Giving back

Last night I attended the Annual Dinner for Junior League. I had the honor of presenting the scholarship recipients, Lynley Burrow and Lindsay Lewis. These two young women really show what giving back is all about. It made me really reflect on the subject and although I've been a member of Junior League for several years I've never gotten all too involved. This year that's going to change. I have some big plans for our Children's Portrait Events to tie in with League. It's such a wonderful organization that really has an impact in our community! Check out the website at www.JLWCF.org

Busy, busy weekend

This past weekend was SO busy!

Dax and Marissa's on Saturday was beautiful. They are such a sincere and caring couple. They really go out of their way to make you feel welcome and are such wonderful family people. Hope Marissa is enjoying her surprise honeymoon that Dax has planned! Here's a collage of their images:

While Cari and I were at the wedding, Tonia photographed our model senior, Kelly, prepping for Prom. Kelly has done her senior session, friends session and one of her two additional sessions. I'll be photographing one of her soccer games soon and then we'll be able to design her custom senior album. It will be amazing!!!

Saturday after the wedding I went out for a couple birthday drinks but got home pretty early as Sunday was going to be busy.

Park Place was very happy with us after the Easter family pictures so they invited us back for Mother's Day. Sunday was spend taking family pictures and was a blast. There were lots of families out and the food was amazing as always! Here's a taste of what I got to do!

My Birthday

Today is my 29th birthday. I have the day off from work but only because I'm working a wedding Saturday and taking Mother's Day family portraits at Park Place. Should be a great weekend as now it's not going to rain on my wedding couple! Yay!

I'm super excited to go and look at a building to buy. Can't believe I'm actually thinking of moving again! I wanted to rent some additional space in the building we're already in but the price just wasn't right and at what I'd be paying for rent it only makes sense to buy! just got the realtor's call so I'm going to check it out at 12:30!!!

Images

What a beautifyl baptism! Mary Ellen was an angel all day!



Here's little Emma from Friday. Can't believe she's standing up already!!!

Tuesday weigh in

I've been attending Weight Watchers again. It's been about 6 weeks now and I've lost 17 pounds. This week alone was 5 pounds! Those of you who know me well, know I first attended WW in middle school. I was thin through HS and then upon getting married put weight back on. I did weight watchers in 2001 and lost 50 pounds and then in the past 5 or so years put it all back on and 25 more friends.
What's different for me this time is that I've been making a lot of really healthy choices, which I did in the past but only for a limited time. I really feel this time I finally 'got it'

Busy times at Heirloom

Last week flew by so quickly I didn't even have time to Blog :-(
I attended the Bellies and Babies seminar by my idol, Sam Puc in Des Moines with my good friend and fellow photographer, Ninya. It was a late night, as Sam spoke until a little after 11 and then we drove home. I purchased some educational materials at the seminar and am SO pumped up about some maternity and newborn pictures. Lots of new ideas to come in the near future! I'm also going to be delaying the monthly newsletter a bit as I revamp it~lots of new ideas! Anyway, if you or someone you know is pregnant, I'm searching for models for our marketing pieces I'm designing. Models will be compensated with a gift certificate toward images and the session will of course be free.

Friday morning was spent with Emma who is now 9 months. I've been photographing Emma since she was 3 months and it's so fun to watch her grow and change. Her hair is really curly at the ends and beautiful. She's always so much fun. I'll post images soon!

Saturday I had the pleasure of photographing Mary Ellen's baptism at St. Eds in Waterloo. I photographed the baptism and the reception that followed. She is such a cutie! I'll post some images as I'm working on them today.

Looks like a fun week ahead with some more of the UNI models to photograph tomorrow and then we're spending Wednesday working on our maternity and baby campaign. I'm photographing a wedding this Saturday and will be a Park Place taking complementary family photographs for their Mother's Day brunch. I'm going to take Thursday and Friday off since I'm working all weekend and Friday is my birthday.

Images to come soon!

Lots of new images

Here's a little of what we've been up to lately...enjoy!
Beautiful senior session.


Isn't she absolutely adorable!


Spring engagement session. Amped up the color on it!


This is our wedding from this past weekend in Dubuque. We got some awesome images because the couple was SO much fun!!!


What a cutie!


Newborn babies are the best :-)

Busy busy!!

