Carliss | One-on-One Mentor Session 101 | Washington, DC Photography Instructor

Good Tuesday afternoon to you and welcome to a week, new month, and new year here on the blog :) I hope your 2017 is off to a good start! And if not, we have a whole year to go, so there are bound to be some good moments sprinkled in there ♥

I was on an unintentional hiatus here on the blog and on social media for a bit, and honestly, will probably be taking more of them in the weeks and months to come, but for now? I have a few mentoring recaps to share with you! I didn't want to wait until #MentorMonday, so let's call today #TeachingTuesday lol.

In preparation for a wonderful year to come, I want to share some of the great mentoring sessions I had over the past few months.

First up, is a fun one-on-one session with Carliss!

This session was all about natural light portrait photography- nailing the light each time, creating authentic and engaging portraits, flattering posing, location scouting, you name it! We had the sweetest family as our models for Carliss' practice session!

Check out some of my favorites from our session with the Gonzalez Family!

Sammy was such a sweet and energetic 2 year old, soon to be a big brother!

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If you would like to have the DFinney Mentoring Experience yourself, check out full details here! Email me today if you’re interested in scheduling your own one-on-one session!

The Busiest Fall Season Ever | News & Updates

Good Tuesday afternoon to you 💚 

This fall season has been the busiest ever- in 7 years!- for me, and I'm behind on just about everything but client work!

It's been difficult producing in the midst of depressive episodes, but somehow I've been (barely) managing to get things done. I am, however, behind on just about all forms of messaging so I'm thanking everyone in advance for their patience on how long it is taking me to respond to you! I'm exceedingly thankful for my clients trust in me and that I've been able to deliver for them! Moving forward, though, I want (need) to go about things in a way that doesn't leave me feeling so tattered.

I've built in a break for the next couple months so that I can try and establish some healthy routines, a semblance of order, and catch up on things that have fallen behind this year.

So things will be pretty light on the blog and social media while I try and get my life together offline :) In the meantime though? I have loads of pictures to share! Check out what I've been up to this fall season 💚 

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The fall season began with a beautifully intimate early OCTOBER wedding ceremony at the St. Regis Hotel!

The following weekend, I held the very first Styled Shoot for my DFinney Mentees! It was a full day of good food, glam styling, gorgeous models, great company, and of course beautiful pictures!

The month of October was full of headshots and promo imagery! I absolutely love working with fellow creative professionals and producing images that will help take their business to the next level.

October was wrapped up with the fun promo shoot for the #dfinneyheadwraps Fall Collection!

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NOVEMBER began with the most gorgeous weekend we could have asked for! It was absolutely perfect for the fall minis 💚

The following weekend, I had the privilege of photographing promo imagery for my friend's new optometry practice in West Chester, PA!

Every week/weekend thereafter was full of fall portrait goodness. Family, anniversary, maternity, mommy & me, headshots, just because sessions- you name it!

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And here we are in DECEMBER! This past weekend I taught the last mentoring session of the year and photographed a gorgeous mommy & me session 💚

There are just 2 more headshot sessions to photograph this week and then I am done! Shooting that is lol. I have editing to catch up on, taxes to do, reorganizing, planning, studying, etc etc etc... 

I'm thankful that my beautiful clients have made this year a successful one. Despite my personal struggles, my clients continue to make me thankful that what I do for a living is able to bring joy to so many people.

Until next time! I hope you have a beautiful Tuesday 💚

-Danni

I'm learning... | Truthy Tuesday

This whole living with bipolar + ADD thing is a doozy.

It's an added layer of difficulty to life. Trying to understand the naturally occurring highs and lows, attention/focus lapses, triggers, diet and sleep issues, what helps, what doesn't, how to arrange my schedule and life to maximize my productivity/some semblance of living... in addition to the regular responsibilities and concerns of adult life.

It is a P R O C E S S.

And one that only truly begins once you know it's there. I'd been struggling for years wondering why balance was always so elusive for me. After being diagnosed, so much then made sense about my personality and decisions I've made. But then the real work began.

How to form a life that is not entirely dictated by the whims of my malfunctioning brain.

It's been about 10 months, and I have JUST realized that certain days of the week are fairly consistently low, and I need to work around that. How long was this happening prior to my being made aware of it? Who knows. But I am now, so I can do something about it.

This is a daily, weekly, hourly... moment by moment struggle... to find, achieve, and maintain some semblance of balance. And that gets exhausting. 

But, I'm learning.

I'm not sure what sparked this, but I felt compelled to share- and it's #truthytuesday, so what better day to share? If you are dealing with a newly diagnosed mental illness as well, please hang in there and understand that this is a process. Not a quick one, but you can do it. 💛

-Danni

Fall 2016 Collection | #dfinneyheadwraps

Good Tuesday morning to you ❤️

I'm coming your way with a whole lot of newness-

The Fall 2016 #DFinneyHeadwraps Collection is here!

As I mentioned at the beginning of the month, I am so thankful to everyone who supported the initial launch in September, and to everyone else who expressed interest!

The Fall Collection is completely Inspired by the beauty of Autumn! This collection features warm golds and rich burgundy tones that will pair beautifully with your Fall wardrobe. 💛🍂

Each headwrap is named after song, and each song can be listed to in the Fall Collection playlist! You can listen on YouTube or Spotify. This is such a soulful and mellow playlist. I hope you enjoy it. 💛

ALSO: Tutorials are here!

Well, just one for now lol. This one! The remaining two will be added by the end of the week :)

That's all for today!

I hope you enjoy the new collection and the accompanying playlist!

-Danni

Lightfoot Maternity | Washington, DC Maternity Photographer

Next up for today's #MaternityMonday? A super fun maternity session with Mike & Lena from this past summer!

I actually went to high school with Lena, so it was great to see her again, meet her husband, and document this exciting time in their lives! It was a pretty hot day, but we had so much fun together, we didn't even mind the heat :) 

It makes me soo happy when my clients are completely themselves, and I'm able to capture some beautiful, genuine moments- Mike and Lena were just that! 

You can just feel their joy by looking at their images ❤️

Congratulations again you two! Your baby girl is gorgeous and I can't wait to meet her :)

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If you’re expecting and interested in having the DFinney Experience for your maternity session, email me and schedule yours today! Currently booking: (very limited) December 2016 dates and early 2017.