The Beach + a Camera

Like most of the world, we took off to the beach for Memorial Day weekend. What better place to feel grateful for everything? I'd never been to Hilton Head Island, SC, so that's where we decided to go. What a beautiful place! The Hilton Oceanfront Resort was incredible. There was amazing food, great live music, and of course, the beautiful beach. For once, I finally tried some new food. Swordfish is great!
In this case, the photos tell the story better than my words.

Almost there. :)

This was waiting for us with a card from the resort. :)

Climbing the lighthouse-and yes, we have a penny passport book for these.

About to walk out onto the top of the lighthouse.

The swordfish was great!

My wonderful assistant. :)

Seriously, my favorite place.

Every time I walked by this, I laughed.

This is very much his personality this early in the morning.

Got up around 5:30am to go out and catch the sunrise.

I hope you enjoyed looking through these. And if you're still reading this, thank you for making it to the end of this post. :)

Spring + Cute Basil

This adorable little girl probably had more fun that we did, which always makes me happy! She played with her stuffed animals, made funny faces, and pointed out things to us that she felt were important. These are all reasons I LOVE photographing kids! Her mom was very appreciative of them, and I hope to continue many sessions in the future with Basil. She makes my job easy!

Here are some shots from her fun little Springtime session:

Possibly my favorite expressions-ever. :)

Road Trips + Photo Sessions

Part of the beauty of being a photographer is that I get to take road trips for my job. I love road trips!
This weekend, I ventured out to a new, undiscovered town north of here for a photo session, and a visit, with my amazing, beautiful cousin, Ericka.

The day started out with us scouting locations, and then we started the fun! She was hilarious! I had the greatest time catching up with her and she is so beautiful that she made my job SUPER easy. Here are a few of her:

After the first location, we actually went to these ADORABLE little kids' birthday party (3-year-old triplets and their 2-year-old little sister). Yes, this weekend was very unpredictable.

After that, I got to meet her boyfriend, and we all ended up heading out to find location number two for their photo session. Somehow, we ended up at a mountain festival? It was actually pretty cool. So, we got their photos taken, and then walked around the festival. Here are a few of them:

The funny part comes in as we were about to leave. We bought some Italian ice, and started to make the trek back to our cars. The guy driving the golf cart shuttle asked if we needed a ride, so we decided to hop on the back. I wish you could picture what happened next: we were trying hold onto our mound of Italian ice (which was quickly melting in the heat) and trying to explain to the guy (who told us he couldn't hear very well) where our car was parked. Little did we know, he took off like lightning, and there we were...almost flying off...face first...onto the pavement. Not to mention all the people staring at us as we laughed our heads off. And then...there we went...THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF TOWN...with this guy driving like crazy. Needless to say, by the time we made it to our car, our ice had melted down our arms, but we were safe. I'm thinking it's probably one of those "you had to be there" things, but I thought I'd share just in case. I'm pretty sure we laughed for about an hour about it.

Morning Routine + Some Laughs

Before venturing off from my small town to attend college for photography, I worked at an accounting office. Yes, imagine this non-math girl working with numbers. It's almost comical, but that job was a blessing, and I'm very grateful to have had it.

However, I've never been a huge morning person, so I have always had a few morning routines to help with that. For example, when I worked there, we always gathered in the kitchen to make coffee and catch up. Then, I would go to my office and read the day's comic on my Dilbert desk calendar. Hey, it's the small things in life, right?

For some reason, most of them would make me laugh so hard, I would have tears. Unfortunately, no one else in the office "got it". Oh well, after all these years, I still have two of my favorites that I kept.
So, as I'm having my morning coffee, I thought I should share them with you.

Hopefully you at least get a little chuckle out of it?
And, remember, these are TWO different ones. :)

Enjoy your day!

Never Say Never + Writing Songs

I still remember how I felt when I walked out of the theater after seeing '8 Mile'. I felt like I could conquer the world. Little did I know, I would very soon get that chance.

I went through some things that made me a better person-a more creative, loving, hard-working person.
There have been countless times where various people have made the comment to me that I always accomplish whatever I put my mind to. It has taken me years to realize they were right. What a wonderful feeling to look back on life and not just see mistakes, but also some accomplishment.
I set quite a few goals for myself in high school (as terrified as I was at the time), and somehow accomplished them all. Well, except for being voted in my Senior year as Student Government Secretary, but I'll live with that defeat. haha! It just taught me that I do not belong in politics.
With every horrible job I had, I gave it my all, and only got fired from one of them-a fast food place...I'm hearing an old Avril Lavigne song in my head as I'm typing this. :)
And as much as I tried to run away in fear from my passion for music and photography, life was pretty determined to push me in that direction despite me. After five years of running from The Art Institute, I went and graduated...and now...after YEARS of running from music, I've officially started TRYING to write. By no means are my goals with this to play in any type of venue, but I simply just want to sit in my living room and throw a concert for one. To be able to turn my words into songs would just put the icing on the cake for me so far in my life.
I realized that when I try to go to sleep at night, that's when songs try to write themselves in my head. So, I've started writing them down. However, my biggest inspiration for pursuing music is my great, and amazingly talented friend, Nguyen. When you surround yourself with people who believe in your crazy little dreams, you figure out quickly that they are the reason you are able to accomplish things in life.
Many years ago, I wrote my first song while at the beach in Jacksonville, FL. That will be the first one that gets put to music, and I hope my new, leather journal gets filled.
Talk about fantastic-if I had the joy of writing music on top of my amazing job of working with the best clients/friends in the world with my photography-I would pretty much have a permanent smile on my face. So, I guess I should never say never, right?

By the way...here's the mentioned Avril song. Seriously, I wished I was her when she first came out. Finally, a tomboy. :)

 

Father's Day + A New Session

Mother's Day is behind us for another year, and Father's Day is on its way! I always love when people get a head start on the holidays. So, here's a new session of a father and son. :)

Father's Day is an important holiday for me because I've always had a great relationship with my dad, and last summer was very scary for us because he had to go through 17 days being in the hospital. He ended up having to go through open heart surgery, but we are blessed to still have him here with us. Everyday memories are already amazing to have in photographs, but once you've had to live through a scare of not knowing, those photographs become even more precious.

Here's your reminder for Father's Day! I can't wait to help you all create new memories with all those dads out there. :)

Christina + Aaron's Happily Ever After!

My best friend is MARRIED! And to such an amazing guy! I couldn't be happier for the two of them!
Their wedding day was so much fun. We all started out getting Christina ready at her hotel, and from there, we were off to the Atlanta Temple, and there was plenty of sunshine! The flowers were beautiful, the dress was beautiful, and Christina was beautiful. It was great seeing all of her family, and it was wonderful meeting Aaron's family! Their friends and family were so incredibly kind to me! That kind of stuff, you just don't forget. :)

Christina and I have been friends since we sat next to each other in choir back in college. After all those years of putting up with me, I consider her a sister.  I suppose that means I also now have a new brother-in-law. haha!

Loved her dress!

Pretty Shoes. :)

Making hilarious memories...

The First Look! AH! You can just SEE how much he loves her!!!

One of my favorites. So sweet!

For some reason, this reminds me of Christina Perri-Christina...I know you will appreciate that.

Newlyweds.

Finally a new photo for our super old "Best Friends" frame. LOL!

So, it wasn't just the kids who enjoyed all of the balloons. :)

LOVE!!!!!!!!!

I am so proud and thankful to know so many amazing ladies!!!!

So, here's to Christina + Aaron's happily ever after!!!!!!