Tess: Lifestyle Portraiture

This particular session was bittersweet for me.

Bitter because Tess, my "hair doctor", is moving back to Montana at the end of October and will no longer be available to mend my self-imposed hair crises. (Including, but not limited to, frying my bangs with a flat iron. The horror, I know.)

Yes. I'm a bit clueless when it comes to the world of hair.

But this session was also sweet in the fact that Tess is fabulous and - as you'll see when you scroll down and take a look at her pictures - has such great style that I've been dying (honestly, dying) to photograph her.

If I could describe Tess with one word, that word would be classy. Give me two or three more words and I'd come up with elegant and sophisticated. Oh, and I definitely can't forget beautiful. That's four.

Let's face it. It's impossible to describe such a fantastic person with just a word. Or two. Hey, sometimes even three or four don't cut it.

So there you have it, Montana... You're getting back one hell of a woman. :)

Thanks, Tess! Best of luck on this new adventure! :)

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"Life is an endless struggle full of frustrations and challenges, but eventually you find a hair stylist you like."
-- Author Unknown

Sneak Peek: Tess :)

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"A girl should be two things: classy & fabulous."
-- Coco Chanel

Lauren: Lifestyle Portraiture

Lauren is a girl after my own heart.

She's willing to do anything for a good shot - even if it means traipsing (lightly, I swear) on private property. Aside from our love of trespassing, we also share a fondness for Urban Outfitters (who Lauren could easily model for), animals, the outdoors, pretty pictures and a continued, unrestricted, no-charge-please use of facebook. (Seriously... Don't even get us started.)

Here's how our shoot went: A vision would form in my head, I'd open my mouth to say it, only to find that - before I could even get a word out - Lauren had already moved into that exact pose. Honestly, it was like shooting myself. (I mean, if I was - to put it bluntly - thinner with darker hair, flawless skin and, well, completely gorgeous beyond words.)

But anyhoo...

Lauren knows how to work the camera. And next year at this time, when she's studying down in California, I wouldn't be surprised at all if I opened one of my beloved Urban Outfitters catalogs and found her lovely image gracing its pages.

That would most certainly make me smile. :)

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"But an accurate definition of the self is impossible. You are more than you realize, more than you can define. And the more time you spend trying to nail down the definition, the less time you spend living right now. ... Your past is not your identity... You, living now, is your identity."
--George Lawrence-Ell (The Invisible Clock)

Sneak Peek: Lauren!

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"Art should astonish, transmute, transfix. One must work at the tissue between truth and paranoia."
-- Brett Whiteley

Nikkie: Lifestyle Portraiture

If Nikkie ever hears the word "frolic" again, it will probably be too soon.

Despite her aversion toward the dreaded "f" word, Nikkie knows how to do it well. And by the end of our session, she was frolicking freely - without my asking her... (Although, she'll never admit it!) Okay, so maybe it did elicit some strange stares from people passing by, but so what? I prefer to think they were captivated by Nikkie's gorgeousness. And not her, uh, frolicking.

This girl is beautiful. She's sweet. She's fun. And she's funny. I swear, she had me cracking up at random during the entire length of our shoot. I even think I had to stop and wipe a tear or two from my eye at one point.

Professional, eh?

Sometimes it seems like I do far more laughing at these shoots than taking pictures. Hmmm...

Anyway, enjoy these shots of Nikkie. And don't forget to frolic every now and then. It's good for the soul. Promise. :)

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Frolic: Gaiety; merriment; A playful antic; To romp; to behave playfully and uninhibitedly; To cause to be merry.