The Neese Family

These are my dear friends I am visiting here in Charlotte this week. Michelle has been my friend since 4th grade -- for 20 years now! We only went to school together the one year in Minnesota. I remember riding the bus with her to school and singing songs. Then she moved away and we were pen-pals. I have over 50 letters from her from that time. We both moved numerous times and then when we were in high school she flew out to visit me each year because her dad is a pilot. Then I was in her wedding nine years ago. And since then she has had 4 kids. I've been doing the visiting the last few years and it's been nice because I have shot 4 weddings in the Carolinas now so each one is a good excuse to visit her. God has really blessed me with her friendship and used us in each other's lives over the years. We always have the best deep conversations about life. Anyhow... now that you know my life story :)

Today the kids were playing in the backyard--the weather is GORGEOUS here. And so I did some shooting and got some great shots of their cute family.

This is Gavin, the oldest:


Logan is next:


Rhiannon is the only girl:


And Aiden is the baby:


I love his chipmunk teeth:


Here's Brian and Michelle:


And a cute shot of the three boys:


I love this family. The kids are each so special and have their own unique personalities. My friend Michelle is an absolutely amazing mom. She blows me away. It's crazy to think about where we are now and how far we've come from the little girls who rode the bus together in 4th grade. Life is one amazing, unpredictable journey.

Introducing Tate

My friends Michelle & Haines, whose maternity shoot I did a few months ago, just had their little boy, Tate, on Saturday morning! He is 6 lbs and some change and 19 inches long. I got to stop by the hospital yesterday to meet him and shot a few photos while there. Oftentimes I don't find newborns super-cute but Tate is a cutie and I'm always so amazed at how tiny and soft newborns are.

Here are some of my favorite shots:



Blowing bubbles:


Angry-baby face:




SO sweet.

#78....check!

78. Take photos of my parents


Yesterday my mom came over to hang out with me during the day a little. She had just had her hair done that morning and looked so cute. So I said we should do a photo shoot with her and my dad on one of the days she gets her hair done and she said, "How about today?" So we did it! It was a little sad though cause it was SO windy so I don't think you get the full effect of the hair-cuteness. But look how cute my parents are together!! They are some of my favorite people in the world and this August will celebrate 33 years together. I'm proud of them for sticking through some tough times. They know the meaning of their vows, "in sickness & in health." My dad nearly died of a brain aneurysm 5 years ago and his recovery has been a long one. But he's doing well and we are SO thankful to be able to still have him with us.

We had fun taking some photos with my dad and both of his babies:


He loves his motorcycle. Yes, my dad is a hard core biker-dude.

Those of you who know him are laughing right now. He's a gentle-spirited electrical engineer nerd in real life but I think the motorcyle helps him feel like he's a little more on the cool side :).

He had so much fun with these photos:




Then we took some shots around Freestone park.





And finally ended up in old town Gilbert where we ate at the new Oregano's there--yumm! But we took a couple shots while waiting for our table.



Love you mom and dad! Thanks for everything you've done to bless me and impact my life!!

Two cute bellies!

Yesterday I got the chance to shoot what few photographers have had the chance to shoot - two sister's maternity photos! Emily Edwards, a wedding consultant that I love working with, and her sister, Jenny, are both due with their first child at the end of March -- only 5 days apart!! Emily is having a girl and Jenny is having a boy. It's hard to imagine anything cuter than that.

We had a lot of fun shooting at Emily's house and at a nearby park. Both Jenny and Emily were gorgeous and glowing:


Emily has stricking eyes -- check out this model shot :):


I had a lot of fun with the double-belly shots:



Both Emily and Jenny's husbands also got involved in the fun. Here's some of my favorites of Jenny and Tim. Tim was a goof-ball and made Jenny laugh a lot:





And here's some favorites of Emily and Brian - gorgeous!:




Finally we had to shoot some portraits of all four of the cute, expecting parents:



My favorite:



Thanks guys for this opportunity! I'm SO excited for you and can't wait to hear the news in March!

My favorite Christmas Cards

So I know Christmas is long gone for this year but I was taking down some of my cards and decided I wanted to share with you some of my favorites I received this year. Every year I receive cards from people with their family picture on them and it's fun because I shot them! I love to see the creative cards that people come up with using my photos. So if you have a card with one of my photos on it--make sure to include me on your mailing list--I would love to receive one and add it to my collection!

