Chad Dahlquist Photography Stories | Chad Dahlquist Photography

Nov 17

by Chad in Photography, Proofs 0 comments tags: homeschool, kids, portraiture

Protected: Eastside Explorers 2015

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Nov 10

by Chad in Photography 0 comments tags: family session, kids, nature, portraiture, Prescott

Family Session in Prescott, Arizona

We love an adventure, and one we really enjoy is exploring a super cool, surreal environment – this location was beyond FUN. Can’t wait to go back…. perhaps also with our canoe we’re refinishing! We had such a fun time photographing the Ham family – they are one happy family, no need to tell them to smile – they shine from the inside out! The kids had a blast climbing around on the giant boulders and the treat at the end was a visit by 3 hungry (and easily tricked) ducks. Mom somehow picked the right color sweater to match the sunset! Our daughter helped with the lighting and quickly bonded with the little girls and helped them through the trail and rocks. By the end of the shoot one of them said ‘you’re my best friend!’ to her. So sweet!! We love to head north, next time you’re heading that way and would love to schedule a photo session, give us a shout! (yup, here’s the hungry trio – they are fooled by receipt crinkling!!)

Aug 09

by Chad in Photography 0 comments tags: family session, kids, nature, portraiture, Sedona

Adventure Portrait Family Session in Sedona

We spent the day with the G family doing our Adventure Portrait Session in Sedona. This location has it all – Oak Creek, stunning red rocks, textural fields, rustic buildings, canopied trails, super cool molten looking rocks to climb on and more. They were dressed ready for FUN, and a change of clothes as you can see we all got wet! The key to shooting in a popular destination is to avoid the weekend. There were still plenty of people around but we managed just the right angles to avoid them. You may recognize this beautiful family as I photographed them previously when their daughter was a couple months old. I love this type of session because you can play and capture the whole family enjoying their adventurous day out together. A great mix of documentary with on-location studio lighting for the dramatic family portrait. If your family would enjoy a day of adventure and high quality, magazine worthy documentary photographs to enjoy for a lifetime, I’d love to talk with you.

Jul 31

by Chad in Photography 0 comments tags: family, homeschool, mini-session

and the 2015 WINNER is ….

We’d first like to thank everyone who stopped by our booth at the AFHE Convention for photos, to chat, and enter their names into the drawing. We enjoyed every moment of meeting you, hearing your experiences and chatting about not only photography – but homeschooling – and so much more. We drew the name for the WINNER of the Family Mini-Session on my birthday this week! Felt like a great day to give a gift to someone else. The WINNER is: The DRAPER FAMILY To keep in touch about special promotions, contests and more please sign-up for our Email News and wish to, simply click here.

Jul 29

by Chad in Proofs, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: homeschool, kids, portraiture

Protected: 2015 AFHE Portraits

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Jul 07

by Chad in Personal, Photography 0 comments tags: high school senior, homeschool, kids, Phoenix, photographer, portraiture

2015 AFHE Convention

Excited for this weekend! It’s the 32nd annual Arizona’s Families for Home Education Convention and we’ve been invited to photograph kids and teens for the Student ID Cards that they are selling as a service to the community. We have donated a photography session for 1-2 hours on-location within Phoenix/Scottsdale for the silent auction benefiting both AFHE and the Home School Foundation Arizona Ambassador Fund. At our booth we’ll also be offering a drawing for a chance to win a free family mini session! If you’ll be there come over and say hi! If you are thinking about homeschooling, the AFHE website has a ton of information as well as links to support groups around the valley. HSLDA is also an important resource available to homeschooling families throughout the nation.

Jul 07

by Chad in Personal, Photography 0 comments tags: homeschool, kids, portraiture

Yearbook Photos – Branches Homeschool Community

We’ve been homeschooling for 4 years so far (starting our 5th) and 2 years ago, friends of ours created the unbelievably awesome Branches Homeschool Community. They had to convince Karen that joining would be a good idea… and she did when there were about a dozen families. By the time that first semester was rolling – there was something like 80 families. In their second year, around 180 children at ONE location! They opened up a second location called West Valley Branches as well. Karen not only volunteered to teach classes in drawing, PictureSmart Bible and Smash* booking – but also took on the Branches yearbook for 2014-2015. She did not all, but most, of the snapshots capturing all the classes, parties and special events that took place every week – but also designed the 76 page side book. She used Picaboo Yearbooks and they arrived last month. They are fantastic and affordable – and excellent customer service. Out of the entire order, only 4 books had a slight ‘bend’ in the corner. She let them know and they reprinted the books without a problem. In January, I volunteered to take ‘traditional student pportraits’ of all the children at Branches […]

Dec 15

by Chad in Photography 0 comments tags: high school senior, portraiture

High School Senior Session

Congratulations to Rutger for graduating early this year – well ahead of his peers! Chad had the privilege of photographing him for his senior photos – really for his parents BUT he ended up loving the photos himself. He wasn’t excited about having photos taken at all…. and we knew that. Accompanied by Rutger’s dad – Chad was able to photograph him completely at ease and as himself. There is nothing worst than looking at uncomfortable photos of yourself thinking ‘boy, that doesn’t look like me’ or ‘what a goofy smile I have!’ 🙂 The three of them had a super fun time together and didn’t get back til dark. Chad took a combination of close up photos suitable for his Senior page in the yearbook and for prints for family – as well as more active or dramatic shots that Rutger would enjoy even more for his own memories. Everyone was thrilled with the results! His mom said that she loved seeing the different personalities of her son in the photos. He’s an honorable young man with a great future ahead of him!

Dec 09

by Chad in Personal 0 comments tags: tea

diehard espresso drinker changes to TEA

For those of you that REALLY know us……… this comes as a bit of a shock. You read that right. I’ve been in denial for a long, long time but am pretty certain I have an allergy to coffee. After many attempts at testing the theory out – without milk, without sugar……. with other types of sweetener etc. seems to result in the same thing — headaches and sinus pressure. Started researching tea. A whole new world opened up to unlimited possibilities. My wife Karen had to get ready for marathon taste testings!! (Over our many years of marriage she has gotten used to my quirks of comparing coffee beans from different roasters. Our favorite by the way was KLATCH.) Bought tea samplers from different suppliers online and locally: green, roobois, honeybush, herbal, fancy custom blends with dried fruits, berries……..even CANDY CANE!….. black, assam, flavored black, gunpowder, dragon pearls, raw pu-erh, aged pu-erh, chocolate pu-erh (from loose, to brick to tuocha, to cake)……. different regions, years……. the works. Karen almost fell over when I showed her this video: Yes, I even bought the Purple Clay Pu-erh tea set to try. Guess what……. there is something to the disposing of the […]

Sep 08

by Chad in Personal 0 comments tags: camping, kids, nature

Dog Town Lake

Our family LOVES to go camping. Dog Town Lake, AZ is a nice spot that we’ve been to a couple times – beautiful trees, nice little lake for paddling around in. Besides cooking in the great outdoors… our next favorite part of camping is relaxing in our hammocks. In fact, we’ve gone from hanging out in hammocks to ditching the tent and sleeping in special enclosed hammocks all night long! No more back pain in the morning – I had to talk my wife into getting off our cots and Nemo pads. She thought she was comfy then, but there is nothing like the feeling of sleeping in a hammock under the stars. The kids LOVED it immediately. Now they have hammocks in their rooms for fun under their loft beds. 😀 Here are some shots I took around the campsite.