New Accordion Books for Babies

Here is the other book I ordered for a display at the Baby Fair and for the studio! These little books are SUPER cute!!

New Accordion Books

Waiting for the Speedy delivery guy is like waiting for the UPS man! Both bring me wonderful things but the Speedy guy brings me my items that I ordered from the lab. Today he made me wait longer than normal but it was totally worth it because he brought me my accordion books! I bought some templates from Ashe Designs for my high school senior models. They turned out amazing!

High School Senior Models

It's that time of year again when the High School Senior models come through the door and help me promote the studio to other seniors. It was my pleasure to photograph this lovely girl! I have known her mom and dad for about 20 years and she has grown so fast!! We had a great time and I was able to use some of the new techniques that I learned over the winter.

Relaxing Sunday

Was kind of bored today...yes, I know that word isn't normally in my vocabulary but you can only clean so much and I'm caught up on editing. Anyway, I decided that Josie and I needed to go for a walk so we headed down to my favorite walking spot, the river. Of course I took my camera with. There are a few shots that I need to put through my HDR program but this was nice just the way it is.

Senior Graduation Open House Cards

I have been busy the last couple weeks designing wedding albums, baby announcements and graduation open house cards! Here are a few of the Open House cards. Let me know what you think!!

Jessica - Queen of Winter!

Each year I photograph the candidates and crowning for the Miss MN Valley Program. Once crowned we also due a session during their season of reign. Jessica is the Miss MN Valley Queen of Winter and we have been waiting for a significant amount of snow so we could do her pictures so finally last week we were able to get the done! Her grandma came along and brought this wonderful cape so I couldn't resist taking some shots that I could play with in my new software program!

Meet Heidi from MSB

Meet Heidi - she was one of the winners of my open house drawing last year and a friend of mine from the business community. She won an award and needed a head shot. I think they turned out awesome!!

Congratulations, Heidi!

Meet Jeni & Stephanie!

Head shots have been very popular this year! Meet Jeni & Stephanie from Pure & Simple Massage here in Shakopee. They were so much fun!!

My Baby!

Josie came with me to the studio today to while I worked on a Wedding Album design. She is just the cutest thing!

Faith is a year old! I can't believe how time flies! It seems just like yesterday I was photographing her new born session. She is such a cutie but doesn't really like having her picture taken. We ended up with some great images that hopefully her parents will adore!

365 Project - Day 10

Well the theme of the week is barns because my friend who is doing this 365 with me is still traveling. Even though I should have been driving and looking for barns, I was driving by this place and just had to take this one today. Back to barns tomorrow!

365 Project - Day 9

Yesterday I worked in the studio for a bit but got restless because of the weather which has been gorgeous for January. I decided to take a drive and see what I could find for that business wall project.

365 Project - Day 8

I have gotten behind in posting my pictures but am really enjoying finding things to take them of. I'm also working on a project for a local company who wants landscape type images for their walls. After taking the shore picture the other day, I decided that I would go back down to the river and see if I could be right on the shore. Well, I couldn't get right on the shore without sinking in over my ankles so this is from about three feet from the shore.

365 Project - Day 7

Today was another gorgeous day so I decided that I wasn't going to spend it at my desk designing collages or announcements again. I grabbed my camera and decided I would take a walk along the river and just shoot whatever I liked. As I am walking I'm thinking of my friend Laura Olson who just loves texture and taught me to look for them everywhere. I took a few different shots and when reviewing them, this one stood out. After a bit of tweaking in Photoshop, this is what I came up with.

Also, as I was driving home I was at a stop sign and looked up. The moon was just perfect with the flags! This one was tweaked in Photomatix.

365 Project - Day 6

I am loving this wonderful MN winter this year...45 degrees in January - woohoo! Mind you I am very much a snow person, however I don't care for the cold so if there isn't any snow then bring on spring! I spent most of the day designing cards, collages and misc other items so I didn't get out until this afternoon but this was the first thing I saw. The puddles make me think of spring, rain and dancing in the rain!

365 Project - Day 5

Yesterday was a day where I didn't feel like doing much but I did go pick up the neon Viking sign that I won from Riverside Liquor. Thanks again, Charlie!! It's much larger than I thought it would be but so very cool!!!

365 Project - Day 4

Well my truck is finally fixed and I'm mobile again so I spent most of the day at the studio. About 4pm I decided I had ants in my pants so I went out for a break and saw this beautiful sunset. Deciding that it was to be my picture for the day, I went back in to grab my camera only to realize it was at home. Thank goodness my point and shoot stays in my purse!! This picture was taken just outside my studio with my Nikon 6200 at ISO 200 - f15.9 - 1/400.

Once I took this one, I decided I wanted to follow the sunset and take other ones as well. Without any time to run get my big camera, I drove to the far west end of town with the Nikon and shot these two. I was taught at one time by my wonderful friend Michael, how to take this picture so that the sun isn't fuzzy but for the life of me I can't remember. Guess I will be spending some time in google tonight!

365 Project - Day 3

I went to let the dog out just after midnight on Tuesday morning and looked up to see the lights from Mystic. I decided right then that I would try photographing them. We went back inside and I realized that my tripod was at the studio so.... after a large bowl and cooking pot turned upside down on top of each other and a pizza pan on top of that I put the camera at a tilt and hooked up the remote. This was taken on bulb setting at f2.8. It took about a dozen or so shots before I got this one that I'm relatively happy with.

365 Project - Day 1 & 2

I haven't been very good at keeping up with blogging so as part of my goals for the New Year, myself and a couple of friends are doing a 365 project and blogging about it. A 365 project means that I will take a picture a day for 365 days and try to improve my photography skills and creativeness. One would think that sounds easy and I suppose it is, however we have added a set of rules. There is a theme for each of the 52 weeks this year. I thought I was going to start the year with a bang, however my truck is out of commission with transfer case issues so I am stuck at home until tomorrow when it should be done. The first week's theme was landscapes because one of my friends is on vacation between here and Florida. His is still landscapes but mine has changed to around the house (inside and out). I'm not sure I will be walking to far with the 10 degree temperature and gusting winds but we'll see. For my first day, Josie my wonderful King Charles Spaniel was my model and for today my son brought dinner and his Boxer, Dixie over so she is my second day picture. I decided to get creative with a new program I am learning and not sure if I like yet.