Slice Goes West: Part 1 | Sonoran Desert, Arizona | Harrisburg Destination Senior Photographer

You’ve seen the images scattered throughout my social media. And finally, I bring you the first installment of my adventures out west with some of my senior girls & some of the awesomest senior photographers I know.

One of the ways that I have found has really pushed me to grow is by attending senior photography related events, such as Seniorologie’s Conference 12. I attended the first one in October 2015 and I had the honor of winning a seat to attend again in October 2016. Through that Conference I have met very talented senior photographers ALL over the country who have become friends, encouragers, mentors, and who I can rely on for a good “swift kick in the butt” when it’s needed.

At Conference 12 in Miami this year, I went searching for info/inspiration that would help me shoot work that made me FEEL…I wanted to learn how to capture that “SOMETHING” that I felt seemed to be elusive in my work. One of the people who’s work makes me FEEL with every images of hers I see, is Jolene Dombrowski. (if you hop over to her page, you’ll see EXACTLY what I mean!) Not only is her work amazing, but she is an even more amazing person! I vividly remember when I met Jolene in Arizona! Sadly, it was the morning, I was flying out from Phoenix from Conference 12 in Arizona…so I didn’t really get to connect with her at that first conference, but spoke with her just enough before our airport shuttle arrived, to be intrigued by her energy/spirit, that started following her work then.

Fast forward to Conference 12 2016 in Miami and lucky for me we were in the same shooting groups! So after Conference 12 in Miami concluded, we started messaging back and forth and decided to head west together in January with some of our senior girls!  To add to our fun, we thought we’d invite some of our other conference 12 gals with us for those adventures as well.

We solidified our plans and with Sandi from Sandi Shipley Photography in Phoenix, AZ and Ashley from Ashley Nicolle Photography in Youngstown, OH, we headed off on a road trip adventure from Phoenix to Joshua Tree, California.  We flew in to Phoenix and spent the night in Phoenix before loading up our “Swagger Wagon” (aka mini van) with one of my favorite girls to photograph from Knock Knock Boutique and one of Jolene’s girls, before headed out to Joshua Tree where two of our other senior girls would be meeting up with us.

It would take hours to recount all the adventures we had on the road trip leg of our trip, but the laughs were endless, the motion sickness pills popped by Ashley and I were equally as endless, and the freedom and joy of traveling with a caravan of creatives who at the drop of a hat would pull over with you to shoot along the side of the road in random stretches of desert…well I can’t even begin to put into words how FLIPPIN’ cool that was. For serious.

On our way to Joshua Tree, there was an accident on I-10 that detoured us along some backroads…thank God for that because that’s where our two “pull over and shoot” stops occurred. Here are a few of my favorites from that leg of our trip. Hope you’ll be back to catch more of our adventures out West!!  Shout out to our friends at Artisan Republic for lending us some authentic vintage finds for our trip and of course Free People for making clothes that just demands to be shot in locations like these!

**P.s. when going on road trips with friends…make sure you double check your camera so you don’t accidentally shoot on MEDIUM JPEG for your whole first shoot. Yep, I did that. (insert face palm here.) Now on to the photos….