Amanda Slakes Photography Blog

new address

2010-04-22T13:05:00.003-04:00

Since I've switched the name of my business now I've also decided to switch all the addresses. I will now be posting everything over here at www.lovelikethisphotography.blogspot.com.

Please visit there and add it to your RSS so that you don't miss out on anything new! And don't forget to check out the wedding special I just posted. It's an amazing deal so tell your friends and anyone else you know getting married who hasn't booked their photog yet :)

changes

2010-04-19T14:07:00.003-04:00

As you may have noticed, I've been making some changes.

I have wanted to change my business name to something other than my name for a long time and finally have found something that I like well enough to do so. It seems appropriate too because I'll be getting married in May and my name will no longer be Amanda Slakes ;)

If you visit lovelikethisphotography.com you will see my {almost} finished website. It's all still a work in progress. I'm just doing what I can as I have the time to do it.

Question for those of you who know more about RSS than I do. I want to change the blogspot address to lovelikethisphotography.blogspot.com. I know how to do that, but the problem is that I'm afraid it will screw up links that people have to the original asp blogspot. Is that going to be a problem?

On to a more exciting topic, the weather is continually changing to the promise of warmer days... which means more sessions!

I will be posting a ridiculously amazing special that I am running for the rest of the 2010 weddings very soon so stay tuned for that.

Holly and Joe's wedding of the season is this Saturday, let's hope and pray for no rain! I can't wait start posting 2010!

Jim, Kayla and company (Rochester family photographer)

2010-02-25T08:00:00.002-05:00

I was sorting through my posts tonight and realized I had a couple still in draft form! Not sure why this never actually went up, but here it is now.

These are my cousins :)

Seriously, can.not.handle the eyes

Love love LOVE doing these couple shots. Especially during a family shoot :) It proves that there was a beginning to it all and how having a family changes a couple and brings them closer...

Lilly's almost 1!

2010-02-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

But not in these pictures... she was only 8 months here. As a photographer, the winter is most decidedly the slowest time of year for me, so I've taken on a couple of kids to look after a few days a week. Lilly is one of them and then her 2 year old brother is the other.

They are a lot of fun to look after and in just about a week I am hoping to take some 1 year cake pictures of Lilly Joy!

Dan and Jessica tie the knot

2010-02-23T00:15:00.003-05:00

I've been lax in my posting lately, but here are some images from my last wedding of 2009...

pretty baby girl

2010-02-22T13:11:00.001-05:00

When I grow up and have kids all my own, there will be no end to picture taking. I simply cannot handle how easy pretty little girls are to photograph! These pictures were taken at the end of November just in time for her Christmas Eve birthday :)

The Wedding Affair

2010-01-25T10:14:00.001-05:00

The Wedding Affair came to the Memorial Art Gallery this last weekend. One of my June brides invited me to go with her and I am so glad she did! This was an extraordinary event, so many beautiful ideas and great vendors to talk with... and there was so much yummy food, oh my goodness, it was amazing :)

This is Rebecca, my June 5th bride. I am so privileged to shoot her wedding. The girl has style and I can't wait to see how everything comes together. Her wedding is going to be FABULOUS

MOD by Kris Kellogg was there and I was able to get my eyes done. She did such a fantastic job, I want her to come do my make up every day haha :)

Believe it or not, this was the first bridal show I've ever been to. As a bride or a photographer. I am definitely going to check it out for next year though. This candy bar that you see in the picture above is something I'm thinking about doing at my wedding... like a make your own favor kind of thing, anyone have an opinion about that? I'm not sure if I love the idea or hate it ;)

Bethany and Sam get ready to tie the knot!

2010-01-18T11:36:00.005-05:00

What a joy that for a living I get to hang out and work with people as sweet as Sam and Bethany! Only 117 days until your big day :D WOOHOO!

Baby Peyton

2009-12-21T11:41:00.001-05:00

It's been maybe about a year and a half since I began taking pictures professionally. To think about that truly amazes me, realizing how far I've come and the relationships I've built along the way.

In the summer of '08 I took family pictures for Denise, Pete and their little one year old girl Riley. Since then Riley has had another birthday and they added a new one to their little family.

At a precious 10 days old, meet Peyton Avery.

Welcome to the world sweet girl, knowing you are loved beyond what you will ever know.

Jon and Ariel down the aisle

2009-12-20T15:31:00.005-05:00

A cold day in October is what we woke up to the morning of Jon and Ariel's wedding. So many beautiful days we'd had, and this was no exception. The only downside was the absence of heat!

But when has anyone let a little cold get in the way of marrying their one and only. The one that matches them perfectly. That's who Jon is for Ariel, and Ariel for Jon.

Their ceremony was held in a beautiful Catholic church that was a combination of modern and traditional I had not yet seen. And the reception was held at Brunswick Greens in Troy, NY. Yes, I traveled all the way to Troy for this wedding! However, the next time I travel for a wedding, I'm voting for somewhere a bit warmer ;)

Haven Hope

2009-11-13T14:50:00.003-05:00

I had the opportunity to go with Andrea on an infant shoot this week and it was one of the coolest experiences I've had yet as a photographer. I had the chance to sit back and watch, not worry about being in charge of what was going on. But rather just observe and take pictures as I saw opportunities fly by.

The chemistry between this family is nothing short of amazing. They flowed with each other so well and as a result were just unbelievably easy to photograph. These pictures make me want to have a baby... or not :) Maybe someday...

for you Zelda Shaver

2009-11-13T14:33:00.002-05:00

I've been slowly but surely catching up with work that I began over the summer and never finished... I get so stressed about this stuff, but when I sit down and just do it I feel so good. And I enjoy doing it so bonus! Why don't I just stay on top of stuff? Then I could have fun every day and not have a ton of backed up stuff to do!

Anyways, one of the highlights of the summer was my best friend from high school, Beka, coming back to NY for a visit. She came and stayed overnight with me. It was totally a grown up sleepover :) We had the best time talking so long into the night... and in March I'm driving out to Denver with Steve to visit her and her husband for a week! I am soooo excited!

While she was here, we went out to take a few pictures of her (and me too, but I was NOT looking so good that day... so we're just gonna leave those alone ;)

Can't touch this... serious hotness lol

We are goofballs... that's all I have to say about this.

It's sooo good to have friends that grow with you through the years, and Beka has definitely been one of those for me. We are going to have such a great time in Denver, I can't wait!

just me :)

2009-11-12T01:21:00.002-05:00

Saturday after the wedding I crashed hard. I got sick that night and was awake a good portion of the night with a fever and generally feeling just awful.

I had planned to go out with Andrea on Sunday and be her model. No complaints here! I was more than happy to do this!

But by morning, I was sooo not feelin it. But the day turned out to be so warm and unseasonably beautiful I decided it would be a crying shame to let it go to waste. So I put on my big-girl panties and we traipsed out and about to capture some God's light at literally the magic hour.

It amazes me how this light that comes before dusk actually sets in is so consistently magical. It's perfectly soft, casting very little shadow that lights perfectly and has such a buttery effect. Anyways, enough about amazing light, here's what she did!

I saved this one for last because it's my favorite. I seriously love them all, but this one, well, I think this is me :) If you want to see a few more, check them out on Andrea's flickr.

Corinne - senior 2010

2009-11-10T14:05:00.000-05:00

Corinne and I headed out to Mendon ponds to take her senior pictures last month on my birthday! It was so much fun... mainly because Corinne is just all laughs and cuteness. In a totally grown up sort of way ;) I love this girl's smile, she holds nothing back, kinda reminds me of me... ha! But man, can she ever pull off the serious looks... one of a kind she is :) Love you Corinne!

Dan and Jess preview

2009-11-09T12:28:00.002-05:00

Saturday was the last wedding for me this year. I'm sad and happy at the same time... Glad to be done, but at the same time, I have grown to love doing weddings sooo much!

Anyways, it was a GORGEOUS day for a wedding. Especially a November wedding. Bright shining sun, temperatures in the 60's. And best of all, no RAIN! Who could ask for more here in NY ;)

Bekah {senior portraits}

2009-11-05T14:23:00.002-05:00

Bekah is a girl near and dear to my heart. She is a true beauty... and she happens to be beautiful on the outside too :)

She came with me to two of my weddings this summer and assisted me, for which I am so grateful. I looked forward to her pictures so much, and we had such fun taking them! In fact, they were taken right across the street from where I live now. Down by the creek is a hidden treasure in this town, I love going down there :)

Evan and Taryn - down the aisle

2009-10-30T11:41:00.004-04:00

I am struggling for words to explain how I felt about this wedding and this particular couple... when I try to pinpoint exact terms to describe what I saw and felt this day, I come up lacking.

Saying that their love is sweet is contrived, because it is beyond sweet.

The way they look into each other's eyes is unlike any look I've seen between lovers.

There is joy and peace, and love and hope for the future. Truly, the kind of love that exists between Evan and Taryn is the kind that grows and lasts. I am blessed to have come to know them so well through the process of their wedding planning and am so happy to call them my friends.

So, Evan and Taryn, I hope you enjoy these and are blessed by them as they remind you of the love you share now and forever.

Scroll all the way to the bottom to see a video of more than are just in this post.

Dan and Jessica get engaged (rochester engagement photographer)

2009-10-22T12:22:00.002-04:00

Dan and Jess came to me at the beginning of the summer looking for a wedding photographer, and I'm so glad they picked me to be their girl for the job. I am so excited to shoot their wedding in November and have no doubts they are going to work.it.out.

We started at Village Gate Square and then moved to Artisan Works where there were some amazing spots to work with.

Jon and Ariel's wedding teaser

2009-10-22T08:47:00.001-04:00

Just a little taste of my trip to Troy, NY this weekend...

a present for Dad

2009-10-21T14:39:00.003-04:00

Last week I met up with Jackie and her brother and sister to do some sibling pictures to give their dad for his birthday. What a great present idea, what dad wouldn't like something like this?

And while it was super duper cold up there, we they managed to pull off looking like rockstars even tho they were freezing. And I may have made a new record for speed with this shoot also as I haven't done a shoot in this cold of weather since the three brothers last November

Nate and Erin - Down the Aisle

2009-10-19T13:09:00.007-04:00

The day started off cloudy almost threatening to rain... I thought to myself that I couldn't be worse luck if I tried. Somehow each wedding I've been to this year has had some threat of bad weather... but wouldn't you know, the skies cleared, the sun rose high and cast beautiful light all over Nate and Erin's backyard wedding.

One of the reasons I love weddings so much is getting to watch the bride and groom interact with each other, reveling in their love as they begin this new journey together. Nate and Erin have the sweetest love between them and I found myself more than once with tears in my eyes as I watched them commit themselves to each other for life.

To see more pictures, you can watch this video... I'm Yours by Jason Mraz was their song and just suited them perfectly :)

Catching up family pics

2009-10-13T15:16:00.000-04:00

Over the last 2 months soooo much has been going on in my life. I have unfortunately let things like keeping up with blogging fall between the cracks. But I'm finally settling into things again and will hopefully be able to keep up a little better :)

This particular family came to me last Christmas and bought a certificate for their parents to do a family portrait sometime this year. We set up a time and a place, and while we waited for the day to come, I thoroughly freaked myself out trying to figure how to pose this many people!

I poured over different family pictures and showed up to this location almost an hour early to scout out good spots. It totally paid off, because I was relaxed and I felt that because of that, the family was able to follow my lead.

Poor Abby getting squished in the back there :P

I just love the way these turned out!

Anyways, I mentioned earlier in the post that there's been a lot going on. The main thing that's been going on is that I've moved! I was talking earlier in the year about relocating to NC, but have since decided that the Rochester area is a good place for me to be... at least right now ;)

But that didn't stop me from moving. I have been living with my parents most of my years since high school, so I moved to a small town still very near where I grew up and I am absolutely loving it! It's great to have my own place and I feel that my productivity has the potential to go up without people around me all the time :) I'm so easily distracted!

Today I went back to making task lists though, and I only have one thing left after I check off this blog and I'm done for the night!

Evan and Taryn rock the shoot!

