Chattanooga, TN

This morning we left Nashville for a quick visit down to Chattanooga to visit our friends Doug + Beca of the so-hot-right-now-Tumbleweeds-fame. We’ve only been to Chattanooga once so it’s fun to really visit it, especially with good friends.

We first drove up to Lookout Mountain where it was actually much too foggy to look anywhere, but it was just so beautiful I couldn’t help but take a ton of photos. Driving around the curvy two-lane mountain roads, surrounded by fog, felt simultaneously amazing and a little creepy (I couldn’t help but think about that movie The Others. And now I want to watch it.). We went to dinner and then back at the house everyone kicked into full-gear work mode – Beca + Doug (& Josh) with their wood veneer sunglasses orders, and me with my mountain of photo editing behind me! I decided to take a quick break so I don’t keep neglecting our personal photos, and post some from today. If I don’t do it now… it’ll never happen.

Here’s Beca in their shop.

Sorry I took a lot of photos of Beca (I’m not sorry).

We Love America, Part 1: Washington, DC.

So, we’re kind of in the middle of a month-long travel spree in order to photograph weddings in Arlington, VA, Pittsboro, NC, and Nashville, TN, and I thought I’d catch up on updating this personal blog with photos along the way. Here are some photos from our day trip around Washington DC with our friends Doug + Beca (who happened to be in town too!) and new friends Danielle + Chris (Dinosaur Toes), and Danielle + Andrew (Just About Anywhere). You can see Beca’s recap here.

Josh took this first photo… I love it.

tourists.

the closest we got to the White House.

A self portrait in an astronaut helmet. NBD it’s just been on the moon, that’s all.

I know it got a little photo heavy, but we got to visit the Holocaust Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Air & Space Museum, as well as a bunch of national monuments and things that just made me want to watch National Treasure. 🙂 We had such a great time and I’m so thankful we got the chance to visit!

I always pronounce Tucson as “tuck son” in my head, so I remember how to spell it.

Last weekend, we drove to Tucson, AZ for a wedding (you can see a preview of that wedding here). I’m trying to challenge myself to take more photos of our life, rather than only taking them for clients. I don’t mean to totally neglect our real life, but usually I just rely on my cell phone camera, but I’m trying to change that!

While we were in Tucson we got to meet up with one of Josh’s old friends from when he was in the Army (yeah, you read that right. Josh was in the Army a lifetime ago! It’s a little hard to believe sometimes.) They haven’t hung out in like ten years or more, and it was awesome for me to get to hear stories of when Josh was a little punk kid in the army. We went to this little pub called Bison Witches. They had maybe the best sandwiches of our who lives!

It’s really interesting walking around Tucson, it’s pretty different from Phoenix. We kept thinking it was like the Portland or Olympia of Arizona. Tucson is colorful with loads of character… & characters. (The Hotel Congress shot at the top is one I had to get – I heard something like they caught John Dillinger there? Is that true? I could google it but I’ll just wait for someone to confirm or correct me I guess. Haha.)

We yelped a coffee spot and found Crave coffee bar. It was perfect, sometimes it’s hard to find a place that doesn’t make their drinks way too sweet.

No coffees were pictured here, I realize this. Once we got the coffees we were just too eager to drink them up. I didn’t even instagram them, so you KNOW we needed it. Just kidding. typical instagram coffee joke, but the joke’s on me.

Heading back to Phoenix. I love the desert…. as long as the air conditioning works.

Finally arrived back home. Sadie didn’t seem too excited to see us, I think she just loves Billie and Jeff so much for hanging out with her while we were gone! (Thanks guys!!)

We’re about to leave this week for a MONTH on the road for three different weddings in three different states, and a few more shoots while we’re at it. I’m so excited and a little terrified of being gone for so long, and doing so much digital workflow on the road. Just gotta make it happen, right? We’ve spent the past couple of weeks upgrading our computers / software so that everything is nice & reliable & faster. 🙂

It’s hard to believe that when we get back home it’s going to be OCTOBER. How has this year gone by so fast? We’ve been here almost a year and that blows my mind. I still tell people we just moved here… I guess I should stop saying that. Haha! We’re not so new to Phoenix anymore. Thank goodness. It’s hard to break into a new city, friends, and church! I’m so grateful that we have all of that.

So in honor of September / October I made a little fall playlist on Spotify if you care to listen. The music is a little more fitting for this colder, drearier, spookier season. 🙂 Click here to listen!

Happy nearly-autumn!

It’s finally almost ready!

Almost a year ago, we came down here to Phoenix for one day only to look at houses. The house we found happened to be the first one we looked at. We’re in love with our house, although we had so many changes we’ve had to make to fix it up to our dream house! Worth it!

I took this photo of Josh in the pool the day we came to look at the house. Not only did it look super rough, it’s a seriously old pool from the 60’s and needed a lot of work to get it up to working order.

Almost one year later, it is finally almost ready! It’s nearly done filling now (it takes over a day of two hoses running water into it to fill). Last night when the water level was lower, we took some photos to remember this. I can’t believe this is really finally happening!

