| Tarter Annual Fall Family Portraits | Decatur IL |

Today I get to share Payton’s family with you! “Ms. Payton” as she’s now referred to in our house since she’s started watching our little ones from time to time has been working with me for a few years now. She’s my ‘assistant’ but more of a jack of all trades here…. she assists in the office packaging up all your orders, dealing with ALL the huge piles of cardboard that comes with portrait orders and doing lots to keep the chaos of the office/studio reigned in. Plus, my toddler LOVES her so she not only helps in the office but she lends a hand with the home life as well being an extra hand with the girls.

I’ve now gotten to photograph her family a few times and this is I think my favorite sessions of theirs!

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This year Payton got a new little pup, Grizzly so we included him in the session of course. <3

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| Cassidy | Central A & M High School Class of 2019 Senior Portrait Model |

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The lovely Ms. Cassidy’s time in the spotlight on the blog has arrived. She’s pretty used to the spotlight being quite the accomplished pageant gal. She was so much fun to photograph and we kicked things off before her senior session with a short pageant session for her Miss Teen of Illinois title… you might remember it (see it HERE).

We incorporated a few throwbacks into her session not only to her childhood (see the images of her as an adorable pigtail clad kiddo below) but also a throwback to her mother’s senior portraits. Her mom had a similar image to the one below taken on a purple backdrop so as a little surprise for her Cassidy wanted to do one image to recreate that.

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We packed SO much into Cassidy’s session that we were racing the sunlight by this time of the evening and believe it or not it was nearly dark by this time so wanting to finish in the water and with the paint I got back in touch with my inner artist to throw some body paint all over while we both laughed. It was a pretty fun end to a great session for sure!

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I’ve had so much fun with the class of 2019 and am so excited for what’s in store with the class of 2020/21 (especially with the first shoots at the NEW studio!). 2020/21 grads you can apply NOW to be a senior model at www.sjanephotoraphy.com!

| Beery Family Portraits | Fall Limited Edition Session |

This year I had the pleasure of photographing the Beery family for the second time. I’m so excited for the gallery of wall art we’ve created for them this year and thrilled to share all their favorite images with you today. This little gal is about the same age as our own “baby B” (not a baby anymore!!!) so these guys are close to my heart as our girls are growing up so fast all at the same time.

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Of course, we had to give her a little time in the spotlight solo. Isn’t she the sweetest (and a little attitude just under the surface there huh, toddler mommas can I get an amen).

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Believe it or not ALL these images were created at one of our Limited Edition session dates! For families with young children these sessions are perfect as they are just 15 or 30 minutes which is plenty for the short attention span of your children (or husband) haha. We’re already booking for our winter (January 1/12) and fall (September 14 and November 16) Limited Edition sessions and will add just one more summer date for 2019. Sessions start at just $45 and spaces on each date are limited so head HERE to book your now (or even better book one for a last minute christmas gift and we’ll frame and wrap a gift certificate for you!).

| Class of 2019 Senior Model | Best Friend Sessions | Decatur IL Photographer |

I’ve been having so much fun this year with our senior model team. We have a fabulous group of girls and one of my absolute favorite parts of our model perks is their BFF session. We invite them to share a portion of their senior portrait experience with the friends that are important in their lives right now. We all know that adulthood is right around the corner for these guys and with that comes school and jobs that could be right next door or across the country/world and I always say one of the hardest parts of adulthood that no one talks about is no longer living a block from your best friend.

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Of course, some of these relationships will last a lifetime (my bff has been in my life since first grade – the elementary pictures we have of eachother are the BEST) and others will fade or fray. But whether these people are destined to be in your lives for a year or a decade or a hundred years, they are an important part of this chapter now and we want to give them their time to shine with you!

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And a little perk of joining our model program early (this is for you class of 2021 as we’ll open up for you just next month) is that we’ll feature your bffs your senior year AND your junior year if you’d like!

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Believe it or not we are less than one month away from opening up our model interviews again for the class of 2020 and for the first time for 2021 seniors! You can already apply NOW at sjanephotography.com 

| First Christian Church | Baby Dedication Brunch | Decatur IL |

I’m so excited to share another baby dedication day with you all. I’m absolutely loving working with First Christian Church families on these special events. It’s a fun challenge to create an image that showcases 10-15 families (and all those little ones) in a short window of time (you can imagine this image just cannot take even 20 minutes to take with babies who may need to eat or be changed or be tired). So I try to work quickly while still making sure each family can shine.

My favorite part has to be creating the individual family portraits for each family though. It’s such a special gift that the church offers to the families to commemorate the event with a free family portrait, aren’t all these guys like picture perfect?!?! I hope you’ll join me in sending them all a bit of love as they begin to raise these little angels.

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