Fun Families in South Dakota

I have a family I photographed a lot that moved out to an area near Sioux Falls, SD a couple years ago and they wanted me to come out and do family and children's portraits for them. Happily, I agreed and they were gracious enough to ask their neighbors if they would also like family pictures taken as well.
Luckily it worked out on that same weekend for their neighbors across the street so I got to meet this awesome family who had me photograph their adorable little girl, Allison.
This year, they had a new addition to their family, Anna, and she's such a good little baby. They wrote me to see if I'd be willing to come out again to capture some new memories for their wall, which I was more than happy to do and they also had me take pictures for another family member, her sister-in-law. So I got to take pictures of her two cute little boys that same day!
Turns out, I got to take pictures of the original family I used to photograph and another new neighbor as well! So I took pictures of four families that day! I'll be posting pics for the other two families soon. Thanks so much for being such great customers! I didn't mind the drive when I get the privilege of working for such wonderful people!

Nick

I had a blast taking pictures of Nick. I met his mom a couple years ago at an expo and she won my drawing for a free session... we ended up doing a family portrait so I got to meet all the kids... and now he's a SENIOR! Craziness! I love this family, they are all so friendly and laid-back so I knew we'd have fun.
Believe it or not, these were only taken a week or so ago and it was not one of the warmer days... it was COLD out that day!




Here's the reason I mentioned it was cold out... :) What a good sport!

Happy Halloween

Just wanted to share my cute little gobblin with all of you. He was the cutest little spider. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful last night and we were able to go to the Halloween parade and a bunch of homes trick-or-treating. I have my great friend, Deb Rohne, to thank for this cute pic of us at the parade.

Amazingly enough, I had a great studio session with him - all by myself, I was able to get these adorable pictures of him.
Here he is crawling like a spider should... only he has to keep his tongue out... in case any flies come by. That or it just helps him think.

This one I think he's thinking "Yeah, Mom, I KNOW I'm cute!"

How can you not give all your candy to a baby with a face like this!!

And one that's not so sweet... I think he's saying "Hand over the candy!"

Ah, yes, and for those of you who haven't heard yet... he's walking!! Only 9 months, and he's walking. I'm one busy mom... and I LOVE it!

Go Warriors!

So I was asked by Waldorf College, where I graduated from in '02, if I would take a group picture of all the Winter Sports athletes. I was thrilled, since I LOVE WALDORF! We had over 60 people in the one picture! Craziness. I'm telling you, it's not easy to shout directions to a crowd that big... especially from a wobbly genie lift cage. I was trying to sound in charge, even though I was ready to pee my pants!! :)
But we managed to get it done... then I got to go take pictures of the cheerleaders stunting... from a wobbly ladder! Seriously!
Alas, I'm still alive and can't wait to do it again!!

Professional Photographers of Iowa - Fall Conference

Last Sunday I went down to Des Moines to the PP of Iowa's Fall Conference to listen to some amazing speakers! My favorites were Bry Cox, Mindy Decker and Jaimy Yoder. Bry talked a lot about ways to be more creative and silence the "left" side of our brains. That's the side that's always judging the work we do... worrying about how technically perfect the image is, or if the client will buy it, and just let loose so that we can find something amazing!
Mindy and Jaimy are business partners that have a studio in Southern Iowa named Ovation Photography. They have come a long way in three years! Their images are so inspiring to me! Everyone they take pictures of looks good. They are creative marketers too, and taught us how to create facebook business pages... which, I had no clue how to do... even though I have my own personal profile.
I only wish I had a little more time to formulate a plan on how to use some of the new ideas I learned... as soon as I got back it was all about catching up on phone calls, emails and processing images. But I guess that's a good problem!!
Rebecca

Catching up!

Well, I'm pretty far behind on my blog posts, so I'm going to do a big post of some of the seniors I've taken pictures of lately. I wish I had enought time to write about each one of you individually, because you are all so unique and amazing! I feel lucky to have photographed you.
Enjoy!

Job Shadow

Sophia came over today to learn everything I had to teach her about photography... she's a junior and had to do a job shadowing for her class. I felt honored that she thought I had anything of value to teach her!! :) LOL!
I gave her all the pearls of wisdom I could conjure up and then sent her on her way... hope it wasn't a total waste of time (on her part, of course!)
I didn't let her go before I tortured her by taking her picture! She wasn't real crazy about having me post anything about her coming on my blog, but I twisted her arm until she folded!
Poor girl, didn't know what she was getting into. He he ;)
Isn't she beautiful!?? I hope I get to take her senior pictures next year.