Real old wood

I'm so excited to share the new real wood background that I got this week! The girls happily helped me by modeling. We have to trick Grayson normally...

I've decided to leave the wood as is and not stain it. I'm working on another option with a white wash possibly on the backside. I like how natural it looks and just kind of blends.

There are several pieces of wood and it gives a wonderful varied look that I love. Only downfall with real wood it that it's very heavy because of the size. It's the price I have to pay for real vs vinyl I suppose.

With this beautiful setting how could I not take photos?

This past weekend our family got together at my Aunt and Uncles home. The setting is beautiful! I took the opportunity to practice my craft with my brothers girlfriend (isn't she a good sport?) and my daughter. The light was beautiful!

Practice makes progress

Yep, I'm the crazy lady that stops her car on the side of the road and gets her 4 year old out to take a picture on this little bridge quick... Is that so bad?! I've driven by this little creek everyday on the way to my daughters school and thought that would make a great picture. SO today I asked her if she was up for taking a photo, she said yes and we stopped the car on the side of the road. If you ever see me walking around with my camera or parked on the side of the road, just wave! :) 

New editing program!

I'm trying out a new editing program and I've been practicing working with it. SO much fun!

Iowa City

I love downtown Iowa City...but not for the reasons I used to. :) Look at this beautiful walkway. I had fun walking around scouting locations for a shoot I had this past weekend!

Lovely young lady

Check out this amazing bench we stumbled upon this past weekend. It looks amazing as the backdrop for photographs! It's perfect for little girls, seniors or Mommy and me shots.

What fun places we have here in the Quad Cities to just walk around and take photos. I can't believe all of these different options are within a 3 block radius. We just parked the car and walked around for an hour! I love working outside. The variety of colored brick and painted buildings are amazing.

We did have some fun playing around a little too! You can't always be serious and smiling. What a beautiful girl.

A little more about me

For those of you that don't know me personally, I'm originally from Iowa City and graduated from St. Ambrose University. Our family lived in the QCA for about 6 years after college. We moved back to the Iowa City area for just over 3 years and now we're back. We just moved to Eldridge in February.

I am a wife and a mother of 2 amazing daughters and that's how my photography got started. I'd just like to say that I'm not what I would consider a 'professional photographer'. I am a fun-loving and creative person. I got started taking better quality photos after I got a fancy DSL camera when my second daughter was born and was just taking photos of our family. But then I got sick of paying $250+ for each photography session and decided I could try it myself. So I took a photography class and LOVED it! I started my taking my daughters milestone pictures. I was pleased with the results. (I've posted those in earlier blog posts)

These photos here are ones I took while I was taking the photography class. I was just trying to capture the light in my daughters eyes. I love working outside and do so whenever possible. I am working on my natural light studio in my home now. Hoping we don't have to use it until the weather gets cold again! I'm running a spring special right now: A 1 hour outdoor or on-site session for $100, this includes all images on a cd and 20 of your favorites edited.

Family photo shoot

Finally the weather warmed up enough to shoot outside last weekend. I love being able to work outside! I was lucky enough to spend some time with this wonderful family!

This ended up really cute! I guess we got a lot of kissing shots...opps :)

How cute is he?! This little guy was such a good model, he's a good sport!

 

We take our music very seriously

Tayva's Papa Tom plays guitar and sings in a band. She got this guitar for Christmas last year from her Aunt Kenzie. On this day she asked me if she could play her guitar outside. I said sure, let's go! This picture to the right

is a special picture to me because she's wearing her "Papa's Sweetheart" shirt. I caught her looking out with the wind blowing a little and she actually looks like she's playing the guitar.

Sugar and spice

This set up was very fast and worked out great! I love natural light. A simple plain wall and big window works wonders when you have to shoot inside. I played a little with editing on these and like the different colored results.