This session got me so excited for senior season 2013!

The lovely Shayla is graduating in just a few months and I had a wonderful time spending the day with her & her cousins.  They sweetly doted on her as my stylist, Tina, worked her magic.  Oohing and ahhing each time they got to see the progress on her hair and make up.  We had great conversations about dating and life in general- I have to say how impressed I've been with the young adults in the class of 2012, the seniors I've had come through my doors have been outstanding examples of character!  And that is just one of the many reasons why I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE senior portrait making!

I love when Tina comes to help get the girls ready for their pictures because, by the time they see themselves in the mirror, they feel 10 feet tall.  She does an amazing job making them feel comfortable with themselves, complimenting them, really taking in an interest in them as she works with them.  Once we were ready to work in front of the camera, I could tell  that Shayla felt beautiful!  I could also tell that she wasn't convinced that the camera would see her that way.  So after showing her a few images along the way she really relaxed and let her personality shine.... I love laughter pics!

I had a wonderful day, Shayla!  Thanks for coming in and getting me even more excited for the year ahead!

If you or someone you know is graduating in 2013, don't wait to set up your session!  I've got a feeling it is going to be a very busy season.  I'm also looking for reps from most schools so if you're interested in helping me out and getting some great product and gifts FREE, I need to hear from you by March 16th!

My Cousin Got Married!

I was so excited to hear that she was engaged and that they wanted ME to be their photographer.  They actually got married in November in a private ceremony on a mountain side in Utah and still wanted to celebrate with friends and family here at home with a reception at the Hotel Vetro in Iowa City.  It was simple and simply beautiful, and so was the bride!

The groom is a bit camera shy so we just did a few with the couple and then their families for the formals.  The rest of the night I got to play, taking lots of candids and detail shots.  The hotel staff did such a wonderful job with the ball room!  The centerpieces were stately and elegant and really captured the mood of the night with bright green and creamy color combos.  The set up was meant for mingling with some cocktail tables and lots of food stations with different themes.  The one that I gave the most attention to was the dessert table.  While the kids were thrilled to have a room set up just for them with games, activities and movies.

My favorite moment of the night was the father daughter dance.  It always gets me at every reception I'm at but this one in particular was so, so special to me.  Watching their interactions reminded me so much of how my daddy and I are together and made me wish our trip to see him weren't so far out on the calendar.  I just love how much fun they seemed to be having together!

Congratulations!  I really couldn't be happier for the two of you!

Little ones in the studio last week...

It was a busy week last week so I have lots to catch you up on.  I thought I would combine sneak peeks into one blog post so your news feed isn't filled with all my posts so here goes:

All those babies that came to see me last year are getting bigger and coming back to see me again, some for their 1 year portraits- I really can't believe it has been that long already!  Here are some of the sweet faces that I got to be with last week.

Little Mr D.  Just like his big brother, he never disappoints when it comes to great expressions!

C just turn one!  We 'celebrated' with a cake smash.  I use that term loosely because he mostly cried in his cake more than he ate it.  But that made for some cute images too.  His big brother turned 4 (I just can't believe that I've been his photographer for that long!).  Handsome little guys, aren't they?

 And happy little girl H!  This little pumpkin was very excited, expressive and on the go.  I love her little bonnet!

Referral of 2011 winners!

I often say that I wouldn't be where I am if it weren't for all of you telling all your friends and family about how much you love your portraits from Jungling Photograph, but it seems I can't say thank you enough!  Your kind words of praise overwhelm me and I adore being your photographer!  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, I can't wait to meet more new referrals this year!  This family won the referral of the year for 2011 because they referred one of my brides, who referred another bride, who referred a 3rd bride, who referred a 4th!  It was such an unexpected chain reaction that really did make 2011 my best year yet.  So to show my appreciation, in addition to their referral bonus I invited them  to come in for family portraits and Kelly got right to work planning their session.

I love the outfit choices!  Everyone coordinates without being too match-y, nice little punch of color, great texture and patterns.  This is a great example of how to dress a family for portraits!

More images from the session:

My favorite family shot so far:

You may have noticed that I added extra copyright symbols on this post.  This is something that came from a speaker I heard at convention last week.  With the social media explosion and the growing popularity of Pinterest, it is so easy for images to be stolen and used by anyone, anywhere.  If one of your images were to get "pinned" it could potentially be seen by anyone, anywhere and then used for purposes you never intended.  So to protect you, your children and my ownership of the images, I will be watermarking much more prominently on my blog and on Facebook.  I always suggest that EVERYONE watermark all the images they put out on the web, even if they are just personal snap shots, because you just never know where those images could end up.  I will gladly help any of you do that at anytime.  The internet makes the world a much smaller place, which is wonderful when it comes to bringing people together!  But along with the benefits, we can't be too careful about protecting ourselves from the bad!

And along those lines, I love seeing you share the blog and images with your friends and family!  I just ask that the images not be altered in anyway.  After your order is placed, I'll also gladly give you digital images of the ones you choose watermarked and sized for online posting.  Happy sharing!

And the Winners are...

The voting is closed and all the votes have been tallied.  It was a great turn out so thank you so much for taking the time to comment and share the links with your friends and family!  I won't keep you in suspense any longer, here are your winners:

Couples: Khetyn and Michael will be getting an extra $10 to spend on products after their wedding in May

Group:  This one was a tie- The Mosers and Sandra Cleppe, you both win a $10 print credit!

Family Moments: Goes to the Anderson family.  How does a $10 gift card for a restaurant sound?

Cool Kids goes to Molly Keith- you'll be getting an iTunes card when you come in to see me next week.

Little Cuties: Goes to Dakenah!  You'll get a gift card to Toys 'R' Us!

Itty Bitties: Charlotte Houghkirk and her family get to go on location with me for a family session this summer.

Congratulations to all of you!  We'll do it again next year, just make sure you come see me in 2012 to be in the running.

Extended family...

It is always so nice to meet families that value portraits as a way to keep loved ones close.  I'm sure I've talked before about how important I feel family portraits are to the family unit for building values, a sense of belonging and self confidence, and you can bet I'll be talking about it in future posts- it just makes me so happy to work with families who get it.  This family was such fun in the studio too, the kids were enjoying cousin time and Grandpa's teasing.  I'm sure when they walk past the spot in their homes where these will be displayed, that they will be reminded of the time they spent together.  And the out-takes we got will help with that too (see the images at the bottom :D).