Jaime and Mark

I always try to tie in sentimental locations, activities or objects for my portrait sessions to tell a more interesting and meaningful story.  When I first met with Jaime and Mark, I instantly loved them.  Very sweet, fun and madly in love.  What really captured me was hearing about the moment that started it all.  I'll skip the details but it was at a Roller Derby bout... love at first, sweaty sight.  And, no rules Roller Derby, I might add.  You would never know from Jaime's sweetness that she's a killer.

I wouldn't have wanted to do their engagement portraits any other way than to bring some skating in.  Though, I don't think she'll need her pads at the wedding, we are hoping to have the singer of the Murder City Devils officiate.

Heartfelt Rave

I  just received the nicest response ever from one of my weddings and have to share it.  What a great way to start my day.  I truly love being a wedding photographer but it's knowing how much people value their pictures, and the wonderful memories saved, that makes it all worthwhile.  This is why I love what I do.

Thank you Jennifer and Wayne for including me in your lives.  My own will forever be more complete with friends like you in it.

"We didn't see the pictures until yesterday morning. And I can tell you, I sobbed happy tears through my morning coffee! We spent the whole day with family yesterday, sharing our pictures and our stories and the memories!

Ben, truthfully, the pictures are exquisite. After shooting the engagement pictures with you, we knew the wedding pictures would be equally beautiful, but I didn't know they would take my breath away.

As I have told you on several occasions, the whole point of a wedding, for us, was for the memories we would make with our families. It wasn't about the big party or a $5000 dress. It was about sharing the happiest day of our lives with the people we love, and having that memory in both our minds as well as in pictures. And you helped us make that vision a reality. We love the artistic pictures that show your creativity like with the rings or with all the work you did with reflections. The ceremony pictures are like a working slideshow. It was like you caught every nuance of the time period I am most fuzzy on and brought it to life after the fact for me. The portrait shots (and many of the family shots under 'prelude') brought me to tears...of joy! And the reception shots were the candid shots that we were so anxious to have.

We are so grateful to have worked work you through this adventure. Our one regret was not having you there to document the cocktail hour from the the night before the wedding and on the party bus to document our night at San Tan Flat saloon the night after wedding!!! There were so many great moments over the course of the weekend, that I wish you been there for all three days with us! Let's just say that our guests don't have an eye like yours when it comes to the disposable cameras we left out! Hahaha!
 

Ben, we don't know how to thank you enough for helping us relive the beautiful moments of that day through your pictures. We couldn't have found anyone better than you to work with. We needed a photographer, and both sincerely feel like we found not only one hell of a photographer, but a friend named BQ along the way as well!!"

Happy Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day.  It has definitely been a Spring full of babies so I'm sure all of you new moms out there were in heaven celebrating your first official Mom's Day.  I've had some really fun baby portraits so far this year and I'm looking forward to many more.

To all moms, Thank You!  For holding us when we cried, feeding us first when you were hungry too, keeping a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs, sacrificing your needs to fulfill ours... thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!  

I love you, mom.

You may remember my recent post about Baby Z, who I was fortunate enough to meet within the first hour of life.  Well, his name is officially Liam.

...and here's Liam's butt.

As a quick follow up to my last post about Beka and Josh, turns out they had their little girl, Liya, on my 9th Anniversary.  Ain't love grand?  She sent me this recent pic.

Silver Baby

Though, this kid's sure to be a golden child with mom's creative genes.  Many of you know my associate photographer, Rebekah Silver, and have enjoyed the amazing pictures she takes for BQ Photography.  Brilliant eye, great to be around, always goes above and beyond... the list goes on.  On top of everything else, she knows how to read my scatterbrain during a wedding and pushes me to be a better photographer.  I've been asked a lot lately why she isn't around this Spring and that's because she's due with her first baby any minute now.  Literally, she was actually due about a week ago.

While Rebekah shoots with me all the time, she's never been the focus of my camera aside from a quick lighting test on the dance floor.  Until recently.  We waited as long as comfortably possible to do a maternity session with her belly as big as possible.  I love a big, in-your-face baby belly.  We had a lot of fun with her and Josh at different spots along the Bush Highway.  I'll be sending the baby announcement soon.  Though, I doubt she'll need me to take her pictures at that point.

Love the construction hands