A few weeks ago, I shot their maternity session and I really loved it.  I loved creating these personal images for them to remember this special time in their lives by.  It was a big step for me to shoot because before this session, I didn’t really know how I wanted to approach the idea of maternity photos.  In the weeks leading up to the session, Trione and I discussed what was important to her and it very quickly became clear on the direction I needed to take with this shoot.  The answer: make it personal and not trendy.

We were originally going to have their session at Hayward Lake, which is a spot they like to go with their dogs. However, the days-upon-days of rain made this almost impossible, so I decided that using their home was a perfect spot. It’s familiar and personal, warm and inviting, and it’s a great start to the memories that will be made in years to come.  We started the session off slow, took our time and even had a snack break!

Their dogs, Rolen and Bella, love them to pieces!  They followed them around everywhere and made themselves at home anywhere they could!

I also brought along my Rolleicord that day.  I was nervous using it because I had only ever used it once – and it was close to 20 years ago!  I took my time with it, I was patient and trusted my abilities as a photographer.  The waiting time to get the negatives back was excruciating!  I had even forgotten what shots I took!  It was definitely worth the wait, because after seeing the results from it, I will be using it a lot more   The evening that I went to deliver Trione & Pat their images, I said to Nick, “If these were the only images I took that day, I would be totally and 100% satisfied with them.”

We can’t wait to meet our new nephew and luckily we won’t have to wait much longer!

Every year around this time there is a big conference for photographers in Las Vegas called WPPI. We were there in 2010, and it was awesome. Deb took some photos during that trip, and if you haven’t seen them yet you can take a look here.

We skipped it last year, but this year I went (though Deb stayed at home… poor, poor Deb ) and I had a fantastic time! This time around I rented a car with a few of my friends and drove out to Red Rock Canyon and a dry lake bed to do some shooting. It was loads of fun, and I can’t wait to go back next year!

The first few images here are from a night where we walked around “Old Vegas” and the Fremont Street Experience.

This is Mike. Mike is awesome. This was shot in the entrance to the Plaza Hotel. The Plaza is the hotel that was used for the facade of “Biff’s Pleasure Paradise” in Back to the Future 2. Just a bit of trivia for you there..

These next few shots were taken in Red Rock Canyon. It’s quite an awesome area. All the rocks had these veins of dark red in them… it kind of looked like a giant rock formation made of uncooked bacon. Mmmmmmm…. bacon. {drool}

The next day, we woke up early so we could drive out to an old dry lake bed and take some photos as the sun was rising. This was incredibly awesome, but it wasn’t without it’s own challenges. In order to get to the lake bed, you had to drive along an incredibly bumpy dirt road. I wouldn’t even call it a road… It was more like a big path that had been made by other people trying to get to the lake bed. I had to drive pretty carefully in our rented Chevy Cobalt, as it’s not exactly an off-road vehicle. There was even one part where the road was very soft and sandy. I had to drive just fast enough so we wouldn’t get stuck in the sand, but not so fast that we’d bottom-out the car and lose the muffler. It was… an adventure