san diego & the feather love workshop

Last week, I headed to San Diego for a workshop hosted by Noa from Feather Love Photography.  I've been in love with her work for a while and I couldn't wait to meet her and hear her insights.  I'm such a nomad - it was wonderful to be on the road and working from a hotel room and getting intentionally lost in an unfamiliar city.  I would honestly travel from place to place and live out of hotel rooms forever if I had the chance.  Plus the sunshine - dear God, the sunshine...  As I'm writing this right now, I'm looking out the window at a cold white sky, bare branches, and an icy brutal wind that is quickly making the roads impassible.  Coming from a snowy little mountain town at 8,000 feet to glorious T-shirt weather where the trees are still green was so refreshing.  What I wouldn't give to be back in San Diego right now.. :)

My hotel was right across the street from the water!

A huge thanks to Noa's friends and our models for the workshop.  Beautiful people, beautiful weather.

The lovely Turtle Julian:

New friends and kick-ass ladies Amber (Live it Out Photography), Jenna (Flutter Glass Photography), Carolyn Shearer, and Turtle Julian

Love the light in this one.

Love this shot of fellow workshoppers walking out the  back door:

That amazing light in the image on the left is what I want my entire life to feel like:

We finished up the workshop in Noa's awesome studio space.

And then we had a dance party.  Until, like 3:30 am.

I left the workshop with a thousand ideas and a lot of thinking to do.  I'm definitely looking forward to making some positive changes to my business.  I still have a lot of processing to do but am totally inspired!  Noa - thank you SO MUCH for pushing me in the right direction and letting us take a little peek into your awesome life, style & home.  Love you all!

santa fe & the diving bell (santa fe lifestyle photographer)

I am probably the most annoying person to go to Santa Fe with.  I grew up there, it feels like home, and every time I get to go back I get all excited and start talking a lot... not good for anyone involved :)  Thankfully my friend Brynn put up with me for a few days, and we had all kinds of random adventures.  I am more in love with this place every time I visit.  Plus, it's been winter here in BV for almost two months, and in Santa Fe, it's still fall!

We came back through Taos.  Bryn brought a papier-mache diving bell.  We are awesome.

thanksgiving (colorado lifestyle photographer)

Thanksgiving is always amazing at my parents' house.  Not only is my mom an amazing cook, but she's a little Martha Stewart clone too - you know, minus the jail time :)  Seriously, everything always looks as amazing as it tastes.  I missed my sister this year (who's living out of state in a tent) but we were joined by my grandpa.  He and I made the mashed potatoes together this year, despite my notoriously terrible cooking.  At one point he asked me with mock seriousness, "So... do you think you can handle boiling the water?"  Hehe... thanks, Grandpa :)I come from a family of orange ranchers, and I think just the sight and smell of oranges makes us all happy - even the little Colorado ones :)

Good call on the rosehips, madre:

I think I ate all of this cheese.  No, but, for real.

I love my family!  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

sarah & ryan

I'll be honest ... I don't really know how to write this one.  It's been in my drafts folder for several weeks as Sarah and I played phone tag, and it just didn't feel quite right to post yet... so here goes the original:Sarah and Ryan have been together for several years.  They've known each other since high school, and when I asked them how they met, Sarah joked about following him around until he gave in and started paying attention to her :)  Now they've fallen in love, they have an adorable puppy... and Ryan has cancer.  Everywhere.

As soon as Sarah contacted me about doing a session, I just knew it was something that was absolutely essential for me to do.  Ryan was in a lot of pain that day, but the images we got are sweet and real and wonderful anyway.  Meeting both of these awesome people has made my life brighter.  Sarah & Ryan : thank you, thank you, thank you.

As I mentioned above, I wrote this post a few weeks ago and have just been sitting on it until I got the okay from Sarah.  She stopped by the studio yesterday morning to let me know, over tears and coffee, that Ryan recently passed away.  We did the session at just the right time - within a few days of our shoot, he was in too much pain to leave the house.  Sarah, my dear - my heart goes out to you.  I know words are totally useless at a time like this, but I love you already and I can't wait to get to know you better.

If you'd like to make a donation to Sarah & Ryan's photography registry, please contact me directly.

If you'd like to join with me in making a donation to the American Cancer Society in Ryan's name, just let me know.

scheduling & blue glass jars

Whew!  What a season.  Summers and falls are usually pretty busy for me, but nothing could have prepared me for this last season - it was CRAZY!  For about the last four months, I've been working or on the road 6-7  days a week, and probably an average of 13 hours a day. Getting behind the camera has continued to be a peaceful and therapeutic thing for me, my moment of Zen in a sea of chaos - that time with my clients / new friends is precious.  In order to give my clients my absolute best, and to keep myself from going totally insane, I'm going to be booking a limited number of sessions & weddings from here on out.  I'll also only be shooting one wedding per weekend in 2011.That being said, I'm already about halfway booked for 2011 summer / fall weddings, so if you're interested in having me shoot your wedding in 2011, let me know as soon as you can!  Also, it's never too early to schedule your senior portraits - this year I was booking 4-6 weeks in advance, so the sooner I can put you on the schedule, the better :)

On a totally unrelated sidenote, I picked up all these awesome blue glass jars at an antique shop the other day.  I don't even know what I'm going to use them for, but I think they're super cool.  What should I do with them?  Send me your creative ideas and I'll love you forever!