Here are my first film frames from a session! In high school I produced film old school style in dark room. In college I carried around my grandfather's film camera and took photos of my friends and family. I love the rawness of film. I love that you have to think about everything and pay special attention to composition, focus, meter the light, know your film type, set your settings and really want that shot because you only have 16 frames per roll. I love the pure art behind film! So I was excited to finally be brave enough and be a hybrid photographer and bring my film camera to two different beach engagement sessions! Both are at my favorite park on South Beach in Miami Beach at South Pointe Park. I love the palm trees, the rocks, and the cotton candy sunset. These are 5 rolls of Fuji 400h on my Pentax 645 and I'm excited to start bringing it to more celebrations! 

I find it the most wonderful honor whenever a fellow photographer reaches out to me! Mariia is a talented film photographer living in Chicago. Her and her husband were visiting Miami and I was so thrilled they wanted to document their vacation with pictures in my favorite park! Mariia is from Ukraine and Max is from Moldova. Their love story is so beautiful and clearly fate brought them together. She was working in a restaurant and he was driving through her small town and stopped in. They hit it off, started dating, then got married a few months later! Just perfection! They tried to teach me a few Russian words, but even with my love of languages I couldn't pick those up haha. I speak some Spanish and Italian, and I studied Arabic in college. I loved picking up just a few words of Portuguese, Maori, and Swedish during our travels too. But, Slavic is something super special and beautiful. The sunshine was out for their photoshoot and the wind was wild! Thankfully, with the help of her photographer's eye and knowing angles, Marria's dress and hair flowing in the wind looked amazing! We had a wonderful time together and I hope our paths cross again at a photography conference or around the world! 

Drew and I are so excited to be back in Miami! We had an amazing year of traveling the world and we're also happy to be settled into our apartment, seeing friends, and visiting our favorite spots. I couldn't wait to get back out on the sand and in the water documenting love stories! Nathy and Osvaldo were a heaven sent first session back on South Beach! I photographed Nathy's youngest sister's wedding when we first were in Miami so it was so amazing to keep the tradition going! These two love birds are having a destination wedding in Mexico so I'm thrilled I could take their engagement photos in adopted hometown Miami. We had a great time talking, chasing the sun, and splashing in the ocean. I even broke out my new film camera and messed around! I loved how her bright yellow dress popped against the green palm trees and blue water! I love candid moments the most, so this session was full of giggles and laugher as I caught those in-between moments :) Thank you both for sharing your beautiful inside and out selves with me!

Let me set the stage. We just flew back from Sweden, unpacked and repacked in a day, went to Asheville to celebrate our best friends' wedding, then on our 7th anniversary (7/7/19) we hiked along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Appalachian Mountains to my favorite mountain top with the coolest couple ever. It was quite the welcome back to North Carolina after an amazing year of traveling the world together for Drew's job! As much as we love the beach, we always happen to spend our anniversary in the mountains or hiking. So we had to continue the tradition and document two other love birds story! Katelin and Nick are SO much fun! We battled rain and no cellphone service and finally found each other! We first hiked down to a waterfall where they bravely climbed over rocks and even got in the water, my kinda couple! Then, we hiked 30 minutes to the highest point of a trail and found a gorgeous clearing where the sun started to shine! They brought a picnic complete with bubbly, cheese, grapes, crackers, and of course finger-hands. Note to all reading, weird, plastic, tiny, finger-hands make all romantic picnics better. Please see below. Also, my drone Scottie made an appearance to catch some stunning rolling hill views that give the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains their name. I am so excited to share this quirky, vibrant, full of joy, energy, and love day!

I love being a destination wedding and elopement photographer and traveling the world to capture all kinds of love! While in Queenstown, New Zealand I had the absolute joy of photographing a fellow photographer, her husband, and their adorable puppy! They met while working as scuba diving instructors in the Caribbean, traveled the world together, and landed in the picturesque adventure capital of the world. They work at the radest spot in Queenstown called Skyline where you take a giant gondola up to the top and you can bungie jump, down hill luge, hike, mountain bike, paraglide, stargazing, it's amazing. While hiking up to this incredible location overlooking Lake Wakatipu's turquoise waters surrounded by the golden hills and Remarkable Mountain range. We talked all about how they met, their favorite travel destinations, life with a crazy puppy, and our impending move to Miami. It's always a blast photographing a fellow photographer because she totally gets how my mind works! I love when hyper puppies join the mix too! I treasured capturing epic views and epic moments between this so in love family. Drew and I still talk about our time in New Zealand literally everyday, and it was a true honor getting to know Kellie and Abe!

