Mic, Macy, and Faith

So, one person I can always count on to throw a photographic opportunity my way when I visit home is my sister, Daryl. She has always been very supportive of me and now my photography business. And she's a great lighting assistant on my shoots in Doniphan, too.

This visit I photographed three of the little people in my sister's new family. (She got married about a year and a half ago) Mic, Macy, and Faith were a lot of fun to photograph. Macy was quite the little giggle box, at least until she got some of the bubble mixture in her eyes. She was pretty tough and didn't cry (I probably would have) but after that happened, she wasn't as chipper as she had been previously.

Probably, the most interesting part of that session, was the run-in we had with the mule that resided in the field we were shooting in. He watched from a distance for a while, but then I guess decided it was time for HIS close-up and walked right over to us.... and would not budge. Daryl kept trying to push him away, but he was definitely living up to his mule reputation of stubbornness. Finally, I told Daryl to wave the towel she had over her shoulder in his general direction, and she and I made some noise until he finally decided to go away. When he had walked a good distance away, he looked over his shoulder at us with what I would say was a pitiful look. Awwww, why the long face, buddy? BAHAHAHA! Get it? Long face? He's a mule! *cough Anywhooooooo....

Here's a look at some of the shots from the session:

Nici + Josh's Vintage Picnic Engagement Session

Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I certainly have been enjoying this nice, warm summer weather. Daniel and I have been taking advantage of it on the weekends, going fishing whenever we get the chance. I hope to spend as much time as possible outdoors this summer.

I have been editing pictures like a mad woman the last couple weeks and have made a pretty good dent in them. I know a lot of you are anxiously awaiting your finished photos. Let me assure you that I am working hard on them and trying to get them back as quickly as possible, but creating beautiful works of art does take some time. Please be patient with me.

So, The Notebook has got to be one of my favorite movies. I'm sure it's a favorite of many of you as well. It's one of those movies that makes you bawl like a baby, but you still love it anyway. We used that movie for inspiration for Nici and Josh's engagement session. This is probably one of my favorite sessions to date. We had many challenges along the way, such as the threat of rain, the smothering heat, and the millions upon millions of gnats that insisted upon flying into our mouth, eyes, nose, and ears constantly. But in the end we got some awesome photos and had a blast during the session.

We drove to Van Buren and started the session at Big Springs, one of the largest springs in the United States and the world. Since it was a Saturday, there were many people there (mainly grandma's and grandpa's wearing khaki shorts, and tall socks with sandals) and we had to fight for space to take any photos by the spring. Apparently, one of the grandpa's stopped to take a picture of Nici and Josh over my shoulder. haha. Needless to say, between the crowds of people and the black fog of gnats we didn't stay close to the spring for long. We made our way through the park to a nice quiet spot beside the Current River to set up our little picnic, stopping along the way to take some photos at one of the old log cabins.

Next, we headed into the town of Van Buren, grateful to not have to worry about eating anymore bugs, and took some great shots at this cute little motel. It looks like one of those motels in the movies where it looks so pretty and cute during the day, but then at night it turns into the stuff of nightmares. Anyways, I thought it had character.

We ended the session at the old Carter County Courthouse with a group of on-lookers across the street watching and laughing at us. When I had taken the last shot and yelled "That's a wrap!" jokingly, they all started clapping and Josh took several bows.

Well, I guess I'll stop rambling on, and let you all see some shots from the session. Thanks Nici and Josh for a fun time and being such awesome photo subjects! And thanks to Paige for assisting me!

Rebecca and Kyle's Senior Portrait Session

Hey everybody! Well, I've been back in Canada a little over a week now and I bet some of you have been wondering why I haven't put up any new blog posts on the sessions I did while I was in Doniphan. I've been a busy girl this past week, let me tell ya! Unfortunately, it's been the kind of busy where you work on something for hours and by the end of the day, you can't tell that you've done anything at all. So frustrating!

Everytime I leave for a week or two and Daniel gets to use his laptop (he never gets to use it when I'm home because I always have it. lol) it starts crashing all the time. I told him that his laptop has changed it's allegiance. It no longer likes him; it only likes me. Can't say that I blame it since Daniel is the one that gave a previous laptop of his a bath! Yes, Daniel, my techy, computer savvy husband dropped his laptop in the bathtub! Don't ask how it happened. He did manage to dry it out and it still worked for a while, but I don't think it was that long until it was replaced by the current PC.

