Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Merry Christmas...and then some


What a month December has been. It seems winter has officially stopped in to visit.  With the rain we've had in Vegas and the drop in temperature I would definitely say it's official tank tops days are out of site and out of mind for a while...or maybe a week or two. :)  I must say though I have enjoyed the weather.  It made the days leading up to Christmas feel more winter like and thankfully the rain stopped just in time for Christmas day.   This Christmas felt a lot busier than last year.  With waiting until 3 days before Christmas to do my shopping and even doing the last finishing touches of shopping on Christmas Eve, waking up at 5am on Christmas Eve to drive up to Utah to surprise my gram cracker and ask her if she was feeling well enough to let us take her home with us so that she could spend Christmas with us this year instead of being alone, then of course late night wrapping of presents and glasses of wine, only to wake up a few hours later to open gifts.  Last but not least Christmas dinner at my step mom's mother's house, where we all get together and eat good food and karaoke.  I would have to say it was a very eventful few days, ending with waking up Sunday the 26th and making the drive back to Utah with my grandma and then driving back home that same day, I was ready for my weekend at that point, unfortunately my weekend was over.  So my hip young self is going to take this up coming weekend and relax with a glass of wine while ringing in the new year.  I know...you're totally jealous. ha

Well this month has sure flown by,  I had two awesome sessions this month.  One session was of a month old newborn named Tyler, he is absolutely precious.  My other session was of 4 beautiful women for their family portrait at Red Rock.  It was such a fun shoot, hiking and climbing on rocks to get the perfect angle.  I will be posting 2 up and coming blogs with images from both sessions.

In other news for Christmas I received new photography equipment. So awesome!







I am beyond excited for the new year to come along.  So far 2011 is looking promising and I am hoping that my business continues to grow and that I continue to build relationships with my awesome clients.  I am beyond grateful for all of the awesome opportunities I have been allowed to capture.  For new years I am trying to set more meaningful goals, I use to always make resolutions about losing weight, going on vacation, etc.  This year my resolutions are simple I want to attend church more on a regular basis, continue building my business, volunteer more at church, continue to produce great quality work for my clients and simply just continue to live my life in the moment and stop worrying so much about "what if."


Happy New Year Loves <3 

Thursday, December 9, 2010

New Friends & New Beginnings

Two graduation shoots, two gorgeous girls, two new friends, two new futures...that is a perfect way to describe these past 2 shoots that I have done and where these two wonderful women are headed.

I'll be the first person to admit that I pretty much haven't kept in that great of contact with people I went to high school with, which brings me to Jessica.  Jessica and I knew each other in high school, but we were more acquaintances than actual friends.  Once high school was over we still remained in contact, we'd comment each other randomly on Myspace , (when Myspace was the "cool" social network), and then of course everyone switched to Facebook, so then we'd comment each other on Facebook and we'd always say, "We have to get together and have lunch."  Well 4 years out of high school and 4 years of saying let's get lunch, we finally did. Jess and I sat down for a lunch/dinner to catch up and discuss her graduation shoot.  Which then resulted in Khaye (who I have known since middle school) and I getting in contact to book her  graduation shoot and then that evolved into ME breaking out of my little bubble of my little world that only consisted of Work,School,Family & my boyfriend, to actually making new friends who are beautiful down to earth genuine women.  Now that I have explained the "evolution" of how I came to photograph and become friends with these two lovely ladies here are some of my favorite images from their awesome sessions that we did.



Khaye was an absolute gem to work with, she is so easy going and is definitely a natural model.  We had the pleasure of shooting her session at the UNLV campus and it was such a perfect location.  There were so many different areas to shoot at and the weather was absolutely perfect.  Khaye, her friend Taylor and I were all shocked at how hot it actually was during the shoot, but this is Vegas and one day it's
cold the next day it's hot.







Then there was Ms. Wilde aka: Jessica.  I like to refer to her as Ms. Wilde, because it suits her perfectly. Jess is simply wild, but with an "e" attached.  Jessica's shoot was a blast, from the random people around the UNLV campus photographing plants, to contemplating "borrowing" the admin cart so we could drive around campus instead of walking, the little boys in choir watching us as we staged her card shot, and of course to the countless "Kbyeee's."
The weather was a little dramatic with us, with the wind and chance of rain I was a bit stressed, but in the end her images came out perfect.  The lighting was spot on because of the clouds over head and we wrapped up just in time before the storm clouds rolled in.  Out of the entire shoot, my two favorite shots are where Jessica is sitting barefoot and where she threw a deck of cards in the air.  The barefoot photo is just so natural and effortless, and the deck of cards shot was one of the funniest shots we did because it was a tad windy so we only had a limited amount of time to try and get the shot.  So we started out with her throwing leaves to make sure everything was set up perfectly and then on the first try with the cards we succeeded.




