Lost Baby Tooth - Mesa, AZ Family Photographer

After two weeks knowing that Spencer was about to lose his first tooth... it finally happened and I cried. The thought that his little baby smile was gone forever it put into perspective how much he's changed and really growing up.

On Tuesday he came up to me crying because he'd been fighting with his little brother. Then all of the sudden I noticed he had blood dripping down his chin. I asked him if his tooth fell off, but he said no. So, I checked and sure enough it was gone. I had to retrace his steps, but thank goodness we found the tooth. He felt like such a big boy and was so excited to have to Tooth Fairy visit our house. Here's his new smile...

Birthday Party - Chandler AZ Familiy Photographer

Lebby emailed me a few weeks back wanting to schedule a photo session, she mentioned how 2 of her kids and her were having birthdays in April and wanted to have balloons, hats, and cupcakes. She also said she wanted to bring some games. I got really excited with her idea and just brought a few more props. I knew she trusted me from working with her twice before. (click here to see one of her sessions.)

They played with bubbles, Uno Attack, ate cupcakes and were silly. It was really so fun to capture how they are together as a family at this time and talking to the kids and seeing how they've changed in the past year. I left the session feeling very much like I was leaving a party. So here are just a few pictures to try to tell the story...












Can you tell who won?!

Tempe Town Lake - Tempe AZ Family Photographer

Today I went scouting in downtown Tempe for ideas on future photo sessions. I did this last year, but it's always nice to look at things from a different perspective. My friend Amy and I both have sessions scheduled there soon so we loaded up the gang and headed to downtown Tempe. We spent most of the afternoon chasing after our kids, laughing and brainstorming.

Here are the boys burning up some energy...
Spencer said "Mom, mom look at me, take a picture"


Spencer is about to lose his front bottom tooth, so this will probably be one of his last pictures with his baby smile! The tooth is even to the side... that's how loose it is! Makes me sooo sad.
More running around...

"Mom look at me, see what I can do? Take a picture"
Scary face... Ok, I'm starting to see this quickly becoming a Spencer photo session. ha!
We ended up at the beach, yes there's a beach in downtown Tempe. Not big, probably about 100 feet long, but a beach nonetheless. Here's Amy taking a pic of her little girl.
I should post some pictures from our last adventure scouting out places. It seems that we always end up by a body of water with my boys soaked, naked, and cold! This was just the beginning. I reminded them how cold they were last time, but of course they didn't listen. Thankfully, I found extra clothes in our car to have them change in to.
Ashley wanted to get in so bad, she even took off her diaper because she saw her brothers' getting undressed.
"Not too bad..."
"Maybe if we raise our pants this time we won't be cold..."
About 20 minutes after they started playing in the water we noticed a dead fish. Yuck! It must have been there for a while because brave Amy tried to move it and she was grossed out that it felt hollow. I was just grossed out to see it. lol
Until our next adventure!

Birthday Party - Chandler AZ Familiy Photographer

Normally, I post my first sneak peek on Facebook, but Facebook messes with the colors of the photos sometimes. And this is one of those times and I couldn't stand it. So here's what it's suppose to look like. :)

A Thank You Note - Mesa AZ Family Photographer

A few weeks back I assisted Julie Branyan Photography with a wedding in the Fountain Hills area. It was a gorgeous wedding and I can't wait to share pictures soon! In the mean time the other day I saw Julie, she's become a close friend since she moved to the valley from Omaha, and she handed me the following note. I've gotten lots of thank yous at weddings from Brides and family but this was my first hand written card for assisting another photographer. So sweet!

PS The bride's name was also Julie.

The Super Moon - Phoenix AZ Familiy Photographer

On Saturday the moon was the closest it's been to Earth in 20 years. I wish I would have rented a telephoto lens, but I still think this picture turned out great.

Q & A - Phoenix, AZ Family Photographer

Yesterday I asked on Facebook what would people like to know about me. I've been wanting to share more about me on my Photography blog, but have a total writers block. So I thought it would be fun and here are the questions asked...

Marco Samardzija -

"What made you want to do photography, since you got a degree in psychology. To me, they are opposites. One is an art the other is a science."


In 2004 I got a BA in Psychology at ASU. (Go Devils!) When I started college I was a pre-business major. First year of college I took Psy 101 for one of my general credits.

I didn't think it would change my life.

The class was interesting, but I wasn't going to change my major because of it. Then, the following semester I took a Social Psychology class from Professor Steven Neuberg. It changed my life. As a pre-business major I was not having fun learning about economics and what not, it was work to understand it. Psychology was different. I wanted to go home after class and read the textbook just like any other good book out there. I loved it! Professor Neuberg made it fun and interesting and I just couldn't get enough of it. So, I switched my major! After graduating, I worked for The Child Crisis Center as a Healthy Families representative... in other words I was a social worker for the AZ Healthy Families Program. It was one of the hardest and most rewarding things I've ever done. I loved thinking I was helping to make a difference in people's life. Getting people to trust you with their problems and open up wasn't easy, but over time I felt the families I worked with trusted me and allowed me to help them.

On the other hand, I've always loved photography since I was a little child, as a matter of fact I've been published... (ha!) ... in two of my high school yearbooks. I laugh because I was talking to some friends last night who were telling me I should blog about this. I loved being part my high school yearbook team and helping conserve the memories from the years I spent there. I was known by my peers to have a camera in hand at all times. You just never know when the best picture opportunity may come and so I got some great pictures published. Having children ignited by passion for photography once more. I wanted to document everything about my children, so that I may remember the everyday things when they are grown.

