Tori

Tori and I met through a mutual friend on Facebook this past winter. We were both in the process of planning our moves to Tennessee. Last night we finally got the chance to get together in person! Tori exudes an excitement for life and has an infectious, warm laugh that makes her glow. We went to a beautiful recreational area to talk, and I ended up capturing some images of this lovely lady.

Evenings in the backyard...

I'm staying with my friends Lori & Chris this month, just outside of Nashville. I have been enjoying my time here with them so very much! They are some of the most fun, kind, and loving people I know. Their backyard has become a favorite hangout spot for me. I sometimes spend my mornings there eating breakfast, or nights playing my ukulele. 4th of July weekend we set up some lights in the tree and enjoyed an evening of beer and conversation. I grabbed my camera and snapped these next few photos.




















My first 2 weeks in Tennessee have been filled great people, delicious food and drink, and adventure. The following is a little something I wrote while I was laying in bed this morning, slowly waking up…

Eyes wide. Wind blowing. Feet bare. Tongue tasting. Drink poured. Hips swaying. Heart wide open. Music playing.

So much goodness. So much newness.
I'm navigating streets and exploring the hearts and minds of people.

I've never been so happy to be so terrified.

Anna's Retro Shoot

There have been quite a few big things going on in my life lately - I'm getting ready to move to Nashville, friends and family are getting married, I'm enjoying my last few weeks at the radio station, and currently I am staying with the kids I've nannied for the past 3 years. Busy days! But FINALLY - I am so very happy to share with you some of my favorite shots from a fifties inspired photo shoot I did at the beginning of May, featuring my fabulously stylish friend, Anna! The lovely Julia (see first photo) was in charge of hair and makeup. We had a fantastic time hanging out and putting together this look!
The dress, gloves (only in a few shots), and earrings (which are technically 80's) Anna and I found at a local vintage shop called Wildwoman's.

You can view all of the photos on my Flickr.

A spring hike with Sierra.

A few weeks ago I went for a picnic and a hike with my friend Sierra and her pup. It was a sunny and warm spring day, perfect for spending some time out of doors, tramping through the valley and woods of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.

Downtown La Crosse

This past Saturday I met up with my friend Katy - you'll recognize her from a couple of previous posts. She's someone who I've come to enjoy having photo adventures with, all of which have been unplanned and pretty spontaneous. We enjoyed a patio lunch at 4 Sisters, right along the river, and then headed downtown to see what we could see. We walked up and down streets and in between buildings, capturing images of things that caught our eye.

Wandering about in a marsh.

A few weeks ago I went to visit my friend Katy. It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday, and enjoying it was an absolute must! We drove along the Mississippi and wandered about the marshes along the road to capture a few images. I had brought my little Sony with me (although the sun made the screen impossible to see), and the shot of the weeds in my hand was taken with that. The rest of the photos I snapped on Katy's Canon.

Small towns with cool old buildings

Yesterday I took some photos with some lovely young ladies. We Walked about a local, small town and found some cool old buildings to use as backdrops. It's supposedly spring now, but the wind was breathtakingly cold and we all had fairly frozen feet after an hour of being outside. I'm holding onto hope that soon the chill in the air will be gone and bits of green will be popping up everywhere.

Here are my favorite shots...

This is the year for making dreams and goals happen...

I am now the proud owner of my very first full frame camera! I can't even begin to say how amazing it is to go from shooting an extremely old Nikon D80 to a Nikon D610! The ability to take photos in low-light… the focus… pretty much EVERYTHING is a huge improvement and I'm SO excited to now have a quality camera to learn and capture images with.
This morning I had plans to sleep in, but my internal alarm clock thought differently. 6:30 came and I was wide awake. I laid in bed for a bit, slowly letting my eyes and mind clear of sleepiness, and then I noticed through the crack of the bedroom door traces of pink and purple on the horizon line. By this time it was 7am, and I headed outside with my camera to capture some moments of the sun rising…

























Last night I went to visit my friend Beth who recently returned from adventures in Costa Rica. We talked, cooked, and laughed a lot. These are just a few snapshots from the evening.












The Marilyn Monroe picture was painted by Beth. She's fantastic!

Julia

Julia is a very good friend of mine, and a fantastic hair stylist/makeup artist. For a long time we've talked about doing a shoot together. We finally decided to make it happen! We knew that we wanted to have a bit of an edgy look, so we pulled some pieces from her closet for her two outfits, and then decided on how she should do her hair and makeup. The fur coat was a last minute decision, but one that we both ended up LOVING! - thanks for lending it, Jenny! As for location, most of these were either shot in the warehouse district of Minneapolis, or by an abandoned granary (or something??) that we happened to stumble upon.

I've loved fashion for as long as I can remember. As a young girl and then throughout my teen years, my mom and I would sit and page through the latest issue of Vogue, and I would soak up the pictures with eyes, wanting to recreate what I was seeing. This was the first chance I've had to do a shoot like this, and I'm very pleased with the outcome of my first attempt. I'm also pretty terrible at telling people how to stand and pose, so this gave me some practice to do that too. I've been trying to figure out what exactly I want to do with my photography, and I'm still not completely certain, but I think I'm taking a step in the right direction. :)































































Coffee break and a chance to warm up for a bit! It was 20 degrees and a little too breezy.













































Thanks again, sweet Julia for being such a BEAST out there in the cold, and totally owning this shoot!
Looking forward to us working our magic together again in the future. ;)

Les chats noir.

Meet Jazz and Sasha. Two cool cats.