Chandler AZ Photographer Diana Marie is officially in Arizona, and getting here involved two houses, one hotel, a flying red dress event, an unexpected real estate photography detour, a wedding, a backyard geyser, and a whole lot more than I planned for.
Becoming a Chandler AZ photographer was definitely not on my bingo card a few years ago.
My family has moved across the country more times than I care to count, and eventually my husband and I decided: enough. If we were going to pack up our entire lives and do this ONE more time, we wanted to land somewhere we could finally call our permanent home.
For us, that meant Arizona.
Most of my family and lifelong friends are on this side of the country, and honestly? I couldn’t stand being so far away from my grandson anymore. FaceTime is great and all, but it is NOT the same as being able to get in the car and actually go see that little face.
So my husband and I made the decision.
Then came the hard part.
We had to tell our two sons.
We’re Moving! Yay! Except…We Have to Tell the Kids
Our boys were both at pretty major points in their lives. One was graduating high school that year and the other was finishing eighth grade.
Sooooo…perfect time to announce we’re moving 2,300 miles away, right?
Yeah. That conversation wasn’t easy.
They’d spent the previous five years building friendships, routines, and lives in Virginia during some pretty important years. We knew moving them across the country would be hard, and we absolutely did not make the decision lightly.
Then I started thinking about my clients.
And THAT got me emotional all over again.
I’d spent years photographing people throughout the Hampton Roads and Williamsburg area. Some clients I’d photographed through multiple stages of their lives. I’d watched families grow. I’d photographed businesses evolving. I’d gotten to know people beyond just the hour or two they spent in front of my camera.
I knew I was going to miss them terribly.
But family is everything to me, and I also knew my clients would understand why I needed to go.
So the decision was made.
Arizona it was.
Now we just had to sell a 3,000-square-foot house, relocate a family, move a photography business across the country, graduate two kids and somehow remain sane.
Easy.
My Realtor Came Over…and Found Out Her Photographer Was Abandoning Her 😂
Before we could go anywhere, obviously we had to sell our Virginia house.
We had our realtor come over to tell us what needed to be done before photos and showings.
Little sidebar here: my realtor, Patrina, also happens to be one of my favorite branding clients and someone I absolutely adore.
So this was also how she found out I was leaving Virginia.
Surprise! 😂
Thankfully, she told us the house was already in great shape. We didn’t need some massive renovation. Mostly decluttering, a little paint touch-up, removing the LED strip lights from my son’s room and fixing one lumpy section of carpet.
No big deal.
Now, I’m a DIYer.
I like fixing things myself, and I’d say I’ve gotten pretty darn good at it over the years.
Carpet stretching, however?
No ma’am.
I know my limits.
Everything else sounded easy enough.
Especially those LED lights.
Take them down. Touch up the paint.
Easy peasy.
HARD NOOOOO.
The LED Lights Tried to Take the Entire Wall With Them
Those LED strips came off my son’s walls like they had a personal vendetta against drywall.
I’m talking chunks.
I PANICKED.
For a minute.
Then I did what I normally do when one of my DIY projects goes sideways: I remembered everything I’d learned about wall repair and painting over the years, gathered my supplies and got to work.
I made my son help because, excuse me sir, these were YOUR lights.
Meanwhile, I kept my husband far away from the operation because he was stressing enough for everybody.
While I was calmly working through how I was going to repair it, he was convinced there was absolutely no way I was going to make it look right and we’d somehow end up with walls that looked worse than they did with the lights.
Challenge accepted.
And yes, I fixed them.
Of course, once I fixed those walls, I started noticing OTHER walls.
And baseboards.
And little spots.
And tiny imperfections that probably no normal human being would ever notice.
You already know where this is going, don’t you?
Yep.
I painted.
And painted.
And painted some more.
By the time I finished, I’d basically gotten our entire 3,000-square-foot house ready for market myself, with the exception of the things I had enough sense to leave to professionals and my son’s assistance repairing the scene of the LED-light crime.
Then I cleaned the living daylights out of it, staged it and somehow kept it looking that way throughout showings.
With THREE dudes living there.
I deserve some kind of award for that alone.
And Then Virginia Turned My Listing Photos Into a Winter Wonderland
When photo day finally came, Virginia decided to throw one more little surprise at me.
