Search Results

I have known Drew and Devin for a long time, I took their high school senior portraits and now I got to take Devin's college senior portraits! As spring is creeping up, we went up to Vallecito Lake to catch some more winter wonderland before it is all gone. Drew and Devin were all for exploring through the snow, hiking up to cool rocks, doing the bro poses and everything haha. There was specifically this cool rock I saw on the drive up, I knew the sun would be better for it later, but on the way back I thought I had lost it and I was pretty disappointed I couldn't find it again. Then we turned a corner and I saw the rock, it was a little bit of a trudge through the snow to get it, but it was sooo worth it!

I love snow, I have always loved snow, but we have had a few years here in Durango where we had hardly any snow here in town. I didn't realize how much I missed it until it snowed sooo much this year. I absolutely loved it, I could feel myself come alive as it was snowing. I recently went to the chiropractor for severe back pain, apparently I sit at the computer too much editing. So as I type this I am at a standing desk, it is pretty nice, but anyway the reason I am saying this is that I now have to go to the chiropractor three times a week for three months. The chiropractor I am seeing is only five blocks away from my house, so I walk. Even if it was snowing like crazy I would walk. Those mornings where I would have to walk through tunnels of snow, and felt like I had an inch on me by the time I got there, were the best mornings! I felt so giddy walking in the beautiful snow, anyone I saw out was so friendly because not many people were braving the weather to go out so it was like we shared something just by both being out. Then there were the nights! Valentine's day my husband and I were going to go to the movies, but the movies were closed. It was snowing really heavy snow, the drive back felt like an adventure! Everything feels like an adventure in the snow. So to make up for there being no movie to go to, we made Valentine's special by taking photos in the snow and making trees explode with snow by shaking their heavy limbs until they bounced up without the weight of the snow. It has been hard for me letting go of the snow and getting in the spring mindset. I think I'm finally getting there, but I still kind of feel like the kids in frosty the snowman saying goodbye to a dear friend for a while.

What a talented group! We have some amazingly creative and talented people here in Durango. If you ever get a chance to go out and see an acrobatic show, you will not regret it! I always have a great time seeing the acrobatic community show off their skills, I don't think I could get sick of it. This show “Live! Road to the Stage” was extra fun because it gave a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes to prepare and put together a show like this. So much happens before you see someone preform on stage, so much time, money, effort and creativity has to come together to give you two hours of magic. Like anything artistic you are usually only see the tip of the iceberg to everything that has to happen to make that art come alive in front of you.

Denise and Jose won my free engagement session at the 2019 Durango Weddings Expo. We had to reschedule their shoot once because of the intense snow storms, so by the time we could do their session the snow was sooo high all over Durango. I wanted to have them lay down in this field with the mountains in the background, but that meant walking through thigh deep snow and laying on a blanket in the same deep snow. I gave them the option of doing this or not, because I don't want to make anyone wade through that snow who doesn't want to, but they were awesome and didn't even hesitate to take on the challenge. Had such a great time exploring the snow with these two, the way their faces would change and soften the second they looked at each other was heart melting.

I learned very quickly into our session that Alan and my brother are somewhat soul twins, very intellectual types. I'm sure my brother (very bright philosophy major who quite frequently goes above my head) and Alan could've had wonderful discussions together. It was very fun getting to know him, he was such a great sport as I kept posing him in locations where snow would fall on trees onto our heads. The snow was so deep we could hardly get a few feet away from any roads, but we got some great images anyway! His sister Samantha, who I've worked stage managing Merely Players shows, came along with us. I love it when siblings come along and I can get some fun sibling shots as well!

I love lifestyle photography, capturing a family in their own space, where they are most comfortable. This shoot at the Johnson house was so fun because it felt like just hanging out for the day, taking some fun portraits, chasing little girls around the house with my camera, setting up fun poses and making them feel like little models. The house belonged to my friend Kate's dad, and the whole session started from wanting to get a portrait of Kate and her daughter Camila that looked like a portrait of Kate's late mother and her first born son. After we got the image, it was just fun portraits around the house the rest of the time. When I first got there, Camila came straight up to me and asked if I had brought the decorations, nobody knew what this meant haha. I pulled my fairy lights and crystals out of my bag and handed them to her as decorations and she said in the most adorable little voice "you brought the decorations! I am so proud of you" so you could say we started off really well haha.

Katie and Bryan came all the way down from Cincinnati to drink in Durango's beautiful mountain landscape for their engagement portraits. They will be getting married in Durango in September, so this way they get both the beautiful winter views and beautiful fall colors! In my opinion, the best combo! There was SO much snow when we went out for their engagement session, and they were so awesome about walking through knee high snow to get those great shots. Thanks for exploring with me guys!

Two weeks ago we lost a beloved friend and fellow Up with People castmate Ryan Hansen. And yesterday my husband and I got to drive to Buena Vista and take part in one of the most powerful celebrations of life. Over 50 fellow Up with People alumni from around the world, along with many other friends and family of Ryan's, all gathered to sing, share stories, laugh and cry together. It was an incredible reunion of friends. Thank you Ryan for the light you shared with us, seeing the full strength of your impact yesterday was beautiful and bittersweet. We will all miss you. . "Loved ones who touched our lives. And too often left us too fast. But they're always with us, they left hand prints on our hearts. Their light gives us strength to get up and start again. Leaving is not losing, we win by how we live. Journey on."

First thing I want to say about Jenna is, omg she is such a stud! We hiked down into a canyon, in tons of snow, to reach a frozen waterfall and then she changed into her bright blue SLEEVELESS dress for this shoot. She was completely bare armed for the majority of the shoot and she not once complained or even seemed bothered much by the cold. Meanwhile my hands are freezing and my fingers started having some trouble with my camera controls by the end, but it was SO WORTH IT. I had sooo much fun on this shoot, I got to take mostly video while Gary Vandenberg did photography. Talk about fun and creative. And of course, because it was just so beautiful down there, when the shoot was done my husband and I stayed back for a few minutes to take some tripod photos of us in the beautiful wintery landscape! Love taking a moment to capture us when we are out in these awesome places.

We took these images just a few days before Christmas, we were kind of hoping for some snow but alas it did not come in time. However that may have turned out to be better because these guys dressed sooo well for their surroundings. I had talked to them about color coordinating and they said they would try their best, and they did such a great job! We even incorporated a little engagement session into their shoot which was so fun!

I ran a Thanks and Giving contest in my December newsletter. Instead of having people enter to win a free portrait session, I asked people to nominate someone else they thought deserved a session and why. I am so happy that Alyssa Wineholt nominated her mom Niki for the session. Her story of how important family portraits were to her mom and how they hadn't been able to afford them for years made my eyes misty. I am so glad they won, because they were so fun to shoot with, and just hang out with in general. Niki told me about how she hadn't been very comfortable in photos for a long time because she had been overweight, looking at her I couldn't imagine that ever having been the case because she looks amazing! Alyssa brought her own little baby daughter, and she was the stinking cutest thing, her facial expressions were so animated and funny! She was just so fun to watch. They were all so natural together, so easy to photograph. I hope I get to work with them again in the future!

Sev Spinu worked with my husband at Star Liquor, he is a dear friend. Sev is from Moldova, he lives in Durango with his wife Lana and two adorable kids. He has always been a big supporter of me and by business, I had done headshots for him in the past and I was very excited when they asked me to do their family Christmas photos! We stayed downtown so their littlest one wouldn't have to be out in the cold so much. This was a unique session for me because Sev and Lana are culturally so different than my usual clientele, it was fun to find creativity in something new to me. Maybe you'll be able to tell in their images the difference.