| Macy + Tyler | Decatur IL Engagement Portraits |

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I’m thrilled to show off Macy and Tyler to you today! With our recent warm up in temperatures I am itching for some greenery like this soon. I had a blast photographing these two on a beautiful morning out at Allerton Park. Since they’ll be getting married in downtown Decatur and we know we’ll have a lot of urban scenery on the wedding day we decided to get some variety and get out into the greenery of Allerton for their engagement session (plus, added bonus was we worked in a bit of brick/stone textures with the mansion area too!).

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These two are so sweet together and their session was super relaxed and fun but I just LOVE how they both rock that model face (see below). Smiles, cuddles and giggles are fun but whew they are owning that serious face.

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When Macy pulled out their second outfit for the session I knew immediately I wanted to get them in the greenhouse where the bright white and windows always give a subtle blue hue which was perfect with Tyler’s polo. Plus the ivy around the greenhouse was perfect that day!

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Don’t forget to head over to their Facebook Album to give them some love with your likes/comments and stay tuned this July to see their wedding images!!!

| Steck Family Portraits | Decatur IL Photography Studio |

Better late than never… if you follow the blog closely you know posts come every Tuesday/Thursday and technically it’s STILL Thursday so we are on time (just a bit later in the day than usual). The snow yesterday showed up out of nowhere and was beautiful so my office time was put on hold to go create for a lovely family who has been excitedly waiting for the flakes to fall. So tonight I’m burning the midnight oil to catch back up on some things! And I’m so excited to share these siblings with you todaynight.

Amy came to me this fall to try to get the kids in the studio in a tiny window of time where they were all back home for Thanksgiving break. We had hoped to do both in-studio and some outdoor portraits since we’d had such unseasonably warm weather and low and behold the day of their session was the ONE day it was nasty and rainy all week. Well we didn’t let that stop us!

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I love the classic and timeless look of low key (aka black background) studio portraits and it meshed perfectly with both their wardrobe choices. And a fun twist on this session was the recreation of the below ‘kissy’ image that the kids had done when they were little, I should have taken a photo of their original because I think we nailed it if I do say so myself!

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Cut to wardrobe change to show off where the kids are in their lives right now with the boys in military school and this lovely lady about to graduate and become a doctor! We may have only hung out for about an hour but these three were delightful to work with and am so glad to share and show them off to you all today.

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#meanmug ^^^

You can give them some love with your likes & comments on the Facebook Page!

| Dodson Family Portraits Backyard & Downtown Decatur |

Today’s blog post is coming to you a bit later in the day than normal but for a very good reason. This morning when I got to the office I got a sweet, kind but heartbroken email from Heather about some bad news they’d gotten about one of their adorable dogs who won’t be with them much longer. This gal was just looking for some happiness in her sad day and was hoping their blog feature happened to be coming up this week…. though it wasn’t scheduled for a week or two, of course hearing such news I bumped it up a bit!

I know our dogs are a big part of our family and were included not only in our family photos before BabyB came along but were also included in her newborn portraits and hang in photos all over our home/walls. I’m SO glad we included these two in their session and am happy to be able to share them all with you today. Prayers and good thoughts to this family this week as they hug and love on this special girl for a bit longer. She may not have wanted to be in the spotlight of the images but she made her presence known especially with some amazing facial expressions (like the one below!).

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The below image is one we all loved but I kept going back and forth on if I liked it best black and white or color and these two kept debating horizontal or vertical… what do you think they picked?!?

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I’m really excited for how dedicated Heather was to selecting images she knew she wanted to display in their home and deciding how they wanted to display them (so they don’t just end up in a box somewhere at home) which is right in line with what I love to do with clients. The following three are planned for a series collage.

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And the one on the left below we designed as a thin horizontal canvas to fit perfectly on their wall.

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| Kuznia Family Portraits | Decatur IL Photography Studio |

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Today, I get to share the Kuznia Family with you! Katie has to be the sweetest daughter ever and she called me to book this family session for a Christmas gift for her parents! And, of course, when she asked if they could bring along their dog Jake the answer was ABSOLUTELY! We had these four in for our last Limited Edition session date right before the holidays and I swear Jake is the perfect little model. Usually, I have to pull out a number of trade secret tricks to get pets to pose and/or pay attention to me during our sessions but not with Jake! He sat perfectly for nearly every photo in whatever pose we chose and not only looked right at me but even did a few top model head tilts to add just a bit of extra flare.

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It’s always important to me with every family session (even at our shorter Limited Edition sessions) that we take time to not only photograph the whole family but also couple’s portraits with mom and dad, and some individuals with each parent and kid. And for this session we even took individuals of Jake with everyone!!
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Last, but not least it’s time to share the family’s favorite image! I’m so glad this made it to their wall as a classic framed portrait so they can not only enjoy it for this year but for many to come! family portraits, family photos, family, families, family photographer, family pics, studio portraits, studio, classic studio work , studio photography, sarah jane photography, with dog, photos with dog, dog portraits, dog photos, sjp, sjanephotography, decatur il, central illinois family photographer, black backdrop, christmas portraits, annual portraits

Don’t forget to pre-book your 2017 Limited Edition Session. Dates have already been set and have begun to fill. You can book ONLINE HERE. These sessions will not be themed so all session types are welcome; children, birthdays, families, prom, couples, pets, seniors, etc.

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| Orrick Family Portraits | Downtown + Country Club of Decatur |

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Check out the Orrick Family!!! I swear these guys are the most photogenic and well-behaved little guys I’ve photographed (maybe ever lol). The Orrick family was amazing to work with and when Kristi said she wanted to do our longer session to work in two locations I was a little skeptical that I could hold the attention of three young boys for that long. But these three (and mom and dad) did amazing! They were perfect at following directions and boy did they bring the charm (just look at those smiles).

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And Kristi already knew she wanted to make sure we fit in time for images around the Country Club golf course since Steve works there and these guys are quite the golfers! Well I love any time we can add a personal touch to a session like this and the golf course is absolutely beautiful (one of my FAVORITE Decatur wedding venues!!)

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I’m so glad that we were able to not only design a feature wall art piece and some accents for their home but also that they decided to showcase all their favorite images in one of our legacy albums. This is always my favorite way to preserve and highlight this slice of time in my client’s lives.

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Don’t forget to head over to our facebook page soon to give them some love with your likes & comments! And if you’d like to work with us to design a family session this year give us a call. We are now booking all of 2017 (including fall which fills quickly) and we’d love to work with YOU.