monday night beau was all, “i NEED to make a valentine for lilly. please help. these 2 paws are useless.” how do i say “no” to such a romantic gesture?

as it reads:

roses are red, violets are blue.

you don’t always smell good, but i still love you.

can we take a second and talk about how great of a name that is? lorelei. ugh. love it.

lorelei will be 1 year old very soon and was SUCH a load of fun. but if you know this family at all, you know that it would be impossible for their children to be anything BUT fun. this was totally one of those shoots where i would have LOVED to have seen what was happening behind my head.

thank you so much, maria and wayne (and a special thank you do emily, for allowing us to take over your amazing apartment) and i can’t wait for your family session this spring!

baby toes!!!!

let me tell you a secret: if shopping were a legit college degree, i’d have a doctorate. (ignore the fact that i had to look up how to, in fact, spell “doctorate“) so when browsing the other day, i stumbled upon the above dvf lace dress, in navy to boot, and i just had to tell SOMEONE how amazing this (or a similar dress) would be for an engagement session. it’s feminine, dressy, sexy-but-not-skanky and navy is so so flattering on camera. (did you hear that? NAVY IS SO FLATTERING.)

i know that in my area couples rarely get this dressed up for e-sessions, and that’s fine, and my response is “why not??” in an ideal world you could have a really dressy outfit like this and then change into something more casual and real-life. i think cassie and aaron nailed this concept for their e-session last spring.

also, did you notice the whole “coordinating without matching” concept i mentioned in this post?? you might be asking, “lace, with gingham, with polkadots? don’t you think that’s a little wackadoo?” no, not at all. for one, you’ll only see those amazing socks when your man is sitting down and that will make for a fantastic detail shot. while gingham and lace, both in navy, will get along swimmingly. and the texture of the navy lace will help break up the man’s suit.

and finally, i think i should probably note that i do not encourage or expect my brides-to-be to go out and spend $800 on a pair of shoes. however, this is my fantasy board so i’m allowed to put ridiculous-but-perfect shoes on it. and really, if a bride came to me with louboutin’s, i’d kiss her feet and probably try to steal them. truth!

welcome to the world, baby katie. how sweet is she (and her 2 big sisters)? it was so cute seeing 3 little girls so close in age; part excited, part protective. their poor dad has his work cut out for him! (i mean that in the BEST way possible.)

katie was definitely a #1 fan of the swaddle. i had grand plans for posing her all about, but any time she wasn’t wrapped up like a burrito she let us know just how much she didn’t like it. that’s ok though, i’m a fan of burritos-both the baby-type and the food-type.

i’ll hush with the stupid jokes and get on with the yummy baby photos, already! thank you so much, chapmans for allowing me to turn your home in to a studio and i promise to let the girls limbo next time.

below headband graciously provided by stitches & purls. aka, my mom.

gear used: canon 5d mark ii; canon 24-70 2.8 & 50mm 1.4; custom photo props swaddles; fur from fabric.com, purple knit headband by ellen vonderheide.

i frequently ask my past brides/grooms for feedback on my “performance.” call it being a perfectionist, call it having low self-confidence, call it narcissistic. a pat on the back or a kick in the pants yields equal influence for me.

i built my business on excellent customer service, so when i asked a past bride what made her book me to begin with and she responded, “honestly, the fact that you answered my email not only the same day, but within the same hour spoke volumes to me,” i gave myself a huge pat on the back. wow. seriously? i can’t imagine NOT answering someone who is a) SO excited to be engaged and b) SO excited at the thought of my capturing his/her wedding, in a timely matter. it’s like sending a note to the cute boy in 5th grade and anxiously awaiting a circled “yes” or “no”.

my point? perhaps i need to be better about touting the fact that my #1 goal isn’t to provide you with breathtaking images (that’s not a goal, it’s a given), it’s to make your entire process of getting married as easy (and enjoyable) as possible. not only do i promise a response to all emails/inquires within 24-48 hours, brides will ALWAYS see a sneak peek of their wedding within 2 days. always. i’m as excited as the bride to see at least one shot from the day.

