Newborn Braydon

I had the pleasure of photographing this adorable new little guy this morning. He had a bit of a rough start but now at a ripe old age of 9 days he is healthy and able to come into the studio to start his modeling career.

Here's one with his gorgeous mom.
Sweet Dreamer!
I have 2 more of the Newborn/Maternity offers left, so if you are expecting or know of someone who is hurry and give me a call to reserve your complimentary session.

Newborns

I had the privilege of attending an awesome photography workshop hosted by one of my favorite newborn and maternity photographers, Sam Puc. At this workshop she gave us tips and pose ideas to use during maternity and newborn sessions. Now the only problem is that I don't have any newborns or pregnant moms to practice on. So I am offering 5 free newborn or maternity sessions with complimentary prints included. The only stipulations are, the maternity session(s) needs to be done after 32 weeks (or for multiples whenever you have a nice round tummy), the newborn session(s) needs to take place before the baby is 14 days old (preferably before 10 days), and you must give permission to use the images on my website and in advertisement. Now if you know someone who is pregnant or has a newborn let them know about this special, if they mention your name I will give you a $25 gift card to use towards any future session.

I worked in the garden yesterday!

I have high hopes that in the next two years I can get my garden landscaped to my liking and use it for an outdoor studio. Last year I put in a shade garden, stone lined pathway, a retaining wall, cleaned out 2 of the old gardens and planted new perennials. This year I have cleaned up another garden and planted more perennials. We will be installing a picket fence around the shade garden, a privacy fence around the whole yard, reseeding the grass, and putting in a ton of new plants. On our list for next year is to tear out the kids old playset (they are getting a new one this summer!), and put a large garden with a waterfall and pond in its place. I'm not nearly as excited about this one as Bryan is, I know I will be the one to do all the upkeep on it.

While I was out working yesterday I noticed how cool the tulips and daffodils looked with the backlight from the sun, so I ran inside to get the camera and try to get some shots. I didn't get the look I was going for but I did get some pretty nice shots to share. If my neighbors saw me out in my backyard crawling around in the gardens I'm sure they thought I was crazy!

This first one I titled "I (heart) daffodils".

I'm not very creative when it comes to giving my images titles so these last three will remain nameless, unless you want to leave me a comment and help give them a title!


The comment section is just below where it says"Posted by Courtney..... 0 comments."

Click on the "0 comments" to leave your title for the above images. There just might be a prize it for the creative and brave person/people to leave me a note! HINT..HINT!!!

Cute quote

I saw this quote today and thought it was funny:

Photographers are violent people. First they frame you, then they shoot you, then they hang you on the wall.

LIFE has been crazy busy around here, with end of the school year projects and activities, ballgames and dance, doctor visits, hospital visits, more doctor visits I haven't even had a chance to get my camera out of it's bag. Poor neglected thing sits collecting dust, I'll try to drag it out today to spruce up this so called Photography blog.

My May calandar is really starting to get full so if you need to book a session please call soon!

We are back already.

We went in for pre-op yesterday and found out that A.J. has an infection so we have to reschedule her surgery. She was very unhappy as they had already started prepping here and now we have to go back at a later date to have all the painful pre-op procedures repeated.

When it rains it pours!

I posted about my husband and father's surgery's a couple weeks ago, Bryan's went well, but my Dad needed to be sent to Lincoln for 2 more surgery/procedures. He is home and on the mend now, although his recovery will be a little longer than expected. We are now getting ready for my oldest daughter's surgery at Omaha Children's Hospital. She will be in the hospital for probably a week and I will have limited Internet access so I will return all emails after I am home next week. I will have my cellphone with me so if you need to reach me please leave a voice mail and I will return your calls in the evenings or as time allows. And.. last night my second oldest daughter decided to jump out of a swing, landing on her foot. We spent yesterday evening in the E.R., looks like a bad sprain but we will have to keep an eye on it. She has a habit of breaking bones that don't show up on the first x-rays, so hopefully this one is only a sprain.
I am hoping this is the end of our "bad weather" days and everyone will recover nicely.

Adorable E-Session

I had a great time shooting this adorable couple for their engagement session, they were so open to letting me do my thing. I have a ton of images to go through still but I promised them a sneak peek, so here are my favorites so far.

Senior Announcements

I am running a last minute sale on all custom 4x5.5 announcements from now until next

Friday, April 18,2007.

Flat (2 sided) $27 (24 announcements)

Folded (4 sided) $45 (24 announcements)

This is a savings of over 40%, the only stipulation is all orders must be placed by April 18.

