Sydnee + Tony

Oh my goodness! This was awesome.


Let me just say that I got the call to do this wedding on very short notice. (3 days or so?) I had to move some of my photoshoots around but I was so excited! I don't get asked to do brides very often so this was like a super tasty treat for me. In fact I've only done one other ever.




I love that this was their actual wedding day.


and what fun would a wedding shoot be without a little complication to go with? When we got to our location there was zero parking. And I mean anywhere! We parked at the CVS about a half mile away. I don't mind, it added a little spice to our shoot.


If not for that, we never would have found this rad door.


Do you love it? oh I do. I love it.









I don't think she had official bridesmaids but she did have some adorable sisters :) They were so cute they would sit on the grass and read or text. I'm not actually sure what they were doing but it looked like a scene I've imagined before when I'm dreaming of Central Park. Oh how i want to go there someday.





I had to talk this scene up a little. They were skeptical. HAHA. It's fun to be the photographer. You can get people to do all kinds of crazy things.

how bout you hop up on that there water fountain and drag your new wife as you run along the ledge...

I'm almost 97% sure they thought i was kidding.





It was such a beautiful day. The sun was lovely as ever.





I adore this last one. Thank you Sydnee and Tony for being so trusting and such good sports about some of the unforeseen circumstances that arose. Wish you pure bliss forevermore!

You've never played fast hotdog?

Meet Annalee. She married Ben.


Me and Ben go waaaaay back. Like to forever ago. You see he is my cousin, very close in age and growing up his family lived seven houses down from us.


I have fond memories of my dad playing fast hotdog with him.


{ completely off subject }

Doesn't this look like a page out of a childrens book?

Still working on my textures :)


back to my fond memories...

I also remember him gobbling up the rice pudding whilst proclaiming his utter dislike for it...


It really wasn't that good you know. it consisted of cooked rice mixed with milk and sugar and cinnamon, maybe a dash of nutmeg. When you're a kid I think you pretty much eat sugar however it comes to you. Am I right?

I know my kids eat it straight out of the canister! It doesn't even taste good like that!


I think he turned out pretty good considering I did hit him in the head with a hammer! Yes I do feel bad about that but in my defense I was like 5, and he probably deserved it. j.k. (sort of)





awwww so sweet :)





What an awesome family! Thanks for letting me and my camera hang out with you that one lovely spring day!

Oh Lola dear...

Ok so I am entering this photo contest in hopes of winning a beautiful Lola bag from the beyond snapshots blog.

Seeing as how i've never entered a photo contest of any kind before I hope I am at least sort of grasping the concept here.

The theme is RED



Now i don't know if this photo means red but when I look at it my eye is drawn to the red, and the red is what I love about it :) well that and the pure delight on the children's faces!

wish me luck ( I will need it! I saw some pretty sweet looking images entered already)

Katie, your kids are on my blog.

I've been super busy. You know the good kind where your loving every moment!

I am going to be posting some of the delightful people I've been photoing over the next few days (or so).


I am supposed to be at Target getting birthday invites for Kassidy so I will keep this very short...


These little cuties are my little neighbor friends. I <3 them.





... exploring texture...

















Oh Katie, guess what. As was looking through your folder for the ones I wanted to post I couldn't find this one of Eli I loved...

I was stumped as to what happened to it! Well after much searching I found it misplaced in the un-edited folder. So surprise for you... theres one more! Hope you like it.

xo jill

When the light is right

Just stop the car. Where ever you are. Get out. Photograph.

You will be ever so pleased!


Middle of nowhere, AZ
in the 5 o'clock hour
perfect light
Spring break 2010

Theres more where that came from! Thankful to have carved a day out for family this year.

(usually not an issue, this spring break I've been busy photoing lovely people)

So a whole day just for us. We hunted desert wild flowers.

Tomorrow... a blushing bride! So excited :)

Happy Spring!

I caught this bee buzzing around my yard the other day whilst I was out taking photos of some of my favorite things to show you!

