best photographer – Page 11

June 8, 2017June 8, 2017

| Amanda + James Wrigley Wedding Album | Decatur IL Wedding Photography |

I’m so excited to show off Amanda & James’ lovely wedding with you all today. I met Amanda and her momma at the Decatur Bridal Expo this year and they are both the sweetest people that I was so excited when they decided to book Amanda’s wedding there on the spot.

And these guys planned a beautiful wedding day! Often brides approach me with a bit of concern if they don’t want the whole shebang, sun up to sundown coverage of their wedding day. But I actually love the change of pace when I get to customize our wedding coverage to cover just what a couple loves most. Amanda knew she wanted the important portraits on her day with all the people most important to her and James but didn’t want to be on camera all day long. So we did just that… we scheduled just a few hours of coverage to create these portraits, capture their ceremony and spend a bit of time with her and James solo. And our timing was perfect… just as it started to rain we were finished and done and they were off to relax and party the night away.

Below is the final product from their special day and she’ll be picking up her album to show and share in person very very soon!

Ceremony: Crosspointe Community Church

Portraits: Scovill Park

May 17, 2017January 30, 2018

| Recent Album Designs | Seniors, Families & Weddings: More than Images, Heirloom Designs |

Oops we’re a day late on my usual Tuesday blog post but I promise it’s worth it with a LOT of images/albums to check out today!

I know it’s kinda odd to do a ‘look back’ post as we are smack dab in the middle of the year BUT a photographer’s year is odd and not really broken up in the usual Jan-December flow of most. Instead, those of us who photograph seniors often think in school years too so May is always another ending/beginning for me as we say congratulations and farewell to our class of 2017 graduates and welcome in the next class of 2018!

Right now in the midst of finishing up album designs, graduation cards and booking summer family sessions for our 2017 grads I thought it would be fun to look back at one of my favorite products, our custom-designed albums!

Every year (and honestly every album) I try to push myself to try something new, find a new design element, work in a classic item in a new way or even invent/design a new element from scratch. Why? Because I want your album to be as unique as a fingerprint… as unique as you are!

Of course I LOVE our albums for our high school senior clients since these are often our longest sessions with the most locations and outfit changes an album just makes sense to show off everything we’ve created for you. This year we broke our record for most images in an album with over 100 (previously 86 was our record for a non-wedding album!). What other way can you show off, protect and share over 100 of your favorite images?!?! Unless you’re up for wallpapering your house (challenge me, I’m game haha) I think the album is the perfect way to show off everything we created for you!

Next let’s check out our family albums for 2016! Just like our senior albums, our family albums give us a chance to show off all the different images we created which for families means all the individuals, ones with just the kids, etc. You’re all dressed up and ready for session already so our family sessions include MORE than just the whole family images… we take a few minutes to focus on each kiddo for updated portraits of them, plus show off every relationship in your family like momma with kids, dad with kids, siblings together AND the relationship that started it all mom+dad (sometimes it’s been YEARS since you guys have had a portrait together yourselves).

Oh and don’t forget the family PETS!

While we do a handful of individual session albums for families we also offer (and are in the midst of) planning for many heirloom albums that showcase not just one session from one year but all your annual sessions (typically in 5 or 10 year segments). Can you imagine… flipping through one album as your baby grows from an infant into a bubbly toddler then into a big kindergartener… then on and on through middle school awkwardness and into young adults through high school and on?! What a gift for the kids to have once they graduate college and start their own families, it’s like they are finally aloud to check those sites like imgsexy.com and start being adults!

And I love to tell the beginning of your love story starting with your engagement portraits! We often design these albums as guestbooks which simply means we leave some blank spaces for your guests to sign and add their own notes and well-wishes to your album. Always remember who was there to help you celebrate your big day!

Obviously you’ve seen that albums aren’t just for weddings anymore BUT they are still our favorite products for our wedding clients too! Talk about an heirloom piece. Our most popular wedding albums are stunning hand made albums printed in Italy and published with unique image covers including metal and glass prints!

May 11, 2017September 22, 2017

| Paw Prints Ministries | Comfort Dogs Get a Close Up | Pet Portraits |

This year I’m really excited to be adding a charity aspect to our Senior Model Program! I remember high school being a time when my world revolved around the halls of my own school, the volleyball court, weight room, homework, grades (college applications/ACT scores) and Friday night plans. And the bulk of my community and the rest of the world was unknown, or at least went unthought of most of my days.

