Motley Family

A few weeks ago we had another opportunity to work with some great people and good friends. The Motley family met us out at the petroglyph park and we took the evening to photograph their family before Terrance left on a church mission. He will be gone for two years in Italy teaching about the birth, teachings, atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. It's an amazing thing to see a 19 year old young man have such a dedication and love for the gospel that he will dedicate two years of his life to it. We wish him all the best and hope that his family doesn't miss him too much!
We look forward to when Terrance comes home so we can do another session with the entire family.

Legacy

The wrinkles in Flora's hands were more evident against the young skin of baby Olivia. Though they are separated by 97 years, they are connected through the blood that runs through their veins. Four generations of women, four lives, though each different, are tied together as family.
We had an amazing honor of photographing a four generation family as part of our Legacy session.

We are re-introducing our Legacy Limited Edition Session this month. This is an amazing opportunity for us to capture the relationship we share with one another before it becomes too late.
Desiree will be sharing, in an upcoming post and email, her story of why we are so passionate about these sessions. Her story comes from her regret in not taking the time to bring her grandmother into the studio to get pictures with our grandsons before it was too late.
The Medina family took advantage of the time they still had and we were able to capture their relationship and preserve that for their family forever!

The jones holidays

This year we took some time off to spend with our boys... Finally, the last two years we didn't even decorate inside our house because we were so busy with work. This year we had to put everything on hold and spend the time with our boys that they need and deserve!
For thanks giving we went down to visit family in El Paso. This was the first time since Desiree and I were married that we had a big holiday dinner with all of her dad's family. We had a great time, it was a little less formal than what we are used to but it was pretty nice all the same.



Ammon took a picture of me with the obligatory green bean Casserole.



Ryan, my brother in law and Gregg, my father in law drove out to Phoenix the day after thanksgiving to pickup the boat that Ryan bought for himself. We ate at RA a pretty descent sushi place on Mill street in Mesa, If you happen by there get the Tootsie Roll it's on my top 5 specialty rolls. The Rainbow roll at Hiro Sushi in flagstaff is in my top 5 also (i'll have to do a sushi blog). For a pretty dry state they sure can roll the sushi!


After we got back in town we took a Friday off to go get our Christmas tree. We have made it a family tradition with our kids to go up into the Jemez mountains and cut a tree. This time we thought we would save some time and go to a little closer than we normally do. We found nothing...


The sun looks misleading... it was way cold!


Kelsyn fell on some ice and almost busted his tooth out and it was a pretty unhappy time.

The kids started their winter break in the middle of the month so the fist day of vacation we went to the dentist to have Ammon's two front teeth pulled (they were way overdue to fall out) and go get our tree. We really didn't have any other time to do it and that day was a huge snow storm.



We went all the way up into the Jemez where we traditionally go and took some sleds and the dog, and had a crazy fun time in 18 inches of fresh snow.



Everybody had a blast, Desiree and I about had a heart attack when Kimball went Evel Knievel on us and flew down a way too steep hill into a pile of boulders, fortunately the almost 2' of snow softened the stop.


The brown fur ball behind the tree is Rocket the wonder puppy, he has been in the family since 2001 when we adopted him from the shelter. He loved the snow!


We drove home on completely snow packed roads. Half way down the mountain we finally saw the snow plows parked in front of a cafe. The chocolate was probably pretty hot... can ya blame 'em. we made it home just fine in 4wd once we got into ABQ cars were all over the road.


Christmas Eve came and Desiree's sister and Brother in law came into town. We went up to Santa Fe to the national cemetery to leave a poinsettia for Grandma and Grandpa Speers.



The area where they were was covered in a few inches of snow. I forgot to take my GPS so we didn't have an exact location with us. We went to the general area and started kicking the snow off the headstones. Desiree's mom was worried that it would probably take a while to find the plot and we had to get back to get dinner on. She shuffled her feet and noticed that she had walked out and stood right on top of the grave marker. We left the flowers Kimball made them a little snow man and we same a Christmas song and got a burrito at Bumble Bee before we headed home.



Christmas Eve we traditionally open a present, PJs. The kids were really excited to open a present and pretty disappointed when they saw it was just PJs.





One of these years they will catch on. After we all got in our jammies, Desiree read the Cajun night before Christmas and Breanne read the Polar express to the boys.


Even Scruffy got in on some unwrapping action!


We had a great Christmas, we all got what we wanted and the kids got more than they should have. We are now back at work and preparing for our bridal shows, it was nice to have a few days just to enjoy life and our family.
Next year we'll probably just get a cabin again and hope to get snowed in!

