At the Beach

We spent our 4th of July at the beach! It was so fun and I loved the kids expressions when we told them where we were going. They were so excited they couldn't stop talking about it. The boys are now old enough to remember previous experiences at the beach, but this was only Ashley's second time and she just turned two.

We had to take a few pictures before they got in the water when we got there. Spencer kept telling me as we were driving there that I would only get one picture. lol


I love this picture, this shows just how hesitant she was to going into the water. Sad to say, but she didn't like the beach.

Tyler helped them build a fort, should have taken a picture of the finished project before the wave came in a knocked it down.


Priceless smile. All he wanted to do everyday was swim, swim, swim!


And this is how I spent most of my time at the beach... with Ashley wrapped in a towel on my lap. That's the only place she wanted to be.

How the boys warmed up.

Fun Times

We've had so much going on lately. Recently my oldest graduated preschool. Felt so weird to think he wasn't going to be in preschool and was moving on to kindergarten. He's been in preschool since a couple weeks shy of his third birthday. I remember thinking how he was going to be in preschool for 2 and a half years and *puff* here we are. He's had an amazing teacher and I'm so lucky and grateful to have found her. He's learned so much and I'm feeling confident that he's ready for what's next. Here are some pics from his graduation.




We also went bowling on Memorial Day. I've been wanting to do this for a while and was going back and worth on whether our kids where ready for this. Finally our friends asked us to go with them and we couldn't turn down the invitation. :) They loved it and got the hang of it quickly. They didn't even use the ramp thing they give kids to bowl with.

Check out Spencer's form...

Can you tell he was happy?

Even my soon to be 2 year old wanted to bowl and enjoyed it!

This picture cracks me up with Scott's determination...

LOVE this picture! Just wish Spencer would have been there.

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...

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!

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!

One Year Older - Scottsdale AZ Photographer

This past Monday I turned one year older and one year wiser just like that! I was able to celebrate over the weekend with my husband. He asked what I wanted to do and I said just go out to a dinner and a movie. Seems simple, but with 3 kids and a busy schedule it's sometimes hard to do. We've resorted to ordering out and staying up late watching movies as our dates in the last couple of months. I actually like that a tad better since I can fall asleep whenever I want... usually half way through the movie. lol But I have a serious popcorn addiction and well... it needs to be fed so often. So off to dinner and a movie we went.

On Monday, we went out to eat at one of our favorite places Gramaldis Pizzeria. If you sign up for the birthday club you get a free pizza on your birthday! So, we couldn't pass that up.



As we were finishing up Spencer asked if we were going to get ice cream afterwards. We have been going over to Sugar Bowl for dessert whenever we eat at Gramaldis. I couldn't disappoint a 5 and 4 year old. After ice cream, Spencer said "well, it can't be your birthday if you don't have a cake." I was starting to see he was trying to take advantage of my special day and get all the junk food he could have. lol

The nice thing about having a 5 year old is handing over the camera to get a picture with Tyler. Here's his first try...

Future photographer in the making...




Ashley asking for seconds...

Tyler knows that anything with strawberries is my favorite!

A number five should suffice, right?

My helpers...

Wedding & Portrait Photographers International Convention 2011

I've been MIA this past week due to the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International Convention in Vegas, it's an annual convention. I was hoping I would have time to blog while there and even brought my computer to do some editing, but alas there was hardly any time to do anything other than attend the convention and sleep. I decided to bring my husband, Tyler, as he is truly my rock and support. I thought it would be nice for him to learn some of the business side and some of the technical photography stuff. But I was blown away by his eagerness and excitement to learn. One of the nights I woke up at 3 in the morning and he was sitting up in bed writing. I asked him what he was doing and if he was going to get up with me in just a few hours to go class. He was so cute and said he had so many great ideas and his brain was racing and thought it would help to write them down. Then he even woke up at 7 to attend class.

I've felt so blessed to be able to attend WPPI could not have been done without the help of both sets of grandparents! Here's a list of some of the photographers' classes I attended, classes where from 1.5-2 hours long!

Dane Sanders
Jerry Ghionis
Tim Meyer
Jason Aten
Craig Heidemann
Scott and Adina Hayne
Cliff Mautner
Doug Gordon
Joe McNally
Bob and Dawn Davis
Sarah Petty
Gene Ho
Jasmin Star
Kevin Kubota
Tamara Lackey
Kenny Kim
Kay Eskridge
Lori Nordstrom

My brain is on information overload! But I'm very excited for my business and photography and what the next year will bring! Can't wait to start experimenting with techniques and tips I learned.

I also got to meet other great photographers from all over the globe and talk to them about their tricks and tips. Everyone there was so friendly and open! For 6 days I focused completely on photography and the industry. I felt like I was in a bubble and time stood still. It was a great experience.

Unfortunately, Ashley, our youngest, had a 104 degree fever for 4 days while we were there, and our other kids were also sick.

Of course!

That's just how things roll!

So, late Wednesday night we decided to make the trip back home to get Ashley to the pediatrician. Turns out she had an ear infection. Poor thing! I was bummed that I missed two other classes that I'm sure would have been great. But there's always next year! Tyler said he wants to go next year which is so encouraging to me. So here are some pics from our trip, we didn't get to hang out in Vegas, because we were so busy with everything going on at WPPI and we were hoping to get to go out Thursday night since we would get done a little earlier, oh well...

Kenny Kim- He was awesome an had some great tips!

Lori Norstrom, I saw her speak at the trade show at WPPI and decided to attend her class. She was also great! I wish I would have taken a pic of every speaker, but I only took these two. :)



View from our car!


View from a friends hotel room at the Cosmopolitan...






We got to attend the trade show as well, lots of gadgets and fun stuff. I had to try to contain myself and not go crazy buying everything in sight! I just bought two thing. Yay!

Tyler and I stopped and listened to some music. Thinking of adding music to our site! If you have an opinion on either way would love to hear it! Either way, we are thinking of doing slide shows with music!

We got to see our friend Tim for all of 5 minutes, but it was fun!



Self portraits...