If you are interested in buying images from this great day please go to: http://lifeandrainphotography.instaproofs.com/enterEvent.php?id=594408

If you are interested in ordering pictures for the Middle School Basketball teams please visit this link

http://lifeandrainphotography.instaproofs.com/enterEvent.php?id=544790

So every year on Prom I work with several couples for their photos.  From about 2:00-7:00 we have 45 min time slots that allow for a mini sessions of your special day with your date.  Prom is such a special time  in your life and pictures are the way of keeping those memories captured.  This year I will be doing similar mini sessions,  these are discounted prices for amazing images, so make sure you contact me sooner then later because the slots fill up pretty fast.

Last year I worked with this couple.  They are best friends and absolutely adorable.  Cade and Natalie.  Besides them both being such a beautiful couple, the dress that Natalie wore was absolutely amazing.  I got to use the dress to come up with some fun images.

Woohoo, it has officially been a year since I last was at WPPI. And I can’t believe that it is right here already. Okay I’m lying, it couldn’t come soon enough! But now that its hear I just can’t believe it. Today I am heading up to Vegas to go spend just over a week learning anything and everything about photography. There are a certain classes that I’m taking that I will be incorporating into my photography when I get back. I’m super excited about the new things but I’m not quite ready to share… but when I get back… be prepared!

I will be on a two day workshop, then will have a day off (and my only day off) to walk around the strip and do some shopping. Then the chaos starts, I will have on average four 2 hour long classes every day until Thursday, of next week! In the meantime I’m squeezing in time to hit the actual tradeshow to see all the new cool products and hopefully find some new stuff to share with my clients.

I also want my clients to understand that my business is not just photographing you, it is about learning new techniques and ways to create better art for you. My life as a student of photography never ends. There is so many new and fun ways to showcase your session and I’m determined to learn them. Our entire world constantly grows, and its only appropriate that me as your photographer grows with it.

Don’t let the blog fool you. As much learning as I will be doing, pretty much all of this trip will be fun. Besides the fact that I love to learn, photography is my passion. Put the two together and I get an amazing trip of learning and fun.

I had to just share the excitement with all my fans, make sure you check out www.facebook.com/lifeandrainphotography to follow me through Vegas, because I will be adding statuses of my amazing trip for the next week. Hope your week is as fun as mine!

This was a shoot I did last year. Because I haven’t been great at blogging, I haven’t had a chance to get her blog up. But here she is, an amazing smart and gorgeous woman!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I love photographing weddings.  I absolutely love  love.  Yes, I’m one of those girls.  The girl that love to hear the story on how the couple met, or the little romantic thing he did last night. I love the romantic movies and always want the guy to win the girl.   And this wedding tops the cake.  (no pun intended) The groom was so madly in love with his girl.  I cried about 3 times during the ceremony alone.  Then the groom wrote a beautiful song and played it for his new wife as a surprise.

This is a status update from my Facebook for that day:

“Omg, the groom just played a song on the keyboard that he wrote. It was so beautiful and emotional! Wow!”

But the part of the wedding that had me thankful for auto focus was at the ceremony.  It was during the Anniversary dance.  And this is where I lost it.  Once I collected my composure I posted this to Facebook:

“At the wedding I’m at they just did the Annivesary dance. A couples been married 54 years. I cried. I love love. THIS is why I love weddings”

And this is why I shoot weddings.  I think they are so amazing and I love the opportunity to share the most important day with the bride and groom, and all the love they have for each other.  These are the pictures from this amazing day in Prescott, AZ.  Enjoy.

OMG this contest turned out way more amazing then I thought it would.  I mean I hoped I would become the talk of the town and be all over Facebook, but I didn’t think it would happen as amazingly as it did.  Whoo Hoo!

Thank you to everyone that entered!  For those that entered and didn’t win, make sure you still call me about your Senior Portraits, I am going to give you a special discount towards your booked session.

Now as for the contest winner.  It really was a close race!  I enjoyed watching how close it was!  But now its time to announce the winner:

The Prize: The Fun Package on The Modern Senior Pricing Page

$225 ($345 value)

2 hour lifestyle session (can have any location & clothing changes)
$100 print credit
4×8 accordion book
All your images go online gallery to share with friends & family

The winner is : Kayla Woolwine

Congrats Kayla!  I look forward to working with you!

To find out more about Life & Rain Photography’s senior packages, check out The Modern Senior Pricing Page.

Wow.  Sometimes I wonder if I’m a gluten for punishment.  I mentioned a little what was going on in my life in last weeks blog. As I want to share more of my life with my friends, clients and fans, I feel I must share more.  Back in October my Honey and I purchased a business,  Chitwood’s Cabinets.  This is my old place of work, besides photography I worked as a kitchen designer at Chitwood’s Cabinets, I always said this was my “day” job and photogrpahy was my moonlighting job.  That is how my honey and I met, he worked there for years as an installer, and I figured if I could work with the guy I could live with him and be with him.  Which has definitely proved true.  Then we were approached by the previous owner saying he wanted to sell us the business.  Whoa.

