It’s the beginning of a new year, so I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite pictures from 2009.

It’s hard to pick my most favorite, but the one at the top of this post certainly makes me smile!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season & I hope you all have a 2010 that’s jam packed with awesomey-goodness!

I have the cutest, sweetest couples, I’m so lucky! We had some wonderful weather to work with too.  I hope it stays this way (no snow please!!).

Here’s a few previews from Jenny & Ben’s engagement shoot. I can’t wait for their wedding next spring.

Cory took this one, it’s one of my favorites!

We had the hardest time getting the leaves to cooperate with us for this. The wind was just crazy down by the river.

This one was Jenny’s idea, I love it!

Especially when they’re choking each other, lol. No brides were harmed during this photo session.

Abby & Scott were so much fun, I can’t wait for their wedding next year!

I wanted to share with you the story of how Abby and Scott first met, because it was pretty cute. Abby was going to a Cubs game with some of her family, and Scott was going with quite a few of his friends, and one of them was related to Abby, so it was really just one big group. When they got there, they had a bit of a seating mix up and Scott got stuck sitting next to Abby. Apparently they weren’t too happy about the arrangement (The picture at the top might be a  dramatization of what happened), but it all worked out in the end. So of course when it came time to propose, where else but another Cubs game? I love it!

I shoot in some weird locations, but I’ve never had any weird run-ins with people like we did for this shoot.

First off a friend of mine, Teresa Ousley from Wiz of Oz Photography, was doing a shoot with a bunch of bikers and Sturgis Scooter Girl. I knew about the bikes, but I think we were all a little shocked to turn around and find 10 bikers and a scantily clad scooter girl. Teresa posted some pics on facebook, but they’re definitly not for the timid (and not safe for work).  We did get to borrow a bike for some pictures, so the whole thing worked out great.

After we left Sylvan Island, we headed to some downtown Rock Island areas to use some of the cool buildings. We were there about 5 minutes before someone started shouting out a window to find out what we were doing. A few minutes later, someone walked by & asked to bum a smoke.

Anyways, it all worked out well & we got some great pictures.

That bike was rockin’!

As paybacks for choking her, Abby tried to eat Scott’s nose, tasty!

Catching up some more pictures from two sessions a few weeks ago.

What a cutie!

Carrie & Travis are so sweet together!

Carrie’s got some gorgeous eyes!

I’ve got some crazy stories and more pictures coming soon.

I had the pleasure of shooting Carrie & Travis’s engagement pictures today, what a cute couple! Carrie’s mom had the most amazing back yard (I so want my yard to look like that) and Travis’s dad has an awesome farm (complete with cute horses & an extra friendly dog).  They look so in love! I can’t wait for their wedding pictures coming up in September on the LeClaire waterfront!

I love, love, love it when I get to try new things! Avory totally inspired me for these, at our meeting she brought in some photos of dancers with light trails. We’ll be doing something similar to that at her wedding, but the pictures made me think of some other images I had seen using “light painting,” which is when you take a really long picture & “paint” with a light source of some kind. (My husband Cory did the actual “painting” for all of the night shots)

(Note to future/current brides, don’t ever hesitate to bring me a picture of something you like, I might not be able to exactly duplicate it, but I could do something of a similar style or be inspired to come up with something else you might love.)

We had such a fun shoot, Avory & Corey are a super fun couple & so meant for each other!

These first few shots are taken in their studio. The both make glass jewelry, tiles & other objects. You can check out some of their work on Myspace here, very cool stuff! Avory’s jewelry is all handmade though, you can see the earrings she made & the necklace he made in the picture below. In some of the images later she has an adorable turtle necklace on that Corey made for her. I love it!

See the cute turtle necklace!

Some more “light painting,” these two were totally their idea. I love how they turned out!

More to come…

I had to post some more pictures from our e-session last weekend. Jackie & John are such a cute couple, and they are so genuinely in love, that makes my job super easy. That’s what I love so much about weddings & engagement pictures, I love to see couples so in love & happy. These two met at a youth group when they were teenagers and became friends and eventually fell in love.    On their wedding website they have this adorable picture of the two of them at a game, covered in face paint, and it feels like they have a really good time together. I have to say that I feel a special kind of connection with their story as Cory & I fell in love after being friends for years.  One of the reason’s I love Cory so much, is that we have so much fun together, we can have a great time even sitting at home on the couch being goofs.

I hope we keep having the gorgeous weather like we had last weekend, it was fabulous. Great weather for an pictures on a boat. I have to say, I haven’t been on a boat in years (I think I was 10 last time), so it was a bit difficult for me, I’m a little clusty anyways, I think I fell over at least 4-5 times, so I’m glad we managed some good pictures.

Hope you all have a great week. Enjoy some more adorable pictures.

Cory took the shot above, I love it.

I rented a fish eye lens for the weekend, I love it, but I think I might have gone a bit overboard with it.