this moment at home with her mom.

Nominee #2

A sunrise shoot.  A sleepy baby.  And a doting first time dad.  It was blessed.

Nominee #1

To start us off, we have one of the sweetest senior photos.  Jesse was just hangin' on the stairs with his little sister, who was about to start high school with her big senior brother.  He laughed at her, she gave him a "seriously?" kind of look and it perfectly captured that sibling vibe.

2011 Photo Contest "In the Blink of an Eye"

I am so excited to being my very first photo contest!  From over 50 sessions in 2011, I have found 20 of the photos that speak to me the most, that take my breath away, that most exemplify the emotion I'm trying to convey in my photography.  It was so hard to narrow down 1000+ photos to 20 but here we go!

Each photo can receive a vote in two ways:

1. a VOTE comment on Facebook ("liking" a photo does not count as a vote)
2. a comment left at the photo's post on the blog.

Voting will end on Saturday, December 7th at 9 pm Arizona time.  Winner will receive a 16x20 canvas, from either last year's session or a session upcoming in 2012.  There will be prizes for 2nd and 3rd place. 

Facebook is NOT affialiated with this contest or its outcome.

Good luck everyone!!



This photo is not in the contest because we are closely related.  But I had to show it here.  It's stinkin' cute!!  And definitely caught in the blink of an eye!