Goodman Kids

If you follow the blog, you've seen this family before. I did Mom's maternity session when she was pregnant with Ally, and Ally's newborn session, a Couch in the Leaves session last fall, they had some United Way images as well.  I just love this family!

This time I got some serious personality from the kids :)

Hayden

Meet Hayden,
I met his mom through the United Way shoot when she came in with her friends from work. What a cool family they are! Mr. Hayden was super smiley and just an awesome kid in the studio. So here are some sneak peeks for 'ya :)

Caroline

Caroline's mom brought her in for one year pictures. She was suuuuuuch a ham and was a dream to photograph. She was just an angel!


 What a beautiful rocking chair they brought in. I just love that she is sucking her fingers on this one :)

 Look at her little sandles!

Van't Sant Family

Meet the Van't Sant Family!  They have a beautiful family farm just outside of town with a gorgeous yard with lots of areas to do pictures, so we wandered around the yard looking for pretty light and a place to hide from the c.r.a.z.y. wind that day :)  We shot between the wind gusts and got some great images!

Van't Sant Family

This is one the beautiful Van't Sant families I photographed almost a week ago. This family brought along their beautiful tractor and we got some great pictures. The location was awesome, the tractor was great, the family was dressed in really nice bright colors AND despite the terrible wind out in the country, they found a little place out of the wind so we weren't fighting the wind like crazy while I was shooting the other Van't Sant family :)  Win Win Win!
Here are some of my (and their) favorites!

Crystal's Maternity

You've seen Crystal before a couple of times before; her husband is deployed right now, you saw pictures previously of his goodbye ceromony a few months back.  Crystal is due here soon and wanted maternity pictures to show her husband.  She got professional hair and makeup done by Alexis Hanselman of Southern Charm Salon out of New Sharon, Iowa. Alexis (Allie as I call her) rocked her makeup and made Crystal look stunning!

Crystal's blue dress along with the location I chose earlier in the day rocked! I literally drove by this place and was in awe and asked Crystal if she would mind (it is quite public near a busy road) and she was a trooper and didn't mind at all. When Crystal showed me her blue dress when she showed up to the studio, I knew it was a the perfect color and location!

I will save you the pictures of what I looked like after I layed in a giant nest of cockle burs taking the second image I posted.. It was awful. LOL.  But I have to say, I was loving what I was seeing in the camera and didn't care too much!

Crystal is also one of my Maternity Spokesmodels and is trying to win a big prize based on new customer referrals, so if you know Crystal, ask her about Forever Photography!

Tulips

I had to go to Pella yesterday, so after my trip I decided to photograph the tulips. We have had a weird weather year this year, a very warm winter made them come up a few weeks earlier than normal, then we had frost, and storms last weekend and it has taken it's toll on the tulips, many are at the very end of their life cycle, but they were still pretty anyway!

I edited these with a little bit of a vintage artsy look. I love it!

I processed this one as 20x10 crop (my favorite size for special images)





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Wouldn't these make a wonderful gift for Mother's Day? *hint hint!*

One Year Ago....

I'm going to try to start a new segment on my blog where I blog a picture from a year ago, just so I (and everyone else) can see just how much I have grown as a photographer. I think this will be fun!

So, from April of last year.... This is William. I have this image hanging in the studio now, it is one of my favorite images I have taken. I didn't have studio space last year, so I rented space and set up a backdrop stand and lights for a few hours. I say I, but I really mean my clients helped me setup and my husband and kids did too. I couldn't fit the backdrop paper in my car so my husband had to drive it up to the space for me in his truck. I rented 3 hours at at time which gave me time for two sessions and tear down and set up for the day and it was crazy packed time in there. But that builds character--right? :)

Oh Lookie--even an old watermark. LOL. Look how far the logo has come in one year :)


Thanks for looking :)
Kelly

What is....

What is a mini session?

A mini session is for the client who just needs a few pictures, but doesn't want a ton to choose from. Mini sessions are only different from a full session in the amount of time it takes to shoot them and the amount of proofs you get to choose from.

Mini sessions take about 30 minutes (give or take) and you will have approximately 12 proofs to choose from.

Mini sessions are not available for newborns.

best friends

Ahh. My muse and her BFF. I needed some inspiration and some fun and to shoot with no expectations this weekend so I asked my muse and her stuck-like-glue bff if they wanted to be models, they both jumped at the idea and were ready to go. I had a location and some things I wanted to try :) But we were crunched for time, so I just ran a curling iron through the girls' hair, put in some hair clips, and we left. The girls had a blast, as did I , I shot at a challenging time of day for me and at a challenging location. I love that some things turned out, some didn't and the pressure of the things that I wanted to turn out that didn't made me even more stubborn-I will try again for those things! And hey, I'm not ashamed to admit that not every idea I had worked out for this shoot. That's what keeps me expanding and growing as an artist.

I also tried a different editing style. Very vintage and summmery. I played with the haze of the sun and had some fun. I will tell you, I love shooting into the sun. :)

My Grace.

BFF's.

"little" Grace as I call her. Little because she is younger. Last year, when "little" Grace grew out of her clothes, she gave them to my Grace. This year, they are the same size.

BFF's. Stuck like glue.

Family....

Ashley won a contest last month on my Facebook page and won a free session. She brought her family in and it was a beautiful evening out, so we did some pictures behind the studio and then come inside for some once it started to get dark out. It was so nice to meet her and her cute little family!

Wow! what a difference a few weeks makes, it is super green out now and there are leaves growing in on the trees now..