I have my real Dad. I have my Step-Dad, I have my Father-in-Law… and I have my “2nd Dad”.  These men have all been a huge part of my life and have helped mold me into the girl I am today.

They happily lend their shoulder to me when I need to cry. Then they hug me tight and tell me everything is going to be okay. They support me & love me no matter what. They teach me all kinds of things,  and they all have my back. 100%.

So, this post is dedicated to these special men in my life, and to all your Dad’s too. Whether they are here with you now, or looking down on you from above… let’s celebrate our amazing Dad’s.

Dad.

I was 7. I would call you at work and beg you to leave early to play barbies with me, because you were the only one I liked playing with. You did. And I will always cherish those nights you would surprise me by coming home early & in full barbie-playing mode. Thanks for pretending you liked it. You made my little heart so happy.

Thanks for coming home on my 9th birthday with a pink convertible. That was one of the best perks of your job as a car salesman in my opinion… always coming home with a cool new car. But it takes a real man to be able to proudly pull up in a pink convertible. I mean, once you have your daughter in the passenger seat laughing and screaming with the wind blowing in her hair, I’m sure you were cool with it. But that drive home alone had to be kind of awkward. So, thanks for that…

I love you Dad.

Lee.

It takes an amazing man to do what you did.

To come into our family and put up with 4 crazy kids. Like… craazzzzy kids. It’s rough when you are little to have a new man in the house, and we did not make it easy on you. But you love my mom so much that you put up with us, and loved all of us regardless of how we treated you. I appreciate you so much and love you like crazy. You are the best Step-dad I could ever ask for. You never wanted to replace my Dad, you just wanted a place in our lives as our loving step-dad. You got it. We all love you and respect you tremendously, and are so proud to have you in our lives. Thanks for teaching me how to shoot guns. Thanks for letting me pull donuts in the church parking lot when it was super icy for my “ice driving practice” after I had just gotten my license. Thanks for trusting me to drive your precious corvette all by myself, and encouraging me to floor it. Probably not the smartest idea… so I know that’s love.

Jeff.

You started out as my business coach and then invited me into your life as an adopted daughter.

I shot your beautiful daughters wedding (Holly, I love you), and loved getting to know your whole family. We’ve all become so close and I can’t thank you enough for everything you have done for me.

You are the best “2nd Dad” ever. Thanks for all our fun memories… Basketball games with David, road tripping from Big Sky to Billings, Photography conventions in Vegas, all our talks and all the constant support & motivation you give me.

You have believed in my photography dreams from day one. Sometimes, that’s what a girl needs most in her life to keep her strong… someone who believes in her!

Love you, man.

Kevin.

You are an amazing Father-in-Law.

Thanks for teaching me to Fly Fish, thanks for giving Matt his adventurous spirit, and thanks for letting me live in your house with my smelly ferret when I first moved to Montana. Also… thanks for buying me a new ferret after Matt killed my other one. T

hanks for taking me and my 3 best friends all over Yellowstone National Park when we visited Montana for the first time. Three crazy 15 year old girls… that had to be rough.

Love you, KT.

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dad’s out there.

That is one of the first things Chandler asked me on the phone… my answer? “HECK YES!”

I wondered how & where we would find snow to ride in the summer, but her Dad, Sam said we would go the the Beartooth Pass, and it would be AWESOME. He was so right.

We drove all the way there, and the Wyoming side was closed, which meant we had to hike instead of taking the easy way (the T-bar life). We shrugged, but knew we had to do it.

So we hiked, and hiked… and hiked. We finally made it, totally out of breath we looked over the ridge, and it was absolutely beautiful. It was also absolutely terrifying, because you couldn’t even see the way you would get down below you it was so steep. But we strapped our boards on and went for it. Chandler is an amazing skier. She flies down the hill with passion and a crazy fun attitude. Her smile takes over her whole face… it’s quite adorable. Then there was me… still at the top being like “Uhhhhh…. I am totally going to cause an avalanche and kill my clients unless I buck up and just fly down. So then I didn’t fly down and went down like a baby for the first 10-20 feet. I fell on my butt and there went huge chunks of snow… rolling way too fast down the hill. I yelled at everyone to move, and they dodged it. Thank God. Then I got a little braver and started riding like a big girl and all was good & fun again.

