{sunshine + a happy family = a fun photo shoot!}

Guess what I got to do this weekend?  I got to finally meet Stephanie Moore in person!  As many of you know, she's a very talented photographer in Tucson, AZ.  We've been friends for a while on-line and we teach classes together on "The Bloom Forum".  We've seen each other over the internet and talked on the phone but we've never had an opportunity to meet up in person.  But when I met her I felt like we'd known each other forever!  She's an amazing mom, photographer and friend.  I'm so glad I got to meet her family too.  What a fun bunch!!  Carter, her son was a giggler.  Every time I went to straighten his shirt he busted out in laughter...he's EXTREMELY ticklish!  And sweet Brooklyn, is a sweet soul.  She's a little pro too.  I can tell her momma is a photographer!  And the newest little one in the bunch was so patient!  What an amazing little girl.  I pushed her to the limits with all of the locations we hit and she didn't make a peep until the very end letting me know she was over my camera ha!   And of course Stephanie's husband was very kind and held my bags for me when I had my hands full.  Seriously! What a guy!  I loved our time together and can't wait to meet up again.  We agreed we need to get together more - my kids would love her kids.  I'm excited.  Here's a peek at our session.

{Urban Session - 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'}

Last night I had a blast with these 3 girls!!  We literally shot this session till the sun went down.  Although we got started a little late but we managed to cram so much into such a small amount of time.  The 3 of them were so easy to work with and had fun - which makes all the difference in the world with capturing real 'girl moments'.  There were texting breaks, candy breaks, giggles and we can't forget....locking keys in the car.  Yes - it added a little adventure and mystery to the evening...'would we get the car unlocked?'  Then I remembered, I had my trusty AAA card and within 30 minutes a man in a big truck rescued us.  :0)  It reminded me of all the times I locked my keys in my car in college.  This was a first for Cassidy (at least having it happen further from home where a spare could be found).  It all worked out  though!  AAA is the best!  Anyway, here's a little peek at our session.

{Blanket Fun! - Mesa, Arizona Family Photographer}

I wanted to share this session I did over the Fall.  I know, over the Fall?  What's that all about?  Well I haven't blogged most of my fall sessions.  Things get so busy and I'm on such a time crunch to get galleries up and orders delivered, so blogging the session images gets pushed aside, BAD I know.  But I really wanted to post this session - it's with one of my favorite and most dear friends and her family.  My friend Haleigh is also a talent photographer in my area!  She and her husband are also the owners of 'Fanciful Frames'.  Have you heard of them?  If not, you've got to!  And a little secret:  if you're a fan of Fanciful frames on Facebook, she often posts super discounted prices on their frames.  I just bought an 11x14 frame, 'tart' shaped in the fanicful color since she was doing a 48 hour sale only on Facebook on that color and several others so I snagged it just before the sale ended!  Yay!  I can't wait to get it.  I have 2 other frames of hers a 20x30 huge beautiful black frame and an 8x10 'Apple Tart' colored frame.  Super cute!  Anyway, I could go on but I'll stop  ;-)  Check her page out!

This fall I was lucky to photograph her beautiful family!  Aren't they beautiful.  Kinda unfair hu?  Yeah, that's what I was thinking.  They were so wonderful and easy to work with, not surprising since their momma is a photographer.  Here's a peek at our session.

{Winter Session!}

So this is winter in Arizona .... sunny and in the high 60's to low 70's.  Crazy hu?  Okay some days are much colder than that and some days (like today) are much warmer 80 degrees.  I'm still wearing my boots and plan to until late February (fingers crossed) :)

I was lucky enough to photograph this beautiful family just days before moving to the Mid-West.  They're moving truck was packing up as I delivered the pictures!   Here's a little look into my session with this family.

{Lil'pink boo}

Oh look who I got to photograph recently.  Isn't she precious?!  She's 8 1/2 months old and the most gentle little girl with the sweetest, calmest demeanor.  It was hot during our session, don't ever let anyone convince you that it's always a dry heat in Arizona.  In July and August (mostly August), it's 110ish with at least 50% humidity.  The positive?  We get some amazing thunderstorms (Monsoons) with amazing, moody clouds and sunsets.  I digress...so it was hot and this little girl wasn't phased by the sweat, heat, bugs, etc.  I was totally impressed!  Brittany & Larry (her mom and dad) were equally great in the heat - willing to help and happy to do what we needed to do for our session.   Oh did I mention this little cutie is walking!?!  Yea, it's true, she just started walking a couple of days ago and she showed me how well she can stand even on the uneven jungle of an area we were in.  She impressed me again :)  Here's a little peek at our fun session!

