Whew! & Motl Family Photos

I, just this week, finished editing all the client photos for this year. I photographed 4 weddings, over 50 sessions for families, children, & seniors(the majority of which were between August and November), and a few projects for Tri-M related businesses this year. I'm exhausted both mentally and physically and will need several months to recover.
We are very excited for Christmas around here, though. I'm really anxious for it to hurry up and get here so I can see the boys open their gifts and to celebrate with our family. I mustered up enough energy tonight to get most of the presents wrapped and make 2 kinds of cookies. Hopefully I'll find some more for tomorrow to get everything finished.
Here are some photos of the Motl family taken this October on one of the colder, yet dry, days.
The kids' cheeks and hands were just pink by the time we finished, but were so much fun to photograph!

My Favorite!

Melinda + Ian = Beautiful Northern Minnesota Wedding

While I'm waiting for some edited photos to download, I'll share with you some photos from a wedding I shot back in September. It was a graet wedding and a couple weeks ago I finshed weeding through the 1200 photos I took. I ended up editing 573 of them!
I went "up north" to the Brainerd/Baxter area for the shoot. I have not been up to that part of Minnesota since we moved here 9 years ago. I wasn't sure exactly how long it would take to get up there, so I left super early in the morning. With a few stops along the way, I ended up getting to the salon just about 5 minutes before the bride and here ladies arrived. Whew!

The wedding was held at this place...


Her soon to be sister-in-law helped with her make up.

I love her reaction to seeing herself all done up and ready to wed...

Melinda & Ian decided to have a meeting on the lakeshore before the cermony. I love his reaction to seeing her for the first time.

Then time for a few photos...

At the ceremony, they both sai the most beautiful vows. There was not a dry eye in the crowd.

Ian's siblings sang for them...which made everyone tear up more.

They rode off to the reception in style.

Their cake topper cracked me up (they both love fishing).

Ians best man was gave an incredible speech. He was hilarious!

First dance. Look how in love and happy they are...

Their reception was filled with amazing family and friends.They are blessed to both come from such great families. I had such a good time with everyone!

3 Blue-Eyed Sweeties

Really? Are you kidding me? Who has kids this gorgeous?

I have to add that these kids win the award for "Most Well-Behaved". They were awesome for me!

Heather - Senior 2010

I still have a few more senior sessions to share. We did Heather's session in September. I love the light in September.

Sisters

***I have realized I'm not going to make my hoped-for deadline of having all my sessions edited by Thanksgiving. I will be taking Thanksgiving off from editing to spend with my family and to over-eat. My new goal is to have most, if not all, sessions edited the first part of December. I realize most of you are wanting them back for holiday cards, and I appreciate everyone's patience. Happy Thanksgiving!***

This is my third year photographing these lovely sisters. They get prettier every year.

Cartwheels!

Doesn't she have great eyes?

Fall fun!

And, of course, jumping!

More jumping!

Scott+Cory+adorable Kiddos

I thought I'd step away from the senior photos for a mnute to show you some family photos I've taken. I wish I could say these were really recent, but, no. They are from August. That's how far behind I am on posting. My editing ifs finally getting caught up, but I don't know for sure that I'm going to make my self-imposed Thanksgiving deadline for all photos to be finished.
Anyway, enjoy...

She's gonna be a heartbreaker!

He so reminds me of Max from "Where the Wild Things Are" here...

Cory sure has hernds full with these boys...

LOVE this one...

Mama & daughter had matching shoes. As a mom of only boys, I'm jealous.

Amanda- Senior 2010

Most of the senior girls that I get are fairly nervous when they show up for the session. Not Amanda. She is really confident and comfortable in her own skin, which is very freshing. She was willing to throw out ideas and that always make the session more fun.

One of her ideas was sitting under a semi trailer. I love how the lines all lead to her.

Did I mention she has a bit of sass to her?

Any guess when she'll graduate?

We got lucky and had gorgeous light that day.

Destanie- Senior 2010

I love the light in this first shot. Its such a contrast to her dark eyes &hair.

Ethan- Senior 2010

He has to be one of the funniest people I know. He's one of the big, intimidating, football player- types when you first meet him. But within a few second you'll have a smile on your face. He's so lighthearted, and did I mention funny?

Brittany- Senior 2010

How lucky am I that I get to photograph such a beautiful senior girl?

Cuyler - Senior 2010

This was a last minute session in the alley ways downtown.

I finally figured out my computer problems were stemming from a bad hard drive. I got a new one went we went to Best Buy to get Tye's Christmas present yesterday (I'm glad I got his one & only request purchased so early).

The old hard drive not only kept causing crashes, but would stall while I was working, sometimes for 20 minutes. It was so frustrating. Hopefully, I will be able to get back into a good groove and finish up a lot of sessions. I have many that are finished but need the disks burned, and some that are half -edited.

Trick or Treat

Ah, Halloween. It's that time of year when I spend more money on making costumes for the kids than I intended, which is usually more than buying a costume at the store would be.
However, it is usually worth it.
Tye was Jeff Hardy this year. In case you don't know who that is, he's a WWE wrestler. The most important part of his gear is the cut up arm warmer things he apparently wears. Tye showed me a photo of them weeks ago and I knew they would be fairly easy to create. He tried them on tonight and said to his friend, "Dude, check em out. They are so sweet & perfect. And my mom made them." That made it so worth every dime.
So here is is all dressed up with purple hair & face paint.

Then he did the Jeff Hardy pose.



A G.I. Joe character named Snake Eyes showed up (a friend of ours).

Then a demon tried to attack us (another friend)...

And from out of the shadows, rose a werewolf (also a friend)

But then another WWE wrestler, John Cena, aka Bodie, came to the rescue. First he showed off his muscles...

Kissed his guns...

Showed off his championship belt...

Then defeated the monters!

Actually, Bodie satyed back with Grandma & me to hand out candy. He's never been big on trick-or-treating. Tye on the other hand lives for it. He and the other boys went out for a bit & came back with a bucketful! They were worn out & went to bed early. Thank goodness we get an extra hour of sleep tonight!

Paying It Forward

As many of my family & friends know, I was an exchange student through Rotary during my junior year of high school.It was definitely one of the best experiences of my life.
I volunteered to photograph the current exchange student this year. She is from Japan, vibrant, gorgeous, and a sweetheart. She made me a beautiful decorative ornamental ball as a gift, that I will have to photograph tomorrow to show you all.

Being an exchange student can be very difficult at times, especially when you are trying to master a language and culture. But she seems very eager to make the best of her time here. I hope for all the best for her.

H1N1?

Tye had a fever over the weekend and is still home from school today. He feeling much better, but I thought I should keep him home one more day. One of the kids in his class has H1N1, so we are assuming that's what Tye had. Early this week, there were 6 kids or so gone from his class.
Last night Bodie, John, & I all came down with fevers, body aches, and headaches. John decided to go to work, but Bo & I are home today.
Tylenol seems to help, but I'm feeling pretty dizzy now. So I'm off to lay down.

Redheaded Beauty

Finally getting back on track! Still behind, but its looking up.

In my next life I want hair like this...

This was an interesting shoot for me because her dad is also a photographer. It was strange but inspiring to see how he would have composed some of the shots compared to what I was doing and the ideas he suggested for posing. It mde me stop, think, and try to look a little differently. My mind was really trying to think outside it's box!