And not going to lie.. I was also eager for a chance to process more photos with the VSCO Film Pack 02 before implementing it into my workflow. 🙂

We’re planning on swimming by tonight. 🙂 Perfect timing, since it’s been around 115 degrees lately.

The pool has been a priority for us because swimming is a perfect low-impact exercise for us asthmatic folks! I’m so excited to take this step to getting my health back, and being able to get in shape without major asthma episodes. Plus, come on, swimming is the MOST fun.

Now, to tame that jungle of a back yard so we can have some mega pool parties.

Oh hi August.

You snuck up quickly. It feels like just a month ago we were settling into this house, trying to figure out the best way to make this house feel like our home right away.

We have several projects going on now still, and I love when Josh gets an idea and decides to do it right then and there (even if it means that everything in the house ends up covered by a thin layer of drywall dust without warning) but it’s nothing we can’t clean up afterwards. So first up, Josh cut out a piece of our kitchen wall and put in a built-in shelf! I’m in LOVE with how it looks. He also painted a chalkboard wall just for fun. It makes our kitchen look much different I think.

Once we knew we were going to be able to have our pool renovated this month, we tackled our jungle of a back yard. We have aloe growing out of our ears, guys. We decided to transplant a ton of the offshoots with a little help from farmer internet. We were so proud of ourselves but now the transplants are looking utterly pitiful. We tried, little offshoots. We tried.

But somehow the one that we potted and moved indoors is loving his life. Spunky little aloe vera.

And you read correctly before. Your eyes did not trick you. Our pool is getting a makeover. Naturally there have been complications with it being unused for years, and it being an ancient pool to begin with. We’ve had to have all kinds of whatnots added here and there, lots of drilling, lots of neighbors loving us I’m sure. Hopefully everything will be done this coming week!

I’ve been feeling a tiny bit out of control lately, feeling like I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. We had a great dinner together last night and talked about our plans for next year, how I’ll cut back weddings and I’ll have to raise rates (I haven’t done that in almost 2 years), and how we are going to make it both being self-employed, etc. It’s scary but it’s exciting. I ended up overbooking myself this autumn (not double booking, but just overbooking, not allowing myself any time off or time for other projects). I know myself and I know that I have to keep several different projects on the horizon to keep from getting burned out on one thing. Thank the Lord I have Josh, he’s so level headed and encouraging, and such a huge help to me. We make an awesome team. I love him more every day.

Today is the first time in awhile I’ve just taken photos around the house for the fun of it. And it was fun actually.

Today’s been a little discouraging because a publication had promised to send us our usage fees for using photos without permission and had stopped responding to our correspondence. Today was the deadline we had asked for compensation by and it came and went without any acknowledgement. The hot head in me is so angry and ready to hold a grudge, pursue legal action, and let it get under my skin. I prayed about it today and feel a strong conviction to just forgive them. To just let it go without gossiping about them, without contacting them again. I feel peace knowing that whatever happens that I did all I could to make a peaceful agreement, and sometimes people will steal from you and you just can’t force them to make it right. It’s a hard, hard thing to keep yourself from taking offense against someone else but I’m really going to try and move on, and hope their conscience grabs them some day. Forgive us our debts as we try really hard to forgive our debtors. (and if I’m being honest, it doesn’t feel saintly. It feels defeating.)

Well, since it’s August I made a little playlist on spotify of some songs that are inspiring me lately, if anyone cares to listen. 🙂 Click here –  there are several new + old songs on there. I love the idea of making a new playlist for each month, since music is such a nostalgic tool! If anyone else has a playlist to share please do. 🙂

Breathe! Enjoy it!

Just released the lighting e-course after a few months of pulling outlines together, putting plans in place, and the last couple of weeks especially have been crazy, busy, sleep deprived. We met our first goal so we made a second goal, we met our second goal so we put a loftier goal in place that we’re about halfway to.

It’s good to get a few days that are a little lower key. Working on projects. Finally cleaning up and turning our house back into a living room / dining room (from what we made our makeshift studios for the course). We gave ourselves a few rewards this week – a couple of coffee dates, and a breakfast date! Hoping to meet sales enough to give ourselves the ultimate reward – a working pool. 🙂 That, friends, is our lofty goal.

I’m sorry to my friends for not being so present lately! Promise things will be back to normal soon. 🙂 I feel like I’ve been neglecting our poor doggie too, and more importantly, my husbertons. I love our little family unit so much. It’s been nice to have little dates this week, trips to Lowe’s, that kind of thing.

I’ve been hit this week with how rich we are, not in money, just in life. I feel so rich to be able to work alongside my husband, that we can make our own living honestly, that how much we put into it is how much we get out of it. I love that we get to have breakfast together every morning, and an occasional sushi date on a whim just because we can! I love Josh so much, I love his company, love his friendship. Life is so rich.

Lately it’s been pretty hot but it’s been nice! It’s nice to have a hot, sweaty summer that makes pool trips and otter pops utterly delightful. To have sunshine on our faces is such a treat. The occasional storms are just so good, I can’t tear myself away from the windows. And the evenings when the sun sets and the breeze picks up is my heaven.

