Kelly has been known to march to the beat of his own drum, he has an adventurous spirit and as his mom describes “prefers the path less traveled” Kelly you keep on marching to that beat and hedge your own way, you will move mountains my friend!

Did I mention Kelly is still looking for a prom date! Ladies, seize this moment! You may be looking at the future face of Abercrombie & Fitch here!

Check out Kelly’s PASS gallery to see more! This session was shot with the Canon 5d Mk 2 Canon 24-70 f2.8 Canon 50mm f1.2 and Canon 135mm f2.0

Nicole and I made plans to meet back at the studio shortly after the workshop.  I hitched a ride back to the Hyatt, threw some stuff in my room, grabbed a cab, and headed towards what I thought was the studio.  I accidentally gave the cabbie the wrong address…I told him S. 2nd Ave..anyway we got to S. 2nd Ave and he would NOT let me get out of the cab, he insisted we were at the wrong address, which didn’t look familiar, apparently we were in a really sketchy neighborhood, so I rechecked the address and sure enough it was wrong…My $4 cab ride turned into $10, but well worth it as he genuinely cared about my safety!

I was determined to snag the last little bit of this Arizona sun, of course Nicole was the perfect model, wearing her fuchsia skinnies, chambray top, and accessories.  She asked me where I wanted to go, I was quick to reply, “Roosevelt” was all I could remember, “the brightly painted buildings”, she knew exactly where to take me.  With only 30 minutes before sunset we parked the car in a metered spot, locked up and ran across the street to this vivid alley way.  I spotted this graffiti’d dumpster, which she matched perfectly with, asked her if she would sit next to it and bam!!! Dang, I could’ve shot there for HOURS!!!

This girl!! Seriously so much fun to photograph!! Effortless, she was charismatic, vibrant, and chatty, just like me! We ran around through these streets like kids in a candy store, so much color and texture, what’s not to love!?  My favorite was the wall that represented the Arizona sunset, it’s warm hue and gradient color scheme was the perfect backdrop for Nicole’s dark hair and vibrant eyes! As our sun went down we parked it under a golden flood lamp, I pulled out strands of gold tinsel, dangled it in front of my lens and shot through, creating a fun, framed, bokeh effect.  I now carry a little handful of gold tinsel to all my shoots! Always looking for a creative element to add to my imagery!

Once we were out of light, Nicole called her hubby to let him know we were going out to dinner.  Instantly I knew we were going to be great friends! Nicole took me to a little eatery called Pizzeria Bianco where we learned more about each other and chatted as if we were old friends.  It’s not everyday that I meet someone who can carry on a conversation as I can, we spent the next 2 hours storytelling, laughing, and eating great food! 

After dinner, Nicole took me back to the Hyatt and hung in the lobby while we shared notes from the workshop.  We did a little work on our newly published websites, gave hugs and called it a night!  I am so thankful for my new Italian friend, you are one of a kind!!

To see more check out Nicole’s PASS Gallery!! Feel free to download and share away!!  To see more of Nicole’s work check out her website!

Lot’s of LOVE!

Nicole

Her hobbies include hiking saddlerock and walking the loop trail.  Mysti was born 4lbs on October 31, 1993 at midnight, however her mom didn’t want her birthday to be Halloween so the doctors changed it to Nov. 1 at 00:00, she is a Scorpio!  Not a coffee or tea drinker, Mysti prefers strawberry and peach redbulls.  She idolizes her grandma, who passed away about a month ago, they both liked strawberry milkshakes and onion rings, their personalities were so much alike, especially the southern sassing.

Prior to arriving in Phoenix we were assigned some homework! This was indeed the toughest part as we had to do some real soul searching.  Back in 2011 I purchased Promise’s “E-Course” at Showit’s first PASS Premier in Downtown Seattle.  This unknowingly shaped the framework of my new website!  Here are some photo inspirations taken back in 2011, these images are now part of my info page! Check out my mood board on Pinterest to see what inspired me while designing my site!

