As a wedding and portrait photographer, this tends to be the slow time of year. I’ve been taking complete advantage of this time to work on some personal projects. It’s nice. One project consisted of taking 1 roll of film, which equates to 12 exposures for my camera, and visiting 3 different locations. You seriously have to put a lot of thought into each exposure and that’s the part I love. My mom (photographed below) asked me if it was more stressful shooting that way. To be honest, I think it’s less. It really forces you to slow down and think about each exposure. It’s almost a relaxing process. When you shoot digitally it’s easy to let yourself shoot, shoot, shoot and shoot and before you know it you’ve racked up 100-200 images – most of which you will toss anyways because you weren’t thinking. So here you have it, ALL 12 images we made, one windy Sunday afternoon.

The close of a calendar year is always bittersweet for me. This year is no different. Looking back I’ve enjoyed documenting the growth of families, the accomplishment of a young lady, and the celebration of love – both young and old. I’ve met some amazing people, many of which I look forward to seeing again over the years. Thank you to all my clients for making this year special and inviting me out to document your life.

Now let’s chat about 2012. Not toooooooo many changes with the business side of my life, but personally there are some BIG changes. For starters, this April we are expecting a new addition to our family! I’m pretty sure my daughter hasn’t fully grasped what this means quite yet, but she’s pretty excited to be a big sister. So of course this means I will be on maternity leave for most of April and all of May. If you’re planning to book a session please contact me before April. After that, openings will be very limited. I will also book a few weddings this summer, but not nearly as many as this last year. In fact, July is already booked, with only a couple of openings in June and August. Then…in September my little family of four, will be making a temporary move all the way across the country to Augusta, Georgia so my husband can finish some school. Considering I’ve lived in Nevada my entire life, I’m both excited and completely terrified about this move. In the very slim chance someone from Georgia is reading this or knows someone out there, don’t be afraid to shoot me a message. I won’t know a single soul. Eeek!

This will be my last post of the year, so I’m leaving you with my top most cherished images from this last year. Thank you all for your support. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and I wish you a happy new year!

I think I’m really going to enjoy these once a month updates.
It will definitely make creating her yearly albums a heck of a lot easier.

This past month has been driving me crazy. Spring in Reno, Nevada will do that to a person. One week the weather will be completely gorgeous, while the following week brings chances of snow and gusty winds. Try explaining to a 17 month old why we can’t spend the entire day outside like we had the week before. It’s frustrating and we get completely stir crazy some days. Soon enough though we’ll be able to make weekly trips to Tahoe, start some swimming classes and playdates at the park will resume. Ahh, I can’t wait!

If you ever want to see all the silly things you do throughout the day, have a toddler follow you around. They pick up the darnedest things. For instance, I never realized I closed drawers with anything other than my hands, until I saw Ellie start closing drawers with her belly. It’s hilarious! Who knows, maybe her habit of carrying a million things around the house comes from me too. She has also figured out how to put movies into the DVD player all by herself. At least she hasn’t figured out how to work the remote, otherwise I’d never be able to pull her away from Lady and the Tramp or Finding “Meemo”.

As you’ll soon see, her hair is getting quite long. Most of the time we’re not sure what to do with it, but it looks so cute in a pony tail that I can’t bring myself to cut it. However, we are thinking of at least getting it styled soon, so if anyone in Reno knows of a good hair stylist for kids, let me know.

My husband and I don’t leave Ellie with sitters much, but last weekend we went out to celebrate his birthday. And I’ll tell you what, it was refreshing to have her give us hugs and tell us “bye-bye” rather than go into full meltdown. That whole separation anxiety phase was heartbreaking. Besides, it’s sweet to see her start growing attachments to other people.

For the photo enthusiasts: the images below were captured with the 35mm Exakta and a Carl Zeiss 50mm lens. It’s one of the cameras we collected for our wedding decor and it’s such a cool camera! The very bottom shot was done with the Mamiya C339. Oh and the first two images below I can’t take credit for. My husband took them!