Chandler, thank you. Thank you so much for being so sweet, so fun, and so adventurous. I had one of the funnest days ever with you and I appreciate you letting me tag along on one of your crazy adventures. Your smile is contagious, and your spunk and joy of life is so encouraging.

Enjoy the pictures and the video that Matt got of our adventure!

::xoxo::

T

Chandler’s Senior Shoot with Trouble Maker Tracy Moore from Tracy Moore on Vimeo.

Dance party…Had to grab a shot of Matty too… he sprayed me so bad for this shot… punk. How gorgeous is she?!Best friends!

I met Sarah while shooting one of her bridesmaids weddings years ago, and I have loved her ever since! So thank you, Courtney & Rob for introducing us!!

Sarah is outgoing, silly and says what’s on her mind. Mike is a little more reserved, but once you get to know him, he will make you laugh a lot.

They had an amazing wedding at the Yellowstone Art Museum and a super fun reception at the Elks Lodge.

Thanks so much Sarah for having Matt and I be a part of your amazing day marrying your best friend, I loved every second of it!!

Of course they had to stop at the Crystal before the reception…

Thanks again to our amazing ladies that just graduated for passing along these words of wisdom!

Congratulations, Steph & Chet. I am so happy for you guys, baby Bennett is adorable. You guys are officially the cutest little family ever. It has been amazing watching Steph go through her pregnancy. Mainly it’s amazing because the only thing that actually grew was her belly. She stayed just as tiny and adorable and happy as ever… which made all of us girls love her and hate her at the same time.

Steph, you were a trooper. Working all the way up to the day you had him… and even having Chet make some phone calls to clients just hours after Bennett came into this world. You are amazing. I just want you to know how thankful I am to have you, and how wonderful of a person I think you are. You are going to make an incredible Momma. (Chet, you will be an awesome dad!) Bennett is one lucky little man.

Thank you for putting up with my craziness for almost 2 years now. My messy, unorganized, hyper, crazy ways should’ve driven you away long ago… so thank you for staying with me and working so hard to help my business grow while still allowing me to have some fun.

All this said, for any clients reading this, there is a transition going on here. Rhea will be taking over most of Steph’s tasks and she’s still learning the ropes. So thank you so much for being patient as we switch roles around here! Thank you Rhea for stepping in and saving me! You are amazing and I am so thankful for you too!!!

Happy Monday everyone, hope you all have an amazing week!

My senior clients…

I adore every single one of you.

I am so thankful for the time I got to spend with all these amazing girls (and you fellas) last year at our awesome & adventurous photo shoots.

Each one of them is a truly amazing person with something unique to offer this world.

I still remember my last day of high school. I walked out the front door thinking, “What the heck do I do now…” I felt happy, sad, excited for my future, but sad that high school was over forever. I felt brave, but totally scared at the same time. So many emotions run through your head when it finally clicks that it’s over. No more going to classes with all the same people every day. No more skipping class together and getting caught while trying to call the office and pretend your each others moms calling you in sick. No more secret meetings in the girls bathroom to talk about boys and how mean our parents were for not letting us out last night.  No more throwing little pieces of paper at Mr. Swanson’s desk as he tries not to  falls asleep. But then you realize, it’s okay. It’s okay that there is no more, because that phase of your life can’t last forever.. and it shouldn’t.

Let’s look on the bright side. You are DONE. You did it. You now get to do pretty much whatever you want. You get to go to college, or travel the world, or keep living with your parents rent free while eating huge bowls of fruit loops as you watch Gossip Girl marathons 24 hours a day. (I don’t recommend that last one) You get to decide your future. You get to stay out as late as you want (you’ll soon realize that nothing good happens after 2am… so just go to bed). You get to study whenever you want, and how hard you want. You get to move wherever you want and make new friends… and maybe even meet your future spouse… and find a sweet job and the list goes on and on…

So I know you might be bummed that high school is over… but just remember, that so much has just begun.

