Rotchford Family Portrait Session - Rocklin, CA

First blog post of 2014 is officially here.  Not only that, but it is my 300th blog post!  I feel like there should be some fireworks or something happening as you continue reading.  Another fantastic thing about this blog post is that I am lucky enough to have one of two things happen.  I have fabulous people I photograph that become some pretty great friends, and then I have some fantastic friends that I am lucky enough to photograph as well.  In this case, it's the latter.  The last time I photographed my best friend Erika, it was for her "Love the Dress" session with her hubby Matt last July.  Since then, they've bought a house, celebrated their one year anniversary & got their first fur baby together.  Moose, their 10 month old chesapeake bay retriever, joined their family back in April and has been quite the ball of energy.  We headed out to Clover Valley Park at the end of November to get some holiday card photos with their pup. These first two are some of my favorites... So consider yourself warned :)
Moose was very much wanting to run the show and with a creek nearby, it is easy to say his interest was elsewhere.  But after a decent amount of rotating, switching places, and crawling on the ground, we got some awesome photos.
This little trio went together PERFECTLY. Yes, I am extra excited about it. I think we all can agree Erika is pretty fabulous in all these photos. Those boots? Love them.  You look pretty great yourself too, Matt.  Don't worry, I didn't forget about you!
After all his hard work and participation, Moose was free to splash all through the creek.  All his puppy cravings satisfied.  Yet, he hardly looks like a puppy in this photo, which was the very last one I took that day.  So very stoic looking indeed.
It has been a fairly busy fall season this year, but I am so glad I got the chance to photograph these guys again.  Can't wait for the next stage in their life together to add to their portrait collection.  Thanks again, Rotchford Clan.  You guys are awesome, as always!

Amy & Luke Engagement Session - Reno, NV

This past December I headed out one night to meet up with a friend locally just to hang out for a little bit. Next thing I knew, I got a picture message on my phone from Amy. No words, just her left hand with some bling on it! Luke had gone and popped the question, and she was beyond thrilled. Half a year has gone by, as well as about half a dozen skype conversations full of wedding talk, and here we are! At the end of last month I took a little weekend trip to visit Amy & her crew at her house in the Reno area. Saturday afternoon, after a lovely home made breakfast, we headed out to do their engagement photos at Marilyn's Pond. The night before was full of rain, thunder & lightening, but we survived! The weather was great, and the location was amazing!

An engagement session with these two would NOT have been complete without their two dogs, Rue & Ellie. If we had included ALL animals in their house, we would of had dogs, frogs, a cat, a rat... and i'm SURE something else that I'm forgetting. I love bridges about as much as I love using stairs in photos. Rue was a little weary of it though with his skinny little legs! I told you I was saving my ampersand for something special to kick it off!

I had to save my ABSOLUTE favorite for last. I made them walk up and down that spot so many times, but we got the shot!I'm super excited for these two to tie the knot in a few years once Amy is done with nursing school! We've been through a LOT since meeting each other in 6th grade when I moved to Loomis, I can't wait to see the journey they're going to take from here! Thank you two SO much to letting me do your photos for you. I had a BLAST! p.s. big thanks to our dog wrangler/noise maker Jenny!