Tulip Festival

One of the best parts of Spring is the flowers! And one of my favorite flowers are tulips. Every year there is a Tulip Festival in Pella, IA. It's a city in Iowa highly populated by dutch heritage...which my mother's side is part of. The best part is the food, tulips and watching the parade. My son and I took an afternoon to enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery and of course my camera joined us!

Assignment: Still Life

I've had a busy/exciting week. I am taking a few photography classes some online and some in person. I'm learning a lot and I'm becoming more and more motivated to learn even more and really devote myself to being a great photographer. Realistically speaking it would be almost impossible to take a photo everyday (even though I really wish I had the time to do that) but I am trying to give myself an assignment each week, I'm looking into starting an additional blog, but more specifically just a photo blog. Basically a gallery of all the projects rather than galleries for potential clients to view.

May is so extremely busy I love it. I have 2 weddings I'm photographing, more classes, 2 trips out of town, 3 graduation parties and a few photoshoots. It's going to be intense, but I thrive off of stress so it will be great as well. I'm glad it's Spring, the weather is warming up.

Back to the reason I'm posting =) This weeks assignment was Still Life, which is pretty general. I chose to photograph fruit because it's simple and I like simple. Also I've debated on using fruit as an art piece for my kitchen and I'm happy with the way the photos turned out. I was also applying some techniques that I have learned recently.

Tip: For any photog readers. If you do not have any studio lights, but you have sunlight, use a mirror or Tin Foil as a reflector. I did the following with the images below. Daylight to the left and a mirror reflecting the light to the right. Keep in mind that light will reflect at the same angle that it's coming from.

Ava is a WHOLE YEAR!

Every few months I get to take pictures of Ava and watch her grow. She is so adorable and always fun to photograph. This time it took a lollipop and cheerios to get the good shots, but hey whatever works right! As always, here are my favorites!

Miss Halle

I photographed pictures of Halle this past Saturday. She is 2 and full of energy, she is so beautiful and smart!! She will correct you if you do not name Thomas the train and his friends correctly. We had a good time and here are my favs and a preview for her parents of whats to come!

Yet again...

I make it a point to try and get pics of Landen each month, and now he is 7 months old and in honor of that, I spent time taking photos of him. Today I thought, I will go get pics of him sleeping in his crib while he was napping, but I got my camera all setup and on and walked in the nursery and quietly as I could and he was already laying there wide awake and he gave me a big ole grin, so instead I just took shots of him in his crib, something I haven't really done this he was born, so it was fun and then I did a little collage of my favs. And then got other shots as well of him playing in his room.

Family Time!

I hadn't done family photos in quite some time, so I was excited to do them again this past week, it was such a gorgeous Spring afternoon, I took pics of Julia, Todd, Dakota, Savannah and Presley...they are all so beautiful, it was Presley's 3rd birthday and we had some fun posing on the rocks, in the trees and on the grass at Gray's Lake.

Angela and Stuart

I have been so busy! Too busy to even post anything or edit pictures really. I'm slowly catching up and realizing how difficult it is to work fulltime, be a photographer and a mom as well. But it's ok. I'm glad it's busy, I'm glad it's Spring and I'm ready to take tons of photos!!

2 weeks ago I was given a plane ticket to fly to Dallas, TX and photograph my cousin and her fiance (I'm so excited for them!) They have amazing chemistry and are really some of the funnest people I know. Angela and I have been close since we were babies and I can't wait to be in her wedding and to see her and Stuart again in October...although I won't be able to photograph the wedding =( I'll definitely still have my camera though, so of course I will still get some shots.

Anywho, back on track. I'm adding more pics than normal because, well Angela is extra special and has a warm spot in my heart. All the photos by the lighthouse are special to them because it is where she became the future Mrs. Platt. Congrats you 2, I love you and will see you in October!