Sarah's Senior Session

Hope everyone had a great weekend! We sure had great weather here. I forced myself to stay off the computer and we got some gardening done, which is always relaxing. We even built a sunflower house for our little girls to watch grow and enjoy playing in once it's grown.

Here are a few of our favorites from another senior session we did recently that I'm retouching today.









Don't forget, seniors, if you didn't plan ahead far enough to have pictures in your invitations, you can always put them in your thank you notes!

Another Stealthy Engagement Session

I am really enjoying these incognito photo sessions where at least one of the subjects doesn't know I'm there. Maybe I should look into becoming a PI? =) No, private investigators get themselves into all kinds of sordid affairs... I'll stick to the joyous occasions of life's great milestones.

I drove up to Castle Falls on Monday night just before sunset. Joshua and Marni were already seated and enjoying dinner and my mission for the night was to steal some great shots of Joshua proposing to the love of his life, Marni. It was a great evening for it and I was grateful that there were no mosquitoes since I spent over an hour hiding in the bushes watching and waiting.

The cook (a warm, friendly German named "Jutta" - pr. YU-tuh) kept offering me something to eat and I was really tempted to take her up on it since it all smelled so Delicious, but I knew Josh and Marni would come out the door just as I started into a delicious cheesecake or a sandwich or something. So I abstained and instead scouted the area, found a good hiding place with a view and got some pictures of the castle and grounds.

In this picture, you can see Joshua & Marni's silhouettes in the top window eating dinner.


The beautiful garden and waterfall made for a great setting for a well-planned proposal.


By this time, it's after sunset and really dark. I cranked up the film speed and captured the happy couple leaving the castle and headed for the garden waterfall.







I love this shot of Marni checking out the ring over Josh's shoulder.



All that time, Marni didn't know I was even there taking pictures by the hundreds! So, Joshua pointed me out and she got a good laugh and then we took a few more pictures together.



This has to be the image of the month! I love the "thumbs up" from Josh. =)


Congratulations, Joshua and Marni! It was awesome being a part of such a special moment. You'll remember it for the rest of your lives as one of the top few amazing moments in your lives and since Joshua thought everything through so well, now you'll have photos, too, of that moment.

Every time I do one of these sessions, Holly (my wife) comments that she really wishes we had photos of our engagement. I proposed on the end of the pier at North Beach in Chicago and it would have made for really awesome pictures. That particular pier is a beach-protecting pier, so it curves around like a hook, allowing you to sit on the end of it and watch the city skyline. Beautiful...

Well, that's all for now -- thanks for stopping by! I should have a few more session samples posted in the next few days.

Ashley's Senior Portraits

Today was such a crazy day! I got a lot done before lunch even, so I took my little 2 year old daughter, Adelaide, on a short "daddy date" to Starbucks where we met her Uncle Matthew for some coffee. I know, technically that doesn't sound like a Daddy date, but the drive there and back was full of quality time, talking to each other and trying to interpret what it is she's telling me from the back seat. =)

Our senior session for this evening had to cancel at the last minute due to her work schedule and not being able to get off for pictures, and I had an earlier session penciled in for 5PM, but the customer never did call me back to let me know whether he would be able to pull away from the big FFA event taking place downtown today. At the very last minute, I heard from the customer and she was 30 minutes from downtown, ready to meet me as soon as they arrived - a full hour early and without any previous confirmation or warning! Well, I threw on my hat and flip flops and headed down. This was a 2nd session for one of our senior guys who wanted to get some clean-shaven pictures in addition to his bearded portraits from the previous session.

Can you believe it, it actually worked out and I made it down there just in the nick of time. We ran around Bricktown for about 25 minutes and got some great shots which I'll be retouching later. It was actually fun that it worked out, even though it was last minute. They are good customers and fun to work with, so we had a good time despite the last minute rush and notice.

Here are a few of my favorites from another recent session -- Ashley's senior portraits:






Those last two shots are my favorites from the session, I think. Such rich colors and a beautiful subject! Click on any of the above pictures to see larger versions of them.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Laine's Senior Portraits

We had another first this year: A senior session in the rain! I should clarify that we did offer to reschedule, but Laine thought it would be fun and unique, so we went ahead with the session and put our equipment (and hair!) to the test. =)


Turns out, it was a lot of fun. We did a lot of normal portraits, but included a few with the umbrella and since those are so unusual, I thought I'd blog a few of them for you.

