Agritopia Orchard

I first met Erin at an ultimate frisbee game at a park in Tempe. She was there to watch her boyfriend Ryan play ultimate and I was there to watch my boyfriend Ryan play ultimate. It was soon after my spinal fusion surgery, when I couldn’t play ultimate. (Thankfully my spine got much better after surgery and I eventually was able to play my beloved sport again.) I had a really good time chatting with her and getting to know her!

Fast forward some years later and Erin and Ryan are married with two little kids!

We met up at Agritopia at the peach and citrus orchards for some holiday photos. I loved how their family portraits turned out!

If you want photos at Agritopia, reach out to me on my contact page here. The Agritopia orchards have very limited availability (more limited than it used to be) so if you are interested, we have to sign up right when spots become available. Usually there are some spots in September, October, and November and some very limited spots available when the peach trees are in bloom in early February.

Agritopia sunflowers

I met up with Alice and her Little Sister Lila at the gorgeous sunflower fields at Agritopia one early evening in late July, after Arizona got a ton of summer rain. I know Alice from playing ultimate frisbee at local pick up games. It was the first time I had met Lila, but now I follow her on social media and know that she does roller derby (which seems very cool to me!)

We were warned to be careful because the farm fields were flooded and muddy due to recent monsoon storms. If you scroll down a little you will see Sarah, who I think is a farm manager at Agritopia, holding a huge bouquet of sunflowers that she had just cut. She shared all those gorgeous sunflowers with Alice and Lila and me.

Thanks for meeting up with me for sunflower photos, Alice and Lila!

Want sunflower photos for yourself? I am always on the look out for sunflower fields, and right now I have sessions available in October 2022 at Rocker 7 Farm Patch in Buckeye, Arizona. More info about that here: SUNFLOWER PHOTOS AT ROCKER 7 FARM.

Photography equipment used:

Canon 5D, Canon 1.2 prime lens, 43 inch gold reflector, Adobe Photoshop for editing.

Are you looking for a photographer so that you can get photos at Agritopia? All year long photographers and their clients can walk around Agritopia to get photos, after buying a location permit. Agritopia also gives photographers a chance to purchase permits to photograph in their peach orchards. Those are usually available in September, October, and November and sometimes in the spring. Permits for the pink peach blossoms are available in February. Some years permits are available for the sunflower fields.

Fill out this form if you would like me to photograph you at Agritopia!

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!