| Jamie + Mike | Married! |

Today, I get to share Jamie & Mike’s wedding (album) with you all! I cannot tell you how much I loved working with these two. You might remember their super fun SNOW engagement/family session… well their wedding day was quite the opposite weather-wise but still full of even more fun and love. These two got the perfect sunny spring day (which was good since their ceremony was outside at the beautiful Fletcher Park Pavilion.

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Ceremony: Fletcher Park Pavillion

Reception: Mt. Zion Convention Center

 

 

| Morgan | Illinois Festival Junior Miss 2016 | Pageant Photography | Decatur, IL |

Today I’m excited to show off the lovely and talented Illinois Festival Junior Miss 2016, Morgan! I got to meet Morgan when she came along to Payton’s BFF session day this year and was thrilled when she was so excited about that image and experience that she wanted me to create her pageant images right at the end of the reign.

For pageant gals we usually want to accomplish a few things at their session. We need to create a beautiful headshot image first.And while it often has strict specifications for sizing, posing and backdrop for uniform appearance in programs, it should also capture and show off each girl’s unique personality… that’s not always an easy task with a simple head and shoulders shot but I love the challenge. For morgan, beauty lighting was a MUST – look how flawless she is! This let her eyes and smile SHINE brightly while keeping everything else soft and simple and I love our final result.

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Next, we often want to show off they lady’s talents, philanthropies or crowns! We managed to do all three in a few combinations with Morgan here. Clearly her talent is dance and I swear I was giddy and impressed every time she went up on point (in a variety of different poses).

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And finally it wouldn’t be a pageant session if we didn’t show off crown, sash and dress! How gorgeous is that royal blue dress on her. It was such a perfect look we had to do a few more headshots with it too.

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My favorite part of Morgan’s Premiere (when we showed her all her images on our movie screen) was both her and her mom’s reactions to everything and their excitement about, not only these images, but working with me again when it’s time for her senior images soon. I had a blast with her for this little session so I know we will have so much fun on her full senior session (something epic for that dance talent will be needed don’t you think?!?!).

| Payton | Argenta-Oreana High School Senior Model | Class of 2018 | Decatur, IL |

The first of our class of 2018 senior models to make their debut on the blog is our very own Ms. Payton!

2017-08-17_0003You may remember her first moment in the SJP spotlight way back for her sophomore year prom when she won the Neuhoff media prom package which included a prom-day shoot with her date Austin (and we included him in a few of her senior portraits too)!

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From there it wasn’t long before Payton was working as my assistant and modeling for me on a few projects including our parachute dress class in downtown Indianapolis with the Reset Conference. She’s even charmed our own little #BabyB and got to be her swim lesson teacher at fairview pool this summer!

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So basically Payton has become a pretty awesome part of the SJP family (at home and work!) so it seemed fitting she be the first one up on the blog to kick off the class of 2018’s senior year.

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Do you guys remember the ‘trash can image’ ?!? Austin joked when we got out of the car at the park that we had a great location right by the dumpster soooo I accepted that as a challenge to create something fun by it and this was the result:

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Things have been BUSY around here all summer and I have SO many awesome things to show you from all our seniors… so let’s not wait! Check out all of Payton’s favorite images right here right now.

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This year Payton was even named All American Cheerleader! Big congrats for kicking off your senior year with such an achievement.

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And don’t forget to head over to her facebook album to give her some love.

| Alyssa + Corey | Engaged! |

I’m so excited to show off Alyssa and Corey’s engagement session today! This week’s blog post is a bit late due to us taking a little family vacation time for the fourth but it’s worth the wait because these two are just adorable and so sweet. I was lucky enough to meet Alyssa a year or so ago and was thrilled when she called me to tell me she was engaged and to setup a time to bring Corey by to chat about having me as a part of her wedding day.

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Choosing a wedding photographer can be overwhelming (just like choosing every other piece of your wedding day!) because it’s such a big event and your photographer is not only there with you all day (like right there, so you better like them) but they are also creating the images you have left from the day once everything else is over. So though Alyssa had worked with me before I encouraged her to explore the others she’d heard about too just to make sure I was the perfect fit for their day and we were both SO excited when she came up to my booth at the Decatur Bridal Expo to tell me to pull out the contract they were ready! Of course, I’m thrilled to be a part of their day and honored that, after doing some looking, they chose me and SJP. Now it’s game-on to make their wedding day and images as perfect as possible.

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I was really excited when she told me they wanted to personalize their engagement session a bit by bringing along Corey’s stunning el camino and to add a little of their personality with a campfire feel (and luckily our fire pit fit in my car!).

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Be sure to stay tuned for a look at their big day this fall. <3