Kadie & Joe: A Love Story - Act 2

Ok, here is the next act in our love story, since I know I left you all on the edge of your seats with that last post lol.. If you happened to miss Act 1, you can find it HERE.

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The spring semester was almost over, and Kadie was on cloud nine. After some gentle urging from her photography professors, she had been talked into entering some photographs into her first juried show at the college. She hadn’t really had high hopes for the outcome, since she had only just recently completed her first photography class and all the other entries were from students that far surpassed her in education and experience. But her teachers had insisted so she had given in and entered two images.

When she received the news that she had won not only first place in the photography section, but also third place as well, she was ecstatic to say the least.

As she walked across the parking lot to her car after class she couldn’t help but be proud of herself and excited for the future. Lost in her thoughts she heard a voice calling her name. She stopped, turned around, and there was Joe. Had he been that cute last semester she thought to herself… she hadn’t remembered him being quite so good looking. She caught herself staring and said hello. They chit chatted for a while and she told him all about the photography competition and how surprised and excited she was to have won. He smiled, congratulated her and told her what he had been up to since they had last seen each other. He in turn grew very excited as he told her that he had fallen in love with journalism and gotten hired on at the school newspaper as the assistant editor. “You should apply for the photographer’s position” he said. Kadie cocked her head to the left, the warm spring sunshine hitting her face. She was confused since she had been told just the day before that the position had already been filled. Joe now looked equally puzzled and told her no, that they were still interviewing people but that technically today was the last day to apply. Kadie sighed, sad to have missed a great opportunity on faulty information.

Joe got a twinkle in his deep brown eyes and told her that if she could get a resume and portfolio together by tomorrow he would go talk to the hiring board and convince them to let her apply. She smiled excitedly and told Joe she would bring in her resume and portfolio bright and early the next morning.

Sure enough she did and was quickly set up with an interview and suddenly found herself the official staff photographer for “The Roughwriter”. No sooner had she been hired than it dawned on her that Joe was going to be her new boss.

Being the one and only photographer for the paper meant she ended up doing photography for just about anything and everything the paper might be writing a story on. Her least favorite of these assignments was sports, having to sit through 3 hour games to take photos wasn’t really her cup of tea. However, because of this she found herself spending quite a bit of time with Joe again. You see in addition to being the assistant editor, he was also the staff sports writer. They kept each other company during the games, Joe telling her the rules to some of the ones she had never played and Kadie randomly jumping up to snap a photo when the action got good.

During these long games a funny thing happened. Kadie began to like Joe more and more. Although his sneakers, once white, but now yellow, cracked and warped always bothered her. He might not have the best choice in clothing she thought. But he really was one the sweetest guys she had ever met. So finally, one day after a long meeting for the newspaper, Kadie called out for Joe to hang on a sec. She walked across the cafeteria her feet clacking on the linoleum and caught up with him.

“I was wondering,” she started hesitantly… “if I could maybe get your phone number.” Joe looked at her and smiled, having given up giving her his number after his seventh attempt. He pulled a large sheet of 8.5 x 11in paper out of his beat up blue backpack and in large numbers that filled up the entire page he wrote his number for her. He handed it to her and said “try losing that.”

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Sneak Peek - Hilary + Justin

Maybe I'm just in a sappy mood because my anniversary is coming up,  but when I found this image while going through the photos we took for Hilary and Justin's wedding last month, I just about started crying.  I don't know what it is, but I love this image.  It just exudes love and tenderness.  I love my clients....



I seriously cannot wait to share the rest of the photos with you...

Kadie & Joe: A Love Story - Act 1

(Joey and I's anniversary is coming up on the 9th, so I thought instead of just sharing the story of how he proposed,  I'd share our whole love story in three acts, keep in mind this is from my perspective which Joey thinks is very flawed, so if you want his side of the story you might have to ask him lol...)

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Running late seemed to be Kadie's major talent in life. It probably had to do with the fact that she just loved to sleep, which might have stemmed from the fact she liked to stay up late. Whatever the reason, she could never seem to be on time to anything. Today was no exception. It was the first day of school for the fall semester of 2003 and Kadie was running across campus after her first class of the day had gotten out late. As she ran she thought about her dream of being a forensic anthropologist and then weighed that against the chemistry class she had just endured for the past hour and half. "Could she really sit through eight years of science classes?" she thought to herself. Finally she reached the door to her next class which promised to be a much needed break from all her gen ed's. Creative writing sounded like just what the doctor ordered. She swung the big oak door open and scanned the small room for a seat. The room was tiny, and crammed with 5 circular tables and a teachers desk. Around each table were 4 to 5 uncomfortable looking plastic chairs in various shades the 70's had provided. She took a seat at the first table she came to at the back of the room. The room filled up quickly and soon every seat was taken. The other chairs around her occupied by a very overweight middle age man, and young girl about her age with dark curly hair, and a rather geeky looking boy who always seemed to wear a very mischievous grin on his face.

