Melissa and Zak Engagement Photos

I think I have the most fun at sessions with my friends.  I was so excited when Melissa asked me to do engagement photos of her and Zak because I enjoy spending time with them.  And as much as I enjoy doing sessions with babies and toddlers, adults are a lot easier!  I didn't have to spend half the session chasing anyone around or making ridiculous noises just to elicit a smile from somebody, haha!
Our session in general was fantastic!  We went to Allerton Park; I had suggested it because I had never done a session there as a photographer, but my husband and I had our engagement photos there so I knew there would be beautiful backdrops everywhere.  The weather was perfect- partly sunny and warm enough not to need a jacket, but cool enough that no one was sweating.  The only problem we had was the little bugs that kept biting us, but Melissa and Zak were troopers in holding poses even when they were getting bitten!
 I could not be happier for Melissa and Zak- they are an amazing couple and I know they will have a long, happy life together. 

I feel like I should explain these 2 photos: I had Melissa and Zak write down 3 things they loved about each other but not show it to the other person.  Then we did photos with the chalkboards- they won't see what the other wrote until they get the pictures.  Just a fun little surprise ;)

Happy Birthday Allie!

This week I spent an hour with Allie and her family for Allie's one year photos.  I met mom, Kristin, last year when she started bringing Allie to the same daycare provider I was using.  Oh, Allie was so cute with her big blue eyes!  She still is adorable and looks more like her momma every day.  Originally we were going to do the pictures at Allerton but then I got strep, and then we had bad weather so we ended up at my favorite Champaign location: the U of I arboretum.  I will just let everyone know that right now the arboretum is beautiful.  All of the flowers in the large center garden are in full bloom; I felt like I was on color-overload!  Allie, like any toddler, loooved the woodchips, dirt, and rocks.  Who can blame her?  It's always fun to get messy!!  I hope I managed to catch this little girl's sparkling personality and unending curiosity.

 

Beautiful Family!!

Blair is 2!

It's so hard to believe a year ago I was taking Blair's one-year photos and now she is so big!  As far as sessions with 2-year olds, this one was pretty much perfect.  Blair came ready to pose!  And I got to try a new location for pictures: the Boneyard Creek in downtown Champaign.  Sadly, all of the wildflowers that were blooming over the summer are now dead and brown, but it was still very pretty.  Blair loved climbing the rocks, although we had a bit of excitement when she accidentally got too near a wasps' nest (yes Lauryl, I'm positive those were wasps!) and a few started crawling up her leg- eep!

First picture of the shoot- like I said, ready to work!

Not too sure about the giant 2

Playing peek-a-boo with the geese

That's right Blair- you're two!

Now before we even started the session, Lauryl told me they had some exciting news to share; Blair is going to be a big sister!  It's so funny because this is the umpteenth time I've had a premonition about someone's pregnancy.  Before I left my house, I grabbed my giant sidewalk chalk thinking "I might need this in case Lauryl is pregnant and wants to do that picture seen all over Pinterest with the 2 + 2=4"  I am so excited for the McKenry family and can't wait to meet Baby M in the spring!

Bridget is One!

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting little Bridget and her mom, Hannah.  We went to Meadowbrook Park, which turned out to be a veritable hot-spot.  Bridget loved watching all the people go by and making them smile with her excitement and giggles.  Bridget's dad and grandparents joined us halfway through the session, which delighted Bridget.  I've never had spectators at any of my sessions before; lots of people to keep smiles on Bridget's face.  And she certainly enjoyed performing for everyone!  Bridget is quite simply, an adorable little girl and I definitely had fun meeting her and her family!

Two Year Old Eli

This past week I had the pleasure of meeting Eli and his mom, Trisha, at Homer Lake for a session commemorating his 2nd birthday.  I had never been to Homer Lake before; it is a really beautiful place.  I saw lots of trails for walking/running and it seems to be a pretty popular place to fish.  They've recently added a really nice kids' area that is perfect for little ones.  Eli loves water!  Like, really, really loves it!  It was hard to get him away from the water but for a 2-year old on the go, he did amazingly well.  He is just so sweet and completely adorable.  Even though it was humid and the bugs were eating me up, I had a great time capturing Eli's personality!

I know Trisha didn't want his hands in his mouth but I love his face here!

There's a sweet smile!

This could just be my favorite picture

Oh, this face!! 

Daisy is One!

Wow, has it really been almost a year since I first got little Miss Daisy in front of the camera?  I'm sure Rhianna can hardly believe it either.  We took Daisy to the Arboretum (had to have a colorful background to match her colorful tutu!) for her one year pictures.  I think Rhianna and I were both a little nervous about how Daisy was going to perform considering it was about 45 minutes before her bedtime.  Thankfully, Daisy was in a wonderful mood and smiled and giggled the entire time.  It helped that Rhianna was over my shoulder doing all sorts of silly stuff.  It is clear just how much Daisy adores her momma (and looks like her too!).  This was altogether a completely great session.

Teacher Appreciation

Today was my student teacher's last day (sniff, sniff).  I had already been slowly collecting things to create a goody basket for her since you spend so much money your first year teaching just on things you need in your classroom.  On Monday after school, I got a great idea for a photo collage; something that would let her know just how much the students and I loved having her in our classroom.  I was fortunate enough to get all the pictures taken on Tuesday and Wednesday and I finished piecing the collage together about 9 PM last night which means I had to wait until this morning to pick it up from the photo lab.  Truthfully, I finished it around 6:30 last night but then when I picked up the first round of pictures, I saw that I had made a pretty big mistake with the collage and I essentially had to start over.  But thankfully, the collage turned out beautiful and I totally admit to tearing up a bit when I first took it out of the envelope.  And yeah, it totally made my student teacher cry.  And then all of my girls started crying (and did.not.stop).
I guess I should mention that every morning at the end of assembly, our principal has the students turn to someone and say "You are ____" and he gives them a complimentary word to use.  I made a list of the words he's used over the year and I let the kids pick a word that they wanted to use to describe my student teacher.  Anyway, I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I'm pretty sure I'll be doing this for all of my student teachers in the future.
Oh and I know it's a little hard to see all the words- this file is not resized for the website and I had to let Blogger shrink it (a LOT) in order for it to fit.