Snow.
Not cute little flurries either.
We had a rare snowstorm, every store was completely out of salt, and my driveway basically turned into an ice-skating rink.
We literally scraped out a safe strip along the walkway so the house cleaners and handyman could get inside without ending up in the emergency room.
So when our listing photos were taken?
Winter. Wonderland.
Snow everywhere.
At the time, it was actually kind of pretty.
Remember this part, though.
That snow becomes important later.
Because Apparently This Was Also the Perfect Time for a Huge Photography Event
Here’s the thing.
While I was repairing walls, painting baseboards, preparing a house for sale and planning a cross-country move, I was still working.
And because apparently I didn’t have enough going on, one of my absolute favorite clients, Ti’Juana, decided it was also a great time to challenge me to do something I’d never done before.
If you’ve followed my work for a while, you’ve probably seen Ti’Juana in front of my camera. She’s one of those clients I simply adore. She’s a powerful, beautiful woman with a heart of gold, and she has always had this incredible amount of belief in me and what I can do. Sometimes, apparently, even more belief than I have in myself. 😂
So when she asked me to help photograph the Flying Red Dress for Heart Health Experience, an event she was putting together in honor of her mother, who passed away from heart disease, and to celebrate her own birthday, of course I said yes.
Never mind that I’d never photographed anything quite like this before.
Never mind that more than 100 women from around the country were coming.
Sure, Ti’Juana. Why not? 😂
I was one of about five photographers photographing the event, and it was A LOT. More than 100 women meant a whole lot of shooting, organizing and editing on the other side of it.
Because of what the event was supporting (American Heart Association), I intentionally charged significantly less than my normal session rate. By the time everything was said and done, what I made essentially covered my business expenses for participating, and I was completely okay with that. This was never an event I agreed to photograph because I thought it was going to be some huge money-making opportunity.
What I got out of the experience was worth far more to me anyway.
I had the opportunity to work alongside photographers who had been in this industry for many years, and I learned so much simply by watching them work, talking with them and seeing how they approached something on this scale. I photographed so many powerful women, heard their stories, gained a ton of experience and got to be part of an event supporting a cause much bigger than any one photography session.
I’ll never forget it.
And listen…I’m not saying a Flying Dress mini-session day might eventually make its way to Arizona.
But I’m also not not saying it. 😂
Remember Those Snowy House Photos? Well…
Eventually, our house was on the market and showings were happening.
Then they slowed down.
By this point, all that beautiful Virginia snow was LONG gone. Spring was showing up, new houses were hitting the market with bright green yards and sunshine…
…and there was our house looking like it was still sitting in the middle of January.
I asked my agent if we could get her photographer back out just to update the front and backyard photos. She said she’d reach out and let me know.
Then I thought…
You know what?
I’ll just take a few myself and send them over in case her photographer isn’t available.
I’m a photographer. I understand exposure, composition, editing and how to make something look good.
How hard could photographing a house be?
So I took them and sent them to her.
Her response was basically:
😱
She told me my photos looked every bit as good as the images she normally received from her real estate photographer.
I was SHOOK.
And because this woman has always been one of my biggest cheerleaders, she didn’t stop at telling me they were good.
She hired me to photograph one of her listings so I’d have an actual real estate photography job in my portfolio before I left Virginia.
I told you I love her.
And here’s the funny part.
She updated our listing with my new exterior photos…
and the showings picked back up.
Then we finally got an offer.
YAY!
Except now the REAL games began.
Goodbye Beautiful House. Hello, Two Months in a Hotel.
The movers came, packed our things and hauled everything away. After they left, I cleaned the house one last time and stood there looking around at our empty Virginia home.
It looked almost exactly like it had when we’d first moved in.
And I cried. Just a little.
Okay, emotions, you guys. Moving is weird.
Then I left our beautiful 3,000-square-foot home and moved into a hotel.
For TWO MONTHS.
Picture this: me, my husband, two teenage boys and two dogs sharing one bedroom with two queen beds, a living room with a pullout couch, one bathroom and a kitchenette.
And perhaps most critically for two teenage boys:
NO GAMING COMPUTERS.
