Summer is in full swing over here in Northeast Tennessee and I am absolutely loving it! It has me reminiscing back on this beautiful styled shoot that I was able to organize with some of the best wedding vendors here in Johnson City, Tennessee!

Full transparency— last year, I felt myself feeling quite burnt out. It comes and goes in waves and usually when creatives are stressed out or doing things repetitively. To help fight the burnout and increase creativity, photographers will often try to get out of their normal rhythm and will shoot something for themselves or start personal projects. For me, I had never set up my own styled shoot— I had only attended ones organized and created by others. This was definitely a bit out of my comfort zone, but was such a fun experience!

Coco and Sam were married on one of the most beautiful Summer days at one of my favorite venues in East Tennessee, The Waterstone! It might have been slightly warm and humid, but at least we made it through without any rain— and I’ll take that! They had originally planned to get married the first week of June, but like many couples, had to reschedule to late July thanks to the Covid pandemic and state regulations. Thankfully, orders lifted little by little and along with precautions, we were all able to gather and celebrate their amazing day!

I’m a part of a wonderful local networking group full of creative entrepreneurs called TuesdaysTogether! Thanks to our community, I was lucky to meet Tricia Mosier of Elizabeth Dean Styled Events, who invited me to take part in a one-of-a-kind styled shoot that she was putting together! We all gathered at the beautiful Homestead on the Holston, a historic cabin venue with lots of land next to the north fork of the Holston River, and photographed the set ups that Tricia had designed— a “Notebook” canoe, a picnic blanket dinner, a bridal chair, and a bohemian tee pee complete with hanging cake display! Definitely a shoot for the record books and one you won’t want to miss!

I met up with Whitney at Watauga Lake on a warm Tuesday evening! We walked around the lake and took photos in a gorgeous meadow where the sun had been filtering through the trees. From there, we made it over to the shore where the sun had been setting over the mountains. I had a blast getting to know Whitney and taking her portraits! She is such a sweetheart and has a love for adventure. I'm so glad that she reached out to me and was able to model!