Janelle is my littlest sister. She is the baby of the family and a whopping 12 years younger than me. She is only going to be a junior this year but I decided I would take her out for a “mock senior session”. Janelle has an affliction we like to call “fake-smile-itis” and it can be a horrifying disease. All my siblings have it and I know we are not the only ones. Janelle’s session was a great lesson in how amazing a REAL smile can be. I totally welcome a friend coming along with you to your senior session. It can really help in getting real smiles and easing those nerves. Please note I welcome a friend, not a posse. That’s just way too many people for you to try to impress!

For Janelle’s session, we went to an interesting “antique” store. A five acre store. It had all kinds of vehicles, signs, and randomness. It made for some great pictures and she was such a trooper for dealing with the make-your-hair-curl-up humidity that day. We also went walking around a trendy suburb and found all kinds of great places for photos. Here are some of my favorites from the day. I had a really hard limiting myself to two… so I didn’t:

Most of my high school senior bookings will start being made in the spring, but if you know your schedule and are ready to book now, let me know! I will also be in Algona, IA for a week of senior sessions as well. I haven’t set the dates yet, but if you would like to be notified when dates are announced, please contact me and I will put you on the mailing list. Enjoy these last few weeks of summer!

My boys are 20 months apart. At the moment they just turned 8 months and 28 months. Trying to get a picture of them together is an adventure to say the least. Well, really it’s just the toddler since the baby is stuck sitting or laying at the moment. It’s amazing to me that when I photograph other people’s toddlers, they totally listen and follow directions and my son does the same for other people. It’s the element of the unknown I guess. Nonetheless, my boys love and enjoy each other. Luckily I can see that every day because when I asked my oldest to smooch his little brother this is the shot I got.

He was too busy running around and checking out the cars, rocks, and knocking on the big doors saying “Chichen-Itza Pizza!” (any other Backyardigans lovers out there?). Of course I wanted some shots of them together, but guess what? That’s just not where they are right now. Stopping and pausing for photos is not on my 2 year old’s to-do list. What I did get were some great photos of them just being themselves. I mean, after all, that’s what I want to remember; who they are (and who they aren’t) at this moment in time. If I am lucky enough to photograph you, that’s what I hope to capture : Your family in this very moment. Below are a couple more pictures from our day today.

First, is a typical picture of our life. My oldest is running around and dancing and my little one just hanging it out, taking it all in.

My oldest being his typical self and investigating everything.

And lastly, is a photo of my youngest flashing that infectious smile of his.

My first newborn shoot! Meet Gabriella. 1 week old. I went to college with her mom and dad and they are some of my closest friends. I was so excited to photograph them and their expanding family. Big brother Evan was very anti-photos for a while, but I convinced him they would be “surprise” photos for Mommy since she was out of the room at the time. Worked like a charm. I guess having a pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teaching background comes in handy in the world of photography after all! Gabby was perfect and slept most of the time. She was so fun to photograph and I can’t wait to watch her grow! It was hard to choose just a couple of photos but here are some I love.

Let me preface this WHOLE post by saying I don’t do weddings. I love weddings as much as the next girl. I love the emotion, the connection, and that feeling you get being surrounded by families that love each other. I get teary-eyed and sappy and it makes me remember my wedding day. It fills me up to see a couple that loves each other get announced as Mr. and Mrs. I, however, prefer to appreciate all that a wedding brings as a guest, and not a photographer.

My sister-in-law, Becky, asked me to photograph her wedding last summer, as soon as she got engaged. I said absolutely not. She begged and pleaded and probably was pretty mad I said no. I just didn’t feel I was at a caliber to do a wedding. Becky even mentioned that if I didn’t do it, she would be fine with someone just using a point-and-shoot camera to get the shots that she wanted (which were pretty limited). After seeing what she wanted and knowing I couldn’t let her have someone use a point-and-shoot to photograph her wedding, I agreed. It was a great experience, but didn’t change my mind about photographing weddings.

Ben and Becky got married on the hottest day of the year. It was H-O-T. I’m talking over-100-degree-heat-index hot. Becky really just wanted some getting ready pictures, some family pictures and the important ceremony photos and everything else was just an extra treat for her. Knowing I wanted to give her something more than that, I convinced dragged everyone outside. The wedding party was a bunch of troopers. We made it outside for a few shots before we decided we better not let anyone pass out BEFORE the wedding. After all, when the bride is ready to go inside, you go inside. The ceremony was beautiful and then the bride invited me on the bus to head to a couple of local watering holes before heading over to the reception.

I had a blast with everyone and am happy to have been able to capture your special day. Congrats to the Martinsons! May your days be filled with happiness!

Here are a couple of my favorites from the day, followed by a slideshow of the rest.

Click the arrow in the lower right hand corner of the slideshow to make it full screen. The song that is playing is the song my husband sang at her wedding. Needless to say it was an emotional first look at the slideshow!

I hope you had a fantastic Independence Day. We took in parades and fireworks, grilled up some delicious ribs and I made apple-blackberry pie. It was our first 4th of July that we celebrated in our hometown. We have been living here for 4 years, but have always traveled to visit family members. This year I decided we needed to check out our hometown celebration and it was fantastic. Most importantly, I got to spend the long weekend with my husband and my boys. It felt so nice not to be running around on someone else’s schedule. I used this time, of course, to take lots of pictures. As promised, weeks that I don’t have an official booking (like this one) you will get a glimpse of my life. I debated over and over in my mind which one of these to post, but decided I’d do both. It’s the same picture with different processing. I think my weakness as a photographer is that I love several different types of processing. Lots of photographers really find their niche within one type of processing but I just can’t choose! I love full color images (like in the ice cream picture below). I also love black and whites, and the sun-kissed, vintage-y look of the picture on the right. I love the feel of the vintage one, and I love the drama of the black and white. I appreciate that the black and white brings your eye to the faces of my precious boys and husband and makes the clutter that comes with having two little ones, seamlessly fade to the background.

When I do your session, I will ask you how you feel about black and whites, or the vintage wash. Some people have real affinities towards one processing style and I will take that into consideration when I edit your images. Don’t be surprised if you see a few images with two processing styles because while you asked for one thing, I thought it looked amazing another way. You would be amazed at how many people say they don’t like a certain style but find they love it when it’s just the right image.

And bring on the official launch of the blog! I have several sessions coming up this summer and fall. Let me tell you that I cannot WAIT to catch those little moments, those small innuendos, that can only be shared with those you love the most. I will be updating frequently so don’t forget to stop by and see the latest moments captured. If I happen to be session-free one week, you can count on an outtake from my life.

I love summer. I love everything about it. Well, some days I could take or leave the humidity but it’s a great excuse to go jump in a lake! Summer has treated me wonderfully so far. I will leave you with a snippet of my summer. Enjoy!

I  have been playing around with photography my whole life. Like many photographers, when my children were born, I realized how precious every moment had become and wanted to capture every little thing. For the past year, I have been experimenting on friends, family, and strangers at public events. I enjoy capturing moments and emotions. After all, when I look at photos of myself and my family, I want them to tell a story and show the connections between people and the world around them. I want to remember my husband’s horrible college haircut, the craziness of our engagement, the way I dropped the dove at our wedding, and my children’s sleepy newborn smiles and toddler antics.

I was so lucky to attend Cheryl Muhr’s The Secret Workshop when she came to Minneapolis in May.  Photos from the workshop are  shown below. It was the push I needed to start sharing my gift of capturing moments with others. When I show up, camera in tow, and ready to start snapping, I want you to answer me this question: What do you want to remember about these moments?