Bethany and Tim

We started our session at the Northwestern College Chapel, which also happens to be where this couple will be tying the knot next June 28! Bethany's Dad is a pastor. I forgot to ask the couple if her Dad will be marrying them. I have never photographed or been at a wedding where that is done-it would take a strong man to get through walking his daughter down the aisle and then performing the wedding ceremony!!

Bethany is in her last year of school and just finished her last exams today. No wonder she looks so relaxed! She will complete her student teaching in downtown Chicago next semester.

Next, we went to the Puddle Jumper Trail for a few more outside images. It was probably the mildest day we have had in a while-in the lower 30s I think!


Thanks for an enjoyable engagement session, Bethany and Tim! I enjoyed meeting you and look forward to your upcoming wedding!

Corbin Loves Cars!

A week or so ago this wonderful family came in for a session. They have added a new member to their family since I photographed them last year! Heather was teling me what opposites her boys are in looks and personality. Corbin looks more like her side, while Bergan is a mini-Darren! This was toward the end of the session-just goofing off a little!

I just love this image of Corbin playing cars with his baby brother looking on!

Bergan was just a champ through the whole session, but he got a little tired toward the end. He is SO adorable!

Amber and Travis

Here are some highlights from Amber and Travis' engagement session this week. Since Travis played football and is now a football coach, we went to the Northwestern College football field for some of our shots. We had to dodge several teams on the field and track to get these fun shots! It was a gorgeous day, but when the sun went down it got cold fast, so we went to the coffee shop to warm up.

I am so excited for this couple's wedding on Jun 14! They will have their reception in a tent on the golf course-what fun! Best wishes, Amber and Travis, as you plan your big day!!

Sam and Jessica

A few images from Sam and Jessica's engagement shoot this morning! We took some of the images here in the grove and I got to play around with some sun flare in some of the images. I love flare!!!

We went downtown Orange City for part of the session. I thought it would be fun to do some shots at the spot where they were engaged. Actually, come to think of it, I was present when this couple got engaged!!! That is definitely a first for me-being present at the engagement!

In case you're not from here, Orange City has a yearly Tulip Festival to celebrate the town's Dutch heritage and Sam had arranged for the announcers stop the parade so he could propose to her in front of thousands of parade watchers and participants!

Okay, so I was not an eye witness, but I heard what was going on over the PA system!

Anyway, thanks Jessica and Sam for the fun time this morning! I look forward to your June 21 wedding!

The color purple...

Tonight I got to do a session with Becky and Joe and their family. Their boys have played hockey with our boys and they have a little girl about Elsie's age. We did some family and individual pictures and I wanted to show you one of Chloe alone. Her favorite color is purple...

Eric and the boys were throwing the football while the session was going on because it was such a beautiful night. At one point Eric came over to "help me" and took some pictures while I was rearranging the group-my camera was on the tripod.

I thought you might get a chuckle out of a rare shot of me in action! That's me on the right in first image. When I pose people I sometimes just show them what I want them to do (lie on the ground in the leaves,) thus the leaves on my sweater! I think I ran around the whole session with those leaves on! No wonder they could not stop smiling!

The shot of them laughing is when Eric was "helping me get them to smile!" I wish I had a shot of him doing his crazy antics-if I did I am sure it would beat the pants off the very flattering shot of me!

Jenna and Josh

Today Jenna and Josh came over for their engagement shoot. They are both college basketball players, and last week we had to postpone their session because Jenna got elbowed in the eyelid by accident at practice, and required stitches. As you can see she healed up quite well!

I always like engagement sessions because it gives the couple a chance to practice being comfortable in front of the lens before their wedding day, and it gives me a chance to get to know them! These two have been dating for four years and are adorable together! They cannot help but smile each time their eyes meet!

Thanks for the fun session today, Jenna and Josh! I look forward to your May 24 wedding!

Blu Eyes

It's been forever since I have made an entry on here-wow. Just thought I'd let you know that I have been focusing hard on getting caught up on all my print orders and editing this past week! If you're waiting on me for something, it will be coming soon!

I have also been busy working on my website. I purchased a really neat website template from a company called Bludomain. I am hoping to be able to do online proofing on my site, as well as online ordering through a shopping cart on the site.

Anyway, Bludomain has an interesting blog that I often read. There is lots of info for professional photographers as well as fun other stuff. I entered a picture of Isaac in a "blu eyes" contest and that image was one of four selected out of five hundred or so to be in the photo contest!

If you go to Bludomain.com and click on "photo contest" you can see the picture and vote for me! If you are in the market for a website template you should also definitely check them out!

