Pretty Miss Elena stepped in front of my camera for her senior portraits this spring. Such a sweet girl and a complete natural in front of the camera, I see a bright future for this lovely girl.  Congratulations Elena!

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I consider myself very fortunate to have an amazing group of friends who have, over the years, grown to be my family. The last few years (and this upcoming year) our friend family (framily if you will) has been expanding! We have welcomed so many little ones into our group and in essence I have a ton of new nieces and nephews, if by framily ties only ;) And so, of course, I never pass up the opportunity to photograph them, so that they get used to me with my camera attached to my face from a young age! haha.. Miss Maggie graced my camera at 3 weeks (top images) and then again at about 5 months. I just love this little one’s sweet, quick to smile personality and gorgeous eyes.

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Erika and Jovani are the winners of my engagement session contest I held over the holidays. We ventured out on one of the first spring days we had this year to enjoy the warm weather and celebrate their engagement.  I had such a great time photographing them (and their dog Tessa!), the way they made each other laugh was just so sweet. Some days are just perfection ;)

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A beautiful little one, in black & white.

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This is the post where I gush A LOT about my talented friend. (just a warning ;)

My friend Molly is one of those people who never ceases to amaze me. When she decides to do something or try something, she just does it. Whatever she sets out to do turns out amazing. She’s not afraid to ask for help, to take risks or to put her heart on her sleeve… she also takes things in stride, if something doesn’t work as she planned, she is on to the next solution (she’s an awesome role model!). This year she became a mom and this is another one of those ‘things’ that I know she’s going to be amazing at. Molly put all of her talent into creating her little girl’s shabby chic, Alice in Wonderland nursery. There is nothing in the nursery that Molly’s creative hands didn’t touch (her and her amazing hubby Greg, we can’t forget him!). She decorated her nursery crafting and using handmade resources, she painted it (we had a painting party, I helped ;), stenciled the wall and collected vintage Alice in Wonderland pieces from etsy and even created some of her own… AND she even made the bedding (still in process at the time of the shoot)… yes she sews, she’s my hero. This is a collection of images from Maddison’s first few weeks in this world, we got together three times to create these images and it was so much fun to hang out with someone so new to this world and see her grow week by week! I hope you enjoyed these images and are as inspired as I am by them.

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Chris & Marissa were married in January at The Flower Farm in Loomis. The beauty of a winter wedding never fails to take my breath away; the crisp air, rosy cheeks and the low, soft light all come together in perfect unity. They lucked out and had perfect weather to accompany their beautiful and touching celebration. Chris & Marissa are the sweetest couple and I feel so very honored to have been a part of their day.

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Side note for those who like to explore: You can also visit The Flower Farm even if you are not getting married, it’s a working nursery. They have a delicious cafe that serves light meals of organic & local food. It is so worth it to go and explore the grounds of the farm (I can only imagine how it must look when the spring & summer blooms are in!) and look for the gypsy chicks… they are the most adorable chickens I’ve ever seen. Check their website for their open months.

I felt like I was one of Charlie’s Angels when Danielle contacted me to do some non-engagement, artistic portraits of her and her boyfriend Steven. The mission was simple: nothing too mushy, artsy black & whites, an abandoned house and ‘you know the pose with the fork and spoon’…  she was referring to American Gothic by Grant Wood, and I got her vision right away (despite it being a pitchfork and not a fork and spoon haha,  how cute is she?! ) What ensued was this beautiful and fantastically fun shoot one fall afternoon. Danielle is a phenomenal hair stylist at the Mirage Salon & Spa in downtown Vacaville and I can’t wait to shoot more of her and her pretty creations!

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This pretty January wedding is in the works… stay tuned for a full blog post.

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Have a wonderful weekend! xo

-later day edit- PS I was just reading over the first post I ever did about Cooper here and we are STILL working on the lessons: Chew on This, Not Me & Rocks are Not Food…..  except his chewing on me is now much softer but usually for a reason and his rock eating is actually rock chewing in order to get me to exchange the rock for a treat – smarter than the average bear this dog… (yes, he has trained me, DOH!)

Below are a few of my test prints. These are straight out of the camera, no touch ups what-so-ever (ok,  maybe I rotated them in PS ;). There are a few adjustments I need to work on to get my vision & style completely infused into the image (basic exposure and color balances) but I used RPL as my lab and LOVE them. They have a program where they will work with you personally to get your images processed with your specific needs and vision in mind (so cool).

I will tell you what I love about film- the soft, imperfection, the natural, slowed down, back to our roots feel of the whole process. Soft, lighty, slightly mysterious & dreamy happens to be my vision and film seems to be the way to put the cherry on top of that vision ;)

So these are totally random, I wanted to try indoor with natural light (boudoir), outdoor (horses & trees), and then i had a few exposures left before I could send in my order, so inside still life anyone? haha And the first image is of the proof prints I received with my negatives laid out on my new work table!

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