Eek!  Okay, here comes a cheesy, gushing intro for this session … but I don’t care … it was just too much fun.  How do I love this session? Let me count the ways (ha, see?) … stormy skies that cleared into brilliant day-end sunlight, a couple unafraid to play and laugh and have fun for my camera, a couple sweet and appreciative and trusting, hair & makeup done by the talented Jennyface, a location with so much goodness and variety … more goodness and variety than sardines packed in a crushed tin box (Radiohead reference, anyone?), dancing on tennis courts and basketball courts and jumping lifts performed on lakeside docks, and a treehouse (what! yeah.). And as if that weren’t enough, being treated afterward to pizza and beer and really great conversation ranging from birth order personalities to the use of exclamation points and emoticons. Ah, I loved it all so.

Keely and Jason, thank you. You are both a great time and great people. I cannot wait for your June wedding … back at Camp Wandawega!!!! (Four, for good measure.)

I was shooting some boudoir in Brooklyn again, so of course I extended my trip in order to see some of my favorite people.  Walking and walking and bridges and skylines now so familiar, insane pizza on a patio with midday beers, art openings and $5 hamburgers in loud bars, local beer and large backyard patios and birthday partying, running into Madison people on Brooklyn street corners (always running into Madison people in Brooklyn…), PBRs on the sidewalk, foggy cloudy rainy skies and morning walks and French breakfast and art studios with Americanos and macaroons, one of the most enjoyable and delicious dinners that happened on a whim when stars align just like they did, business talks and dreaming, graduation partying and dancing with new and old friends and friends I’ve only known a few months but feel I’ve known ages, Brooklyn flea market and sitting by the East River, walking in the sun and eating more macaroons and drinking more Americanos and breakfast and a cup of coffee at Marlow & Sons with my favorite girl in the world, and revealing talks and a new clarity (always a new clarity after my time out east) … just another few blocks added to my personal Memory Lane.

I’ve blogged about this before, but I never seem to take many photos in New York.  Maybe it’s because those people are a version of Home to me … maybe I never feel like NYC is an adventure to be captured in the same way I’d capture a trip elsewhere. New York is a place I know I’ll return to … the next trip scheduled before the current one ends.  I don’t believe you experience a moment more intensely when you are without your camera. In fact, I think that sometimes photographers experience moments more intensely when they ARE photographing them.  Because it’s how we feel most alive and most ourselves — when we’re framing life and capturing it inside little rectangles.  Still, I don’t capture New York like other places.  I think it’s partially how much I walk there — all day long — and how heavy the DSLR is. I’m on the hunt for a digital rangefinder … or maybe I’ll be packing my film rangefinder in the future.

But really, I think it’s what I said first … being with the people there just feels so comfortable … and while I love capturing the day-to-day (a lot, actually) … I’m just not in that mindset while there.  I never sight-see in New York … I barely have enough time to see the people I love. And I adore that.  I’ve been realizing that Brooklyn is where I go to relax and clear my mind.  Which seems strange to say about a place like New York … but that’s absolutely what it’s become for me.

So here are the 12 frames I shot with my DLSR. The rest were shot with my iPhone (and also edited on my iPhone, with VSCOcam).  It’s odd … I see the world horizontally and I rarely take a vertical photo with my DLSR. But I never even think to turn my iPhone horizontally to take a photo…

I just got home from NYC, but two weeks ago I was out in Arizona and California with Troy.  I’ve always loved traveling alone but it’s a special treat to have Troy along … for going to eat, relaxing with beers, exploring, and driving long distances.

AZ was: visiting talented friends in Tucson and being treated to amazing food and homemade ice cream, walking Tucson’s college town streets and getting coffee there too, shooting a lovely wedding at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, and waking up to drive to CA the next day.

CA was: longer than AZ and hot and sunny the whole time, airstreams and vegan food at hippie cafes, archery and Joshua Tree, off-road sandy desert driving, hiking and picture-taking, Palm Springs and its magical wind turbines, the ACE (ummm, ack! am i the only one who hates this place? maybe because i was sick and the LA hipters were loud and many and everything felt so contrived?), mid-century modern architecture everywhere (awesome!), driving and more driving, getting crazy sick and not being able to eat anything (boo…), longing for home and Madison and it’s down-to-earthness and beauty and better temps.

