Stacie and Jared (Rochester engagement and wedding photographer)

What I didn't mention in my last post, was that I took those particular pictures about the first week in January... oops!

And, in all that time, I hadn't done any new shoots. But that all changed Sunday.

A few weeks ago, Stacie contacted me about doing her wedding photography. And as we talked about what she would like in her wedding package, it was clear that she would like engagement pictures as well! Since the wedding is April 4, we wanted to do these asap!



Just as I took this picture, i remember saying that my favorite pictures were of people laughing... and there ya go! I love it :)



These two have had the amazing opportunity to buy a house just weeks before their wedding. What an awesome house it is too! A TON of property and just beautiful... i must admit being a bit jealous :)

Their backyard was super-cool. Lots of open space but then further back, some woods and brush. So, amongst the briars and rogue weeds attempting to entangle any who stepped its path, this shot was found.



The shoes (or should i say boots!) shot... a classic... at least in my book :)





After taking some at their house, we drove about 5 minutes to their farm. Jared's family owns a quite large farm and these were taken on one of the roads leading out.



Since I saw this shot done by my good friend Rachel over at Savor Photography I've been keeping my eyes wide open waiting for an opportunity... and there it was. Thanks for the idea!



I can't wait for the wedding... as far as i understand, we'll be coming back to the farm for some post-wedding pictures as well... although, as I think about it, it will be kinda late... we'll have to see about that. But can you see it? Less mud, more dress, and a tractor! Ok, maybe if you're a city-girl, you won't like that... but out here! That's what it's all about :D



The last shot. And he thinks the barn needs to be painted... that's ok, it's pretty much awesome :)

I hope you guys just love your engagement pictures. I am so happy to have been able to do them and seriously can't wait for the wedding! It's going to be amazing!

Meet the Hubs

This may be entirely excessive, but as I tried to narrow down my favorite shots from this particular shoot, I had the hardest time. Therefore, I didn't really narrow... i sorta just picked em all :) and there were in fact actually more favorites (if you can imagine such a thing) but these were the favorite favorites.

My troubles in deciding which i liked best may have had something to do with this particular family. Seriously some of the nicest and down-to-earth people I've ever met. I am so glad to be able to call Andrea and Daniel my friends now and am so honored to have been able to do this shoot with them... even if all involved parties were not exactly... well, happy about it ;)

I arrived at the beautifully enormous house they stayed in over Christmas while here visiting family early afternoon and was greeted by their two oldest children, Eve and Judah. although at first hesitant to talk to me, within minutes they were treating me like someone who'd been around for years.

We started with the whole family pics first in the hopes that we could get something good before there was a meltdown you know how that goes :)



I snapped and snapped and snapped some more. And then as I poured over these pictures, I decided that a real family picture just wouldn't be, well, real without at least one cheesy smile and some bow throwing, wouldn't you agree?



my, oh my, will ya look at those eyes?



I just love this set. I got quite out of control with how many pictures I actually took here, as if I'm not out of control enough!



Daniel and Andrea are so freakin cute together... and they probably know it :) But seriously, I love taking pictures of people who love eachother. It's just so easy!



I am pretty much in love with the eyeshadow she was wearing so well that day. I want it, i need it, i must have it! But if i can't, then this picture will suffice... or one of the others i took like this :)



I'd like to pause for a moment and go back to what I said earlier about family pictures being... real. How much more real does it get than this people? Seriously :)



We had a tired girl on our hands as we trekked back in the house. We took a short break for some lunch and then attempted to get some individuals before everyone melted into a puddle...

I have 3 words for you Andrea and Daniel...



Lock.



Her.



Up!

This girl is not only beautiful, but so precious. She uses words like fancy :) and that makes me smile. Before I could take her picture, it was very important that her dress was just right, she had the right jewelry on, and her lip gloss was applied properly. So stinking cute, almost too much to handle... but not quite :)



What a stitch this one was! Judah is right on par with 2 year old craziness... the perfect mix of sweet and boy.



just look at the mischief in him... it's written all over his face!



