New Camera, New Lens, & A New Tattoo. || Life Update And A Shoot With Alex In The Woods

Hi friends! Long time, no chat. I realized that I've mainly used this blog lately to post about shoots and photo related things that I've been up to, and I wanted to just give a quick update about my life in general, which of course, always includes photo related things anyways.

Basically, my life has just been go go go, non stop. Working full time, planning out the rest of my summer, and trying to prep for wedding season. I've been neglecting sleep, haven't been working out, and my diet has been a little bit less than optimal, and I think my body finally tried to tell me that when I came down with the stomach flu yesterday morning. I'm talking extreme nausea, vomiting, and the whole nine yards. It hasn't been fun to say the least, but I've caught up on a lot of sleep, and it's really forced me to just do nothing for 24 hours (which for me, is really hard.) I always get so caught up in functioning at the highest level of productivity that it's impossible for me to just set everything aside that I need to do and focus on myself. I think getting stomach flu was my body's way of knocking me on my ass for a little bit and forcing me to just relax. Besides the nausea and vomiting, it's been really nice. So here I am, on the tail end of it now, playing catch up with photos and blog posts!

So here's a list of big life things that have happened since we last talked:

I got my first tattoo! I am so, unbelievably, incredibly stoked on it, and already can't wait to get more. I got it as a reminder of one of my childhood best friends, Ryan, who passed away a couple of years ago in a motorcycle accident. I wanted something to remind me of how good and pure and wonderful he was, and it's also just an excuse to talk about the kind of amazing person Ryan was. To see a photo of it, go to my personal Instagram here, and to read the story behind the bumble bee aspect of the tattoo, read this blog post I wrote about Ryan here. Also, PLEASE go check out and follow Ben's work; he was the tattoo artist I chose, located at The Missing Piece in downtown Spokane. His style was exactly what I wanted and I couldn't have asked for anyone better to do it. He was equally as excited about this tattoo as I was and I don't think anyone else will tattoo me from now on!

I GOT A NEW CAMERA! That's right folks, just in time for wedding season, your girl has made the upgrade from a crop sensor body to full frame. In regular people talk, that means I got something bigger and fancier and better. Additionally, I got some new glass (aka, a lens) to go with it and though I've only had just a little bit of time to play with my new setup, I'm already so happy with it. It's been almost 3 years since upgrading cameras, so it felt like it was about time, especially after the fiasco of my other camera breaking in February, and the brutal month of March that I had to wait for it to be repaired and returned to me. So the new setup is 2 cameras with multiple lenses for each, so I can have a main and a backup for weddings! As a wedding photographer, having 2 cameras is so crucial incase anything happens to one of them on a wedding day. Could you imagine your camera breaking mid wedding and having nothing else to shoot on? Talk about a nightmare. So with my first wedding of the season fast approaching next weekend, I'm locked and loaded for weddings this year! Dang though, being a photographer is an expensive career choice. 

Some other little things that have happened in the month of May have included a couple of good hikes, some trip planning and hike planning for the summer, and me dropping way too much money on REI's anniversary sale. I bought myself some Chaco's to do easy trails in this summer, since hiking with wool socks and boots on in 80-90 degree heat can be miserable sometimes. If I can manage to hike in sandals part time this year, that will be about the best thing ever. 

And, on the note of hiking, I've got SO many good ones planned for this summer! Hiking has very quickly become one of my favorite things ever, and about the only "sport" or physical activity that I actually enjoy. I've written myself a goal list of hikes for the year and I'm starting to work on checking them off. I've got a hiking weekend planned in Seattle with Abby in mid June that should be super fun, and if the weather hold out and the trails melt a little bit more, there's a possibility I'll be hiking Colchuck Lake for Memorial Day! Guys, the outdoors are so incredible. Get out on a trail sometime, I bet you'll love it. 

Anyways, here's some images that I shot with Alex, the day my new lens came in the mail. We drove the road up Mt. Spokane (the summit road is still closed, but hopefully will open soon!) and played around in the dramatic afternoon light in the woods! Thank god for friends who let you shove them in front of your camera lens at any given moment.