The first few weeks passed as the class was given different assignments to write and then read aloud to the class. Kadie soon became slightly uncomfortable by the people surrounding her as each week they seemed to grow more and more odd. The big middle-age man to her left was constantly wielding his large red marker, putting massive red '"x"s across anyone's work he disliked in the least bit. That combined with his 6 page erotic poem made Kadie uneasy to say the least. The other two people at her table also seemed to enjoy the erotic a bit to much with the geeky looking smiling boy writing long stories about necrophiliacs and crazy phsyco women. All of this made her have second thoughts about her choice of seat for the class.

The next day she managed to get to class early and take a new seat across the room from her new found erotic friends. She hadn't chosen the seat by random. Although she told herself that she had. Secretly there was a boy in this class she thought was cute. A bit rock and roll, but so was she, in her cut off jeans, long blonde hair, smoky eyes, black and red skater shoes and cool puffy wristbands. Heck, she was even in a band. The room filled up again and her new table mates seemed to give her an understanding smile as they took their seats next to her.

Again, assignments came, and class periods went by, and she soon found that she had nothing in common with rocker boy at all. So she began talking to the other people at her table, one of which was a boy named Joe.

They hit if off right away and talked constantly during class, discussing their families, and newest poetry they were working on. After class, Joe would walk Kadie to her red jeep wrangler, set her inside safely, then stand waving as she drove off into the distance. Kadie however, had a very different perspective on the sweet events that were occurring between her and her new table mate. After arriving home from class she ran into her mothers room and proceeded to tell her about this crazy boy at school that she thought was stalking her. "He even follows me to my car mom! And he doesn't leave until I drive away, and even then he stands in my parking spot waving for who knows how long. I think he's stalking me." Kadie's mom smiled, and assured her daughter that she was sure she was mistaken, and that the boy most likely was not stalking her.

Kadie, however, remained unconvinced.

As the rest of the semester went by, Joe attempted to give Kadie his phone number several times under the guise of wanting to go over some poetry they had written, and to get the other's opinion on the work. Kadie, although flattered by these offerings, was not about to take his phone number. But of course she wasn't going to be rude about it, so she took them and then simply lost them.... 7 times....

The semester ended, and Kadie was sure that was to be the last of her stalker. However, fate had something very different planned for her.

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End of Act 1

Room To Stay

For those of you who don't know, my little sis is an uber talented videographer, I get to work with her on a lot of weddings when she is shooting for her company Reel Mccoy Productions. However she is also going to film school right now to pursue her life long dream of becoming a movie director. Now you may balk at this; you may even laugh; I mean come do you know how many people ACTUALLY MAKE IT in that industry!? And if we were talking about anybody other than my sister I'd agree with you.

But we are talking about my little sis, who got her associates degree at the age of 17! She is the most determined, stubborn person I have ever met and if she wants something there is no stopping her until she reaches her goals. So I KNOW she is going to make it.

Anyway; yes, I am a proud big sis. Moving on with my story.

On Thursday last week Kasie (my little sis; and yes we have almost the exact same name...) filmed her 1st ever REAL movie! I mean she's filmed tons of other movies with her nice digital cameras, but this was her first movie shot on film, on a soundstage, with a cast that she held auditions for the part, for a story she wrote, and on an elaborate set she made. It was an all out production! So when she needed a photographer to come take behind the scenes photos for her, I really wanted to be there!

It was so fun to see my lil sis in her element! They had like 30 min conversations where I could have sworn they must have been speaking a different language. It was awesome. I for the most part tried to stay out of the way and keep out from underfoot while trying to take photos.

Here's a few photos that I got during the day, and a link to a SLIDESHOW of a bunch more of the photos.

Here's the synopsis for the movie so you can get an idea of what it's about:

A man finds himself trapped in an unknown room, and his attempts to escape only result in deeper levels confusion and disorientation. As various items he finds remind him of a past life, he becomes increasingly more determined to discover a way to escape

The creepy little set...


