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!

Britany + Matthew: Engaged

Wow, I don't even know where to begin with this post... other than I am REALLY proud of these photos! I have been DYING to shoot out at this TOTALLY AMAZING location I recently found, but it's a ways out there on a dirt road and wasn't sure just anyone would be up for the trek to the middle of nowhere. Well, when I talked to Britany, she told me that she was game if I thought it was going to make for some great photos. ( I then proceeded to do the happy dance in my office, that is how excited I was to shoot there). So the morning of the shoot we are making the trek out to this location (which mind you I have never actually been to, only seen photos of) and we are going along... a LONG way down this little dirt road when I get a call from Britany asking me if there is supposed to be a lake in the middle of the road. Ummm... no I say, silently freaking out inside that I won't be able to shoot in my new amazing location after all. Then we see them parked on the side of the road right next to a large body of water totally submerging our road and it looks DEEP... We all proceed to stare at each other wondering what we should do, I start trying to think of conversation to stall so I can magically think of a way to cross the river desperately wishing I could have a Moses moment. Then by the grace of God this man pulls up in a small pick up truck and also starts staring at the large body of water covering the road. He looks at us, and says he's gonna try going across. I held my breath as I watch his little truck plow through the water and safely make it to the other side. AWESOME, I say! They have a huge pick up truck and I'm sure my little SUV can handle that. Fingers crossed we all drove through the water making it to the other side. YES! I am totally stoked at this point because my cool location is back on! We finally arrive and my heart yet again drops in my chest as I see an army of paintballers gathering to go to war IN MY LOCATION! I run over and ask if we can have 15 mins before they begin fighting and they agreed to hold off. The following photos are from the my 15 minutes of madness...



Now tell me you wouldn't have crossed that lake to get to shoot here!






Well true to their word, in came the troops at that moment ready for battle so we quickly vacated the premisis, not wishing to become target practice... I then had my next bright idea of climbing up into this old smelter also at the location but a safe distance away from the shooting where I got one of my favorite images I've ever taken...



And this one... I just couldn't decided which one to post! I could kiss Britany for being willing to climb up there in her skirt and heels...


It was so funny to be shooting in there because in the background it sounded like a war zone with the paintball fight in full force. I think at this moment Joey and I were being complete dorks and saying "They're coming... I can hear the gunfire in the distance... if they found us together they'd never understand..." Yeah... we're pretty cheesy. But seriously it was such a surreal moment lol...


After our little adventure we drove into town for some more "normal" surrounding... of course we had to hit up Club Congress as it is one of my all time favorite portrait locations! I love you can see her ring in this shot...


Ok, so seriously this has to be another one of my all time favorite images, can you believe the light in this image!? So cool!


And then it was onto some snuggle time at the Arizona Inn...




My infamous "Kadie Shot" lol... what can I say I do love me some eyelashes!


THEN!!!! As if our day wasn't already completely amazing we snuck in a quick trip to the fair for a couple last portraits!


I love all the random stuff they have there!




Oh... and just in case you were wondering just how deep that water was... here's a pic of Matt and Britany's truck going through... Just note they have a very LARGE truck and the water was quite a bit deeper when our little SUV went through lol, to the point it came up over the hood of our car at one point.


Wow, thank you two SOOO much for an amazing day and for going along with all my crazy ideas, I totally cannot wait for your wedding!!!! It's gonna be off the hook!!!!