{boy, oh boy}

It's summer!!  And summer is  getting  hot here in the desert.  But I was lucky to have this great client withstand some of the warm summer sizzle recently.  And their little cutie who just turned one was a joy to photograph.  He was so good natured and like all my little clients his age, loved the rocks and dirt.  Yes, getting 'dirty' is a part of our session and thankfully these parents were fine with that.   I really enjoyed meeting and photographing this beautiful family.    Check out a few images from our session :)

{childhood friend}

I was so excited when I reconnected with one of my best childhood friends, Noelle, on Facebook.  We met in the 3rd grade and then I moved away after 6th grade.  Her twin sister, Holly, and I tried to keep in touch (since we were all friends) after I moved but I have to admit - I wasn't the best at keeping in touch via snail mail.  Years passed but the memories and time spent together never withered.  We did so much together:  took many trips to their parent's log cabin in the Mountains, stayed up all night giggling, eating junk food and crank calling random people out of the phone book (bad kids, I know) at the many sleep-overs we had, hot summer days swimming at the local pool, 4th of July's spent on the waterfront, and the list of memories continues.   So when we reconnected on Facebook all the memories came rushing back - I was in touch with one of my favorite childhood friends!!  Noelle lives in California now near Napa - a place we need to visit soon :)  She mentioned a while ago wanting to come out to have me photograph her beautiful girls but I didn't know how serious she was.  Then she did it!  She and her husband booked a stay in Scottsdale on a weekend I had an opening!  I was thrilled!!  I got to meet her beautiful girls!!  And I got to play with them and have her family over for dinner after our session!! Our kids got along as if they'd known each other forever - it was perfect!!  We didn't want the night to end.  So we agreed that we needed to make trips to see each other more.  And we will :)  Here's a peek my our session with Noelle and Michael's beautiful girls!

{beautiful} Scottsdale Family Photographer

I love my job.  I love that I get to meet amazing and wonderful families.  I love that I get a peek into their lives and I get to capture sweet moments shared.  I love families like this - families that are real, that are genuine, so natural and loving together.  The playing and interaction we do during a session tells so much about each family.  And my gosh this family was so connected and loving.  I feel so lucky to be able to capture that closeness, fun connection for them!  How many people can say that about their job...capturing and witness that special bond?  It's awesome.  And this beautiful family was up for anything too - so we were able to photograph some fun, artsy images for mom & dad :)  I LOVE that!!

Little Emerson...she melted me.  When I arrived to their house Emerson was pretty adamant that she didn't want her picture taken. She was so sweet about it but was firm in her decision.  Within 20 minutes she was dressed, her hair was done and she seemed excited about the session.  She and I became buddies and before I knew it, she was hopping in pictures that I was taking of her mom and dad.  No longer did she want to be my assistant, she wanted to be in the pictures.   And the camera loved her.  Here's a little look into our time together.  :)

{a little bit warm....for Autumn}

It's a lazy weekend and we're all recovering from being sick.  At the kids school Strep was going around like wildfire and both Tyler & Brielle caught the nasty strain :(  then they passed a bug {not the strep part as far as I can tell} to me so I've been laying low this weekend trying to recover for the busy week ahead.  But if it the temp hits a 100 degrees today we are however going to take a dip in our pool since it may be the last of the season. It's been crazy hot here in the valley - we're breaking records and it's much warmer than it should be this time of the year.   So when the Tripp's came out to Scottsdale from Nevada they enjoyed a lot of pool time and tried to stay cool in the 107 degree Fall weather we were having last weekend.  We've known the Tripp's for 10+ years and it was so great to see them again and catch-up.  They also wanted to incorporate a photo session into their visit and of course I was thrilled about it!   I hadn't seen their twin girls since they were toddlers!  They were so shy when I first saw them... but soon they were giggling, climbing trees, telling jokes, and being silly seven year old girls (well, a week shy of being 7).   We had so much fun -- Jeff and I agreed that we need to plan a trip sometime soon to Reno to see them and take the kids skiing.  Here's a peek into our session.

{wagons, skateboards & a fun family}

First, I want to start by saying that I had so much fun during this session.  Seven year old Weston was so great with his little brother, helping get his attention, tending to him, getting him water.  It was really impressive and showed how much Weston loves his little brother.  Also, Weston was amazing in front of the camera - he was so full of energy and spirit.  I loved it and could've been there all night but we were loosing daylight quickly.  Weston's parents were fun too - just going with whatever came next.  I loved their interaction with one another as seen in a few of the shots below.  The sun was bright and hot for September here {5 degrees warmer than normal during this time of the year}.  The sun flare I captured with them was really cool.  I was amazed how in the picture above the light is just streaming over them.  It was beautiful!!  Anyway, here's a little peak into our session.