Anyways, so Daniel had to back up all my files onto a separate hard drive, uninstall all my programs, and reinstall Windows. So, before I could even think about doing anything like editing photos or updating my website I had to reinstall all my programs and move my files back onto this computer.

The other thing that's been keeping me so busy this past week (also courtesy of my husband) is that my house is a complete and total disaster. Seriously, it looks like a hurricane (Hurricane Daniel) hit my house..... 5 times! How in the world did he ever manage to get along without me before? I saw his dorm room a few times in college and it was always spic and span.... I feel I've been deceived. Oh well, I love him to death anyway!

So, the first session I did was with two special high school senior cousins, Kyle Davidson and Rebecca Elliott. They are graduating from the same school I graduated from, West Point Christian Academy. I seriously can't believe that these two are old enough to be graduating. It doesn't seem that long ago that they were the two annoying boogers that were always pestering me and my friends on breaks. I'll stop myself before I get too mushy.

I'm really proud of these two! Can't wait to see what's in store for them!

Well, that's it for today! I'll try to post at least every other day until I'm up to date on my sessions. So, until next time!

P.S. If you've tried to comment on my blog posts before and couldn't, I think I've fixed that problem now. :)

Emma Grace's Entry Into The World

My visit to my hometown of Doniphan in November of 2011 is definitely one that I don't think I'll ever forget. Of course, I had a lot of fun visiting with my friends and family as I always do, but this particular visit was extra special. My very good friend, Paige, was expecting and was scheduled to be induced during my visit. Paige had asked me to photograph the arrival of little Emma, that is, unless she decided to show up before I got there. Hate to tell you this, Paige, but all the time you were praying for her to hurry up and get here I was praying for her to hold on and wait for me. Hehe.

And, WOW, did she hold on!!! Paige went in to be induced at 8 a.m on November 28. I got to the hospital at 10 a.m. and the waiting room was already pretty full of friends and family. By the afternoon, Emma still wasn't getting in a big hurry to meet all of us. 

One thing that I look forward to when I come to Missouri is the warmer weather and not having snow dumped on me until (maybe) January. But, no, it seems that Canada and Missouri decided to trade weather conditions this winter and it started spitting snow outside the hospital by the afternoon. And that "wintery mix" with "little to no accumulation" the weathermen reported turned into about 3 to 4 inches of the white stuff. Which for Southern Missouri is good reason to stock up on junk food, cancel all school, and hibernate for a few days.

By the late evening, Emma had an entire entourage waiting for her. We would take turns going to Paige's hospital room to see her and then come back to the waiting room to wait some more. Finally, by 11 o'clock that night it was time for Emma to make her entrance, ready or not! Paige was a real trooper (I told her later that she made it look easy), and at 12:20 a.m on November 29th, beautiful little Emma finally arrived. She had the sweetest little cry and I was so in awe of her I had to remind myself that I was there to take pictures.

After the nurses, got her cleaned up and brought back to mommy and daddy. Emma's entourage all squeezed into the little hospital room to take turns holding and admiring the new little addition to the family.

By 1:30, I was on my way home in the still very wintery weather. It was a very long and tiring day for me, but I don't regret a single minute of it. I got to witness and record one of God's greatest miracles and I feel very blessed to have had that opportunity. So, I'll say it again. Thank you Greg and Paige for allowing me to be there for such a special occasion.

Carter/Huffman Wedding

During my time visiting my hometown of Doniphan in November, I had the privilege of photographing the wedding of Courtney Carter and Shawn Huffman. I have known Courtney since we were just little girls in our frilly Sunday School dresses and Shawn and I worked together in the music department of West Point UPC since we were about 14 years old. I was so thrilled to get the message from Courtney asking me to photograph their special day.
They planned a simple, but elegant wedding and I was very impressed with how well Courtney kept her cool even when things (like receiving the wrong color bouquet and the fact that it was pouring rain outside) went wrong. I know when I got married I stressed about every little detail that I was barely able to enjoy my own wedding. So, kudos to Courtney for keeping a level head.
It was a wonderful ceremony filled with some beautiful moments. You know what's so great about pictures? You can tell a story without using any words. So, now, I present to you Shawn and Courtney's wedding story.

 Sorry, the quality of the video is not that great, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.