Lovingly Looking Back on 2020

A Photographic Recap of My Favorite Personal Memories of 2020

This year had challenges, as very year does. Of course 2020 was more of an uphill climb than most, but there was still so much beauty and joy, and I wanted to take a moment to look back on all of it. Here are a handful of my favorite personal memories of 2020 as told by some pretty full frame moments and a bunch of happy iPhone snaps!

#1 — October Round Top Trip  |  A perfectly grainy, Round Top, side of the road sunset and moon appreciation moment with Mom when not one but two (✌️) Texans pulled over to make sure we were okay. And then a lot of old stuff.

#2 — Back Patio Thanksgiving  Dinner |  A gracious day when we actually were able to all meet up, Mimi and Papa included, and enjoy one another under the most perfect Texas fall evening on record.

#3 — Many Miles Traveled For Shoots   |  Grateful for my faithful transportation, safety on the road, and fun memories made alone and with friends (human and otherwise) driving to all sorts of places to document my client’s special memories.

#4 — Buying Our First House  |  February surprised us with the thing I’d been praying for for years: our very first home. After years of rentals and moves, setting roots in this little ranch house (and nesting in it) in Dripping Springs was the ultimate dream.

#5 — Tried the blonde bob. No regrets.  |  Though I’m back to my normal hair color now (just a few shades darker into dirty blonde) it was fun to be a short haired blondie for a few months in the spring!

#6 — One Year of Davy Sleeping Weird |  Adding Davy to our family was an adventure in disrupting patterns. He has added just the right amount of chaos and joy into our lives, and we can’t imagine life without him!

#7 — Estes In August / God Sparing Estes from Fires  |  Our family trip to Estes this August was so lovely it got its own blog post, but to add to the joy of that memory, we now thank God that not too long after our trip, he spared the town and the cabin from Colorado wildfires. God truly and miraculously stopped the fires just outside town.

The photos below are from when I went hiking one of the last days of our trip with Kenton, my sister Sara, and her husband, David. In a weird turn of events, the hike we picked ended up being the exact area of the park that was burned by the fires. So I find it a measure of God’s kindness that before this spot of the park would fatefully face fire, we hiked here to drink in its beauty (and a beer or two), and document the lake before fires would soon reset the landscape to regrow (because I just happened to tote my camera along the on trip — which I rarely do when I hike a lot of miles).

#8 — Gitana Retired And I Was Inspired  |  If you’ve known me or looked through my website enough, you know I love horses. That love was passed down from my mom, who retired her hunter jumper Gitana this year to a very lovely life of living out the rest of her years with new horse and people friends at Autism Center Austin.  Shooting a memory session of her for my mom, I was inspired to finally add Equine Photography to my list of services!

#9 — A Team of Emily’s  |  If I shot your wedding with a 2nd shooter this year, you chuckled when I introduced you to her, because her name is also Emily. All last year I had prayed for a 2nd shooter like Emily, and in 2020, she was my ride or die for all weddings! Emily is incredibly fun, joyful, and talented, and working with her has been an actual dream come true! I am so grateful for her positivity, work ethic, and eye!

#10 — I discovered MILK make-up.  | At the beginning of the year I decide to go clean on make up, and after discovering MILK I’ll never go back. Not only is it clean, but so many of their products have become my absolute favorites, like the Holographic Stick, Matte Bronzer, and the Mascara — all of which I wear almost every day! (Also a big fan of the Drunk Elephant Sunshine Drops. You can read more about these products here.)

#11, A Bonus: — Love Where I’ve Been, Love Where I’m Going  | If after all this year has brought me in terms of changes and challenges with being self employed as a photographer, I can only say now that I am so grateful for my life and my job, and I could not be more excited about all that’s to come in 2021. With camera in hand, I’m ready to document more beauty, celebrate life and people, and point to the Lord in all I do!