I’ve been working through my bucket-list of shoots so to speak. There are different types of shoot I’ve wanted to do to push creativity and build my portfolio. In this session I wanted to play with motion and dance. Thankfully I was blessed to work with a fabulous local dancer and she can really catch some air. Enjoy!

As an artist I think it’s important to work and create things that make you happy. If you’re always creating for others you can burn yourself out and you can loose your passion for your craft. During the off season I look for ways to create sessions that are outside my normal and add some uniqueness to my portfolio.

A few months back I found and was inspired by this black dress and when I saw it I immediately thought of a dear friend of mine who would fit the look I was going for. It was a great evening of catching up, hanging out and create a fun unique look.

Enjoy!

In the slow season at the beginning of the year, I take time to create. I like to push myself to experiment with photography and grow my craft.

I also spend that time mentoring, hosting workshops and mini styled shoots. It’s always fun to get together with other creatives and talk about tips and tricks. Growing within a community is far better than trying to grow alone.

This session was a fun one, and almost didn’t happen due to Texas and it’s crazy weather. The sun came out and really showed off which really set the scene for a dreamy background to such this precious couples love story.

Here are a few of my favorites from the evening. Enjoy!

I’ve discovered I’m horrible at this blogging thing. I remember like back in the day posting tons of images from sessions on a blog was totally a thing and I’m just not sure if it is anymore. Like I go back and forth from, should I post a session blog regularly? or is that just not a thing anymore?

I guess if you want to put your thoughts in the comments feel free to but I got on to type a blog for another reason. On to that.

A few days ago, I sat down with a good friend of mine and we caught up. LIfe’s been insane for us both so it was nice to wrap a session with a dear friend and just chat. Several months ago I shared with her my thoughts and frustrations about building a photography business (again). The marketing and social media strategies are a new beast this time round and getting your name and brand out there in a heavily saturated area can be a challenge. I felt like I was spinning my wheels and not getting what I was hoping for. I abandoned all my ideas and just did what made sense to me, my brand and my aesthetic.

Magically in letting go, I opened myself up to a whole new world of clients.

So as I’m sitting down recapping all of this to my friend it made me think back on the last year of sessions and it made me really happy. I may have not had as many bookings as I wanted but I had more sit down catch up conversations with clients. I may not be running from one end of the city to the other for appointments, but I’ve announced, met and watched some pretty cute kids growing up.

My clients aren’t just clients. Some of them are friends that have become clients, but some of them have been clients that have become friends. I love going to a session and celebrating with them the moments we are capturing. Clients that don’t just ask me to be an onlooker capturing a moment but invite me in to tell the story. I’ve got to hear some pretty cool stories about how couples met and fell in love. I’ve been a part of some surprise purposals, gender reveals and more. I’ve met the pets my clients love and been invited into homes to capture their daily lives. I get to work with clients as they build their brands and watch them chase their dreams. It’s kinda funny how when we forget about the things that we think aren’t working, we realize how much is working.

I’m so thankful for all the lives that I’ve gotten to be apart of and the ones that I’ve still yet to meet. It’s really been a dream. I’m so excited about what’s ahead and the new adventures, sessions and travels I hope to encounter but even more so I’m so excited to be be apart of so many of your families and I’m looking forward to what is in store for you and your families.

So here are some of the faces, families and friends that I’ve had the honor of photographing this year.

Hi Friends,

It’s been a while. Life has been busy with school ending, summer activities and just work in general. I’ve been going on some adventures and well I figured I’d share a bit with you. Plus it has to do with photography and well it seems fitting to share some behind the scenes of what goes on in my head and on shoots sometimes.

I celebrated my 35th birthday back in May and well when asked what I wanted to do, I simply said take some time away, at the beach with some friends and do something creative. So I booked and AirBNB talked to some friends and we planned the trip. One of best friends was down for the trip because well, she’s pregnant and about to welcome a new baby into the world, so why not take some kid free time away.

First off let me say this… if you’re a photographer, or a creative person in general, find friends who you can go to and say… “I have this idea” and before you even tell them what it is, they say “I’m in!” Nina is one of those friends.

We had talked a few times before about when and where to do her maternity photos but when the idea of a beach trip came into play… we knew that’s where we were going to do them.

I had seen this GORGEOUS maternity session done by a mentor of mine with this over the top robe and I immediately thought, I want to do this but at the beach! I do a lot of water sessions where my clients get in the water so I couldn’t really buy this silk, feathered, 150 dollar robe and put it in the water. I needed to find something lighter and easy to clean. So after some digging on Amazon, talking with Nina and booking the trip… we set out to make my vision come to life.

Now let me say this… when you work out in nature… it never cooperates. The weather for our trip was awful. Don’t get me wrong, we all had fun and made the best of it but in terms of taking pictures… it was not the ideal sunset skies on the beach that we were hoping for. Regardless we set out to Mustang Island in Corpus Christi on a rainy day and hoped for the best. We caught a break in the rain about 2pm and we just went for it. There were people everywhere and the sky was anything but pretty. Thanks to some positioning, the help of our friend Lucy and a little Lightroom magic in post…. we ended up getting the shots we were hoping for.

       HCC-374.jpg HCC-375.jpg

           HCC-376.jpg

Hard to believe that these were at 2pm on a rainy afternoon. And behind the fluff of her skirt is some older man rolling around in the sand. Perspective can change everything sometimes. Well… enjoy some more from the session below!