Emily Schmidt Photography: Hailey

First off, a big CONGRATS to Hailey Thew on her recent graduation from Rifle High School in Rifle, Colorado. Here comes the "real world"! It may be overwhelming at first: it's big, it's grand, it's occasionally exhausting and full of responsibilities, but it's also exhilarating, comforting freedom, and full of opportunities. Reach for your dreams, strive for what makes you happy and embrace it and the world will love you. You are talented and amazing and the world is what you make of it, so go make it yours!

I adore Hailey. Not because she is family but because she's a pretty cool chick! She's down to earth, easy to talk to, funny, always fun to hang out with and did I mention, she's adorable and fantastic to photograph. She's hoping to possibly attend beauty school for cosmetology and even artwork in the form of piercings. We joked on our recent trip to watch her graduate that she is going to be the next Kat Von D.

Rifle, CO is at about 5400 ft in elevation. Much of the terrain around the town is a drier, desert type of look that is what you'd see in Grand Junction area (they are only an hour from GJ), but the tall mountain peaks are visible from all directions and it's just a short drive up to higher elevation. We planned on spending a few hours getting some awesome shots in a field of wildflowers with snow-capped mountain tops but it didn't quite work out. For a place that normally doesn't get that much rain, it has been raining like crazy all spring. The rivers are already flooding, plus they still have to manage the 13+ feet of snow on the mountain tops that have yet to melt and run downhill. So, weather was not our friend the entire time while out there but we did manage to sneak in a few open breaks of sunshine for this impromptu shoot I wanted to do with her. Here's a few sneaky peaks:

Our first stop was to head south of Rifle into the White River National Forest area. I believe we traveled about 15 miles up into the mountain to find a somewhat open area where we could find the aspen trees. Did I mention they are my favorite! I keep asking my husband if he thinks Aspens would grow in our yard in Wisconsin....what do you think? Hailey's dad called the place 'Rose Ranch', although I can't find it on a map. I believe in the background behind all the lingering fog was the peak of Flatiron Mesa or Grass Mesa peaks.