Bowling with photographers

Friday afternoon I got to hang out with some of my favorite people--other wedding photographers--and we went bowling--which is something I haven't done in a VERY long time. It ended up being super-fun. The fun group above is as follows (clockwise from me in the lower left corner) Britton & Jared Platt, Jefferson Todd, Isaac Bailey, Marcia Mauskopf, Rebecca Bouck, Stuart Thurlkill and Kim Jarman. They are all amazing photographers and I ripped off some of their shots to show you along with some of mine for my blog. I won't name names, because I don't want to publicly humiliate them, but I am proud to say that I did beat a few of the boys' bowling scores. I'm not a great bowler but I always think anything over 100 is pretty good and I bowled a 102, 108 & 119. If we would have bowled more, I'm sure it would have just gone up from there :).

Photographers are pretty crazy when they're put together with a bunch of cameras. I could hardly keep track of mine--everybody else used it more than me :). Plus I nearly got assulted numerous times with one. Here's one example:

And here's an embarassing shot of me feeling disappointed with one of my throws. I'm pretty competitive and hard on myself :).


I love this one of Stuart...pure joy.


And here's another good one of Stuart--a flattering close-up with the fish-eye:

Jared brought his cute little boy, Britton who had a lane to himself next to us with the bumper rails. He was pretty cute. I think Jared bowled a few on that lane too, to feel better about himself.



Here's Kim in action...good form.


We played in two teams and my team kicked butt. Here's a shot of us doing a team cheer with JT and Rebecca being sore losers :).



I had a blast and feel so blessed to have friends in the industry to hang out with, be inspired by and learn from. Can't wait to do it again!

Sleeping with Beagles

These are the beagles I've been sleeping with for the past three nights. Zoe (L) and Baxter (R). My friends, James & Mandy, are out of town and they told me that their "babies" were used to sleeping in bed with them. So I got suckered into taking over. They are really good dogs--well trained and all, but it's just weird sleeping in bed with someone else's animals. I'm used to sleeping by myself and moving around freely and all. But Zoe needs to be touching me--usually laying right on top of my legs or between my feet. And then they have this internal alarm clock that tells them it's time to get up and eat at 5:45 AM! Even on Sundays! I think Zoe was mad at me for making them go back to sleep until 9:30 this morning because when I woke up I couldn't find one of my flip flops. I looked all over and was asking them where it was, holding up the one flip flop I still had. I finally found it in the back yard. I know it was Zoe because when I was asking them about where the shoe was, she would cower and then roll over on her back like I was going to beat her with it. But there was no beating. I'm a dog lover. I'm not sure I love dogs as much as James & Mandy do--enough to sleep with them every night--but they are faithful friends.

David Jay @ Phoenix PUG

Thursday we had another PUG meeting--our local network of photographers that get together once a month to talk business. Mostly we just have a lot of fun. David Jay--my mentor and long-time friend--was back in town to share all the secrets to his success. He is awesome and I owe so much of my own success to him. A bunch of us went out for dinner after our meeting--David's on the left, Shannon Rice, and Rebecca Bouck.

Here's Davide Greene from Canada and Megan Resch of Tempe:


JT ordered the Nachos Grande and it was the grande-est nachos I've ever seen:

Here's me and David. I'm not sure what that face was about....I wasn't pinching his butt I swear. There were witnesses who can confirm.


JT again and Bruce Steffine who is taking the major step of going full-time in photography like next week. Yay Bruce!


And here's Isaac Bailey--well loved but sometimes has trouble posing for photos:

I love our community of photographers here in the valley and am so inspired and spurred on by them. Can't wait to get together again soon!

Rascal Flatts

I'm a big country music fan. I love it and have since high school when it wasn't so popular. It's got a great sound to it and you can say stuff in the lyrics that you just can't in other genres.

Anyhow, last week 12 girlfriends and I got together and went to a Rascal Flatts concert. We sat on the grass at Cricket Pavillion and it was hot and fun. The grass is a sketchy place to hang out. A fight broke out right behind where we were sitting and before I knew it I was flying forward into a bunch of people. Ok, so I didn't fly but got pushed really fast. And I think the security guards steer clear of the grass too cause nobody came. But it broke up pretty fast.

We had a blast. If you're one of those haters of country music, just give it one more chance and this time, listen to the lyrics. Some of them are pretty funny and others just touch you.... Good stuff.

Laura & Bryan

This weekend we travelled 2 hours north to beautiful Strawberry, Arizona for Laura & Bryan's wedding. It was a little cooler and greener and a lot of fun. Laura & Bryan rented out this beautiful log cabin retreat center and their closest friend and family all stayed there, hiked, ate BBQ and played games. The wedding had a laid back intimate feel to it that fit Laura & Bryan well. Here's the retreat center:

On Saturday morning, we got up early and drove 6 miles down the side of a mountain on a treacherous dirt road. We stopped and actually saw a bunch of wrecked, burned out cars at the bottom of the shear cliff on the side of the road. But when we got to the bottom and hiked just a bit, we found this beautiful spot. I think I can now add "adventure photographer" to my resume´ :).


To see more of my favorite shots from the weekend, click here to view the slideshow. Thanks Laura & Bryan for allowing us to be a part of your wedding!

Brad & Dana's Album

This summer we don't have as many weddings to shoot -- Arizona's wedding season is every other time of the year but now. Which is fine--I enjoy the break. But we have a whole lot of albums to design from our Spring weddings. I'm really enjoying designing albums to tell the story of the day. And I think they're turning out beautifully. Brad and Dana had such a fun wedding on April 1st. I also got to shoot their rehearsal dinner which we also added to the album. Click here to see the design.

Enjoy your 4th of July!!