A-SESSION LOCATIONS- Mountains

Nikki will soon be brightening the campus of University of Reno/Nevada with her dimpled smile and blue eyes. She’s just finishing up her senior year at El Dorado High. I spent the end of a lovely day with her at the High Sierra Iris Gardens in Camino—the natural background of vibrant flowers is the perfect complement to Nikki’s glowing beauty, especially since she has a strong interest in the healing properties of plants and foods. She’ll be studying nutrition in the fall. Joining us for the shoot was Nikki’s Dad, Ben. He watched and admired his grown daughter through the…

Ahhh… and thus begins 2014’s engagement season! Engagement sessions are such a fabulous way for me to get to know my couples before their wedding day (and visa versa.) Not only can we become more familiar and at-ease with one another but I can work with them to see how they like to be photographed. It really pays off on the wedding day because all that initial awkwardness is already out of the way. In this case, there was no awkwardness at all since Sallie Grace and I attended the same boarding school, Chatham Hall and so had lots to…

Mike and Leslie are our neighbors. Lucky me, they are so wonderful and kind. Mike is the guy who you can rely on to be at the end of the road in every snow storm, shrinking the burm from the plow with his shovel while Leslie is the kind neighbor who would drop anything for anyone at any time. They both helped us out on several occasions when our girls were younger and, when my assistant Jerri (who was also their daughter’s best friend) faced leaving her friends behind because her family was moving to Montana in her Senior year,…

I love it when I get to give back to someone who is usually not on the receiving end of such gifts. That’s the case here with beautiful Victoria, who won this session at an auction for a charity event held by the Diamond Springs community earlier this year to help the family of one of the 19 fallen firefighters from the Arizona blazes, Sean Misner. His wife, Amanda, who has roots in the area from her high school days, was just two months away from delivering their first child, Jax, when he died. The whole community came together on…

A ballerina in the woods = magical. There is just no way to not say “ahhh” when you look at these images of beautiful Rebecca, during our session to celebrate her upcoming graduation next year. Just a couple of short years ago I was photographing her brother, John, as he prepared to join the Marines. Becky is considering the US Coast Guard Academy as well as Geneva college in PA,  Montana State, and Tulane. Her plan is to study chemical engineering and pre-med. High school has been busy for Becky, where she has competed in track-and-field (her specialties being long…

A stunning, private camp in the high Sierras and an amazingly warm and welcoming family – what a dream session! The Veerkamp family and I have been colliding since 2009, when I photographed Gretchen and Matt’s wedding. Since then, the happy couple have been in the wedding party for a few of the weddings I have photographed, and then I ran into Lori and Doug (Matt’s parents) at another wedding last year. Finally, when I saw Lori and her mom at the movies recently, she decided it was fated and scheduled an extended family session at their property up-country. This…