We’ve made it a fun tradition to go camping each year for Thanksgiving in our local mountains – this year we spent a few days at Paso Picacho campground in Cuyamaca State Park. I was so thankful for the cooler, mountain air as I heard it was in the nineties in San Diego! Not right for Thanksgiving! We tent camped with Colt and had a few rough nights of sleep, but other than that we had such a good time relaxing around the campfire, cooking all day and just being together. My talented chef of a husband pulled off another award-winning 15lb turkey by cooking it over the fire in a huge cast iron dutch oven for several hours – it was perfect! We came home and went Christmas tree shopping later that week and have the cutest little noble fir sitting in our living room all lit up, fresh from the small business down the street. I can’t believe Christmas is next week!

Images photographed with a Contax 645 on Kodak Portra 400 film and a Nikon F100 on Kodak Portra 800 film.

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I had the privilege of photographing this beautiful family for some holiday photos a few weeks ago as well as Lyric’s 2nd birthday – a celebration! She is such a darling little girl – she even shared some of her dance moves with me during our shoot. :) Merry Christmas, LaKeisha, Lindsey and Lyric!

Images photographed with a Contax 645 on Kodak Portra 400 film.

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I had the pleasure of photographing Sabrina and her fiance Tommy a few weeks ago for their engagement session in San Diego. Sabrina wanted to include her horse, which she began riding when she was only five years old. Such a sweet and beautiful shoot. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding Sabrina and Tommy!

Images photographed with a Contax 645 on Kodak Portra 400 film.

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Click HERE to view the whole session and order prints once it’s available.

I had the privilege of meeting and photographing sweet Jones for his newborn session along with mom and dad and his big brother and sister too. Such a sweet and beautiful family! Congrats Jannine and Josh!

Images photographed with a Nikon F100 on Kodak Portra 800 film.

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Click HERE to view the whole session and order prints once it’s available.

“A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.”

Well goodness, my sweet Colt is a year old. I have a one-year-old! Still seems like he was just born, that we just became parents not so long ago. I have a sweet, sensitive young boy who loves to be with mom and dad, who does camping and road trips like such a champ, who lives in boots and Carhartt overalls at home so he can play outside in the dirt, who scrunches up his nose and makes the silliest faces to make me laugh, who clings to my legs like a parasite while I attempt to do any type of work; a boy I am so thankful God has brought into my life and into our family. Learning how to be a mom and balance all the rest of life over the last year has been one of the hardest things I’ve done. Each week is a challenge to meal plan, grocery shop, put said meals on table every night, run a full-time business, keep a clean house, play with, entertain and instruct a demanding little human (you have to eat/poop/nap again?!), and have a husband! But this year has also taught me so much. It has redefined selflessness for me, it has prioritized my life and my schedule, it has lead me to be more hands-free in an attempt to focus on this little human being in front me, rather than the world of social media, it has taught me that my housework can wait (and that no one else really notices the dirt anyway), it has expanded my capacity to love. And it has taught me that these photos I take are so much more important to me than I even thought possible. Colt, I pray that you grow to become a young man who knows God, who learns both how to serve others and to work hard, and who has a desire to love well.

I took these photos of him while we were out at the desert a few weekends ago. He was exhausted from a day playing in the dirt and I rubbed him down with baby wipes, put some clean clothes on him and made him do photos during the “golden hour” anyway. Poor life of a photographer’s son! I must say, he’s still pretty darn cute even when’s grouchy. :)

Images photographed with a Contax 645 on Kodak Portra 400 film.

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