central il photographer – Page 7

January 30, 2018January 30, 2018

| Tristen | WLHS Senior 2018 |

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Today it’s time to check out Tristen’s first session (we’ve got another planned coming up this spring). I absolutely loved working with Tristen and her momma. We hung out a bit downtown before heading out to one of my favorite sunset nature locations to get the wide open field look.

You might remember Payton’s ‘dumpster’ image well we stumbled upon the perfect HUGE green dumpster on Tristen’s session too. While Payton’s blue dumpster matched her eyes, I couldn’t pass up this green rusted one with Tristen’s green romper. We can really turn just about any location into something beautiful and I love the challenge to do so.

Plus, have you heard how excited I am about our new Senior Films?!?! I played a bit on just a couple 2017 sessions including Tristen’s so here’s a tiny look at what the new senior films are all about.

Be sure to check out our IG and Facebook to see a few more from her session!

January 23, 2018

| Kaitlin | MZHS Senior 2018 |

Just a couple years ago I got to photograph Kaitlin’s brother Brian and I was so excited that it was Kaitlin’s turn in front of the camera this time. Just as usual with siblings portraits we wanted to create a few things that were similar to what we’d done with Brian so that the wall art we were creating would coordinate a bit but we definitely didn’t go matchy matchy and we let Kaitlin design a session that really fit her well which meant all outdoor portraits at a couple different locations to mix in some nature and some grungier textures.

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Be sure to check out our IG and Facebook to see a few more from her session!

January 17, 2018January 17, 2018

| Trinity | Class of 2018 High School Senior Portraits | Decatur, IL |

Today I get to share the lovely Trinity with you today. Not only did we give Trinity her time in the spotlight for her session but we also included her sister Tiara (one of our past seniors too) as a big part of her portraits. These girls are so fun and I love their sisterly relationship, we even facetimed in Tiara from college to help choose the wall portrait of the two of them!

It’s always such an honor when I’ve photographed one senior in a family to have their younger siblings come back to choose me to create their images as well. Of course, in some ways we like to keep things coordinated so that we can create wall art that fits perfectly with what we’ve created for the older sibling, BUT we also want to give each senior/sibling their own unique session. While we chose studio (and a specific look to match Tiara’s portrait as a throwback to their momma’s senior portrait), and nature and urban locations for both girls we mixed up and used each location uniquely so nothing felt ‘the same’ about the girls’ sessions.

Check out some of our favorites from Trinity’s session including her full album design below and be sure to head over to our facebook page and IG to see more and give her some love with your likes/comments.

September 12, 2017September 8, 2017

| Allen Family | Annual Family Portraits | Summer Decatur, IL |

family portraits, family photography, family photographer, decatur il, decatur, illinois, photographer, central il photographer, central illinois photographer, family, siblings, siblings portraits, annual portraits, Look who’s up on the blog today! I’m so excited to share this beautiful family with you. I’ve had the privilege to photograph Melanie and her girls a few times over the past few years (you can check out last year’s session HERE) and this year we welcomed Chuck and Ethan into the fun.

I’ll be missing Melanie this year as we’ve worked together for the Warrensburg-Latham High School yearbook images for years now but she’s taken a great Librarian job in another district so I won’t be seeing as much of her as usual but wish her good luck in the new job.

I have had so much fun watching Savannah and Sophie grow up so much over the last few years. They have such unique personalities and I always look forward to what we create for them both individually and together. I sort of get excited to think about them flipping through these photos a decade or two from now seeing how much they changed every year.

And these three were SO sweet together. This may have been the first session I jumped WHILE shooting to get that smile on the left (thank God for image stabilization!). We knew going into the session we’d have to watch for forced smiles on Ethan so I had to up the silliness just a bit and worked perfectly!

And, of course, we had to round out the session with some individual combinations. Every family relationship is unique and I love to show not only the whole family but all the little micro relationships too.

I know this will be an exciting year for this family and I cannot wait to see them even more grown up next year!

May 17, 2017January 30, 2018

| Recent Album Designs | Seniors, Families & Weddings: More than Images, Heirloom Designs |

Oops we’re a day late on my usual Tuesday blog post but I promise it’s worth it with a LOT of images/albums to check out today!

I know it’s kinda odd to do a ‘look back’ post as we are smack dab in the middle of the year BUT a photographer’s year is odd and not really broken up in the usual Jan-December flow of most. Instead, those of us who photograph seniors often think in school years too so May is always another ending/beginning for me as we say congratulations and farewell to our class of 2017 graduates and welcome in the next class of 2018!

Right now in the midst of finishing up album designs, graduation cards and booking summer family sessions for our 2017 grads I thought it would be fun to look back at one of my favorite products, our custom-designed albums!

Every year (and honestly every album) I try to push myself to try something new, find a new design element, work in a classic item in a new way or even invent/design a new element from scratch. Why? Because I want your album to be as unique as a fingerprint… as unique as you are!

Of course I LOVE our albums for our high school senior clients since these are often our longest sessions with the most locations and outfit changes an album just makes sense to show off everything we’ve created for you. This year we broke our record for most images in an album with over 100 (previously 86 was our record for a non-wedding album!). What other way can you show off, protect and share over 100 of your favorite images?!?! Unless you’re up for wallpapering your house (challenge me, I’m game haha) I think the album is the perfect way to show off everything we created for you!

Next let’s check out our family albums for 2016! Just like our senior albums, our family albums give us a chance to show off all the different images we created which for families means all the individuals, ones with just the kids, etc. You’re all dressed up and ready for session already so our family sessions include MORE than just the whole family images… we take a few minutes to focus on each kiddo for updated portraits of them, plus show off every relationship in your family like momma with kids, dad with kids, siblings together AND the relationship that started it all mom+dad (sometimes it’s been YEARS since you guys have had a portrait together yourselves).

Oh and don’t forget the family PETS!

While we do a handful of individual session albums for families we also offer (and are in the midst of) planning for many heirloom albums that showcase not just one session from one year but all your annual sessions (typically in 5 or 10 year segments). Can you imagine… flipping through one album as your baby grows from an infant into a bubbly toddler then into a big kindergartener… then on and on through middle school awkwardness and into young adults through high school and on?! What a gift for the kids to have once they graduate college and start their own families, it’s like they are finally aloud to check those sites like imgsexy.com and start being adults!

And I love to tell the beginning of your love story starting with your engagement portraits! We often design these albums as guestbooks which simply means we leave some blank spaces for your guests to sign and add their own notes and well-wishes to your album. Always remember who was there to help you celebrate your big day!

Obviously you’ve seen that albums aren’t just for weddings anymore BUT they are still our favorite products for our wedding clients too! Talk about an heirloom piece. Our most popular wedding albums are stunning hand made albums printed in Italy and published with unique image covers including metal and glass prints!