2009-09-16T12:47:00.004-04:00

Saturday was my 3rd out of 6 weddings for the fall. My 8th wedding of the year! Evan and Taryn booked me early on in the year, and I had no doubts about how fabulous their wedding and pictures would be. I mean, seriously, look what happened when we took their engagement pictures... this is fierce people, fierce.

Apparently I never posted their engagement pictures on here! But this isn't the last you'll see of Evan and Taryn. They are modeling for me when I shoot my promo video in 2 weeks. That's right, I'm making a video! Or rather, my friend Andrew is making one for me :) But I get to be in it and I am soo excited. It's going to ROCK. Here is a clip to a video he made for one of the outreach's at my church, and if you watch, i'm in in a few times :)

a little hippie, a little vintage, a lotta chic

2009-09-16T12:37:00.000-04:00

In the midst of the weddings I've been doing lately, I've still managed to stay true to my first love... portraits

Jill is a senior this year and had some pretty ambitious ideas for her pictures... well, not gonna lie, I did too ;) and together, I think we did a pretty good job pulling off what she wanted.

this picture makes me sigh... *sighhhhh*

Jill you're beautiful... inside and out. Love you girl!

Rachel

2009-09-08T06:29:00.000-04:00

Back in June, when I went down to Maryland and North Carolina for a few weeks, I was able to meet up with Rachel from Savor Photography to take some pictures for her as well as get mine done! That is, in case you were wondering, where all the new pictures of me have been coming from :) I didn't just meet up with her, I actually stayed at her house with her family who was gracious enough to have me come (almost a stranger) and stay for a week!

I had such a great time staying with them and they helped me find my way around NC as I made my decision as to whether it was the place for me to move. Ultimately though, I made the decision to stay in NY.

I had such a great time taking these... and while we didn't have any crazy things happen while taking hers, the day before when we did mine, there were a couple laughable and definitely memorable moments. Like for example when we were shooting in an alley and all of a sudden noticed an army blanket covering a pile... that started moving. Or so we thought :) It was just a pile of garbage, but I swear we thought it was a person for a minute.

Anyways, back to Rachel... we headed out as early as we could really. But by the time you get that far south, it doesn't really matter what time you get out. It's stinking HOT. You wouldn't know it though the way she seriously worked it out!

Jenna and Rick tie the knot

2009-09-07T13:06:00.006-04:00

How did I not realize that the skies were gorgeous aaaaalllll day long until just now? Out of all the weddings I've shot or second shot this season, there has not been one day without rain or the serious threat of it!

Such a gorgeous day Saturday was... and what a gorgeous bride I was working with.

I am privileged to do this for people, and I'm not gonna lie... I definitely cried a tear or two more than once. However, my second shooter Andrea, being the steel box that she is, held it together and has now officially rocked her first wedding.

Jenna and Rick only got engaged this past June, so as you can imagine, they were hurried with planning. Due to the short notice of planning they are opting to do post wedding bridals since there wasn't enough time to do engagement pictures.

I can't wait to see you both when you get back and we can rock out!

workin it out

2009-09-04T18:07:00.002-04:00

Obviously I'm working on reformatting my blog. I decided that since I don't have time to do it all at once, I would just start chipping away at it. I may change a few things besides the layout, but mainly I got sick of having a two column blog and need more space for pictures! So bear with me as I get it put back together.

Also, since really, I'm not a blog designer and my knowledge of html is ridiculously lacking, I can't figure out what in the world is up with my header. It doesn't even show up on my page elements page... so I have no idea what to do with that. So if anyone reading this knows how to fix it let me know :)

Jill

2009-09-03T20:54:00.002-04:00

Initially, I was only going to post one... but I couldn't! I just couldn't! Jill has been waiting all summer to do these pictures... and honestly, so have I.

I love my job, but I love my job more when I get the chance to conspire with a fellow artist. When words like funky, edge-y and out-there are being thrown around, I can't help but contain myself (if only slightly and for the sake of my very professional demeanor at all times...)

There are so many more than just these. But I must discipline myself and finish them in order! Guess that gives me some incentive to get some work done... :)

time to kick it into high gear!

2009-08-30T15:58:00.004-04:00

I've been waiting all summer long for this to come. Yesterday was the beginning of my wedding season. Maybe a bit late, but since this has been my first year, it's taken some time to do all the legwork that goes along with photographing a wedding. I currently have 6 weddings booked for the fall and started it all off with Nate and Erin yesterday.

Here is a glimpse of Nate and Erin's day...

the i-will-try-to-post-more-pictures post

2009-08-27T16:51:00.004-04:00

Last year Diane contacted me through craigslist to take pictures at their annual family reunion. I was still at a point where I was so hesitant about everything. But has that been stopping me? I don't think so! I spent just about 2 hours photographing all the individual families and the whole group of them. In between I also got some candids, which looking back I realize were definitely faves of the day.

I can't tell you how happy I was to hear from Diane again this summer. We met at a small park in Honeoye Falls and then drove to a big open field near there. I'm slowly but surely beginning to overcome my fear of shooting in the sunlight. Of course before we got out there, the sun was still neatly tucked away behind clouds and low in the sky... but when we were all set to start shooting, it peeked through with a fierce intensity that made for some beautiful light and shadows.

And the bokeh through the trees behind them in the right picture... no complaints here :)

In other news, I bought a set of magic print it boards from MCPactions today. Can I just tell you what an instant gratification person I am? I won't get them for like 24 hours. omg, I am not sure I can wait that long! The collages I've been making the last couple months were good, but I have gotten the itch for more. Plus these actions make making these super easy. AND I can just print them out! Score for both!

If you're interested in checking out MCP check out her site and maybe you'll just find something you can't live without... I did lol

finally, an adult family!

2009-08-06T09:57:00.000-04:00

Diane contacted me a couple months ago with the hopes that we could come up with some new family pictures for her walls.

I knew her only by name, but have since gotten to know her and her husband, Michael, as well as her two children, Chelsea and Luke, much better... and I am a better person for having them in my life!

Shooting this family of 4 was an absolute pleasure. For once, I was able to have an idea in my mind, and execute it exactly the way I saw it ;) That doesn't happen with little kids... ha! The fact that they are all very photogenic was a huge factor too.

Good posing + good looking people = great pictures!

All of these were shot in the tiny village of Lakeville that sits right on Conesus lake.

When we were done with family pics, I stayed back with Luke and we shot some for his senior pics...

I seriously couldn't handle that he could do this:

Seriously, who does that? oh yah, Luke does.

Love these two shots... so much the same, but different and unique in their own way.

I've enjoyed working with you all so much and I'm glad to know that this won't be the only interaction I have with you! Thank you for picking me to help preserve your family at this time in life and I hope to be around to see new memories that will be made through the years!

a work of art for sure

2009-08-03T10:26:00.005-04:00

Almost a year ago, I decided that I needed to have a brochure. I wanted something to hand to people when I was talking to them about what I did... so that when I would say, "I'm a photographer" I could then follow through with something immediately proving that I was serious. Not only that, but it's such a feat to get all this information put together in a cohesive way that is attractive.

Well, since the idea was born, there have been soooo many changes! I knew right away that I wanted my friend Bee to design it for me. So I worked a trade with her and took some family pictures for her last fall before her 2nd little girl was born... or even really showing!

A few different ieas flew around before we both kind of took a break from the idea. Sometimes that's exactly what needs to happen to let creativity brew. I've learned that over the years that instead of freaking out because I can't come up with something right now that it will come... and just letting it sit for awhile may just be the key.

Maybe 2 months ago, we picked the idea back up and when she showed me what she had come up with, I was more than a little impressed. Maybe you can see why?

Bee, thank you SO much for putting the time in to make this thing happen. It is incredible and fits me and what I'm doing fantastically. I couldn't be happier and am so proud to have something this beautiful to hand to people!

Also, thanks to Allison, Jonah, Em, Andrea and Daniel! Without your beautiful faces, I wouldn't have anything worth showing off ;)

letter art

2009-07-30T15:10:00.004-04:00

I can't remember where I saw this idea first, but I knew as soon as I did that I had to do it. It's such a creative and aesthetically nice way to decorate I knew it wouldn't be hard to sell the idea!

This is my first set of letters made for Riley.

Each letter is 5x10 and is mounted on 2mm styrene board. They also have a lustre coating to protect them from being out in the open air and not protected by glass.

I knew they would be awesome when I first found the idea, but they are even cooler than I thought when I got them today!

Now, if I had children, which I obviously don't ;) I would totally use this idea, and put velcro on the backs of them to hang around their room. And I might even make a few more with different images to correlate with whatever theme I had going on in there. I may just do it in my office, with a more contemporary feel!

That's what's so cool about these. They can be made to fit any style because they are custom. Any word(s) you think of, any colors you want to use, any graphics that may suit you. They're soo cool!

Pricing for these shamazing letters are $150 for a set of 5 letters or $30 each.

If I've already done your pictures this year, let me know if you would like set of these. And if we haven't done pictures together yet, well what are you waiting for! You'll never regret spending money on memories well-preserved.

the cuzzins

2009-07-30T10:01:00.003-04:00

my unplanned blogging break has been entirely too long. It's not that I don't have things to blog, it's more that I've been too lazy to actually do it. For now though, this is where I'm starting so I can get my butt back in gear. And what better way to do that than with three super cute kiddos who also happen to be my cousins!

Kayla has talked to me about doing pictures for a really long time... like way before I ever even did pictures. So finally getting to take these was really great. And I couldn't have asked for more cooperation! Maybe that's cause it was so early and noone was really awake quite yet ;)

Here's a teaser from the shoot, the rest will come within a week!

I picked this picture because of the personality on each face :) Sammie's face on the right cracks me up every time I see it!

Questions answered - part 1

2009-07-13T00:15:00.002-04:00

I decided to break up this question and answer series over a few posts. Over the last couple of months, I've gotten questions along the way in email and comments etc so I will try to include everything I can :)

I'm excited to answer the questions from the post soliciting them and to have them as references on my blog for future reference, but this post is not in answer to anything technical. I will be posting those soon though. I want to make sure they are good and answer as much as possible.

Today, I'm going to tell you a bit more about me. It amazes me still that people look at me and what I do and are impressed (if you're not impressed then uh, you're reading the wrong blog sistah! ;). I hope that my background can be an encouragement to everyone that you don't have to have a hard and fast plan for your life to do what you want with it.

When I was younger, I always wanted to play sports. I wanted to be like the cool kids. I wanted to have something to do after school everyday and people who liked me because we had things in common. I however, was and am very athletically uncoordinated. I found myself in the art room. Many hours a week. I worked as hard as I could to be the best, but still found myself in the middle. There was always someone who got more praise, the better grade, the most attention. Undoubtedly prettier (and probably played a sport to boot!)

I'd like to say that none of that mattered. But it did. I was extremely insecure. About my body, about my talents, about my ability to interact with others. I felt as though I stuck out like a sore thumb in everything I put my hand to.

In 11th grade, I participated in my high school's junior-senior art show. I was so proud of the work I had done. It was a combination of my favorite pieces including everything from poetry to paintings, drawings and a lot of photos. I won first place. Never in my life do I remember feeling such shock as I did the moment I saw the certificate place above my display. Surely this person had just felt bad for me and placed it there because I had obviously tried so hard... No. The judge was an outsider. She didn't know me, or anyone else. That high lasted for quite some time. Even now when I think of it, I am still proud.

Near the end of my senior year I landed a job interning at a local photography studio where I worked my way into the title of "production supervisor." Sooo official sounding. It was in hindsight, my favorite job ever. I did everything that happens to pictures after they're shot. From post-edit to output and delivery. It fed my creative and organizational desires in a way I have not since been able to fill. I worked there for almost 2 years whereupon I quit to go to school for awhile.

Leaving there left its mark however. I left with words burned into my mind by my former boss that I should never go into photography on my own. It was too hard, too much work. I wasn't cut out for it. Plus, he put so much time into me, it wouldn't be fair to go off and become competition. These words hung over my head so heavily that I placed my creativity aside and decided to give it a rest.

The idea that I wasn't good enough, left me feeling a fake. That if I were to go out somewhere with my Nikon F7 (given to me by my parents for high school graduation) I was sure to be pointed out as such.

