| The Allen Gals Annual Family Portrait | Decatur IL | Christmas Photos |

I absolutely LOVE working with this beautiful family! I get to work with Melanie every year for the senior yearbook, dances and organizational photos for Warrensburg-Latham High School. And for the last couple years I’ve had the chance to photograph both Melanie and her lovely girls, Savannah & Sophie.

This year we did an in-studio session for a little change and created a Christmas look on our fireplace, something a little traditional and classic and then finished up with a little personality with our very own BoxDropsbySJP Sweet Scarves backdrop (a personal favorite).

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I think this family image below ended up being my favorite. The laughs and cuddles with just a tiny hint of tween ‘ew do I have to’ mixed in made that one the most genuine to me and I just love it!

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Head on over to our Facebook Page to give this family some love with your likes & comments!

| Beery Family Portraits | Christmas 2016 | Decatur IL |

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BONUS Friday blog post, whoop whoop! Ya’ll kept me BUSY the last quarter of 2016 and I wouldn’t have it any other way… but that means I have so many sessions waiting in the wings for their moment in the sun here on the blog. Doing our usual 2 a week features we’d be still posting fall photos come summer (seriously I have them scheduled out to APRIL already)…. so it’s time to amp up the blog with some bonus post Fridays (and heck we might get real crazy for a few weeks with a Monday or two).

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This was part of our Christmas Limited Edition event so we, of course, created some curated holiday images but with such beautiful fall color on the ground we couldn’t pass up the chance to create a few more timeless images for them.

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I’m in love with the card design we created for this family too. It’s fun classy with just a little love and whimsy! PLUS check out these custom address labels to add a really unique touch:

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Our Limited Edition Sessions are a bit different than our full boutique sessions especially in that we do not begin with our design consultation (where we customize/design/plan your session and discuss the final destination for where we want these portraits to land: on the wall, in an album, gifts, card, etc etc). So though we hadn’t pre-planned to create some custom artwork for the Beery’s homes, Lindsay fell in love with the image below (on the left) which is just such a clear depiction of life with a toddler. I love that it shows her and her husband, Robert, walking together and looking lovingly at their beautiful daughter as she runs unbridled through the park (that’s about what our life looks like with a toddler!).

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Don’t forget we have already announced and opened out Limited Edition sessions for 2017. These filled very quickly last year and we want to give you plenty of time to plan ahead. These sessions are NOT themed (though we’ll have a Christmas set available in November) but we’ve positioned them to allow for Holiday portraits coinciding with Easter in April and of course our November date is in time for Christmas. May is a great time for some spring color outside and will be PROM time for you high schoolers and our goal for August is to fit in all those extended family portrait sessions ESPECIALLY for any college students who will head back to school. mini sessions limited edition sarah jane photography

| Tiffany + Damien & Family | Christmas Portraits 2017 |

One of my favorite parts of the Holiday season is that we start to think about our families, making efforts to travel to be near to each other, buy gifts that bring our kids and friends joy, share what we have with those that have less, etc. It’s also the time of year that families reflect on how much has changed over the past year and with it being our busiest time of year for family portraits I know it’s also the time of year that mommas (and some daddies too) think about capturing the memory of who our families and kids are RIGHT NOW.

On of my favorite additions to the SJP product line this year is our Limited Edition sessions. In years past I’ve offered similar short sessions JUST for the holidays but this year was the first time I offered a few other dates throughout the year and it’s been so much fun that we are absolutely going to offer them again this year. These sessions are SHORT 15 or 30 minutes and give us the chance to update your annual family images or celebrate a milestone (like birthday or holiday) in a quick and easy way.

It’s so easy to forget to update these portraits with the hussle and bussle of our daily lives so we already have our 2017 dates open for booking NOW. You can plan ahead, to block out just 15-30 minutes of your year to create a little piece of your family legacy. Booking available here for April 8, May 6, August 5 and November 4!

Tiffany & Damien are a couple of my clients who know how much their kiddos change each year (just look at how little they look at our last session on Facebook)!

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Despite the crazy wind and cold we were able to not only create family portraits for these four but some individuals with the boys and a few updated ‘brotherly love’ photos with these guys together. I just LOVE the personallity of these two little guys who are always so much fun in front of the camera.

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And if you know these guys you may have seen this in your mailbox recently. I love the rustic/glitz combination we put together for their design!

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| McCoy Annual Family Portraits | Limited Edition Mini Sessions | Decatur IL |

I love meeting new clients, but there is something really special about repeat clients. Having the chance to watch families grow and change over the years is a pretty awesome part of this job and I’m excited to have worked with this adorable group for the last 4-5 years to create their annual family portraits.

It’s rare these days with our busy lives that I find families who do make the time to get in front of the camera EVERY year and I’m so glad these guys do. I’ve watch Cruz (the littlest) grow from a baby into a spunky toddler and energetic little boy. Chloe is growing into quite the young lady and is so helpful on session both with her brothers and even with my gear that she might just have to start tagging along with me on sessions for the extra hands. And Ryne (who never used to smile for the camera) is getting used to this whole photo thing every year and is now a pretty suave little man!

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For the first time this year we decided to do something a little Christmas themed for these guys as well as inlcuding in their pup since we hadn’t done that in a few years.

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The McCoy’s have a pretty good rhythm in place for updating their focal wall art pieces in the home. We have a designed a gallery wall for them with a large focal piece and a series of smaller images as well. Last year we updated their smaller pieces and this year (with the dog) it was time to update the large wall art (with the one below!).

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We still have one day of studio Limited Edition sessions available this year on Saturday 12/3 and sessions are only $45!

 

| Samuel | 9 Months Old Fall Family Portraits |

Do you guys remember this adorable squishy little newborn Samuel? Well he’s definitely not so little anymore! I just had the chance to go home to Jefferson City to photograph his 9 month portraits and we let mommy and daddy join in too.

I cannot say how much I love being a part of this little guy’s first year and watching this family grow. So looking forward to his first birthday portraits which will be here before we know it!

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Another perk to having a session back home is I got to shoot at the Runge Nature Center which I haven’t photographed at for years but was a staple location of my younger days.

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