Just a few weeks ago I had the privilege of capturing Torrie & Blake's big day! They are a perfect couple and their ceremony was nothing but beautiful. Very elegant and chic - decorated in gorgeous light blue and silver accents in a historic mansion. Simply stunning!

Thankfully, too, we had pleasant weather this day with amazing light. This image to the left was shot at sunset and turned out stunning - one of my favorite images for sure.

Please enjoy a small sample of Torrie & Blake's big day below.

Much luck to the Newlyweds!! Hopefully I'll be back to shoot your Silver Anniversary Pictures. I may be a bit old for the Golden Anniversary - we may need one of my kids to shoot that celebration! I'll come along to have some cake though. :-)  

This is Baby "C". Adorable, right? Oh my goodness!! He was such a sweet baby. He went through his entire newborn session with very little crying and was quite possibly one of my most cooperating subjects ever. He was great!

I was fortunate to meet Baby "C"'s family last year. I photographed his Aunt's wedding. Then this year his Mommy & Daddy got married but I wasn't available that day due to another wedding I already had scheduled. This lil' man's grandma also works in our building. They are all nice people and very pleasant to be around. Mommy looks amazing after have just given birth not even a week prior and Daddy was amazing too. I don't see many new daddies involved like he was. He was great. Kudos to you guys!

I look forward to working with this gorgeous man in the future.

I now present to you, Baby "J". I had the sweet little lady in the studio a couple of weeks ago for her newborn session. She was not quite two weeks old when she came in. She was feeling a little stuffy and didn't really want to be put down so we did more images where she was safe and happy in her mommy's arms.

I look forward to photographing her in the future. She was such an angel and Mommy is very sweet too!

A couple of months ago my studio partner told me he was interested in planning a special goth themed shoot. This really excited me and I couldn't wait to be a part of it! We had a trial run the week before with my stepdaughter, Deana, and all went well.

We were very fortunate to have April Ramoni with Anarchy Arts provide make up services. She is a very talented woman with an eye for beauty and a steady hand. As you can see in the images below she is excellent at what she does. We've teamed up a few times in the past and she's always a pleasure to be around. Not only is she an amazing make up artist, she's also a model. (I told you she was extremely talented!) She brought an entire room full of wardrobe and accessories. She had masks, custom hand made (by her) headpieces, corsets, funky boots... you name it, she brought it.

We had the models arrive in waves to ensure a steady flow. First up was Stephanie. Stephanie's been modeling for quite some time and is also an incredibly talented lady! Just a little insight into her world:She is a model, photographer, mom, registered nurse, and an all around nice person. She's got a great sense of humor and we always have fun together. She's very adaptable and can transform into any look we're hoping to achieve. She always brings her A game.

Next up was Oletha, also known as Leafy. Just as the ladies mentioned above, we have worked with Leafy a few times in the past too and absolutely love her! She's a ball of energy! She, too, is incredibly talented and wears many hats including modeling, dancing, acting, singing, and she's a business woman! That's right! She owns Diamond Dance Center in Scottsburg where she teaches ballet, tap, and hip hop. It's always a pleasure to work with Leafy, she is definitely a natural and doesn't need much instruction. She's great!

The last model of the day was Deana. Deana is my 15 year old stepdaughter. We had her practice model for us a week before the official shoot. As a thank you for her time we allowed her to model during the real shoot. Deana's an incredible young lady with a heart of gold. She went into the make up chair looking like the 15 year old girl I get to see nearly every day and walked out looking like a completely different lady. It nearly took my breath away. April did a fantastic job on her! The transformation was stunning. Deana's confidence level immediately changed and once she stepped into the shooting area it just flowed. She was a natural. We had Stephanie, Leafy, & April on hand to instruct and coach her but there wasn't much need. She had us all in awe. She definitely pulled it off!

Thurman had created a new set up specifically for the special project. It took some team work on our part but we got it together and created some beautiful images. He & I have very different styles and equipment yet when we work together it's always a success. He's the technical one that's calculated every step of how things should be and I'm the one that just kind of tweaks it until it meets my needs and in the meantime I walk around doing candid shots and keeping everyone laughing. We make a good team, if I might says so.

A lot of time and energy goes into planning a special project and through all of our hard work we pulled it off!

Great teamwork!

Meet my adorable boy model for the new candy shop set. Often times when I get a new set I'll do a model call and have someone bring in an adorable baby for me to photograph and show off my new backdrop/set.

Whenever I'm about to announce mini sessions it's helpful to have an image so customers can see what they'll be getting.

This lil' guy did a fantastic job! Look at that smile! :-)

Yesterday I ventured off to Owensboro, KY. I grew up in the small (teeny-tiny) town of Paynesville, IN. It just so happened that all the kids that lived around me where all in the same grade. This is really rare because there was like 6 houses around me and 4 of them had kids my age. The other 2 were mean old people. Grrr..

So, in 5th grade we had 2 new people move into the area. Twins. At first I wasn't very fond of these girls. It took a while for me to warm up to them and become their friend. Once we became friends though, we were inseparable. For 4 years I spent nearly every day with them. Shelly & Kelly. They were my BFF's. We spent countless hours romping in the woods, riding bikes, camping, traveling, whatever. Everything we did, we did together. We were known as the triplets.

