Monthly Archives: May 2015

There’s nothing better than enjoying the first evenings of summer together as a family:  running around, searching for treasures, laughing, hugging and making squish faces!

This is exactly the evenings I live for with my families… the only thing better is when we get to capture those moments so they might live on forever!

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing this extremely FUN family for a few years now!  In fact, this super gorgeous (inside AND outside) momma and I met through mutual friends before I even really picked up my camera!

She was there when I first became interested in photography for fun, she supported me with another girlfriend of ours as I was learning and growing, and she was one of the first amazing and brave women who trusted me and had faith in me to say I will gladly and boldly step in front of your camera when she was pregnant with her first daughter!

I owe her so much that words could never truly express!

When I found out she had moved back in town (and actually down the street) I literally jumped for joy!

There are so few really BRIGHT spirits left in this world and my friend here is one of those few!  She walks with light and grace!  You can’t help but feel your heart soar when you are around her!  This might sound corny or funny to those of you who haven’t met her yet, but I’m not even the least bit kidding when I say she is actually bathed in light and beauty!  When you are around her, you just see her radiate positivity and laughter!  You find yourself laughing and feel light hearted!

You cares go out the window and you just feel at peace and at ease.  Her souther charms win you over and you just want to smile and be happy and be good and be wild and free!

Her husband is the same way friends!  He is fun and he is funny!  I love his stories and I find myself actually being quiet around him!

That probably shocked you right there right?!  We all know I’m a talker!  I just can’t wait to hear the next story!!  They are a dynamic duo together and I love being around them!

Their little one is the same way.  She is smart as a whip and she is kind and sweet!  She is the kind of girl that is a sweetheart and also a firecracker!  In my mind, that is the absolute best combination!

I love to watch them parent because I feel like I learn so much!

Fun Outdoors Virginia Beach Family Maternity Session

We rode all together to one of my favorite local spots!  Its a bit beachy and a bit marshy!  It’s also a great place for little ones because they can run and be free without really having to worry to much about straying too far!  There’s lots to explore and treasures to find and in the meantime we can chat and catch up!

This picture above is one of my most favorites from our time and I will always make sure to capture images like this one!  There is nothing more like childhood than running bare foot with the wind in your hair!  When do we forget how do be so free at heart?  When do we forget how to love with passion for everything we do?  There is nothing like the beauty of a wild heart full of live and breath and passion!!!

This little family loves so freely and so fiercely!  They laugh with wild abandon and love with open hearts!

Enjoy some of my favorites form our walk together!!

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How perfect when you’re sitting in a field that’s scattered with buttercups to teach this gorgeous girl the buttercup game?!  Did you guys ever do this?  “Do YOU love butter?!  I do, so clearly I loved this game… and so did she!!!

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And every daddy needs a black and white!!!

We then moved on to the BEST photo of the evening in my opinion!  SQUISH FACE!!!!!

This makes me giggle EVERY TIME I SEE IT!

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Aren’t they all super stunning?!

Family evenings like this are the best.. when you can just spend time with your family laughing, searching and loving each other!  This was extra special because their little family of 3 is about to be a family of 4 with a new baby sister soon to arrive!

What better way to celebrate all that love that documenting how excited they all are!  They will be able to share that love and excitement and show this new little girl how much she was loved and wanted even before she was held in their arms!

What a precious gift!!!

Happy Thursday Everyone!

This morning, I had an entirely different post scheduled!  I was going to share a gorgeous family session that brings a smile to my face and makes me laugh out loud… like really loud!

Instead, I’m going to share that session with you tomorrow!

I woke up this morning and received a text… well we’d been already texting this morning super early!  That’s what BFF’s do… you just understand that a text at 7 am is OK!

This particular text in a series of “we share the same brain” texts, made me stop in my tracks… “DUDE, I just published something raw and scary!”

I immediately tuned my world out and pulled up her blog on my phone!  She wasn’t kidding, my friend who is soft spoken and often doesn’t usually spill her guts out onto screen did just that!

She poured her heart out about WHY photography means so incredibly much to hear and she does so with such grace and poise!  She made my eyes well with tears because her story reminds us all that although our stories are different and we come from different backgrounds we are still connected by something so powerful… the need to hold on and remember the ways we love and have been loved!

So this morning… if you have a moment, I encourage you to read her post!

It’s so beautifully written and talks about HER story!  HER why beginning with her family and how they have inspired her to capture love and moments of love in photographs!

It’s about so much more than photography though friends:  It’s about marriage, it’s about love and hard work and it’s about holding on to something greater than ourselves!

Check it out!

HER WHY!!!

 

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Happy Tuesday Friends, even though it feels like a Monday right!

I hope everyone had a very wonderful, and very long weekend!  I hope you got some rest, caught up on some family time or time with those you loved and re-feuled your heart for the weeks ahead!

That’s exactly what we did over here!  That’s also why it’s Tuesday NIGHT that I’m posting instead of Tuesday MORNING!

