Thursday, July 26, 2012

Hailee's Summer Senior Pictures

I had another great Senior session this week!   ...and best yet, it was under 90 degrees!  Woo hoo!

We met on the campus of Heidelberg University (one of my favorite spots).   We had a great time... well, once we got past all the construction going on!  There were all kinds of construction vehicles and workers on campus that morning.  However, the work was being done in the parking lots and on the city street, so we were able to find plenty of great spots to shoot photos.

I met Hailee for the first time during our pre-session meeting.  I knew we would have a fun shoot.  She is a sweet, gentle girl with an amazing smile!  Hailee's mom and my mom work together... with pre-school students.  God bless both of them because I can't imagine spending a couple hours with a group of children who are 3 - 4 years old.  That requires AMAZING patience and well, a very special kind of person.  Hailee's mom and my mom do incredible things with those little people and I admire them (and even though I teach small children, pre-schoolers are in a class all by themselves!).

I am posting a variety of photos from my shoot with Hailee.  Some are the clean edits while others are more artistic.  I always have so much fun playing around with the artistic effects after I finish the clean edit.  Sometimes I like the artistic version better than the clean edit!

I know you will enjoy looking at Hailee's pictures... she is such a beautiful girl - inside and out!






























Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Rain Dance...

The title of this post has nothing to do with what you are probably thinking... no one is doing a DANCE to make it RAIN (although maybe the farmers around here feel like doing just that).  What I'm referring to is the theme and day my niece and I decided to get together for a fun little photo shoot.  She is a DANCER and the morning of our photo session, it was raining!  It hasn't rained for quite some time and everything around here has been HOT and DRY... so, we honestly couldn't complain about getting a little MUCH needed wetness!  We were just hoping it would stop so we could take a few photos! :-)

My niece has been dancing since she was 3 years old and is quite amazing.  We've been wanting to have a girl's day for photos, lunch and a little shopping for quite some time and finally found a day we were both free.  While it was raining on and off throughout the morning, my niece didn't mind at all.  We just jumped in and out of the car or took at break at my house when it was too wet to get out.  Despite the weather, I managed to get some INCREDIBLE images of her wearing some of her beautiful dance costumes.  She does many different kinds of dancing and has a variety of costumes for each style.  My favorite this year was the black swan ballet costume.  It is beautiful and she is so stunning in it... so, of course, I took a LOT of pictures of her wearing it!!

When I downloaded a few of the photos, I was shocked at how AMAZING she looked in the image...  not because I didn't think she was going to appear gorgeous (I already KNEW that), but because the images almost looked fake... like I had used photoshop to place her image on a background.  That is just not the case!  She REALLY CAN do the amazing leaps and jumps you see in the photos below.   ... and yes, we really were just hanging out in my neighborhood and downtown Tiffin taking dance photos.

I'm completely biased, but I think these images are some of the best I've done.  Mainly, because my subject is just an incredibly beautiful person.  She just also happens to be my niece and my goddaughter... lucky me!!

I hope you enjoy the lovely images.














































Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Keifer's Senior Pictures

The summer continues to be a HOT one... and the day of Keifer's Senior Picture session was no different.  I arrived at his home early in the morning and was greeted by Keifer and his mom.  Last summer I photographed Keifer's cousin and, while I had previously met his mom, this was my first face to face with Keifer.  What I found was a very intelligent, gentle, handsome young man.  It was really a joy to photograph him!

We began with some photos around the house.  Cute little kittens were scampering around (and even tried to get in some of the photos).  I did snap a few of him with his dog.  It was easy to see that the animals love him!  After some "warm up" shots, we headed down a path behind the house into a woods with a creek.  Keifer drove his 4 wheeler, so I had to snap a few shots of him on the vehicle!  I took one look at the creek in the woods and I'm sure I had a HUGE smile on my face.  The location was incredible!!  Sun was shining through the trees on to the water making it sparkle with light.  The creek was so low, we could walk out into the water or stand on rocks scattered around.  It was MAGICAL!  I asked Keifer to stand in the water, on the rocks, squat down,  hold on to branches, sit in the grass... and he was such a good sport, he did everything with a smile on his face (well, unless I told him NOT to smile)!

Keifer's mom was such a big help during the session!!  It's always great for me when I have an "assistant" to grab the step stool or haul my blue chair around.  I sometimes get so focused on the creative part of framing the photos that it's really helpful having an extra pair of hands to drag around the props!  She was wonderful... and we were both feeling the heat (it didn't seem to bother Keifer a bit).

At the end of the session I realized that Keifer had wanted a few photos wearing his sunglasses... so I grabbed my camera and we took a few more.  I don't think his mom will be using them for his graduation announcements (smile) but they are pretty cool!!

I hope you enjoy viewing some of the photos from my session with Keifer!  I had a great time working with him!!

*To view the photos slightly larger in a slideshow, just click the first photo and use your arrow keys to scroll through.

















































Sunday, July 15, 2012

McKinley is ONE!

Last year I had the honor of photographing this little girl as a newborn.  She was absolutely precious and is now one year old.  When her mom asked me to take her 1 year photographs, I was really excited.  Miss McKinley is such a bright, inquisitive, adorable little girl.  I knew it would be fun taking her pictures.

We met at Hedges Boyer Park in Tiffin.  It was a bright morning with some hazy clouds to help filter the sun.  It was also under 90 degrees, so it felt downright "cool" compared to my last session (106 degrees!).  McKinley arrived looking alert and ready to "play" at the park.  As a newborn, I was amazed at how intensely she would observe her surroundings... and she has not changed a bit.  She has these enormous blue eyes that are not only incredibly stunning, but are always looking around, taking in the world around her.

I took photos of McKinley all around the park and she was absolutely wonderful.  At only one year old, she sat, stood, was held, climbed on the playground and finally, feasted on birthday cake without becoming cranky at all!!  Our session lasted almost 2 hours and she was a joy to be with the entire time.

Her mom had planned ahead to have me photograph McKinley eating her first birthday cake.  She had never had cake before (or frosting), so we were all excited to see how she would react to all that sugar.  Well, Miss McKinley LOVES frosting... once she figured out that you EAT it.  The cake, however, she rejected and spit out (smile), then dove back into eating more frosting.  Her parents and I had a great time watching her experience all the SUGAR for the first time.  I asked her mom to email me so she could share McKinley's post-sugar reaction.  The result was a 2 hour nap!  I guess she had a sugar crash!

During our session I also did some family photos.  This little family is a joy to photograph.  During our newborn session, they were so relaxed.  I was impressed because they didn't seem like "new" parents.  This session was no different.  I love when I can capture a happy family and McKinley is certainly part of one!!

I am posting a large group of photos from this session.  There were just so many incredible images, I couldn't decide what to leave out.  You will notice that I went a little crazy with some artistic effects and have posted some of those instead of just the clean edits.  It was so much fun to play around with the images after I had done my basic edits.  I hope you enjoy the "artistic" versions as well as the traditional clean edits.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope Miss McKinley made you smile!!

*If you click the first photo, you can view them all slightly larger as a slide show.  Use your arrow keys to scroll through. :-)