Out of the Office!

Happy Friday!!

This is just a quick update to let you know that I'm out of the office and will not be available to return phone calls or emails until Monday, March 7. I'm super excited to be headed off on the Photog Retreat cruise -- some fun, relaxation, and incredible photography courses!!! Can't hardly wait for some on-location sessions on the beaches of Mexico!! :) (Only thing that would make the trip even better....if my hubby could come with me!!)

Hope everyone has an incredible weekend!!

Bon Voyage! :)

Jessie & Jon

Meet Jessie and Jon!! These two are amazing and hilarious and precious and talented and inspirational and all of the other wonderful adjectives you can come up with. :) I love how much of their personalities come through in these pictures. We had so much fun shooting their session this past Saturday and I was honored to have met them and look forward to a great friendship!!

And, by the way, TODAY is Jessie's birthday, so be sure to leave her some birthday love in the comments section!! Happy birthday, girl!! :)

Marriage Monday

This image is my wonderful friend, Keary, and her awesome husband, Justin. Keary and Justin just celebrated their 1 year anniversary yesterday!! Keary is an AMAZING photographer in San Jose, CA. (View her website by clicking HERE.) This image taken by the insanely talented Kelly Moore of Ruston, LA. (View her website by clicking HERE.)

Happy Monday, everyone! So I've been thinking a lot about my blog and some changes that I want to make to it. One of the primary things that has been on my heart lately is marriage. 1) I LOVE marriage. 2) My husband, Will, and I are so passionate about good marriage and taking the steps to ensure it always stays that way. 3) I am soooo blessed to get to work with amazing clients who are either newly engaged and planning for their big day or clients who are saying their vows and experiencing their very first day of marriage. My home life and my work life are all about marriage....and I absolutely love it!

Before I go on, let me just stress that I am not, not, NOT an expert. Will and I have only been married for 3 years and 4 months....which clearly doesn't put us into an expert category. I, simply, love marriage and want to create dialogue with you about it. I'll offer my thoughts, etc, but I want to hear and learn from you as well!

Ecclesiastes 9:9 says, "Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun." ENJOY LIFE WITH YOUR SPOUSE. I love this! God is telling us through this passage that our spouse is to be the one we enjoy life with even when the rest of it seems meaningless. Even when work is overwhelming, or annoying, or pointless, we have someone to go home to who makes life enjoyable. It seems like common sense, right? But how often do our spouses become just a home "co-worker," or the one we take our frustrations out on because they are supposed to love us unconditionally, or even a complete stranger? Let's be honest, it takes a lot of work to keep our priorities where they should be. What things do you and your spouse/fiance love to do together? When was the last time the two of you did those things?

It might seem silly, but one of the things Will and I love to do is walk the dogs. We walk them every night together. The amazing thing about our walks is that we're the only two humans :) out there and there is no television on or anything else to distract us. So we talk. Sometimes deep, life conversations. Sometimes silly conversations like where we would build homes if we ever won the lottery. We talk about how humbled we feel that God has blessed us with where we live, or with each other, or whatever is on our hearts at that moment. Regardless of the topic, I love him even more after every single walk because I feel closer to him.

So here are some questions for you that I'd LOVE to hear your feedback on...

-- What do you and your spouse do to enjoy life together?
-- What do you find are some of the struggles that make it hard to do these things?
-- Couples with children, I'd love to hear your comments on the added difficulties of spending time alone with your spouse once you have children. But more importantly, I'd like to know what you've done to overcome that and make your marriage a priority.

So we'll see how this goes, but my plan is to have a conversation with you like this on every Monday. Additionally, I'd like to leave you each Monday with a suggested conversation topic to have with your spouse/fiance at some time during the week. Sometimes this will be a deep, life topic and sometimes it will be something funny, but my hope is that you will end each conversation loving them even more because you feel closer to them.

THIS WEEK'S SUGGESTED CONVERSATION TOPIC: Thinking back through your entire relationship with each other, what are the 3 most fun times you've ever had with one other? Spend time reminiscing about those times/events and then talk about whether you still do fun things together. Why or why not? Schedule a date with each other and be sure to put it on the calendar so that it really happens!!!

Here's to happy marriage! :-)

Behind the Scenes Look

Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes at one of our photo shoots? Ever wonder what kind of insane contortions I put my body into to get a specific shot? :-) My amazing husband (who, by the way, is learning to be my second shooter!!) got these behind the scenes shots at our Sunday session with Jade and Nick. I thought it might be fun to not only show you those shots, but also the resulting image that I captured. So here ya go!....

Me getting the camera set while my FANTABULOUS assistant, Tasha, gets them posed and Jade's hair "just right".

The end result of all Tasha's hard work (and Jade and Nick's beautiful faces, of course)...

A few of my many strange positions (HEY, anything for the shot!) as well as me getting some lovin' from Jade and Nick's dog, Roxy. Hahaha.

The results...

The "here's the plan" session. Apparently I was very excited about what was coming next. :-)

I'm starting to think I might just stand funny all the time...even when it's not "for the sake of the shot". Tasha doing her thing again.

And more final images...

Hahaha. This one makes me laugh. Note to self, always carry hand sanitizer on photo shoots for my clients and my team...you never know where I'll decide to go!!

But was it worth it?? OH YA!

Not only can Tasha pose and style the clients, she can also keep a dog's attention REALLY well!

So there you have it. A day in the life. :-) I won't lie, I have the BEST job ever!!!

And p.s. Didn't Will do an amazing job photographing those shots!! I love it!

Jade and Nick

Meet Jade and Nick!! Jade is an amazing hair stylist/assistant at the awesome Matthew Morris Salon (Click Here to view their site) in Denver. (p.s. I get my cut, color and facials done here, so let me know if you want recommendations on who to see! They are all awesome, though, so you can't go wrong!)

Anyway...Jade and Nick are seriously the cutest couple ever and we had soooo much fun with them on Sunday. We started our session at the Broncos stadium, did some other city locations and then headed up to Evergreen where both Jade and Nick grew up.

Jade and Nick, you two are AWESOME!!! Thanks for trusting me with some pretty bizarre locations...I think you'll agree that it was worth it! ;-)

Ok, so can we all just take a moment to admire Jade's eyes??? UNBELIEVABLE!