1st Birthday Celebration

It has been so fun to follow this little guy through his first year of life. His parents hired me to do his monthly photos starting at 3 months of age. He just celebrated his first birthday. I enjoyed capturing some fun moments at his first birthday party.

CUTE + PERSONALITY = THIS KID!

I think I met one of the cutest kids on the planet this morning. Say hello to Mr. J. My camera loved him! We had such a good time. 

Location, location, location

I love finding that perfect location that fits a families personality. Here is a list of the locations I have used and a few words to describe what kind of family would fit that location.

Scottdale Center for the Arts: Contemporary, Classy, and the LOVE statue can provide for some fun photos. Water features and green grass.
Tempe Marketplace: Edgy, Modern, Upbeat, family can't be embarrassed of onlookers.
Papago Park: Outdoorsy, likes desert background, drawn to all things nature. I LOVE this location.
Mesa Center for the Arts: Contemporary, Classy yet fun, colorful, not boring. Also one of my favorite locations.
Freestone Park: a family friendly location with a fun rustic bridge, lots of green, perfect for the family who likes to feed ducks and have picnics.
Phoenix Zoo: Must love adventure, able to walk up and down hills, loves animals, and willing to have some fun!
Botanical Gardens: All things nature, cactus, and flowery. Not the best place if you have allergies, fun for those who like lots of color and anything botanical. Must be able to walk long distances.
Bass Pro Shop: If your looking for an indoor location and not afraid of onlookers, this might be your place. If the term fishing, boating, and hunting are in your everyday vocabulary you might want to consider this.
Lehi Road: A romantic setting for those wanting sunset pictures. It's an abandon road with a beautiful background. Looks over the city.
Riparian Preserve: Any bird lovers out there, this might be your place? lots of water, trees, and trails. Must be able to walk from location to location.
Central Christian Church: My church home, both Gilbert and Mesa campuses offer green grass, trees, fountains, and a great family atmosphere.
The Mormon Tempe: For my LDS friends, nicely decorated around Christmas. If your LDS, I'm willing to head to the Temple.
Las Sendas: If you live here, I can take pictures in and around the clubhouse.
Tonto National Preserve: Must LOVE the great outdoors. Not for those who wear open toed shoes or sandals. Lots of creepy crawlies all around but so pretty off the trails and with the water in the background and the backdrop of the mountains. Probably not for families with children under 4.
Botanical Park in Mesa: Off of Horne road, offers a smaller scale park and some pretty backgrounds. Not very crowded but some fun backdrops for the one who loves nature and Arizona.
And there you have it! If you have a location you would like to suggest, I'm willing to give it a try. If you want to see pictures I took at these locations simply look at the bar to the right and you can click on the location name and see the photos at that specific location.

a boy, his vest, and a hat

Every once in a while I talk my kids into doing a photo shoot, today I lucked out when our middle child hammed it up for the camera. I'm so in love with these pictures. They make my heart melt.

LOVE and marriage, and family...

This extended family hired me to do their photos so they could present pictures to their parents for their 50th wedding anniversary coming up next month. They wanted them at Scottsdale Center for the Arts, it's a fun place to shoot. We met on 9-11-11, the 10 year anniversary of 9-11-01. I arrived early and made the mistake of going into a memorial they had set up inside the arts center. I was crying within the first minute of walking in. It was so emotional. I tried my best to pull it together before the photo shoot. I'm glad the family was happy with the photos, I'm probably my most critical critic and I see some things I should have done different. I'm always learning something new about lighting, my camera, and how to set people up in the frame. But like I said, at least the family was happy. Note to self, don't go to a 9-11 memorial a few minutes before a photo shoot. I've included some of the 9-11 memorial too.

Aqua Tots publicity photo shoot #2

We did another AT photo shoot, this time outdoors. The lighting was so much better this time around. Here are a few of my favs but with this photo shoot I'm not the one who does the editing. I simply take the pics and they get downloaded onto another computer and then my part is done. There were 3 photographers this time around and I think we got close to 600 pics. Here are some of the ones I took.