After having spent a year in school, I took some time off to work and make money. I had never wanted to go into debt for school, and since I had no idea what I wanted to be, there was no way to justify doing so in my mind. My first year of college was spent at a Bible school. It was a fantastic year and during that time it occurred to me that if I liked production, I may like graphic design. So that's what I decided to do.

I made enough money that semester off to fund my next college adventure, buy a car (this one) and buy my first camera. The original Canon Rebel. I loved this camera. But I rarely used it. I felt so conspicuous whenever I would pull it out. And it was almost as if people expected that because I had a big camera in my hands, that I knew what I was doing. Which couldn't have been further from the truth. My old insecurities flared bigger than my desire to create art with my camera.

This is the part where I start to get freaked out. HA! Because I am about to share with you all something that I really don't want anyone to see. This is a link to the first wedding I ever shot over 4 years ago... At the time, I had pretty much NO idea what I was doing. I shot the entire thing on auto mode. Accidentally discovered midway through the ceremony what ISO was, but had no idea what it did other than make my pictures brighter and consequently shot the entire time with the iso at 1600. Mucho grainage...

But all in all, I was satisfied with them. I thought they came out pretty well. That is until the b&g saw them and I weighed in on their disappointment. Seriously though, way to be disappointed with free photography. I mean, seriously.

Anyhoo... that was it for me. I had stepped out on a proverbial limb here, sticking my neck out as far as I would dare at the time and felt like I had not only fallen, but broken most every bone on the way down! As much as I tried to tell myself that it was ok, and that they were upset because they didn't like my "non-traditional" style as they had put it... They didn't want me for my style they wanted me for my price. Eep.

Consequently, I put my camera away even further at this point. I picked it up so rarely that the better part of 3 years passed by before I took something one of my profs said to heart...

Bringing me back to school. I went to the community college here where I live currently for 4 semesters and have one semester left (or 3 classes) if I were to finish my associates. That's right, I don't have a degree. I spent those 4 semesters learning about graphic design and the industry. There is very little about it that I like. I found myself feeling perfectionistic and inadequate when it came to design. As hard as I tried, I always felt like I just wasn't getting it. I started second-guessing my decision to make this my career and found myself thriving within the photo classes I took within the program. Photography was my love. It always had been. It excited me.

I'm a question asker by nature. It probably annoys the heck out of some people, but I figure hey why not. I'll never know if I don't ask. So one day while peppering my photo teacher with questions, he said this to me, "You need to let your camera become an extension of your arm if you want to get better. You know what to do, now you just need to learn how to do it."

Those words never left me. I thought about them over and over for probably more than a year before I finally told myself to pick up the dang camera and start taking it everywhere. That was in the fall of 2007, right about the time I started my first blog. The immediate feedback I had through the blog was a huge encouragement for me to keep going. Plus, I found other blogs along the way that inspired me. Some of the very first ones I looked at with amazement were Andrea and Kimberly.

Around January 2008, Michelle asked me to please take some pictures of her before she had her 2nd baby Gabrielle. I totally didn't want to. But she insisted, and since I know her so well and felt comfortable with her as she did with me, I decided to give it a go. It was in March that we took them, and as I looked through them afterwards, I was impressed... much moreso than I expected. Note: I have yet to get done looking through a set of pictures that I just shot and not wonder how in the world I did it. I still get nervous. And I never take for granted the shots that I get. I seriously give all the credit back to God for my talent because without Him I wouldn't have what I do.

After that experience, I got a boost of confidence and decided that I could possibly, in the future, maybe try this again. I was asked not long after to do a senior session, and after much vascillation, I decided to give that a go as well.

I look back at what I was doing one year ago from now and stand in total amazement at how far things have come since then. It's a continuous process that I never expect to complete. Honestly, if I ever got to a point where I felt like there was nothing left to do, no way to get better, I'd probably give it all up.

I'm just a regular girl who picked up her camera and set it back down more times than I can count and is still reaching to figure out how this all fits into her life. My education is little, but my experience is growing. I want to help others grow in their talent. I never want anyone to feel like their failure is the measure of their ability. If we marked our worth by the mistakes we've made, we'd all be pretty worthless. I make so many mistakes, and you know what I do with them? I hit delete. I figure out what I did wrong, and I go fix it. all the time.

I hope this is helpful/encouraging in some way. I hope that it makes me a little more "real" in your eyes :) And since a post feels so lame without a picture, here's a blast from the past I found while going through my old webshots albums.

This was taken in 2003 on a beach in Hawaii. And yes, I had really red hair.

Chappy and Co.

2009-07-09T21:20:00.003-04:00

I was tempted to name this post the "Gabrielle show" with all the good pictures I have of her. But I narrowed it down, even further from what I have in my flickr stream.

However, Gabrielle has a family! Yes, that's right :) A beautiful family I might add.

I love all of these people so much. They're dear to my heart and am so glad to have once again taken pictures for them.

I love family pictures for the same reason I hate them. Taking a family picture with little kids is so incredibly hard. It's hard for mom, dad, ME and I would imagine the kids get sick of hearing their names yelled over and over and over to look! look! hey! pllllttt! But it always pays off in the end, and the emotion captured in pictures like this is what keeps me going.

May I please just say how much I looked forward to photographing Gabrielle in a tutu? I can't even handle it.

Samuel. This boy hasn't ceased to amaze me. He is brilliant. I love his little voice, so articulate and purposeful. And those eyes... boys always get the good lashes ;)

LOVE this

and this :)

These beautiful children were brought to you by these two beautiful people. I mean seriously, what did they think was going to happen when they had kids. How could their kids not be good looking?

Tim and Michelle, thank you for making me a part of your family. It's been a long time, but I still feel like I belong when I'm with you. Friends like you are one of the best parts of life, but it also means leaving is going to be even harder... Thank you for everything over the years. I am looking forward to watching your family grow through the years :)

questions anyone?

2009-07-06T11:55:00.000-04:00

I have learned a TON over the last year from reading photographer blogs. I asked questions questions questions to get answers to all the things I saw other people do and wondered how in the world they did it!

I am a huge proponent of learning through experience, since that is how I have learned most of everything I know. If you're new at photography, don't be afraid to ask questions about anything and everything... you won't get better if you don't!

I have received a lot of questions over the months, and would like to put together a FAQ link for people to refer to when they visit my blog. But before I put that together, I want your questions! My faithful readers ;)

Please leave a comment with your question. Ask anything from personal to my education to photography and I will answer! Well, unless it's mean or inappropriate.

So start thinking and ask away. If you don't want to leave your question in the comment section, feel free to email me at contact@amandaslakesphotography.com :)

a ring and a date

2009-06-18T00:01:00.000-04:00

How could I forget to post these! I seriously almost did. I was looking through my flickr and thought, wait a minute, what are these doing here? Uhhh, hello!

Evan approached me a couple months ago about doing their wedding pictures. Still very wary at the time and not even sure how to sell myself as a wedding photographer, they decided to book me. The confidence i've received from others, believing that I could do this even when I wasn't sure myself, is huge. HUGE.

We got all the paperwork together and when I talked with them about engagement pictures, I realized that (for me) engagement pictures aren't even an option. I feel so strongly that I need to connect with the people that I'm working for in order to give them what they are hiring me for. I don't want to show up the day of the wedding only having talked over coffee about money and contracts... I want to know their real personalities and the reasons they fell in love with eachother.

So I convinced them that this was mandatory :D And about a week ago, we set out to capture them in their young love.

Wouldn't you know, this was the first thing we came across on University Ave. I had seen some pictures on Kristina's website (she was also my friend Melissa's wedding photographer) that had been taken up on University and was set on the spot for Evan and Taryn.

I'm sure we're not the only ones to have used this spot for photographic opportunities, and I was proven right when Susie left me a comment to tell me that her bridal shots were taken here too!

We walked in the back way to the Eastman house and utilized the lovely gardens for awhile...

and then there was this. I have nothing to say here... a LOL is not nearly adequate to describe the way I feel about this.

It started to rain midway through, which I expected, so we got in the car hoping to drive long enough that it would stop raining. We were looking for a big open field, but when we drove by these train tracks and the station, it was love.

Seriously, how hott are they.

I want to look this amazing in plaid when I have engagement pictures taken.

I am soo excited about shooting your wedding in September! I cannot wait seriously. I am so glad that you chose me, I cannot thank you enough!

Riley (Rochester children's photographer)

2009-06-17T19:04:00.000-04:00

Last summer as I was getting started, I used craigslist to try and get some bookings. And while I didn't have much luck with it, I did have a little :)

Denise emailed me interested in doing family portraits, and although I had not much of a portfolio to show her, still booked me! I met them up at Charlotte (pronounced shar-LOT for all you out-of-towners ;) beach and went from there. Riley had just turned 1 at that time and I was just dying to take pictures of chubby sandy baby toes. Seriously.

And I got to!

The last time I saw her, this is what she looked like. We all know that babies turn into kids, but it's always a shock to actually see it happen!

We met up at beautiful Highland Park to take these pictures. It was a gorgeous morning, shining sun hidden by clouds and it was the perfect balance of humid and hot.

Riley was an absolute pleasure to take pictures of. She knew just how to say "cheese!" and smile :) I got so many awesome shots of her, it was very hard to pick the best ones.

But these moments are my favorite. The precious "in between" shots... that's what you'll really want to remember when you're picking out pictures for her high-school graduation slideshow :)

Can she get much more adorable? Like, seriously?

I'm totally honored that you asked me to do pictures for you again this year Denise. What a compliment! I can't wait to see your new little one in the fall :)

Nate and Em... Married!

2009-06-16T16:20:00.000-04:00

Somewhere along the way, in my endeavors to steer clear of wedding photography, I somehow got sucked in... I'm still working through my feelings about it. Because I honestly love so much being able to give people pictures like this that they'll have forever to remember their special day, but at the same time... it's really hard. and I question myself so often as to whether i'm up to the challenge. I'm figuring it out, but in the meantime, the weddings keep coming to me. I've booked 3 more weddings for the summer/fall and am very excited to keep up the trend... but when can I stop questioning my abilities?

TMI I'm sure. Like, you don't come to this blog because you want to hear my introspective thoughts on my own talent. So onward we go!

I had the pleasure of working together with Rachel at Savor Photography to do my friends Nate and Emily's wedding.

Threats of rain loomed over the day, and after having shot my first wedding in the slush/snow/rain, I was prepared, if not a little disappointed :( But the day turned out to be beautiful. It rained, but only during the ceremony.

I may or may not have been able to narrow these down... so there's a ton... oh well :)

This last picture is of me and my assistant Bekah. You'll be seeing her on here in the coming months as she's working with me at weddings to pay for senior pictures! I love this girl, she is amazing and helpful and I love that she's 17 years old but I feel like we are peers. I'm looking forward to doing pictures with her soon :)

I'm so pleased with how this whole wedding went. It was a pleasure doing this for such good friends, and I was so honored to be a part of their day! Love you guys!

drive-thru photography

2009-06-13T19:17:00.001-04:00

I did a shoot behind an Arby's today...

In gladiator grass. It's really too bad i don't have the mark II 5D, cuz then I totally coulda gotten video too ;) (updated to say that I just went and watched the whole video that I linked to in this post... and you should too... apparently it's not really from the movie... and by the end of the video I was like wth? BA!hahaha!)

Behind the Arby's you did WHA?! Just drivin through the drive-thru, gettin some beef... don't mind us... :)

Tim and Michelle - You guys rock. And I picked this one because there are FAR too many to pick just one... and I thought this looked a little mysterious. I can't wait to dive into the rest and show you!

I <3 eyelash pictures

2009-06-13T18:55:00.004-04:00

I feel so behind right now, but I'm sooo happy that I've been so busy! Busy right now is a blessing :) Speaking of blessings, can we just talk about how amazingly beautiful these ~~little~~ big lashes are?

