{Queen Creek Senior Portrait Photographer} Megan

Things have been quiet around here. B. Welty went camping this weekend and left his Old Lady (yes I've been watching too much Sons of Anarchy) home alone with the kids. Of course, I didn't post that fact anywhere on Social Media knowing for a fact that once I did the bad guys would come get me when I sleep (again, too much Sons of Anarchy). So while I was left home alone, Social Media-less, I did some brainstorming on blog posts when it hit me that Miss Megan had not graced my little old blog with her presence yet. I can only speak for myself, but I had a total blast with Megan. She watched as I attempted to throw a volleyball at her and snap a picture at the same time and was a total sport about hiking through the weeds. I'm so glad I've had such cool clients who are so willing to brave the Arizona bugs and heat, and yes I wholeheartedly put "bugs" before "heat".

For more information on Senior Portrait pricing, click here.

{Oreo's for Thought}

Does anybody else think that camping is SO much fun and is SUCH a good idea until its 3:00 in the morning and both kids are waking up and you have the sudden realization that you may never sleep again and that every little sound you hear is a bear thats about to eat you?

The good news is that when we went fishing that morning we got some cute early morning pictures of our cute boy. The whole time Brian kept telling me "Wipe off his face first!" But, lets be honest, how many times do you think Jackson sits this still and just lets me photograph him? Yeah. It only lasted about 5 seconds. So I captured him in all his dirty face, grungy clothes, groggy glory.

My first thought was to edit it out in Photoshop. I even went about the process of doing it until I was examining the before and after pictures. I started thinking about pictures of me when I was little, remembering that I was infamous for my always dirty face. Like, the kind of face that somehow always looks like you just ate 10 Oreo's even though you can't actually remember ever eating an Oreo that day. I absolutely love those photos and am really glad that my parents didn't have Photoshop to edit out my little imperfections.

I mean, do I think that those massive bangs were a good idea? Do I wish that that sweatshirt had been washed, like, ever? Do I cringe at the thought that I put my hand up the gills of that fish at one point and probably never washed my hands afterwards? Maybe. But I sure as heck am glad that this moment was captured, and never altered, to show me and all of my Alaska glory.

What do you think? Should we be aiming for perfection or authenticity in the photos we take of our children?

Personally, I'm kind of loving the authenticity. Because that outfit^ is as authentic as it gets.

{Queen Creek Family Photographer} Miles 1 yr Cake Smash!

When I first met Miles he was just a beautiful little newborn boy, only a couple months old and already rocking it for the camera. I remember thinking "These people have the calmest, most easy going, photogenic newborn!!" Fast forward 9 months and you get...

This work of art. A beautiful one year old boy. But do we dare add in a Sock Monkey and cake? Can the world handle so much cuteness in one photograph??

Oh yeah. We went there. 

PS Laura- Your photos will be coming soon! Can't wait!

{Happy Sunday}

Happy Sunday!

I'll be spending my day staring at this beautiful face and wondering, "How is my 6 month old so much cuter than me?" I think my kid is cute, but he looks ridiculously in this picture. Like, freakishly cute. I hope you all have that one picture of you or your loved one where you think, "Dang. Look at that face. That's beautiful." 

Better yet, I hope I took that picture ;)

{Central Coast Couples Photographer} Garret + Lindsay

I can quite honestly say that my husband loves me. That's something I can say with great confidence. Until I get together with my old BFF Lindsay, in which case he wants to get as far away from the shrill, giggly, suddenly 16 year old version of me that will always come out when we get together. We all have that friend though, right? Besides the fact that we tend to regress into our Joaquin Phoenix crushing, Phantom of the Opera quoting, 12 year old boy potty humor loving girls that we used to be, Lindsay is a phenomenal hairstylist now with a hunky boyfriend. Oh, and she speaks Korean. What?

Do you also have that friend that brings out a whole different side of you? Please tell me you do. Or is it just me...

{Queen Creek Senior Portrait Photographer}

I love seniors. Maybe its the fact that we can dish about Grey's Anatomy without any shame, or that they've watched so much ANTM that even Tyra would be jealous of their ability to work the camera, but either way we have fun. Throw in the fact that Bailey is currently going to beauty school part time so she looked absolutely impeccable and you can tell that I had a great time photographing that pretty face! 

By the way, can somebody tell me when High School kids started getting so on top of things? I wish I knew exactly what I wanted to do at that age. I was still losing my baby teeth in High School, certainly not completing my upper level schooling at that time. But that's a story for a different day...

Photo cred: Bailey's mom, Milea. Both of them: Adorable.