Love Project - Ali

When I fell in love with Andrew, we had been dating for about 6 months. It was before his mission. It was Christmas, which is my favorite. 

We were sitting down talking. I had given him a watch and he brought out a Swarovski crystal Forget-Me-Not bouquet. I had been telling him for months that his eyes reminded me of Forget-Me-Not flowers, because they were the same color.

And I thought, "Oh my gosh! He remembered that little itty bitty detail that I said." That was when I knew that I was probably done and that he was probably the one. 

He had already said "I love you", and I had never said it before. When he handed me those flowers, I turned to him and said "I love you, too." That was all I said.

Yashica Mat 124G - 400TX - Find Lab

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer one prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while they answer. Come back every week for a new story of love. If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Holly

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer one prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while they answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.

David & I met at a really unique time in our lives and when we began to date it became so apparent to me that every road & experience in our lives had led us up to that point.

It felt like the universe conspired to bring us together at a time when we needed each other. I was suffering from crippling anxiety, he was getting over a bad breakup. 

The stories of our lives were so different, yet seemed to fit together as if it had all been planned. As we shared these stories with each other, I felt something I had never experienced with any other person. 

Being with David meant being home. Being with him felt as if all of my fears and anxieties disappeared, and what was left of me was cradled in the arms of someone who loves me unconditionally. There was such a sense of relief. The comfort and ease I felt was indescribable. 

Looking back to that time in my life, I don't remember details so much as I remember the feeling: I had found someone that not only was adorable & lovable, but he loved and adored me-- every broken & beautiful piece of me, and carefully put me back together in a way I never could have expected.

Yashica Mat 124G - 400TX+2 - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Chrissy

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer one prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while they answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.

We had been dating for not very long. It was probably our 3rd or 4th date. We went to the fair. I love the fair so, so, so much! We got funnel cake, ate all the things, and played games. It was the best date ever! We talked so much, and he is not a talker, at all. 

At the moment that I knew, it was so clear that I was in love with him. 

We were on top of the sky ride, he put his arm around me, the sun was setting, we were above the fair, he squeezed me tight, and it was the best thing in the whole world. 

There wasn't anything significant about the moment, but it was just perfect and wonderful. It was just the feeling of being safe. It was so good. And that is when I knew.

Yashica Mat 124G - 400TX - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Lance

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer one prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while they answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.

I can pinpoint one time that I felt love, which is the day Svea was born.

I just knew it was love coming through when I was holding her in my arms, and I was looking down at her, and at that time I thought "I'm her father and she is my daughter." 

One time when I knew I was loved was when I asked Siri, right before I proposed to here, "Siri, do you love me?" And she responded, "Yes, why?" And I said, "Ok" and then I got down on one knee and proposed to her.

Pentax 645N - 400TX+2 - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Siri

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer one prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while they answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.

I would say that I have always felt a lot of love for a lot of people, but the first time I fell in love was when I was 12 years old.

I remember being woken up really early in the morning and running downstairs to get in the car with my parents to go to the hospital for my little brother to be born. I knew how babies were born, but I had always been scared of the idea of having a baby.

But when the doctor looked at me after my mom had my baby brother and said "I bet you don't want to have any kids now, right?" I said "No, actually, I want to have kids now!" because I fell in love with him the minute that I saw him. 

I just couldn't believe how strong my mom was for what she had just done and that she had done it for all of us. When I held him, while I had always loved all of my siblings, that was the first time I knew I had fallen in love.

Pentax 645N - 400TX+2 - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Cortney

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer the prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while the answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.

When we got married, I felt very loved by Tyson.  When I was pregnant, and especially giving birth, I felt very loved.  He kept telling me to calm down, focus, and breathe even as I was standing on the bed with contractions yelling at him.  

As things get busy, he tells me little jokes and continues to love me even when I am impatient and frustrated or scared or sad or nervous.

The fact that he supported me through the death of my mother when everything else seemed to fall apart, including me, tells me that he loves me. In almost all things great and small, I feel loved. Every day in one way, shape, or form, I feel loved and very blessed.

Pentax 645N - HP5+4 - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Jen

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer the prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while the answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.

When I first moved back to Arizona, I just wanted to make friends. I had recently gone through an ugly breakup and was uninterested in dating. Then I saw David across the room. My first thought was, "Yeah. I would date that boy."

About a month later he asked me out. I didn't even realize it was a date until about halfway through the evening. Once it dawned on me, though, I felt like an idiot...but an excited idiot because he was cute and I liked him and I was pretty sure he liked me too.

The next day was Halloween, and he called to invite me to a party his sister was hosting that night. Obviously I said I would come. I was nervous, since I'd already met his mom (he was living at home at the time) and would now be meeting his older sister and her husband. It seemed like a lot of pressure. But I liked him and was willing to feel awkward for a couple hours so I could spend an evening with him.

