Last weekend was Joshua and Karyn’s wedding. Karyn was a beautiful bride! I loved all her long curls. She said it took over 2 hours to do her hair. It was an early wedding, so she started at 6:15 in the morning! Boy, I thought I had to get up early!

Here is her beautiful Dress:

It was so Windy out! We did a few outside pictures, but it was soooo cold and windy! Her is a picture to show the wind!

I love to take a picture like this. Josh and Karyn were so fun. They loved doing the fun stuff that I like to take pictures of!

Here is another outdoor one.

There was also a beautiful window that we did some nice natural light pictures by. I love this one of Karyn.

And finally, the ceremony. The point of the whole wedding. This is one of my favorite views of the ceremony. I took this image on the ground. Karyn requested this one for her wedding.

Congratulations Josh and Karyn! May God bless you in your new life together!

I am still doing a few seniors for this school year. I had Alex last week. Alex plays the guitar, so we had some fun with that. He also serves in the National Guard, so we did some pictures with his guard uniform. Thanks Alex, for serving our country at such a young age!

On Wednesday I went to DeVos Children’s hospital and took portraits of the kids. It was an awesome day. I volunteer for Heartworks, a non profit organization that takes pictures of children with long term illnesses. So, if children are in the Hospital long term, or have an illness that makes going to the photography studio hard, they can get their portrait taken. For some children, these are the only portraits that they have taken.

People ask if it is hard to do, or sad. Well, it is incredibly rewarding. It is so fun to play and have fun with these kids. For a lot of them, it is a fun time in their day of hospital stuff. We have some dress up clothes for them, so they can be cowboys or princesses. We try to hide the fact that they are in the hospital. The cool thing is that all the images are edited, to remove signs of the Hospital. Tubes and wires can most likely be taken out digitally, so there is no evidence of the hospital. It helps show who the child is, not what illness they have.

Children who are well enough come to our “studio” that we set up in one of the rooms. Then they put on jean jackets or other things over their hospital gown. Children who are not well enough to come to our studio, well, we go to them. We bring along a few things and go to their bed.

There are so many things that are so cool about this. This program is for kids of all ages, birth through 18. They don’t have to be terminally ill, like some of the other programs that are available. The images are printed and mailed to the parents free of charge. It is so wonderful for the parents to have pictures of their kids that would not be possible if not for this organization. I am glad that I can use my talent to bless others!

So, if your interested, check out the heartworks website here!

Fall is here… and almost gone! Winter will be here before we know it. Fall is a beautiful time for outdoor portraits. The only problem is that it is usually cold! I took portraits of my own kids this week, and also for the Gwasdacus kids. God sure paints a wonderful backdrop!

It was actually sprinkling a little bit when we took Sophie and Jeffrey’s portraits. It held off just enough that we were still able to do it… but their mom will have to get a HUGE bottle of oxi clean to get the mud out of Sophie’s pants! I hope they come clean!This is my favorite one of Jeffrey. It was impromptu. After we were done with the session, he wanted to climb this tree, so when he got up, I took his picture, and I love it!

We decided to take Mazy (our dog) along for our pictures. Actually, it was the kids’ idea. She did very well! I was surprised. She hasn’t been anywhere except the vet and the kennel in the last 6 years. (Except for when she decides to bolt out the door and run the neighborhood.)

Alex wanted to take this picture in the tree, so she set this one up. I kind of like it! Too bad Mazy couldn’t climb the tree!

Just when I think that I am slowing down, I have a busy week. This week wasn’t full of customer sessions, it was busy with all the other part of my job. I finished the commercial work for my husbands company this week. That was a a big job! I drove 200 miles on Wednesday, wrapping up the job sites that they wanted photographed. Then I had to edit them all. I had a lot of orders this week too. I hired someone to help me with ordering and packing orders, so I trained her this week too. All that stuff takes time!

There was no school this week Thursday and Friday for the Christian Schools, so I had a couple seniors during their time off.