Let me say that I enjoy overcast and 60s/low-70s.  Some sun (with a breeze) mixed in there is nice, but you’ll be hard pressed to find me on any spring break style beach EVER … I dislike pools, swimming, and wearing sunglasses.  I don’t think I’ll ever step foot in Miami. Give me a beach like Cannon Beach in Oregon … where I can wear a jacket and boots and read without stepping foot in the water even once.  That’s my kind of life.  So when I got severely sick and feverish for the last half of the trip … the heat and sun that I already don’t really love too much … seemed oppressive.  Not to mention that eating on trips is my most favorite part of traveling … and all I could swallow were ice cubes, honey and yogurt.  No bueno.  Troy took care of me … gosh, I’m so glad he was along this time. He drove the car and everything … as the littlest things were too much for me.

Being a frequent traveler, I’ve fallen in love with certain cities to which I always want to return. They just feel like home now and I’m a creature of ritual.  Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Brooklyn NYC — just let me cycle between them all the time. But I’m also, for the first time in forever, feeling like I’m settling INTO and not simply FOR Madison WI.  It’s beautiful and green with all four seasons and talented people. We have gorgeous lakes and the best summer nights. There are enough coffee shops to get me through each week and our restaurants and businesses value what’s local and sustainable. People walk and bike and don’t look strange for doing so. While sometimes I feel the art and music scenes are lacking … I’m in an idyllic place in life where I can travel almost whenever and wherever my job takes me.  And I have tons of people I love in the cities I love the most.  Just enjoying the show, the ride, this time, these memories. For so many years I wanted to move … I missed my closest friends who moved year after every single year … but I’m starting, for the first time in almost 5 years again, to truly find my place in and love Madison. Which feels amazing.

The most memorable part of this specific trip for me was sitting with Troy in a hot tub on a star-gazing deck, with beers, late at night, in the middle of the desert. The CA stars never looked brighter than they did right then. And for a brief moment, everything — even being sicker than ever — felt perfectly right.  Ooo, also, playing ping pong. I’m really good :)

They’re super smart, fun, funny, laid-back, and they adore each other. They live in San Francisco and got married in Arizona.  The backdrop was Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Gardens and they locked their vows in a heart shaped box. Radiohead played at their cocktail hour as an intimate gathering of guests exchanged stories and laughter.  The bride and groom danced the night away and had goat cake toppers. What’s not to love?

A brief overview of Stephanie and Don’s day:

This was my first wedding of the 2012 season and I couldn’t have been happier it was Stephanie and Don’s wedding.  There’s always a little extra anticipation/anxiety that comes along with the first wedding of the season … it’s a bit of a guess, after a long winter without weddings, how long it’ll take to find your shooting groove again.  But I always say the first group/room/situation you encounter on a wedding day sets the tone for the whole day … and from the second I walked into Stephanie’s hotel room and was warmly greeted by the nicest, sweetest group of bridesmaids and a relaxed bride and a smiling mother of the bride … I felt right at home and clicked seamlessly into my groove … as if a winter without weddings never existed. Every person I encountered the rest of the day was just as nice, welcoming and kind.  As if that weren’t enough, Erin from Inspired Events put together a timeline that made the day flow perfectly from event to event. She was so helpful and nice and I hope we cross paths again.

Thank you so so so much, Stephanie and Don. Photographing your engagement session in SF and your wedding in AZ was a true joy.  Loved every second of it and I know you both have really wonderful futures ahead of you.  <3, Anda

Hey, hi. I’m blogging from the sunny and super hot Palm Springs. I’m sitting on a comfy bed at the ACE hotel and I just got done enjoying some delicious breakfast tacos. If you know me, you know a day is good when I have good tacos.

Anywaaaays, a couple weeks ago I was in Stillwater, Minnesota to mentor and photograph the beautiful Katy. She flew in from Los Angeles for the session and I felt like I was in Seattle when I photographed her down by the Mississippi River.

I’m obsessed with the feeling in these. Sun is always great, but sometimes overcast is just what I want.

I don’t even know where to start with Katy and describing the type of beautiful person she is. Appreciative, warm, friendly, kind, talented … there’s a start. I have a special place in my heart for Katy because she is one of the very first to put her faith in my ability. A couple years ago, when I still hadn’t shot a single paid wedding, she somehow ran across my work on my old blogger blog and encouraged her friends Haley and Danny to hire me to shoot their gorgeous wedding.  That wedding helped me solidify my brand and ideal client … and the direction in which I wanted to take my business.  Since then, Katy has referred other beautiful weddings to me … including Christina & Paul’s AZ ranch wedding and Holly and Kohler’s flower farm wedding.

I just love this group of people.  Some of the very best I’ve encountered since starting my business.  Really grateful for them.

Thank you, Katy, for everything.  For who you are and for coming to the session with great questions. And, for having tacos with me!