What a busy week this is! Yesterday I spent all day at UNI photographing UNI fashion student's designs. It was a LOT of fun! Today I have baby pictures, engagement pictures and am meeting with good friends about their wedding coming up in 2010. Whew, I'll be needing my day off tomorrow :-) Friday is just as busy and I'm really looking forward to the wedding we're photographing in Dubuque on Saturday. Should be fun!

Spring is here!

This past weekend was so wonderful! I got to work in the yard and everything~although my muscles are crying now! Sunday I photographed the Queen of Peace 1st Communion in Waterloo. It's always so cute to see all the kids dressed up! What a great weekend.

Here is some of the work Tonia did this weekend. She painted these images...isn't that amazing!!! I don't know which I like better!

The state of photography

We've been hearing SO much about the declining economy lately I thought I'd comment on the state of photography. We attend a lot of conventions and seminars (we're self-proclaimed junkies) and so many photographers are talking about how their business is really slowing to a grinding halt with he economy. I really have a different opinion about the subject. Perhaps I should preface this with stating I believe this so called recession is being completely caused by the media. I really don't think there IS a problem with our economy but once the media shoves it at you from every direction I can see how there might be a panic.
Sure 2008 has been a bit odd. Weddings are booking later than ever. We started out 2008 with only one wedding on the books but we weren't worried. 2007, be it the lucky 7's or whatever booked REALLY early. I kept saying to myself: 'If someone wants to book a wedding in 2007 and waits until it is 2007 they'll be out of luck' and that's exactly how it happened. 2008 however is a different beast. It's booking, just more slowly and last minute than before. Now 2009 is booking up like crazy and seems like it just might surpass 2007!
We now have 21 weddings and are right on track to achieve our goal of 30. We talk to anywhere from 5-10 new brides each week and many are very excited to work with a photographer who cares about their photography and wedding as much as they do.
These photographers who are struggling make me sad. I study a lot of marketing and want to be different from the competition and I think the reason we haven't seen a slow down in our portraits is our differentiation from others. We really try to go the extra mile with what we do...from cookies and drinks at a wedding consult to all the gifts and bonuses we do...we want to be memorable. I think our very best marketing is with our weddings. We love weddings so it stands to reason we would do our very best to achieve high regard in our client's eyes. We love families and children too though so we're always looking for new ideas. We're actually in the process of revamping out gift with purchase program!
I think the biggest reason we feel such success and abundance when others are lacking is our amazing clients. You all stand beside us and cheer us on. You sing our praises when things go especially well and are always rooting for us. We only achieved 3rd on the KCRG A-List because of our loyal and wonderful clients. We are so very grateful and happy to have such wonderful people in our community and in our lives to make our dream a reality. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately as I really want to move somewhere warmer but I don't thing I could ever leave all of my wonderful clients and friends. I think it's the magic we all create that makes us truly successful and I am forever grateful to each and every one of you. Have a wonderful weekend and thank-you for being in our photography family!

Beautiful weather

What absolutely beautiful we've been having! I don't mind the wind when it's 70 out! Last night we grilled out and will tonight as well. I can't wait to get out my bike again...maybe this weekend! I'm photographing the Waltz children tonight. 4 and 8 so it should be a blast! They're being photographed for our Children's Contest and I've heard they're adorable :-) Can't wait!

This week is off to a fun start!

Whew, what a fun week so far!

I've received several wedding contracts in the mail so that's keeping me really busy processing all that as well as several information packats from couples so now I need to get the timelines hammered out and mail postcards with info to their wedding party and familiy. Whew, and it's only 2:20 on Tuesday!

Got to catch up with a friend from HS, Bill on the phone today too. He has such an adorable family! Hoping to get together with Bill and Brandy soon!

Last night Luke and I went out for dinner with Stephanie and Eric. I did their engagement pictures and they took us up on the deal of taking us to dinner instead of paying for the engagement session. That was they save a little money and we all get to know each other better! Luke really loved meeting them and had a great time, something I always wonder about before the meal. I've met couples here and for the engagement session and I already have a relationship with them. luke is in consturuction and doesn't know them and I always worry they worn't all 'click' and he won't have fun. Last night was great for all of us! We went to Lone Star and although they were pretty slow, we stayed for 3 hours talking and getting to know each other. How fun!!!

Tonia's neice, Samantha, was Baptised this past weekend as well. Here's Godmother Tonia and Samantha.

