And we've been published... sort of.. :)

Last year, I arranged to do a shoot with the gorgeous Ashley Sickels. I had found the perfect space but it was 4 hours away and in a city where I barely knew anyone. So I got with some other photographers and we were able to get into the space I had seen and loved! The space was dirty, grungy, and full of texture. From the moment I saw it, I wanted to do a trash the dress in it.

I purchased the perfect dress, picked out the perfect jewelry to compliment my vision, and let the girls at Hy-Vee in Oskaloosa run with any kind of bouquet that matched a bag of inspiration I took in. I also lined up professional hair by Abby Bowker of Expressions Studio, and Racheal Ebelsheiser did Ashley's makeup before we left town.

Ashley was a trooper, her dress was strapless and it was cold.. By cold, I mean we could see our breath in the space. Seriously.....

Fast forward a year, Brandi (one of the other photographers who had access to the space I wanted to shoot in), sent in a few of the images she had taken at the shoot to a magazine. We found out a few weeks ago that it had been published on page 7 in Celebrity Hair Style Magazine, Wedding Edition which officially hit news stands today!

Check it out--page 7! And a decent sized picture!

While none of my actual pictures got chosen (none of my pictures were submitted) I am adding a few of them to this post. I love the pictures we got that day!!

Thank you so much to everyone that was involved!


I know these next few poses are very similar, but Ashley was so beautiful, I couldn't decide what to post. I think she is smoking hot in all of them. By this time in the shoot, the ever so smiley Ashley was actually able to pull off a really nice serious look..


I added texture here for some added depth.


um, yes, that's a dead bird on the floor. 'ew!

An old elevator shaft that had been sealed off (dont worry, we didn't put her in harm's way )

My favorite images of the shoot... Love the textured walls.

Again, thank you to Ashley, Brandi, Abby, Racheal, and the girls at HyVee floral in Oskaloosa. They all did a fantastic job with my vision.! I couldn't have done it without you guys!

Allie's Trash the Dress

Let me start off.. I think Allie and I are long lost sisters... I work with her mom and I truly think I belong to their family. When I got the idea for this shoot, Allie was my first choice. I sent her a message on facebook asking her if she was interested in modeling (but didn't give her much for details) was "me, a model, I think you have the wrong person." When I told her the details including 4 wheeling and mud and high fashion, she was completely on board! This was right up her alley.

And boy, was she a trooper, it was overcast, cold and windy this morning and she came out we did high fashion stuff. After she nearly froze to death we decided to go inside and warm up, after a break we hit a few more places and ended up trashing the dress. Thank God the weather got warmer this afternoon--it was actually really nice!!

A special thank you to JMG)J Western Exchange, she provided the beautiful necklace Allie is wearing in the shoot. Also thank you to Cyndy (Allie's mom) for providing the dress. It was nice of her to let us trash one of her scrap dresses.

Trash the Dress....

Yesterday, Ashley Milburn and I ventured into the great white to visit some photographers I know in Burlington, IA. I had visited this location a few weeks ago and decided I just HAD to do a session here, no matter how far away it was! So I asked Ashley to model for me and she was a great model, even in the frigid weather. The place we went wasn't heated just an open floor plan on the 3rd and 4th level of the building. Needless to say, we all could see our breath while talking--yeah, it was that cold! The theme for this shoot was Trash the Dress. However, I must say, you don't always have to trash it, we just didn't worry about getting it dirty. This time the dress is completely salvageable and could be worn again. It is actually a 2nd generation trash the dress, it has been used before by another photographer. It was *almost* too pretty to get dirty.

I had multiple sponsors for this shoot and I'd like to take the opportunity to thank them all. Hy-Vee Floral did the flowers. I just handed them a sack of inspiration and they put the bouquet together for me. I told them it couldn't be ordinary and it turned our absolutely spectacular! Abby Bowker from Expressions Studio did the hair, Ashley's hair was inspired by country singer, Kelli Pickler's, hair. Abby rocked the hair! Racheal Ebelsheiser did the makeup, she rocks too, I emailed her the dress pictures and flower pictures and told her to work with the colors, she had full rein to do whatever she wanted. Ashley looked stunning!

Brandi was another photographer who shot with me yesterday: "Brandi"

Here is a great picture of the flowers.

Trash the Dress....

I have always wanted to do a trash the dress session. If you're a loyal blog follower, you've seen Tricia before (my assistant, Dana, and I did Tricia and her fiance's engagement pictures).

A very special thank you goes out tonight to Doug's 4-wheeler. They were gracious enough to let us shoot there tonight. I even overheard one guy say to another.. "now I've seen everything" Can you imagine how hilarious we looked? Oh well..It was worth it!

After we had gotten the dress a little dirty at the junkyard, we went to the river to really trash the dress in the water. I have to say, I've never thrown mud at a client before.. That was a little bit fun! Let's just say--we attracted attention. We had fisherman whistling at us, and even some random onlookers who just had to come by and get a closer look and even a car with a few gentlemen who watched most of the session..

Love this one..... love love love!








In the water..Oh and she said the water was cold.


look carefully at all the mud!


America's Top Model pose? I like!


An artistic gun shot..!






It was a dramatic finish...