Transformation
Friday, December 26, 2008

Pregnancy is such a time of change. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and I would also suggest spiritually. I must admit, this time of metamorphosis is one of the reasons I enjoy shooting maternity sessions. There is an inherent beauty to the transformation; especially in first time mothers, like Molly. (Not that I am trying to imply that ALL of pregnancy is a beautiful moment - there are not-so-fun parts too! ;-)

I had the privilege to meet Molly and her family several weeks ago to photograph her beautiful belly. Here are a few favorites from our session:






Three generations. Her mom and sister were there to be a part of the session as well.


Personally, I find pregnancy to be a time of deep introspection. You dont have the same amount of energy to keep going at break-neck pace, so your body and mind slow you down to the very important job of creating another human being. As a result, I find it this time of change takes you "inside" a great deal. Due to this, my blog posts are slowing down thanks to the fatigue I have been feeling and the need to sleep as much as possible to prepare for the sea of change about to take hold. It's all good change; just the crysalis before the birth.

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Seeley Family
Sunday, December 14, 2008

The Seeley's are very dear friends of mine (and Kate and Abby of Jordan) and thankfully hire me a couple times a year to photograph the girls. We always have fun, but I have to say, I think this was my favorite shoot to date with them. They are just at such fun ages and were so full of personality and fun. They are a wonderful, wonderful family. It's pretty neat too, because Kim is also pregnant with their 3rd, just one month behind me, and they are also having a boy. We are excited they will be so close in age. Since our girls have so much fun together, hopefully the boys will too!














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Swanson Family
Saturday, December 13, 2008

I met the Swanson's through my friends Tom and Marie a few years ago and have so enjoyed getting to know them, and photographing Tanner as he has grown. They are just so down-to-earth and super friendly and fun to be around. We went to ASU for their shoot and think we got some great shots!














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A Personal Take
Tuesday, December 09, 2008

This blog needs some serious personal love! It's been all shooting and post production for months now, but now that the season is almost over, I thought I would share what we have been up to personally. Actually not much given how busy it's been! Mostly just growing this bambino and doing the family thing in my off time.

For one of the first times in my life I'm just not that into the Christmas spirit this year. Maybe it's because I feel as big as a house now, and decorating is taking more effort than I thought. Jordan and I did manage to get the tree done on Sunday, but beyond that, I'm not sure how many boxes of stuff I'm going to break out this year. This will make my husband very happy: less empty boxes for him to take back out to the garage and less to clean up come January! We are spending the holidays here at home, just the 3 1/2 of us, so it will be low key and quiet. Last year my entire family was out, which was wonderful, and the year before that I think we spent Christmas with Chris's entire family up in Pinetop, which is always fun. I like going up there in the winter because we get to play in the snow and it feels like Christmas time...something that just lacks in Phoenix when its always sunny and somewhere between 50-70 degrees in the winter. But this year, with the baby's due date falling just a few weeks following, we are going to stay close to home and my doctor.

Speaking of being pregnant, here are a few pictures that my dear friend and fellow photographer Kim Jarman took of me a month or two ago. I never did maternity shots with Jordan and am so thankful Kim took these for me. I will treasure them forever.





I LOVE these four.



Kim took so many great ones and she has some more on her blog. I wanted to get this blog post up, so I picked a handful of my favorites and will keep some others more personal.

And because I havent posted any of Jordan in some time, here are a few recent favs of my love-bug, getting all grown-up on me!





We shall aptly call this one: "I'm-not-getting-my-way-so-I'm-gonna-seriously-pout. Like, seriously."



Ahhh, that's my girl, in all her well-roundedness.

******

In other randomness, I'm NOT-so-patiently waiting for my Canon 5d Mark II. I thought I was super quick to order one back in Sept right after they announced it, but a weeks delay then is more like a month or two delay now on the receiving end of things. I'm wondering why Canon is so slow to roll these out... makes me say hmmmm. I'm reading lots of things on the forums about potential issues and such, which could be contributing to this slower-than-normal distribution, but I'm still waiting with baited breath for Mr. Postman to deliver it. Before Christmas. Please. I think my old 5D is dying or at least on its last leg now that its 2 years old...so the sooner Santa Clause can deliver this new baby to me, the happier this mamasita will be.

