it snowed on april nineteenth.

if you live in minnesota, you know that it is nearly impossible to ignore this weather we're having. especially when it snows 8 inches on april 19th. everywhere you go - "WHY is there SNOW on the ground!?" or "but actually. it's APRIL" or sometimes even "SERIOUSLY MOTHER NATURE IS ON DRUGS LIKE WUT IS GOING ON".

the weather is actually the only thing we are capable of talking about right now.
guilty as charged.

but after reading this post, i decided to embrace the snow.
i mean. it is beautiful.

so that's when i texted the twinsters. ashley and jamie. they're my photography mentors. oh. i don't think i've ever introduced them. kay. we're gonna back up a few months.

last october, or november, i think it was november, i decided it'd be smart to have more exposure to the photography world and the people involved. so i googled 'minneapolis based photographers'. and i searched for a good 60 minutes. didn't really find much. then i saw 'ash & james photography' in the ads bar. i thought oh married photographers that's cool. so i clicked. and then i died. i was all a;lsjdlgha;l THEIR WORK. they were perfect. then i realized oh. this james person is actually a girl. WOAH STOP THE BUS THEY'RE TWINS!? james. short for jamie. gotcha. so that's when i sent them an email saying something along the lines of 'hey. you're work is killer. coffee some time?'. and they replied something like 'um yes!'. so we met up. talked and laughed and talked and laughed some more. and then they we're like 'we've been considering offering mentor sessions but haven't exactly had the right audience. how about we do one?' on the outside i was like 'seriously!? yes!' but on the inside i was all WUT WHAT WUUUUT. YES HOW COULD I EVER SAY NO. THIS IS AWESOME I LOVE YOU THE END. we finished our coffees, hugged, and walked away happy. really happy. a few weeks later we met over coffee again. this time it was the day of the mentor session. now, there is no way i could ever explain how amazing that day was, but here's a brief rundown of what went on:

we meet for coffee and they meet my mom. mom leaves. we talk. we laugh. jamie accidentally gets two coffees. she's hyper. we move to jamie's house. it's purple. it's also locked. she has no key. we go next door to see if neighbor has an extra key. she's old and cute and has a cat. she also has a key. we rejoice. we sit down at their office space. cute, by the way. and they hand me a packet made specially for me, for notes. three hours fly by while i ask questions and they show me their ways. the lights is heavenly outside. we take pictures in it. correction: they take pictures of me in it. we get hungry. we eat. then we say goodbye.

i went to sleep feeling on top of the world. since then, we've met up a few more times. including yesterday. which brings me back to where i started. so i texted ashley and asked if they wanted to shoot some pictures in the snow after school. they did. and so that's how these came into existence.

note: they let me use their 50mm 1.2L AND their 35mm 1.4L. i was like a kid on christmas morning!!

LOVE this one.

so much derp.

i'm so thankful to have these wonderful ladies in my life. xo