In case you are wondering where you can find an adorable hair clip like the one Ellie is wearing, check out The Andreas! Their handmade clips and pins are the perfect whimsical accessory. Find them here: Etsy | Facebook

Everyday Life: March

I’m typically not one for spilling my guts, especially when I’m not sure who will or will not read my blog. However, I’m working on a new personal project and the occasion calls for it. Back in my last post I set a goal to start documenting my daugther’s life a little better. Her first year was a complete blur and I don’t want her second year to be the same. And since I’m horrible about keeping a written journal, she just might show her sweet face around here more often.

So, where to start?

Well, for one thing, this girl has a personality and a half. I think she’s going to be the funny and lively one in the family. She’s so fiesty and determined. When she first started walking she was so set on carrying all her toys around, even if it completely threw off her balance. She still does it, but now it’s an attempt to see how many she can carry around at once. And if items continue to slip out of her hands, watch out! It usually ends with her throwing everything to the floor, including herself – though I’m not sure I can say throw, she more or less slowly lowers herself to ensure she doesn’t get hurt during the meltdown. I try not to laugh, but it’s the funniest thing to watch.

Before Ellie came along I always pictured my children eating anything and everything I put in front of them. Elliette apparently has different plans. If it’s not in the form of a PB&J sandwhich or yogurt, it most likely will not be consumed. Oh and heaven forbid I try to spoon feed her anymore. At least she still lets me wash her clothes and bathe her!

Her vocabulary is growing by the day – both her verbal and her sign language. She took a pencil to one of her books and I don’t have the heart to erase it because everytime she opens it she discovers the vandalized pages and says “OH NNNNNO!” in a very passionate tone – as if she were not the responsible party.

Lastly, earlier this month my husband and I finally decided to finish her room. Well we still have some decorating to do, but it’s been painted and the wainscoting has been installed. I swear there isn’t anything my husband can’t do. Two summers ago he put in our patio and a built-in fire pit. Last year our washer broke and he tore it apart to fix it. And now he’s outdone himself with Elliette’s room. I can’t wait till it’s decorated so I can show you!

I bought my first digital SLR camera, after graduating college. A Canon 20D. I didn’t buy it with the intent to pursue a career in photography. It was more out of fear. Fear that I would drop photography all together if I didn’t have something new to challenge me. Then a few friends asked me to take their portraits. And another trusted me to capture her wedding. Then I was hooked. Since that point I’ve fully embraced digital, but sadly enough haven’t done much with film. I always accepted the idea that the only way to run a photography business this day in age was as a digital photographer. At least until I started following photographers like Ash Imagery, Jose Villa and a new convert to film – Becky Earl. They’ve completely changed my way of thinking and have pushed me to shoot more film. I’ve missed the way it forces you to slow down and think about the shot. I’ve missed the beautiful range of tones it has to offer. I’ve missed the overall look that film has. And most of all, I’ve missed the amount of time I don’t have to spend behind the computer screen to get the results I want.

So what does all of this mean? It simply means I will integrate the part of photography that got me started in the first place. I will slow down and spend more time creating the photograph in the camera rather than on my computer screen. Most importantly, I will stop relying on my iPhone to capture my daughter’s life and start documenting it with a medium that will last a little longer! By incorporating more film, I hope to be able to give my business and my life a little more balance that it’s been desperately needing.

Now, if you’re sitting there trying to relate to these ramblings and wonder why on earth I would resort back to a medium that has died – or so most people think – I challenge you to pick up a disposable camera. One that has the least amount of exposures as possible, preferably 12. Take those shots and try to make every.single.one.count! It wasn’t that long ago when this was the norm. Before depressing that button check your composition. You won’t have the option to view the image you just took to realize there’s a tree sprouting out of Madison’s head. Sound familiar?! If you’re photographing your kids, sit there for a minute. Watch them through the camera and wait for that moment that you want to remember. Once you get those images back in your hand the whole process becomes invigorating! You’ll see…

Whew!

Thanks for sifting through all these thoughts of mine. I’ve been needing to spill these beans for a while…well at least publicly. My poor husband will now get a short break from my photo ramblings and we can go back to talking about more important things like Hawaii, Elliette’s new room and Charlie Sheen. Haha! Kidding. About that last part.

Oh and in case you’re wondering about the stunningly beautiful girl at the top of this post? Her name is Gabriella and while taking her senior portraits, I took a few shots with my film camera and I just got the scans back, so I had to share!

See you around,