Out of the Office

I was busy with some family situations yesterday, my husband had dental surgery in Lincoln in the morning and my dad had surgery in Falls City in the afternoon, so I was away from the computer and phone most of the day. I will be returning emails and phone calls today, sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your patience.

Sneak Peeks!

Here's the sneak peeks from this weekend's Gone Fishin sessions.

I will have the remainder of the proofs ready in a couple of days.

1526 votes! Are you serious!!

I guess when I said ask your family and friends to vote you really didn't hold back!

Thanks for making Senior Idol 2008 such a great contest, it sure was fun to watch the progress of the voting. I will be contacting the winners within the next day or so!

Last Day for Voting!

Senior Idol Contest will end tonight at midnight, I will post the winners tomorrow morning. If you haven't voted, then Come on Down (said in my best price is right voice!), and don't forget to send your family and friends!

I apologize to anyone that has tried to reach me over the past couple days, I had a bit of the stomach flu and have been down for the count. I finally ventured out of bed yesterday to answer emails and will be returning phone calls today. Thanks for your patience!!!

What photo blog would be complete without a new photo, so I'll share with you another digital painting. This one will be printed on canvas and hanging in my office soon!

One more 2008 Senior

I was able to squeeze in one more 2008 Senior, although I do have a little more time if there are any other's still needing them before Graduation. He was a great kid, very easy to work with, he even obliged with his mom's request for a smile and a shot without his ballcap on. He will be going off to Marine's bootcamp after graduation, so I want to thank him for volunteering to protect our freedom.

Gone Fishin'

April 3-6

$25 session fee

includes 30 minute mini session

2 5x7's

8 wallets

call 239-8922 to book your session

2008 Senior Idol

I had a wonderful second year of Senior Sessions, these were great kids and so much fun to photograph. I had a blast with each and everyone of them, and I hope they enjoyed their sessions as much as I did. We had sessions with great weather, one with wind that about blew us over, a couple that we got a little wet during and some in the gorgeous (freezing) snow! I was able to go to locations that were absolutely beautiful, and I am thankful for the owners of several properties for allowing us to use their great "secret" spots! Let me tell you, I had such a hard time narrowing down my favorite image of each senior, most sessions I had 2 or more favorites.

Please take the time to vote for your favorite senior image!

The winner will receive their choice of an 11x14 or 10x20 collage. Second place will receive a 5x10 collage and Third place will receive a set of wallets. The contest will run until March 31, 2008, so send all your friends and family to vote!

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Voting has ended, thanks for your participation!

New light, new dresses, same cute little faces

I finally bought the new light that I have wanted for my studio and wanted to practice so I asked if my sweet nieces would come model for me. I had these dresses that I bought hoping to do an outdoor summer session with them, but figured I better use them for this session as Allie is getting so big I don't know if she will fit into them then. The dresses are from an awesome little online store called Scarlett Stitch (http://www.scarletstitch.com). They have some of the cutest patch work dresses and bloomers, which would be adorable for an outdoor session this spring (hint, hint!!). They also carry boys clothing, more of a vintage look, but very cute for portraits.

March Madness Sale!!!!

$10.00 Session Fee

Pay only $10.00 now and use it for any regular

children's session through May 31,2008.

I am also going through my old files and cleaning up my hard drives and would like to extend an offer for any of my past customers to purchase their files so that I can gain more storage space.

$100 c.d. of digital files with copyright release

available for 2006-2007 regular sessions

(children or family sessions only)

Offer good until March 31,2008 after that all unordered images will be purged.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Some of you may have watched a segment that aired last week on The Today Show featuring a photography charity for families experiencing the death of a baby. I feel honored to be a volunteer photographer for this wonderful charity that offers photographic reminders of these children, something tangible that says "My baby was real, My baby was here, and My baby was loved".

To view the segment click here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23481435#23481435

For more information on this wonderful charity please visit their site:

http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/

Sweet as Sugar

I have been photographing this little sweeties' family for quite awhile now, but this was the first time Miss K was in for her own session. I completely understand though, I also had three girls close in age and my youngest only had 2 professional portraits made in her first year.

One More Day for Snowball Pickup

I had a good turn out for the pickup at The Flower Cart, but I do have quite a few packages still waiting to be picked up. I will be available on

Thursday March 6 from 4:00-8:00 p.m. &

Friday March 7 from 9:00 a.m-12:00 p.m.

Please call (239-8922) to get the address. Any packages remaining after this date will be mailed out with postage due via paypal, unless other arrangements are made.

Please remember call to set up an alternate time for pickup, as my house and children may not be presentable at all times! :)

I would like to thank Shari and all the ladies at The Flower Shop for loaning me the table in your shop and for passing out pictures and taking phone calls when I was not there!