When he picked me up, he was driving a tiny old beat-up truck and listening to Blackstreet's "No Diggity." He made no move to change it either, which was totally fine with me because that song is fantastic. Not once did he apologize for his vehicle, his music choice, the fact that we'd be hanging out with his family on our second date...any of it. I had to laugh because it was so refreshing! He was comfortable with who he was, wasn't going to change in order to "impress" me, and apparently I could either take it or leave it.

I know it's ridiculous that that was the moment I knew I loved him, but it's true. There was something about his combination of confidence, humility, honesty, family commitment, and delightful quirkiness that completely won me over. I never looked back. We were married less than a year later.

He still really likes Halloween and 90's hip-hop/R&B. I still really like him. 

 

Pentax 645 - 400TX+1 - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Beverly

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer the prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while the answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.

I obviously fell in love with Ryan before I married him, but I fell more in love with him when Gwen was born. I felt more like 'Wow this is an awesome person that I just had a baby with!' And I probably felt that way because he was serving us and one of my love languages is service.

I'd just had a baby, so I was stuck in bed nursing and everything. He made food and helped out in any way that he could. I was healing from stitches down there, healing from birth, and I just felt so happy.

He became 100 times more attractive within that first week. Because Gwen came a week early and no one was in town to help us, it was just the 3 of us. I really cherish that time. It was really nice.

Pentax 645 - 400TX+1 - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Jaclyn

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer the prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while the answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.

I think most people wouldn't expect anything to come from a crush you have when you're 11 years old, but that was exactly how old I was when I met my husband. His family had moved into the neighborhood next to ours and started attending the same church that my family went to. The first time I saw him, I immediately fell in love! I can't explain what it was that drew me (this awkward preteen who was painfully shy) to him, but I was head over heels for this kid.

As we grew older we became friends who would occasionally hang out and go on bike rides together, but we were never more than friends. We went on a handful of dates as well, but never seriously dated each other. Both of us had other friends that we spent most of our time with and even dated other people, but my feelings for him remained. The worst part was that EVERYONE else (including our families) knew how I felt. We finally graduated high school and he left on a church mission for 2 years. We emailed back and forth weekly while he was away, but how I felt never came up because I knew nothing could come from that confession since we were in different countries.

After 2 years of not seeing each other, it was FINALLY time for him to come home. I awkwardly showed up at the airport with his family to welcome him home, and tried to stay out of the way. We talked for a little bit back at his parents house and made plans to get together. We saw each other every single day after that. We began dating and that shy little 11 year old girl's dreams finally came true! Once our feelings were finally out in the open, we realized that we had felt the same way for each other all this time but had just both been too shy to admit it. Something kept drawing us together all those years, and I just knew somehow it would work out. Now married for almost 7 years, he is still my first and only love.

Pentax 645 - Illford hp5+1 - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Jenna

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer the prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while the answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.

My husband and I met when we were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend. I had just ended a relationship and was really in no mood for romance, but my friend insisted I needed to meet this guy, Dillon. So I went, begrudgingly, not expecting to have a good time at all. 

We picked Dillon up, and I was caught off-guard by how ... attracted I was to him. As the night continued on and we began to converse, it became apparent to me that he was as beautiful on the inside as he was to look at. I noticed right away he had kind eyes, the type that really SEE you, you know? The type that show their owner is listening and caring about you. 

Our conversation came so easily and naturally. It was as if we'd known each other forever. I wondered if our spirits were familiar with one another and had been connected before this life. I'd just never felt anything so sincere and real with another person before. I was falling in love.

At the end of that night, I felt full of light and energy. I no longer felt the heavy pain of a failed relationship, but a new sense of hope and excitement.

As I knelt at my bedside to say my prayer, the thought occurred to me I should ask God if this man was my future husband. My heart leapt at the though, thrilled but also incredibly nervous. I was 17 years old. I was in no way ready for marriage! 

But, I asked anyway. And God's answer was loud and clear: he was the one. I was not to let him get away. There was a lot I had yet to learn about this man, but he was made for me and I for him. My heart knew it was true. I couldn't deny it.

I later found out when Dillon got home that night, he told his older brother he thought he'd met his future wife.

Pentax 645 - 400TX+1 - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Lisa

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer the prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while the answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.

For a long time I felt discouraged--I wasn't where I should be in life (or ever could be as it seemed) compared to those around me. I'm Mormon and twice a year we have a global broadcast from our leaders. While watching, I was reminded that I am a valued daughter of God. I was so focused on what others thought where I should be in my life that I forgot that I need to rely on where God wants me to be in life. My identity and worth are not determined by my education or the job I have. He does love me and sees great potential in me. Through Him, I am capable of amazing things, just in other ways. That is when I felt loved and knew what it meant to be a child of God.

Pentax 645n - 400TX+1 - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Emma

Welcome to the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer the prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while the answer. Come back every week for a new story of love.

I know sometimes social media makes me look like I have it all together but I definitely don't. Especially lately. Over the past couple of months I have been losing my temper with my kids more often that I would like to admit. A couple weeks ago I got frustrated with my oldest and yelled at her. I immediately felt awful about it. I hate yelling at my kids. So I crumbled to the floor and began to cry. My sweet four-year-old daughter, the one I had just yelled at, immediately came over and held me while I cried.

