Michelle | Mankato East Senior Photographer

I had such a fun session with Michelle and her sister! We chose the city for something different and I was really excited about our captures! Here's a few of my favorites:

Oliver | 7 months

I wish my baby a happy 7 months old today! Where does the time go? He's starting the crawling process by scooting around on his tummy and getting up on one knee. I'm in trouble soon!

Alice | Mankato West Senior Photographer

Alice is the coolest. At her young age, she's already been to (and lived in) more countries than I'll probably ever visit in my lifetime. We had a great session, she was so easy to photograph!

Halloween Fun!

Fun items I found for Oliver! The pajamas are Old Navy, the vampire pacifier can be found here.

Some lovely lady friends.

When I was just starting out with photography, I got a job working for Bellagala as an assistant. I met some great people working there and Sally was one of them. She was a lead and I was completely in awe of her work. I vividly remember sitting at my computer one night looking through her website. I spent hours looking through each and every photo so amazed at her talent. I would see her at Bellagala social events and she was just so beautiful and chic and that combined with her talent made me completely intimidated by her!

One day I took it upon myself to send her an email practically begging to assist her at one of her weddings. She actually set up a meeting with me and we had a drink and she reviewed my portfolio. I was so honored when she agreed to let me assist her!

Of course this is years ago and on Friday I was just as honored to be there to celebrate her wedding! Even though I look terrible in this photo, I wanted to post it as a reminder of how far I have come and to honor these awesome photographer ladies that I am privileged to be friends with.

I, myself have met some great friends who have reached out and contacted me offering to work with me. The moral of the story is... reach out! Make a connection. You never know what will come of it! It might just be the start of an amazing new friendship.

Love you Sally and congratulations!

Finally announced... Saturday, October 16th mini-sessions!

When: Saturday, October 16th
Where: Henderson barn site
Cost: $150 or $200
$150 session includes 20 minute session and 6 high-resolution images.
Upgrade to 12 images for an additional $50!
$200 session includes 20 minutes session and 12 high-resolution images. (12 images regularly priced at $175)

Focus will be on family photos and children together, perfect for your annual holiday card!

Holiday cards are available for $40/set of 25.

Availability:
9:30 am- booked
10:00 am- booked
10:30 am- booked
11:00 am- booked
11:30 am- booked
12:00- lunch break
1:00 pm- booked
1:30 pm- booked
2:00 pm- booked
2:30 pm- booked
3:00 pm- booked

Please email me with your first and second time slot choice and I will email back with a confirmation. $50 non-refundable deposit required to book a session. In the event of inclimate weather, the sessions will be rescheduled for Sunday, October 17th.

Please title your email "Holiday mini-sessions" Thanks!

Please note: Weekends in September and October are officially booked so this is your last chance to book a weekend session. A few weekdays are available if you'd like to book a full session.

Back to school!

The last two days have been a blur to me. I was talking with another mother of multiple children and we agreed that we can pretty much only focus on that day of deadlines, appointments, and to-do list. Forget about being able to plan ahead or put any thought into two weeks into the future. I pretty much only know what needs to be done two hours into the future. This is definitely the busiest time of the year!

With that being said, now that school has started in a way it has helped my schedule because there is just Oliver at home to take care of. At the same time, it also makes my life more challenging because I have a school schedule to stick to. I can no longer stay up until 2 am editing photos because I need my 7-8 hours of sleep or I am a complete zombie the next day and the day is pretty much shot productivity-wise. I also have to be a mom when the boys get home from school, so that means my work day needs to end at 4 pm when they walk through the door. I need to help with homework, make snacks, and get ready for dinner. I also may have a shoot or bride meeting scheduled in the evening. Then it's baths, bedtimes and time to start my second shift on the computer until bedtime.

My schedule has been so full with sessions and playing catch up with all the summer weddings I have. I ask for everyone's patience right now with photo deadlines and please know that I am getting to things as fast as I can. I hate to wait for anything and I am really excited to share your photos with you but this is the busiest I have been all year. Email is another huge task I have to keep up with so this is my mass communication to my clients that I am super busy and deadlines are maxed out right now. Unfortunately, I won't have much time to blog sessions here because it can be very time consuming and my focus is getting galleries up and completing orders. If you haven't already, become a fan of my photography on Facebook. I will begin posting session teasers on there as it is so much faster than writing up a complete blog post here.

