I Heart My Husband...

My husband knew I was going to be out of town for the wedding this weekend, so he went shopping for our 12 year wedding anniversary. 12 years, can you believe it? Anyway, he made a trip to the camera store and bought me a sweet lens. I have to say it makes my camera look so sexy.

Here are her stats... She's a 70-200 f2.8 us. She's known to be a top of the line wedding photography lens because of the range and the quality of the glass. She's 7.7" long without the collar (which I have on it all the time) so if I trip and fall the collar will get broken instead of my lens.. and yes, with my Stevens genes, I'm soooo klutzy) and 3.5 lbs. Let me tell you.. that's a lot of weight on the front of your camera..

Here's a visual..


Let me tell you a little story about this lens..
On my first wedding with Erik, he pulled this lens out of his bag and showed it to me. I'm sure my eyes got really big and he told me to take some shots with it on his camera, I could barely hold the camera level and twist the focus rings and the focal length ring--LOL. He told me he uses this lens a majority of the time, even when he's shooting people. I thought he was crazy. I'm 100% positive that 100% of the practice shots I took that night for him were blurry. LOL..

tonight, I actually got to get out and shoot a little with this lens, and I'm telling you, I must be a lot stronger than I was a year ago, because I could hold the lens up and fire off shots with it and they were spot on in focus. Holy cow. Now I understand what he meant, this lens is gold!

I'm not sure what made my hubby buy this lens for me, I had told him about it before, but it was a long time ago... He is the best husband EVER!!! I heart him so much. He won't let me take a picture of him to post on the blog though.. LOL.

I went to the Maskunky Marsh tonight at about sunset to take some pics with it. Got a cool sunflare shot.

Baby B!

oh my gosh.. isn't she gorgeous?! Baby B is two weeks old tomorrow and is one of my infant models and she was perfect, she slept most of the session! I was so spoiled, she made my job so easy.

In her mommy's arms.


her feet, her daddy's hands..




my favorite shot of the day so far.

Kathryn & Chris

I was a second shooter for this wedding yesterday in Pella at the St. Mary's Church with my friend Erik, from Inspired Images. Check out his blog too, he should have some stuff up from this wedding shortly. www.inspired-images.net I am shooting a bunch of weddings with him this year, so you'll see some more posts in the future with his name mentioned.

Kathryn & Chris are a gorgeous couple who had a beautiful wedding full of traditional colors and design. You could tell the wedding was planned out beautifully.

We headed down to the molengracht for some places to shoot and I found that I could spend hours shooting brides and grooms down there! Soooo many places to shoot!

I heart ring shots, so I tried to get creative with these.





Check out her dress.. Like I said classic. Helps that she's gorgeous too!


A great detail shot. Love this one!


some creative stuff.


you knew I was going to put a windmill shot in here.. right? what would a Pella wedding be without a windmill.. Oh, and a sunflare too.

Brad & Garisin

This is Brad & Garisin Hynick. Garisin doesn't know it yet, but he's going to marry my daughter, Grace. I let Grace look at the camera when I got home and she had the biggest smile on her face looking at his pictures. I'm just sayin....

Brad, I have no idea how you're gonna pick what pics to choose. I got so many great ones!

Sarah & Jason

This is Sarah Vanderhart and Jason Vos, they are a wedding couple of mine, and are getting married this summer. I had a great time shooting their engagement pictures. I am a city girl, so horses and farms are a whole other ballgame for me, but it was great to be out of my element a little bit. They had their dogs and their horses with them and I got some great shots. They are a gorgeous couple and you can really see their connection to one another.

aren't they gorgeous?

Baby and Child Portrait Contest...

My printer is having a contest and all of my clients will be entered into the drawing. They are giving away a range of prizes from $500-$5,000 in cash for winning photos. All of my clients ranging in age infant to twelve are eligible. I am also upping the ante and offering my clients a chance to win $50 cash if they book during the contest. I will pick the winner randomly on June 22nd.

The picture must be taken between now and June 21st, so get your appointments booked because appointment blocks are limited.

You may see these postcards around town, they have a bit more information about the contest on them, or you can give me a call.

Tutus!!!

Okay, I have been promising my friend Dawn Marie some tutu pics, so here they are. She is the maker of these tutus and some of my other supplies, and Grace is going to be used on her Etsy website. Here's the link to her site, she's also on the tab along the side of the blog "people I recommend doing business with" Dawn Marie's Website
www.oneofakindmaybetwo.etsy.com. Please visit her Etsy site and order some of her cool stuff. These sessions are so very much fun and I have 4 of these tutus in several different colors. This one is apple and pink.

Grace is such a good model when she wants to be. ha ha.. all it cost me today was a pair of sunglasses. I won't even tell you the story about yesterday and the mud on another the tutu (the mud she stomped there on purpose after she got mad at me..) Let's just say, today's a better day! These were taken uptown Oskaloosa, we were up in the alleys on the square.







this one's my fave of the set, I think I'm blowing this one up large for my wall!



this one is totally and completely grace, this is a charactor shot for sure!!



thanks for looking
Kelly-- Forever Photography