Until recently, my husband, Chris, and I spent most of our vacation time in different US cities.  What I love about our country is the diversity of its scenery, people, food, and so on.  Together, we have visited New York City, Austin, Chicago, Scottsdale, San Francisco, Carmel, Napa/Sonoma, and Charleston, and we love each location for different reasons.

This past September, we went somewhere totally – completely! – different.  Along with his parents, we all fulfilled a lifelong dream when we traveled to Zambia for a true African safari experience.  It’s difficult to put into words how special this trip was for all of us.  I’m so proud and excited to share with you some of the images I captured.  Zambia is an absolutely stunning country with incredibly friendly people.  Its scenery and animals are breathtaking.  I feel very, very blessed to have had the opportunity to experience all that we did while we were there.

To entice you to visit the full gallery I’ve put together, I’m including just one of my favorite images from the trip below.  To see the rest, visit the full gallery by clicking here.  I’ve included captions for each image to tell some of our stories and/or give more information about that particular shot.

If you are interested in ordering fine art prints, I have made some images available for print.  Please click on this direct link for more information.  And please do share with family and friends who may be interested in seeing the images, too!

Food photography has always really interested me, and working with Meg on this project was great fun!  I am so excited to see her business flourish over the next several months and beyond. Please check out Meg’s business, bakings (by meg), and consider this hassle-free option to satisfy your next party dessert needs or personal chocolate craving!

Meet Meg, the woman behind 'bakings (by meg).' And enjoy drooling over her delicious brownies! Better yet, instead of drooling, place your first order and actually ENJOY their chocolately goodness!

My favorite: Peanut Butter Swirl!!! SO VERY YUMMY!

Have a dog you'd like to spoil? bakings (by meg) also offers dog treats!

Starting my business back in 2009 (after leaving my stable job months earlier to attend photography school full-time) was a calculated risk, but a risk nonetheless.  After I graduated from my photography program at the beginning of 2009 and got all my ducks in a row with the business in the weeks following graduation, I spent a few months just working on my photography skills/portfolio.  Then, in August 2009, I had my very first *real* clients:  Jasmine and Kevin!  After so much hard work the past two and a half years to make my business what it is now, and what it’s still becoming, I really can’t express how meaningful it is to me to have clients who I met during the very early stages of my business return to work with me again – they are essential to the success I can say my business is today.  I really am so grateful for their loyalty and trust in me!!  But enough about me – this should be about this gorgeous family!!!

Jasmine and I were closely watching for peak fall colors for this session.  Walking around my neighborhood this week, I realized we may have been just a few days early with the session (the colors are stunning right now!!), but we had a beautiful evening for the session, and considering I found it really difficult to cut down my favorites for this post, it was very successful as well!

It was so fun to work with this family again!  They were up for anything.  We all had hundreds (no exaggeration!) of furry-like seeds stuck to our clothes as we waded through the tall grass fields at the session location.  Kevin whipped out his credit cards to scrape the seeds off Jasmine’s, Adeline’s, and his own clothing in between shots!  It was actually really funny.  Adeline had fun playing in the fallen leaves and running around with her mom and dad.  She’s going to be a great big sister.    This family is wonderful, and I can’t wait to see them again for their new baby’s newborn session in a few weeks (we’ll find out the gender once he/she arrives!).  I hope you enjoy these images – they are *some* of my favorites!

All grown up & ready to be a big sister!

I especially love this photo (above) because Adeline loved her daddy throwing her up in the air two years ago as much as she loves it now!

*Glowing*

Cara was a DOLL!  She was wide-eyed for most of the session – very interested in what was going on.  She did fall to sleep for a bit, but after a few clicks of my shutter, was awake again, as though she knew she might miss out on something!  But she seemed to enjoy her photo shoot, even when she wasn’t being held by Mandy or Mark, and that made for some really adorable and funny shots of her expressions.  We were all laughing as we looked through the proofs together earlier this week, commenting about the different captions we could come up with for some of the shots!!

It was really difficult for me to narrow down my favorites for this session, but I’ve included some below.  Enjoy!!

Little angel!

"Oh, hi, Dad!!"

"Lady, you're STILL photographing me?!"

In deep thought.

Killian, you may remember, arrived four weeks early, on the day of his mom’s scheduled maternity session!  I hadn’t seen him in several months, since I delivered the newborn product order to Amy.  He has grown SO much!!  He looks the same in the face, for the most part, but his personality is really shining now, and you can catch glimpses of the little boy he’s growing in to.  He’s a very happy boy, curious, as all 6-month-olds are, of everything around him.  He’s not quite sitting yet, but he’s mastered the art of rolling over, and he seems to very much enjoy the view of everything from his belly.  I am thrilled that I’ll be photographing Killian again next spring for his 1-year session.  Take a look and see for yourselves how much Killian has grown in the past 6 months!  Enjoy!

When I met with Caren and Matt about two months before Sydney arrived, their excitement for their daughter’s arrival was very apparent.  Matt was already putting together a swing, and Caren had the nursery finished already!  She did such a great job with it.  So, when we had Sydney’s session, seeing the joy and elation between the two of them, and the overwhelming love for their little girl, was not a surprise, but it’s always something that really sticks with me as I go through the images following the session, and every time I look at them thereafter.  I think that’s why I love newborn sessions so much – regardless of how exhausted parents may be (and they ALL are at that point), they’re always in awe of what they’ve just brought into this world, and I get to capture it!  The “in awe” emotions, that is – not the exhaustion…    Anyway, you get the point!  Enjoy these!

I love those gorgeous eyes!

Caren's friend made this *rose* blanket for Sydney!

Sydney loved being held.