Some times you just have to live and enjoy life.. and so that’s what this post is all about!  Yes… it’s a weekend re-cap, because let me be completely honest here:  this blog post is the one blog post during the week where I feel like I get to just CHAT with ya’ll!  It’s like a legit conversation that each of us could be having one on one with each other at a starbucks in the morning, or at a deli for lunch (for me I would love to go out to sushi with you!) or tonight rather because it is the evening.. maybe over a coke (because we know I love it) and some hummus and tzatiki!   I do have some fresh that my neighbor growing up dropped off to my momma and me last night!

It’s a chance that I get to really connect with you on a super basic level.. Hi, I’m Brooke and here is my life and this is what we did this weekend!  I’m not necessarily a photographer in these posts!  I’m just me:  a mom, a wife, a lover of Christ!  Ha that rhymed!  I’m the same clutzy awkward girl I’ve always been who is a slight homebody and enjoys soaking up the days with my family doing anything and everything we can do as long as it’s together!

I’m also the girl that loves a good LONG story and a good, long winded chat!

So while I love these posts for that reason alone and I want to do that with you tonight;  I also really gained a lot from this weekend and I want to share that with you too!

so.. let’s just Do This Thing (said in the voice of Linguine from Ratatouille)

What DID we do this weekend… a whole lot of swimming in our pool!  Yep.. we swam, we ate outside, we swam some more!  We loaded ourselves with sunscreen so we looked like little zombies and we just played!

We also..

  • Took Linc to see the Grave Digger before a super fun birthday party on Saturday!  Little bit of mom facts for ya on this one!  Don’t ever SAY you are going to the grave digger and digger’s dungeon if you don’t plan to stay longer than 10 minutes!  We were running late (of course)  and our party started at 1.  I actually wanted to get there kind of on time and the Digger was farther than I originally thought.  I made my boys promise (duh mom mistake number one) to only spend like 15 minutes at the Digger.  EPIC FAIL MOMMY!  MELT DOWN CITY!  I seriously think someone might have called social services on us because it may have looked like we stole Linc and he was not our child!  He was sooo upset that it was like a straight jacket melt down moment in the car on the 15 minute drive back to the party!  I had to sit in the back to make sure he wasn’t houdining out of his car seat!  We couldn’t even understand him… something about listening and the digger and tires!  WOAH!
  • Linc’s friend Brody’s birthday party.. EPIC AWESOMENESS!  Mommy moment here too:  bounce houses cure all tantrums!  As soon as we pulled up to the neighborhood you could see the bounce house and all of a sudden the tears and grumpiness lifted as Linc went.. meeeehhhhh BOUNCE HOUSE?!  Emphasis happy inflection in his voice on the last two words!  It was a choose your own super hero identity party and it was awesome!  Linc’s been running around the house since then in his spidey cape and mask saving the world, and Tipper (who sometimes I guess might even be the villian!)
  • I actually got to read some of my book!  That is a mommy win!  I”m reading “If you find this letter” and it’s AMAZING!  I have a passion for writing and if you are like me, you need to RUN to your bookstore, or kindle and get this book immediately!  I am inspired to start writing hand written notes again and spread love and encouraging words to everyone I met!  You will be too…

Here’s where my learning moments came in this weekend…

There are so many opportunities that we are given to just appreciate all we have through the wonderful and the challenging!  As women especially there are so many opportunities we have to lift one another up and encourage and support one another with just one simple kind word!

Sometimes that is all it takes for ANY of us:  to know that we matter, that we exist and are seen (as Hannah puts it in this book of hers).

We all want to feel connected, that’s just human nature!

What happened to going out of our way and thinking of others before our selves?!  That type of mind set and culture is a way of an older day and we need (and I say need boldly for a purpose) to bring that back friends!

This world we live in today is a crazy one!  It is filled with so much chatter and so many places where we can’t always escape that chatter!

Let’s get together and start making sure that when we are speaking to those we love, those around us and sometimes those we even just pass by… that we can be that chatter or that voice for just a second of the day to speak something positive, bright or happy!

Do a good deed for someone just because you can!  Speak a kind word to someone because you can and it feels good!

Do it because YES we ARE all connected…

There is something greater than us friends!

I want to be that helping hand always out in offer!  I realized there is a part of me in this photography world that goes back and forth with some things and it is because I have this deep love for people!  That is to be celebrated… and I want to bring that to MORE people!

I want to leave love letters like Hannah did… but maybe I will do in the way of a photograph!~

So you know what.. here it goes.. if you have made it this far in this post!  If you have stuck with me this long!  THIS is my promise to you… just like in her book “If you find this letter”

I promise that if you need a love letter… if you need encouragement… I will write you a letter!  Not only that.. I will tangibly give you something to hold on to like I held during the days of deployment!

I will send you an image.. a bright image within a love letter!

Something to remind you that we are all here together!  That we are all connected that we all need the same things!  We all need love and support and encouragement!  We all need light and laughter!  More importantly, we all just need to know that there are others like us out here in this world!

Will you join me?  Do you need a letter?

Send an e mail Brooketuckerphoto@gmail.com

 

  • May 28, 2015 - 10:51 am

    April Williams - So great. So true. I get and give handwritten notes frequently and looove it. I am glad I happen to have friends where that is not a total lost form of communication 🙂ReplyCancel