 I told her how sorry I was for yelling and she responded with, "It's okay Mommy. We still love each other even if we yell sometimes." In that moment I felt so so loved. I didn't feel at all like I deserved her love but my sweet child knew that I needed it and she was able to see past my imperfections and express her pure and totally unconditional love when I needed it most.

Thinking about this story a few weeks later and with a postpartum depression diagnosis in hand gives me a totally different perspective. In that moment I was so angry with myself for being angry with my children, for losing my temper and losing control, for just not being able to handle myself better. That was the postpartum depression speaking. The postpartum depression was causing me to lose control AND it was causing me to be mad at myself and to feel undeserving of the love that my daughter saw that I needed and that I deserved. Knowing now that I've been in this kind of cloud from depression just makes me even more grateful for the moments when my children and husband have shown me love even when my brain was telling me that I didn't deserve it. They have helped me get through all of the hard moments over the past few months and I feel super blessed to have them all on my side, showing so much love to me every single day. 

Pentax 645n - Ilford HP5+1 - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

Love Project - Heidi

After the shooting in Orlando in June, I felt very compelled to put something positive out into the world. What I came up with was something I call the Love Project. I give someone 3 prompts to choose from (all relating to love), they answer the prompt, and I photograph them (with b&w film) while the answer. So far, this has been an incredible experience of love and the emotions it evokes. This morning I learned that today is the International Day of Peace, so today seems like the best time to start sharing the Love Project. Come back every week for a new story of love.

I met Andy in February of 2003.  We spent a lot of time together over the next few months until we started dating late that spring.  I think I was likely falling in love with him before we were even dating.  We lived only 3 blocks apart (he helped me move into my houseboat!!) and would go on walks with my brand new puppy every night along the water.  It was easy & simple & perfect.

Once we started dating, I knew in about 2 weeks I was going to marry him.  I will admit to freaking out about that part (and will leave out the exact language I used :) )  But I was absolutely positive!! I kept thinking "you're not supposed to know that so soon!" and "how on earth are you so sure?" but I just knew.  And exactly a year later we were engaged. 

Next week we'll be celebrating our 11th anniversary.  We are in so many ways so very different, but I've always known I would spend the rest of my life with him.  I always say that my entire world just fell into place that summer.  Life won't ever be that easy, or simple, or as light with responsibilities - but it was pure magic!

Pentax 645n - Kodak Tri-X 400 - Find Lab

If you would like to participate in this project, and I really hope you do, then email me at photographyhill@gmail.com to set something up.

This Family is Dope

I took the plunge and shot this session entirely with film. I find the results pretty magical. I just want to shoot film all day everyday, especially if it includes adventures, families, and cute kids. And skateboards.

Now Entering Family Photo Season...

It’s that time again! Summer will soon be turning to Fall, so it’s time to think about those family photos for annual Christmas cards. I would love to take your photos again this year. Starting on September 27th and ending on December 13th, I will be accepting appointments for family photo sessions every Saturday morning and evening.

To ask about booking a session, contact me by email at photographyhill@gmail.com; through my contact form; or by phone at 480-318-0143; . Spots will fill up before you know it, so it pays to book early!

 To secure a date and time for a session, a $50 deposit is required. The rest of the session payment is due the day of the session. I accept cash and checks, as well debit and credit cards through PayPal (online and at the session).

 Sessions come with varying amounts of credit* toward the purchase of prints, and a low resolution disc to print 4 x 6 and 5 x 7 prints anywhere and as often as you want. Some sessions also come with a full-resolution disc of images. See http://photography-hill.com/family-portraits for details.

 I look forward to working with you!

facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/PhotographyHill

online print ordering - http://photographyhill.instaproofs.com/store/

*more credit is included in longer sessions

Gas Works Park

A few weeks ago I posted about Yan's amazing workshop that I attended. Going to that workshop was just one part of a fantastic trip to Seattle that I took with my husband. We had a great time with family, met some new friends, and most importantly, got away from the desert heat for a few days. Over the next few weeks I'll share some favorite photos from our adventures. Today is all about Gas Works Park. This place spoke to my industrial loving heart.

Birthdays

Two of my favorite boys have birthdays in August - one had a Cars themed party and the other had a Transformer themed party. Both boys were overjoyed to celebrate their birthday with family and Texas Sheet Cake, obviously.

This is My Jam

Here is another photo from the session I posted on yesterday. I felt like it deserved it's own post.

Love at Home

Jen's family holds a special place in my heart. I love these guys more than words can express. And I am super happy with the results from their session. Can't you just feel the love from these guys seeping out of the photos? This new direction of family portraits is blowing my mind.

Chrissy and Posse

This woman is really something special. Seriously. The kindness she extends to others is pretty much endless. She is usually behind the camera or taking selfies, so it was really important to me to provide photos of her with the most important people in her life - Mr B and the littles. All these shots were taken in the doorway of her home. The setting is poetic in a way. Chrissy opened up the door to her heart to this three and the results were glorious. I'm kind of in love with the lighting and this whole family.