What did you do or will you do for your one year wedding anniversary? Many couples will go out to a fancy dinner to celebrate the union of their love, or even do a weekend getaway. And if you do gifts, the traditional present is paper, and the more modern selection is a clock (why? don't ask me, this is what Google has said it is).

I have created special commissioned watercolor paintings for first wedding anniversary presents, bit this is the first time I had the pleasure of photographing the couple in this part of their journey of husband and wife.

Llesenia and Eron met me at the beautiful grounds of Deepwood Estates on a semi-cool evening (remember in Oregon it has been hot lately), so it was quite refreshing. Llesenia even showed off her crafty side by creating a (very Pinterest worthy) wooden sign to use during their session. The wooden heart sign wasn't the only special item she brought; she brought along her wedding shoes!

Flowers can really brighten up a room and floral crowns can really bring a smile to your face. Last week there was a really fun event at The Shabby Chic Bride in Salem, Oregon which was lead by Sheena with Alice's Table.

Sheena did awesome leading all the ladies in creating their own floral crowns and Jason of Divine Distillers made some tasty mojitos with his own special mix. 

Today I had a splendid afternoon meeting some wooly sheep and spunky sheep dogs, plus an elusive barn cat.

Until now, the closest that I've ever been to working sheepdogs was when I watched the movie "Babe" when I was growing up. Do you remember that movie? If not, let me ring a bell ... it's the one about the pig that was raised by a sheepdog and then went on to herd sheep. Baa ram ewe ...

Last week I (once again) ventured into the tulip fields. This time with two people who would rather be behind the camera than in front of it, Sara and Brian. But sometimes you can forget about the camera pointing at you and have a little fun.

Sara was dying to have some cute photos of her and her boyfriend, Brian, of nearly four years and I was more than happy to capture some cute moments for them. We even promised him a stop at Dairy Queen for some ice cream after the session if he was a good sport, and he definitely got into it once I started snapping some photos.

Tonight I had the pleasure to photography fashionista, Alisha in downtown Albany. It was the perfect location for a fashion savvy professional with exposed brick and lookouts over the Willamette River.

Alisha has some great fashion advice, "I believe that if you style something right, you can make it look more expensive than it was." Case and point, she disclosed her leggings were only $5 and they looked like they were made for her, no matter the cost.

I just loved how her outfit was comfortable, form-fitting in all the right areas, and looked classy because she pared it with the right accessories. 

Alright, I'm going to share with you my most favorite combo right now for my photography. It's really simple and I would have to say I take beautiful photos with these two pieces of gear. ;-)

My camera body is a Canon Rebel T3i and my lens is the Canon 85mm 1.8. I love the ability to shoot wide open and the compression the 85 achieves is very flattering. 

One of the perks of shooting wide open is being able to capture images in dark environments. I was at an indoor performance of horses and acrobats, and I was sure glad I decided to bring my favorite combo. The photos may have been a little grainy with the ISO bumped up all the way, but that helped with not making them blurry.