“A person's a person, no matter how small.” Dr. Suess

ENERGY??? Maybe what kid doesn't??.....I had so much fun in a matter of about 40 minutes in a shoot with three children, the sun was fading quickly and we all were chasing kids....

When the wonderful mother of the children contacted me to get pictures she kept telling me that her kids were going to be difficult...

13year old EASY {I got this in the bag} 

5 year old FUN {I was thinking this is when they are the most fun}

 and 

2 year old HMMMM {We might be able to get so say "on the run" shot or other words action shots}

We could call this our miracle baby born I believe at 26 weeks...WOW! 

 Natural! Do you see that smile? WOW! 

While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
-Angela Schwindt-

Awww...do you see that sad face, I couldn't resist! 

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I LOVE these kids! 

Thank You Susie for giving me the opportunity 

to photograph your beauties!

Boojum Tree {hidden gardens} S + M Engagement Shoot

Rain or shine....Is all I kept thinking with a few days before the shoot. Let me take you back a few weeks, after a few emails, like 14, back and fourth from Sabra and many ideas on locations we finally picked a day and place. I knew a few emails in, that this chick was COOL! So sweet she had so many rad ideas on locations, i just kept getting more and more excited when she would say well maybe this place, I had no idea what any of them were but had fun Google-ing them! 
Below is ONE of the entrances into the Venue.....

Stunning right! Well and OF COURSE Sabra, look how cute she is with her little sun dress and flower! As you can see the ground was still wet, which called for just about all standing up poses! 
Did that STOP us NO!!! 

One of the reasons Matt and Sabra chose this location is because, these TWO love birds are getting married this October in HAWAII! So fun right?? Boojum Tree is as close to Hawaii as your going to get in Arizona! And not only is this, as close as your going to get to Hawaii in Arizona, but this is a Photographers Disneyland!!
Random doors, Bright colors, Natural sun light, and i even got the whole package with a stunning couple, 
what more could I have asked for! 

I saw the truck below when I pulled up, I was in heaven I just had to be a little creative on poses as it was a little soggy everywhere so we really couldn't get in it,
i  just had to make it look cute around them! 

Well all in all it rained for the first thirty minutes, but we were able to capture some poses in covered locations and then for the last thirty minutes we were able to use the natural sunlight! I'm so glad I was the chosen one to experience this with Matt and Sabra. I wish them nothing but luck on another Chapter of their life! 

There is only one happiness in life,
to love and be loved.

- George Sand -

One for fun! 

One look
One smile
One touch
One embrace
One kiss
One love
Two people
Two minds
Two souls
Two destinies
One road
One journey
One ending
Together.

- Melissa Higgins -

OOOOOOhhhh, AND keep checking in as i STILL have a another session with this cute couple and a different location!!!!

Hot {air} Balloon Excursion

I feel like I could be considered an adrenaline junkie, so when mark opened our Christmas present from his Dad and step mom I couldn't have been more excited to find out that we were going {UP}. By Up I mean a hot air balloon ride! Now Mark on the other hand NOT so excited......If you don't know mark very well, or even those who do, maybe surprised to find out that we have never had Christmas lights on our house, not because we don't want too, but because Mark is terrified of heights! So therefor hot air balloon ride was the last thing Mark was going to be jumping up and down for!

In the beginning.....
Well we were to arrive at 6:45 AM, Brrrrr!!! Mind you at deer valley airport...We get there sign in find a van waiting for us in which we packed 12 adults in a van to travel to a remote location where we were to take off from....2 things; ONE, as mark and I are sitting in this van looking around at twelve adults we are thinking, are we all going in the same balloon and TWO is the weather going to hold up in order for us to go up today??


The Inflation.....

After what seemed like 30 min. of driving we finally get to the umm DESERT, middle of no where! we now sign our life away, as you can see mark doing in the picture and watch ONLY two men put together this whole balloon that will be holding twelve grown adults in! (Can you tell I'm freaking out about twelve people being in the same balloon at once?!?)

As we are waiting for out balloon to be put together, we now watch another balloon leave ground, the nerves start kicking in and i now am getting anxious, nervous and EXCITED all at once! C'MON! 

UP, UP and Away.....

WE ARE IN GUYS! FINALLY!!!!

This fire and so say MOTOR is what makes this bad boy GO and its HOT and its LOUD! 

Did I say LOUD!?!?

