A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of photographing the Gonzalez crew for their family portraits. This is their 3rd session with Purple Nickel Studio!!! AWESOME! We photographed Rhonda + Jerry’s engagment session in 08′, then their wedding in 09′ and now their family in 10′. We LOVE our job!!! But these guys always make it easy for us and it totally shows in their session. When our clients give us creative freedom it’s endless on what we’ll come up with. And we have to say this is one of our favorite family sessions this year so far…
Check em’ out they’re too COOL!!!

Thanks Gonzalez family…we always have a blast hanging out with you guys and are soooo lucky to have you as friends!


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I would have to say that shadow shots are my FAVORITE images to create. While editing through the Elver’s family portrait session this one caught my eye. Eeeeeek don’t you just LOVE all the character in this photograph?. The detail of the hat, body shapes and Goliath’s puppy-dog ears!!! Me likey. Ok so I just changed my mind… shadow shots + dogs are my favorite!

Everyone…meet the Jones family!!!  We photographed their rambunctious family last Sunday and got to hit up two locations since the weather was sooooo perfect!  Lately it’s been in the low 80’s here in Tucson!  I know…I know some east coasters would be ‘oh so jealous’ but to us natives it only means that the 100 degree weather is quickly approaching. Yikes.  So Eric and I try to soak up as much ’spring time’ coverage as possible.  Which means we are the busiest between March-May (these are my favorite months out of the year).  I could lay in a hammock all day if I wasn’t such a ‘girl on the go’.  I like to have my plate full of fantastic creative projects…and sometimes that means I don’t get to necessarily relax for more than a few hours or even a few mintues.  Is there anyone else out there that can relate?…there’s gotta be!. I’m really bad at that and Eric has to constantly remind me to RELAX!!!.  So that’s exactly what we BOTH did after our session with the Jones family.  Phew…those kids tuckered us out.  I don’t know how Jessica & Shane handle two boys who are always wanting to play.  I totally give them props.  Parenting has gotta be the hardest job on the planet.

So as I was editing through their family session I came across this hilarious shot.  At first I kinda skimmed by it but something caught my eye.  I didn’t even realize while taking the photograph that little Aiden was pulling on dad’s face.  And I’m sure he does this A LOT!  Am I right dad?.  Too cool that we were able to capture that one moment when it took place. Gosh I LOVE being a PHOTOGRAPHER!!!  I do I do I do.  And I’m proud to SHOUT it from the roof tops!!!  Ok ok I’m getting carried away.

Thank you Jessica + Shane + Sam + Aiden for a lovely me2 family portrait session.  And good thinking with the french fry break…totally worked!  I hope this teaser holds ya (specifically Jessica) over a lil bit longer…Stay tuned!

This has to be one of our top favorite family me2 portrait sessions of 2009!!!  Really…it is…(click HERE to check out their sneak peek).  Eric & I were able to capture AH-mazing architecture, crazy sick details and super hilarious moments.  The Puddy family totally brought it!  We couldn’t have asked for a better day too.  Normally we do our sessions in the later afternoon but decided to do theirs in the morning and so happy we did. It literally started raining minutes after the last frame.  The weather gods were looking after us!  I love it when that happens.  Especially here in Arizona where rain is abnormal and tends to just happen on a dime.  The storm clouds roll in literally as fast as they roll out.  And this day was exactly that. But the early cloud cover did play in our favor creating a lovely soft box of light.  Perfect!

The location was also perfect.  Since the Puddy family lives smack dab in the middle of Phoenix we knew we would have a hand full of sites to choose from…the next question was…which was most their style and ours?  We have tons of favorite spots in Tucson where we shoot at constantly but when it comes to Phoenix it’s honestly overwhelming.  So we decided to ask our Phx photographer buddy Josh Snyder since he totally gets our simplistic MOD vibe.  All the places he recommended were fabulous…Thank you Josh!  After much comparison Eric and I decided to take the family to the Tempe Center for the Arts!  We only got to scout the location from internet land but immediately fell in love.  It was sooooooooo the right decision.  Then come to find out as we were photographing the family Don Puddy (Dad) told us how fitting the site choice was since his company managed the construction of the site.  CRAZY HUH?!!!  I guess we know how to select a fabulous location…don’t we?!  It was really cool to find out all the concepts about the building’s shape, sound barriers (airplanes fly over about every 5 minutes) and it’s massive curved concrete walls.  Which we couldn’t get enough of…shocker!

Ok so just to prepare yourselves this is a HUGE blog post but I promise you it’s soooooo worth the scrolling!  Hope you enjoy our last session that wrapped up our bitchin 2009! Yep…I just said it.

I had to get this up while editing…Introducing the Puddy Family!!! Well really only Lexie. She’s the cutest of the bunch. Can’t believe we got her to make eye contact with us let alone the camera. LOVE IT! She’s kind of a diva though when it comes to new faces and takes some time warming up to you. But we didn’t mind the challenge…in fact we welcome it. We just ignored her until she was ready…really that’s what we did…creates a funny story! Almost like a movie star who’s ready for their close up when they say so. Ha. Good thing it only takes her about 20 minutes.

Speaking of stories…When Joan first emailed us we knew immediately that this family was going to be AWESOME. Here are her words exactly… ‘Our 2nd family portrait in 28 years … it’s been too long! Sons are 28 and 26 … we live next to the Heard Museum in a mid-century co-op. Saw the article in Desert Living … feel like you two are the photographers for us!.’ ~Joan Puddy

Woohoo what a great way to start an experience!!!  And we’re all about creating one.  So of course we started their’s one afternoon during lunch @ Postino’s…the most yummiest place for bruschetta, proscuitto and wine.  Some of you may already know this but for those of you that don’t getting to know our clients (*soon to be friends*) before a photo shoot is soooooo important to us.  It helps us get a sense of everyone’s personality, style and character.  We gain so much knowledge.  It’s truly incredible.  To hear that the whole family gets exactly what we’re all about just rocks our world.  Purple Nickel Studio strives on creating a fun laid back experience filled with silliness, rad details, and over all goodness.  Who wouldn’t want that?. Well the Puddy Family surely brought it and we can’t wait to show you the rest of their session. One word…’HILARIOUS!’. Oh just you wait!!!