The rest of Riley will come soon ;)

AnnaGrace (rochester newborn photographer)

2009-06-09T14:21:00.000-04:00

I've only had the opportunity to photograph newborns a handful of times... This little doll was so easy to pose and move around. I've always found photographing newborns to be a challenge and often wondered if I was cut out for it. If every baby was this easy, I would stop doing everything else and only do newborns from now on!

She arrived May 26 just before midnight... and 8 days later we took these...

In the story of Peter Pan it talks about how Wendy had a kiss in the corner of her mouth... AnnaGrace has one of those... do you see it? :)

I had a hard time picking a favorite from these, but this dyptick is about as close as it gets. I love these two shots

I couldn't believe how full of smiles this little one was! Every once in awhile you get to see a newborn smile just a bit, and it only lasts a second or two. I was so happy to be able to get this one just as I thought I was all done :D

There is a sweetness captured amongst siblings looking over their brand new baby not found in any of the other growing up years. What a precious family and what a moment this is...

Congratulations Tony and Lynda, your family is a beautiful reflection of the love you so obviously share. I am honored to have been a part of this time in your lives.

Teaser Evan and Taryn

2009-06-09T11:36:00.002-04:00

What a sweet find this couch/lawn ornament thingy was!

I can't wait to get into the rest, you guys totally ROCKED these pics!

Too much cuteness!

2009-06-08T11:52:00.000-04:00

Back in September, my friend Michelle called me to see if I knew anyone who wanted to take on an adorable 5 month old as a part-time nanny. Hmmmm... it seemed to me that since I was already a nanny, it would work really well for me! So I got the number of the mommy who needed someone to watch her sweet little boy and the rest is history.

We worked out a good system for a couple months and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to have a little tiny (although he was never really tiny:) guy to play with and make giggle. We tried to do outside pictures in the leaves before Christmas, but it didn't work out. We did end up with these though :) One of my all-time favorite shoots.

But alas, children grow, and baby Jonah isn't so, well, baby anymore. But he sure is CUTE! This one is just full of personality and I had the hardest time picking through all the pictures and deciding what to use and what not to. His faces are just priceless!

We shot all of these right in my yard. My parents have a fantastic knack for gardening (especially my dad) and though we live in NY, it looks as though we have flora all year round... and technically we do. It's all in the basement all winter :D

This is a prop that Chrissy brought along and I love it! It was so perfect for him! He's 14 months old and is just taking some very cautious hesitant steps. He loved having something to hold onto AND it kept him in one spot :)

as a side-note, I LOOOOOVEEE props like this! They always add something to a pic. If you're doing pictures with me in the future, remember this and think about things that are special to you that we could use for them.

This little rocking chair is my grandpa's chair from when he was little. I just love it, and it worked so well to plop it in the poppies and just see what he would do.

whatchoo lookin at huh?

This was his most unfavorite spot :) I knew he wouldn't like it with the bare feet and all, but it was just too cute!

This was my pick from the day! I just cannot handle his scrunchy little nose, it's toooo much to handle!!!

He was singing here... LOL

This is how you know when the shoot is over

But it's not over, til it's over. One of my fave shots, I love stuff like this :D

I've finished the baby, but may just wait til tomorrow to do a whole post. If you just can't wait though, you can visit my facebook fan page and check it out.

Check back later this eve though for a teaser from the engagement session I'll be shooting this afternoon. This couple is hot, just sayin. So get ready :)

amidst the craziness, life goes on

2009-06-05T15:02:00.005-04:00

It's time for a real post folks. It's been a bit of a whirlwind for me lately. Some of you may know that I've been a full-time nanny for the last 2 years all while discovering my love for photography and finally last summer beginning to step into it on a professional level. It's been difficult juggling my work as a nanny and as a photographer. I give you full-time moms out there working your businesses on the side mad props. It is hard!

Anyways, I've been planning my launch into doing full-time photography for the last several months and this week all that planning paid off and I dove in as a full-time, fully self-employed, unbelievably happy photographer.

So far this week I have:
- made lots of lists (because I don't remember anything anymore... I think I'm running out of room up there or something)
- ordered my first round of sample pieces

16x20 on 3/4 inch standout board. It turned out fabulous! I am SO glad that I decided to offer this mounting option standard on all prints 11x14 and larger. They come ready to hang and don't need frames! Pretty much, they're amazing :D

Then I also got this beauty in an 11x14 canvas wrap. I couldn't be happier with it!

(moving on with what I've done...)
- pumped out 2 shoots and finished them (those will be posted shortly, but if you want to see one now, check out my facebook page)
- began working on my last wedding
- ate more meals with my family than I remember doing in a long time... and that's worth a lot :)

I've got 3 shoots lined up for next week so keep checking back to see what's new.

Also, I've posted a new link on the linkbar at the top of the page that allows you to see my pricing guide and all available options. Click here to see that now :)

Only one more week til I'm headed down to Maryland! While I'm down there, I'll be able to spend time with my family but I'm also very excited about going a little further south to visit Rachel and her family.

Summer's finally here, and I'm enjoying it sooo much!

Welcome AnnaGrace...

2009-06-03T16:38:00.003-04:00

AnnaGrace, you are so perfectly precious.

More to come soon...

scrunchy face preview

2009-06-03T12:03:00.004-04:00

Just the other day, I was thinking to myself how much I can't wait to have been in business long enough to have repeat clients... and voila! Now I do :) This is Jonah, remember his shoot from Christmastime?

What a joy and a pleasure he is to take pictures of! Soooo animated and adorable. The kid's got it all... goofy and silly, and then he turns on the charm. Some of the sweetness I captured of him yesterday, I almost can't handle. But this particular one is a fave and I wanted to share it right away!

The rest will be up very soon :) For now, I'm off to pose baby Anna Grace for her 8 day close up ;)

Oh and by the way, I finally figured out how to make all my pictures link back to my flickr photostream. Just click on the pic of Jonah and you can see what else I've been up to but haven't posted yet!

waiting for baby (rochester, NY family and children photographer)

2009-05-30T20:16:00.003-04:00

This post brought to you by:

Tony and Lynda... 2 beautiful people I've been honored to know and work with to capture these precious days before baby #4 enters the world :)

For any of you out there who have a 2 year old or have had one in the past, you will understand completely when I tell you how difficult it is to have fresh cut grass between your toes while trying to be glamorous for your close-up. What a beauty little Laurel is. Between a few tears and sticks waving about, I managed to catch her at some amazing angles :)

It's also hard to be glamorous while your two older brothers are charging about all around you and chasing eachother! But can she be any cuter right here?

Tony is the Dean of Men at the local Bible school near where I live and they live right on the beautiful campus. We made our way to the front lawn of the school where the greens were bold and the leaves had just finished opening.

Just one more. I promise. No, i'm not saying that to you, I was saying that all through the shoot :) When I thought I was done, I would think of just one more thing. That's how these last couple on the steps happened... and I'm so glad they did!

Thank you Tony, Lynda, Anthony, Jaden and Laurel! I can't wait to meet the new baby, and hopefully we'll see her on the blog soon too! :)

a undeniably beautiful bride!

2009-05-17T14:53:00.003-04:00

Here is a sneak peak from the wedding this weekend. The rain looked like it was going to ruin the entire day, but it cleared for a few hours in the afternoon leaving us a perfect opportunity for some fabulessness... or should I say fierceness? These guys got the blue-steel look down, as you'll see when I post the rest!

distractions, ugh!

2009-05-15T20:18:00.001-04:00

In the midst of my very honorable efforts to work on Tuesday's session, I was highly distracted by Sting's new tank. I bought the vase almost two weeks ago, but it's taken me this long for my vision to become complete. Unfortunately for the lovely little plant I chose, the tops stick out of the water and are consequently parched. Gasping for ~~air~~ water.

I think he likes the new look. I like it way better than before. I also am developing the habit of photographing him in almost total darkness... hey, it is what it is. what can i say?

In actual, more important, news that you actually care about, I will be shooting my second err third (counting my very first 4 years ago) wedding tomorrow. It's supposed to rain the entire day. But hey, if you remember correctly, I have experience with that. It's gonna be great no matter what :)

now, on to the star of this post. and his antics*. he wishes for me to caption these as follows.

whatchoo lookin at?

my name shall no longer be Sting, you may call me Swimby (ps I did not approve this name change)

a shadow lurking among the forestry, watching you as you sleep.

*yes, I am aware that i sound like a completely crazy ~~cat~~ fish lady. it happens.

get out your calendar - I'm coming to Maryland!

2009-05-08T11:59:00.002-04:00

Emily's slideshow

2009-05-03T22:38:00.001-04:00

my new favorite thing to do...

Emily (senior pics, rochester, NY)

2009-04-27T21:17:00.003-04:00

my name is: emily

my school is: homeschool

my graduation date is: May 22

the last thing i ate was: an apple

my dream job is: singer/songwriter

if I had $1,000 i would buy: a junky old car (hey, if it runs who cares what it looks like?)

my favorite thing in my closet: purple halter top

my favorite pastime: writing songs and singing whatever comes into my head

i have never… seen heaven

my favorite magazine: Brio

my favorite place to shop:any thrift store (they're the best!)

my favorite high school moment: don't have one. highschool's been fairly static for me, never a really bad moment.

i love amanda slakes photography because: the photographer's waayyyy cool and completely talented!

Stacie and Jared's wedding (rochester wedding photographer)

2009-04-07T20:17:00.006-04:00

March 23rd.

One of the most beautiful days we've had all spring.

I drove out to the church to assess the lighting situation and was more than pleasantly surprised with the beautiful light streaming in the stained glass windows. It was perfection. All that was left to do was hope that this light would repeat itself on the wedding day.

Fast forward 12 days to Saturday, April 4th. In Rochester, NY there is always that uncertainty... especially when we've had such unseasonable temperatures and beautifully sunny days.

The entire day was a mixture of freezing rain/slush/more freezing rain. Our status as upstate NYorkers has been officially confirmed!

But there were no tears shed. Well, except for happy ones. I saw a few of those slip out throughout the day :) The day went on, and what a beautiful wedding it turned out to be.

This girl was sooooo happy :D smiling all day long! Can you blame her? ;)

This one cracks me up. The little ring bearer was pulling a red wagon down the aisle with the two baby flower girls in it and his mom was luring him down with a sucker :D

The kiss! eep! I love it :D

One of the baby flower girls :)

a little taste

2009-04-05T12:40:00.003-04:00

of the wedding this weekend :)

More to come later on...

Stacie and Jared (Rochester engagement and wedding photographer)

2009-03-07T18:39:00.002-05:00

What I didn't mention in my last post, was that I took those particular pictures about the first week in January... oops!

And, in all that time, I hadn't done any new shoots. But that all changed Sunday.

A few weeks ago, Stacie contacted me about doing her wedding photography. And as we talked about what she would like in her wedding package, it was clear that she would like engagement pictures as well! Since the wedding is April 4, we wanted to do these asap!

Just as I took this picture, i remember saying that my favorite pictures were of people laughing... and there ya go! I love it :)

These two have had the amazing opportunity to buy a house just weeks before their wedding. What an awesome house it is too! A TON of property and just beautiful... i must admit being a bit jealous :)

Their backyard was super-cool. Lots of open space but then further back, some woods and brush. So, amongst the briars and rogue weeds attempting to entangle any who stepped its path, this shot was found.

The shoes (or should i say boots!) shot... a classic... at least in my book :)

After taking some at their house, we drove about 5 minutes to their farm. Jared's family owns a quite large farm and these were taken on one of the roads leading out.

Since I saw this shot done by my good friend Rachel over at Savor Photography I've been keeping my eyes wide open waiting for an opportunity... and there it was. Thanks for the idea!

I can't wait for the wedding... as far as i understand, we'll be coming back to the farm for some post-wedding pictures as well... although, as I think about it, it will be kinda late... we'll have to see about that. But can you see it? Less mud, more dress, and a tractor! Ok, maybe if you're a city-girl, you won't like that... but out here! That's what it's all about :D

The last shot. And he thinks the barn needs to be painted... that's ok, it's pretty much awesome :)

I hope you guys just love your engagement pictures. I am so happy to have been able to do them and seriously can't wait for the wedding! It's going to be amazing!

