Merry Christmas!!!

Seasons greetings everyone! I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and safe travels as we go about our celebrating these next few days. Our family had a wonderful celebration last night and I look forward to Collin waking up this morning to open his presents. It is going to be a blast! I can't wait for him to unwrap his train set. He's going to flip! I'll try to take a few pictures ;) And if I can remember I will post some on here for my fans.
I love Christmas and I love Christmas Cards. Thank you to everyone that had me design their cards and thanks to everyone who sent me their lovely cards. I just adore any cards that have photos on them. They are so interesting and fun to get and save.
Here's a peek at our Christmas Card this year, in case you weren't on my list... which is getting longer and longer each year!!! Think I sent 150 this year!!! :)
But I love spending every penny! It's like a mini gift to all your friends. This year I did a cute square tri-fold so that helps explain all the different pages.
Well, better go... think I hear my angel waking! LOL!
Merry Christmas!
Becca

Christmas is coming!

Ho, ho, ho!
I'm really getting excited for Christmas. Mainly because it's finally in that time where it's too late to place orders to get before the holiday so I'm all caught up with work and have time to think about buying gifts and sending out my own Christmas Cards.
Speaking of Christmas Cards. I'd love to share some of the new designs I did this year with you. I wanted to share them earlier, but I didn't want to ruin the surprise for my customers who mailed them out to their friends who might be followers of my blog! :)
Here's a couple of my favorites. I just mailed mine out this weekend, so I'm going to wait till Wed to post mine on the blog for everyone.
Happy Holidays!
Becca
P.S. Plan ahead next year and you could have some really awesome Christmas cards too!!

Dancing with the Light... and Baby Grace

This weekend was awesome! I was down in Omaha, NE for a workshop called Dancing with the Light hosted by renowned photographer Michael Cerizo... http://www.cerizo.net/
He has been a professional photographer for 21 years and won lots of awards for his work... and he's a very talented businessman as well so there was tons of good information to soak up.
I really enjoyed the class and we got to do some shooting inside and outside in Omaha's Old Market that I'm excited to sort through and edit. I will share those soon.
First though, I have to share this little miracle named Grace. Her parents are the sweetest couple that I did engagement portraits for a while back. They were very excited to have me come to their home and do a newborn session.
It's so much easier for the parents of newborns when I go to them and I'm more than happy to do it!
Enjoy!
Rebecca

Aarin and Matthew

I love taking photos of these cute little boys. Their mom used to do professional photography and I know that she's perfectly capable of getting some great shots on her own, so I appreciate it all the more that she books sessions with me at my studio.
I know just how hard it can be to do a "session" with your own child. Usually they last, um... say, 5 minutes! :) And you're lucky to get one or two good shots and they're done.
When it's someone else directing them that's not mom, they seem to be a little more tolerant... funny how that works. LOL!
I totally believe in going to other professional photographers for my own family photos. It's so worth the money. Lots of people think I can do it myself, with a tripod... but what they haven't realized is that it's the interaction between the person running the camera and the subjects that makes for those amazing images. You just can't get the right expressions beyond the "cheese" smiles.
This past year we drove an hour and a half to meet our photographers from Kalona, IA in Waverly for our family photos and I ADORE the images Heidi and Troy from Studio U made for us. In fact, they're supposed to be coming today!!! I can't wait!!!
Back to these adorable boys... here are a few of my favorites from their session. I can't believe how much they've changed since I took their pictures last December.
Enjoy!
Rebecca

The Trytten's

It was a beautiful fall weather when we took the Trytten's family portraits the day after Thanksgiving. I really love the way this family coordinated their outfits. The colors really balanced out nicely with the greens of the trees behind them.
My favorites are the outdoor family photos... they were taken on the family farm and have a lot more significance.
The one tree that they posed by is called the "chain tree" because when their mom was growing up there that's where they used to chain the horses up. It's her favorite tree on the farm.
Now, granted it might have been a little nicer to do the chain tree picture in the summer or fall before the leaves fell off, but even without them it's still very special and with a family picture this big... coordinating all those schedules... it's something you just need to do when you get the chance and not wait for the timing to be perfect... because life is just too short to wait to take a photo like this!
We also went back to my studio and did a few shots with everyone dressed in black shirts that will be timeless. I love the picture of the four "originals" with their mom. :)
Thanks for asking me to do this for you, Mary!
Enjoy,
Becca

Eleanor

This beautiful newborn girl is the 10-day-old daughter of two of my favorite wedding clients, Danette and Kirk. I really enjoyed working with them back in 2005 and it was Danette's sister-in-law who was thoughtful enough to purchase a gift certificate for them to have a newborn session at my studio.
I'm so happy that Deb had that wonderful idea! I honestly believe that a gift certificate for work from my studio is one of the best gifts ever. Mainly because custom photography is truly a luxury that we don't buy for ourselves often enough... not because we don't want it, quite the opposite... because when we do splurge on it we love the images sooo much we want them all! But that shouldn't stop us from going and getting a few of our top favorites to update the walls. :)
And it's also because time just flies by so fast we just don't have the time to think of it ourselves. Danette and Kirk told me themselves that they would have never even thought about doing a session so soon... but just look at these images! They are going to treasure them for the rest of their lives... and their daughter will treasure them for the rest of hers... and her children... and it goes on and on.
The gift of photography is an amazing gift that will NEVER be thrown away or regifted! :) I promise!
If you know anyone that is expecting or just had a baby and you're in need of a great Christmas or Baby Shower gift... here it is!
Enjoy!
Rebecca

Easton

You might recognize this little cutie from about 7 months ago... He was the adorable little month old baby in the cowboy hat.
He's sure changed a lot since then! It was so much fun to have his whole family back in my studio. We even had really nice weather that day and were able to do some outdoor portraits as well.
They are a hunting family much like ours so it's only natural that they'd want to do some in their camo. ;)
Little Easty donned his own cowboy hat this time. I loved it when he ate his hat. He was just too cute!! Then we did a few more outfits inside... gotta love his bib overalls! And the Christmas outfit his mom found for him was perfect.
Enjoy!
Becca