Thanks so much for hanging in there. I hope you had a great holiday weekend. Besides a senior session, I did take the weekend off. I usually feel very guilty for taking any time off because of the constant work I need to do but I didn't feel guilty and I had two glorious relaxing days spent with family. It was so important to me to reconnect with my husband and kids before they went off to school and life got busy again. It was filled with so many moments of laughter and snuggles and I will treasure those memories and carry them with me into this busy fall season.

Another goal of mine is to get this body back into shape once and for all. The baby weight is killing me and incorporating exercise into my morning is something I'm committed to do. Do I have time to exercise? No, I should be working on photos 10 hours a day to stay caught up but I am not out to live a life making everyone else happy but myself. I *need* to take care of myself and be there for my family. As soon as this job becomes something that tears me away from that I don't want to do it anymore. Finding that balance is so hard. I know that every photographer out there can agree with me on that one. I hope that doesn't sound like I am ungrateful for what I have. I know that I am the luckiest girl alive! It's just that everyone needs a little "me" time or they feel resentful.

Here is my now 3rd and 1st grader getting onto the bus for their first day of school. It was a chilly morning! Here's hoping this new school year isn't a total blur. I am feeling like it will be Christmas before we know it!

Oli-bear | Happy Labor Day weekend!

On this cold and blustery start to the holiday weekend, I couldn't help but be excited to try out Oliver's new fall jacket. It is by Pumpkin Patch and I cannot tell you how soft and cuddly it is! When he put it on, it was like holding onto a real life stuffed animal! Lots and lots of cuddles... the boys and I couldn't help but exclaim how cute he was!






Look at those teeth poking through!
I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday weekend! I DO plan on taking some time off like the rest of America...

...until next week with a new school schedule and busy, busy, busy!

3 years...

I just realized it has been three years since I quit my office job and took a leap of faith into full-time photography. I'm often asked, "How do you know when you're ready to quit?" I knew when I had no other choice. I was working two full-time jobs and life was so crazy I wanted to rip my hair out every day. I was working at the office all day and then editing photos until 3 am only to have to wake up at 6 am and start all over again. Owen was going into Kindergarten and I had no idea how the school year was going to work and how we were going to get him to the bus stop and back.

I decided to take a 12 week leave of absence in August of 2007 knowing that if we couldn't make it work I would still have a job to come back to. Halfway into the leave, there was just no way I could go back. I was able to walk Owen to the bus and be there when he got home, sometimes with a fresh batch of cookies. I loved being that work from home mom and don't regret it for a second. I truly believe God had this all planned out for me and things were just meant to be.

Now that I am as swamped as I am and feel like I want to rip my hair out yet again, I am reminded that I made this choice and how happy it has made me. Maybe it's the constant lack of sleep that has me all woozy and reminiscent but one of my goals is to get back to a single tasking lifestyle. In this hectic multi-tasking world where we are used to doing two or three things at once, I am going to work on giving each thing my undivided attention. This couldn't be more true with my children. We have a few more days left of summer vacation before I hand them over to their teachers for the year. Since I work most weekends, I am really feeling the loss here. I just feel like things are going to change so much and change is always scary. I would love to hear from other moms that are tearfully sending their little ones off to school next week! Maybe we should start a support group?

Oliver | 6 1/2 months

I made this onesie a couple of years ago and can't believe I have a baby to fit into it! If you recall, we miscarried a year before Oliver was born and I got into this sewing kick and made some fun embellished onesies. This was one of them that I thought was cute. He does actually have his own blog! I've been blogging since Owen (8 years old) was 6 months old. I love that blogs can serve as a digital scrapbook for parents and other relatives and family members can keep up to date on the kids, especially if they don't see them very often. It's just in my nature to document and I love to be able to look back and read about how our life was at the time.

Hopefully you like seeing Oliver because I'm going to be posting a lot of photos of him over the next few months! (or from now on?) This is my absolute favorite baby age!



If you don't have a personal blog, start one today!