Meet the Hubs

2009-03-03T16:44:00.007-05:00

This may be entirely excessive, but as I tried to narrow down my favorite shots from this particular shoot, I had the hardest time. Therefore, I didn't really narrow... i sorta just picked em all :) and there were in fact actually more favorites (if you can imagine such a thing) but these were the favorite favorites.

My troubles in deciding which i liked best may have had something to do with this particular family. Seriously some of the nicest and down-to-earth people I've ever met. I am so glad to be able to call Andrea and Daniel my friends now and am so honored to have been able to do this shoot with them... even if all involved parties were not exactly... well, happy about it ;)

I arrived at the beautifully enormous house they stayed in over Christmas while here visiting family early afternoon and was greeted by their two oldest children, Eve and Judah. although at first hesitant to talk to me, within minutes they were treating me like someone who'd been around for years.

We started with the whole family pics first in the hopes that we could get something good before there was a meltdown you know how that goes :)

I snapped and snapped and snapped some more. And then as I poured over these pictures, I decided that a real family picture just wouldn't be, well, real without at least one cheesy smile and some bow throwing, wouldn't you agree?

my, oh my, will ya look at those eyes?

I just love this set. I got quite out of control with how many pictures I actually took here, as if I'm not out of control enough!

Daniel and Andrea are so freakin cute together... and they probably know it :) But seriously, I love taking pictures of people who love eachother. It's just so easy!

I am pretty much in love with the eyeshadow she was wearing so well that day. I want it, i need it, i must have it! But if i can't, then this picture will suffice... or one of the others i took like this :)

I'd like to pause for a moment and go back to what I said earlier about family pictures being... real. How much more real does it get than this people? Seriously :)

We had a tired girl on our hands as we trekked back in the house. We took a short break for some lunch and then attempted to get some individuals before everyone melted into a puddle...

I have 3 words for you Andrea and Daniel...

Lock.

Her.

Up!

This girl is not only beautiful, but so precious. She uses words like fancy :) and that makes me smile. Before I could take her picture, it was very important that her dress was just right, she had the right jewelry on, and her lip gloss was applied properly. So stinking cute, almost too much to handle... but not quite :)

What a stitch this one was! Judah is right on par with 2 year old craziness... the perfect mix of sweet and boy.

just look at the mischief in him... it's written all over his face!

Little Eliza was my toughest critic. I had a hard time with her! I pretty much couldn't handle that even she had her jewelry on :) Just barely 1 and already rockin her style

speaking of style, how bout the birthday look? I swear, whenever a mom asks me what they should dress their baby in, I secretly think everytime: a diaper. That's it :) It's only ok to be nudey in pictures once in your life!

After the kids went to take a nap, Andrea, Daniel and I went back outside to get some more of just the two of them.

This picture right here has been deemed my favorite from that day. I will do this picture over and over and over LOL much like the shoes picture on my website. If you haven't seen it, don't worry, you'll see variations of it from almost every couple shoot I do forevermore ;)

I actually almost entered this in the Rochester Addys, but decided not to as i just don't have the fundage for such an expenditure at this time. ugh

This shot was taken on my tiptoes holding the camera as far above my head as I could. I've done this many times and almost fallen over a few ;) falling in snow is not fun... so luckily i didn't this time lol

The last couple before we were done. This came close to earning the title of my favorite shot from the shoot, but it has placed a close second. Again with the eyeshadow! It's rock-out amazing!

Talkin about rock-out amazing, I can't publish this post without mentioning what an amazing photographer Andrea is herself. Go check out her blog at Sgt and Mrs Hub and be in awe of her talent as I still am. Seriously.

Well, 26 pictures later, did you make it through? Was it worth it? Oh goodness, I hope so ;)

I have an engagement session tbd very soon. I'm about half way through it right now. And guess what is so special about said engagement session? it's the preamble to my very first wedding as a real photographer! I'm so very excited... but soooo nervous at the same time :)

all in the family

2009-01-23T20:37:00.002-05:00

I have been waiting what seems like forever to share these pictures!

I'm sure you will be able to tell that these are from the summer, since my location is currently under a foot of snow...

Every summer, for the last 4 years, one of my brother's 3 kids have come to visit for a week by themselves. Well, last year (2007) marked one year so far for each kid, so 2008 all 3 of them stayed with us.

I have wanted to take these chillens out for years. And I do mean years. I have wanted to get my camera on them for so long and am soooo happy to have finally done so! Trust me, this will be happening again. I'm sure they thought this was going to be tortuous, however, it was quite fun... and they tried really hard, but there was no mistaking the actual laughing and fun they were indeed caught having :)

Here they are! Standing here in order is Raelynn, Robbie and Nick. Today is Robbie and Raelynn's birthday! They are 13. I can't believe it (and in case you didn't figure it out, by the whole today is their birthday, they are indeed twins :) Nick's birthday is in one week on the 31st and he shares that with my mom. We love birthdays around here... so we all try extra hard to make sure we're born on a good day :)

In order to get one good shot of them all running I probably had to take 75 pictures. No kidding. Now there's something worth remembering! I do NOT take perfect pictures every time. I just take a million pictures :)

I think this picture took on a real mid-twentieth century look when I rendered it in black and white. The houses in the background are such cool beach houses! You'd never guess you could find that in good old Rochester

They all thought it would be cute to do a play on "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" because there was 3 of them. I really liked it :)

That particular day, the water was very rough and in fact, the county closed the beach. Meaning, we could still be on the beach part, but not go in the water. Oops. We found that out the wrong way lol! But they still climbed all over the pier and it ended up being a really cool set up

Robbie

Raelynn

Nick

This is one of my favorite shots from the whole shoot. I had a lot of favorites honestly, but this one strikes me each time i look at it...

But this one is my favorite favorite :) I just wish we could see Nick!

I am so happy to finally have these pictures, and even more happy to share them! Especially with my brother and sis-in-law. I hope to be able to do it again next summer. I know for sure though that I am going to be taking pictures with my other brother's family of 6. That will be an adventure for sure, and I can't wait!

a little about color

2009-01-21T10:23:00.002-05:00

A couple posts back when I announced that I was going to give this blog a new look, I mentioned that I wanted to use some pretty outrageous colors... possibly some funktastic complimentary colors...

But, it just didn't work. yet another dimension to my out of control crazy personality. I wanted lots of color, but then I realized that since I am indeed a color junkie my pictures could speak for themselves. Instead, I decided to go with a more neutral look that will compliment the pictures. What a concept.

Anyways, these colors will soon also be reflected on the website, and I will surely let you know when that is updated. If I've taken your pictures this past year, you can be sure to find yourself on at least one of these! So if you don't see yourself here, you're probably on the site :) So go check it out.

And i need a picture to make this post more interesting... what to pick what to pick.

my mom took this last year for one of american mum's wordless wednesday with a twist contests. i think it's hilarious... and since chocolate cake sounds really good right now, i think the picture is appropriate... yah. I know, I'm out of control :)

A grand adventure about to begin...

2009-01-20T14:56:00.005-05:00

The journey to motherhood...

There is a true beauty that is within all women who are expecting...

I wanted more maternity images to add to my portfolio, which is how I met Tammy... the mom -to-be of the adorable little Raiden you will see in this post in just a second.

I do in fact attribute much of my decision to give photography a "go" as it were to the special lady who insisted I do my first maternity shoot, which can be seen here.

Before I did this pictures with Tammy, I had only done one other maternity session, and I just love them. These pictures are actually pretty old as I took them in the beginning of November just after I had bought my strobes. Plus, I was still using the Rebel at that time! So much has changed in just a couple short months!

I love learning my way through photography... and my very favorite part is that no one person or session is ever the same. I may do some of the same things with people as a way to get started, but honestly, I have found that once we get comfortable with each other, the session unfolds... and inevitably, I will get one or two images from each session that I just look at and go "wow, where in the world did that idea come from?"

I thought the little Santa hat was appropriate although this little guy was born at least a month before Christmas :)

I love baby feet... and hands... and noses... and hair... oh heck, I just love babies!

I find this picture hilarious because I think it looks like a baby on a gong lol! Is gong even a word? You know what I'm talking about?

Believe it or not, this baby was not happy to have his pictures taken... and he was awake and crying in this picture! Like i said in my post yesterday, the key to taking good newborn shots is patience... I am willing to hold out and wait if you are :) So let's just sit around while baby finishes up eating... and drifts off to sleep... once they're asleep, we're golden! That is the KEY!

I'd really like to get better at taking this shot... at least ones like it. I just love parent/baby pictures... there will be more to come as I keep doing this :)

Again with the feet. I saved this image for last because it is only rivaled by one other shot (in this category) that I have ever taken. I just love this one. All the details and the little lines...

Oh, and I wanted to mention this, to all the other photographers that may be reading this blog... the first pictures of mama were taken with the rebel and my tamron 17-50 f/2.8 lens, but the baby was shot with my new 5D and the canon 50 f/1.8. I love the clarity of the 50mm lens, but I can't wait to do a shoot with my newest addition the canon 28-70 f/2.8... I have the day off tomorrow, so I'm planning to go out and capture some of the beautiful snow and ice we have around here right now :)

I'm going to try and enjoy this weather... lol

Kate Jacqueline

2009-01-19T15:11:00.002-05:00

All this poor little baby wanted to do was stay warm... act cute... and look around...

But we wouldn't let her. We said, no baby, you must take cute nakey shots and go to sleep!

8 day olds, however, cannot be reasoned with.

She did quite well though, for being on her own terms... and I don't blame her... if someone had tried taking pictures of me when I was that little, i probably would have reacted the same way :)

I've learned a lot about the whole newborn picture taking thing the last couple months... It's hard! You never know how a baby will react to what... I'll keep trying though, for sure :)

Just know, if you ever are thinking about hiring me for your newborn pictures that I am a very patient person when it comes to this. Ya gotta be! If i come over to do pictures with you, and it's taking what seems like forever, I don't care! it comes with the territory. I will take as long as I need to, to get the right shot. So don't worry that you're inconveniencing me... ever. I love my job and I want to share it with you.

Sarah Grace

2009-01-16T14:24:00.002-05:00

In my short photography career, I have only had the opportunity to photograph 4 newborns. When I first started doing this, I was sure that I wanted to focus my efforts towards infants and babies... however, it's a lot harder than I thought!

This is baby Sarah Grace. She was only a few days old at the time these pictures were taken... and up until I arrived, she had never stayed awake long enough to eat enough to make her fall back asleep.

Apparently less than one week olds are smarter than we may think ;) She was awake most of the time we shot here, with her eyes opening and closing as she was fighting very hard to stay awake for her shoot. Her one little eye would stay just a hair open deeming her the nickname "popeye."

However, these turned out to be my favorite newborn shots to date. Mom has amazing taste and was totally jiving with any and all ideas I threw out there. This waffle weave duvet cover sustained more than its fair share of the consequences of leaving a naked baby on it!

I have literally been itching to get these little headbands on a baby as small as Sarah.

Here she is with her three older siblings. Momma wanted a picture with the baby and then the other kids hands all around her... I just love it :)

The last in the series... because she just could do no more... "Gosh, could I please just go to sleep now?!"

What a great family this is, and I so hope that I have the opportunity to photograph all of them together this summer. ohhhh that is something i cannot wait for! :)

a new look

2009-01-12T18:57:00.004-05:00

I am currently in the process of redoing this blog... so if you are visiting and things look a little "askew" please do not mind the mess! I am not talented enough to do it all at once and make it pretty right away :) nor do i have the time! So I'm facing the facts and letting you know that it is going to look a little crazy, but whatev! I'm a little crazy... so i guess that's ok

Also, I might add, that I am trying to come up with a good color scheme... I like the black and all, but it's getting kinda boring for me... this is what I really like... I'm not sure if the world can handle my extremeness... i'll try to break you in slowly ;)

so after saying all that, if you have some color schemes that you think go well together, I would love to hear. I'm a fan of complimentary colors that aren't your typical red and green, blue and orange deal. like shades and hues of the color wheel, the ones people don't think of right away. but whatev, let me know if you have any suggestions! thanks!

