Rocker 7 Farm Patch Sunflower Portraits

FILL OUT THIS FORM IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BEING NOTIFIED WHEN FALL 2022 SUNFLOWER SHOOTS ARE ANNOUNCED! (Click Sunflowers for sunflower shoot info or Other photo shoot if you are interested in something else.)

Rocker 7 Farm Patch is a magical place - acres of sunflowers under wide open skies with the Estrella and White Tank Mountains in the distance. You drive out into the country and down a dirt road to the parking lot of the farm. Admission is only $6 and then there are acres of sunflowers, a pumpkin patch, and fields of cotton and maize to wander through.

I’ve now photographed at Rocker 7 Farm Patch for two years in a row, in Fall 2020 and Fall 2021 and I plan to photograph there this October and November in 2022 when the sunflowers are in bloom.

This family was a delight to photograph and I love how their images turned out. Something to know about these photos as you scroll through is that most of them actually had people in the backgrounds. I photoshopped the people out of the images. If you are wanting to experience the sunflowers with less crowds, I recommend going on a Thursday or Friday. When I went on those days, we pretty much had the place to ourselves!

Salt River Portraits

My sister and I photographed Nancy and Kevin and their daughter at the Salt River before they welcome their brand new baby. Nancy and her family live in our neighborhood, just a 5-10 minute walk away. I’m so glad we are neighbors!

The Salt River has always been one of my favorite places to go for all sorts of recreation - I love going stand up paddle boarding, getting to see the wild Salt River horses, going out there for picnics and just to sit by the water, I love tubing down the Salt River and I’ve been biking out there. My absolute favorite thing to do is to go out there and watch meteor showers. Darker skies = seeing more falling stars!

But something I’d never done, and been wanting to do for quite a while, was do a photo shoot at the Salt River. I’d love to do another one. Something we learned is that it’s pretty busy at the river, week days might be less crowded than a Sunday afternoon. I photoshopped a lot of people out of their images. I’d rather make it so that clients have a more peaceful experience and find a quieter time to go.

We met up at Phon D Sutton and then just before the sun set, we headed to Granite Reef. Phon D Sutton was beautiful, but I’d really like to go back to Granite Reef. I feel like it has a lot of potential.

Are you looking for a Salt River photographer? Let’s chat! Here’s where to find more info and message me!

Big sister to be!

To a little brother!

Justine's Family

Here are some of the family portraits I took for Justine and her family at Veterans Oasis Park in Chandler, Arizona. Veterans Oasis Park is a gorgeous location and a pretty perfect place for family photos - there’s a little of everything: meadow areas, cottonwood trees, lakes, picnic pavilions, a flowing spring with gorgeous desert trees, citrus and fruit trees, lots of paths to meander down, little cottontail rabbits all over the place. I highly recommend visiting this absolute gem of a park!

Justine is part of the group Desert Bloom Multiples - which describes itself as “an inclusive support group for parents and caregivers of multiples (twins, triplets, and higher order multiples). We accept and embrace members of every age, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and nationality.” The group is in the East Valley and welcomes anyone in the Valley/Phoenix metro area. They seem like an extremely fun group; they get together and do lots of activities! If I had twins, I would definitely join them so I could be a part of all their social activities!

I created mini sessions portraits for ten Desert Bloom Multiples families in one weekend in March. Justine and her family were my last family to photograph, so I had a little extra time with them at sunset and we were able to get a variety of photos in different locations.

I loved how these family portraits turned out!

Are you looking for a family photographer? Click here: Brenda Eden Photography for more info!

Or send me a message here:

Now I am going to add a carousel gallery of the photos, some from above, and some extra, just so that if you are reading this, you can see more of my work!

Carly at the Valley of the Sunflowers

This is Carly and her daughter at the Valley of the Sunflowers in downtown Phoenix. I organized a picnic at the VOS and told folks that they could stop by and get sunflower photos before the picnic, if they wanted.

This was back in the spring of 2012 and I was taking a break from wedding and portrait photography, but I was still doing personal photography projects and charity event photography.

I had recently downloaded the program Exposure Software. Exposure describes itself as “the image editor designed for the art of photography.” It gives you the ability to make your digital images look like film. At the time, I was really enchanted with the creamy pink way some film looks. I played around with the Portra filter and some other filters to give my images a creamy pink look. I was very influenced by the work of Elizabeth Messina Photography, who uses film and medium format cameras.

So you will see that in the way I edited these images (especially that last image.)

I gave these images to Carly and she gave me a gift certificate to her restaurant, Carly’s Bistro in Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix. I took a friend there and ordered tasty food and absinthe for my drink and found out that absinthe makes me feel sick, but it was fun to see what the folks in Paris liked to drink in cafes in the 1860s. I had been to Carly’s a few times before and I knew that I loved the place, so to be able to take a friend and get whatever I wanted to eat and drink was super fun.

I’m doing portrait sessions amongst sunflowers at the Rocker 7 Farm Patch in Buckeye this month. I will be editing them with my bright and vibrant style - not with this film style. If you would like photos of yourself amongst sunflowers, click on this link for more information.