This is the Rasmussen’s second time around with Purple Nickel Studio and we couldn’t be more HAPPY. I can remember the first day that Michelle and I were introduced by our good friend Dave Harvey (another fabulous photog who is CrAzY good with architectural shots). The two of them planned a ‘just for fun’ shoot with a few model/friends and Dave invited me to tag along. I accepted of course. DUH! But I would have never ever met these two artists without having attended a PHX children’s workshop back in 2007. I <3 WORKSHOPS…they’re the bestest!!! Michelle forced…yes forced Dave (her business partner at the time) to attend so he could broaden his photography horizons. Once him and I both started chattin’ it up we soon realized we were the only photographers there from Tucson. We clicked (no pun intended)! From that point on our friendships strenghtened, our photography knowledge exploded and weekly advice was accepted graciously. LOVE IT!!!

So when Michelle asked us to photograph her family again we of course said YES! Their first session took place almost a year and a half ago and her boys sure have changed. It’s Ah-mazing how they have grown. Now they asked us quirky questions, set up their own poses, and eagierly wanting to hold our hands as we crossed the streets. Awwwwwwww. It’s was incredible.  Since Michelle knows first hand how important it is to give an artist creative freedom…she did just that.  I think her exact words were ‘we want our session purple nickel style!’.  Sounds kinda naughty doesn’t it?. MEOW*  Ha!!!  We LOVE you guys so much and are so honored to have you in our lives! Thanks for such an awesome session and so glad the weather gods had our backs…it stormed I mean STOOORMED just hours before our morning session.



















































“Casia and Eric…Thank you SO much for doing such an awesome job on our me2 session- we had so much fun getting all decked out 80’s-Purple Nickel style for our shoot! Being a professional photographer myself, I am SO grateful to be on the other side of the camera with my family each year- being able to enjoy the experience together is priceless and we look forward to enjoying these images and memories of our time together. So awesome that we were able to do it while Farmor (grandma) was here again too from Sweden! Thanks again- you guys rock! And roll! YaY!.”

-The R Fam

*Here’s some behind the scenes goodness…plus I believe my brown plaid ‘rocketdog’ shoes have retired. I’ve done every shoot in them since purple nickel was born. They have brought me AMAZING LUCK! Now I just need to find some funky new bold hip comfortable cute fashionable non-squeaky puddle-stompin sidewalkin urban chic jean-lovin SHOES! Help…

We’ve been M.I.A. in the blog world lately…lots and lots of projects going on. Eric and I can’t wait to share all the goodie designs with you. He’s been designing MOD cards for our clients like a mad man and YUMMY canvas galleries for their lonely walls. I’ll be posting some concepts in the next few weeks…stay tuned. In the meantime here is one of our FABULOUS me2 family portrait sessions we did in October of the Yousey family. We simply adore them. Not only do they live across the street from us but the dad is also an architect and runs his own firm. They are currently remodeling their home so we BOTH get to share our funny and frustrating stories, plans, and cool fixtures we find. LOVE IT!!!

Some of you might know but this is the Yousey’s third me2 family session with Purple Nickel Studio…and we can’t wait to photograph many many more! Maybe our next session will be a maternity one???!!! Hey…I’m just sayin’. You can check out their sneak peek I posted a few weeks ago…HERE. Again I can’t tell you how much we enjoy hanging out with this family.  Two seconds with their daughter Mia and you’re ready to eat her up.  She has the cutest laugh, most GORGEOUS eyes (as if you couldn’t tell) and is soooo silly.  Ummmmm…can I order one just like her? Pllllleeease?!  Ok ok ok…so on to the photographs cause I know you’re just dying to see em’.