In some of the larger versions, you can actually see the rain drops streaking across the frame, which is a pretty neat effect that we haven't seen before since we rarely shoot in the rain.

I really love how graceful and peaceful these pictures down the curvy lane are!



This is the shot I got right before we both got run over. Just kidding, Mom! We did look both ways first.


And at one point we were graced with a small patch of open sky and the rain let up for a few minutes. The reflections in the wet pavement are really cool.


Hope you enjoyed some of our recent session photos! We continue to add recent photos to our galleries and slide shows on our website, so you can check back and see new work as often as you'd like. I also added a section on lessons recently.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back in Town

I just got back from a three-day guys' camping trip with a few friends, so I'm back in cell phone service! I was surprised that when I drove back into civilization I didn't have any voice messages waiting for me. It made me wonder if maybe callers weren't getting my regular voice message, but a generic message about being outside of the regular service area? Usually in that amount of time, I'd have a bunch of messages waiting for me.

There's nothing that can be done about it now, but I'm just hoping that people didn't call and get turned off by an out of service or service area message instead of my regular voice mail.

Let me know if you tried calling and didn't get a normal voice mail message. I'd be grateful! And if you tried calling and weren't able to leave a message, you can call again now or email us. We're back and catching up on the weekend correspondence and orders.

Hope everyone is doing well and had a great weekend! I'm a bit sore and certainly tired from trying to sleep through windy and dusty nights in a tent, but a good night's sleep in our own bed should remedy that. =)

Michael and Holly's Engagement

We had a great time cruising the gardens downtown with Michael and Holly and capturing some really awesome photographs of the two of them enjoying time together. This year we've added a few additional steps in our retouching process and we're really pleased with the results! The crisp, clear eyes and bright colors are even better than we've been able to produce in the past, so we're really encouraged by that. It's always rewarding to see improvements like that in our work.

Enough about us, here are a few of our favorites from our recent session with Michael and Holly, starting with what might possibly be our favorite engagement image of all time. =)





You can click on any of the above images to see them larger. Thanks for stopping by!

Halie's Senior Pictures

Here are a few favorites from one of our most recent senior sessions. Halie was runner-up Miss Choctaw recently! Congratulations, Halie! Her pictures turned out beautifully and we think the judges may want to reconsider their decision once they see these. =)









True to my word, I've added these to our galleries on our new super-cool flash website, so we're keeping up with updating it all so far. =)

Halie, your proofs will be available here.

Senior Pictures in "Thank You" Cards

Yes, it's the heart of the senior season and we're booked pretty solid a couple of weeks out, but I have a suggestion for any seniors out there (or parents) who haven't done senior pictures yet. Don't stress! It's going to be okay. A lot of seniors are frantic because they didn't plan ahead and now they may not get their pictures back in time to insert into invitations. I have a suggestion that I just got from a customer of ours (thanks, Madl family!) who was in the same predicament:

Insert pictures into your thank you cards!

I don't know why I never thought of that before, but it makes total sense. It takes the pressure off right now and chances are you won't need quite as many for thank you notes as you would for invitations. And the people getting them are the people who care enough about you to give you something for your graduation, so the pictures will be going to the right people! Seems like it would work well for weddings and other special events, too.

So, if you're one of those seniors who is stressing over not having prints back in time, don't worry about it! Just change the plan, de-stress and enjoy your graduation. =) I hope it can save a few of you some stress during this already-stressful time of your lives!

The Chesapeake Boat House at Regatta Park

Ever since it was built a year or two ago, I've been wanting to photograph the Chesapeake boat house or an event there. I had the opportunity last week when one of our commercial photography clients called to have us photograph a champagne reception they were hosting there. It was a terribly cold, windy and rainy Friday night, if you recall, but it made for some dramatic pictures with the glowing, menacing storm clouds.




The walls were uniquely decorated with the long oars.



One entire wall was made of glass, so guests can see the all the boats. It really was a beautiful design and a most interesting venue.


And lastly, a couple of pictures taken from the bridge that spans the Oklahoma River.