Finally the Frushours!

We shot another family for our Legacy collection! We ran into the Frushours at the mall on crazy tax free weekend and they mentioned they haven't had pictures done of Hayden since he was born. We figured that since he's now two, it was time. We had a wonderful time shooting and playing, even though Hayden was more interested in eating cookies than doing pictures! It was a great opportunity for them to enjoy time together as a family and have great images to show for it. Thanks guys for coming in, and enjoy!

Four generations of strong women

I had the opportunity today to photograph four generations of Moody women. I had a wonderful time watching Rebe and Ally play with their great grandma. We were told before hand that Grammy wasn't "photogenic" but it's amazing when you concentrate on the feelings that one generation has for another, it doesn't matter. Grammy was beautiful, all smiles and love for her great grand daughters. Thank you for sharing your legacy with us!
We are so privileged to be able to be a part of the lives of so many people. To see and know a family like this and be able to provide them with images of the family legacy is a great blessing.
There is always time in our lives that we can take away from the daily grind and spend with our families. Take some time with them and have it captured, to be remembered for generations - a testament of your family's love.
Thanks again for letting us be a part of your families.
Desiree

A "Legacy" series

We are releasing our legacy series in the close future and have been shooting some families, in the mean time, to use for our promo material. Today we were able to shoot the Fausett family. I have been looking forward to this shoot because I have not had a chance to spend much time with the youngest, Willy. He was a perfect model for the shoot this morning. Everything that we asked him to do, he did. He was easy to communicate with and in a great mood. --which can be, as most of us parents know, a real hit-n-miss at that age.
Anyway we had a great time look forward to looking through the rest of the images.


Thanks again you guys for coming over for our shoot this morning. I really enjoyed it! don't let it be so long before the next time we do your pictures!! Trisdan, we are going to be starting our photo classes soon, let me know if you want some information.
Your kids are truly beautiful, you are pretty blessed parents!
Take care!

On the river bank

It has been a while since we shot in this particular spot on the river. It was really overgrown with trees and weeds since we were there last, which made things a bit more challenging. Anyway we were able to meet up with the Gale family before sunset and take advantage of the light to get some really nice images of the family. Aside from the grumpy older brother, everything went well. The twins are way cute, each with such different personalities. It is really nice to shoot such a cute family! (next time we'll have to shoot your family in the morning before any of the kids run off to the pool and stay all day without telling you) Take care you guys!! We look forward to getting the rest of your images ready and out to you!

MOM-E-2-B

OK Stephanie, here is your sneak preview of your images. I just randomly went through the session and pulled out three that popped out at me. I know going into the session you weren't quite sure what direction you wanted to take it so hopefully we were able to capture something that you will love.
I look forward to looking at the rest of the images and getting them ready for you. I am also looking forward to September when we can welcome Daddy's little boy, and photograph his first few days with you two. Keep resting, keep your skinny ankles! You look great. Derek, you should be proud that you have such a hot pregnant wife!!
Thanks again you two, we had a great time.

Long delayed post

We had a visit today from one of our favorite clients ( we have many favorite clients). We have had the great pleasure of working with her family for a while now and have been able to photograph them a few times. They have been blessed to two very cute girls and one devil. (most almost two year olds are devils though) Anyway, our last shoot was at the park where we were able to capture the kids just playing together.
We look forward to working with you guy again Mika. (sorry for the delay)!!!

A honeymoon baby?

Today was a great day. Lance and Megan, a beautiful couple we had the great pleasure to photograph came in today with their beautiful little boy Jackson. Born 9 months and 15 days after their wedding. Jackson is one of the best babies that we have been blessed to be able to work with. He was very good and we took a ton of pictures of him. I pulled this image out of the many just randomly. He had so many great images that I would have been proud to show any. A baby like this makes my job easy!!
Megan and Lance, you are two very lucky new parents. Congratulations!!

Snowy May Afternoon

Liz & Coleman are gettin' hitched in a couple of weeks. (very very short weeks, if you ask Liz) Anyway, we had a chance to shoot a session of their entire (soon to be) family. We did this at the top of Sandia Crest. It was cold and snowy but we had a great time. I had had oral surgery just an hour before the shoot and was afraid that the pain and/or numbness would alter the outcome of the shoot. Well, with all the hiking my blood started to flow and the numbness quickly went away. the cold also kept the pain down. All in all it was a great shoot. Liz and Coleman make quite a couple and Desiree and I are really looking forward to shooting their wedding.
You can't tell from the images but it really did snow and it was very cold!!