| McCoy Family Annual Portraits | Just the Kids | Decatur IL

I’m so excited to show off this year’s annual portraits of the McCoy Family kiddos! Doing annual family portraits is seriously no joke (trust me, I know we do them too). Every year it feels like you JUST did these and it’s time again to plan for new outfits (that don’t look too much like the past ones but are still your style). Do that for 3-5 years in a row and it just gets exponentially tougher to keep things looking new and fresh.

But is it worth it? YES!!! I absolutely think so but why? For one, your kiddos do change quite a bit from year to year and it’s hard to know just when those big changes will hit and annual family portraits make sure we don’t miss a thing. We’ll catch the year your kiddo hits that big growth spurt. The year the boys finally catch up in height to the girls. The year he lost both front teeth. The awkward haircut year. The year they all of a sudden go from looking like little kids to little adults still doing Squadcopters activities (seriously it happens all of a sudden!).

I’ve been lucky enough to photograph this beautiful family annually for the past few years since Cruz was just a baby and it’s AMAZING to see how much they’ve grown. And I have to give a major shout out to Lori their momma who always makes sure to make time for this session and never fails to come up with the BEST outfit combinations.

Take a look at some of their past sessions:

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2016: http://blog.sjanephotography.com/?p=18265

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Chloe even got her own moment in the spotlight a couple years ago HERE.

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More from their Fall 2014 Family Session HERE. 

In 2013 we actually did two sessions since Cruz was so little and changing so fast. And ironically the first session was in the spring and freakishly freezing cold and their second session was in the fall and crazy warm but these guys did great despite their wardrobe and weather clashing.

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See more from their 2013 Family Sessions HERE. 

One thing that keeps me on my toes with annual sessions is the constant effort to create dynamic poses since you don’t want your portraits each year to look exactly the same. It’s fun to try to challenge myself to create new and interesting poses for these families every year.

This year, with busy schedule of very active kiddos we decided to have just the kids (plus Maverick) in the session to make things easier on mom and dad.

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| Kaylee | Eisenhower High School Senior Model Portraits | Class of 2018 |

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I’m so excited to show off Kaylee with you all today. I’ve had a blast working with her as one of our Class of 2018 Senior Models she’s so fun and full of energy! We’ve had a few sessions over the past few months starting with our group model session …

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Then we got some nature in with her first senior session at Rock Springs…

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And I love the Kaylee also wanted to have some images at her high school which was the perfect way to show off her cheerleading too.

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And we got to finish out that session at the Decatur lake (a little nice warm sunshine for you guys on this cold cloudy week!!).

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Be sure to check us out on Instagram (@sjanephotography) and Facebook to see even MORE favorites from her session.

| Jamie + Mike | Married! |

Today, I get to share Jamie & Mike’s wedding (album) with you all! I cannot tell you how much I loved working with these two. You might remember their super fun SNOW engagement/family session… well their wedding day was quite the opposite weather-wise but still full of even more fun and love. These two got the perfect sunny spring day (which was good since their ceremony was outside at the beautiful Fletcher Park Pavilion.

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Ceremony: Fletcher Park Pavillion

Reception: Mt. Zion Convention Center

 

 

| Alyssa + Corey | Engaged! |

I’m so excited to show off Alyssa and Corey’s engagement session today! This week’s blog post is a bit late due to us taking a little family vacation time for the fourth but it’s worth the wait because these two are just adorable and so sweet. I was lucky enough to meet Alyssa a year or so ago and was thrilled when she called me to tell me she was engaged and to setup a time to bring Corey by to chat about having me as a part of her wedding day.

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Choosing a wedding photographer can be overwhelming (just like choosing every other piece of your wedding day!) because it’s such a big event and your photographer is not only there with you all day (like right there, so you better like them) but they are also creating the images you have left from the day once everything else is over. So though Alyssa had worked with me before I encouraged her to explore the others she’d heard about too just to make sure I was the perfect fit for their day and we were both SO excited when she came up to my booth at the Decatur Bridal Expo to tell me to pull out the contract they were ready! Of course, I’m thrilled to be a part of their day and honored that, after doing some looking, they chose me and SJP. Now it’s game-on to make their wedding day and images as perfect as possible.

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I was really excited when she told me they wanted to personalize their engagement session a bit by bringing along Corey’s stunning el camino and to add a little of their personality with a campfire feel (and luckily our fire pit fit in my car!).

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Be sure to stay tuned for a look at their big day this fall. <3

| Senior Model Volunteer Event – Take ONE | PawPrints Ministries Decatur, IL Comfort Dogs |

Last week we had the first ever SJP senior model service day! If you have been following our 2018 senior models on facebook and instagram you know this year, more than ever, we are making senior year about more than just portraits… it’s about creating experiences! While some of these are fun and just for us (like the new pop-up sessions which just recently included carnival lights and rides and super melty ice cream and a few fireworks), I wanted to also make sure that some of these experiences were about others. So, one day last week we scheduled some time to give back to a fabulous local organization Paw Prints Ministries.

You might remember them from the recent headshots I did for a few of the pups on the team. I was so happy that Jennifer (a past client of mine) was excited to partner with us and let us come in to lend a hand. While we’d hoped to have more hands to lend, those of you with teenagers know summer schedules can fill up quite quickly and between camps, summer jobs and illness our full lineup of models was quickly reduced to Jaiden and I! We may have been a small ‘group’ but we sure were mighty and stuffed over a box load of cancer care packages and tragedy gift bags.

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Payton and Enzo were there to lend a hand too!

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Payton’s clearly supervising here!

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Check out all the goodies packaged into these care bags.

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If you follow me on snapchat you got a lot of behind the scenes looks at what we were up to that day including some fun videos of us attempting a group photo with the pups!

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After our time at headquarters we headed over the the Decatur Conference Center for a training session. It was so fun to see a few dogs at different stages of training. To see what they struggled with and what they were able to pick up and learn in even just one session. Check out Enzo fighting the distractions (even of a favorite toy) and staying put on his table.

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And this happy guy was working so hard and learning so quick to ignore all us distractions in the room and follow his owner’s lead.

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Jaiden got in there to attempt to distract them too, this awesome guy didn’t move once!

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Pawprints provides cancer care packages to those going through the often tough cancer treatments and include items like chapstick, hand sanitizer, lotion, tissues, candy, socks, scarves, hats, etc. They also provide small care packages with a prayer, tissues, candy and chapstick when they attend gatherings where there may have been a disaster or life loss. These are small offerings provided to bring comfort along with the presence of their dogs.

Last year when I spent much of the year in the hospitals and long-term care facilities with my mother there was one particular hospital which had a beagle comfort dog free-roaming the halls/rooms at least a dozen times I was there and in places like these, especially long-term care hospitals where there’s not much hope of your visit being short or even pleasant, this pup brought a smile to so many faces and a lightness to the air felt by both staff, patients and families like myself. Since that experience, I’ve had a special place in my heart for these dogs and I’m so glad that our first service project could be with them!

You can learn more  about PawPrints Ministries HERE and you can contribute to these cancer care kits by dropping off items to the PawPrints Ministries office at 226 W Eldorado in Decatur and you can learn more about what the kids can contain HERE. To continue our support of this organization we’ll be adding a cancer care kit box to the studio where clients can bring donations to add to these kits!