Oh ya and this is our Pilot! I forgot his name already, pretty funny guy though! --------------------->>>>

           

AND we are off!!! So INTENSE....... 

Our Shadow! 

All the rest is scenic views I took, ENJOY see what you can spot, downtown, flagstaff, four peaks, anthem, lake pleasant, and lots lots more.....

Oh P.S. once we got in the air we were on cloud nine literally all the jitter bugs were out of Mark and I and we both did so well. Most all Mark made it through....With only one hiccup keep reading! 

This is where we took off from! Soooo High! 

This is a balloon below us, we were at about 4,000 feet up in the air....

Now the FUN photographer side comes out in me....I feel like I took this picture symbolizing what we were in... A WICKER BASKET literally! Pretty amazing shot.....

The look through Mark's eyes! 

{Giggle, Giggle}

Back to Earth Again....

Ok now PREPARE for landing, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of our landing that's because i was on my butt in the bottom of the basket having a panic attack while mark held me tight with his legs laughing....YES this is the truth. So we are done with our about an hour in a half flight when we now have to prepare for landing, well not us but the pilot :0). If you didn't know just a little briefing about flying these beasts.

HOT AIR BALLOONING 101

 *No the pilot cannot steer...He steers but traveling up and down in altitudes and uses the wind to take us in our hopeful direction....

*Also when the pilot gives the balloon heat its suppose to carry us up in the sky, BUT it has about what feels like a 5 min. delay.

So with that said back to landing....We are trying to land and there are so many power lines that it makes it hard to do...so we tried to go down a few times and then we'd shoot back up, mind you we are so low and this balloon is so loud and its only 9 o'clock in the morning, that people are coming out of there houses taking pictures and waving to us....So we finally find a location were we want to land but mind you its just about a three acre kind of open lot in someones BACKYARD yes backyard........we start to come in WAY faster than I would have ever liked to, AND way closer to a house and fence then I could have ever imagined...and boom we hit ground, back up again, boom hit ground, back up and again and a final boom to finalize the landing......Oh my, now the pilot is yelling for a few gentleman to jump out and move the basket over so that when the balloon deflates it doesn't hit close power lines....HOLY CRAP, they should have seat belts in these baskets for landings like that! No one prepared me for this and I was scared....At this point the owner of the home (Who happens to look like the UFC fighter Chuck Liddell) comes running out with his pit bull...Oh lord I thought we were going to get eaten! The homeowner actually ended up being a charm {<3} and took pictures while repeating,

"its not everyday a hot air balloon lands in your backyard!" 

:0) SO FUNNY!   

CHEERS We Are Alive! 

Hot Air Expeditions, Inc.

www.hotairexpeditions.com

602.502.6999

Will You Be My Valentine?

The day before Valentines I couldn't have asked for a better shoot, a shoot where in every picture you can see the love that this mother shares with her adoring son! SO much LOVE it makes me want to have another and another and another!!! 

I not only was so blessed to have met Marilyn and her son Christopher for the first time at this shoot (BOTH STUNNING) but I also couldn't have asked for a better day! The weather was perfect and ya you would never known but around us there was an antique tractor show going on!! Side note: I had never seen so many men at one function wearing suspenders in my LIFE! 

<3 kisses <3 

Its funny how people see art, as my mom would say to the below picture (TRUE STORY) where is the rest of the baby?? Why cant I see it centered.....? Well............

MOM its art! She called me this morning and told me she saw a show last night on photography and how to capture romantic portraits....BELIEVE IT OR NOT....my mom said.."and guess what they said don't always capture them directly in the middle, maybe put a couple on the one side of the couch but take the photo of the whole couch!" Weird maybe thats why I do photography and she doesn't! I <3 you mom!

Happy Birthday too! =0)

Mommy made this shoot so easy, every movement was so sincere I hardly had to tell her what to do like the picture below...I never told her to close her eyes...but she looks just caught up in this moment with her baby boy! PRECIOUS! 

Or even this one...

<3

Last but not least, I had to add a funny story. When I arrived at the shoot I was waiting for Marilyn and Baby Christopher, sitting on a step of a white barn looking structure infested with cats...nice cats for the most part. Keep in mind it is about 8:30AM and this rooster OUT OF NO WHERE  comes pretty darn close to me and evidently thought I looked tired because next thing you know he cock-a-doodle-doo'd 

sooo loud it scared me so i'm putting this rooster on BLAST! Say hello to...

LOUD MOUTH!