April 2, 2013, day one! 8am, arrive at the studio! We took a taxi .09 miles (Don’t judge, we had a lot of gear) to the New City Art Studio, where we were greeted by Ash, Promise’s super sweet creative manager, and Alejandra of Imagin-ale Design, a lifestyle, wedding photographer, videographer extraordinaire who documented our entire experience on video!

8:30am, Showit features and basics, “make it home” this is where, as Promise calls it, “moving in the furniture” essentially replacing all of the template’s photos and content with our own.

10am-12:30pm, Group work time! Promise, her team of designers and Showit Studs (technical support) were available for questions about the design and software.  Michael Thompson, owner at Myntd and Liz a designer from California got into our sites and made changes (which was very appreciated, as a few of us didn’t know how to build new design elements and align them) they both bounced around from person to person and always made sure to circle back and check on progress, they were all awesome!

12:30pm, Lunch time and giveaways!! We had snacks and a catered lunch, but of course I spilled my salad all over myself and in my camera bag, I would do something like that, really!  There were some awesome giveaways, PASS credits, a year of Showit, an album design from Align, a song from The Music Bed, a sweet little goodie bag with some stationary from Sugar and Type, a pen, some nail polish, mints from Project 7, and a travel comb, perfect for a little Promise inspired hair teasing Here’s a side note:

When I was going through airport security they had to pat my hair down (it was day 3 without being washed and tons of dry shampoo, I was channeling my inner Promise hair) LOL!!!

3:30pm, studio head shots by Ashley Bugg of Bugg Photographer.  Ashley did such a fantastic job capturing all the GoLive girls, she took the time to get to know each one of us personally! Another side story, I seriously have a story for EVERYTHING!

As I was getting ready to walk out the door to head over to Seattle, Will my almost four year old ran down the hall into my office and handed me a picture, not just any picture, the only picture I have of my dad and I.  My dad passed away when I was nine months old, this photo was taken shortly after I was born (3 months premature).  For some reason Will felt that this photo needed to go with me.  It traveled in the front pocket of my laptop bag, through airport security, through the clouds, and into these wonderfully captured portraits of myself.  These images symbolize a desire to grow and learn, I have overcome many obstacles and challenges in my life.  I am so proud to be where I am today! I owe so much of it to the tenacious and happy spirit i have inherited from my dad.

When Ashley handed me the USB drive of these images, one in particular hit me like a ton of bricks, I lost it! I sat in a room of 20 strangers and cried in her arms, Ashley, I hope you know how much your gift of photography has touched me, this is truly why we do what we do!

5pm, quitin time, ha! Ya right! We were lucky enough to stay at the studio during Promise’s live Showit Chat, we just had to stay VERY quit during the broadcast, which wasn’t hard to do and our sites were only 1/2 done.  We left the studio around 7pm, took a taxi back to the Hyatt, grabbed some dinner at Networks, a little pub and grill in the lobby, relaxed for a bit, then plugged our laptops back in, hooked up our wifi, sprawled out on the lobby sofas and continued working while bouncing ideas off one another.  We headed to bed a little after midnight as we had to be back at the studio at 8am the next morning.

Day two, 8am, “Get detailed plus top 10 design mistakes and how to avoid them” I’m pretty sure I was already breaking some of these rules, as my fonts were all over the place and my alignment was all sorts of crazy! Thank goodness for three designers and two showit studs, I needed the most guidance on day two.  Ash, did a great job mediating and sending help our way when needed.  It was awesome to get input from Promise, Liz, Michael, JT and the other showit studs, and getting a different point of view and perspective from each person.

10am, Group work time, Promise and the team were available for questions about the design and software, Promise live-demo’d several showit functions, such as creating landing pages, alternate pages for mobile, changing colors, text, images boxes, background colors, adding shapes, etc.

11am, Promise and the design team offered website critiques before publishing our new sites, this is when the pressure sunk in as sites were scheduled to “go live” between 2pm-5pm, mine was scheduled for 3:30pm!