I dare not zoom out for fear you see what my yard actually looks like right now which is a horrible weedy discombobulated mess! This way you just see the lovely, and skip the icky :)

Well anyhow... lately I've been thinking how much pleasure certain "things" in my life give me. No not love and life and/or anything gooey like that. No. THINGS... like actual simple pleasure things.


You know like my current flavor of perfume.

Meet Chloe.

oh she is so lovely. I first met Chloe perusing the perfume isle of Nordstrom last summer it seems. When you first spray this on it has a floraly scent. Oh but as it sits on your skin it transforms into this soft powdery floral thats sweet and soft and delicious.

Every time I walked through Nordstrom I would stop and get a sample. It was a good tactic till I suspected they were on to me. Then I got self conscious and would ask for different samples to go along with so as to throw them off track... most of which I abhor!

So happy birthday to me. I finally broke down and bought it.


oh and then there's these little lovelies!

Here's a little secret of mine. I LOVE to buy clearance food at Williams Sonoma. Have you ever bought food there before? They've got some good stuff! One of the best things to get there is Olive oil. Occasionally it will go half or more off original price and when it does I stock up like crazy! I really do. This is because its high quality, it's always in a dark bottle no matter the brand so it stores very well and it's oh so goooood :)

but this one time they had these little ginger chips half off. I though sure I will try them for $2.50... oh man, that little can in the picture has the very BEST recipe for gingersnaps on it!

Now I know what you're thinking, give us the stinkin recipe woman! Well let me tell you I would but I have my sneaking suspicions that you'd head on over to your local grocer and raid the crystalized ginger isle all with high hopes for the best fresh baked gingersnaps you've ever parted your luscious lips for. And that would be fine and good except for that one time I gave the recipe to my sister and she did exactly that. She claims they were good but not as good as the ones I make, which has me wondering... what is it about those little ginger chips made by The Ginger People that makes those cookies extra delicious? Maybe nothing, I don't know i've never used anything else but my advice to you is go get these ginger chips, you'll have the recipe. Make them as directed first... experiment with other stuff later. Decide for yourself if it matters :)



I love a great find! As you know i love to sew as much as i love to photo. A few weeks ago I got some cute things at a little local boutique type store in mesa called Domestic bliss. Among them was this beautiful antique heirloom french lace!! Oh how utterly divine it is! You may remember the dress I made Natalie for her baptism a couple years ago...

yes well I do quite love heirloom sewing, and that lace can be very pricey! I was surprised when they said I could have it all for just $5. hehe... they have no clue do they? Grandma died and it was part of her collection of stuff they were getting rid of. You wont hear me complaining :)


Ahh. the adenium obesum... or more commonly know as the Desert Rose. Saw this last month when we trekked up to the Boyce Thompson arboretum. It was love at first sight. i had to have one. Even after the employees swore they didn't have one, my determined searching proved to pay off as I found me one of my very own!


Pretty ain't she?! haha just kidding.

She's just a twig at the moment. I put her near some pretties to fancy her up for her photoshoot :) I have some serious high hopes. Like hopefully I don't killer her before she has a single bloom!!


We have a little garden (seriously quite tiny) over on the side of our house. Alive only thanks to the rain I'm sure.


Or maybe Natalie had something to do with it. She started us off by planting this pea plant from seed.


We added the tomatoes, leeks, herbs, and peppers later. Happy to report ALL DOING QUITE WELL at the moment.


I thought this was super cool. It's a doll Chad parents brought back from Argentina a couple years ago....

except shes in a new outfit! Yep, apparently Natalie sews! Who knew? I had no idea she was doing this but imagine my surprise when I found her all prettied up! Honestly this is an improvement to what she came home from Argentina in! So stylish. If you look close you can see that she actually sewed this with needle and thread! A girl after my own heart :)

While I was editing her photos I noticed something weird about her though... See in the first one how shes looking straight off into the distance? Happy and bright eyed but mostly straight ahead?


Well notice in this one my angle from above. Does she appear to be looking up at me? Can dolls do that?!


And what is this? Could she be scared for her life as a jubilant 3 year old takes hold and shakes her relentlessly?

I see worry in her face. Can that be? I swear she's freakin me out!

Sweet dreams all :)