Learning contentment is such a powerful thing. Godliness with contentment is great gain. So very thankful!

photo of Sadie while we were putting together a project. 🙂

Thoughts on Identity

These are all really old photos.

The first was from photography school, when we were first learning color printing and color balancing in the dark room. I thought I’d be so clever and make this color collage of my face, and in a totally dark room (no red light in color printing, folks) it was actually a lot more difficult to do than it looks. I don’t know why but it seems really fitting for me and I still love it.

The second photo is when I recorded a little cello for A Plea for Purging’s album “A Critique of Mind and Thought” hence my totally metal face. I used to want to pursue a career in music, I play piano, violin, cello, guitar and bass. I tried the flute and I hated it.

The third photo was post-photography school, when I was totally convinced I was going to pursue a career in commercial photography. I was testing out the Alien Bees ring light.

—

I had coffee this morning with the lovely Courtney this morning who shared some really good thoughts on unplugging and finding your voice, your identity, and in her words, what makes your heart sing. 🙂 It’s something I’ve been thinking about recently and wondering if I’ve oversaturated myself with the influence of others that I don’t really know what my own style and identity is anymore. Too much pinterest, maybe. Too much blog reading. Too many style guides. It’s nice to step aside and try to hear your own voice again, to find that creativity without following someone else’s recipe or instructions, to make something fresh and new with your own personality to it. How freeing is it to just make things because you thought of it? How rewarding is that!?

How nice would it be to dedicate time away from influence and focus on who we really are, and what impact we as individuals really want to make on the world? I didn’t mean to be all preachy or anything, just some thoughts. I think back on all the different plans I used to have for myself, the different identities I felt comfortable with, and I see how far I am from that… and I wonder if I’m just really off track, or if this was my identity all along.

Also, we had cherry pie for breakfast and that was a perfect idea.

Not that anyone noticed!

But it’s been over two months since my last post. It’s fine!

I couldn’t sleep tonight and so I thought I’d catch up on editing some personal photos! Somehow the photos we take of our own lives get placed at last priority. What can I say, we’ve been super busy. 🙂 These photos are from my birthday last month! It was ungodly amounts of hot outside (It usually is) so we drove up to Prescott to escape the heat for the day. We had so much fun! My only regret is not getting real photos of our trip to the shooting range (got plenty of cell phone photos though). Also… I made the very conscious decision to only bring my wide angle lens. It reminds me alot of being in photography school and going through the photojourn class (up close and personal assignment, anyone?) and only shooting with a 17mm that whole class. It’s not my favorite lens but it has a lot of character, so why not.

Started the day off with a big southern breakfast. I’ve reaaalllllly been missing the south lately and luckily there’s a Cracker Barrel around here. Get ready to be hungry, not sorry about it!

Then we headed up to Prescott. We first walked around a ton of antique stores. Literally the whole down town area is antique stores. When we finally got hungry enough we went to Bill’s Pizza, per the lovely Chelsea‘s suggestion!

Oh man, I could go for that pizza right now.

After that we tried out the Wild Iris cafe, a suggestion from an instagram follower! It was amazing. We took our drinks and birthday macaroons and headed to the lake to relax and enjoy the breeze and not-hellish temperatures.

We drove around the lake area where there was some camping grounds and explored a little.

Heading back to Phoenix… this drive was gorgeous late in the day. The layers of mountains you can see was even more beautiful in real life.

Thank you so much Josh for such a wonderful birthday! It’s one that I will never forget. You are the best gift in my life. 🙂

Date day!

Sometimes, you just have to be intentional about your time together. We planned yesterday as a Date Day, and I loved my time with Josh!

Started off with lattes and breakfast at Lux.

We stopped by the library and TOTALLY SCORED with movies and CDs for the week. Our library is so great. We also got free passes to the Phoenix Art Museum, and headed there afterwards…. buttttttt it was closed. Oh well! Decided to head out instead to the Chinese Cultural Center we kept seeing signs for.

Our GPS took us in a huge circle trying to find the Chinese cultural center, but it ended up being a really sweet drive through downtown neighborhoods. Yesterday was perfect outside!

When we got to the Chinese cultural center, it ended up just being a shopping center with asian-style buildings. What? Oh well, picked up some treats for ourselves and for some special guests coming this weekend! 😉

We stopped at some antique shops and poked around. It’s one of my favorite things to do, and we used to do this alot when we first started dating.

We visited two new antique malls: Antiques on Camelback, and Zinnias on Melrose.

We’d packed a lunch and drove up to Squaw Peak to eat. Yesterday was actually pretty hot. I’m so glad for the shaded picnic areas there.

We had some almonds and pistachios we threw out for all these cute little chipmunks. They were super brave and came so close to us. SO CUTE.

I’m so glad we took the day for ourselves. 🙂

15

I know it’s probably silly to note this, but I’m really proud of myself.

Lost 15 lbs this month. I’m not stopping there, but I’m proud because 15 was my first goal to reach!

Who knows, I might actually be ready for bathing suit season this year! 😉