remember me? i know, right? i thought maybe i’d take a hot second to update you pretty people on what’s cooking!

- we just returned from our bi-annual biennial (did you know that’s the correct way to say ‘every other year’?) trip to st john. we had a great time, although the weather totally sucked. as in, we had more rain this trip than all our other trips combined. i did manage to get enough sun hours to totally fry myself though, so don’t feel too sorry for me.

- i’m a little sad to announce that i am completely booked until late september and october only has a couple spots left. because of my own wedding, i decided not to take any bookings for august (though, 2 managed to get on there….i have the “i can’t so no” illness. but i’m telling the internet now that i am full. see, internet? full.) or the week before my september 8th wedding so that i may retain some sort of lucidity.

- i will be blogging matt and heather’s fabulous indianapolis wedding next week. i’m seriously beyond jazzed to show you guys the magic we created that day. ugh. so great.

- i’ll also finally be out shooting this weekend. aubrey will be back for her 6th month photos and i’ll also be shooting a new newborn client! i love new clients and new beginnings.

- wedding planning is in overdrive! while we probably aren’t, both josh and i feel completely behind the 8-ball. i keep reminding myself, though, that as long as we’re both there, we have a photographer (priorities, people) and someone to marry us, we’ll be a-ok.

happy friday, beautiful people! i hope you have a fabulous weekend!

both images shot at cinnamon bay, st john usvi, using a canon 5d mark ii and a canon 50mm 1.4.

one thing i’ve noticed after interacting and photographing so many couples, is that i leave the shoot with a memory. it might be something funny that happened, something stupid i said, how sweet the couple acted toward each other, etc. i keep looking back at this shoot and my memory is a sound. the infectious sound of angela’s laugh. i got so many great laughing shots (my favorite kind) from this shoot and going through each one caused a little sound bite to go off in my brain. i LOVE it.

a&d, i had SO much fun getting to know both of you better. i’ll be honest, though, your personalities left me feeling like i’ve known you for years. i so enjoyed sharing wedding planning stories and travel tips. i absolutely love when i discover interests i have in common with my couples! it also makes me even more excited to spend an entire day with you this fall! much love, you two. i hope you love your photos as much as i do.

hello, gorgeous.

gear used: canon 5d mark ii, canon 50mm 1.4, canon 24-70 2.8

i’m speaking for myself here and don’t mean to overgeneralize, but as a photographer there are certain locations in which one dreams of shooting. places usually inaccessible to the “normal” person. in this area, for me, that place is league stadium in huntingburg, indiana. more famously known as the home of the rockford peaches. even more famously known as the place tom hanks, madonna, gena davis and rosie o’donnell spent a long summer making one of the most famous sports movies of all time. that place. anthony just so happened to know some people and we were granted access to the stadium. swoon.

when i first met with emily and anthony, i was so thrilled that they booked me. thrilled. i could tell from the moment i met her/them that i wasn’t just a photographer to them. emily knew my work, appreciated it and wanted it for her own. is there a better feeling in the entire world? no. after our shoot i couldn’t help but smile because it seemed emily and i were on the exact same wavelength. i’d suggest a certain pose i a certain location and she’d say “i was SO hoping we’d do this shot!” and this isn’t even mentioning that i believe emily is one of the most joyful spirits i’ve ever been around. i obviously don’t know her the best but i kept walking away wondering if anything gets her down! what an impressive quality.

these two are a great ying/yang partnership. anthony’s quiet-yet- strong disposition yields to emily’s bubbly, light-hearted personality. i can see why they compliment each other, bring out the best in each other. i wish them nothing but the best and can’t wait until their september wedding! (it will be the first wedding i shoot as a married lady! woah…)

gear used: canon 5d markii, canon 24-70 2.8, canon 50 1.4

it seems lately my life has a reoccurring theme: traveling at warp speed. my brain is full of wedding details, work projects that seem to keep piling up, and weekends booked solid with photo shoots. let me be clear that none of these are bad problems. they’re all beautiful and i am solidly thankful for them. however, as i’m sitting here looking at the date i realize that it was a month ago this weekend that josh asked me to marry him. how in the WORLD has 30 days gone by?

over easter weekend josh and i hit the road, bound for a niece and nephew in ohio. we even managed to care for both children (which included a trip to the zoo) by ourselves. it was so nice to have a couple days where my to do list included nothing more than reading 24 books to hadley.

here’s to a weekend of clearing your mind of clutter and taking time to enjoy the simple things.

oh these two. well, three. i don’t think i’ve ever been around a more physically in love couple. and keep in mind, i was coming off my own engagement high the day earlier when we took these! and we should really take a moment to let ashley know how amazing she looks! only 3 weeks left, right??

kyle is a chef and they met while working at the same italian restaurant. the same restaurant where they later got engaged. meaningful. i loved that they picked the belevedere right on the lousiville side of the ohio river for their shoot. as ashley said, it’s not the most beautiful place, but it’s special them since it was the site of their first date. meaningful. it’s that kind of sentiment that lasts in life. not flowers from first dates or earrings for your first anniversary.