oh and did i mention you’ll see a full blog post of images within 2 weeks? or that my goal is to have your finished disc of images within a month? “why does that matter?” you ask? because i’ve actually heard of brides not seeing their images for MONTHS after their wedding. holy wow.

moral of the story: customer service is key, no matter what the industry. everyone remembers how they were treated and when asked about me, my goal for past clients is to not only recommend me, but to sing my praises.

boy, do i have a website for you. i like to think i’m pretty well versed in “internet,” but i just discovered the healthy recipe powerhouse blog that is skinnytaste a couple weeks ago. since then i’ve made the slow cooked cuban pork (holy yum), chicken nuggets (one never grows too old for chicken nuggets, especially when they’re this good) among many others. in fact, everything i’ve cooked the past 2 weeks came from skinnytaste. all the recipes are broken down for weight watchers points (old and new number systems) for those concerned with that. we’re not doing ww, but being a past graduate of the system i know how convenient it is when recipes cater to it. with the turn of the new year, i’ve been trying to clean up our eating habits a bit (which aren’t that bad, but there’s always room for improvement) and skinnytaste has made it so easy.

do yourself a favor: start browsing and marking. she’ll become your #1 visited site just like me.

hey high school juniors, it’s time to start thinking about senior pictures! crazy, right? i know.  i’m looking for some outstanding seniors to become my “reps” for the 2012 season. what does that mean? basically, you can get your photos done for free! who doesn’t love free photos?

here’s how it works: we’ll schedule your session (earlier in the spring/summer is preferred) shoot it and along with your prints, i’ll print some extra wallets for you to pass out (because i’m nice). if/when you refer another senior (one is all it takes!), i’ll send you a check back for your sitting fee ($150!!). and that’s not all: for every additional senior you refer, i’ll give you a $100 print credit. that’s 51 wallets! or 13 8×10′s! you get the idea.

interested? awesome, just contact me and we can get the ball rolling!

note: as you can see (and if you’re familiar with my work) from the above photos, i am a natural light, lifestyle photographer and don’t do the typical “studio shots”. if you need some more conservative shots for filling out scholarships that’s not a problem, we can make it happen. the seniors i work with love and embrace this more contemporary style of shooting, so it’s something you should be looking for in your photos as well. you know, just to ensure we’ll mesh well together as a team!

i believe you may remember this family, last seen here. can you believe how much these kiddos have grown in a year in a half? i couldn’t believe it when i pulled that post up! you see, papa keusch had a major milestone birthday a couple weeks ago and since the entire family was in town, something i learned doesn’t happen often, they wanted some photos done and i’m SO glad they called me. you know how some families just have that something about them that makes you wish you were somehow a part of it? that’s how i feel when i’m around them.

it was majorly cold that day, though i’m so glad they suffered for 10 minutes outside for me; those handful of images are my favorite, hands down. we ended the day back at their home to take some photos with papa keusch’s other babies: his cars. i’m sure he can tell you many more intricate details about them, but you’ll have to settle for my explanation: they’re GORGEOUS mustangs. ROWS of them.

thank you keusches for allowing me to capture your beautiful family again!

after spending most of the shoot pretending to be bashful, olivia busted out this model move. kids are THE funniest!

i don’t mean to play favorites, but this is my favorite family breakout from the day. i adore this moment between steffi, henry and olivia.

a hefty “thanks” goes out to my fabulous sister for helping me with this shoot! xoxo

i discovered this couple/studio a few weeks ago when their engagement video popped up on my tumblr dashboard. i was completely awestruck. it wasn’t until after i watched their video (and showed it to josh) that i realized that THEY are the ones usually behind the camera. that good looking AND talented. come on.

brinton films’ videos are such an interesting approach to videography. they almost combine a conventional photoshoot with video. it’s amazing. if you’d asked me a few months ago my stance on wedding videographers i probably would have shrugged and said “ehhh…not necessary”. but now? budget allowing? brinton films changed my view on wedding films completely. if i had access to them my answer would be “absolutely, no questions asked.” maybe down the road i’ll be lucky enough to work with them–i totally added it to my personal bucket list.

take a look through some of their videos, you’ll be as dumbstruck as me.