My weekend off

Not too much was happening. Very relaxing!
Spent Saturday being super lazy...laying around and watching tv most of the day.
Sunday we went to CR and checked out some cool new furniture of our basement. Can't fit a traditional sofa down the narrow stairs of our 100 year old home, but this 'piece by piece' set is a good fit. We got a corner pieces, a pieces with a back and an ottoman. It will be 6 weeks, but that's ok as the basement needs a new coat of paint and Luke needs to re-do the spare room upstairs so we have somewhere to put the futon.
We then went to Stuff Etc. but didn't have any luck.
Took my sister and family out for dinner and had a blast.
I love a nice relaxing and fun weekend. There's not very many of those in my line of work so I really cherish them!

Weekend blues

I have this weekend off~yippee!! I was REALLY hoping to play in the yard and it's going to be crummy :-(
I'm so bummed. I love that it's was nice last weekend for the wedding and I hope that trend continues all year BUT I'd love a nice weekend off. My yard is awful!
Maybe I'll go to Des Moines or do something fun...any suggestions? I wanted to go see Bob Saget in Minneapolis, but we'd have to leave this afternoon. If only it was a Saturday show :-)

Another dreary spring day (doesn't feel like spring!)

Today kind of matched my mood. Cold and rainy. Wish I could have stayed in bed all day. I'm feeling under the weather as it is and had to compile all my tax stuff for my meeting with the accountant on Thursday. Ugh! Love the accountant but hate to filing of taxes :-)
Hopefully we'll have a little sunshine tomorrow!

1st wedding of the season

The first wedding of the season is always such fun for us! Lots of new ideas we've been itching to try out :-) Our first one was this past weekend, Holly and Brian. They had a BEAUTIFUL day!!! I was really hoping there would be enough left for some Sunday yard work but no such luck! I'm working on uploading all their images so here's a teaser for now.

We're SO excited

Yesterday the results for KCRG's A-List in the wedding categories came in. We are super jazzed up...out of 51 photographers we placed #3!!! We were the only one of the Top 5 that was from Waterloo. What an honor! We owe it all to our friends and clients who were kind enough to go online and vote for us and the comments you made were just absolutely amazing! Thanks SO much everyone!

Weding, wedding and more weddings

2008 has been a very odd year for weddings. I find most years the dates fill up 6 months to 1 year in advance. 2007 went really early but I think that had a lot to do with 7-7-07 and the luck of the number '7'. 2008 has been super slow to book. In fact in January, when I usually have 10-15 weddings booked I only had one. I was a little bummed but kept telling myself it would happen~I knew it would. It's also kind of odd because I'm booking some 2009 dates already and have been informed by a very good client she will be stopping in soon to fill out her contract for 2010 :-)
I have an April 5th wedding and then nothing until the end of May. I was wishing some of the earlier dates had filled in April and May, but resolved myself to spending a lot of weekends playing in the dirt in my garden. We're setting our goal at 30 weddings in 2008. I keep telling myself we're going to achieve this (power of positive thinking!) I didn't actually start to believe it until just last week.
Early in the week I met with a couple and booked May 10th. Then a couple came in on Friday and booked April 26th. Things really do happen for a reason. My May 10th wedding had a photographer but decided they really loved the style of my work and switched. The April 26th wedding had their reception site fall through and because of this were being compensated well enough to add a photographer to the wedding day.
Today a groom called and e-mailed about April 12th. They had a retainer on a photographer and now the photographer isn't returning their calls with only 10 days before the wedding. I'm really excited to be able to help them out.
Looks like 2008 is filling in without a problem...only a few more dates to fill now :-)

Sessions from this past weekend

Here are some images from sessions this past weeked :-)

These two were SO much fun...and so cute!

I love the hunting theme. These images were a blast to take!

What a face!!!

Kelly's senior friends session. Kelly is our model for our 2009 senior package which is all-inclusive. We did her actual session in the fall so this is her friends session. I think we'll also photograph a soccor game when it gets nicer and also her pre-prom.

I just LOVE this one!!!

These are a couple groups from Charity Ball

This past weekend

It was SO crazy busy!!! I had 3 sessions on Saturday followed by pictures at Charity Ball from 6-12pm. Tonia and I printed the 5x7's at the event and were exhausted when it was over! Processing images today and hopefully I'll have a couple up here soon!

This is from my session with the Pryor family from last night. I've photographed for Lisa since way back in the days I worked at Cole Photography. Lisa actually cuts my hair to look super cute and her husband Reed keeps my back in perfect working order :-)

Here's a collage of Kaitlyn for her 16th birthday.


Love the camo!


The entire group.


