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Tag: outdoor
Tahoe City Snow
I’m a sucker for Lake Tahoe. Give me a view of the lake and I’m a happy camper. Not so much a “camper” in January after several feet of snow, but very happy to stay at the awesome Basecamp Hotel. The hubbs wants to go snow camping someday, but for now I will enjoy hot cocoa by the fire in the cozy (and well decorated) lodge.
After dumping snow for days, there was a perfectly clear day begging us to go exploring. We happened upon this amazing meadow of freshly fallen snow that had a perfect foot path carved out for us. This area is for cross-country skiing and also has a little trail around the perimeter for us walkers (not to be confused with TWD...sorry just watched the new episode)!
Anywho, I thought I would share a few pics from our little snow trip, just like I did last year…maybe this will become a tradition!
I’d love to hear from you! Comment here or head over to my website for much, much more!
xoxoxox ~Julie
Lake Tahoe-South Shore Wedding
I love Lake Tahoe weddings! This was a south shore wedding at the Beach Retreat & Lodge taken along side my buddy Josh of Josh Gatlin Photography. I think these photos speak for themselves as to what a great lake front spot this is! It was a gorgeous day in Tahoe, and everyone had such a great time. Sneaking away with Kristin and Chase to walk out to the end of the pier was the icing on the cake and these two had no trouble creating chemistry for the photos…i’m not sure if they even noticed we were there!
We finished just in time…the wildfire smoke was coming over the mountains.
As you can see in the last photos, the smoke from wildfires started creeping in on the lake as we were finishing up the bride and groom portraits out on the peer. There were many firefighting crews from all over California coming to fight the blaze. These two sisters and their dad took time to thank the fire crews for all their hard work! It was really a cool thing to see. We all love Lake Tahoe and are thankful for those who protect it!
xoxoxox ~ Julie
Year in Review: 2016
Happy New Year! 2016 was a bit of a whirlwind for me (being extremely busy and personally challenging) but when I look back at some of my favorite 2016 photos, I can’t help but to be excited about the joy and love that I captured for my clients. And I must say, I have amazing clients! Each one is special to me and I’m lucky to have met everyone I did in 2016, as well as photographing those that I have known for years.
Speaking of being busy…I still have folders of photos patiently waiting to be put up on the blog. I was going to pick a couple of favorites from 2016 and show them here, however, it’s slightly difficult to choose a few photos from 55 folders! Instead I decided to recap the holiday family sessions using Blogstomp (a really cool tool for resizing photos to share on various social media platforms). Enjoy!
Here’s to a wonderful 2017!!!
I hope you liked a little preview of my 2016 holiday photo sessions! To see more of my work go to the Jewel Photography website. It’s never to early to think about family sessions, so drop me an email if you would like to set something up.
I’m also booking weddings for 2017, so feel free to fill out the contact form on my website so we can chat about your wedding photography!
xoxoxo ~Julie
Glamping it up at Soul Food Farm
Elisa and Truman were heading into the valley from San Francisco. I was looking forward to meeting up with them at Soul Food Farm, just 40 minutes west of Sacramento. I was eager to check out this spot, with reservations available on hipcamp (aka: glamping), antiques, chickens, farm fresh eggs, an olive grove, and flower gardens galore. Just being surrounded by the golden hills covered in oak trees sounds like a good time to me, but now I know there is a lot more to this little farm than meets the eye. I will share more from Elisa and Truman’s photo session later, but for now I am going to give you guys a little glimpse of what it was like to explore the grounds of Soul Food Farm.
First off, I was greeted by the owner Alexis, and I wish I had watched this YouTube video of her Ted Talk before I went! This is a wonderful story about her dream to be a farmer. If you have ever farmed, or grew up on a farm, it is definitely something that lives in your soul. And now I know why it is so aptly named Soul Food Farm. Their story, The dirt beneath my feet, can be read about here.
I’m pretty sure these photos speak for themselves, but one of the first things I noticed was the truck “garden” bed. Have an old truck laying around? Put it to use! Now i’m thinking I need to turn every available spot into a garden. They have the prettiest lavender growing and an amazing field of flowers, which they sell for bouquets and flower arrangements. I will definitely need to remember to stop here when i’m in the neighborhood to get some farm fresh eggs.
We had such a relaxing little adventure, I don’t think Elisa and Truman minded their picture being taken at all! Congrats to this beautiful couple and thanks for choosing me to take your photos and see Soul Food Farm!
xoxoxox~ Julie
Check out my website for more photos and testimonials!
Loomis country engagement
There’s probably nothing more comfortable than your home. And these two made me feel right at home as soon as I showed up to take their photos. Nicholas and Breeanne’s engagement photos are special because they take place where the wedding will be held in Loomis, CA. This is the property of the bride’s parents, and also where they were married long ago. I think it is so sweet to get married in the same place your parents were, and take formal photos where they did as well. What a special tribute to love!
This property is so beautiful, and at this time of year full of wildflowers and lush greenery. We decided to go off to some remote areas that we will probably not be able to get to during the wedding. This was fun and I can see why these two are a couple, they have great chemistry and are constantly smiling at each other. I’m so excited for the wedding!
