beach part 1 (gulf shores, alabama photographer)

It has taken me longer than planned to start sharing the beach photos from our time last week in Gulf Shores. I have been so excited to share, but it has also taken a little while to get back in the groove, out of vacation mode, and tie up some loose ends from before the trip. I am sharing the Jackson family first, though they were not the first family I photographed, they were the reason we ended up in Gulf Shores. I ran into Gretchen a few months ago in Target and we started talking about her family's upcoming beach trip and planning photos for their time in Gulf Shores. I was intrigued and among other coincidences their trip was on a week that Peter and I had already set aside as a family vacation, but without any specific plans.

So we made a plan and turned our family vacation into a working vacation. That is if you can call playing in the sand and water with my camera and some awesome families working.

I had such a great time with this gorgeous family. I have been wanting to photograph them for years. In fact I photographed their older son Morgan about three years ago and it was my very first blog post here. 

Time flies.

b via (arkansas senior photographer)

 i thought about putting no words. i am not good with words and my love for this sweet girl is beyond.

 she is a friend, my boy's favorite sitter, Campbell's future wife, and a truly lovely lady.

 it was a gift to me to be able to photograph her in all her cuteness on our recent trip to Colorado. we washed our hair in a bucket the night before and she rolled with it. i don't know many people who could work that out, i covered my hair with a hat all week.

thank you b via. we do love you so.

did i mention today is her birthday?

happy birthday to ya.

box sledding and mustaches (little rock, ar family photographer)

From the moment Christine approached me about photographing her family I was excited. It was a rare opportunity to photograph a family with no children and a sweet idea to surprise her parents with a family photo for their thirtieth wedding anniversary.

It was 98 degrees when we met up Saturday evening and though we were all wet from the heat they managed to laugh about it and we all had a great time.
To my delight they arrived back from their wardrobe change cooled off and with props....i love a good prop.

And I love a family who laughs together and at each other.

The spot we ended our shoot just happened to have some leftover boxes for box sledding and to my delight Christine and Chris were all in.

So fun!

chinos in colorado

 Alison and i have talked for a long time about doing their family pictures at a campground with the pop-up. It never seems to work when we are trying to plan fall photos around football, soccer, school and so on. When we decided to tag along on the chino family camp trip this summer it felt like the perfect opportunity.

I love to tell a family's story when I take their pictures. To walk away and feel like you would know them better or at all just by seeing the images. It is a perfect thing to me when that story is told by a look, personality, clothes, location....and even better when the worlds all come together.

That is what this session is for me. It tells a story of this family and captures them as who they are (except maybe Cole's shirt...not his fav).

They are a family who knows each other and loves to be together. A family who laughs together and rolls eyes at each other.

A family who loves the outdoors, Colorado, gear, Chacos and their camper.

They are a family i love.

coming up (central arkansas photographer)

it has been such a great summer filled with friends, family, travel and adventure. i have managed to work along the way and have had the opportunity to shoot in some amazing spots (cruise ships and colorado). we are heading out next week to shoot in gulf shores and i am hoping to share some of my favs from colorado before we head to the beach. thought i would go ahead and share a peek of one of my favorite people.

love.