Celebrating the New Year

2008-12-31T12:28:00.003-05:00

These two cuties (seen a couple other times already on my blog!) were preemies. So by the time they were finally allowed to go home, they still weren't allowed out of the house for something like a month. When things began to settle down, there really wasn't time for doing things like pictures and birth announcements etc! So I decided to make up a New Years/birth announcement card for them.

I cannot take the credit for the actual design. It was half my mom's idea, half something i found online :) but hey! I just love it.

Erin has entered the boys and one of my photos into the Babies of 2008 in Rochester. Go here to check it out and while you're there vote for them! I would appreciate it and so would Erin, i'm sure :)

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T22:52:00.003-05:00

Words cannot express how blown away I have been this year. I give all the glory to God for allowing me to dive into my love for photography with such success and I want to extend my extreme thankfulness to all the people who have given me the opportunity to make this dream a reality.

Thank you for pushing me when I didn't want to.

Thank you for believing in me when I said I wasn't good enough.

Thank you for being my friends even though i'm taking your money... ha! just kidding!

(mad props to Alicia for taking this picture :)

the best one yet

2008-12-24T14:48:00.003-05:00

I mentioned last post that I was going to be putting Alicia's card up here. Originally, this was going to be a New Year's card... since it was too late for a Christmas card... however, that turned into a Valentine's day card... which ultimately resulted in this.

A personal ad. if you want to know more... phone number, stats, etc just let me know. HAHAHA!

Really, do I need to say more?

I love them!

2008-12-24T11:13:00.002-05:00

Well, I missed a day yesterday... oops! but seriously, this is the only real Christmas card I have left. the next one i'm posting was supposed to be real... but it was late, we were tired... well, you'll see later on.

Aww! Look how stinking cute they are! Once again, Melissa rocks my socks. We were sitting together after mini-shoots a week and a half ago and she was like let's make a Christmas card... so we did!

It took all of about 20 minutes, record time. Because she was right there and we picked everything together. That's the way I'd like to do it with everyone!

I will be posting one more today... it's pretty much out of control

2 more days!

2008-12-22T22:06:00.004-05:00

This particular card (as well as the one I will post tomorrow) were totally last minute ones. It worked out perfectly, and they came just in time to get out so they would arrive in mailboxes the week of Christmas!

Recently, I acquired a ton of vector art. I have been having more fun with it than I ever imagined. I don't even know how i survived without it before! The swirlies on this card is some of it. I love finding new things like this!

Flanders in da house!

2008-12-21T15:40:00.002-05:00

I am laughing my head off as I do this post... becauuuuse

Tim's actual suggestion and desire for the card went like this.

Picture it: Same picture as shown here, but the wording changed to say, "merry Christmas... from the Flanders family (by faith)"

And then, 3 or 4 shadows lined up next to him here.

He is completely OUT OF CONTROL.

Anyways, good times, I like the way it ended up and since it was all his design essentially, he liked it too... good thing. HA!

Only 4 more days to go...

all wrapped up

2008-12-20T23:55:00.003-05:00

Not like I think anyone really cares, but it's currently 11:56 and this WILL be being posted TODAY! All the way home I was thinking "oh no! what if i miss it and end up posting 2 in one day again?"

Like i said, I'm sure you care ;)

Anyways, only 5 more days til Christmas! Can you believe it? This is obviously Robb, Anna and Danielle's Christmas card hehe

Anna said to me this week after I gave them to her, "I should have had a kid a long time ago. Sending out Christmas cards has never been this easy." Hilarious I tell ya :)

I hope you all are cozied in during this crazy snow weather we're getting here in the ROC. I'm personally looking forward to my nice comfy bed right about now... speaking of which...

I'm out!

Smile!

2008-12-19T16:48:00.002-05:00

Do you remember Joshua? and his mommy and daddy too of course :)

I'm very pleased with this one, it really didn't help that my subject matter was so adorable and good at posing! All three of them!

I'm going to keep it brief since I have a lot of work to do for upcoming family arrivals (ahem, cleaning etc) but I would like to direct your attention to the followers list I added to my blog yesterday. Please visit and click follow so I know who's stopping by!

And as the card says, I sincerely hope that this season is bringing you lots of reasons to smile :) I am, that's for sure!

because she's the mom, that's why!

2008-12-18T10:02:00.002-05:00

These lovely people are my mommy and daddy. I still have yet to post their session, but that may be indicative of the fact that the cards were ordered before the actual pictures :)

This card was one of my biggest challenges as far as "making it work." I had an original design so close to this one, but not. if you know what I mean :) But this was the end result and I couldn't be happier, and I know for a fact that my mom couldn't be happier either... and that's what really matters :)

one more week...

2008-12-17T22:03:00.002-05:00

At this time next week, the presents ~~will be~~ should be wrapped and under the tree... and I will be sitting in the very spot (hopefully) watching some sort of Christmas movie.

Anyways, this is my way of playing catch up since I miscalculated how many days were actually left til Christmas...

So i'm going to count the nighttime as an "extra day" and post this card also.

Out of all the cards I made, this one is my favorite. When i got it in print, it was almost 3D. I pretty much love everything about it. Instead of giving it to them to hand out, I shoulda just kept em and been all like, yah, that's my family. Oh, you're wondering which one I am? pshh, who cares right! haha

Anyways, I like how she chose to make this card more neutral for the entire year. While it's still obviously a wintery feel, she wanted to be able to hand it out all year long. And this was a really great compromise so that it could be used both ways.

So, that leaves us with 7 days and 7 cards. Oh this is great... i'll post another one "tomorrow" ;)

The Christmas card countdown!

2008-12-17T08:14:00.003-05:00

Like i mentioned in the last post, I was thinking, oh yah, i'll just start posting Christmas cards in a couple days...

Cuz like, I wanna have it worked out so I can do one a day for 9 days before Christmas... yah, maybe I should get on that in like a couple days.

Wow. Wake up sista! It's already EIGHT days from Christmas! holy cow!

So, let it begin. I already shared with you the very first promotional Christmas card that I made in this post, but now it's time to start at the beginning of the mayhem that ensued shortly thereafter. I had NO idea how many people would take me up on doing Christmas cards this year... and now that the season is over, I am totally thinking about adding a cards/announcements aspect to my business.

This was my first request for a card from Chelle over at Creative Momma and I just LOVE it! We played around with a couple ideas before finally settling on this as the final creation.

How cute is the picture she sent me to use too!

Well, if you're not ready for Christmas by now, you better get on board! Cuz it's coming, and the cards will be too :) Stay tuned for more tomorrow... and the next day... and the next day... ok, you get the point LOL

the very first mini-session (rochester family and children photographer)

2008-12-15T15:48:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was the last day to get stuff in to be on-time for Christmas and after it was over, I was so ready to take a break from staring at this screen constantly! I thought it would be really nice to take a whole day off from the lappie... but apparently I didn't need as much of a break as I originally thought :) This is in fact what I love to do! So, I'm back, and I felt it was only fair to share some more pictures.

This is the first mini-session i did probably about 4 weeks back now. It took just under an hour to get all 4 of these kids captured. They were all very good... except the 2 year old. But honestly, would you expect anything less of a 2 year old! I sure don't ;) Make me work for my money that's what I say LOL!

I am growing a certain affinity for sister pictures. I have ideas floating in my head for a sister's project, I just have to figure out how it all fits together. This particular picture is one of those that i saw so far ahead of when I actually clicked the shutter... that doesn't happen all the time. But when it does, it's nothing short of amazing. The last picture in this post is one that I will love forever and always... it's one of those pictures you miss in between everything else that is going on :)

I seriously don't remember how many I shot of the TWO OF THEM before I got this one! I'm not kidding when I say I think it was about 60. And this was the LAST one I took. Because when I got it, I got it haha! No need to drag it out any longer :)

This is Abigail... so sweet :) I don't know her very well but I have a feeling she has an artistic bent. She was very excited to do these pictures, and that's when I have the most fun taking them. It's always so much better when they want their pictures taken, am i right ;)

Here's Wesley. What a DOLL! I can say that because I'm fairly sure he won't find out ;)

This kind of picture is honestly one of my favorites :) just sooo cute! Lila was such a ham in front of the camera and it's so cute that this pic turned out because it really shows the silliness that she exhibited most of the shoot. that's the best!

And then there was "the 2 year old" haha! he is totally adorable, but he wanted nothing to do with me, my camera or anything picture related. Like i said before with the picture of the two boys together, this was another "shootasmanyasyoucanbeforeherunsaway!" shots LOL!

This picture is going in one of my all-time favorites. I have a lot of favorites, but there are only a few that make it to the favorite favorite list... how cheesy am i?

Anyways, there's only one more mini-shoot to post before I'm caught up with them... then I'm going to move into the 9 (yes that's right 9!) days of Christmas cards :) oh SNAP! that means I need to start TODAY!!! I'm SO excited!!! AHHH! Christmas is coming!

It's all Melissa's fault

2008-12-12T20:07:00.000-05:00

In all my attempts to post once a day for as long as possible, I unfortunately do not have time to upload any pictures today! However, comma, I have been in Buffalo with Melissa, who is an awesome photog and she shot a couple mini-sessions of her own! Go check out her work on her photo blog.

I have a lot of stuff to post, but it will have to wait...

And I also decided that since I designed 7 Christmas cards this Christmas season (possibly 8!) so starting next Thursday (or Wednesday) I will be posting a Christmas card a day! Woohoo! Let the countdown begin! Christmas is soooo coming! and I still need to do shopping... oops.

three brothers are we... (rochester family photographer)

2008-12-12T15:44:00.004-05:00

Remember this guy? Well, their mom had wanted to do pictures of the 3 boys even before we planned doing Bryan's senior pics.

I'm so glad we got this done! It was so hard for me... It's not my forte to do guys in general. so you can imagine that it was hard for me to make sure I was rising to the challenge. This was the second session I got to use the new camera for and I had played with the custom settings a bit and forgot to change it back before I shot these. And man was I glad I didn't!

The color in this picture is a little more dramatic than the camera actually took, but as I clicked away and then viewed on the lcd I realized these pictures were going to be different than anything I had done before.

I love this shot. I love when dead things can be so beautiful, and the woods in the winter are such evidence of how that is possible.

We met up at Mendon Ponds to take these pics... remember this chimney? It was a long trek into the woods to get here and it was COLD. I had the luxury of actually being able to wear a jacket... and gloves... and a hat... in fact I had to crop my mitten out of quite a few pictures LOL! They were freezing however, and although I tried to get these done as quickly as possible, it still took about 45 minutes.

Oh, and I know that it's one of those unspoken photographer rules, but you're not supposed to tell people when you screw up, but I think this one is funny. So I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The above picture was taken after we had come off the bird trail; for which we had brought a gallon size ziploc bag filled with dry bread. I forgot to move the bag out of the way before I took this set... and so when I downloaded these you can imagine how surprised I was to see that dumb bag RIGHT in the middle of the picture!

If you can figure out where it was (because I obviously got rid of it) I'll give you a prize. hmmm... ok, well maybe a high five LOL! What would I give out as a prize if I WERE going to give one? Any ideas?

While taking this shot, there were chickadees flying around everywhere! I only had to take this picture oh about 20 times before I got all three of them looking. Their faces and heads and bodies were all staying the same, but their eyes were moving all over the place. It was pretty funny scrolling through :)

Since Bryan had all his individuals when we did sr pics, I wanted to get a couple of the other two while we were out this time. I don't know what it was about this picture, maybe the balance of color or what, but I just love it.

And look at Bryce's ears, it was seriously freezing! I felt so bad!

I totally took this after I promised them we were DONE and I wouldn't take anymore... but we were walking back down the path and I saw this shot in my mind... it had to be done. I did it with all three of them alternating but I liked this one best :)

One of these days, I swear I'll get this shot right. This one isn't bad, but it could be better... eh, live and learn! I just love doing this shot though because it's so much fun! And everyone always does it differently

How's this for a classic shot? We were almost done and they reminded me to take this... I'm so glad they did because it ended up being a favorite :)

Well that's it for now. I have a bunch more to get up! I have been trying to post one a day, and I know i missed yesterday, but hey. What's a girl to do? I ended up making gingerbread houses most of today so I'm honestly shocked that I have time to do this right now. I got a cool shot of two of that fiasco, so I'll post something, but you'll be able to read the whole story over at my other blog :)

it was madness

2008-12-10T08:37:00.004-05:00

mini shoot madness I like to call it. This pic was taken between shoots by my super photographer friend Melissa. But she's not my friend just because she's a photog... it's pretty much because she rocks!

