Guys, one of the itty bitty babies I’ve photographed from birth is a whole year old now! And he’s a heartbreaker ladies. I swear, he had me giving him candy and stickers and balloons all just by batting those eyes and grinning. Samuel’s momma and I went to high school together and I’m so honored she’s shared so many of her big life events with me from engagement to wedding and now her and her sweet husband’s first year dive into parenthood (and they’re stellar parents who make SUPER cute babies). And the best part? I’ve got a date with this dude for his 2nd birthday and I know it’s going to be here before we know it!
^^^ Look’s like he’s pretty excited to be ONE too don’t you think. Be sure to stop by their Facebook Album to give Sam your birthday wishes and some love (and see if you have a cute caption idea for one of my favorite images).
Today is Brittany’s time to shine. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Brittany’s family multiple times over the past few years but I was so excited to hear it was already time for Brittany’s senior session and her moment in the spotlight! Her and her family are definitely bit animal lovers so it was a no-brainer to work in her gorgeous kitty (how beautiful is her coloring, and perfect for our studio backdrops!). We also wanted to be sure to get some variety so while we did a few in-studio for a really classic look we also popped downtown for something a little grittier/grungier. And my favorite are her nature images from this fall, especially the ones in the water… I just love that hat and dress!
To finish off her senior portraits she popped back in the studio recently with her friend Alivia so we could create a few images of them together for their graduation party. These two were a blast for their short session so I know they will have a ton of fun at their upcoming party.
Don’t forget to pop over to Brittany’s Facebook Album to give her some love with your likes/comments!
Today I get to share a HUGE small business based right here in Decatur. Just this last month I had the privilege to photograph their 50th anniversary celebration complete with a open house banquet/dinner party and a Bose giveaway contest which all their attendees could participate. And I have to tell you that spending time with them over those two days of festivities I just LOVE the atmosphere they’ve cultivated. There is an attention to detail that I haven’t seen in a lot of places with trucks, a warehouse and offices that are pristine.
Being very goal driven myself I also loved seeing their goals for the year/month broken down and posted throughout the offices as well as their overall visions for each department displayed largely (like 8 feet tall guys) in their meeting room. There’s a pride and fellowship among the employees and owners that cannot be overlooked and it makes it a pleasure to work with them.
The Details: Skeff Distributing Company, Inc. | In Business: We’ve been in business since January 6, 1967. Over 50 years!
Hours: Office Hours are Monday-Thursday 8am-5pm, Friday 8am-4pm. | Location: We distribute to 5 markets in East Central Illinois: Decatur, Springfield,Champaign, Danville, and Taylorville.| Phone: 217-877-3774
Tell us about your business… What do you do? Skeff Distributing Company, Inc. was incorporated on January 6, 1967 to serve as the distributor for Anheuser-Busch, Inc. products. 48 years later, we have expanded our footprint to include the counties of Macon, Menard, Piatt, Champaign, Vermilion, portions of Logan and Christian, DeWitt, Sangamon, Moultrie, Macoupin, Montgomery, Morgan, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, and Iroquois in Central Illinois.
The company currently has 27 delivery routes in the Decatur, Springfield, Danville, Champaign-Urbana, and Taylorville markets to service around 1,800 customers. Team Skeff has expanded to include over 100 employees (both union and non-union) and distributes 70+ brand families.
What makes your business unique/special? Skeff Distributing is in a special position in business and industry because the product by its very nature is centered on good times and social gatherings. Not too many other businesses can say the same!
What tool/equipment/or other vendor could you not imagine doing business without? We could not do business without our suppliers, especially Anheuser-Busch our main supplier, or our customers. Without them, we would lack products to sell to our retail accounts and, by extension, their customers would have nothing to consume!
A few years ago I had the chance to work with Skeff for the first time to create the large (6 feet tall) red focal canvas you see in their lobby (pictured below). This was a fun and different project for me though I often design large pieces and collages for my client homes this was the first in a while for a commercial office.
One of the coolest things to see as a consumer is the massive Skeff warehouse with stacks and stacks and stacks (and stacks…..) of beverages literally as far as you can see! I know I take for granted the fact that I can walk into any grocery store or gas station and pick up my drink of choice… well this, my friends, is what makes that possible!
And you cannot overlook the amazing memorabilia that adorns nearly every space at Skeff. This is an amazing look back through this history of some of their main suppliers:
Lastly, I’m excited to share with you the Skeff 50th anniversary video:
Bonus Friday POST!!! I’m so ready to show off Abbey & Andrew to you guys that I couldn’t wait until next Tuesday for the usual post. These two were referred over by the Beasley’s and I’m so glad they were. We had a great time on quite a chilly fall day creating engagement portraits for them.
While I like what we created for them downtown (especially love that they showed up with Coffee Connection coffee in hand!) I absolutely love what we found/created down at Lake Decatur. Believe it or not we found all this lovely fall color at their DECEMBER session.
Check out how perfectly these two coordinated their outfits… heck even her eyes match it!
Since I knew when we pulled into the parking lot that the best color I saw was at the top of this very steep hill, I decided to make the best of that climb up and try something a little out of the box with a little silhouette image.
You can head over to their Facebook Album to give them some love with your likes/comments.
Better late than never… if you follow the blog closely you know posts come every Tuesday/Thursday and technically it’s STILL Thursday so we are on time (just a bit later in the day than usual). The snow yesterday showed up out of nowhere and was beautiful so my office time was put on hold to go create for a lovely family who has been excitedly waiting for the flakes to fall. So tonight I’m burning the midnight oil to catch back up on some things! And I’m so excited to share these siblings with you todaynight.
Amy came to me this fall to try to get the kids in the studio in a tiny window of time where they were all back home for Thanksgiving break. We had hoped to do both in-studio and some outdoor portraits since we’d had such unseasonably warm weather and low and behold the day of their session was the ONE day it was nasty and rainy all week. Well we didn’t let that stop us!
I love the classic and timeless look of low key (aka black background) studio portraits and it meshed perfectly with both their wardrobe choices. And a fun twist on this session was the recreation of the below ‘kissy’ image that the kids had done when they were little, I should have taken a photo of their original because I think we nailed it if I do say so myself!
Cut to wardrobe change to show off where the kids are in their lives right now with the boys in military school and this lovely lady about to graduate and become a doctor! We may have only hung out for about an hour but these three were delightful to work with and am so glad to share and show them off to you all today.
#meanmug ^^^
You can give them some love with your likes & comments on the Facebook Page!
Bonus Friday POST!!! I’m so ready to show off Abbey & Andrew to you guys that I couldn’t wait until next Tuesday for the usual post. These two were referred over by the 
