portrait
My long time photographer friend Bret Thompsett visited the Phoenix area last weekend. He originally hails from Cape Town, South Africa and now has the pleasure of living in Honolulu, Oahu. Jealous yet? Yeah, me neither… ahem.
We got to check out some cool spots (visit Thirdspace for great vibe and live music) and explore Downtown Phoenix. This is my favorite part of the wider Phoenix area. Great architecture with a bit of history and some of the coolest warehouses around. We met the owner of one of the warehouses and he was kind enough to let us inside to have a look and take a few photos. If you know me, you’ll know I was like a kid in a candy store! Can’t wait to go back and shoot at this location!
He managed to snap a few of me as well, but I’ll share those another time!
I was so excited to do this session since it was definitely a different type of portrait session than I normally do! We were lucky to have found this spot since it took quite awhile to find a beach to use because the tide had come in and the waves were hitting hard. Keri told me that the rock she was standing on was vibrating with the force of the waves hitting. Sometimes you make the best plans and figure out all the quiet beaches you’re going to use and then nothing works out, but it’s for the better! The photos turned out perfect! We couldn’t have picked a better day/sunset for this shoot.
Here’s a fun fact about the Draper family… They were one of the first portrait sessions I ever shot alongside Albert Rovey when I was just starting out. I’m going to guess about 11ish years ago? It was actually their engagement session! Look at them now with three beautiful children! They’re a really fun family and outside of photography I’ve had the pleasure of working with them since they own an apparel design company and they do a fantastic screen printing job.
It really was a joy photographing this family after so many years and had me reminiscing about when I first started out in photography. I’ve been passionate about photography for many many years about it was about 10-11 years ago that I started to take it seriously. I appreciate all the help I was offered by fellow photographer Albert in the early days. He even let me borrow gear for my very first wedding I was shooting on my own! Because of this, I like to take the time to encourage new photographers in their work and help as much as I can (though I won’t be loaning out gear anytime soon). If you’re in my area and have an interest in photography, don’t be shy! I’d love to hear from you 🙂
I had the pleasure of photographing Michael’s older sister Caitlyn last year for her senior session and was excited to get a call to photograph Michael this year! We headed into the Parker valley for some great backdrops and braved the mosquitos that like to come out around sunset. Thankfully Michael was covered with a sweater or letterman jacket but I, unfortunately, was not. I attract mosquitos from miles around apparently but it was totally worth it. He’s an easy guy to photograph! The opposite of the awkward teen. He’ll be heading off to Grand Canyon University soon and plans to be a doctor. This kid is going to do really well.
