I met four amazing ladies a few weeks ago, and they gave me a precious, precious gift. It’s one that’s rare in today’s world, not easily come by, and cannot be manufactured: a gift of support, encouragement, community, and lastly… so many beautiful portraits of me. (Mostly because of their amazing skill and not so much because of me as a model.) You’ll be seeing the headshots of me around instagram in the weeks and months to come!!

These four ladies are also fellow Oklahoma photographers. We met up in Oklahoma City, in the Myriad Gardens on a cool Saturday afternoon to take headshots of one another. Even though the sun was shining, the shadows were pretty cold. I have many images of Maggie covering her nose to keep it from turning pink. (I won’t show them here, but they still make me laugh!) I can’t believe I wore a dress and no, I didn’t bring a coat!

…something none of us expected.

The one thing we all enjoyed about photographing other photographers is that we could spend more time exploring and focusing on different ways of photographing than we could if we were doing a session for a client. The experience ended up also being a hands-on-educational experience too, something that none of us expected.

What started as a simple means to create marketable images for one-anther turned into amazing friendships that will be continued and cherished for years and years. We spent about four hours pairing up, walking, and posing all over the huge park that is downtown OKC. After the sun set, we all walked to a nearby barbecue place that Alexis and her husband knew of; we worked up such an appetite! We intended to talk shop over dinner, however, we ended sharing stories of our selves and our families and ultimately becoming friends. True community over competition is hard to come by; when you find it, hold on tight.

Meet Michelle!

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Meet Alexis!

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Meet Maggie!