This will be another short one, I have so much to catch up on. Cory & I just got back from Las Vegas for a much needed vacation celebrating our 10 year anniversary. We had a blast & I have so many pictures to share. I also still have more to share from Crystal & Nate’s E-session a few weeks ago, so look out for those. For now I thought I’d share the first few picks from Jessica & Lance’s engagement shoot yesterday. I’m so happy the rain stopped for these, we’ve had some bad luck with rain the last few weeks. I hope we’re done with it.

Cory took the adorable shot above, they look so cute together!

Here’s the whole crew!  These two sure made some adorable little guys! Can’t wait to see them all dressed up for the wedding in July!

Just a quick preview before I head to bed.  I want to thank Crystal & Nate for being so good humored today!
Thanks to my good friend &  photographer Shannon Colgan from Shaze Impressions for helping me out!

More to come

I’m so happy for her! Heather & Brent seem perfect for each other, and they’re super cute together. I’m happy she’s got someone else to look after her, since she’s been looking out for me for as long as I can remember. She’s one of the most caring people I know.

I feel a little bad, this was probably one of the most difficult e-sessions I’ve ever had.  Sunday was gorgeous all day, and about 5:00 I’m driving to Heather’s house & the sky starts looking a bit dark. By the time we get to her house we have to change plans to try to beat the storm.  We made it down to the river for a few minutes before it started pouring.  Then we stopped at Lavender Crest Winery & the owners were nice enough to let us, even though they were closed!

You probably can’t tell it, but it’s pouring outside of the gazebo and the wind was whipping all over the place. I’m glad they were willing to brave the weather though because in the end we got some great pictures & I wound up experimenting a lot more with off camera light a lot more than I would have. I love a good challenge!

I love fun couples! I think we had a great time hanging out & I’m really pumped for there wedding in September. Robin writes some of the most entertaining e-mails.
What a gorgeous day for a photoshoot too, if we can just keep the weather just like this I’ll be one happy photographer.

Robin & I really wanted some purple flowers, so we met up at Lindsay Park in Davenport.

Then we headed over to Illinois for the rest of these.

I love how peaceful Robin looks in this next one.  Gorgeous!

Does anyone remember pop-up videos? Good times. If there was a pop-up for this next image it would say something like “Photographer almost stepped on a headless dead fish while shooting this image.” Not kidding, I’m not quite sure how it got there. What’s funny is that Cory yelled out “Don’t step on the dead fish” while I was shooting & I continued because I just thought he was trying to make Robin & Ben laugh.

For this next series of images, I just told Robin & Ben to go do something cute. I’m pretty sure I heard one of them say “I don’t know how to be cute.”

WRONG, way too cute!

This next one is one of my favorite images EVER.

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!

Gorgeous location, cute couple & lovely clouds, what an awesome day for an e-session! I was worried all day Sunday we’d have rain, but it held off until after the shoot!

Love those fall trees!

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!