Here's the four I received this year (all very poorly scanned in):






I guess it's time to take down the tree now...

Worden Family Portraits

I have to say this is my favorite family I've ever done family photos for. Definitely NOT the easiest. But my favorite. This is my sister, brother-in-law and two adorable nephews. We've attempted family photos numerous times throughout the years and it's always more work than usual because Noah (6) and Elijah (5) are both autistic. Noah's gotten a lot better and will hold still and try to smile at the camera. But he's easily distracted and Elijah is usually the distraction. The boy won't sit still and won't look at the camera no matter what a loud fool I make of myself :). But I love them to death so we always do our best. Even though it takes a lot of energy, we always end up with some cute photos in the end. The best thing to do is keep moving. So we do things that are fun for the boys. Noah loves swinging:


And recently he's taken up basketball:



It's pretty amazing. The basket towers over him but he ends up making his under-handed shots a good percentage of the time. Here's some more cute shots of him playing:



And a cute one of Josh and Noah. Josh is so good with the boys.


Here's my sister taking Elijah down the slide:


After some fun on the playground equipment we went on the merry-go-round. Elijah lit up.



And finally we ended our outing with a ride around Freestone park on the train.


I love this one of Elijah. Poor guy was SO cold by this point.


And one last shot of the whole clan:


I love you guys!!!

The Merz Family

Well, I made it home. It was tough to leave. I love this family so much. Thursday we did some family photos. They were troopers because the temperature was in the 30s!

This is Shannon & Andy's cute house that I got to stay in for the past week:


My room was on the 3rd floor and had slanted low ceilings that mirrored the roof line. It's very homey and charming.

Anyhow, all of the portraits we did were in the front and back yard and we defrosted inside between groupings.

Shannon & Andy mainly wanted photos of the kids but I made them take some just the two of them. They make such a cute couple. They've been married for 13 years and together for 20!




Here's Madeline (8) and Grace (3) together on the front porch swing:


And I love this shot of Grace looking up to Maddy:


Here's dad with his girls:


And finally, individual shots of the three kids:




I miss them already! Thanks so much for a great week you guys!! Love you!

Haines & Michelle's Maternity Photos

Tonight I spent some time with my friends Haines and Michelle and shot their maternity photos! It was exciting for a number of reasons. For starters, this was my first ever maternity shoot so it was fun to shoot friends. Also, Michelle is a talented photographer who assisted me for over a year while she started up her own business and she was SO excited to do this shoot. She was giddy and so cute the whole time. Michelle is such a great person and always good for entertainment value--I always have a smile on my face around her. Haines is great as well. It's amazing how well they fit together. They're one of those "made for each other couples." Anyhow, they are expecting their first child in February. It's a boy! And his name will be Tate. It will be fun to meet him soon. ANYHOW...I'll stop talking now and share some of my favorite shots from tonight.

We started out in Haines and Michelle's home:



I can't believe what a beautiful pregnant woman Michelle is. She is glowing:


We then drove down to Freestone Park, one of my favorite spots for portraits, and had some fun shooting there. Although the grass is kinda dead, it was such a beautiful night and we got some great shots.








Thanks for dinner guys! I'm so glad you're in my life!

Cute Kailey

Today I got to spend some time with Teri, my best friend from high school, and her adorable little girl Kailey. It's always fun to hang out with them and recently I insisted on taking some photos of Kailey because she is just SO cute. I couldn't resist. Here are a few of my favorites from our laid back, "hanging out" shoot today:




Next week I get to do a family shoot with them so there's more cuteness to come!

Starting tomorrow, I'm shooting 20 hours worth of weddings this weekend. They're going to be great but if you don't hear from me after Sunday, it's quite possible that I dropped dead in the process. Just wanted to give you all a heads up :).

11 family portrait shoots

This weekend I logged 16 hours of shooting--a rehearsal dinner Friday, a wedding yesterday and 11 family portrait shoots today. The family portrait shoots were all a part of The Silverleaf Club's annual Family Portrait Brunch they hold for their members. This is one of my favorite venues for weddings, by the way--it is SO gorgeous. It was a crazy 4 1/2 hours but I met a lot of great families and got some great Christmas card shots :).