When I tell you we lived primarily on takeout for two months, I am not exaggerating even a little bit.
And guess what?
I WAS STILL A WORKING PHOTOGRAPHER.
I photographed two branding sessions while we were living in that hotel. I also photographed a full real estate listing session for my realtor, and the property received an offer that same weekend it was listed.
Editing client galleries in a hotel lobby? That’s an experience.
<– Me doing the experiencing
Trying to keep two bored teenagers entertained when all of their belongings are packed somewhere on a moving truck?
Also an experience.
There were beach trips. Visits with friends. Getting out of that hotel became practically a daily mission.
We probably did three times as much socially during those two months as we’d done when we actually had a house.
Anything to escape those four walls.
I Bought My Arizona House From an Airport…Without Ever Walking Through It
During Hotel Era 2026, I flew to Arizona to house hunt. I found a house about 40 minutes from my oldest son, and we submitted an offer.
Then we waited. And waited. And waited some more for a counter.
While sitting in the airport waiting for my flight back to Virginia, I started looking at listings again because I wanted a backup plan. And there it was. A house in a great neighborhood that had literally been listed the night before, with great schools and, even better, it was about TEN MINUTES from my oldest son.
I immediately sent it to my husband.
We tried figuring out how we could get a virtual walkthrough, but our Arizona realtor was also traveling across the country. My husband finally said basically, “Screw it. Tell Val we want to make an offer.”
So we did.
Sight unseen. On a 30-year-old house. Across the country.
What could possibly go wrong? 😂
Our realtor, Valeisha, recommended an offer, we approved, she submitted it. Meanwhile, House Number One STILL hadn’t bothered to counter.
Eventually, they finally came back with a counteroffer we weren’t interested in.
No thanks.
Then House Number Two, the one we actually wanted, countered.
We accepted.
And wouldn’t you know it? After we turned down House Number One and had already accepted the counteroffer on House Number Two, the first sellers suddenly decided they’d take our original offer after all.
Sorry!
That ship has sailed.
Arizona house: secured. Sight unseen.
Totally normal behavior. 😂
Two Graduations, A Cross-Country Move and Approximately 4,000 Business Forms
Before we could actually leave, both boys had to graduate. One from high school. One from eighth grade. And that was emotional in an entirely different way.
They were leaving friends and the lives they’d built over the previous five years during some incredibly impressionable years.
I felt AWFUL.
Even though I believed we were making the right long-term decision for our family, being a parent means sometimes knowing something can be right and still feeling terrible because it’s hard on your kids.
Meanwhile, I was also trying to make sure Diana Marie Photo Studio could legally pick itself up from Virginia and land in Arizona with me.
This was where I discovered there is nothing quite as relaxing as moving your family across the country while simultaneously dealing with business domestication, registrations, tax licensing, addresses, government forms and trying to figure out which agency wants which piece of paper.
I had lists.
Then lists for my lists.
Then questions about my lists.
I was determined to have EVERYTHING handled before we left Virginia.
And at the time?
I really thought I did.
That’s adorable in hindsight.
The Men Got a Road Trip. I Chose American Airlines. 😂
When moving day finally arrived, my husband and our 18-year-old drove to Arizona with everything we’d kept with us during those two months in the hotel.
My 14-year-old and I? We flew….on American Airlines…in the extra-room seats.
I love my family dearly, but I had already done enough.
They left two days before us and arrived two days after us.
My younger son and I landed, picked up the rental car and finally drove to the house we’d purchased without ever stepping foot inside. And…
He hated it.
Like, HATED it.
He basically told my husband the house we bought sucked. To be fair to the child, we’d just left a roughly 3,000-square-foot, nearly new Virginia home. This house was about half the size and more than 30 years old.
So there I stood, feeling like Mother of the Year.
Welcome to Arizona, son! Here’s your significantly smaller, significantly older house! 😂
Thankfully, my oldest son had bought some necessities for us before we arrived. We inflated our air mattresses, settled in as best we could and went to sleep. Surely tomorrow would be better.
Good Morning, Arizona! Your Backyard Is Now a Geyser.
The next morning I woke up to WATER SHOOTING OUT OF MY BACKYARD.
A geyser.