2pm-5pm, “Go Live!!!” After reviewing my site with Promise before going live I felt so confident and inspired, It was awesome getting her final input before hitting publish.  This was the SiteHouse design BEFORE and below is how I customized this look, click here to see it LIVE!!

Another Shout out to Ashley, of Bugg Photographer for the group images below!!

5pm, everyone has gone live!! Let’s celebrate!!!

A HUGE Thank you to Alejandra of Imagine-ale Design for documenting GoLive!! She is so creative and very inspiring! After coming home I spent hours watching all of her short films!  LOVE her creativity!

6pm, everyone is saying goodbye! Thank you to Promise and her team!  They did an incredible job, getting everyone published by 5pm on day 2!! That is HUGE! They did a great job!!!

DO ALL THINGS WITH LOVE!

Lots of LOVE! Nicole!

To attend the next workshop hop on the newsletter to be the first to hear about the new dates releasing soon!

To see more images check out my PASS gallery, download and share away!!!

Check out their Pass gallery to view more!

The Shins and Regina Spektor on Pandora are some of her favorite stations.  Has no idea where she sees herself in 10 years as long as she is surrounded by happy people and the people she loves!  Prefers cold drinks in hot weather!  Fell in love with Nice, France while visiting during the summer solstice celebrations in June!  Describes her style as edgy, bohemian, and a little hippie, Mary stands out in a crowd and will never be  cookie cutter!

Clad in emerald, the color for 2013 and the cutest shamrock earrings, Mary shines beautifully as her confident personality answers my questions while laughing between thoughts!  A proclaimed DIY’er, an artist, and independent! Watch as she beams with youthfulness and happiness in this fun video of our hour long coffee date this afternoon!  A huge thank you to The Coffee Cabin for allowing me to office there just about every day of the week! Make sure to stop by with your kiddos on March 30th, 2013 for pictures with the Easter bunny! (BYOC, bring your own camera)

Mary looks up to her mom as she taught her the value of staying true to herself and being self supportive! If she could live in any era she would choose the 1920′s to be amongst the women who have helped shape women’s rights, although she didn’t wish to live through the 30′s and would prefer to skip to the 60′s for the culture, but mostly prefers our era, the age of information, as the world is in the palm of our hands!  Mary is an amazing, free spirited, dreamer who makes anyone around her beam! I am excited to introduce her as an official representative of Nicole Conner Photography for the  Wenatchee High School Class of 2014!

High school juniors head to nicoleconner.com to  book your summer session!!  I am offering a limited number of senior sessions this year! Every session is unique and one-of-a kind, just like you!!

Let’s be social! Find me on Instagram, Twitter, facebook, and Pinterest!

Stay happy and colorful! Lot’s of love! Nicole

2013 is the year of travel, what better way to document every waking moment (I am being funny, ok maybe there is some truth to that) than with your phone! SO, this brings me to my revolution, INSTAGRAM! ahhhh haaaa! Who’s on instagram, everyone! If your not, get on there and start following and posting (@nikkie182), before you know it you will know every pair of shoes I own, see every random #selfie (not kidding, I dig a good self portrait) and soon you will begin living with a bit more intent.

Here come’s the serious part! Instagram has changed the way I view and catalog my life, I have made it my goal to shoot more freely, documenting the simplest gesture, interaction, or scene. Photography is my way of communicating with the world and in today’s world it really doesn’t matter what you shoot with as long as you shoot it!! My next big challenge this year is to not only shoot freely, but to PRINT freely as well! (If only it was actually free, eh?) My canvas lab must think I’m crazy for all the images i’ve sent to print lately!

Life is happening!!! CAPTURE IT!!!

Lot’s of love!

Mammut desk: Ikea Alligator: Pier One Mickey Mouse Tee: Target Shorts: Mini Boden Giraffe: Anthropologie Watson: Hallmark Books: The Land of Nod Eric Carle Flash Cards: Anthropologie Aviators: The Children’s Place Dino Underwear: The Children’s Place Travel Flash Cards: Target Owl: Pier One

Lot’s of love!