Our senior models are photographed early in the spring. The outdoor studio is just showing signs of life, but there is little indication of the fabulous gardens to come! In lieu of flower gardens, I thought I’d buy some big gerbera daisies and use them for the first three models that came the weekend of April 14-15. Little did I know that they would still be pretty three weekends later. Only Brittany on May 6th missed out on being photographed with the daisies 🙁   They were WELL past their prime!

So then the challenge became: how can I make the pictures all look different? Our constant challenge during senior season is to produce one brand new idea for each senior. So I just applied that principal to our models. It was a fun project and the girls were, as always, good sports about it. Here are my favorites:

When Krysy and Jesse moved their wedding date up to March 24th, I was very nervous. We were flying in from Palm Springs the night before and getting in very late. What if there was one of our famous March Blizzards? But, thanks to the warmest March on record, a mild 72 degree day made it seem more like a May wedding. It could not have been more perfect! (The previous Saturday would have actually been too HOT: 81 degrees on March 17th!)

We took advantage of the beautiful warm day and spent an hour outdoors with the wedding party. The wedding and reception was held at the historic Minneapolis City Hall. The downtown venue was a great backdrop, both indoors and out, for spectacular photo ops! Marble staircases, arches, stained glass, and then skyscrapers, busy city streets and clocktowers for outdoor props = happy wedding photographers! Did I forget to mention a happy, easygoing couple who were up for anything?

Jesse left before dawn the next day, as his National Guard unit has been deployed again (hence the earlier wedding date). I hope these photos will give them some happy memories to hold on to during their separation.

It’s our favorite dog model Rinna! She once again patiently posed for our 2012 calendar photo shoot. Though I detect a hint of reproachful indignity in her eyes, do you see it? Here are some of our favorite “months”.

I’ve known Krysy for many years; in fact, Molly was friends with Krysy (Krystyna now) in elementary school. And I took her senior pictures. Her family, which includes 4 other sisters (no brothers!) comes almost every year for a family photo. It always makes me very happy when lifelong customers ask me to photograph their wedding. Such a special event in a person’s life! And then you know what the next photo session will be: I hear an old song, “first comes love, then comes marriage…..”

Krysy and Jesse are getting married March 24th. They had to move up this date because Jesse is being deployed THE NEXT DAY. He is in the Air Force National Guard. This is the third wedding I’ve photographed that a deployment moved up a planned wedding date!

Where to do beautiful engagement photos in the dead of winter? Aha – the Como Conservatory in St. Paul. Little did we know when we checked in, though, that you have exactly 30 minutes to photograph. ready, set, ….RUN! (Yes, they follow you and I swear they have a timer set!) Luckily, I have photographed in this venue many times in the past and knew all the good spots. Whew – we did it. And I think we got some very nice shots. Molly and I can’t wait to photograph their wedding in downtown Minneapolis is a few weeks.

When Sarah first emailed me and requested an outdoor engagement session on November 5th or 12, I thought “no way will it still be nice outdoors”. Wrong! Last Saturday was very windy but it was a beautiful sunny mild day. True, many of the trees had already shed their leaves, but there are always a few stragglers with some remaining color. And, this fall season has lasted longer than usual.

So off we went to Alimagnet Park in Burnsville with Sarah and Mike and their dog Kodiak , a beautiful 3 year old golden retriever that they’ve had since ” Kodi”  was an 8 week old puppy. Kodi was instrumental in Mike’s proposal: Mike attached the ring box to Kodi’s collar AND Kodi is going to be their ring bearer next year!

Sarah and Mike grew up in lower Michigan and are getting married there next fall. In fact, Mike graduated from Michigan Tech – the same college my husband Mike and I got our bachelors degrees from! Sarah graduated from Northern Michigan University. When they get married next fall, they will have been dating for 9 years! Yes – they started dating in high school 🙂

We are always encouraging seniors to bring personalized items to their photo shoot. A good senior session should include photos that tell us something about their life: hobbies, talents, pets,  interests, activities, etc. Another great add on is to go to a “custom location”: a cool spot that hopefully no one else has discovered or used for their senior pictures. Last week, I went to Aaron’s home on the lake out in Prior Lake. We went out on the lake and took some photos with his boat and wakeboard. (Yes, I tried to encourage him to get in the water, but we were doing their family photo immediately after and he didn’t want to be “all wet”. Plus, that was the day with 50 mph wind gusts!)

If you are a junior reading this and will be here next year for senior pictures, I challenge you now to keep an eye out for a custom location that will add a special meaning or memory to your photos. Yes, there is a location fee, but the one-of-a kind photos are worth the added cost. One senior girl wanted a photo with her horse in a field and, near that field, there was an old rusted abandonned car that ended up being equally photo worthy.

Here are some of the personalized photos we’ve taken this year for the Class of 2012. My favorite has got to be the wildflower field!

I have known Mike since he was in elementary school – in the same grade and on the same sports teams as my son, Jack. And I met Emily when she came to our studio for her senior pictures.
Mike and Emily were “high school sweethearts” at Burnsville High School and have dated for 9 years. I will be photographing their wedding next July, 2012. It is really amazing to me how many couples’ weddings we photograph who have been together since high school. It is about one third of our weddings!
I really enjoy engagement sessions: it gives me alot of information about how the couple interacts and what type of photographs suit them. Mike and Emily laughed throughout their entire session – it was nearly impossible to do a “serious” pose! The CD they will receive with all their session images features many, many laughing and goofing around shots 🙂
Here is a sample of their session, and I even included the ONE serious and ONE traditional pose…. It will be alot of fun photographing this couples’ wedding!

Tyler plays basketball for Lakeville North, but has played all around the country in the past few years. When he came for senior pictures, his mom said they really wanted to emphasize the basketball photos. They brought some examples of shots they found on the internet. I always love it when people bring different ideas: we can add them to our repertoire if we like them! These, added to our favorite poses, gave Tyler quite a collection to choose from (and these are not all of them!)

Tyler has a “seven foot wingspan”. Whoa! When you add the two basketballs, we needed to use our widest 10 foot background!

Here are some of my favorite shots from his session. Jack and I used several different Photoshop effects to add contrast, depth, and “attitude”.

The storms that were predicted for Saturday did not occur, which was a lucky thing for Alecia and Richard’s  outdoor ceremony at the Eagan Community Center.  However, the occasional ominous clouds provided a pretty backdrop for some of the photos!

The temps were in the high 80’s with a dewpoint in the 70’s. The guys in their black tuxes were really good sports about taking all the outdoor photos – we kept them mostly in the shade! The ceremony was a different story….  But it only made it that much more enjoyable when everyone got to go inside to the 20 degree cooler air conditioned reception. yaay.

Richard and Alecia, who met 4 years ago while working at Hollister, were the happiest, cutest couple! This was evident at the “checklist” meeting the previous Tuesday where they both excitedly shared all the details about their upcoming wedding. I took their engagement photos a year ago, and they were very happy that the wedding date was finally upon us!

Alecia’s primary goal was to have beautiful wedding photos and a custom designed Italian album. With both Molly and I shooting the “stills” and Jack shooting video, they will ALSO have a fabulous “fusion” slideshow that will blend the photos and video. Look for a “sneak peek” slideshow on this site in about two weeks.