An actual geyser. Okay, maybe not a geyser, but still.
And I had absolutely no idea where the water shutoff was.
Welcome home!
Because we had a pool and I had no clue what I was looking at, I called the pool guy.
He knew immediately that it had nothing to do with the pool. But bless his entire heart, Mr. Ernie came over anyway and helped me figure out what was happening.
God bless Mr. Ernie, y’all.
Then my oldest son came over and fixed the problem. Crisis over…for approximately five minutes. Because once I started really looking around this 1990s house, my DIY brain activated again. And apparently, I had learned NOTHING from preparing the Virginia house.
Apparently I Needed Another House to DIY
So began Cosmetic Fixer Era 2026.
Painting walls.
Painting trim.
Changing doorknobs.
Changing drawer pulls.
Cleaning things that made me question what exactly previous homeowners had been doing.
Trying to make our much smaller kitchen work for a family of four.
Figuring out where everything from a house nearly twice this size was supposed to GO.
Painting doors because naturally they weren’t a standard enough size for me to cheaply replace them.
Arguing with myself about cabinets.
Organizing.
Reorganizing.
Selling things.
Getting rid of things.
Buying things.
Realizing something I bought didn’t work.
Changing something else.
And discovering that apparently a 1991 house and modern appliances don’t always want to be friends.
There were days when some tiny cosmetic issue felt like a personal attack. I’d fix one thing, stand back feeling accomplished…and immediately notice three more.
At some point, I had to remind myself that this house had been standing here perfectly fine for more than 30 years before Diana arrived with a paint roller and opinions.
And little by little?
It started becoming ours.
And Diana Marie Photo Studio Quietly Sat in the Corner Like…Hello??
During all of this, my photography business went on what we’ll politely call a hiatus.
Sometimes there was a legitimate reason. I was unpacking, organizing, handling paperwork, trying to get the kids settled or dealing with whatever new thing the house had decided needed my attention that day.
Other times?
I sat on my butt and did absolutely NOTHING.
There. I said it. 😂
There were plenty of mornings when I’d wake up thinking, “Okay, TODAY I’m going to work on my business.” Then I’d notice something around the house that needed to be done. Or remember an errand. Or something would break. Or I’d suddenly decide that THIS was apparently the day I absolutely needed to organize a cabinet.
And social media?
Dead. D-E-A-D.
I’d think about posting and fully intend to do it. Then I’d tell myself I’d get to it tomorrow…and somehow tomorrow kept turning into next week.
Looking back, I think I was just tired. I’d spent months preparing to move while still working, selling a house, living in a hotel, getting the boys through graduations, moving our entire lives across the country, buying a house sight unseen and then immediately launching myself into another round of DIY projects.
I needed a minute.
Apparently my “minute” had a very flexible definition.
Oh Yeah…We Also Had a Wedding to Plan For
Then my oldest son’s wedding was coming up.
And if you’ve ever been the mother of the groom—or honestly, just attended a wedding while being responsible for making multiple other humans presentable—you know how quickly the details start multiplying.
I needed my outfit, my husband’s outfit and both boys’ outfits. Everything had to fit, coordinate and somehow make it to the wedding without looking like we’d pulled it straight out of a laundry basket. My dress needed to be pressed. There were shoes, accessories, undergarments, hair, makeup and allllllll the things that come with getting an entire family wedding-ready.
And naturally, there was a little family drama sprinkled in because what would a wedding be without at least a tiny bit of chaos?
We’re leaving that right there. 😂
But the wedding itself was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
I cried. A lot.
And somehow my makeup survived all of it.
My makeup artist was clearly some kind of wizard because (and please do NOT follow my example here) I committed the ultimate skincare sin and fell asleep in my makeup.
I woke up the next morning, and IT STILL LOOKED GOOD.
Do not do this.
But also…ma’am. Incredible work.
So if you’re in the Phoenix area and would also like your makeup to apparently survive tears, a wedding AND your own terrible life choices, you can get a little of that magic right here. 😂
The Wedding Was Over. I Had Officially Run Out of Excuses.
Once the wedding was over, something clicked.
Okay, Diana. The move is over. You’re in Arizona. The kids are settled. The house is getting there. The wedding is done.
It is time to get crackin’.