The winner gets any pair of Nike shoes!

Stay tuned for more posts in the near future. I have several sessions I can't wait to tell you about!

Wedding tonight...

Here are a couple of images from tonight's wedding. What a fun and affectionate couple... The first image might be my favorite of the night. We took pictures before the ceremony and this was when Erin and Nic saw each other the first time.

Sometimes at weddings I get kind of emotional, even if I don't know the couple or family all that well. This was one of those days, and another reminder of why I love to shoot weddings. I really feel honored to be let into a couple and family's happiest celebrations. It was a really beautiful day, and I was so glad to be a part of it to help record the story!

Thanks, Erin and Nic!

I love babies...

I have had a lot of really fun shoots in the last week that I want to share on here, and I will start with posting up a few pictures of my little nephew Callum!

My brother and sister-in-law came down from Minnesota to have his three month pictures taken. He is the happiest baby! A couple of times I just had to interrupt the shoot to hold and snuggle him a little bit!

He loved being outside-as you can see we lay him down on the grass. It was warm but a little breezy and he loved watching the tree branches above him sway.

At the end of the shoot I told Callum to wave to everyone on the blog, and being the cooperative three-month-old that he is, he happily obliged as you can see in the last image. Way to go Callum!!

Angel Food Cake and Strawberries

Isaac had outpatient surgery today. The anesthetist said he was very brave and did as well as most adults do. We are so proud of him, and thankful to God that the procedure went well!

Yesterday Grandma Sanneke came over to wish him well and she let him pick out a favorite dessert that she would bring him after the surgery. He picked angel food cake with strawberries (my favorite too-good choice Isaac!)

As you can see he was well enough to enjoy the dessert, and to make funny faces for the camera!

Fun Family Shoot!

What a wonderful night for a family portrait session! This family has a beautiful back yard so I just came to them and we got some great images! Even though it got chilly toward the end of the session, baby Ian kept on smiling with the help of his family. At one point Mom and sister Ava were singing to Ian to get him to smile. Then they hopped into the picture and it was my turn to sing...NOT a good thing, trust me!

I love the shot of everyone looking at baby Ian! Can you tell he was enjoying the adoration? What a cutie!

Thanks, guys, for having me out to photograph your beautiful family!

Katie's Senior Shoot

It rained this morning, but the evening was perfect for Katie's session. Autumn seems to be upon us-I love sweater weather! We started the session with some field corn in the background at the request of Katie's uncle-a blueberry farmer from Washington State. Easy for me since our acreage is surrounded by corn fields!

Katie is thinking about going into child psychology in college. I think she is headed in the right direction-within minutes of arriving she had all my kids telling her stories!

I love Katie's dark hair, freckles and sparkling brown eyes! All the best to you, Katie, your senior year and beyond! Thanks for letting me photograph you today!

Great new location!

Yesterday's senior session was fun for several reasons. Geoffrey loves the outdoors and his Mom asked a friend if we could use her property for a shooting location. What a beautiful place this was! This family has a little lake with a beautiful bridge to an island surrounded by trees. Just gorgeous! I also got to catch up with Geoffrey's Mom-we used to be in Bible Study together! I was happy with the images we got-I used my new lighting technique on the first shot above and Goeffrey's little sister helped keep my light stand from blowing away!

Evening Family Session

Last week I attended a great workshop on lighting in Minneapolis. I learned so much and was excited to be able to use a new lighting technique with the family I got to photograph this evening! It was windy all day but it quieted down just in time for their session. I am so excited about the images we got!

Maggie and Jesse

I have been looking forward to photographing Maggie and Jesse's wedding for a long time! Maggie is a photographer in Sioux Center, IA and will be moving to Omaha, NE now that she is married. Jesse is a furniture designer and he made three beautiful tables that were at the front of church for the ceremony. One large one and two scaled down versions of the large one. The couple will keep the large one and they gave each of their sets of parents one as a surprise gift! The rings shot above was taken on one of the tables.

Not surprisingly Maggie was a stunning bride, and she is the nicest person too! We met I think about a year ago when I called her out of the blue to see if she would be interested in getting together just to chat. I wanted to meet some local photographers to be able to network with and refer people to if I am booked. We have enjoyed discussing the photography biz and she has been very kind to help me out several times.

Thank you to Maggie's friend Grant and Maggie's second shooter Mary for helping me cover this beautiful wedding! You guys were great!

If you are in Omaha and looking for a great photographer, Maggie has accepted a full time photographer position at http://billingsphoto.biz so give her a call!

Congratulations Jesse and Maggie, and thank you for entrusting me with photographing your wedding day!