Front Porch Americana

I absolutely love all of the Americana icons associated with the Fourth of July and I think it is so fun when little kids dress up for the holiday. Both of these Independence Day shots involved a front porch which I think is quite fitting because whenever I think of small town America, I think of front porches.

P Turns 2!

 Last year when P turned 1, I took her to Target and paid for them to do a photo session. The pictures were cute, but I'm really prefer outdoor photos with natural lighting much more than indoor photos. For this session, I took her to the park and just let her play. Of course I brought along a few essential props / bribes to help increase her interest in the camera. We had the park all to ourselves for most of the session which was kind of nice. The only problem (if it can be called a problem) is I have a hard time narrowing down the photos to the absolute best ones because I took so many that I like. The three that are pretty much the same photo only she is doing something slightly different in each, that is because I couldn't decide which facial expression I liked the most.

Four Years Old

 I've known G ever since she was born and I couldn't believe it when she turned four! We took these photos for her birthday at the park, right before her birthday party. It was a lot of fun to just play around and catch her in action. Also, doesn't G have a pretty mom. I was able to snap this shot during the party.

A's University Photos

Here are some pictures from a fun session that I did with another one of my sisters, A. She is incredibly smart and motivated and finished a double-major at the local university in three-years. She was fun to take pictures of because she is a complete natural when it comes to posing.

Hunting for Bald Eagles

 We spent a fun morning looking for Bald Eagles at a nearby pond and experimenting with my 55-200mm kit lens. The lighting wasn't the best but I was amazed by some of the far away details the lens was able to capture.

Goblin Valley

I love photographs with vivid colors and surprising landscapes. My husband and I took a winter camping trip to Goblin Valley and despite the camping being a bust (too cold + sick baby = sleeping in the car and being up half of the night) the scenery of the park was amazing! It was P's first winter camping trip so it was fun to just follow her around and try to capture Goblin Valley from her perspective.

Pockets of Light

One of my favorite things about photography is the different ways that the use of light can impact a photograph. I love the way that this pocket of harsh light adds drama to this photo. This totally wasn't what I had in mind when we set out to take these pictures, we were actually trying to take pictures of the fall leaves, similar to the session from last year in the same location. Although P, now a toddler had different ideas about what she wanted to do, I was still able to capture some of the feeling of this cold November day.