Kasie turned my photo into the poster for her movie...



Kasie and her hubby adjusting some lighting modifiers...


Will, her actor for the part, was REALLY GREAT! Here's one of the times they filmed him running into the room...


No clue what they are doing, but it looked important...


Ohh this was fun! Kasie's hubby Ryan does amazing special effects make-up, and in the movie there is a creepy bride with her mouth sewn shut. (played by my future-sis-in-law Mickey) SOOOO CREEPY!!!


So this is my favorite photo from the day, it's so hollywood to me! She looks so into what she is doing, I just remember smiling the whole day inside as I watched her directing and totally passionate about what she was doing.


If you want to see more photos there are a TON in the slideshow I made for her. To view it just click here!

The Most Amazing; Most Awesome; Most Magical Proposal EVER!!!!

In my job I love hearing how all my couples propose. And there have been some good stories along the way. But this one pretty much takes the cake! Of course we all know I'm a little biased towards disneyland so I'm sure that has something to do with why I think it's so great! Take a look and I'll share how Joey proposed to me on Monday!

Celina + Bryan

Celina contacted me a while back curious if i was available to photograph her wedding in November, sadly I was already booked :( But I was super stoked when she asked if I could still do their engagement session for them! Since Celina had already told me they were going to have a vintage themed wedding I just KNEW we had to do their engagement session in Bisbee. When they agreed I was so excited to be back to my favorite town to take some more pictures. We hit up some of my fav spots and found a couple new ones too!

I am really really in love with this doorway, and Celina and Bryan totally rocked it out!!!



How cute is this!!! I love how old all these buildings are!

So.... I was already sad I couldn't shoot their wedding, but shots like these make me REALLY sad I can't photograph it... I mean she is going to make one beautiful bride!

They are seriously a fun couple to hang out with too, Joey and I had so much fun with them!


I <3 This Photo!!!

Quick, who can name the other engagement session I did where the bride wore a blue dress and yellow shoes?

Isn't this fun!?

Are you kidding me!?!? Totally gorgeous!!!


Lol, so this whole session I felt like a complete couch potato. See, Bryan is a personal trainer and we're walking all around taking photos and I am really starting to get tried... because Kadie+Exercise do not a friendship make; in fact we're more like good friends who had a REALLY bad falling out. Maybe one day we'll patch things up, but for now we aren't on speaking terms. So... I am quite out of shape. So here we are walking around and I'm huffing and panting and sucking in air like I've never heard of oxygen before. Meanwhile everybody else looks fresh as daisies and ready for a 10 mile hike. It's at this moment that I saw these stairs and KNEW what a good photo it would be if I hiked to the top and shot down. I then began to weigh my artistic vision against my bodily will to climb the steps... and like always the artist in me won out and I huffed and puffed my way to the top. But I totally think it was worth it! (sidenote to make me feel less like an out of shape dork, those stairs were MUCH taller and there to many more of them than you can see in this photo... ok... I'll stop now lol)


I've had this idea rolling around for a while and I love how it came out, totally reminds me of a fashion ad...

Have I mentioned I love Bisbee?

Got creative with some off camera light for a little bit... I love how this one turned out!

Ok so I bought this camera for $10 at a thrift shop, thought was totally cute just to set on my shelf in my living room. But then I started to get an idea for using it in a photo. Celina and Bryan were gracious enough to let me play around and get my idea out.... I kinda like the results!



Thank you guys SOOO much for letting me still get to be a part of your wedding even in this small way. I had so much fun getting to know you both! I can't wait to see some of your wedding pics I know it's going to be amazing!

Charei' - Couture Senior Session

During the many weddings I have attended I have had the privilege to hear a lot of DJ's, some good, some bad, and some down right terrible. But there is only one here in town I am in love with!!! And that is CE Entertainment owned and operated by Mark Summersett. Seriously by far the best DJ in town that I have gotten to work with. I'm always stoked to see him at any event I do. (To tell you how awesome he is, he even went as far as to dress up as Willy Wonka for a Charlie and the Chocolate factory themed event). So you can imagine how excited I was when he asked me to take his daughter's senior photos!!! I was even more excited when I got to meet Charei' in person and saw how gorgeous she is! We had so much fun hanging out with her and her family, and got some amazing photos for her that I'll be adding to my NEW SENIOR PORTRAIT SITE!!!! Here's just a little peak at some of the shots we got!