Introducing Spokesmodel Eli//An Arizona Dance Session

THE INSPIRATION

When 2019 started, we decided to focus on sessions designed around who the child is and what they love. It was only natural that we start with our 2019 Spokesmodel team.

Last fall we offered Dance Powder sessions for the first time ever resulting in one of my favorite images ever, starring this sweet girl. The power of her hair flip, her grin, her love for dance, all shining through in a single image. We wanted to take this passion out into nature to see what we could create.

THE SESSION

You might see a beautiful sunset and a sweet dancer in a gorgeous setting when you look at these pictures, but I see so much dedication, hard work and time captured here.

I see

.... a young girl crafting her skills in the world of dance. Passionate about what she does, putting in hours and sweat equity so she's strong enough to do an elbow stand ON ROCKS on a slant. 

... her dance studio OWNER who gave up a Friday night that she could have spent on so many many other things to spend it with a student and ensure that she is the best she can be (and to spot her on these ROCKS, that she's doing an elbow stand on)

.... all the years, late nights, practice, failures, successes working on my craft, building my business and trying to connect with amazing small business like Rhythm & Motion Dance Center and that studio owner who is dedicated enough to come and spot her student doing a elbow stand ON ROCKS. 

THE REVIEW

Capturing the talents of a young dancer in the uncontrolled environment of nature takes time, patience and focus. The unstable footing creates difficult balancing situations for the dancer and we are so impressed with how well Eli did on her feet.. or her elbows!

“I love how Nakupenda Photography captured her beauty, gracefulness, and innocence among breathtaking backdrops and tricky terrains” - Ali Batencourt

Want to see more of our creative sessions? Click here to check out a wildflower session from last year!

Simply Sweet Cake Smash//Arizona Child Photographer

THE INSPIRATION

Sweet baby C has been a huge inspiration to us over the last year and half. We absolutely love her parents and have treasured every minute of the joyous journey through her momma’s pregnancy, her birth, her milestones and now her first birthday celebration! C came all the way from Texas to see us for her birthday and we originally wanted to do an outdoor desert session to celebrate her family’s Arizona roots. However, the week they were in town we had freezing temperatures (which was so unexpected!) and pouring rain (what??) the day of her session. So we decided to take her simply styled session indoors to a local studio. We loved the plain white brick wall ad the blush pink colors and felt it was a perfect compliment to sweet C’s personality.

THE SESSION

Cake smashes are always a favorite for us. We love the wonderment of exploration and discovery at this age. Will they like the decor, the cake, or the bubble bath the most? To our (not so great) surprise, C was actually the most excited about all the attention from Dad as he monkeyed around trying to convince her to treat us to one of her rare and beautiful smiles.

THE REVIEW

We have fallen in love with our portrait, smash, bath time set up for our 1 year Birthday pictures. It allows us to capture the sweetness, personality and fun of each little one all while keeping them interested and engaged! We are so excited to be offering these sessions in our new studio beginning in February!

Check out what C’s mom had to say about our session.

“Loved our cake smash session with Katie. She made sure our daughter was warm and comfortable at all times and the session was the perfect length for a one year old! We are in love with the photos- she managed to capture several sweet smiles from our stoic picture-taker. Highly recommend! “

Want to see more of our cake smash sessions? Click here to check out our one of our favorite cake smashes featuring our carousel horse.