The property was full of huge boulders…who wouldn’t want hiking in their own backyard!
A meadow of purple wildflowers? Yes please!
Of course we had to take photos on the rusty old tractor! My family actually had one of these on our little farm growing up.
This wedding is going to be so beautiful…I can’t wait!
Want to see more of my photos? Check them out HERE 🙂
Until next time! xoxoxox~Julie
Where to find California wildflowers
This spring has kept me busy! From engagements, to high school senior portraits…this beautiful weather and rain have made for some colorful photos. I love finding new spots around the American River, there are so many great paths to take. Here are a few shots of wildflowers I grabbed during recent escapades. So far I have managed to avoid ticks, mosquitos, and snakes. Knock on wood! I won’t be leaving my bug spray home quite yet. I am really thankful for my clients that trust me to take them out on little mini adventures. I can’t wait to blog about more photo shoots and weddings (past, present, and future!)…stay tuned!
This is a path at the Effie Yeaw nature center. What a great place, I highly recommend visiting this state park, especially with kiddos, there is so much wildlife to see!
I wish I could identify some of these wildflowers! If only I wasn’t so busy being a photographer, I could go back to my botany roots and try to remember some of these flower names, or at least bring a California native book along with me!
Sometimes I get to bring a little helper along too. Which is kinda nice 🙂 These photos are taken along the American River near Sacramento State University, where I just happened to graduate from. It was such a fun place for the family to run around and for us to get some great senior portraits. This senior happens to be Argia’s cousin. Alyssa is off to UCSB…exciting!
This photo was taken on the way up to Foresthill, CA. I was shooting an engagement session at the Forest House Lodge and had to stop several times because the drive was so beautiful and they had convenient little turn outs. (You can see those engagement photos here.) Anyway, at this elevation the lupine looks a bit different, so once again, I needed my CA native plant book with me! Silver tip bush lupine? Maybe…
If you have any fun spots you would like to take photos at, let me know! I love new locations (and hunting for wildflowers)!
Check out my BLOG and more of my work HERE
Or just contact me at jewelphotographysacramento@gmail.com!
xoxoxox~Julie
Foresthill Engagement…Staci & Shane
Not too long ago, I drove up to the beautiful town of Foresthill to meet up with Staci and Shane. They thought it would be fun to come up to their wedding cite, the Grand Sierra Pointe at Forest House Lodge to take some engagement photos, and I loved the idea. We got to do a lot more exploring than we will be able to on the wedding day, so it was nice to take a look at the area surrounding the ceremony location. This place has the most awesome views!
The drive up was so nice…on the way back, I just had to stop at the viewpoints to snap some photos of wildflowers that I caught a glimpse of on the way up.
I am excited to see these two again at their Forest House wedding! It will be here before we know it!
Till next time…check out my website HERE!
Feel free to follow me on Instagram! And Twitter! And Facebook!
xoxoxo~ Julie
Apple Hill! Camino, CA Summer Wedding
I admit it, I am a little behind in blogging weddings! It is not summer, it is winter. But you know, a girl gets busy and blogging gets put to the bottom of the to-do list. So here is a summer wedding to warm you up, since it is cold and rainy here in Northern California. And yay for rain and snow! Keep it coming, we don’t like this horrible drought.
There is not much I love more than the mountains, so this wedding was in the perfect foothill location in Camino, CA…right in our very own Apple Hill. Most people know this area for it’s apple pies, like mama Vicky makes at Apple Pantry Farm, which we passed on the way there. The wedding was at a private residence, which was surrounded by wooded areas and amazing greenery. When your neighbor has a Christmas tree farm, you can consider yourself pretty lucky!
This wedding was a group of friends that we had already photographed weddings for, so it was nice to see familiar people and catch up since we last saw them. I had trouble picking photos for this blog…the people were awesome and the scenery was pretty great too.
Instead of regular seating for the ceremony, they gathered a bunch of quilts and spread them over the grassy hill. It made the ceremony very casual and unique.
It was a beautiful and emotional wedding ceremony and I could see that afterwards, everyone was ready to party celebrate! 😉
This wedding was one where the toasts stood out to me. You didn’t need to be an insider to see how strong these friendships are…they all had me tearing up!
Here’s to many more years of celebrating for these friends and families. I wish them the best.
To see more of this and other weddings, please visit my website…HERE!
Northern California Snow!
On Valentine’s day, our little family decided to go up to the snow for the day. I had a few spots in mind for taking photos. One of them was Donner Summit Tunnel…except we played a little too hard the first half of the day and our 5 year old fell asleep before we could get to the tunnel. I wanted to set up a tripod and take a romantic little photo of me and my husband in the snow for V-day, but we didn’t quite get to that part! I did take some other photos that I thought everyone would enjoy. We love our little family road trips and feel very lucky to live in such a beautiful place as Northern California.
To see more of my photos, click here.
To schedule a snow session, click here!
xoxo
Julie 🙂
Jewel Photography 