After much thought and planning we decided to go ahead with the purchase.  This made me put my true passion on hold.  I didn’t have time being that I worked 60-80 hours a week at the cabinet shop to put any time or energy into my photography business.   I won’t lie, there were a few nights that I spent up with a glass of wine, having an identity crisis. Was I cabinet salesperson/owner, or was I a photographer?  As I began to evolve into the position that I truly enjoyed at the cabinet business I realized I was still missing a part of me. My photography.  As the months progressed the more I noticed the lack of photography in my life was taking a toll on my sanity.  I never realized how much love I have for taking pictures and creating art.

Then of course the holidays hit, and then Christmas.  I was in for it at that time.  We had finally found a home that would fit us, our dogs and our life. But when could we move? We are so busy with our business that we felt there was no time to move. No time to move except for the few days we had off before Christmas, and that is what we did.  We packed up our whole life and put them in boxes to move to the new place.  We were in by Christmas Eve, and that night we had nothing set up but our Christmas tree and our bed.  We did it though.

So now being a few weeks into the new year I feel I finally have a grip on my life and my passions.  I love designing kitchens, I’ve always said the creative people have to have a way to show off their creativeness, and at my “day job” designing kitchens is the way I express it.  But my true passion, what I feel like I’m “meant” to do is my photography.  I have set up for the next few months photography blogs that I have scheduled to post to show off the work that I’ve still been doing but not blogging about.  You’ll get to see it now.

One big project I’m working on right now is my Seniors.  The Modern Senior is lifestyle portraits for high school seniors. Now is the time to start thinking about getting them done since I book up pretty fast with my tight schedule.  Always remember that weddings are my most favorite type of photography, I’m a hopeless romantic so weddings are an excellent way of me to satisfy the romance.  As always though I do family, maternity and new born sessions.  Check my portfolio, my blog and my Facebook page.  This is my style.  If you love my style and love to get portraits done, make sure you contact me.  I look forward to getting to know my new 2012 clients!

In Monday’s blog, I talked about having an idea that I needed Amber to help me bring to life.  It was a Trash The Dress session. What in the world is a trash the dress session? Its where we literally take a dress and trash it. It can be several different levels. We can just get it “dirty” where we take it into a nature or urban setting where it may get a little dirty, but it can be easily washed and brought back to the same way it was before the shoot. We can go up a level to “distress” which may involve doing a bit more with it, such as climbing up trees and getting it wet. And the last and I must say the most fun level is the “destroy”.  Its where we do things to the dress that will always be permanent, from mud to tearing up the dress.

Being someone that did a trash the dress session, I will tell you that its SO much fun! And being that I also photographed a session, its probably more fun!  This gives a great opportunity for some amazing photographs.  Many brides love this idea lately.  Besides the fact that it allows for amazing photos, it also has meaning to them.  It represents the themselves and new husband that they don’t need the dress anymore, after all, they did say until death do they part.  I had  someone watch us trash this dress and she had her own theory as to what it means.  She felt it meant that women aren’t perfect, brides come across as perfect, and by trashing their dress the are showing they aren’t perfect, but rather human like all of us, sometimes getting a little dirty or making a mess.  I thought that meaning was pretty cool, so of course I had to share it.

So here is the first section, I would describe this as the “Dirty” level of trashing the dress:

This second section would be more along the line of the “Distress” level

And the last section here is our “Destroy” level. A little back story here is, Amber here is a painter. She is an amazing artist! I wanted to bring that to the shoot. In fact when I first thought of doing this Trash The Dress session I instantly wanted Amber to be my model, I wanted to destroy the dress with paint! This little prop is huge for her since it has so much meaning to her. This gave us great pictures and we had a blast trashing this dress!

This session is so amazing that I have one of these pictures hanging in my living room. This is one of my most favorite session ever. Thanks Amber!

I’m doing something new this year, I am giving away a Modern Senior Portrait Session. I have it launching on Facebook today. Here are the details:

HOW TO ENTER:

On the Life & Rain Photography wall post a picture of yourself along with your name.  It can be any picture that you want, just post it on Life & Rain Photographys wall.  ( I recommend you set the post to “PUBLIC” so people that aren’t your friend can vote )

And then go tell your friends to come vote for you.

For them to vote, they must first “Like” Life & Rain Photography’s page and then go “Like” your photo. Comments do not count as votes. The High School Senior with the most “Likes” wins.

That’s it. Easy peasy.

I recommend that you get all your friends and family to promote the contest too and go vote for you.  Have them share your post on their walls and work it!

The Prize: The Fun Package on The Modern Senior Pricing Page

$225 ($345 value)

2 hour lifestyle session (can have any location & clothing changes)
$100 print credit
4×8 accordion book
All your images go online gallery to share with friends & family

Rules:

1. Participants may not already be booked with Life & Rain Photography or any other professional photographer / studio.
2. Participants must be of the graduating year 2012
3. Only ONE entry per person
4. Only ONE vote per person
5. Participants understand and agree that travel fees may apply if session takes place outside of Payson, Pine or Strawberry.
6. Contest begins 12:00 (MST) pm Tuesday, January 23, 2012 and ends 12:00 (MST) pm Friday, January 27, 2012. (that only leaves 3 days!)
7. Any submissions posted prior to 12:00 (MST) pm January 23, 2012 will be deleted.
8. Winner will be notified Friday, January 27, 2012.
9. Winner must redeem by March 31, 2012
10. If winner doesn’t qualify based on the above rules, the next highest votes wins and so on.