Senior year is tough. It’s bitter sweet. These girls just made it through, and they were so sweet to share some words of wisdom with you.

We had a lot of girls share a lot of great advice, so we are going to break this blog into 6 parts:

Part 1: One thing you wish you had known as a junior entering your senior year.

Part 2: Keeping grades up.

Part 3: Tips on deciding which college to go to.

Part 4: Making the most out of your senior year & regrets.

Part 5: Dating Senior Boys.

Part 6: College & other fun plans.

So here’s part 1:

What they wish they would have known…

Take it all in ladies… that’s some darn good advice.

Congrats seniors… you did it. Only days left in your high school life.

We are so proud of you and can’t wait to see what you do in the future.

Juniors… we can’t wait to see how you live your senior year to it’s fullest!!

::xoxo:: – T

We pulled up to the shoot location around 3pm, and were greeted by not so friendly people screaming at us to leave… guess sometimes trespassing doesn’t work out.

It actually worked out great, because location #2 was way cooler anyways!

We had barns, the river, old cars, a Harley, gorgeous models, and tons of fun.

Check out the video to see a little peek into the shoot…

Bottega Fashion Shoot- Behind the Scenes with Tracy Moore from Tracy Moore on Vimeo.

Thanks to all the amazing models, the lovely Bottega girls and Brittany, Dennis, Steff & Taylor for the help!

After Janine lost a $200 pair of shades in the bottom of the river… then miraculously found them… she needed a breather. Hahaha…

Thank you ladies… you are all so amazing and I just adore you so much!

It’s an amazing thing.

As a professional photographer who gets caught up in way too much fun sometimes… it’s easy to forget just how important this trade can be. Photographs are so powerful. So incredibly powerful. I love shooting high school senior girls and weddings so much… I really do. It fills my heart to see these incredible people light up in front of me and end up with photos that they will have forever. But I know I can do more. I have always wanted to use this gift for a much deeper passion of mine. I want to share the stories of people less fortunate than I, and to help change their lives by doing what I love to do.

I have dreamed of going to Africa since middle school, after I returned from Mexico on a mission trip with my church. That trip changed my life. I loved doing what I could to help these people that lived such a different life than me. It made me appreciate things so much more. It made my heart sad for those that don’t even have the basics that we take so much for granted. Running water. Clean water. Shoes.

I especially loved the kids. Oh, those sweet, adorable, crazy little kids who climbed on me as if I was a jungle gym. They were so happy… with so little. They were so innocent, and so affectionate.  I miss that so much, and I have always known I would make it Africa someday. It’s been on all my inspiration boards since I can remember. It’s on my chalkboard in my studio right now. I always knew it would happen… I just didn’t know when.

Well… because of time and people aligning perfectly… I am finally going to Africa!!! Thanks to my little brother Chase’s mother-in-law, Karen, who connected me with an amazing woman named Maryvonne, I will be joining the African Reflections Foundation. I’ll be going to Tanzania this June and then back again (With Matt!!) for a much  longer trip sometime this winter. I’ll be meeting so many amazing people that have hearts bigger than elephants, capturing the amazing stories of the locals out there, and bringing back a ton of images and stories to share with all of you.

What does the African Reflections Foundation do? Here is their Mission Statement: “We seek to raise standards of living in Africa by achieving these objectives: To bring clean and safe water to people in developing nations. To raise standards of living by providing humanitarian aid.” 

So, I will be capturing everything they do, and helping build more wells and many other tasks as well, which I will know way more about when I return!

I am SO excited. My heart is so happy right now I can’t even explain it. I feel like I have been preparing for this for half my life, and I am so ready to go.

I’ll keep you all updated of course… and I’ll probably be inviting you all to come to some fundraisers I’ll be hosting to raise money to build wells so these deserving people have clean drinking water!!

Thanks everyone for the encouragement… I can’t wait to share my experience with you.

See you soon, Africa!!

My inspiration board from years ago…

Our current dream board in my studio…

God is so cool.

::xoxo::

T