I really like this panoramic shot with Bricktown in the background and the water in the foreground.


I really should have put on my wider-angle lens and got downtown OKC in the background, but I didn't think of it at the time. The wind was blowing about 50 miles per hour on top of that bridge and it was pouring down rain, so I got a couple of shots and then ran back to my warm, dry car. =)

Hope you enjoyed the photos. Thanks for stopping by!

New Website is Alive and Kicking!

Hey, folks! We just rolled out our new website and we're about as excited two kids in a chocolate fountain. =) We'd love to hear what you think of it! Check it out and drop us a comment whenever you have time.

Here's a screenshot of the welcome page as it looks right now:

From this page, you can select either to go to our blog, the flash site or an html version for users with slower internet speeds.

Here's a screenshot of the main page in the flash site. It's a slideshow, so you can just sit there and watch it flip through a dozen or so pictures from recent sessions while listening to several great tunes.


There are a few more things that we need to do on it, like updating the galleries with more photos, etc. We need to create a few new galleries, too, with bridal portraits, weddings and commercial photography. It would be easier to get this done if we weren't so busy with senior photography right now, but it's too exciting to ignore altogether. =) Besides, we may be this busy for months and we just can't put it off indefinitely. We figured as it is, it's already better than our old site, so we might as well go live with it and continue to update and improve it as we go along.

As we add new pictures from our newest photo sessions, we'll replace the older photos, so the site will be kept up to date and be constantly changing and improving. That's the plan, at least!

As always, we'd love to hear from you with any comments, emails or phone calls. Thanks for checking in with us!

Mark's Senior Pictures

Mark! Had a blast hanging out with you tonight, man. And your parents were really nice, too. It was good to meet you all! Your fun personality and confidence should carry you far.

I thought I'd take some time to post just a few pictures from our session today to whet your appetite a bit. =)





When I'm finished retouching them all, you'll be able to access them here.

Evan's Senior Pictures

It's been a really windy week, so it's been good that we've had mostly senior guys on the schedule this week. Evan was a good sport yesterday despite the breezy weather and we got some great pictures.

Here are a few appetizers from last night's session... =)




I just heard a few minutes of it, but he could really jam on that guitar. Look for his name in lights before too long!

Evan, it was great hang out with you for a couple of hours last night... Hope you love the photos! I'll have the rest up here once they're finished in the next few days.

Cameron's Senior Pictures

Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Cameron for senior pictures. We managed to find some cool new locations around downtown and even got to use some of the heavy equipment that's down there right now due to the construction.








Cameron is so tall that I had to stretch and get on my tip-toes to photograph him a lot of the time. =) He's headed to the Marine Corp after graduation and I have to say that he has the look already. I'm sure he will do great.

Good luck Cameron! Your proofs should be online within the next day or two and you'll be able to see them here.

Stormy Weekend

We had a severe-weather weekend and got about 2 months worth of rain in just a few days. Unfortunately, we had three photo shoots rained out, but I got a couple of cool pictures just as the storm was breaking at sunset. It's still raining in these pictures and I'm standing on my front porch, trying to stay covered despite the driving rain and wind.



If you click on them for a closeup, you can see a lot of detail. I didn't photoshop these photos at all. That orange glow was SO bright, it was awesome.

The good thing about getting rained out is that it gives me time to catch up on all the things that otherwise just don't get done. So, I sharpened the lawn mower, reorganized the kitchen cabinets, etc. =) Holly and the kids were up in Colorado Springs for the weekend, so it was really nice and quiet to get things done.

Braddock's Senior Pictures

I just finished Braddock's senior pictures and thought I'd post a few of my favorites for you to enjoy. They're being uploaded to Pictage right now and should be available here by tomorrow evening for Braddock and his friends and family to view and purchase.






We're continually improving our systems and features and we now have password protected galleries for our customers through Pictage. The downside to that is that we have a few loyal visitors who like to check in on our recent sessions and they won't be able to do that any more. Sorry, guys!

We plan to make up for that with a brand new website and galleries that are easy to update - and updated often. That's the plan! I guess realistically it could be a few weeks before we have it up and running, but we're working on it even now.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. It's going to be a very busy week for us. I think it's safe to say that the season is in full swing.