Amanda & Chet

I showed you all a sneak peak of the shoot with Chet & Amanda and now I am ready, after many hours of editing, to share the shoot with you! Yeah! I am always excited when I finish and send them to the printer! I print some first to make sure the color is good before I give them to the client!! It is just a matter of checks and balances with me that makes good business sense!

Now I get to tell you about the shoot itself!! They were so much fun to work with, laughing and cutting up which made it fun and easy because the smiles were natural and not forced! We joked around a lot and got to know Chet better since I have known Amanda since she was 10. This gave me more insight into his style so I could plan out some cool shots (sports oriented) for their wedding!!

The funniest thing we saw was a small animal trap with a note on it that read, "please do not let the cat out because I feed it every night"! Kind of struck me as funny! You wouldn't need to lock it in if you fed it every night because it would come back on it's own, I would think! We got a good laugh out of it considering the Chinese restaurant is right there!

Enough stories, here are some of my favorites from that shoot! Let me know what you think! And just so you know, there were tons of kissing shots! AAAAAAH, LOVE!

Sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak from last nights shoot with Chet and Amanda! I am not done but thought I would tease you all with the collage! You'll just have to come back to see more!

I AM EXCITED

I know that I am worse than a kid and I will not be able to sleep tonight in anticipation of my first shoot of the spring season!! I have prepared a shoot list and charged all my batteries and now I just have to wait which is the hardest part for me!!

This photo is from one of my last outdoor shoots last year!! It was taken the evening before Thanksgiving! This is Mark and his wife Jackie and they were home visiting for the holidays! He is a Marine and I cannot remember where he is stationed! I cannot wait to share some new stuff with you all!

Revised Shoot

So it looks like I will have my first Spring outdoor shoot on Thursday of next week and not Saturday which is really cool because there will be new faces to share with you all!!!! I have all these cool ideas that are dying to be shot (did I just make a funny)! Anyway, I am really excited to show some of the fun ideas I have!

For now, here is a shot of a really cute little guy! This is Dawson and he is 1 1/2! He was so much fun to chase after that it really did not seem like work at all! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Playing With the Remote

Photography is a lot of fun! Except, um..........well, you know............when the camera is pointed at YOU! And by you, I mean me! I have been experimenting with my remote and my tripod or a level surface and I just need to play to get it right! So here are some self portraits! Sorry for the scary subject!

Not Just for People

Have I told you that my photography is not just for people! I will photograph your animals too! By themselves or with the rest of the family! Pets are an integral part of family life these days that we need to include them too!

Just look at the love in those eyes! How could you resist?

One thing I hear lots of people say is that they are sorry they do not have more photos of a beloved pet who has passed. I know we feel this way about the pets that we have lost over the years! I even wish there were photos of pets that were in the house when I was a baby! I hear talk of them but have no memories of them at all!

If I can help immortalize your pets, just shoot me an email and we can chat!

Taking Inventory

This weekend will be spent taking inventory of my gear and taking pics of it all for insurance purposes! I have about $5000 in this little venture so far with more on my wish list! I wish I could have it all now but I can't so it will all come in good time!

Hope you all have a great weekend and remember to take lots of pictures!

Upcoming Shoots

I am really excited by spring and summer for a couple of reasons: #1 NICE weather and #2 time to shoot more photos in the great outdoors! Coming up in a couple of weeks I will be doing engagement photos for Chet and Amanda! He is a guys guy and she is a former beauty queen, whom I have known since she was, oh, ten or so! I have even been dreaming about this shoot and the good news is that I have remembered all the really cool ideas that I have for them! I will also be shooting their wedding in July! I cannot wait to share these beautiful people with you all!

If you are in Central Illinois and want to book a shoot, please feel free to email me and we can get together and have some photo fun! I am a fun person to work with and I am open to YOUR ideas, after all they are YOUR photographs!

My Journey

I am often asked how I stumbled into photography and I tell them it was not so much a stumble as a rediscovery! When my daughter was born I realized as I was taking pictures of her, that I had forgotten all about my passion for photography due to life and other jobs that demanded my time. Now, as a stay at home mom, I am able to persue my dream and share it all with you in the process! Join me on this journey as I shoot people in real photojournalistic style! My photography is created with you in mind, to capture the true you and not the get dressed up once a year you that people think they need to see in a professional photo! I want to capture the real you, no matter what the real you would wear! If you are not comfortable, your photos will be forced and unnatural! Keep it simple, be you!

So tell me what you think of my new space! I can't wait to show you the rest of my work! My conact info is in the sidebar!

My Purpose

OK, the purpose of this blog is to act as another venue for my photography! Here you will find my body of work and contact information and some fun stuff too but the main purpose is to showcase my work and give people another place to look at what I can do!

This blog is under construction so please check me out later! You can also check out my other blog Life's Perfect Pictures.