Sooooo FINALLY…the Montoyo’s me2 session is up on the blog!!! And boy do we have a story to tell you! As some of you might know we love to choose locations that are unique and a little unexpected. SHOCKER…right?! For the Montoyo family we took aim on downtown Tucson. You see they wanted something a bit more urban this time around. Well…after photographing there for only a few minutes we made the decision to switch locations. Normally we welcome the crowd and busy traffic, but for this particular family session it just wasn’t right. So we hopped in the car and took a quick drive to one of our favorite industrial locations nearby. During the car ride over…we decided to change it up and shoot over at this awesome run down structure right adjacent to the railroad tracks. SCORE!!! So we thought After about 20 minutes of shooting we were ‘cordially’ (<---sarcasm alert) greeted...more like yelled at by a man quickly walking towards us. To all our surprise he was a cop. Yeah...come to find out we were trespassing on railroad property. The really funny part of the story is he thought all of us were taggers tagging the building. Come on dude...with two kiddos in tow?!!! He explained that there were 'NO TRESPASSING' signs all over the place. When we asked 'where' (cause we didn't see any signs) he replied 'oh...yeah people keep stealing them!.' HA! All in all he was pretty nice...since WE were nice. Now we have the distinct honor of being in their 'trespassing' database and if we get caught doing it again...big fine or the slammer.

BTW – we didn’t take one shot on the railroad tracks…









































A few weeks later we hosted the Montoyo’s MOD viewing session at their fabulous-ly cute COZY home. You’d think after the whole train cop run-in we were done with things going wrong! NOPE. After setting up all our gear we soon realized the internet was not going to be on our side that night. Our portable card couldn’t pick up any signal and we couldn’t tap into their WiFi (Eric even talked with AppleCare). We went ‘old school’ and just hand wrote their favorites and concept ideas. As with most MOD viewing sessions we had to move a few pieces of furniture around in order to set up the ji-normous screen. Well…when we moved their dinner room table back into place we all heard a ‘POP’ and just thought it was the wood shifting. Come to find out that large ‘POP’ was the table leg cracking all the way down. Ekkkk. We are so glad to hear they are getting a brand new table exchanged. Phewww…what a story.

Thanks Montoyo family for being so patient and hanging on during our crazy lil adventure!!!

Meet the Montoyo Family!  Eric & I had the pleasure of photographing this family on Friday afternoon and the weather couldn’t have been better. This is their 2nd me2 portrait session with Purple Nickel Studio within 1 year….YAY!  Dad was away on business for the first session (his Father’s Day gift from Mom)…click HERE to see them.  And now they finally got to do photographs together.  We can’t believe how fast the boys are growing up.  Especially the youngest Alex.  Who is recovering very well from his heart surgery that took place in June. He’s now smiling, flirting, and standing up!!!  Can you believe it.  It just blows our minds how fast kids adapt and recover…what a miracle.

So as promised here is your sneak peek Samantha (Mom)!  I tried to get it up as fast as possible   This way she doesn’t have to be refreshing her internet browser or stalking us 24/7.  Don’t get me wrong…that’s totally AWESOME but you gotta get some sleep too.  Thank you again Montoyo family for a lovely afternoon and we can’t wait to show you the rest!

Meet the Yousey’s!  Chuck, Yadelle and lil Miss Mia.  We’ve known each other for several years now and this is their 3rd session with Purple Nickel Studio!!!  WOO HOO.  We LOVE LOVE LOVE that we continue to photograph our past clients.  Funny story….we were first introduced to this AMAZING family by another friend after he mentioned that they lived just across the street from us. Seriously. Yep. Chuck is also an incredible Architect (Owner of DBF) and both our families are currently remodeling our 1950’s homes….MODERN STYLE ALL THE WAY!!!!  We met when Eric & I asked to see their home to compare it to our layout (yes we wanted to snoop….this was before we started our HUGE demo). After seeing their home we knew instantly that we had to open up our low plaster ceiling and expose the pitched roof as they did…click HERE if you wanna see our progress.  Boy if we only knew what we were getting ourselves into.  But it has made all the difference in the space and I couldn’t be happier.  Now we sort of have a friendly competition on who can finish their remodel first or at least get it to an enjoyable state. Yadelle knows exactly what I’m talking about. Oh YES she does!

We are so HONORED that they asked us to photography their family again.  Mia is growing up so fast and is FULL of personality.  All you have to do is ask her to laugh and she does.  It’s fabulous and quite hilarious.  I hope this sneak peek holds you guys over for a little while…as I’m editing your session I am continuiously cracking up at all of her little quirky expressions.

As Mia would say…’BOOMSHACKALACKA’!