This past Wednesday was my 9th wedding anniversary! I’m kinda a sentimental person and I really appreciate making memories and finding grand ways to celebrate. We don’t have enough of that, celebration that is. I think it’s easy to get caught up and forget how special it really is to have fought for your marriage and how special it is to really celebrate your time together and allow yourself to marvel at that gift. Pictures are my favorite way to celebrate anything. For obvious reasons of course. I love commemorating a certain moment in time with a few snaps to look back on for the rest of our lives. I imagine I’ll be a little old lady surrounded by photos of a life well lived. I love that idea.

So… we opted to get in front of the camera for a few short minutes and we walked away with some photos that I couldn’t love any more.

A special thank you to our friends at Denson Creative for capturing these special snaps for us. I’ve always wanted friends to trade photo shoots with and I’m so happy to have found that!

It gets hot in Phoenix in the summer. Duh.

We’re right at the beginning stages of heat. The I haven’t yet burned myself on my seatbelt, but I’m starting to use the sun shade kind of phase. We’re getting ready for the wave of triple digits and like many prepare for the long winter in the midwest, we have our own preparations to make. We stock up on sunscreen, bust out the beach towels, have the ac unit serviced, make sure the water cooler in filled up, and buy this year’s kiddie pool. Of course, many people have their own real pools and we have access at both of our parents’ houses, but in our own backyard, we have the blow up shark. I think I love this more than having a real pool on most days. There’s no deep end, Harvey can get in and out on his own, there’s no chemicals to buy, it inadvertently waters our grass, it doesn’t take up our whole yard and did I mention there’s no deep end? The possibilities of him getting hurt are far less and he just loves the freedom to splash around and climb in and out on his own.

Our BBQ was cooking up some dinner and we found the perfect shady spot in the backyard to set up. I sat close enough to get splashed a few times while Harvey joyfully reminded me to soak in the sun and the memories.

The June issue of Stellar Day Magazine is out today and I’ve contributed words before, but this time I stepped out on a ledge and offered to photograph for the magazine as well. I was welcomed with open arms. I tied up my tennis shoes and hiked up a mountain with my brand new camera strapped to my back in an effort to prove that I was worthy of my efforts.

The theme is adventure and it’s actually quite fitting. Adventure can mean so many different things, but it has close ties with fear; at least for me it does and based on the issue, I’m not the only one. Fear is what often keeps us from pursuing great adventures.

Capturing pictures is something I’ve loved for many many years. I can remember the excitement of stopping by the drugstore to pick up my film. The anticipation of opening that envelope was a thrill. Pulling the 4×6 prints out and shifting through them as quickly as possible was like Christmas morning. All you needed was one, just one really great picture to send you beaming out to the parking lot. That love and constant pursuit of the one great image has never left me and I’m thankful. However, adulthood has a way of squashing your innocent and completely valid love for something. I’ve allowed my internal dialogue tell me that I’m not good enough amidst so many fantastic photographers, and I do know many. I tell myself that the professionals I know will mock me or vilify my efforts.

But those are lies and I’m done cheating myself out of practice, feedback, and quality adventures because of fear. The truth is that they’re all really supportive and we have a common love for something. They’re all excited to share their knowledge and include me where I have the courage to be included. I might not be the best, but I’m putting myself out there. I don’t need to be great, I just need to try. I feel like I’m in a new season of creativity and a new season of confidence in what I can do. I’m excited to see where this takes me and I’m excited to kick fear to the curb.

Here are some of my favorites from my shoot with Jessica of Stellar Day Magazine.