Mark had his session on Thursday. It was the most chaotic session I ever had. Right when Mark got here, my dog had made a mess on the carpet. As I was trying to hurry and clean that up, someone else knocked on the door, to pick something up. Then the phone rang, then my kids started fighting….. AGGGGHHHHHH! Mark was a great sport about it. SORRY MARK! Finally, I got everything under control (while Mark was patiently waiting) and we were able to do his session. It is funny how people are different. Some people look better smiling, and some people look better more serious. I like Mark serious. (Most mom’s like smiling though, so I always take both!) So, here are two of my favorite serious pictures of Mark.

On Friday, I had Jake’s session. Jake had a pet hedgehog! I have never actually seen a hedgehog in person, and I have never known anyone who has had one as a pet! The hedgehogs name is Toby. Toby is an albino hedgehog. We did some pictures with Toby and Jake inside and outside. Hedgehogs are very sensitive to the cold, so we only did a few outdoors, then put him in the warm car. It was fun! Now I can add hedgehog to the list of pets I have photographed! Thanks Jake!

One thing I love about photography, is that it covers every part of our lives. Just in the past couple weeks, I have done children, engagements, and a 90th Birthday Party! From newborn to 90+, it is all being recorded by photography! I have a couple more seniors this week and a wedding next week. I love that photography covers so many areas of our lives. I am blessed to help people be able to record and document this part of their lives for generations to come!

Here is CJ, a one year old that I photographed last week. One year olds typically don’t sit and smile for the camera. So, we spend time playing, to see if we can capture a little bit of their personality!

Here is a few from Rachel and Ben’s engagement session. I love to get to know the couple a little bit before the wedding. Engagement sessions help to do that!

And finally the 90th birthday party. It was also this Grandpa and Grandma’s 60 anniversary celebration. I think that is a wonderful testimony of marriage. To live to be 90, and to be married for 60 years! They fed each other cake, just like on their wedding! I think the hands of the elderly are beautiful. They say so much. They have been so many places, and have done so many things. They have character!

I am doing some commercial work for the company my husband works for. It is kind of different… being that I am used to portraits. This is a different type of photography. I am taking pictures of projects that the company has worked on, for their new website they are working on and for brochures. Yesterday I was out, and I captured a really neat image. It was the perfect day for a reflection. This picture is of a development that the company has worked on. To get a reflection image, there has to be a lot of things going right. It has to be sunny out, and it is better for the sun to be shining on the side of the reflection. It can’t be windy out, or the water is rippled. So, I was fortunate that I was in the right place at the right time for this one.

This was one more fun one I took. (Most of them aren’t too fun, just pictures of development.) This was at the new Metro hospital. My husband’s company is the Survey Company, that is why it is a picture of the survey stake.

Seth helped me write the stuff on my website. As you can see here, I am not that affluent. (Is that even the right word? My spell checker helped me spell it!) So, for him doing the AWESOME writing on my website, we traded for some portraits. Well, I finally got to do them yesterday. Elliot was a typical two year old! He was full of energy, and didn’t have much interest in getting his picture taken. In fact, not only did he not have much interest, but he even has a disinterest in it! But, that is how it always goes with two year olds. So, I followed him around the park, and got some pictures of where HE wanted to be! Fruit snacks are a great bribe tool I learned. (His mom had them, not me…. But I am thinking I might have to add that to my bag of tricks!)

I love this one of Elliot sticking out his tounge! I think his dad was sticking out his toung to make Elliot smile! Elliot’s mom kept saying “No, don’t stick out your tounge, smile nice!” Well, I think this one is so cute! I think it shows a little bit of his personality!

Don’t worry Emillee, I got one of him smiling too!

It was finally Max’s turn for his pictures. I did the girls pictures a while back, but I wanted to get Max a cowboy hat! I saw a similar image at my professional photographers meeting, and as soon as I saw it I thought of Max. I had to wait until I got the hat for him to take his picture. Well, here are my favorites from his session!