I remember one day on the bus in 9th grade they came to me with some pretty bad news. Ok, it was horrible. They were moving away. Not just a little ways up the road or to the next state near us. They were moving to South Carolina. There was absolutely no way I could get past this. I knew it was going to happen though. What was I going to do? We spent EVERY day together until they moved. Counting down the days.... It was awful. The night before they moved away they stayed all night with me. We stayed up all night long. Not a wink of sleep. We knew this was it and we were going to make the best of every last second we had together. We went to school the next day with absolutely no sleep. We shared a seat on the bus that day. We were all sick to our stomach and knew we had about 6 hours left but we'd be in school the whole day and only shared a few classes. The day was nearly over. I was sitting in Mr. Todd's Algebra class when they came to the door. Their grandma, Mammaw Kathy, had withdrew me from school so I could ride home and say goodbye to them. It was awful. You'd think one of us had a terminal illness. Tears were flowing like crazy. I'm sure we had to get her Mammaw's nerves. We cried and cried and cried some more. That was the longest drive from Hanover to Paynesville. We pulled up in my driveway and said our goodbyes. We left with swollen, wet faces but we vowed to always stay in contact with each other. However, there was no Facebook, no cell phones/texting, no free long distance.
(Gasp.. I know)

In the beginning we still talked quite often. As time went on we lost touch with each other. Then came myspace. I finally found them again. I was so excited! We talked off and on through the computer and occasionally by phone. We even met up once for a weekend in Owensboro. When we bought our first home in 2010 both of them returned to Indiana to attend the Housewarming party. It was so  great to see them again. That was the last time we saw each other.

Kelly is a great person but could never find Mr. Right. Just recently she met Chris. Now I don't know Chris at all but I do know if Kelly finally committed to someone he's got to be pretty dang awesome. She's 35 and never been married.  Since I was busy shooting their wedding I didn't get to socialize much or spend a lot of time with them but am glad that I got to attend. I still love Kelly like a sister and even though we've grown up and apart she will always hold a special place in my heart. I wish them the best of luck.

Friday, my best friend stopped by with my God Children before they went to their 5th and 8th grade dances. Where does time go? The oldest one is turning 14 this weekend. I was one of the first people to hold her when she entered this world. This was after sitting with and caring for her mom all night long. What a bizarre experience. I'd never seen a child come into this world. To be honost it really scared me! Eek!

I'm honored to share these 3 beauties with you! Enjoy!

Yesterday I shot my first baby model session in the studio. Baby R. and her momma were in the studio for a little over an hour to shoot on my new backdrop. Baby R is only a week old and it just so happened we scheduled during her normal "waking" hours so she wasn't really up for sleeping much. To me, newborns look so precious sleeping so I was hoping to get a few. We waited patiently and went through a couple of diaper changes, one bottle feeding, and lots of cuddle time. Wrapped in her own blanket, she finally fell asleep for us so we sneaked a few pictures in right before she woke up again. 

I like to use models when I get a new set or backdrop. It's a great way to show off the backdrop and have samples for customers to see up front. This particular backdrop will work for a child up to age 5 or so. If you'd like to get your baby's picture done on this gorgeous backdrop, please let me know!

When an opportunity comes in your life to give back to others, please take advantage of it. Just once.

I've always found great pleasure in donating my time however I could. Community cleaning projects, Den Mother and Treasurer of the Cub Scouts, etc.. Finding a way to donate my time through photography was by far the most enjoyable thing I've done. 

Last year a friend of mine sent me an email with a link to a local news channels website. They were looking for photographers to donate their time for a Help Portrait event being in held in Henryville, IN to assist the families who lost a lot (if not all) of thier belongings in the deadly F4 tornado that ripped through Southern Indiana on March 2nd.

My first response was "Thanks for thinking of me but I am not good enough to do this". So I decided I shouldn't volunteer with the event but kept the email to send to other photographer friends that I thought would be good enough. I didn't want people who had experienced so much in the past few months to come in expecting superior photographs and get matched up with me and leave there not being satisfied. A few days later I realized I was being ridiculous and that I was good enough to do this. People would appreciate it. It is by far one of the best decisions I've ever made.

I went to the event a nervous wreck. I wasn't sure what to expect and wasn't quite sure of what I was doing because we were shooting studio shots and I'd never done that before. As soon as I arrived I met a super nice guy named Nate. I'll admit he seemed a little frazzled at the moment and I didn't know how to take him. I wanted to grab my camera and run for the door but I don't quit anything once I make a committment so I stayed. I was paired with another photographer from Indianapolis, Tim Biddle. We were on station number one. When the first family of the day arrived they chose our station to be photographed at. I was a nervous wreck but I remained calm and confident and with the help of Mr. Biddle I completed my very first studio session. The family was very happy.

The rest of the day we hung out and got to know one another pretty well. We headed out doors for a shoot around and I couldn't get enough of it. I didn't want to leave. Thankfully a large part of the people there volunteering also belonged to a photography group out of Louisville called the PPAGL. As you can imagine I went to their meeting that  month as a guest and joined the next month. I am so thankful I gave myself the chance to give back to others and quit doubting myself. I've learned so much in the short time that I've known them but more importantly I've found some great friends and mentors. I'm very fortunate.

We now share a group on Facebook and we plan shoot arounds every 3-4 months. We recently met up for the 1 year anniversary of the torando that ripped our community apart but brought us all together. We shot the parade and flag dedication and then headed back to Scottsburg for a shoot around with a couple of models who braved the cold. It was frigid!! Then we met up again in April for a shoot around in downtown Madison, IN. Our next session is scheduled for July in Indianapolis. I'm so excited.

Don't ever pass up an opportunity to give back, however you can. It's rewarding on so many levels!!

I'd like to give a shout out to my photography friends and just say thank you for being there and I am blessed to call you a friend. Tim & Mel, Nate, Gary, Mike, Thurman & Tracy, Alex, & Rick.

Jenni Brown

I introduce to you, Courtney, a senior from my old school Southwestern Jr/Sr High School. She'll be graduating in just a couple of weeks and will be heading off to college shortly thereafter.

Courntey was so much fun to work with. Kind of quiet but still a lot of personaily and she totally rocks the serious looks. I had a great time working with her and wish her the best of luck in her adult life.