Brooke & Curry's Chico, CA. Maternity Session - Expecting baby boy, Benjamin

When Brooke contacted me inquiring about doing a maternity portrait session, I was a little surprised: almost all of the maternity shoots I do are with previous wedding clients or personal friends. But when she mentioned she and her husband, Curry, were referred by Julie & Jesse, I quickly scheduled them for a session. Julie and Jesse were one of my last maternity shoots and we had such a fun time I knew it would be a blast.

I had a feeling the expecting couple was going to be a lot of fun and I was right! They were up for whatever ideas I had and brought a bag full of ideas of their own. We started early in the morning at one of my favorite locations in Chico. I knew if we were going to find fall color it would be in the beautiful Mendocino National Forest Genetic Resource and Conservation Center. This location always provides a stunning Bamboo grove, many bridges to chose from, overgrown pathways with cascading foliage and other natural landscape settings. We found a perfect bush with red berries all over it which was perfect for a holiday mistletoe belly kiss.

After leaving the botanical garden, we raced the rain clouds to the Chico State campus to get some more fun images of the expecting parents. With the beautiful architecture and creativity of great minds, we collaborated and came up with some really fun images together. Congratulations Brooke and Curry on your Baby Boy, Benjamin. Here are some of my favorite images from your maternity portrait session.

Trisha & Jordan's Engagement Session - Casper WY.

While attending college, I was lucky to meet so many wonderful people. Trisha is definitely one of those people: one of the sweetest, kindest and most positive people I know. While I hadn't met Jordan, I knew he had to be one great guy to wrangle such a fine filly. When the news broke that they were engaged I was super excited. Because Jordan's job has taken them to Wyoming, I thought it would be a great excuse for a photo road trip: I always love a good adventure!

The day we drove into the city of Casper, WY, the first storm of the season had just passed through, dusting the trees, pathways, and bridges with a thin sheet of glittery white snow which added another layer of beauty to our photo shoot. Along with this beauty came the frigid cold (the high was 22 degrees). Although we all ordered our coffees "extra hot," they were ice cold before we left the first location. Despite the cold, Trisha and Jordan were super awesome during the entire session. Luckily, we packed plenty of hand warmers which seemed to help a lot.

Casper was full of fun surprises, like the herd of horses that were so curious about us they walked right into the background of our shoot, and when Jordan was "acting" like he was fishing and caught a gigantic rainbow trout on the second cast. The final location we hit was downtown Casper after nightfall. One of our pre-planned ideas was to wrap the couple in Christmas lights so we figured this would be the perfect spot. We had some trouble finding an accessible outlet, but Jordan scaled a lamppost and patched into the existing set of lights. It was perfect!

Congratulations to Trisha and Jordan on their engagement, here are some favorites from the engagement session.

Denelle & Chris' Creative Session -Truckee, CA. Wedding Photography

After Denelle and Chris' wedding day we knew we were going to have a Creative Session. This post-wedding day romantic session was everything I could have wished. The weather was beautiful, the locations were fun, and the newlyweds were as cute as can be.

We decided we would start photographing at Rainbow Bridge, a historical landmark for the town of Truckee located along old hwy 40. Both Chris and Denelle grew up on Donner Lake so the bridge, which has an amazing view of the lake and the surrounding area, was the perfect location for the beginning of our day. After spending some time looking down on the lake we knew we wanted to get closer. Chris' parents' house has a beautiful dock with a bench at the end.

To end the session we knew we wanted to get some portraits with their dogs. Admiral and Ladybird were a big part of the engagement session, but they were not able to be at the wedding. We knew we wanted to get them into the creative session photos and I knew of the perfect spot. This tucked-away valley offers a wide open field with colorful aspen trees where the dogs can run off-leash and we were sure to not see anyone. This romantic location was the perfect place to end my weekend with this special couple.

Congratulations again to the newlyweds! Here are some of my favorite images from your creative session. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!