Here's some images from my session with Andrea in late summer...
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of capturing some images of this amazing family downtown. In my opinion it was a prime spot for them cause they own a little piece of this space, so it's kinda like their living room or back yard. Ya know?
That said, I was very happy to freeze time for this wonderful family. Photos of the ones we love more than anything are worth a lot. A whole lot.
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This is one of those families that was just a joy to capture!
It's officially spring here in NoCo and I couldn't be happier about it! My reasons for happiness are multiple, but for today I'm just going to focus on the fact that spring means portrait season, and that makes me ridiculously happy.
I've been absolutely negligent in posting some of my top favorites from last year's season, so I'm gonna try to take this opportunity before the busyness begins to post a few here on the blog. And this photo above totally captures what I love to capture, joy, connection, friendship... LIFE! I'm probably sounding like a complete broken record, but I really consider it such a privilege to use my camera to capture relationships, love and life. So I hope I get the opportunity to catch a moment with you this season!
Until then...
Honestly, one of the first things that I knew I wanted to do when I heard his diagnosis was to get some images of our family before he started chemo. I was immediately keenly aware that everything was about to change. No matter what else transpires, life is never going to be quite the same. There was in my mind/heart such a craving to freeze this moment. To have images to hold on to that captured all of us before we started down the road looming ahead.
I had been procrastinating getting current family photos taken for awhile...like, 8ish years. I know.
It's hard to make it a priority because: 1) my kids don't absolutely LOVE getting photos taken, 2) there are many moving parts to coordinate now that they are older and living their own lives, 3) I always feel stumped about locations because I know of so many and I can't choose, 4) I'm always worried that someone else will feel stressed taking our photos since we're in the same industry and 5) clothes! (It's a legit struggle to figure out what we should all wear that's comfortable, not clashing and looks good.) So many things seem to stand between me and wonderful family photos that I'll never regret having!
Still, I jettisoned all my excuses and booked a mini session with our amazing friend Karina who serendipitously had a time slot open for us!!
Here is what I want to encourage you with, the time to book a photo session for your family is NOW! Not when life has margin, or when you have everything figured out, or when you've lost 5 pounds, or when that front tooth finally comes in, or when the stars align.. it's right now in the middle of the messy, the awkward, the busy, the uncomfortable, beautiful, hard one of a kind life you're living!
Alex doesn't look like this exactly today... he's got less hair. And when his hair does grow back I have no idea if it's going be what it was. I know for certain that none of us will be exactly as we were...walking through the valley of cancer does that, but I am sooo thankful that we seized this moment, and had these images captured. That's something I'm never gonna regret.
We caught a window of mountain wildflowers up the Poudre that were SPECTACULAR!!! Made my heart so happy...
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I should mention (for the record) that I am not a full time newborn photographer. Let me tell you that it is a niche of photography that takes a specific skill set, environment and set up. Still, I LOVE photographing newborns. Why? Well, it’s the pursuit of a really artistic shot that gets me excited about the challenge. Newborns can be so sleepy that you can’t get them to wake up or so awake that all hopes of that perfect sleeping baby shot evaporates. (This session was more on the awake side, but we did have a few brief sleepy moments too). Sometimes they’re super pliable and content to be swaddled and moved around. But if it’s not their day for sleepy contentment, you know about it!!
I think the challenge is fun, it keeps me on my toes! Plus when you do get some winning shots you can’t help but smile, cause I mean, c’mon…is there anything sweeter than a newborn baby?
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We're back! Back in Fort Collins (which is where I was born, just for those of you that might not know this fun little fact). New Zealand is AMAZING and should most likely make your list of places to visit on planet earth. Our time there was fraught with challenges, filled with beauty, packed with personal growth and has marked our whole family with a love for that country forever. It wasn't all glamourous. We weren't living a lifestyle shoot during golden hour, but it was rich... and don't we often find that it takes a little grit to bring out the shine in a thing?
So what now? Well, now that we're back in Nothern Colorado Daniel is a freelancing videographer and I'm putting energy back into photography and my passion for creating art, telling stories through photos and connecting with people. So if you wanna grab some coffee and catch up, let me know! Meanwhile... it seems appropriate to share a few snapshots of NZ, right? Cheers! Looking forward to re-connecting with you all!
So, somewhere around the middle of August about a month after we decided to take a leap and take a year to explore the southern hemisphere (Wait. What?? Did I miss something? Yes, yes you did and I'm sorry but I will explain. Wait, there is too much... let me sum up. We are traveling throughout New Zealand and Australia until May of 2017. There. You good?) Anyhoooo... we thought to ourselves that perhaps we should offer mini-sessions again to help with the whole money thing that constantly tries to hinder giant leaps and the jumping off of things. And we did. And thanks to all you lovely people who decided to take advantage of this (I tend to want to say AMAZING right here...) deal we booked 21 sessions that we shot in 3 weeks time. Yes... yes I did say 3 weeks. What's that? How did we manage finishing renovations on an older home, packing up life and shooting 21 sessions in 3 weeks time? I could tell you but.....
So. The long and short of it is that now that we have actually arrived in NZ (yes, this lengthy diatribe is coming from New Zealand) I actually have some time to post some of these SUPER lovely family photos! Yay! Buckle up, cause there's gonna be a lot of photos comin' at ya!
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If your kids have changed so much that when you see your last family photo you sigh and say, "Oh my goodness! Remember when _______ was so small?"
If your new found friend comes over to your house for the first time and asks you who that cute family with the little kids in the photo is...
If people aren't accepting your fb friend request because they don't recognize you....
If you absolutely hate the way you looked in your last family photo...
If you just want to capture the moment and you realize there is no time like the present!
So what are you waiting for??
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Here is a canvas I made for the sweetest family ever this summer. We took the images in a great nature area with lots of options for backgrounds and then they picked their favorites and here is the final result:
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