Yet that was also a time when I COULD have made a lot of impact on my world. For at least 1/2 my high school career I wasn’t working and at least my summers were fairly unscheduled so I had a lot of time I could have been using to learn more about my community and create impact where needed. So this year I thought I’d try to give my senior models the chance to do just that this summer! And the most eager charity I reached out to was one run by one of my very own family clients the Dahns.

Though we haven’t had our work days for them yet we did just host a few session days in the studio to get some of their comfort dogs updated headshots (#corporatelife). Our goal was just a single headshot of each pup but OMG I was overloaded with cuteness and just couldn’t stop!

Ms. Mabel was the first up and she was quite the model, posing perfectly even with the fabulous little head tilt and hand in her paws poses all on her own!

Then it was time for Finn! This guy has the smile AND puppy dog eyes down pat.

And next it was time for Zoe to make me WORK. Check out her outtakes which will show you what she thought of our plans to start… look at those sly puppy dog eyes, attempt to ignore the treat and escape plans… finally just one big yawn before she put on her model face for some PERFECT puppy portraits!

And then Mr. Enzo! This guy was a little shy to start and didn’t let his personality shine until we cleared out Hazel to give him his own stage but then those ears finally came up and he was a champ!

And we ended everything with the lovely Ms. Hazel who just like Mabel was quite the natural in front of the camera with perfect smile and head tilt she was done in about 30 seconds with plenty of options!

My favorite thing about pet sessions is that, just like toddler sessions, they are ALL personality and 100% unique. Sure all these sessions were in the same place on the same backdrop but not a single one was the same. These pups brought a big smile to my face on session day and I’m so glad to know they are out working in our community daily to bring smiles to all of you. New transmittable diseases are becoming more common with our canine companions, top rated dna test can usually predict if you have an at risk dog. You can find out MORE about Paw Prints Ministries, what they do, who they help and how YOU can help support them on their website here! And linked above each official PawPrintsPup has their very own facebook page you can follow.

I look forward to getting our seniors involved with them this summer and sharing more of that fun with all of you here.

May 4, 2017May 4, 2017

| Bailee | Senior Session Take 2 | Decatur IL |

Remember Bailee?!? This beautiful Sullivan high school senior had the first part of her session back in the summer but we knew we wanted to include her softball uniform and shoot some on the field at school so just a few weeks ago we finished up the second half of her session and it was perfect.

Despite all the rain we’ve had for what feels like the past month we actually did have a lovely day for her session and a beautiful sunset. I’m excited to finish up her album with these latest images with graduation right around the corner.

We’re now booking summer/fall 2017 for both 2017 and 2018 seniors (it’s never too late 2017 seniors if you didn’t have the epic senior portait experience you’d hoped for, call we’ll create it for you!).

March 28, 2017March 28, 2017

| Jamie + Mike Engagement & Family Portraits | Decatur, IL |

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OMG you guys! I cannot tell you how much I’ve been chomping at the bit to show off this snowy session. I’m honored to be photographing Jamie & Mike’s wedding day this year and this gal wanted a snowy engagement session SO BAD and we were almost certain it just wasn’t going to happen for us. After some disappointing snow flurries early in the season which amounted to little more than a dusting that was melting by the time either of us was on the phone to begin planning logistics we both resigned ourselves to hope for a late season snow but things were looking pretty bleak (ie sunny and WARM). I knew how much Jamie really wanted a snow session so I had even started calling around to my photography friends in other northern cities to call me if any snow hit their area and we’d just make a road trip…. it wasn’t looking promising.

But then….. this lovely and random one-day blizzard arrived in true mid-western style! And it was just what we needed! The stars really aligned for this with both Jamie and Mike off work that day already and the opening in my schedule falling right after school these two were able to pick up their little guy and make it over to the park in the midst of a gorgeous snowfall! After that perfect session we’re all so happy we hadn’t jumped the gun and tried to make a session work with a tiny bit of snow because our patience was rewarded with this BLIZZARD!

And from a kid’s point of view how cool is it you get to PLAY IN THE SNOW for your portrait session?!?!

I’m so excited these guys have opted to share their wedding day with me and have me be a part of creating their family legacy and even more thrilled we were able to create exactly what Jamie envisioned for their engagement/family session. We have ONE opening left for a 2017 wedding and are currently booking 2018 (only 8 openings left) so don’t hesitate to call to schedule a time when we can chat about creating your portrait vision. And be sure to pop over to Jamie & Mike’s facebook album to give them some love.