Head on over to my personal blog notsoextraordinary to take a look at the craziness that we are together :)

thing 1 and thing 2 (rochester baby/twins photographer)

2008-12-09T11:14:00.002-05:00

That's right! Here they are... the twins! I was sooooo excited to shoot these two little guys, and they so lived up to my expectations. I couldn't have asked for better little models!

I am so behind in everything... except my pictures :) And that can't be bad right?

This whole only posting once a day is killing me, although it's really good for me at the same time... cuz I write better in small doses :)

So, without further adieu, here are Marcus and Maddox.

First shot. This is when I went from thinking it would go good to KNOWING it would go tood :D

Can anyone say synchronized crawling?

If i ever have twins... they will totally have onesies like this. Seriously, it just kills me... cuteness stinking overload!

While they were laying next to eachother like this, they kept holding hands. It was so precious. Twins have such a special bond... It's really cool to see. So i wanted to capture a piece of that...

It was just about all I could do to NOT steal these hats! They are too adorable. This shot was preceeded by my entrance into the world of naked babies peeing while we take pictures! It happened 3 times last week, all different babies of course

Aaaand, you've seen this one before... but i just LOVE his little lip. I believe that one is Marcus... i may be wrong though! Anyways, what a joy these little guys were to work with... not to mention mom and dad. They are awesome. Thank you so much for doing this with me!

I'll be reworking the website probably about January, and these pictures are sure to make it on there. Along with a lot of others, but I will let you all know when it's updated. I'm also thinking about changing the colors/feel. I like the black and blue/green more traditional feel... but honestly i'm getting a little sick of it! That's me for ya. I always like change. If you have any feedback i'd be interested to hear what you think I should do with it. Comment and let me know :)

more storyboards

2008-12-08T11:33:00.004-05:00

I am so loving these storyboards! I love making them! It's kinda like digital scrapbooking... and it satisfies my need for order LOL! I hate getting all the scrapbooking stuff out and then having to clean it up... plus it's a huge time committment. If i had a room completely dedicated to scrapbooking... maybe. But for now, i'm likin that when i shut my computer, the mess goes away. And when I get one of these in the mail back from the lab, I nearly die at how awesome it looks in print :)

Well, remember santa baby? Ok, I guess he's more of a snow baby... but here's what his mom and I came up with together :)

He's so cute!

i'm melting... (rochester family photographer)

2008-12-06T00:26:00.002-05:00

Seriously. This little guy has melted my heart. If/When I ever have children, I can only hope and pray that they could be a beautiful and happy as Josh.

From the second I met him, he was nothing but smiles and happiness!

I've taken an awful lot of family pictures... especially ones with a momma and daddy and a baby about this age... let me tell you, these guys were perfect! I can say without any hesitation that this was the easiest family picture I've ever taken :) Amazing.

I just love this :)

It's Santa!

I am thoroughly in love with the hats I've found. You will most definitely be seeing them over and over again... they're just too darn cute. Shout out to the Children's Place for selling adorable stuff at NON ihavetocutoffmyrightarmtoaffordthis prices!

Haha I think this one looks like he's on a toboggan about to fly over a jump LOL!

I can't handle how cute baby feet are...

Thank you Ben and Jamie for finding me and letting me help create these memories for you!

crazy kid! (rochester children's photographer)

2008-12-04T15:41:00.002-05:00

Woohoo for 2 posts in one day! I actually have enough stuff to blog like 6 times today, but I'm gonna be a brat and only blog one session a day.

Like I said in my previous post, the mini-sessions were a huge success! These are pictures of a little girl that I watch once a week or so. She's a lot of fun, but boy does she have a mind of her own! Most of the pictures I took of her were in motion, thank God for fast shutter speeds and good light!

This picture cracks me up. We thought she had the ornament in her mouth, but turned out it was just stuck to her face and she was totally confused as to how it got there and why. This is a classic Danielle face, the one where you know she's just in her element and loving it!

Like i said, she never stops moving. I probably shot about 50 of her just dancing... and literally pulled 3 LOL! But seriously, so cute!

I have had these sunflowers for at least 3 years... I'm thinking it's actually been more like 4. And they have stayed in their protective wrapping that whole time. I've really never had a use for them, although i HAD to have them way back when. They were beautiful, they look amazingly real and they were WAY on sale. I think the 4 of them were somewhere around $50 retail but I ended up getting them for like $15 or something ridiculous like that.

This is bar none my fave of the session. So sweet...

Thank you Rob and Anna for believing in me and allowing me to capture a moment in time for your family :) I'm so blessed to have you in my life.

too much to handle!

2008-12-04T11:43:00.004-05:00

Mini shoots last week went FABULOUSLY. I had a blast and a half... but by the end of the day, phew, man i was ready to be done.

It was a lot of work, Melissa and I shot cumulatively 4 babies, 1 toddler and 3 adults in just about 6 hours. Incredible.

I am so excited to share all the hard work and gorgeous models here... but I'm still pumping them out so their rightful owners see them all first! But I couldn't resist these two... they had to go up. So Erin, if you see this, I hope you're ready for cuteness overload. Your boys are beautiful and I am so thankful I got to capture them in all their baby sweetness :)

More to come later! I only have one session left to edit before I shoot not one but TWO newborns tonight and tomorrow morning... oh i can't wait for that...

santa baby (rochester baby photographer)

2008-11-22T13:26:00.003-05:00

ohmygoodness this little one is toomuchtohandle...

and my use of words typed together are outofcontrol.

I had the privilege of taking care of Jonah for about 2 months for a couple days a week. He is one of the most laid back babies evah. Until you try to make him take a nap...

I bought this plate last week with my inspiration coming from Tasha over at Homeshade Photography. I brought it along with me not knowing if I would really be able to use it since he's a kinda wobbly sitter... but turns out, it we easier for him to sit on the plate than on the floor! I think it's cuz he had something to hold onto :)

I knew this shoot would be amazing from the time we started talking about it... Jonah is so stinking cute and he is an excellent poser, I think ;)

I've seen so many pictures with cute letter blocks and i finally got to do one myself! He was sooo distracted when we put them there! I think it looks really cute and you can totally tell it was supposed to say snow ;)

i'm sooooo glad I had my new camera for it too! I'm telling you what, the 5D is amazing. I feel like my photography has gone to a new level because of it. Plus I get to spend phenominally less time doing post editing... because the camera takes them so great to begin with!

Thank you guys for letting me capture your amazing baby! This is literally the fastest turnaround I've ever done on pictures :) hopefully, i'll start making this a habit...

at the pumpkin patch (Rochester family photographer)

2008-11-21T22:43:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I seriously did this shoot like over a month ago... but there's this little thing called a LIFE and a JOB that have been getting in the way of actually finishing it up!

Bee is very talented in the graphic design area, and while I try my hand at it in some arenas, there are some things I just don't touch. So when I decided I wanted a brochure for my business I knew she was the one to ask.

So we worked out a little traderoo. although, she's so sweet, she probably would have just done the brochure for me... but I wanted to give her something in return.

So we planned this all out. I found this really great pumpkin patch and was soo excited about the location, but when we got there... not gonna lie, little Jordyn wasn't so into it!

She was all but ignoring me and I was slightly freaking out on the inside (hey y'all, i'm just bein real!) So I started shooting like crazy just hoping that she would give me some good stuff... and turns out she did.

Don't they make the super cutest family :) And you can't see, but there's a baby hiding in this picture too *grin*

There is a whole sequence of these pictures, but this is the last and (in my opinion) the cutest!

Thank you guys so much for thrilling me with your willingness to do these pictures. I had a lot of fun and I hope you did too!

a family of 9 and 5 hours later... (Rochester family photographer)

2008-11-21T11:23:00.002-05:00

This was by far the largest family I have photographed. Nine in all! and the 5 hours of which I speak only accounts for the time I spent taking the pictures!

I won't even go into how many more hours it took to narrow them down... it's daunting I tell you. And that's the main reason I haven't updated in so long!

You may remember this face from a couple posts back, and now you can take a look at the beautiful rest of the fam :)

One of my favorite things when getting ready to take pictures is when my clients have an idea in mind, or a specific place to go. This was Sherrie's find and I am so glad she found it! Seriously, how cool is this fireplace? I fear, this may not be the last time you see it ;)

My personal favorite style of photography is close-ups. I've probably mentioned that before, and I'm sure I will again... but I'm always wanting to get right up in there and take a face shot.

And awesomely enough, that's Sherrie's favorite style as well :) So you can guess how much fun I had with this!

The one thing I struggle with the most as a nanny is the idea of having my own kids one day. However, getting to know this family has done the opposite of what you would think about my desire for kids. The difference between seven kids versus two or three kids is HUGE! There is a need for personal responsibility when there are a lot of kids around. Their kids are responsible for themselves and eachother, and I found that so refreshing. It made me realize that kids are indeed their own person, and while they will always need guidance, I don't need to hover (like I end up doing most of the time!)

They are all so well-behaved and honestly, the idea of having a family of my own like this someday is really exciting :)

So here they are, in order from oldest to youngest...

Connor

Jordyn

Mckenna

Avery

Whitten

Chase

Justice

I saw this pose just before I did this shoot and was sooo excited to have two sisters to do it with! How beautiful are these girls and how amazing are their eyes? the contrasting colors are almost too much to handle! I'll definitely be doing this shot again, because I really do like it :)

I love the fact that this job is always pushing my past my comfort zone and forcing me to try new poses and shots. This family was perfect for doing this stuff, since having fun was the main thing that she wanted captured. It's not easy! Onward I forge, trying new things and after enough shots, I'll end up with one like this that makes me smile everytime i see it :)

Notice the baby's face here. All that little guy wanted to do was be on the ground with as much access to leaves and sticks as possible. Pick him up, he cries, set him down, he is in heaven :) If he could talk, I think he would be saying, "look ma! stick!"

I feel this shot becoming something I do often... I'll have to work on finding new and different creative ways to do it... and with stuff other than shoes. but I seriously loooove this :)

Besides the fact that I think they both look amazing in this picture, I also wanted to point out how incredible I think the light is. I have read other photogs blogs and found that many find the light just before dusk has an element of warming magic. It's absolutely beautiful and casts an unmistakeable glow.

Thank you Sherrie and James for choosing me to capture your family at this time. You and your family is a blessing to me and I can't tell you how honored I am to know you and have you in my life...

Christmas mini-sessions

2008-11-13T12:48:00.003-05:00

I've been brainstorming today while I sit here backing up my computer. Ugh.

I had a thought a couple weeks ago to do some mini-sessions but wasn't really sure how to do it. But I figured it out! And I hope you are as excited as I am!

Last night (my first night with the 5D!) I set up a mini studio in my dining room. It was really quite simple, but the pictures were turning out great! My mom was shooting, I was shooting... and neither of us were wearing make-up or trying to do anything special. We were just playing.

This is my 2nd favorite shot of the night, if you'd like to see the first, go here.

But it occurred to me, if it's this easy for me to take pics in my DINING ROOM why don't I have y'all over and help you make a FABULOUS Christmas present for your family :)

So here's the deal!

The mini-session (up to 4 people) will be $50 and include:
- the time and talent of the photographer at my home studio set-up
- 10 final images
- digital reproduction rights
- a single set of 4x5 permanent proofs

aaaaaaaaaaaaand!

***25% off cards and print order for any booked referrals!***

This offer is open to anyone in the area (or anyone who wants to travel to the area :)

I have 2 dates and 2 locations open for booking.

Saturday November 22 in Avon at my house

and

Saturday November 29 in Brighton at my friend Melissa's house

Please contact me asap if you would like to book for either of these dates. I already have one booking and I haven't even posted this yet!

contact@amandaslakesphotography.com

Christmastime is upon us!