So to answer the question. I see more similarities in psychology and photography than differences. They are both an art and they both impact people's lives. There is some science to both, but you can approach them differently depending on the situation. I love to think that I'm making a difference and helping people document important events/periods in their lives.

Life is short, so document it.

Faria Munmun - "How did you become a successful photographer/entrepreneur?"

To be honest, I'm not sure how to answer this. Success is subjective. When I started photographing people I just wanted to take pictures, but quickly realized that to stay in business I needed to become more business savvy. After all, I was spending so much time away from my family that I needed to make it worth it for me. I love doing photography, but I love my family more. I will never get back what I miss out on. Melissa Jill just yesterday tweeted "Don't start a photo business unless you enjoy business. Less than 20% of your time will be spent on photography if you want to be successful." That said, also take care of your clients! My business is word of mouth, meaning my clients refer other clients. I don't ask for this, they do it because they loved the experience they had with me.

Sharon Cherry - sent me an email with questions about doing a birth and I thought I would share my answers here. To check out the Birth post click here.

Having delivered three kids of my own, the last thing I wanted to do during a birth was have the flash going off. I thought it would be distracting for everyone including the mother and doctor. I was already in the market for a new camera a couple of months ago and decided to bite the bullet and purchase the d700. I already had the 50m 1.4 lens which works great in low light. These two things made the shoot possible. Most of the time my ISO was between 3500-5000 and I shot at 1.4 most of the time. This could not have been done on my d5000 or even the d300, ISO quality is just not there.

As far as when to go to the hospital, I asked Trisha to let me know when she was 6cm. I determine this because I knew it was her 3rd birth and the hospital was close to me. Though she assured me many many times that her labors are long and I would probably be waiting, that wasn't the case this time.

How to price a Birth session is hard. You really don't know what you are in for. When I was in labor with my first child it probably took me about 8 hours to get from 6 to 10cm. So, I'm still working this out.

Thank you guys for asking questions! If you are reading this post and you would like more posts like this leave a comment. I would love to do another one!

Before and After - Chandler AZ Family Photographer

I love editing pictures. I never quite know how I'm going to edit pictures until I open then up and see where the inspiration takes me. I always like to flip back and forth and see what a big difference editing a picture can some times make.

Well, Danielle asked me a few times before our session about photoshoping images if Josh, her 18 month old, got hurt. I said for sure, not a problem. Of course a week before our session he got hurt and had a couple of scabs on his forehead for our session. Per Danielle... he was right on schedule. lol

Well, we decided to take a family picture, and to be honest Josh was not excited about smiling. There was just too much going on around him pay attention to me. So, I had to work the smile out of him. I started acting silly and playing with his snacks, popping some in his mouth and quickly snapping away as this made him smile. So I thought I would share this before and after picture.

This picture is straight out of the camera and is unedited...


This is the edited version...


Thank goodness for Photoshop!

Searor Family - Chandler AZ Family Photographer

I had so much fun with this session. We ran around, road rides, and there was even candy for Josh, the little guy! We also took pictures of Danielle's belly, she is due next month and I can't wait to meet her new addition! She was brave enough not to find out what the sex of the baby is! So, the suspense is killing me. ah Here are some pics from their session...






This photo cracks me up as we were doing a different silhouette picture and Joe tells me he wants to do one with Josh upside down! lol Josh wasn't very excited about it, but we all had a good laugh.

Newborn Contest Winner - Phoenix AZ Newborn Photographer

I'd like to thank all those who participated in the Newborn Contest as well as those who vote! The winner of the contest is Nichol Preciado Shrum! Congratulations! I can't wait to meet your bundle of joy!

Album Design - Phoenix, AZ Photographer

Occasionally, I get to have fun and design something truly unique and special for my clients. I love designing all sorts of fun things, from albums to storyboards! I thought I would share these designs I've done recently. I designed two accordion books for two different clients. If you've never seen an accordion book it's just like it sounds, it's a book that opens like an accordion. :) (they were both designed with the babies info on them, but I decided to cover it up for privacy.) Isn't this a wonderful way to keep pictures from their newborn photo sessions?!

And apparently I was on some sort of grey kick! LOL

The Pro Lab vs Your Local Printing Place - Mesa, AZ Photographer

Don't think pro print labs make a difference? Think you can take that disc to Walmart or Walgreens and get the same quality??? Check this experiment by Wendy L White Photography. If you are a previous client, a future client, or if you've ever hired a photographer. Photographers spend so much time making sure the image is perfect for printing. You are already paying for their editing time so why get less quality?

Houk Wedding - Phoenix Wedding Photographer

I met Ashley in late January to discuss the plans for her wedding. (You might remember she was the winner of the Wedding Giveaway.) We had plans to do an engagement photo session, but unfortunately we weren't able to because of flight cancellations. You see, Josh is stationed there and he was traveling over to AZ to do some recruiting for the Air Force. We were all so bummed! I think engagement sessions are a great way to get to know my clients and it gives them a chance to get to know me and my style.

Josh and Ashley got married on a beautiful Arizona winter day. I am so excited to share their wedding with you! They are such a sweet couple. I loved doing their bride and groom pictures and getting them away from all the excitement. Just watching them interact and see how much they are in love with one another, so sweet!