Photography

Mary Elise | Senior Portraits

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Her beauty is the kind that makes you want to be more like yourself, not more like her.
Which, if you didn't know, is the best kind of beauty there is.

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So loved shooting this exceptionally wonderful girl's senior portraits in North Carolina last fall.
These are just a few of my favorites that I wanted to share as I'm currently working on publishing more photos from the archives in the upcoming weeks...

Recharged

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I've been a little absent from the blog as of late. A trend that always seems to come around this time of year when I'm busy with orders from the shop and finishing up photo editing for various clients before the end of the year. But it feels good to be back at it after a little time away and I'm excited to finish out 2015 strong, put some final touches on different projects and work related things as well as tie up loose ends before the start of a new year.

Over the past few days I got to rest, relax and recharge in a way I haven't been able to in quite some time.
It was just what I needed to recover from the crazy whirlwind that the holidays can so often be. 
I read two books, ate several delicious home cooked meals, didn't check email for three days (so hard for me not to do...), rarely looked at my phone (all but ignored it really, except when taking photos. Of course.) and was able to spend some quality time with those I love most in this world.
All of which make for a much happier and focused person who's ready to tackle this Monday head on that's for sure.

We all need time to rest, relax, rejuvenate and recharge sometimes.
All of the R's, you know?
I hope you have some time to do that before the start of the new year friend. 
You deserve it. 

On Legacy

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This video is just absolutely everything.
This is why I take photos.
This is why I find photographs so incredibly moving and sacred.
Oh how I absolutely love everything that Artifact Uprising stands for.
Inspired by the disappearing beauty of the tangible. 

***Warning: You may or may not shed tears while watching this.
Grab some tissues.

I Dream My Painting

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I dream my painting and I paint my dream. || Vincent van Gogh

People you can dream big with.
The big-city dreamers.
Those are the kind of people I love.
The ones I get most excited about doing life with.
This girl's one of them, for the record.

Have conversations about how important it is to visualize where you're going.
Believe it's possible to get there.
Set goals to get there.
Believe those are attainable.
But also learn to be content and happy with the present, where you're at now.
It's a fine line, something that requires balance.
But that too is possible.
You just have to dream your painting.
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Shot at Greecologies in New York City

Engagement | Jessie + Drew

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But I love your feet
only because they walked
upon the earth and upon
the wind and upon the waters, 
until they found me. || Pablo Neruda

The drive to the Rappahannock River is a drive I love taking and I always welcome any excuse to take it. Especially on a beautiful mid October day that allows for rolled down windows during the scenic drive.
Jessie and Drew will be getting married in the same place and on the same day these were taken, next October.
Such a sweet little detail in their love story.
A love story I can't wait to continue documenting.

Lifestyle | The Wright Sisters

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The Secret Garden was what Mary called it when she was thinking of it. She liked the name, and she liked still more the feeling that when its beautiful old walls shut her in no one knew where she was. It seemed almost like being shut out of the world in some fairy place. The few books she had read and liked had been fairy-story books, and she had read of secret gardens in some of the stories. Sometimes people went to sleep in them for a hundred years, which she had thought must be rather stupid. She had no intention of going to sleep, and, in fact, she was becoming wider awake every day which passed. || Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

There's something irreplaceable and unchangeable about the bond of sisters.
The unconditional love and you-knew-me-when. The shared experiences from the very-most-possible-beginning of things. That built in best friend you'll never be without. 

Spending the afternoon with these two woodland fairies was the best possible reminder of why I love doing what I do. For it's this kind of photography, lifestyle photography, the capturing things just-so and as-they-happen, that's my favorite.
And I think this session with these two beautiful souls is going to be a favorite of mine for quite sometime. 

Engagement | Bethany + Chris

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I hope you find someone who is brave enough to enter your storm, and respects you enough to love the size of your waves. I hope you find someone who will relish the calm you can have, and who is eager to set sail on the expanse of your mind. I hope you find someone that can’t escape the love they have for you, because now they have you in their very blood, always reminding them that you are the only sea worth exploring. || T.B. LaBerge

This rainy day engagement session is one of my favorite to date I think.
My favorite weather and my favorite thing to do... Documenting two people in love.
I love people who are at a point in their story together that embodies both a certain kind of newness and yet familiarity. An almost-not-yet tension of excitement and anticipation. A story that only they truly know the telling of. Moments, conversations, experiences that are just for them and make up the history of "us".

Can't wait for your wedding day this winter Chris and Bethany, to continue the telling of this story of yours.
xo

Chris + Karli | A Rainy Rehearsal Dinner

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A rainy rehearsal dinner on a humid summer evening before a beautiful and love filled wedding.
It's evenings like this one that reenforce the love and passion I have for my job and documenting people's stories. 
Chris and Karli and their family and friends were such a joy to be around during all of the festivities of the weekend.
I'm sharing a few of my favorites in black and white because, to me, they mirror the feeling and mood of the evening. 
Enjoy.