NC meets NZ. One night while living in Queenstown, New Zealand, Drew and I were paying for parking after a great night eating downtown. Drew got to the parking machine first and I said, "thanks for paying Drew!", the guy behind us then said, "oh, so you're paying for parking for us all, thanks man!" and we all laughed. Normally, when we're in this situation the next question is, 'Where are you from?' or 'What brings you to this side of the world?' Normally, we say, we're from Miami! Because no one knows where North Carolina is, bless their hearts. But this time, we hinted a slight southern accent and we said, "We're from Raleigh, where are y'all from?" and they said, "NO WAY we're from Kinston", which is only about an hour outside the city. What are the chances?! Like good North Carolinians, we proceeded to chit chat for literally another hour and had to repay for parking because our tickets already expired. It turned out, these adventurous souls were on a delayed honeymoon! They had never had professional photos taken, so I of course had to take their photos in the most beautiful location on earth! They came to our lake from bach, Kiwi for itty bitty tiny house by the water, and we talked about how they met, how he was on a TV show for the restaurant they worked in, how she is helping Dreamers in her city stay focused on the right path. What I loved is how clearly in love they are. He was constantly complimenting her and she was giggling left and right. It was the most amazing afternoon followed by a fun night out on the town with our new North Carolina friends :D They jumped out of planes, off cliffs, and got tattoos, but I think this was the most exciting adventure :) 

While living in Christchurch, New Zealand, our very first hike was to the surrounding Port Hills. We drove up some winding roads (this is day 2 of driving on the left side of the road and it was crazy scary) and found the most amazing views. It was the most amazing Kiwi welcome we could have asked. It became my mission to photograph an engagement or a cool couple at sunset and frolic through the fields together! Thankfully I met Tiffany and her fiancé and my dream location came true! We had so much exploring the trails that wove up and down next to the Tasman sea. They even brought some champagne to celebrate! He is in tech working for a start up and splits time between NZ and San Fransisco, and she has a heart of gold and teaches preschool. We instantly clicked and my little artist heart was so full! They're world travelers too, and for their summer holiday, they are exploring Europe. They happen to be visiting a near by town to us in Sweden and we can't wait to meet up!! Love how massive yet small our beautiful world can be. 

I so loved this day with Keran and her partner! They met at Canterbury University near Christchurch, New Zealand on the South Island. He's in tech and she's a school counselor. Drew and I were coming up on our last few days in Christchurch before moving down south to Queenstown and I was really hoping to photograph a rad couple in town. I was talking with a local wedding planner and she connected me with this amazing duo! Once we started talking the only time we both had available was literally today, in 10 minutes, sun was setting, go go go go! Keran convinced her partner to immediately hop in the car and we met at the beach! We had the pier, sand dunes, and massive beach to our selves!! I knew it was going to be an amazing session because of how chill and go with the flow they were to spontaneously be down to be photographed by an overly enthusiastic American.  We skipped, and twirled, and laughed our way into the setting Kiwi sun. Thank you both for such a magical afternoon! I hope our paths cross again soon! 

Massive boulders - check
Matching jort outfits - check
Meeting the sweetest Sweedish couple who are now my muse model inspirations - check check check 

I love being a wedding photographer in Miami and I miss photographing on the beach in and the ocean. But, I also love hills and rocks and unique terrain! Castle Hill is a super cool location on New Zealand's South Island. It was one of my bucket list locations because The Chronicles of Narnia were filmed here! It's a quick drive outside of Christchurch and in 2002 the Dali Lama himself visited, loved it, and labeled the area "Spiritual Center of the Universe". How cool! While hiking and watching some rock climbers and boulderers we started talking with a couple from Stokholm (we all may or may not have been lost in the maze of hills and rocks). Our next stop is Sweden so we were asking them all kinds of questions, promised to meet up in Stokholm, and then I got to take a few fun pics of these love birds! They're traveling around New Zealand in their van and I was so thrilled to be able to give them this gift!

​The sunshine was out and we had so much fun laughing and skipping around this stunning location!! 

Down 30 kilometers of dirt road is the trailhead to a very special 10k uphill hike that takes you past aqua blue rivers, over golden hills, through cow pastures, and finally to the foot of Mount Aspiring topped with glaciers and surrounded by waterfalls. The views are so worth it! It's like a real life Rivendale for all my LOTR nerds. (I mean how can you not be when you live in the country where 2 stunning trilogies were made!!) I got to meet Melissa and her partner who are traveling around the South Island for several weeks. Melissa is a social worker and living in Christchurch and her partner came to visit! I was so excited to take photos of them in such a special location. They were immediately lovey and cuddly and giggly - my favorite! When a couple forgets the camera is there and they melt into each other, that's when their true genuine selves shows! We took these in 10 minutes! That's all you need for some life long memories :D