Grandma and the grandkids


Lisa, Reed and family


Sandra and her two sons

It's beginning to look and feel like spring

FINALLY! I actually even saw a robin the other day. Spring will be very welcome here at Heirloom!

Last night I photographed the Rausch family. The boys have grown SO much since I last saw them! Logan wanted to do his own thing but eventually we talked him into it. This is my favorite family image. Aren't they adorable!

Gavin was a great sport and we were able to get a lot of great images for his 1 year.

Easter family photographs

Had a great time at Park Place photographing families for Easter. Everyone commented on how amazing the brunch was as well. Here's are a couple of images I took yesterday.

Also some super exciting news! Tonia is an aunt again :-) Here are images she took of her newborn niece!

Easter

Just wanted to spread the word that Heirloom will be taking family portraits and providing a complementary print on Easter Sunday from 10-2 at Park Place Event Center for all guests of the Easter Brunch. We'll post some of our favorite groupings on the blog after the event :-)

This past weekend

We left Friday night to go to Minneapolis to see one of my favorite comedians, Jim Norton. The hotel was amazing...warm cookies upon check in PLUS I Pricelined it for $45 a night! (Thanks, Tonia!)

We spent Saturday at the Mall of America checking out the entire place and even got a glimpse of Ashlee Simpson (the entire place was a zoo with her there)

Saturday night we headed downtown for the show. We ate at Hooters then headed to a Piano Bar for a couple drinks before the show started. Here's us at the Piano Bar.

Then on to the theater. Jim's show was hysterical and he stuck around after for pictures with fans!!!

We came back Sunday afternoon then got up bright and early Monday to meet friends in Peoria for a party bus and bar hopping St. Pattys celebration. We had SO much fun with friends new and old :-)

We drove home Tuesday just for me to pick up Ninya and head to Des Moines for a seminar. It was from 7:30-10:30. We ended up heading home at about 10pm~wasn't exactly what we thought it would be!

Fun, fun weekend but now I'm exhausted! Playing catch up is also not a ton of fun!

Looking forward to the weekend

Can't wait for 5pm today! Usually it come too fast but today it can't come fast enough :)
We're headed to Minneapolis to see my favorite comedian, Jim Norton. Also going to visit the Mall of America while we're there. On Sunday we'll come home and then on Monday we're headed to Peoria to celebrate St Patrick's Day with our cruise friends on a party bus! Tuesday we'll be headed home where I'll pick up my friend Ninya and go to Des Moines for a photography seminar 7-11pm. Not sure if we'll come back home or stay in Des Moines but you can bet I'll be beat! Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Guest judging at UNI

Today I had the opportunity to be a guest judge for the UNI Graphic Communication program. The students were to take 100 photographs in as 'scavenger hunt' type format. The sideshows were really fun to watch and ranged from pretty basic presentation to pretty elaborate. Some of the work was outstanding!!! My favorite work was that of Joe Kuebler~very impressive! I judged alongside Gary Wilson of Wilson Photography in Independence and Marc and Barbara Lattin of Lattin Photography. Seeing Gary was SO nice as he took all my school pictures growing up and is an amazing guy! It was a great experience and I hope to be invited back to do it again in the fall.

TV shows

I love Tuesday nights. The Biggest Loser is my absolute favorite reality show (it's also the only reality show I can stand to watch) Last nights episode was great as always. It's always an inspiration as well. I've been going to boot camp at the YMCA as well. Always a brutal workout but the feeling afterward is super rewarding!

We've gotten really hooked in the 4400 recently thanks to friends Woody and Ninya. It's quite entertaining and a good fix with Heros on hiatus. We've been getting caught up with the entire series with DVD's from Netflix.

With the writers strike having recently ended, good tv shows are becoming slim to none. Does anyone have any recommendations I should check out? Once spring gets here I'll be outside biking around most evenings again but while it's still frozen out I'm bored.

Tuesday happenings

I just met with April about her wedding in August 2009. She is so sweet and has a great personality. I am really excited about her upcoming wedding. It's so great when I feel an instant connection with someone and get such good vibes about them. She really loves my work and I'm grateful to be able to be the energetic, outgoing photographer that will be working with her on her special day :)

Got some bad news about photographer Cari today. She's having some serious health problems. Some of you may rememeber Cari being the other energetic photographer at your wedding. Please keep her in your prayers.

Heading out to meet with Denise about my volunteer work with the Fall Harvest Festival the arboretum does annually.

Saturday Images

Here are some of the Heirloom Signature Series portraits from this past weekend!