Little Eliza was my toughest critic. I had a hard time with her! I pretty much couldn't handle that even she had her jewelry on :) Just barely 1 and already rockin her style



speaking of style, how bout the birthday look? I swear, whenever a mom asks me what they should dress their baby in, I secretly think everytime: a diaper. That's it :) It's only ok to be nudey in pictures once in your life!



After the kids went to take a nap, Andrea, Daniel and I went back outside to get some more of just the two of them.







This picture right here has been deemed my favorite from that day. I will do this picture over and over and over LOL much like the shoes picture on my website. If you haven't seen it, don't worry, you'll see variations of it from almost every couple shoot I do forevermore ;)

I actually almost entered this in the Rochester Addys, but decided not to as i just don't have the fundage for such an expenditure at this time. ugh







This shot was taken on my tiptoes holding the camera as far above my head as I could. I've done this many times and almost fallen over a few ;) falling in snow is not fun... so luckily i didn't this time lol











The last couple before we were done. This came close to earning the title of my favorite shot from the shoot, but it has placed a close second. Again with the eyeshadow! It's rock-out amazing!

Talkin about rock-out amazing, I can't publish this post without mentioning what an amazing photographer Andrea is herself. Go check out her blog at Sgt and Mrs Hub and be in awe of her talent as I still am. Seriously.

Well, 26 pictures later, did you make it through? Was it worth it? Oh goodness, I hope so ;)

I have an engagement session tbd very soon. I'm about half way through it right now. And guess what is so special about said engagement session? it's the preamble to my very first wedding as a real photographer! I'm so very excited... but soooo nervous at the same time :)

all in the family

I have been waiting what seems like forever to share these pictures!

I'm sure you will be able to tell that these are from the summer, since my location is currently under a foot of snow...

Every summer, for the last 4 years, one of my brother's 3 kids have come to visit for a week by themselves. Well, last year (2007) marked one year so far for each kid, so 2008 all 3 of them stayed with us.

I have wanted to take these chillens out for years. And I do mean years. I have wanted to get my camera on them for so long and am soooo happy to have finally done so! Trust me, this will be happening again. I'm sure they thought this was going to be tortuous, however, it was quite fun... and they tried really hard, but there was no mistaking the actual laughing and fun they were indeed caught having :)



Here they are! Standing here in order is Raelynn, Robbie and Nick. Today is Robbie and Raelynn's birthday! They are 13. I can't believe it (and in case you didn't figure it out, by the whole today is their birthday, they are indeed twins :) Nick's birthday is in one week on the 31st and he shares that with my mom. We love birthdays around here... so we all try extra hard to make sure we're born on a good day :)



In order to get one good shot of them all running I probably had to take 75 pictures. No kidding. Now there's something worth remembering! I do NOT take perfect pictures every time. I just take a million pictures :)



I think this picture took on a real mid-twentieth century look when I rendered it in black and white. The houses in the background are such cool beach houses! You'd never guess you could find that in good old Rochester



They all thought it would be cute to do a play on "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" because there was 3 of them. I really liked it :)



That particular day, the water was very rough and in fact, the county closed the beach. Meaning, we could still be on the beach part, but not go in the water. Oops. We found that out the wrong way lol! But they still climbed all over the pier and it ended up being a really cool set up





Robbie



Raelynn



Nick









This is one of my favorite shots from the whole shoot. I had a lot of favorites honestly, but this one strikes me each time i look at it...



But this one is my favorite favorite :) I just wish we could see Nick!

I am so happy to finally have these pictures, and even more happy to share them! Especially with my brother and sis-in-law. I hope to be able to do it again next summer. I know for sure though that I am going to be taking pictures with my other brother's family of 6. That will be an adventure for sure, and I can't wait!