A quick update tonight on the training I've been taking through Creative Live with Roberto Valenzuela! I'm about two thirds of the way through now and I've see Roberto handle some problematic scenes and I've also learned some amazing, "gold rules" for posing! So I thought I'd share a few with you guys tonight! Amazing Light-Bulb Moment #1: 1. You don't have to memorize millions of poses to keep the creativity flowing Roberto spent quality time during this training, talking ab

The past few weeks I've been deep in training and education mode. Several of my brides have been asking me about boudoir shoots. While I haven't ventured into this realm of photography until recently, I love the concept behind it. Boudoir shoots are incredibly empowering and also make truly stunning images. And what better time to take these images than on the wedding day? You've got your hair and makeup all done up, you've probably got some fantastic heels to wear, and if yo

So here's the thing about first looks: You're probably think that since I'm a photographer, this is gonna be a post all about light, and yes! Having a first look makes it a lot easier to capture amazing couple shots before the ceremony. Yep, you'll get gorgeous soft light, it opens up a lot of shooting areas around the venue, the benefits from a photographic perspective go on and on. But there's another element about the first look that I think a lot of brides overlook. And t

Well, I know that lots of people out there are more than happy to see 2016 go, but for me, this has been quite the epic year! Not only did I get the chance to meet some wonderful new couples, but this year was also when I really started to find my artistic voice as a photographer. Each wedding was a new chance to tell a love story with light and with my own artistic flare. In the spring of this year, I started the blog. I started tracking my journey, for my clients, friends a

Tonight, the blog is graced with the love story of Melissa and Ryan! But it doesn’t actually start with those two. Melissa’s dad, Graham, is the one who first contacted me. He found me on WeddingWire and told me he was actually in New Zealand (!) but that since he was a photographer in his own right, he had been tasked with finding the wedding photographer for his daughter’s big day. We chatted over email a bit, he sent my work off to the couple, and POOF! it was a magical, d

I’ve been working my tail off on post for the past few weeks, so just a quick note tonight for my photographer buddies out there. It started churning around in my head a few weeks ago, after something my husband said. I was working on post and specifically, I was retouching a beautiful brides skin on a black and white image. My hubby walked by the office and said: “That’s a great one, hon. And you’ve got the perfect background music for it too.” That was all he said as he wen

I was lucky enough to meet these two at the WeddingWire Fall Fete this past October, where they entered to win a free engagement shoot I gave away : ) I was beyond stoked when I drew their name out of the entry box! Ted and “Edy” actually met 10 years ago at a restaurant. They dated for a while, but at the time, Ted was in business school and Edy was a flight attendant. Their hectic busy schedules just didn’t leave a whole lot of time for love at that point. The, five years l

Been busy snapping away at back to back weddings the past few weekends, but wanted to share some fun captures :) Mel and Ryan had a little desert storm drop in on their wedding ceremony, but that's good luck! And it left us with an incredible desert storm sky for their couple shots! (stay tuned for more). My obsession with gorgeous window light and veils has continued! There really isn't anything more intoxicating than a bride wrapped in the translucent, sheer shell of a veil

Laurel and Justin actually found me on Facebook! Gotta love my fellow millennials : ) When she first reached out, I found out that they were actually based in Chicago and that their wedding at the Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch would be a destination wedding for most of their friends and family. The couple flew out to meet vendors and get a feel for the Valley a few months later. I met them at the Cartel Coffee shop in Scottsdale and loved how prepared Laurel was! I fou

It might just be happening to me, but I’m starting to see a trend running through several of my recent wedding bookings . . . indoor ceremony locations! (Cue the scary, dramatic music) Maybe now that it's cooling off for our wedding season here in Arizona, I'll be seeing less of it, but for now, let's talk about how to deal : ) There are a couple reasons most wedding photographers aren’t huge fans of indoor ceremony locations, but the main one is that usually, indoor locatio

Woohoo! Wedding season is well underway and I’ve been busy capturing my couple’s smooches, laughs and tears. Because the hustle and bustle that happens before the big day is always pretty chaotic, I always try to send my brides a little checklist. If they are avid email-checkers, like me, I email it. If they are married to their phone (an who isn’t!?) I send it as a text. If their heads are ready to explode and I think that one more “reminder” might just make them scream, I s

A few weekends ago, I was fortunate enough to shoot, again, at the Royal Palms. Angela and David's wedding created an amazing mix of lighting environments for me to play with. I’m falling more and more in love with the dramatic directional lighting I used to capture the shots below in Angela’s bridal suite. But the Palms is also an amazing location because of all the soft, glorious light that pours in and through its outdoor corridors and walkways. And of course my veil obse

Whew! The beginning of this season has been a busy one! And sadly, that’s made me neglect the blog a bit : ( But don’t worry! I’ll be catching you up on all the fun I’ve been having over the next couple of weeks. At the end of September, I shot a wedding in a beautiful church in central Phoenix (St. Catherine of Sienna’s) followed by a reception at one of my favorite locations (the Royal Palms Resort). It was a fantastically fun wedding! The bride and groom moved here to the

Just a very quick post tonight (I'm a little worn out from this weekend!). I was so honored to be the photographer for a stunning wedding at St. Catherine of Sienna's Catholic Church on Saturday. The ceremony was a classic, Latin Mass, and the reception was at one of my favorite spots in the valley (the Royal Palms). In getting my artistic-mind right for this shoot, I was watching one of Jerry Ghionis's many Chapter Indexes, and I found out that I have a new obsession...veils

I’ve known Noah since I was sixteen. We grew up together on the east side, across the water from Seattle. Noah met Marc in college and it was about that time that he came out to all of us. His family, his close friends, we were all so happy that he had met someone whom he truly loved and who loved him right back. While I ended up leaving Washington and flitting all over the country, Noah and I always kept in touch. Whenever I had a chance to come back to the Northwest, we alw