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What else? The studio will be closed Dec 22nd-Jan 2. I will still be checking emails periodically during this time of course, but I wanted to let you all know the response time might be a tad slower during these two weeks. After this very crazy fall, I need to catch up on some sleep and reading.

I will keep all my clients posted about my maternity "leave" (likely starting about Jan 20th) should you be waiting on any products such as albums or other items. I will still have my album designer (Rachel) on hand to help turn the production around as well as my assistants (Katie and Kerry) in the office a couple times a week to respond to emails, etc., so you shouldn't experience any unnecessary delays in receiving these things. And I wont be MIA, I'll still be checking email as often as I can.

Just a reminder for those looking to book portrait sessions for the spring, we will be scheduling these again in mid to late March. My first wedding back is March 28th, and from there the work schedule will progress a little more like normal, albiet a tad lighter through the spring and early summer.

This email is evolving from personal stuff to business stuff. Hmm, that is telling of my life right now. More evidence I need some time off.

******

What's up for 2009?

I'm excited for 2009! Mostly of course for this new baby boy who is to join our family, but also for several things in the works business wise. At a very minuium there will be a new look and a new website unveiled. I will also be expanding the portrait side of the business with new promotions for existing clients, as well as new products, new services, and new looks. They will all be released in due time, but just wanted you to know that we are not going anywhere. We also have some killer weddings on the books for 2009, so I'm very excited for those as well!

The next photography workshops will likely be in the mid-to-late summer. We don't have any of the details out yet, including dates, pricing, any new format, etc., but for those of you who have asked if we will do another, the answer is 95% yes and the details will likely be out in the spring.

For those of you who are not aware, I also have been offering personal one-on-one training lessons (one hour long to cover anything you want to know or need help on) as well as longer, intensive training sessions. If fact, I'm just wrapping up one of those. If you would like more information on these, shoot me an email and we can talk about them in more detail. I can do a couple one hour sessions in early January, but will not be scheduling any intensives until the spring and will take a break on the 1 hour sessions in mid Jan through early March. (For the record, I dont want you to think for a second that I think I'm all that and a bag of chips by offering these. I don't believe I'm the worlds best photographer by any stretch, nor am I trying to present myself as some expert photography teacher. I have learned A LOT over the past five years, and have been fortunate to build a successful photography business, and if I can help pass along some of that knowledge or help someone understand the fundamentals better, than that is what I aim to do. If anything, these sessions and workshops have evolved out of emails from you guys out there requesting advice and one-on-one help. I guess one of the areas from which I get the most joy is helping others find their confidence to develop their skills and have that "aha" moment when the relationship to understanding manual shooting kicks in. I'm also more than happy to share any testimonials/referrals from those who have taken these from me, or for those whom I have helped along the way, so you can get a better idea of what to expect or how my teaching style is.)

California Summer Sessions - many of you know that I try and travel out to California each summer to escape the insane AZ summer heat, and will likely be doing that again next year. We might be out in San Diego this time, but nothing is firmed up yet, so I'll keep you posted on this regarding any available sessions during the week or two we are out there. I'm not sure what to expect with the TWO kiddos underfoot, so I appreciate your patience on my future-planning-of-these-types-of-things. Sometimes, you just have to roll with the punches, right?

Well, this blog post is probably long enough now. Happy holidays to all of you out there! I hope this season is safe, healthy and happy for you. Given the economy and many people cutting back on the gift giving this year, maybe we will all tap into what is really important: family, friends, faith, giving back, and slowing down to focus on what is truly meaningful and good. God bless.

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McEuen Family
Monday, December 08, 2008

I recently had another fun, casual shoot with the McEuen family. I had the pleasure of meeting them for the first time a little earlier this year, where we had a slightly more formal shoot. This time, we headed into the back yard to play with bubbles, toys and just to capture them completely as they are... very much a lifestyle shoot. They are an adorable family and little Delaney and I really bonded! I think she reminded me a lot of my Jordan in personality, so we had some serious fun together.





Max is pretty darn adorable too!





I LOVE this one, how Max looks so annoyed at hugging his sissy.











Finally, one of my favorites from the shoot.

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