Ella

Having a small studio in your basement and a 14 month old daughter is a photographers dream. It also helps to make some great gifts for Grandma and Grandpa.

This session is of my daughter Ella. She has been photographed since the day she was born and can even smile on cue. The plaid dress in this session was a gift for Ella last Christmas. These photos where a hit on Christmas morning with Grandpa and Grandma. I hope you enjoy them as much as they did!

Baby Jacob

Baby Jake is an amazing Christmas gift, well he came a little early. Jake was born on November 18 weighing 6lb 13oz and measured 20 inches long. Jake is an answered prayer for my good friends Kenny and Annette. They were able to adopt baby Jake and be his parents from day one. God has truly blessed the Steward family this year with a new baby boy.

This photo shoot was not only to capture the beauty of this little guy but to make Christmas presents for some proud grandparents. I tried some new poses in this session and really enjoyed working with the props Kenny and Annette brought. Thank you guys for entrusting me with Jake's baby portraits. I hope you enjoy these photos for years to come.







The Family:

Christmas Cards

One of my favorite traditions of Christmas is receiving cards from my friends and family. I look forward to seeing the latest photograph of distant relatives and friend's new babies. I really enjoy when friends and family include a "year in review" letter in their card and they let you in on all the major moments in their life over the course of the year.

Today I received a card from the McGill family. If you recall I took their family portraits back in early November. They decided to use some of the images from that session on their Christmas card. It was so neat to see them use the images to bless others this Christmas. I hope you enjoy their Christmas card as much as I do.



Thanks Joe and Kelli for making my day even brighter! Merry Christmas!

Jingle Bell Run

Does running sound like fun to you? What about running in freezing cool weather with a jingle bells around your neck or tied to your shoes?

Well I had the opportunity last Saturday to cover the annual Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Greater Illinois Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation where folks came out to run/walk 5k to raise money for the Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to improve lives through leadership in the prevention, control and cure of arthritis and related diseases. The Arthritis Foundation is the largest private, not-for-profit contributor to arthritis research in the world, funding more than $380 million in research grants since 1948.

The Jingle Bell Run/Walk® is a fun and festive way to kick off the holidays by helping others! Participants wore holiday themed costumes and tied jingle bells to their shoelaces. These runners and walkers hit the pavement, pathways of Gordon Moore Park to fight arthritis, the nation’s most common cause of disability. Here are some pictures of the day fun day!

Pre-race:







Warm-up:



The Race:




The Walk:

Jeff - Senior Photos - Pt. 1

On Friday afternoon Jeff and I took off to Alton to take the first session of Jeff's senior portraits. Jeff is one of the seniors in my youth group at church and I have known him since he was a little guy. Its hard to believe that he is graduating high school this year.

This part of the session was to make sure grandma and grandpa had some great pictures for Christmas. Well, they do have some great pictures because Jeff braved the freezing cold weather. Can you tell the temperature was about twenty eight degrees? Great job acting warm Jeff! Here is a sneak peak of your first session. I can't wait to shoot the rest of the session this spring. I hope you enjoy!

Baby Wyatt

Thursday night I had the opportunity to photograph Wyatt Nathaniel. Baby Wyatt was born October 30th. He came into the world weighing 7lbs 13oz and measuring 20 inches long. This was my first newborn session, but Wyatt was a natural for camera and allowed me to take my time shooting this session. Eric and Ashley, Wyatt's parents, where a huge help! They helped keep Wyatt happy and posing for some incredible pictures. Here's a glimpse of the session.

Baby Wyatt:





The Family:



Ashley and Eric thank you so much for trusting me for your little guys first portraits. I hope you enjoy the photos for years to come!

The Head Grandkids

Lots and lots of photos is one of the many things I have brought to my in-laws. Over the past five years SJ and I have been married I have taken tons of photos at our family gatherings. Well a few years ago I started taking portraits of my nieces and nephews for my sister-in-law, Kristen. Taking the kids portraits has actually become a tradition and some thing I look forward to whenever we go back to SJ's parent's home in Arkansas. This year the kids picked out the outfits and told us that they were going wear camouflage for their photos. They also decided that they wanted Ella in a couple of the shots so the Bickers kids gave Ella a camouflage shirt for her birthday back in October.

These shots are so fun to edit. It is a miracle to get seven kids to look remotely close to the camera when you are taking their pictures. However, after 373 frames and a lot of goofy sounds from Papaw and Grandmommy the kids photographed amazingly. All seven of the Head grandkids are beautiful and handsome creations! Here are some of the shots from our session. Hope you enjoy!


Papaw and all his grandkids.





The Bickers family.

FYI... If you look at the top of the blog at the header graphic, over on the right hand-side, you will see last year's portrait of the Bickers children.

Mr. and Mrs. Kraker

Last Saturday Kellie and I shot a wedding in Decatur, IL. Rob and Michelle's wedding was very beautiful and well thought out in all the details. The couple left the wedding and everyone sent them off with sparklers. One of the other neat details of this wedding was that the bride and groom invited up on stage every person in attendance for a group photo. If you where invited to this wedding and decided not to come for some reason, well this bride and groom will have record that you skipped out.

Rob and Michelle thank you so much for allowing Kellie and I to be apart of your day! Here are some photos from the day.

The guys before the wedding:






The wedding:







The Reception:






Kellie has some pictures up on her blog, too! You can view them here! Thanks again for letting us be a part of your day!