Boys, beautiful light and more handsome boys

Six boys! This mom is a saint that is for sure! It was so much fun to document each of them in their different stages of life during this fun family portrait session. North Carolina and especially the Hampstead area provides so many scenic spots! This pond was the perfect spot. Click here to see all the beautiful family portraits from this session.

I do not in any way shape or form consider myself to be a writer. I am bad at grammar, cannot spell and tend to ramble a bit when I write. What can I say, visual is my thing! In spite of this I want to push myself this year beyond my comfort zone and add some words to this blog. I think they will probably have very little to do with the family portrait session that I am sharing at the time. I want to record my artistic journey not just in pictures but in words and this is what I will attempt. Probably no one will ever read it.

And that is okay! I have been in the photography industry since 1998, nineteen years. I have had the opportunity to photograph beautiful weddings, breathtaking landscapes, amazing family portraits, my own family’s growth and lifestyle, presidential hopefuls and just about everything in between. Journey doesn’t even describe all the thoughts and emotions I have had through these years of photographing and mothering. I hope to record that here. For me. For my posterity.

Today I think I will start at the beginning. My dad gave me an old Minolta SLR my junior year of high school. I put a roll of Kodak Gold film through it and loved every moment. My senior year they had the traditional Black and white high school darkroom class. I took it with a bunch of my friends. When I was the only one staying late and coming in on the weekends to develop and process I knew I had hit on something. I was good at school, smart enough, but most of all driven to please. I wanted to please teachers, my parents and myself with good grades and hard classes. I was kind of surprised when I fell in love with photography. I thought I was made for math/science not art.

I went to college thinking this will just be a past time while I get a “real” degree. Yes I was totally one of those people. I took the only photography class you could at BYU without being a photo major, photojournalism. I took pictures for the student newspaper. Again, it was what I devoted ALL my time to and the class I felt the happiest in. I started preparing my portfolio to apply for the photography major. I got in during a study abroad in London in 2001.

That study abroad set the path for my life in so many ways I see now. Not only did I take a lot of art classes, (more then I have ever taken before) I got to explore a different country and it cemented in me my love of travel. It also started my photographic style, which will always be documentary in nature, even if I pose your family. London will always feel like a artistic beginning for me. I am so grateful for that experience.