I was finally ready to stop saying I was going to get back to work and actually get back to work.
So I started looking at Diana Marie Photo Studio with fresh eyes…and holy hell, there was a lot to look at. My website, Google, social media, business listings, portfolio, client experience, contracts, local SEO…basically all the boring backend stuff nobody sees when they look at a finished photograph.
And that’s when I discovered something…wonderful.
Remember earlier when I told you I’d worked so hard to make sure I’d handled everything necessary to move my business from Virginia to Arizona?
Yeah.
I WAS NOT DONE.
Of course I wasn’t. 😂
There were still Arizona-specific details to clean up, business information to update and old Virginia information hanging around online. My website needed to make it abundantly clear that I actually live in Arizona now. Google needed attention. Contracts and backend information needed another review. I needed to start making local connections. Basically, my entire online presence needed to receive the memo:
HEY! DIANA DOESN’T LIVE IN VIRGINIA ANYMORE!
So that’s where I am right now.
I’m not sitting around waiting until everything is perfect before I put myself back out there. I’m rebuilding the foundation properly so that when I start actively booking clients here, everything behind the scenes is ready for them too.
Sooooo…What Does Diana Marie Photo Studio Look Like in Arizona?
After all that chaos, the funny thing is that taking a break gave me time to think about what I actually want this next version of my business to be.
Diana Marie Photo Studio is now based in Chandler, Arizona, serving clients throughout the East Valley and Phoenix Metro, including Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa and Tempe.
And I’m especially excited to put a much stronger focus on the work I’ve grown to love most: personal branding photography and professional headshots.
I love helping business owners figure out what they actually need from their photos, not just making something pretty for a profile picture.
What does your brand need to communicate?
Where are these images going to be used?
What do you want someone to understand about you before they’ve ever met you?
How can we create enough variety that you aren’t recycling the same three photos for the next two years?
THAT’S the stuff I love.
I want to work with entrepreneurs, small-business owners, professionals, teams and people building something they’re proud of throughout Chandler and the Phoenix area.
I also haven’t abandoned everything else I love photographing.
Families, seniors, maternity sessions and life’s other milestones still have a place here too.
I’m just entering Arizona with a much clearer idea of where I want Diana Marie Photo Studio to grow.
Virginia Built My Business. Arizona Gets the Next Chapter.
It’s strange starting over somewhere new when you’re not actually starting over.
I’m not a new photographer.
Diana Marie Photo Studio isn’t a new business.
I’m bringing years of clients, sessions, mistakes, lessons, education, experience and growth with me.
I’m bringing the branding sessions.
The families.
The seniors.
The Flying Red Dresses.
The hotel-lobby editing.
The unexpected real estate photography.
The clients who trusted me when I was still figuring things out and the ones who came back again and again.
Virginia gave me all of that.
Now I get to see what I can build with it in Arizona.
And after moving 2,300 miles, selling one house, buying another one sight unseen, living in a hotel for two months, surviving two graduations, relocating a business, DIYing TWO houses, discovering a geyser in my backyard, disappearing from social media, planning for a wedding and completing approximately eleven billion pieces of paperwork…
I think I’m finally ready to take some pictures again. 😂
So, Chandler…
Hi.
I’m Diana Marie.
I’m a Chandler AZ photographer, a wife, a mom, a grandma, a serial DIYer who really needs to learn when to leave well enough alone, and the photographer behind Diana Marie Photo Studio.
It’s been a heck of a journey getting here.
But I’m here.
And I’m really, really excited to see what I photograph next.
Ready to Get in Front of My Camera?
If you’re a business owner, entrepreneur or professional in Chandler, the East Valley or anywhere around Phoenix and you’ve been putting off new photos because you have absolutely no idea what you need, what to wear or what the heck you’re supposed to do once you’re in front of the camera, that’s literally what I’m here for.
We’ll figure it out together.
My job isn’t just to take a pretty picture of you. It’s to help you feel comfortable enough in front of my camera that your photos actually look and feel like you, then create images that make sense for where your business is going and how you need to show up.
So if you’re ready for new branding photos or professional headshots, let’s talk about what you need.
I’m officially in Arizona, and I’m ready to get back behind my camera. ❤️
