A Fun Maternity Session

Courtney and her sister Amanda came in for a maternity session. They wanted to have some unique portraits taken and they came in with a bunch of awesome ideas for me to work with. Since Courtney is having a girl and Amanda is having a boy, they wanted to be in wraps of blue and pink. Courtney also brought in some scrapbooking stickers and letters that made for some fun images. They were alot of fun to have in the studio and they got a lot of great portraits. Amanda had also come in the week before with her family and we did a bunch of neat shots then too. I think there is one of her images in the slideshow off to the right.

Bebe Blue

Lucas seems to double in size every time I see him. When he was first signed up for the Bebe Club he was one of the littlest newborns I had photographed this year, now he barely fits in his car seat! Lucas was all smiles for his 9 month portraits and it was super easy to get some great images. His big blue eyes sparkled in every shot. His mom is sure going to have a hard time choosing!

It's great to be one!

Camryn visited the studio just the other day for her one year portraits. She's learned to walk since she was in here last and definitely liked to be on the move. Camryn had some really cute dresses.




















I especially liked the camo dress that she brought in with some of her Dad's duck calls to hang in the background.

Sweet as Honey

When Jackson came in he was sound asleep all bundled up in this awesome teady bear snowsuit. I don't think his mom and dad had planned to have to any portraits taken in it but I couldn't resist. I had actually been looking for a similar outfit to keep on hand in my studio. I had to run outside and grab an old crock I had sitting on the porch. I quickly cleaned it out and sat it by the heater to warm it up. When it warmed up we plopped him in and he was very content all snuggled in there. Later I did some photoshop magic and inserted the brown stripe and the word Honey. Can't wait to see Jackson again in a few months for his 6 month portraits.

a night for Grazing

Alas a third accomplishment - we finalized the design for our new office cabinets. It has literally taken over a year for us to decide on the cabinet layout. We're probably too picky - but we want them just right in hopes that everything might finally have a place of it's own (otherwise Sara is going to lose her mind trying to keep the business & Ben organized!)

It was definitely a crazy Friday - but at least we got to relax with a bunch of friends at the end of the day. A large group of couples went out to celebrate some 30th birthdays (don't worry - I won't give away who you girls are!) We got to experience Graze in Davenport - a very interesting & classy restaurant. But I can definitely say we've never paid that much for a meal before - our dining out typically involves 2 little boys & McD's! The relaxing never lasts long for us though as Ben is busy today with 3 portrait sessions of babies.

We've got frames!

Another woohoo! We finally found a supplier that provides AMAZING frames. We were even able to embed their catalog into our website - check it out.

Clients now have 2 framing options...
Browse the frames in the catalog & let us know which frames you'd like to order OR
Give us an idea of what frame color/style they're looking for & we'll find the perfect frame for you! We now have the capability to build custom frames using our supplier's website. We can even send a link to you via email that will let you see what your portraits look like in the custom frames. We think this is something all clients are going to LOVE - we're stoked!

Woohoo ... another feat accomplished!

Yaaayyyyy! We finally got our website set up to accept credit cards. Another thing that had been put off for way too long. Definitely not a fun process ... let's just say we're more than elated to be done! Hopefully this is yet another improvement that will make the ordering process even more convenient for our clients. Now clients have the options to pay by check, MC, Visa, Discover or Paypal!

Only 8 more weeks...

Trisha is anxiously awaiting the arrival of baby ???? Since she doesn't know what she is having we decided on a green wrap because Brian's a John Deere man. When she came in for maternity portraits with Calli a few years ago we were taking portraits in my living room. Things have changed quite a bit since then. It's amazing how fast time flies when your busy!! Good luck Brian and Trisha.

Birthday Fun

London came in the other day for her 1 year portraits. She brought along some balloons and a birthday cake her grandmother had made for her. She sure had fun making a mess of her cake in a tutu... how cute! Happy 1st Birthday London!

We've taken the plunge....

into the realm of blogging ;) We've thought about it for awhile but it was always something that was so easy to put off ... we kept telling ourselves that we'd do it when things weren't quite so busy. But for some reason that time just never seems to come. During the holidays 80 hour weeks were the norm... now we're back down to the regular 60 hour weeks... SOMEDAY we would love to get back to 40 hours. We just can't figure out how! In these times I guess we should consider it a blessing.

Part of the reason we're finally getting this blog going is because we've changed our website some. Portraits used to be online for viewing & ordering for one month... but we've had to change that due to an increase in web hosting costs. We've grown so fast that there were just too many portraits online & we were exceeding our storage limits. Now portraits will only be online for viewing & ordering for 2 days before they go into archive. Once portraits go into archive it's a $25 fee to regain access to them. Of course, all clients are always welcome to come in to order if they don't get their order in on time.

So.... many of you are probably saying but seriously I love going in to look at everyone's portraits! :( You'll still be able to... just for a shorter time. You'll have to visit our site often OR you can visit this great new blog if you miss them. We plan to post our favorite pics from each session for all to see. This will be a great opportunity for all to get low res downloads for use on your desktop, digital picture frames, Facebook etc. - which we know many of you have been wanting for a long time!

We're going to try our best to keep this blog updated regularly... but no promises yet as this is something totally new for us to get used to!