There were cute kids everywhere. Here are a few of my favorite shots:










These two cuties were stylin'. I love their colorful clothes:


The little girl was SO spunky. I had her and her brother in the above pose and then she gave me one of these:


I think she has a modeling future with all the poses she was coming up with :).

The wedding on Saturday was fabulous as well. Stay tuned...I'll post some of my favorite shots from the day and the slideshow in a day or two.

Orava Family Portraits

Yesterday I shot family portraits for Scott, Ginni and their little girl Jadyn. They are a cute family and we had fun walking around Freestone Park on an absolutely beautiful Fall day. It was the perfect day for a portrait shoot!

Here's a few more of my favorites:




Jadyn is just getting the hang of walking and she looked so cute in her pink coat:


Thanks Scott & Ginni! It was fun spending time with you yesterday!

The Hammond Family

The other day I got to shoot family portraits for my assistant, Jamie. She has two of the cutest kids ever. Blake is 3 and Tyler is 18 months. Blake was such a trooper with the portraits, trying his best and being very patient. Tyler was a little tougher but that's to be expected at her age. But I'm excited because we got some super-cute ones!

Blake is such a good big brother and loves Tyler so much. Check out the love:


And a few more of my favorites:






Thanks for everything you do for me Jamie! I love you and your cute family!

The Arthur Family

Last weekend I got the chance to shoot family portraits for the Arthur family. I had my hands full with 9 adults and 5 children all under the age of 5! It's always tough to get a shot with everyone looking at the camera, eyes open and smiling all at the same time. But we had fun with it and the Arthur family was great to work with. After we did a group shot and a few individual family photos, we all just hung out at the park, the adults interacting with the kids, and I got some great candid shots of the kids being themselves that are just precious.

Here's a few more of my favorites. Greg and Tracy have their hands full literally with twin girls and a little boy. They are such a cute family:




Thanks guys--you were a lot of fun to work with!

Swanson Family Portraits

Today I got to shoot portraits of some close friends. Scott & Julie have been friends of mine for over 10 years and I joke about moving in with them because I hang out at their house so much. They have 3 boys -- Hayden is 6, Sammy is 3 and Colton just turned 1. Julie is so brave to try to get photos of the whole family with three boys at these ages. It's a miracle if we ever get everyone looking in the same direction let alone smiling simultaneously. It was crazy! And she works so hard to get them ready and looking their best. She got Sammy all put together and then he showed us this:

One of the main reasons for this photo shoot was to get Dotey's one year portraits. "Dotey" is what Sammy first called Colton and it has stuck. Everyone calls him "Dotey" or "Doten" and when he finally goes to school and the teacher calls his actual name, I don't think he'll respond. He has no idea that "Colton" is his name. Boy is he a cutie:


Here's the whole family in the backyard:

And a miraculous shot of all the boys looking at the camera at the same time. Gotta love the matching shirts:


After everyone was all posed-out, we finished off the shoot with some fun rides:

David & Becky in SD

I just got home from beautiful San Diego and had such a blast this weekend with my friends David & Becky. They are a lot of fun and cooked yummy food for me and put up with me sleeping in their living room for four nights--thanks guys! Yesterday we went out to a beach on Coronado Island and had fun taking some photos.

This next one of the three of us took awhile to get. I set up my camera on a timer on a small wall about 30 yards from the water and then sprinted out to jump in the shot. I just got the back of me running a couple times and had to get faster :).


David & Becky are so cute together.





What a beautiful city--can't wait to come back!

Greg & Shannon

Tonight I did a portrait shoot with my friends Greg and Shannon. Shannon has been a great friend of mine for like forever--15 years or something crazy like that. She is great. And she has also assisted me at many of my weddings. She helps me with my equipment and computer stuff and just helps things run really smoothly--it's one of her many talents :). I love her and am so thankful for her. We had a great contentedly single club going for awhile and then Greg came into her life a few months ago and now I think I'm the only one in the club.... bummer. Greg is great--he owns all the seasons of "Friends" on DVD and is basically the boy version of Shannon. They are very cute together. I completely approve.

It was a fun shoot tonight. It's amazing what having a comfort level with each other does for helping the photos to be natural and amazing. That's why I try my best to get to know my clients before the wedding day. The more we know each other, trust each other and feel comfortable around one another, the better the photos.

Thanks for your friendships and a fun night Greg and Shan!