Mr. & Mrs. Jones

This weekend's wedding was, and I quote "Fantabulous"! A gorgeous couple, beautiful

weather, and a wonderful wedding party make for some awesome images. This first

image may be my current favorite wedding image, not very often do I get to photograph

so many diamonds in one shot!

Stunning!

Loved the bouquets, the pincushion what-cha-ma-call-its were so unique.

Is this cool or what? They had personalized Jones Soda Bottle's with images from their engagement session, with none other than Crumrine Photography.

The reception was held at the Liederkranz in Grand Island, which is just beautiful.

Next up: Images from the "Photo Booth" set up at their reception.

Miss Tayla: One Year

One of my favorite little babies is turning into a little girl. I always enjoy my sessions with adorable Miss Tayla, she is so full of expression. Makes for an easy session and adorable images.

She has a little bit of a ornery side too! I think she might have been doing a little victory dance, rubbing in the loss to Nebraska that we had just suffered the day before! Silly Girl!

White Christmas Mini Sessions Cancelled

I apologize for the inconvenience, but I have had to cancel the White Christmas Sessions. My daughter is scheduled to have surgery that week and with no other dates to work with I have had to cancel all scheduled sessions. I do have a few openings left to squeeze in last minute sessions before the holiday cut off. Give me a call as these sessions are sure to fill up quickly!

Three's a charm

Looks like three has become my number. Every session for the past week has been with groups of three children and this session was no exception. What a cute group of kiddos!

November Rain

My favorite season is fall, although I am always sad to see it go as I know it leads to the cold and dark winter months. I was outside on a little walk with Millie when I noticed how gorgeous the leaves were laying on the cold wet ground. I hope you can enjoy the fall colors even if they are no longer in the trees.

Recently I have been feeling a little like the words to this song. My husband has had an extended weekend and as much as I love him and want to spend time with him, he really drives me nuts!

"Sometimes I need some time...on my own, Sometimes I need some time...all alone, Everybody needs some time...on their own"

A little 90's music trivia- Name the group that recorded this song.

One Word

B-E-A-UTIFUL

I think I could photograph these beautiful children everyday and never get tired of them, they might not feel the same way though. These three are some of the most beautiful children I have ever seen, well behaved, and the camera loves them. I am thankful that I am blessed with some of the best looking customers.

Three's Company

I've been having a stretch of sessions that have included groups of three. Sweet little triplets and their three ornery older brothers, three adorable sisters, and then three cute siblings. Good things come in threes right?!

3x The Cuteness

How cute are these three?! I have been waiting for 6 months to get these girlies

in front of my camera and it was well worth the wait. They are so sweet and adorable, just look at them holding hands. My daughter came with me to help during the family shots

and we discussed which one would fit best in my camera bag. I think their parents would have noticed if one happened to come up missing, but big brother K was more than willing send one to our house. He even offered to get a carseat for us to use. Although I think he would have rather have gone home with us, as he made quite the friend in Mackenzie.

I'm not sure what's up with the resizing of images here lately, so I apologize for the poor quality. I will hopefully find out what it causing them to look so pixelated and get them posted so they look normal soon.

New Favorite

I found another favorite from this fun family's session, I think it may have

become one of my favorites of the year.

I meant to do that!

I ran across a great blog entry by one of Baltimore Maryland's premier children photographers, Blair Blanks, that I thought was very well written and to the point. As a photographer my portraits are my art and in the creation of art there are rules that we implement to make our "art" more appealing and "artistic". Blair describes a few of these "rules" and the reason why we use them. I have added a few of my own "rules" that I use quite often and wanted to share this with you.

1. “Tight Crops” – This means super close close-ups where often the face fills most of the frame of the image. These images are about the eyes, and often the top of the head is not included in the image. I meant to do that!
2. “Selective focus”- This technique draws your eye to what the photographer or artist wants you to see. Everything else is blurry and I meant to do that!

3. “Rule of Thirds”- The most boring position for a subject in a photograph is smack dab in the middle! I know, I know, not what you always thought, right? Trust me! There is a little something in design called the Rule of Thirds that we photographers often employ to enhance visual interest.
The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines (like a tic-tac-toe board). The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph. Aligning a photograph with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the photo than simply centering the feature would.
Huh? Trust me, your child does not need to be right in the center of an image for it to be a good portrait! I meant to do that!

4. “Not-So-Smiley”- So many of us have been brought up to believe that a smile is a requirement to make a great photo. So not true! I love a pensive look as much as a big grin. I meant to do that!

5.“Let’s Be Negative” – Negative space is when the subject is placed off to the side of an image and the rest of the image is empty—this is done for artistic impact. I meant to do that!

6. “Bokeh” -A photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field derived from the Japanese word "boke ぼけ become blurred or fuzzy". Different lens produce different bokeh, which is often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject. Guess what? I mean to do that.

7. “The Light in the Eyes” The hallmark of good portrait photography is good lighting, and the hallmark of good lighting is something called a “catchlight,” – a reflection of light in the eyes. I love big catchlights! I purposely position my lights for the best and largest catchlights, especially for close-ups. Flip through any parenting or glamour magazine and look at the eyes—what do you see? Big bright catchlights! A lack of catchlights leaves the eyes looking flat, dull and lifeless. I meant to do that!

Simply Adorable

It is always a pleasure when I get to see my little baby planners change and grow in front of my camera, from a tiny sleepy newborn, to a wide eyed 3 month old. I am super excited that I will have the privilege of seeing Miss Jazlyn at every stage of her first year.

Beautiful Family

Thank you for making my job easy, I'm not used to having family sessions with all adults who sit still and listen. Sure makes for a quick session when there are no 2 year olds to chase, even their dog was well behaved!

click on the image to view larger

Jillian- Take 2

Just a few from Jillian's outdoor session. What a gorgeous Autumn day we had, a little bit of wind but hey it's Nebraska. I should have all of your images finished in a day or so.

Coming Up For Air

I am in the midst of the holiday rush, sessions to do, images to proof, christmas cards to make, orders to place, oh my the list goes on and on. I am trying to climb out from under the pile of emails, so you will hopefully hear back from me today if you sent me an email over the weekend.

I wanted to share some images from one of my most recent sessions. I'm sure Mr. Busy's parents are afraid we didn't get any of him looking at the camera, but I can assure you that there are sooooo many adorable images.

Fall Harvest

I love everything about this session, the colors their mom chose, the gorgeous location, and a few of my favorite little people. With those conditions how could I not get a bumper crop of images to share!?! I will probably find a few more favorites as I begin to proof these but they were the some of the first images I pulled off of my card.

As always it was a joy to photograph your beautiful kiddos and Tim, it was a pleasure to finally meet you.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick...

Quick is the perfect word to describe gorgeous 1 year old Jack.

Don't worry mom I was able to get quite a few adorable shots, so all our hard work paid off!!

Sweetness is...

Three little angels.
I wanted to share a couple of the cuties from my Angels Among Us Mini Sessions this weekend, since I know their mommy's will be looking forward to the sneak peeks.