Both of these women were awesome to work with. I feel so blessed to be able to have friends like them and to be able to be apart of their celebration.

Congratulations to you both on becoming a part of UNLV's Graduating Class of 2010!

POP-corn & Baby Dal


First of all I am once again behind on my updates. I have been slammed with work, school and of course photography. I have done some awesome shoots this past month and a half. One of my favorite sessions that I had was with baby Dal. The term POP-corn was used a lot and I'm sure Dallas kept thinking, "What's with this lady and saying POP-corn." ha ha 
It was such an enjoyable shoot, and I decided that my nickname for Dallas was going to be Dal. :)
Dallas is unbelievably adorable and the love that Brandon and Jessica share for him was truly captured in each photo I took of them. Dallas is so blessed to have a mother and father like Jessica and Brandon. Watching them interact with Dallas is so fun and touching, his little laugh and of course the sticking out of his tongue were simply priceless.  Here are a few of the images from the Schneck's Family Portrait Session.

Also, after wrapping up the family portrait session, we had another portrait session of just Dallas.  He was very entertained while I was setting up the backdrop and the lights.  I was introduced to "Baby Mozart" which is a cartoon or a DVD, which was the cutest little cartoon I've seen for a baby, and I learned that it's Dallas's favorite.  When Baby Mozart was on the TV that kid's eyes were glued and he would just watch the little baby compose his little concert. So cute!! 










Sunday, October 31, 2010

Love & Sunflowers



A little over a month ago I had the pleasure of doing my cousin Heather Dee's Bridals and they turned out absolutely gorgeous. I've been slowly posting little previews here and there and I just wanted to post 2 more images from her session that are my absolute favorite! My favorite images that I get out of sessions are the ones that are the most natural. These two images show exactly that. The one of Heather's back facing me was actually while we were walking to the next location. Just like always I let any client I am working with walk ahead of me so that I can hang back and capture them acting natural. Those make for the best images. Her expression in that photograph is absolutely beautiful. Then there is the image of her with the plucked sunflower. I had her hold a sunflower and pick each petal off individually while saying, He loves me...he loves me not...etc. The last petal she picked landed on "He loves me..." and the expression on her face was priceless. This was one of my most favorite sessions, I was able to spend time with family and enjoy the gorgeous landscape of Utah.

To look through more images of Heather Dee's Bridals click here and venture in to the Wedding section in the Gallery.

Enjoy!!

<3

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Fall is upon us...

As I sit here catching up on my blogging I find myself finally feeling as if the Fall Season is upon us. I'm bundled up in leggings, thigh high socks, a cozy sweater and my 25 calorie hot cocoa. That is what I call COM-FORT-ABLE!

Alright well October has definitely not been as busy as September but my definition of busy changes constantly. I've been finding balance among my schooling, my job, my photography, and my personal life (not doing so well in the personal life area ha!).

School has definitely kept me busy. I am currently taking a Sports/Entertainment Photography class and I am learning so much and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. My Professor is laid back yet he wants you to do well and wants you to understand why you are photographing whatever it might be however you might be doing it...does that make sense? Anyway, what I love about this class is even though we sit in a classroom once a week for at least 2 hours sometimes 3, we get to expand our learning outside of the classroom. My Professor books us "field trips" where he will have us show up to a certain event, and he gives us access to photograph that event so that we can learn what we should and shouldn't be doing. I love hands on learning. It keeps me motivated and it makes it a lot easier for me so that I don't procrastinate my assignments. (If you haven't figured it out yet...photographers are known for procrastination.)


Anyway other than school I haven't been too busy with sessions, I've definitely been booking a ton of up and coming sessions for the next few months. One of the sessions I did have this month was a family session of the Thibodeau Family. Absolutely hands down such a fun family. Holly and Mason have such beautiful children and are so laid back and down to earth. Their little boy Justice was an absolute GEM! I would call his name and he would look right at the camera and smile, I was in total shock. Especially because it is already hard enough sometimes to get a child to look at the camera, yet alone smile. Bella and Cruz are just complete hams for the camera. I had an absolute blast with them and I got some pretty awesome images.



Last but not least I have one last session before sadly October comes to an end. :( It is going to be another family session, and it's for The Schneck Family. I am super pumped to be able to photograph Jessica, Brandon and their handsome little boy Dallas. (I swear this kid is going to be a ladies man...he is so stinkin' cute!) So there will for sure be a post to come about my session with their cute little family.

Until then Peace & L♥ve

How much time do you have?


I don't even know where to begin.

First of all I have been so slammed with school, work, weddings, editing...LIFE.

