rayna + brandon

After this engagement session with Rayna and Brandon, I feel like I understand what my calling is now within the photography world. I LOVE photographing couples. I can’t explain the feeling I get every time I wrap a couples session. It’s happiness and adrenaline and an insane rush of thoughts of "Did that go well? Did I capture every important moment? Did they like me?”

This engagement session was particularly exciting for me as Rayna and I have known each other well over 10 years, which is crazy to even think about as I’m typing this. We were sixth grade locker buddies and went through the school system together always floating around the same circle of friends. Being able to capture her engagement photos made life feel like everything came full circle.

The shoot itself went smooth, aside from slipping on wet rocks and the constant whipping wind of the peninsula. I was super nervous leading up to this shoot. The kind of nervous that makes you lose sleep for a couple nights leading up to the big day. A lot of laughs were shared as we worked together to capture photos that show the love they share for each other and what their location for the shoot meant to the both of them. I feel like I accomplished what I set out to do and that feeling can never be matched.

I am really proud of these photos. I felt like a real professional. I finally turned the page of insecurity around my photography and now feel truly confident enough to take this more seriously. I feel like I might have something here.

gill's prom

(Archived, June 2018) Every time I photograph a different person, I learn something new about myself and about photography. While photographing Gill's prom I learned that sometimes a location doesn't always pan out like it's suppose to. Originally Gill and I were to meet at the Japanese Gardens in Roger Williams Park. I arrived literally hours early to scope out the place (and because I was so nervous as this was my first shoot that I was actually being paid for). The garden was unkept, littered with pollution and not what I imagined it to be. There's only so much editing you can do in post to save a location, this location was beyond saving. I frantically drove around the park looking for different places to use instead. At first I was freaking out, but once I had some Del's (I was back in RI, it's only the proper thing to do), walked around and met a 9 week old dog named Kylo, I started to calm down. I remembered back from my time on set filming my short, that shoots are NOT perfect, you are always going to hit some bumps. It's just how you continue to roll with the punches and make art out of nothing.

brianna sousa

(Archived, September 2018) I feel like each one of these blog posts about some of the recent sessions I’ve had, has been a form of therapy for me. It may be annoying and I may be another millennial who overshares on the internet but this has really become an amazing sounding board.

Going into this shoot with Brianna I was nervous. Like really nervous, like scared nervous, like I actually canceled on her because I was so nervous, nervous. After canceling on her last minute (I’m literally an anxious asshole), Brianna insisted we reschedule. She really pushed me to get off my ass and create because she knows exactly what it’s like to be so anxious about creating something. I and many other creatives struggle to be okay with failure. In this social climate, if you’re not making the BEST stuff then you shouldn’t be making anything at all. But newsflash creators!!!! That’s not how it is in reality. It’s how our anxiety about public failure, about being talked about negatively, about being made fun of for what we create – the anxiety we have as creators shape our perception of our own work. I’ve felt like the films I’ve made for the past 12 years have been for nothing because I never reached instagram fame or YouTube fame or even Facebook fame. I post, get no recognition or response and get more discouraged as time goes on. But I can’t be discouraged. None of us can. Each idea is our own artistic rendition of what the heck is going on in our reality and it’s valid. If taking a picture of your lunch and putting an instagram filter and posting it is how you get our create juices out than so be it. Filmmaking and photography is mine. Modeling is Brianna’s. And the world just has to respect that this is our passion and we won’t be stopped.

paulina + grace

(Archived, October 2018) Long time no talk, happy election day! I'm so, so, so excited to vote today. I feel like this will be the election that will really make a difference. I'm almost done with school, I'm counting day each until I don't have to spend another waking moment sitting in a lecture hall. That being said, I've been really, super busy and have been slacking on keeping up with my post-session blog posts.

Today's blog post is all about my time photographing Paulina and Grace a couple weeks back at an apple orchard. I was so excited to capture their love in a beautiful, fall setting. Check down below for the photo gallery!