matt, once again, showed his awesomeness and it's nothing short of picture perfect.... we can't say enough about this sweet, heart-warming, and incredibly fun new york bat mitzvah. olivia and her family sure know how to throw a party, especially when working with such an awesome event space like skylight west. the smilebooth was packed the whole night and filled with some pretty crazy photos. thanks so much olivia for sharing your special day with us! we had a blast...

check out all the photos on the slideshow below...

for one of our last portrait shoots in Atlanta this summer we got to photograph the little wonder named- Avie! We have a long history with Aly and Elroi and are so happy we have them as friends....

Working on a balance…more specifically the filling of the cup. I am guessing this story can find a place somewhere in your past or future or maybe even now. Here is how it goes. Grabbed onto the first thing that worked well. Ran with it. In my case it was photography. Learned the rest as we went along such as operating a business. This “stretched” place of figuring is never one where I feel completely grounded. In the midst of all of this my amazing Gracyn came along. With all of the beauty and awe came the personal stretching smack dab on top of the business stretch. Outwardly things seemed to work smoother as time went on but I was starting to feel a long way from home. You know…the white hairs started showing up. The breathing was shallow. Last October I went to life as an artform workshop in Philedelphia. Bam. Everything. Shifted. I wasn’t quite sure what I was walking into (which is always a good place to start) and every time I try to explain what the workshop is about it never comes out the same. To some it might not even make sense. But I walked out and all I could think was “yes- that is how to live”. I found myself remembering everything that is really important. Remembering the things that make me tick. I gravitated to this so intensely that before I knew it I was signed up to host a workshop in Seattle with Sarah Rhoads, a very dear friend and lovely lady. 21 people, 3 days in a beautifully perched house looking onto the Puget sound. I asked Whitney if he would join me on this because he is oh-so-dear to me and I wanted to share the same language. Between our experience together, the others we met, and the experiments I walked away again saying, “yes-that is how I want to live.” Even when it got a little crazy. On one of the days, we had a surprise guest. We were all blindfolded and sat around a gentle voice and guitar. I listened to the stories, notes of the guitar, acknowledged my curiosities. I highly recommend finding a chance to dis-associate yourself all of the media of our world and the media in our minds and listen to just the music some day with your eyes closed. It’s a long explanation to this experiment but we each took 5 minutes with Damien to photograph. As I was walking out to do so I saw his stunning Sarah so I took a couple photos of them together. And Damien played this song…the song below. These two are the real deal. I was lucky to spend a few minutes in time with them. Sarah’s eyes remind me of a really old friend’s. Damien's music sends me straight home. Thank you, both. Jesh you see is probably one of the most loved humans I know. He has a magnet called authenticity. The workshop he developed helps you tune into your own authenticity. I have been moved by these perspective shifting experiences and I feel lucky to know this man whom I consider a dear friend. There have been many moments in my life that remind me of how blessed I am. There have been many times where the sun is on my face and the wind is at my back. There have been many moments where I just wanted to high-five the closest person to me. But most of it all seemed to be triggered from something on the outside. Its pretty powerful when you realize those moments are accessible whenever you would like them. Jesh has this uncanny way of developing experiments that help you remember this. This was the most direct route home and I didn’t think it would be so easy. I hope that you have found this too on your path. If you are called Jesh will be in Atlanta in July for another life as an art form workshop and we are hosting it.There may be a couple spots left.

time is a hard thing to find more of recently. we seem to be even crazy in the slow season. we have had to limit all of the other types of shoots we take on. the one that has lasted throughout the years is the lovies session. i have always be fascinated with the relationship between a kid and their lovie. we try to capture this with these sessions. every year is different and some kids don't have lovies and we still have fun. but we do get pretty excited when a ratty, irreplaceable, sucked on, chewed, rubbed, discolored, balding lovie comes through the doors. see the years before here.

although i am oh so eager to post the images from the fabulous moroccan wedding i am unable to at this point. and i hesitate to write any thing about it because it was THAT good. the pictures will do more justice. but to fill the void i thought i'd share some of the dreamy polaroids from our long walks through dusty, sunny, colorful marrakesh.