My Mommy Style Spotlight: McKenzie Deakins

We had such a lovely time sitting down with McKenzie. She is a knock-your-socks-off kind of gal, the kind that is so comfortable in her skin that you can’t help but be comfortable in your own. I love that she is unabashedly complimentary, a close talker, and happy beyond reason. She is beautiful inside and out as you can plainly see.

On top of all of this she is an extremely talented photographer and you can gladly stalk her on her instagram as she is bound to bring a smile to your face often.

I am lucky.
I’m incredibly lucky to have my talent and my passion also make money.
I am lucky.
I’m incredibly lucky to be a Mom of two energetic and hilarious kids.
These two roles (photographer and Mom), are HUGE parts of my life. Finding the balance between the two has taken years to master. And most of the time I feel like I’m treading water. I’ve found that it’s okay to fail. Some days I need a break from both roles and decide to binge watch Netflix and devour an obscene amount of caramel popcorn. Other days I’m a rockstar in the kitchen, carpool queen, and photographer extraordinaire. Seeing the bigger picture always keeps me going. My kids see a strong, hard working, and silly Mom and simultaneously I’m making money to support the family. I’m a lucky one. Yep!

Here are some tips and tricks to make a cute last minute Holiday card.

For my Christmas card, I decided to use non traditional colors by pairing robins egg blue with red. Because this color combo is such a statement, I kept our clothing and the lighting simplistic. I shot these photos in my home office using a flash fired remotely through an umbrella.

I saw the Santa beard and Rudolph photo booth props on Pinterest and decided to make some of my own. You probably didn’t notice at first, but my little boy, Harrison, is sticking his tongue out of the Santa beard. That’s a downfall with being the parent AND photographer. No respect! Little kids always do as I ask… But not when I have the title of being MOM as well.

We decided to take these shots individually for a couple of reasons… first, because I wanted it to feel like a photo booth, secondly, I was able to take them all myself, minus the one of me, obviously.