Rocker 7 Farm Sunflowers

Hi there! If you are looking for a photographer for Rocker 7 Farm Patch in Buckeye. Arizona for October/November 2025, I am definitely available! Please feel free to CONTACT ME HERE!!

Or if you are interested in my sessions coming up this Fall/Winter 2025, CHECK MY BOOKING SITE HERE!

Rocker 7 Farm Patch, located at 19601 W Broadway Rd, Buckeye, AZ 85326 was the prettiest I had ever seen it on this Friday afternoon in October last year (2024.) The farmers who own Rocker 7 had planted sooooo many more flowers than in past years. Acres more. And they were absolutely gorgeous! And because it was a Friday the place was pretty quiet. I know it gets very lively/busy on the weekends, but pro tip: go on a Thursday or Friday to have the place largely to yourself! It’s so peaceful during the week.

I met up with my cousin K, her husband, and her kids - my little cousins pictured here. K and I live on opposite sides of the valley/metro Phoenix area so I only see her every once in a while. I wish we lived closer!

As I was looking at these photos of my cousins, I started getting curious about how we are related and went down some internet rabbit holes looking things up. I was specifically interested in finding out more about my grandmother Caroline’s mother. All I ever knew about her is that her name was Bessie Park and that she was from northeast Oklahoma. I decided to do the free Ancestry dotcom trial and found out when Bessie Park was born: January 18, 1883 in Oktaha Indian Territory, Oklahoma. I learned that she lost her mother when she was about 8 years old. I always wondered if she was from a native tribe. The one photo I have seen of her makes me think she might have been. Bessie had three children - Caroline, Donald, and Vivienne, but very sadly she passed away when they were still just little kids, with my grandmother Caroline being the oldest at about age 10.

So then I started looking up info about the Oktaha Indian Territory. It was a multicultural settlement within the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, just before Oklahoma became a state in 1907. The Muscogee (Creek) people were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in Alabama and Georgia during the 1830s as part of the Trail of Tears. They were displaced to so-called Indian Territory, including the area around Oktaha. The Creek nation was a Matrilineal Society meaning lineage and inheritance were traced through moms and grandmas. Around that time, native children were being forced to attend mission schools and boarding schools and were being kept from speaking their languages, erasing cultural identity.

I often wish I had just a few photographs of my grandmothers and great-grandmothers—and my grandfathers too. I know so few photos were taken back then, so having even one feels like a treasure. It makes me hope that the photos I take today might one day be seen by the descendants of the people in them—offering them a glimpse into their own history.

Oh how much my little cousins love each other!

I like using sunflowers to frame people. There are endless possibilities with this method!

My cousin and her family at Rocker 7 Farm Patch. We walked past the cotton field to this tall grass that was growing near the irrigation portal. It caught the setting sunlight in a beautiful way on this windy evening.

On Stage with Sunflowers

On Stage with Sunflowers!!! That is how I think of the very end of this photo session with Jessica and her daughters and husband at their sunset photo session at Sweet Flower Home in Buckeye, Arizona. I loved how the sky turned shades of pink and lavendar.

GO HERE TO FIND OUT ABOUT MY UPCOMING SUNFLOWER SESSIONS IN 2025!

Sunflowers at the blue hour—that magical time just after sunset when the sky turns a deep, velvety blue—are a breathtaking sight. Their golden petals, usually so bright and bold in the daylight, take on a softer, almost glowing quality against the cool tones of the evening sky.

A field of sunflowers, their faces still turned toward the last memory of the sun, silhouetted gently against a horizon that fades from indigo to sapphire. The air is calm, maybe carrying the scent of warm earth and the faint rustle of leaves. The contrast between the warm yellows and oranges of the flowers and the cool blues and purples of the sky creates a dreamy, cinematic palette—like nature’s own painting.

Photographers and painters absolutely love this moment because the light is diffuse and moody, casting soft shadows and enhancing textures. The sunflowers seem almost contemplative, as if pausing before nightfall.

Agritopia peach trees

GO HERE TO FIND OUT MY UPCOMING SUNFLOWER AND FALL PHOTO SESSIONS!

This is model and photographer Cheyenne at the peach tree orchard at Agritopia when it was in bloom on February 22, 2025.

The peach trees at Agritopia are in bloom in February and sometimes the very beginning of March.

Agritopia is a super fun location to visit in Gilbert, Arizona. There are multiple restaurants and a cute coffee house that have delicious food and drinks, little shops, a real working farm that grows and sells its produce, paths to walk around, garden plots to rent, huge trees, and picnic tables.

There is a citrus and peach orchard that is rented out to photographers a few times a year for about $100. If you want to be the first to learn about when their orchard permits go on sale, get on their email list. They usually make it available for three hours at either sunrise or sunset and only sell it to a few photographers, so while you sometimes have to work around other photographers and their clients, you usually have enough space.

Photo info: I shoot with a Canon 5D, 50mm1.2 and 24-70 mm 2.8 lenses. I edit with retouchup, Topaz, Evoto, and Greater Than Gatsby actions for Adobe Photoshop. I sometimes use a Godox flash and a gold or white reflector. I deliver images in a Shootproof gallery.