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I was able to attend this amazing photography conference again this year and came back SOOOOO pumped to step up my game. This year it was held in Palm Springs at the Ace Hotel and even though I’ve passed by those windmills lots of times on my way to the beach, but I’ve never really explored this amazing town. It is so awesome! I’m definitely going back again soon.

This year, I was able to photograph two amazing styled shoots. Both were amongst the Joshua Trees (which are so fun!) at an amazing venue https://www.tumbleweedsanctuary.com/ . The desert is my friend so the Joshua Trees added some dimension I don’t usually get. We were actually supposed to shoot this session inside Joshua Tree National Park but had a not so nice park ranger kick us out (weird since everyone seems to shoot there), but we made do and it worked out. This beautiful family drove from Oregon to be our models. They were seriously such well behaved kids (maybe the car shock helped haha) and their family connections were all natural. There were 12 of us shooting so space was tight but I managed to sneak in some shots that I love and am excited to incorporate some of these more connective techniques into more of my family sessions!

Love me the golden sun!

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<![CDATA[Meet some of my favorite clients and people.   I've been photographing them for years and love it every year.  After years of using different locations and styles, I love that they trust me to come up with different stuff every year.  I'm up for the challenge!  



A totally candid shot of them walking to our next spot…
They also trust me to design a custom holiday card for them every year (my other love).  This is theirs:]]>

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Just putting together this post was a labor of love, whew!   I really should keep up on my everyday blogging (business AND personal) than this wouldn’t have been such a hard task!  I really need two of me ;).  This recap is a good reminder of why I ended the holidays totally exhausted!  But in a good way.  2016 was great!
Things I am proud of:

• I consider all of my clients, my friends.  I love my old ones and my new ones!  I have THE BEST clients/friends!  Thank you all for being so trusting in me.
• I stayed true to my diverse portrait and wedding portfolio.  My personality and attention span doesn’t lend itself to doing just one thing so I’m grateful I get to do photograph seniors, engagements, expectations, announcements, bridals, weddings, new additions, the occasional high school dance, and extended families.   And design several custom cards along the way.  I know most business coaches would tell me to narrow that down (and truthfully, doing it this way does make it trickier to get my processing times down) but looking back on my work, I’m glad that I haven’t.  I love all of it.
• New to my business this year were styled/collaboration shoots.  I loved, loved these.  Last February, I was on my way to Photo Native, a photography workshop in Utah.  We had a fiasco flying Allegiant Airlines (sat in the airport for two days with ridiculous weather/operations delays and horrible service…won’t get into that here and now, but we missed the workshop).  To drown our sorrows, my photog friend Adele and I set up our first personal project/styled shoot of the year.  That weekend, I went and bought a new camera and lens (yes, a pity party haha) and we had a great afternoon shooting.  From that experience, I committed to taking time each month to shoot more personal projects.  I am so glad I did.  It rejuvenates me as an artist.   And on top of that, I have been able to collaborate with some awesome vendors – there are so many talented people out there!
• In all seriousness, I am proud to say that I have the Netflix binge watching while editing thing down to a science now.  😉

It’s hard not to compare yourself to others and wonder if you measure up.  It’s hard to compete on social media, especially when as a busy mom of teenagers, working full time and running a household, serving in my church and community and also trying to have a social life ;), I am often pulled in many directions.  I have lots to improve on and hope to do a few things differently going forward.  I feel so lucky to do what I love.  Thank you for supporting me!
Here’s to an amazing 2017!
Here are a few of my favorite images from 2016… (you can see the full size images below or view the slideshow)

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<![CDATA[I really love photographing extended families.  I need to post more of these sessions I do.  I know, they can be challenging and chaotic, but it's so fun for me to see family dynamics and relationships and to accept the challenge of posing everyone and capturing their love and interaction.  Family pictures are so important!
I was able to meet up with the Nattress family this summer.  They don't all live here but were together for a visit.  We braved the late summer heat and got it done so efficiently that we were able to even get in a second location.  They are truly wonderful people (and seriously, I wanted to steal those two darling red headed girls and keep them as my own!).
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<![CDATA[I mean, how much more gorgeous can one family be?!  We had a fun afternoon playing with their two little girls.  Love their color choices, outfits and fun connections with each other.
Here's some of my favorites from the session:
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<![CDATA[Throw back to last fall/winter when we updated this cute family's pictures.
I always talk about my client's plan with their photos so we can make sure we are getting the end result they want/need for their home.  I cannot tell you what a difference this step makes in having very happy clients!  For this family, she wanted some pops of pink to coordinate with her beautiful new home.  We also planned for some modern architecture and printed her gallery on metallic paper to fit her look.
Their Christmas card… This was my mock-up… The wall hung (via my phone shot)… ]]>

<![CDATA[I love designing wall arrangements for my clients.
This family is in the middle of a beautiful home remodel so I was able to go over and install their new canvases for them.

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<![CDATA[Meet baby Elle.  She is darling!  I love watching cute new parents loving on their first child.  I also love when clients are up for some outdoor golden hour shots, even hough it is a little (ok more than a little) warm out (although the baby was loving it), so that we can capture the style and mood we wanted.


To see the rest of their gallery, click here.]]>

<![CDATA[Just finalized this cute family's image order and wanted to share a few of my favorites.  The funny thing about this session was that as I was giving the client directions to our shooting location, I asked her where she lived and turns out she lives two streets away from me in my same neighborhood!  We just moved here not too long ago so we are still getting to know people, but am happy to know this family better now!  They just updated their home decor through one of my talented friends, Nikki Grandy, and the colors in these pictures will look great in their new space!
This is the wall display I designed for them in canvas gallery wraps.  I offer super reasonable professional printing and wall art so that you can get these images off of your computer and onto your walls!]]>

<![CDATA[I sure love photographing this family!  Every year, we collaborate on fun new ideas for their updating family pictures and Christmas card.  This year, we wanted to do some "night on the town together" kind of shots so we headed to downtown Phoenix to shoot these.  Here are a few of our favorite shots:


And here’s a little phone shot of the gallery wall we did for them:
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