…to make your Monday morning a little brighter.

{Fresh from The Girls strawberry u-pick farm in Delray Beach, Florida.}

…for your Thursday morning.

That’s Hanna, without the extra “h”. Also known as a super cool international family- so full of life and fun. As I mentioned when I posted Elise’s maternity session, she’s a also an awesome photographer and a great friend. She and her family have been living in Brazil for the past year, but we’ve stayed in touch through the wonders if the Internet. While they were visiting the States for Thanksgiving I had the honor of taking a couple hours to capture them as a family of four for the last time. I can’t wait to watch their family change and grow as they welcome a new baby in just a couple months! She’s going to be such a lucky little girl, with such loving parents and fun big brothers.

For the photo nerds like me: I shot this session with a combination of film and digital. The film is Kodak Portra 400 in a Nikon F4, and the digital is processed with VSCO’s new film presets (which I simply adore).

Elise is a beautiful person (inside and out) and an incredibly talented photographer. Despite the fact that she and her family moved to Brazil shortly after we met back in 2010, I can also call her a good friend, and am lucky for that.

Last year, we learned that we are both expecting, and our due dates are only a couple of days apart! So while she was visiting Florida over Thanksgiving, we got together for some maternity pictures. This session ended abruptly with us (both six months pregnant!) running back to her car in a downpour, but I am so very glad we had a chance to make it happen.

…a very happy (slightly belated) Christmas, and a New Year that exceeds your wildest dreams.

I love capturing love. It makes me smile. It’s contagious. It makes peoples’ true beauty really shine. When I’m photographing couples, I always hope there will come that magical point in the session where they are connecting with one another on such a level that they nearly forget I’m there. Those are some of my favorite moments. They are talking, laughing, and focusing on one another rather than the camera, and I get to see a tiny glimpse of their deeper connection as a couple. Those sweet, tender moments make some beautiful and true images that are usually my favorites from the whole shoot. I’m so thankful to my couples for letting me see and capture a little bit of that for them; it’s one of the best parts of my job, truly.

There are just over three weeks left in 2011. Three. 3. Yeah I know- how is that possible?

Well, all time-space theorizing aside, that means I have three weeks to share with you some of my favorite work from the year, before closing the proverbial books and starting fresh for 2012.

Personally, 2011 was both awesome and challenging. That is pretty much how daily life is when you’re running a business and raising a 2 year old. Seriously nonstop adventure. Artistically, I feel I have grown this year, and allowed myself to try new things and be stretched. That has been amazing, and has resulted in some of my favorite work ever.

If you follow me here or on Facebook or Twitter, you probably remember this artist session with my beautiful friend Mary.
Sometime around April, I decided to act on this idea I’d had to make sessions with artists a new part of my business. Creative types- the writers and musicians, painters and dreamers- are some of my favorite people on earth. I love their depth and unique against-the-grain-ness, their quirky personalities and willingness to think outside the box. I also feel that artists (including myself) tend to struggle with being business-minded about our art, and yet in order to make a living from it, we have to force ourselves to learn. Marketing is a very visual thing these days, and I wanted to provide really special sessions for creative pros that highlight what they do and who they are, with images they can use to promote themselves.

So, back to this Spring. Mary had recently returned to Florida from spending a year in Tanzania (awesome, no?). We hadn’t seen one another for about four years- since graduating from college in 2007, so since we were in the same town again we met at a local hippie coffee joint to catch up. I told her about wanting to shoot artists, and she was totally willing to get in front of my lens. And let me tell you, this lady is an artist. She is a truly gifted actor, an eloquent writer, has a keen photographic eye… and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if she has at least five other creative talents I don’t know about.

We met on this cool rocky beach one evening, and spent a couple hours having a seriously great time. It was a really refreshing shoot- just fun and free, and I feel like the images capture her. She wrote me a note- during the session actually, in my little Moleskine notebook- and in it she said, “Thank you for making me feel real.” That one sentence has been such an incredibly powerful gift to me. It continuously inspires me to truly see each person I photograph. To make people feel real, beautiful, seen… that is worth striving for. It puts into words what I have always wanted to do in my work. Not just using film or pixels to capture what they look like, but telling a visual story of who they are.
So thank you so much, Mary, for your words, your spirit, this session, and your friendship (and let’s go for coffee soon, hmm?).

Some personal work, of my family. Stuart and Lake Worth, FL.

Nikon F4 and Kodak Portra 400.

One tree.
One frame, from a foggy morning.
I woke early today and when I noticed the rare fog out my window, I raced it to this park, hoping to make it in time. One thing I have learned through my art is to trust my gut, and obey my impulse. When something begs to be photographed, when it gets me excited, I have to do it. The results are always exactly what I need- reminding me why I love this, why it is truly an extension of my being. My husband has seen this too- I know because he has pulled over on busy roads, gone miles out of our way, and made illegal u-turns just for me to get a shot. Yes I am beyond grateful.