i can’t wait for your wedding this fall, you two! and by then, you’ll be three!

in case anyone cares, my favorite photo is the first one, above. closely followed by this one:

seriously, ashley, you are so beautiful. i can’t wait to capture you as a bride!

much love, guys. i’ll be thinking about you in these coming weeks and i can’t wait to catch up in october!

say hello to my newest newbie! isn’t he precious? kipton was such a little champ for our photos, sleeping nearly the entire session! however, like a gentleman, he let us know when he was finished with photos by peeing through his diaper, all over my wrap. that’s ok, though, it was warranted. kyle, audrey, i hope he keeps up such great newborn behavior and thanks again for inviting me into your home to capture such a precious time in your lives.

check out those baby lashes!

gear used: canon 5d mark ii, canon 50mm 1.4, canon 24-70 2.8. oatmeal hat knitted by my mom.

josh asking me to spend the rest of my life with him!

i obviously couldn’t have been more happy to say “yes.” and so begins the whirlwind of wedding planning!

you know those people, in life, who live up to every word people say about them, like it’s almost too good to be true? “oh, he’s such a sweetheart”…”isn’t she the sweetest?” brooklyn and terry aren’t too good to be true-they’re the real thing. the last time i spent time with brooklyn, she was about 5 (true story) when i used to spend a lot of time with her older sister. she has blossomed into such an extraordinary woman who i believe possesses an old soul (my favorite kind of people) beyond her years. and terry…what a guy. do you know he did some serious damage to his ankle 4 days before our shoot and not only was he on crutches, but he was in terrible pain? oh no, you didn’t know that bc he is SUCH a trooper and put up with my orders while flashing a smile the entire time. there is so much light and love that radiates from this family (terry included) and their closeness should be a lesson taught to all. because, really, without family, what else is there?

terry, brooklyn, i am SO unbelievably excited for your wedding in june. it’s going to be a celebration of life and love and i feel truly honored to be a part of it. oh and terry, please oh please be careful from now until then, k? no crutches on wedding day, s’il vous plaît.

these next few photos were taken on brooklyn’s mom’s back porch. isn’t that area the stuff dreams are made of? it’s the stuff my dreams are made of, anyway.

enjoy your slideshow!! (btw this is something new i’m going to do for weddings and engagements this year-what do you think??)

gear used: canon 5d mark ii, canon 24-70 2.8, canon 50mm 1.4.

this is the first of two shoots i was able to do while we visited washington, dc last weekend. i met luis and gigi while moonlighting as a hostess at a really awesome restaurant in the city. lots has changed since then, including the addition of little lou! is he not the handsome-est?! i about died when he walked up in that little jacket (with his hands in his pockets). and gia. she has grown up a LOT since i last saw her and i was stunned at the fact that she seemed to remember me! kids who know no strangers are amazing to me as that was a quality i didn’t posses as a child. gia embraced me with open arms, thanking me for helping her with her “flat stanley project” nearly 3 years ago. what a gem.

i was so special to not only be able to have a couple shoots while in town but to be able to reconnect with people who were once a really big part of my life. thanks, luis and gigi, for asking me to photograph your beautiful family. i hope our next visit isn’t 4 years in the making!

how did i live in dc for so long and NOT walk to the top of the national archives building? there are THE MOST amazing columns at the top. i was dying over the light up there. take notice, fellow dc photographers!

gear used: canon 5d mark ii & canon 50mm 1.4

hi friends! i wanted to drop the sad news that i am completely booked until july. i’m so sorry if you’ve been meaning to contact me but haven’t had the time. i do have plenty of openings for july and august, though!

this spring is all about engagement sessions (e-sessions) which, i can’t even explain how happy that makes me. in fact, for the next 6 weeks, every weekend brings either an e-session or wedding in front of my lens. i’m elated that my business is finally stearing in this direction. it’s something i wanted since the day i decided to start this little venture (do you remember my first ever session was an e-session?) and while it’s taken me a long time to say it, i can officially say i am a predominantly wedding-based business. does that mean i won’t be shooting families/seniors/babies? heck no! in fact, i have a newborn prepping to make his/her arrival (soon, right, audrey??)! it just merely means that i am focusing on what i am over-the-moon passionate about and all my other friends are icing on the cake.

aside from the business things are going really well! the weather this week has been incredible and has sparked lots of honey-do lists around my house! (josh is rolling his eyes right now)

we were also able to get away last weekend for a quick trip to dc! i made some photo goals come true by attending jasmine star’s “the fix” evening, which was really fantastic. being surrounded by 195 photographers is….interesting to say the least.

we filled in the gaps of the rest of the weekend with roaming around our former city, eating (holla dc’s shake shack….so frigging good.) and finally, i capped off the weekend with 2 adorable family shoots (the first image was from one of them) which will be on the blog next week!

oh and finally, beau says “happy early easter”! that, or, “i want a jelly bean, lady”!