Introducing...

Will. Who's been long awaited for! I love it when parents want to be creative and make their sessions unique! Thanks D Family for letting me be the lucky photographer you chose for Will's first session and for wanting to play!

Fun Stuff!

Last week one of my photography friends, Dominique, called me and another photography friend, Maria, up to come do a shoot with her for an aspiring model, Lindsay. Boy did we have a great time! I have so many favorite shots I can't wait to work on some of them, but for now, I'll post just one, and sorry it's not even of her face. I just LOVED these hot red shoes she had on to begin with, and I loved this little shot I got.

Ok, now I have some more to post.

We started the evening out at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and played around in several locations there...

Then we played at corn fields down by the University of Minnesota.













We tried to end the night with some off camera lighting, but the field we chose had a sprinkler system that was threatening to destroy our equipment, so we decided to save that for another night.

It should be illegal

to monopolize so much beauty in one family.

It's not often

That I get to do family portraits, and when I do, usually I refer them to my friends who do more family portrait photography than myself. I've mostly been doing babies and weddings. But I just couldn't pass up the chance to be this family's photographer. I was privileged to be two of these girls youth leader a few years ago and just adore their family. Their oldest daughter has graduated and is shortly going out west for college and their mom wanted family pictures done before she left.
Thanks A. for being such a trooper and walking all over the place to all the spots I asked (and Dad for carrying you!), I hope your foot heals quickly and you'll be running around soon!

When I loaded their session into my Lightroom, I couldn't wait to play with this one. I'd asked the girls to stand out in the grass and suggested they could do any number of things, play with the grass, look at the lake, talk to each other... and this is what they did.

Sisterly love... naturally.

brings a tear to my eye.

Dance

I love this image because of the way they are looking at each other. They aren't chatting like a lot of couples do during their dance. But there's the unspoken connection between them in this moment. I like that.

Love under an umbrella

A New Favorite

Krista and Brian

Yesterday was the photo session and reception for our friend's daughter, Krista, and her husband Brian. I knew Krista back when she was a teenager in the Young Women's program at our church. She's grown up to be a beautiful woman.

We had planned to spend about an hour at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, but it started pouring rain early in the day and the rain stayed all day long with gusts of wind. We found a few sheltered spots to play around in. I love sessions like these where there's no wedding to rush off to, and the dress doesn't have to stay completely spotless!

Hope you like your sneak peek and look forward to showing you more!

Wedding Shoes

Just working on images from a recent wedding. I fell in love with this shot I named "Wedding Shoes". Original, I know. It just reminds me of little girls, daydreaming about their wedding. Dreaming about all the little details, the gown, the veil, the boquet. I don't know that we often dreamed about the shoes, but if I did, they'd have looked like these. Simple, elegant, classy, and not too high of a heel.



I like this one too...

May 16

May 16 was a beautiful day for a wedding! I'm so glad to have kicked off the wedding season at the Loring Pasta bar with Heidi and Dave on their wedding day.

When I first arrived at the location I headed up to the red room. Shortly after I arrived the center piece designer brought up an arrangement. He must not have noticed me because after putting the center piece down and arranging it and then backing up to admire it from a distance, he turned and was startled by me. He said he'd sensed something in the room but knew it wasn't Bob Dyllan because "He isn't dead yet." That got a good chuckle.



This place (and not to mention the couple) is a knock out! So much fun to shoot here. There's color everywhere and lots and lots to look at. The ceremony was held down in the main dining area.





After the ceremony we went upstairs for an intimate reception in the Red Room (which supposedly used to be Bob Dyllan's pad).

Her boquets and the wedding party's flowers were all done by Sadies Fine Floral Design and I have to say these were the most lush beautiful flowers I have seen in a bride's boquet yet. They were fresh and plump and looked beautiful the entire day long.




We did have a little time for some fun shots, I would have loved to have spent way too much time shooting just fun shots, there's so much that the Loring Pasta Bar and surrounding area have to offer.