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!

50th Wedding Anniversary!

Today I got to shoot some group shots at Mary's parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration in Okoboji. It was a beautiful day-sunny and warm but not humid or windy! We were able to have the golf course behind the Arrowwood resort as a beautiful backdrop to the photos.

Earlier in the day, the couple's eight children and many grandchildren presented fifty memories to the couple-what a neat idea. Thanks for letting me in on a small part of your celebration!