But I would like to say I am sorry to everyone who has been looking for updates, I've been slacking majorly. But now I am here to fill you in on my busy month of September. :)

September was unbelievably busy for me. First of all I started my last semester at CSN. I am excited to announce that I graduate this coming December with my Commercial Photography Degree. Yippee!! Then I booked Raina & Jack Stutelberg's wedding for the 2nd week of September. The wedding was beautiful and the images turned out absolutely gorgeous. I had such a fun time capturing each and every special moment and it got even better going through all the images and picking out my favorites. One of my FAV images from the Stutelberg Wedding is pictured above ^.

After I wrapped up with the Stutelberg Wedding, I headed to good ol' Utah to photograph another up coming Bride's Bridals.
The bride to be was my cousin Heather Dee, I actually have a blog about the engagement session I did for her and her adorable husband Reed. Heather as always was so fun to work with. She is up for just about anything. She wasn't afraid of a little dirt and the images we got were absolutely stunning!

Next but not least was the final "I Do's" for Heather and Reed. After photographing their Engagement and Heather's Bridals, it finally came down to capturing the Big Day! I left Las Vegas at 630am and arrived in Veyo, UT at 10am.
The drive up was the perfect start to my day, and it just kept getting better once I arrived at Heather's house and all the way through the Ceremony and through the reception. I absolutely love photographing this couple because there is no work involved. They naturally fall in to different poses and share special moments that I quietly snap images of, it just makes my job that much easier and enjoyable. What I love most though is that as I photograph them, I witness the love they have for one another. The way that Heather and Reed act towards one another and look at one another is the definition of 'True Love.' I feel so blessed to have had the opportunities I've had to be apart of all of these couples special days and moments.


After all is said and done I some how balanced the first month back to school, plus work and of course my second job as a photographer. All I have to say is I survived!

<3

Monday, September 13, 2010

Baby Sophie



Here are a few shots from the absolutely adorable newborn session I had over the weekend. I was able to capture such beautiful images of baby Sophie. She was an absolute gem too. She was born to be photographed. Such an adorable little baby girl, Paul and Jerri were truly blessed and made such a beautiful little girl.

Hope you all enjoy these images of baby Sophie as much as I did while photographing and editing her session.

<3


Thursday, September 2, 2010

Pikes



About 2 weeks ago I had the pleasure in photographing UNLV's Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity ,aka The Pikes, for their yearly Head Shots that they will use for their Fraternity Composite.  I've never really been around Frat guys, except for this guy I use to work with at Starbucks, so I didn't know what to expect, thankfully they were a super fun group.  They were laid back and just having fun during their meeting and each table would come up in groups for their portraits and they would trade off the signature tie that they all had to wear.  It was definitely a fun shoot. You can visit their website here:  http://unlvpikes.org/home










Sunday, August 29, 2010

Too Legit



3 words....Canon...5D...Mark II

I am now a Can-Nikon shooter. (Yes I made that up) Ha ha I just went and purchased myself a Canon 5D Mark II with a 24-105mm L series Lens!!

I'm in LOVE<333

It was definitely one of the most stressful yet awesome purchases I have yet to make.
I felt hesitant to go from being a Nikon user to being a Canon user but I decided to push myself out of my comfort zone. :)

I can not wait to post some of the awesome images I will be taking with this new beautiful camera. There will for sure be many photo-blog posts to come!

Until next time...Peace & Love<3

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

New new new

I'm so beyond excited for this week! Why oh why you ask?! I am finally getting new photography equipment! My light kit arrives Thursday, I'm ordering 2 new lenses, a flash, a strobo-frame, a background stand and some soft boxes this week as well. Yay! I am absolutely ecstatic for all the awesome photo opportunities I've had this year. I hope to keep staying as busy as I've been with photography jobs. There is nothing better than doing what you love.







On another note, here is a photo of the day of my sisters Great Dane puppy after doggy day camp.
Absolutely my favorite mo-head!
<3

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Busy Busy Busy






These past 3 weeks have been non-stop. I have been to Utah almost every weekend in the past 2 and a half months. Here and there I have had a weekend or 2 where I've been able to stay at home but was unable to relax because I still had other things to tend to. Thankfully I enjoy the drive and I never get sick of Utah. I have accomplished quite a lot this summer. I photographed my first wedding all by myself, shot some grad portraits, photographed my cousin and her fiance up in beautiful Pine Valley, started this blog, and finally have my official website up and running. It feels so good to finally feel motivated again with my photography. I feel so blessed when I am picked to be apart of such joyous occasions and to be able to capture the special moments is such an AWESOME privilege. There is much more to come in the following months, I have a possible wedding that I may be photographing in early September, I have Bridals to photograph the first week of September and along with the bridals I will be photographing my cousin's wedding at the end of September. I can't wait to see what beautiful moments I will be capturing! How awesome is my job!

Peace <3 Love

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Pine Valley Engagement Session

I had the pleasure of photographing my beautiful cousin Heather & her fiance Reed. We decided to go up to Pine Valley, UT, which offered such an awesome setting, especially lighting wise. Here is a glimpse of what was captured. :)