2008-11-09T22:15:00.003-05:00

The Christmas season is quickly approaching! I have been in some serious denial about this fact. I am usually playing Christmas music by now... not sure what's going on with me this year!

Anyways, I am totally excited about pumping out pictures and Christmas cards and making cool new stuff. And I need your help!

That's right, I totally need your help... you see, I don't do this stuff for the money (ha!) I do it because it's so much fun! But I need YOU to want this stuff, otherwise I'm making fake Christmas cards to sit on my computer and take up space.

This is an example of a card that I just put together. I took this family's pictures over the summer, but I am more than happy to work on designing cards using any pictures. If you have pictures that you already like, I'd be more than happy to work one up for you!

Please email me at contact@amandaslakesphotography.com for information on pricing. Since I haven't done a whole lot of this, you'll be getting a really sweet deal ;)

storyboards and other such things

2008-11-09T21:47:00.003-05:00

I realized recently that I have cards and storyboards as options on my website, but I have no examples of them!

My amazing friend Melissa is getting married in May and I had the privilege of taking her engagement photos. She was happy, Jim was happy, I was happy :)

As is customary in recent years, we decided that a "save the date" card would be forthcoming, so I designed one and the final product turned out cooler than I could have hoped.

In real life, they are actually much smaller than you see on your screen :) I printed two on a 5x7 and then we bought big sheets of magnet with stickyness (i know how official and professional that word is, that's why I used it). We put the cards on the magnet and then cut them apart, and they are sooo very cool. It's obviously not an entirely original idea, but it still looks great!

Then, I made a storyboard earlier in the summer for a family shoot I did at the beach. When I pulled it out of the packaging in all of it's 11x14 hugeness, I was completely blown away. Really, it is so different to see prints in real life than to look at them on a computer screen.

After Melissa saw this storyboard, she knew right away that she wanted one for herself. So I worked this one up.

I know not everyone is into this kind of thing, but for those who are, I want to make sure that you know what's available to you from me. My storyboard prices start at $45 for an 8x10 or 11x14 print. I personally think that these look best as 11x14... they can of course be made smaller or larger, but that is my personal preference.

It's a good size, not too small, not too large... just right ;) haha, enough with the goldilocks, I'm off to get my next post ready about Christmas cards!

to all 2 of my readers :)

2008-11-03T15:15:00.002-05:00

I love you dearly. I do :)

I have a favor to ask of you though! I really really reeeeeeeaallllyyy want to get this blog out there into the blog'o'sphere.

If you already have me added into your reader, then THANKS!!! And if you haven't then would you pretty pretty please add me :)

I don't even know how I got all the readers I have on my notsoextraordinary blog... it just sorta happened!

Well that's about it, I have more pictures to put up this week. It's been such an amazing fall... and now that we're goin into winter I am more than apprehensive to see how this season pans out.

I am moving into the arena of indoor photography most recently. I have studio lights that I am bringing with me so that I can still do on-location stuff and am hoping to mainly do infant and maternity type pictures that way. Another idea I had was to do mini-sessions for Christmas cards.

I would probably set aside a day and schedule people to come to my house where I would set up a mini studio for the day... then take a family, or individual kid shots and fast-track them so that they could go out in time for Christmas. Would anyone be interested? haha is anyone reading this?

Just some thoughts, I might try to give some legs to that idea and ask around some past customers. Thanks for the add if you linked me :) I <3 bloggy love!

Sneak peek!

2008-11-02T15:20:00.004-05:00

Can you believe this gorgeous lady has 7 kids?!

Unreal!

Sherrie is one of the most beautiful people I know, inside AND out! She loves the Lord and is committed to Him in every area of her life.

I can't wait to get the rest of her family pics up here for you to see :) This is just a sneak peek at the entire session. I took them on Friday and only have worked on the ones of her so far as she's sending a brochure to the printer THIS week for her ministry. You can check out her website here, byGraceministries.org.

More pictures to come soon!

Alicia aka the grossest girl EVER (Rochester, NY portrait photographer)

2008-10-30T15:32:00.000-04:00

After doing pics up in the city with Traci, I was more than pumped to take my craziest and bestest friend up there.

Unfortunately for us, the light was low by the time we got up there. Here's a visual. Alicia in 3.5 inch heels running down Scio street.

We literally were running from place to place trying to get in enough pictures to make the hike up there worth it!

At first when I looked at this shot in the camera I was kinda thinking... yaaaaaah... i'm not sure about that one. But seriously, it came out so good! I LOVE the realness of it! it's so her!

It's funny, I've been learning not to delete as I go. Because often I have found that photos I think will be awful turn out really great! you can't trust a 2 inch LCD apparently :)

This shot turned out so great. I love the pose, the wall, what she's wearing... yah, I just love it.

Then this one is the same wall as before, I was just at a different angle. What was sooo hilarious though is that while I was trying to take this one, there was this guy walking down the street giving us this creepfest weirdo smile. I actually got a shot of him in the background turned around looking at us and smiling... I don't think it's THAT weird to be taking pictures on the street!

Can we just talk for a moment about the colors in this shot? I love, love, LOVE bright colors, and they just do amazing things in pictures!

My favorite kind of picture to take are close-ups. I just love face shots. In fact, I constantly am forcing myself to back up and take more in!

Tomorrow I have a session with a family of 9 and she has specifically requested face shots. I am stoked about this and I know I am going to be able to rock it!

We had to have one for the scrapbooks :) I don't even think we could gather together all the pictures alicia and I have over the last 5 years.

Speaking of the last 5 years, that reminds me of an amusing story... the one that led to these pictures in the first place.

Five years ago September 2003, Alicia and I were mere freshmen at EBI and were moving into our respective dorms. I remember walking two doors down and striking up a conversation with her whereupon I saw a picture that was taken at the studio I then currently worked at. So I commented on it and we began to talk about photos and photography.

We then moved back to my room where I showed her some of my work... and I believe it was at that point that i became labeled as "alicia's favorite photographer."

Fast forward to last wednesday. The day before these pictures were taken. Alicia decided it was time to tell me a secret she had been keeping for years.

Apparently, our friendship was her "investment." She basically figured if she shmoozed me enough and stayed friends with me long enough... eventually she would get free pictures from me.

The gist of the conversation was her informing me that she was, "cashing in on her 5 year investment." LOL!

too bad we're still friends. I guess her plan didn't work as well as she thought HAHAHA!

Traci aka Lola (Rochester NY portrait photographer)

2008-10-30T14:53:00.004-04:00

So I have known Traci literally for years. However, we only became friends about a year ago. We both belonged to the same community group that met weekly and were also taking a gym class at community college with the same teacher.

I seriously love this girl. I am super comfortable around her, so I asked if I could take her pictures just so that I could scout out cool new places and not feel under pressure.

We trekked up to downtown Roc and took these along East mostly. There are a TON of awesome spots up there!

I think my very favorite part about shooting her was that she is an amazing poser. I have a hard time giving direction as far as posing goes. I usually want people to look more "natural" than posed, so I hesitate to give too much direction as I want them to be comfortable. However, every single time she heard the shutter she changed position or facial expression. It was amazing! All I had to do was keep taking pictures! ... maybe I should hire her to come along with me and get other people to do the same ;)

If anyone is interested in doing pics like these in a more urban setting, email me at contact@amandaslakesphotography.com!

Sydney, Claudia and Andy (Rochester, NY children and family photographer)

2008-10-22T21:58:00.004-04:00

I promised more from this shoot... and so here are more :)

I was very excited to do this one. These are the three kids that I take care of... you see, I'm more like a superhero photographer this way... like the kind that has a regular job during the day and then at night... yep, that's me.

Anyways, I psyched the kids up as much as I could for this shoot and made them promise not to tell their parents. I even worked in a few bribes as they were taking this very seriously... "if you don't stop it right now, i'm going to tell your mom about the pictures today!" hahaha, i'm so mean, I know.

Pretty much the entire time I was taking these headshots of just Sydney, I was just blown away with how beautiful she is. I was looking through the lens and literally turning around every couple shots mouthing to my mom, "oh my goodness!" she is just so unbelievably beautiful.

Then there's miss Claudia. She is a character. Although she was most excited about doing these pictures, she gave me the hardest time... I would expect nothing less though. She has a super creative eye and i think that it just boiled down to the two of us clashing with ideas :)

But let me tell you what, when this girl turns it on, she is on. So beautiful...

This is Andy, and since I spend more time with him than any other person at this point in my life, he is my little buddy. I love his faces, and his quirky little habits... although some of them drive me nuts.

This particular picture I wasn't able to set-up or shoot until I convinced him that I was able to make him look like a BIG STRONG MAN. I mean really, could it be any other way?

Here are some more of the faces/antics I got to capture... notice the lack of shirt. That was the other thing I had to do if he was going to let me take his picture. He HAD to have his shirt off because how else was anyone going to see his BIG STRONG MUSCLES?

And this, this is the muscle shot. Look at those guns ;)

Tim and gumdrop mountain (Rochester, NY Portrait Photographer)

2008-10-22T17:47:00.002-04:00

Like I was saying in the previous post I hadn't done any "just guy" shoots in a few years... and I got two in one week. I was only slightly stressed out... umm, ok maybe a lot.

But it all ended up ok in the end... After we recovered from Tim climbing up the side of a cliff (heretofore known as Gum-Drop Mountain) we finished his shoot up at Linear Park in Penfield.

There's this cool bridge there which I thought was really cool... but we never found it. We ended up trekking along the side of this embankment trying to find the thing, but apparently were going in the opposite direction.

It was, though, one of the most fun shoots I've done. I laughed WAY too much, how can that be a bad thing?

Anyways, while I was taking pictures, another friend of mine had come along with us and took my pictures... Yah, of me laying on the ground like a stinkin army crawler trying to get this shot. I'm saving myself the humiliation and not posting that ;)

This hangar was seriously one of the main reasons I wanted to go to this park. I love distressed buildings and backgrounds. It's kind of cool how something that looks like a piece of junk translates so much differently into a picture.

Bryan's Senior Pics (Rochester, NY Senior Photographer)

2008-10-22T13:48:00.014-04:00

Bryan was the first senior guy I have photographed since my brother's and his friends when they were seniors... 4 years ago!

Needless to say, I was pretty nervous going into this shoot. I did my homework though and felt confident to do a good job. So here are a few I picked out for you to look at. The entire set has been posted at the online gallery on my website, but I am just trying to catch up on the last few shoots here :)

This is seriously one of my favorite shots ever. I love love love the more artistic shots that showcase something that is actually still life while including a person in the picture. If people didn't care so much about actually being seen in their pictures, I would TOTALLY do this all the time LOL!

This is great too... I had a girl earlier in the summer who also wanted pictures taken while she was reading her Bible. I seriously love using unique props... it makes pictures so much more interesting and... well, UNIQUE ;)

A field of soy beans... yep, that's what those are. They have such a cool texture and I just love the color here. It was really hard light to shoot in and we had to do this shot a couple times over to get the right exposure and the color to be so vibrant. It was totally worth it though!

Welcome to the blog!

2008-10-22T10:48:00.010-04:00

Thank you for coming to visit me at my new photo blog! I am so excited to finally be stepping out in this way in the blog world.

I have been a blogger for about a year now, but a photographer for much longer. My undiscovered dream of creating my own business is finally becoming a reality and I am so excited about being able to continuously share my work with you!

This blog will be for the purpose of keeping up with clients and allowing them to preview their pictures, be real about who I am and what I do, and keeping my creativity flowing.

I hope that you enjoy visiting this blog. It is my intent to update multiple times throughout the week. For me, one of my biggest inspirations getting started in this business has been through reading other photographer's photo blogs.

I love getting comments and feedback :) I try to respond to everyone who communicates with me through the blog and I would love to hear from you!

The last thing I want to do on this post is share some pictures! That is after all, the point ;)

There are more of these, but I wanted to just share what I have time for now :) There will be more later!

contact

2007-06-01T16:39:00.002-04:00

pricing and investment guide

2007-06-01T16:09:00.006-04:00

Site is under construction, please check back soon for information on pricing and NEW products!