FATHER'S DAY IS COMING, WHAT ARE YOU GIVING YOUR MEN?

Some of my favorite clients, Kristi, called me up and wanted to have a glam day with her two girls and give her husband portraits for Father's Day. Her oldest daughter was one of my Senior Models this year, and is going up to NAU for college in a month, and she wanted to photograph this precious time her girls have together before Sam leaves.

I'm sure her husband is going to break down when he sees his favorite ladies in their beautiful Folio Box. Best Fathers Day present ever- the girls get to have a great glam day together and create memories and the men get amazing photograph of the girls and woman he loves the most.

ONLINE EDUCATION: creativeLIVE Illustrator CLASS

Happy Thursday! It's creativeLIVE time again, and on today's agenda is an Adobe Illustrator class, and I can't. wait. I have ben playing around in Illustrator a bit (I designed all my mom's Petite Pomme Preschool branding in it) but again I only know a fraction of what is possible in the program.


On Tuesday I watched Khara Plicnic's InDesign Class, and loved it so much, I purchased it for the $59 sale price. I'm so excited to use the templates she included in the class and rewatch so I can do a review here tomorrow- I'll do both the InDesign class and the Illustrator class review together.

creativeLIVE is putting on a whole week of Adobe Creative Apps For Beginners : Monday was Graphic Design for Beginners, Tuesday was InDesign, Wednesday was DreamWeaver (which I didn't watch- I  have never even opened DreamWeaver and don't really know what it does. Anyone else watch it?), Thursday is Illustrator, Friday is Photoshop, and Saturday is After Effects (another one I have never opened or know what it is). If you've purchased Adobe Creative Cloud like I did and have access to all this amazing software that you really don't know how to use, this is the PERFECT opportunity for you to dive in and get dirty with them.

One thing though- I have watched dozens of creative LIVE classes, and purchased a few, and I realized that many times I take notes on what I learned, but never go back and revisit those notes. It becomes a waste of time and money if we don't start putting our education into practice, so I'm going to create a learning system to go over the classes I took and review the material on a weekly basis so everything doesn't go out the window. I'll post my system once I develop it!

AHOY DARLING! LIMITED EDITION MINI SESSIONS AND MATILDA JANE TRUNK SHOW

This Saturday I hosted my first Matilda Jane Trunk Show, and I was blown away by all the gorgeous clothes this company produces! Boutique, exclusive, and collectible; these clothes are SUCH a treasure for a mom like me with 5 girls to dress that are all pretty close in age and size. We can mix and match tops, shorties, pantes, skirts, and dresses between all the girls and get different looks and even combine them with a lot of clothes they already have! I gave my wishlist to my trunkkeeper Nichole, and am so stinkin excited for the girls clothes to be delivered.

At the Trunk Show I had a sneak peek of the Ahoy! Darling set I will be using for the miniGLAM sessions this week. We had a couple of moms that ordered Matilda Jane Clothing bring their girls and get their photos taken early- the rest of the mini mavens will be photographed this week. Penelope and Evelyn were able to buy "off the rack" and get their dresses Saturday. 

ONLINE EDUCATION | creativeLIVE InDesign CLASS

I know most of you have heard me rant and rave about creativeLIVE (basically my university- have learned SO MUCH thanks to them) and today I am shaking with excitement because FREE today, there is an Adobe InDesign For Beginners Class taught by Khara Plicanic.



Stream videos at Ustream

I have had InDesign since purchasing Creative Cloud last year, but have only used it a few times, thanks to Khara's Album Design Class last year. I've only seen the tip of the Iceberg with the program so I am stoked to see everything I can do with the program because I know it will make my workflow so fast and there are probably so many possibilities for me to use the program I haven't even thought of!

I'll be posting a class review later this week sharing what I learned and my favorite parts about the class.

MESA FAMILY PORTRAITS: THE WASHBURN FAMILY

Summer is now upon us, and it's officially waaaaay too hot to drag a family on a location shoot. Our last family shoot of the season was with this adorable little family. Their kids were so friendly and well behaved (yes even the teenager!) and the love that they all had for each other radiated out of all their faces all day. 

Since it's so hot down here, I have a few clients that have scheduled family shoots in the cooler regions of Pinetop and Sedona! Which, of course I'm thrilled about since that gives me an excuse to travel a bit and get out of this heat. Plus, there are so many amazing locations in Northern Arizona I can't wait to explore. 

HAIR & MAKEUP C/O >> Eryn Michelle
WARDROBE STYLING C/O >> Lindsay Taylor

RESOURCE REVIEW: DESIGN AGLOW PHOTOGRAPHY PRINT RELEASE

As a designer and a photographer, I fully understand and appreciate sites that offer templates for photographers who don't have the time or desire to craft their own forms and studio materials. One of my favorite websites for inspiration for my own collateral is Design Aglow; a one-stop-shop for all kinds of studio templates.

Last week I had a client who ran into problems at her personal print lab since I did not include a print release form with her digital images. This is the first time any of my clients have ever had an issue with printing their images, but of course it had to be one of my maternity clients who is pregnant and irritated and HOT and did not wish to wait for me to craft up a custom print release. Luckily, Design Aglow came to the rescue with their Print Release Form and I was able to purchase, fill in blanks, and email right over to her in a blink of an eye.

From now on, I will be printed a stack of these from my lab and stick them in every client order so I don't run into the problem again. I'm so so thankful I had a resource to turn to in a pinch, and now I have my eye on a few other forms in their shop- here are a couple of my faves:


PHOTOGRPAHY STUDIO SIZE SAMPLE WALL DISPLAY $50



STUDIO FORMS & LEGAL CONTRACTS SET $170

>> images c/o Design Aglow

MESA MISSIONARY PORTRAITS: BRIANNA + CHASE

This strapping you man just left for a mission for the LDS church. Brianna, one of my glam clients, asked me to do a shoot with her and her boyfriend Chase before he left on his mission. And just like that, I was shooting my very first Missionary Shoot.

It was a new experience for me, but I had a great time with these two, capturing the precious few moments they have together before they are separated for two years. No one can tell the future, but I will say that it is rare to see the connection that these two have in people so young. I'm hoping that I'll get to shoot their engagements and wedding someday in the near future.

HAIR & MAKEUP C/O : Leah Fitts