Back to school | Mini-sessions

Are you tired of grade school photos that look like this?
Let's face it, school photos aren't always the most flattering. You're not there to fix their hair or tell them not to do their cheesy smile. It's all in the hands of the Lifetouch photographer and you just have to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Yes they need to be done and it's fun to hold onto one for keepsake purposes but personally, this photo did NOT get passed around to the grandmas that particular year, nor did I order any 8x10's of this beauty. Well I am going to change all that!

This year I am offering new back to school mini's! I am booking an afternoon of sessions, here are the details:

When: Sunday, September 26th

Where: Barn location, Henderson, MN (lots of great outdoor background options!)

What: 15 minute session

Who: School-aged children ages 4 and up (individual children only, family shots won't be taken, excludes high school seniors)

Times available: 2:00- 5:00 pm (I will book in the order I receive emails beginning at 2 pm)

Cost: $50 for one child
You will receive 2 high-resolution files via email. Please add $25 for each individual child. 10 minutes will also be added to your time for each additional child. So for instance if you have 3 children, cost would be $100, I would allow 35 minutes, and you would receive 6 files.

Payment will be due the day of the session, cash or checks only.

As always, additional files can be ordered. I will also recommend a professional lab for your prints. Please, please, please, don't take them to Walgreen's or Target. It really does defeat the purpose of having professional photos done. This lab has all of the traditional sizes you would want, including mini-wallets to send out to all of the relatives.

I'm excited! Let's hope for some treasures like these:

Email me to book a session! Please title your email "Back to school." This is not only a great way to update yearly photos but also modeling head shots, etc.

Stay tuned for my next announcement of family/holiday mini-sessions to take place Saturday, October 16th!

Converse | Dr. Seuss

Look what I discovered while back to school shoe shopping! I love Converse because they are so timeless but these are so much fun! These would be great for a photo shoot!

I found these on Zappos.com, but Famous Footwear has them BOGO.

The end of summer.

I can't believe summer is nearly over! It's been a busy one even though I had hoped to take it easy. I don't think I'd be me if I wasn't frantic with a million things on my plate! I still hope to enjoy the last little bit of summer with my boys before I send them off to school every day. I have a third grader and a first grader this year so it's just me and Oliver at home during the week! I am excited for Aidan to get to go to school everyday because he loves it but I am going to miss him! It's a definite crossroads for him as he grows into his independence and takes one more little step away from me. (tears)

Oliver is getting busier each and every day. I watch him scoot around on the floor on his belly and it's only a matter of time before he learns to get up on his knees and take off! I feel like I am enjoying him but time just won't slow down. I get so busy with work and have to remind myself to stop and enjoy my kids because before I know it they will be all grown up.

Once again I'd like to thank my loyal blog readers. Every once and awhile I get these awesome emails from self-proclaimed "fans" of my work. It just blows my mind that I have "fans." At times I feel like I am just starting out until someone asks me how long I've been shooting and when I realize it's been 5 years I guess that means it's been awhile! Thanks for sticking around, reading about my life, looking at my kids, and most importantly admiring my work!

Here's my babe in my favorite pj's (Kicky Pants) in my bedroom. I had wanted to do a newborn shoot of him on my bed but oops, I kind of forgot so 6 months will have to do!
The morning light was a little dramatic. I like it. I am going to miss sleeping in once school starts! I hardly get any sleep as it is so I'm sure it's going to be a crabby first week. I will have to try to go to bed before 2 am.
My sister was in town last week and we went to the State Fair on opening day. It was Oliver's first time at the State Fair!
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and what's left of it. Have a great Labor Day weekend and enjoy the new recent blog posts! Lots more to blog, but also lots more work to catch up on!

Shelby | Mankato West Senior Photographer

The Mankato flow keeps going and I'm loving it! I pride myself in a business based entirely on word of mouth, so for someone to find me and book me means a lot to me. It means they saw or heard something they liked and it is such an honor. Shelby and her mom were great, these Mankato West girls and their moms are soooo nice! I am having a great time getting to know them all. The days are getting shorter and Shelby's session was a race against the sun. She had so many great outfits, we shot until dark and then stood on the side of the road and talked!












Thanks Shelby and Dana, it was great talking with you! Hope you have a great year!