This is the slow season for photographers…and since we moved to Edmond and I don’t have any clients to photograph yet, it’s really the slow season for me. But I MISS shooting so I ventured up to Northern Hills Elementary this week to capture a bit of the 100th day of school. Rex & Riley’s teacher Mrs. Cook is fabulous!

For those of you who care, these were all shot with the 50mm f/1.4. (I’m planning a basic DSLR workshop this spring if you want to learn more!).

Enjoy!

It is a rare thing to find a person who is genuinely beautiful. Not just on the surface…but on the inside too. A person who is crazy in love with Jesus.

Check out Amy’s video and then scroll down for the highlights of her Senior Session. (Be patient…it may take a second to load.)

This is Amy…

A young woman who really doesn’t care what others think about her.

A young woman who has contagious joy for life.

A young woman who rests in God’s love for her and trusts Him with everything.

A young woman who selflessly and humbly thinks of others instead of herself.

A young woman who has great hope even in the midst of great loss.

A young woman whose passion for life inspires others around her to be better people.

And it is even more of a rare thing to find these qualities in a High School Senior…this is Amy.

Sweet Amy, I am so very proud to have watched you mature into such a gorgeous person and to have learned so much from you, Katy and your parents. Even Riley’s dolls are named Katy and Amy!!! You truly ARE beautiful…inside and out…and I hope you see how gorgeous you are in your Senior Portraits. Enjoy some of my favorite images and be sure to watch the video at the end…it’s SO YOU!!! :)

I love you, Sweet Friend. xoxo.

Enjoy what you saw? We love comments! (hint, hint)

Life-long friends are hard to come by…here are two of my favorites. In fact, this guy was in our wedding!

I love this family, and if you know them you know that they are just as beautiful on the inside as they are on the the outside.

Being back in Oklahoma is fun for lots of reasons, but one of them is that I’m only 45 minutes from Stillwater and Oklahoma State University! Go Pokes!

I’ve been working with a Grandmother of eight to get all of her very busy grandkids together for a portrait session before several of them graduate from OSU and go their separate ways. We had to do it on a Sunday morning at 11:00, but it worked. The OSU campus, Old Central, the Library and even the Strip were perfect backdrops for this OSU family.

Taylor family, thanks for rolling out of bed the morning after a late-night OSU home football game. Your Grandma is so proud and will treasure these images. You will too.

Of course we had to get some sibling images…

…and new Facebook profile shots too.
As we were finishing up these two asked if we could go to the Strip to get this image. I bet it’s because they’ve spent a lot of time at Coney Island, don’t you? *wink*

SO STINKIN’ CUTE, GIRLS!

This cute family endured a tired boy and a session during lunchtime, but the results turned out GREAT! I had the pleasure of photographing this little guy when he was just days old…but this time I was chasing him. They change so fast, don’t they? He is PRECIOUS! Enjoy Hinze & Bradley families.

We had a random assortment of Halloween characters this year…very manly men with weapons to a princess bride.

It’s a good thing Rex was behind that mask because he was completely upset that his costume didn’t cover his shoes. The kid has a strong will.

Boys are willing to be photographed if they can strike a pose and act like tough guys. Except when the shoes are showing…then they just cry.

The makeup just about did her Daddy and me in. And that dimple…oh my.

Here they are all together…even the princess had to have a weapon. Of course.

And here are a couple of images that made me laugh out loud. For real. Rex’s face is p.r.i.c.e.l.e.s.s.

Our group of new friends in our neighborhood all showed up and we LOADED UP on the candy this year. The buckets were full.

Hope you had a great Halloween!

Earlier this month I got the pleasure of photographing this awesome family…the one and only Loving family! They drove to OKC/Edmond from Dallas and we just kept going north to Guthrie. We were racing against the weather but got some great images before it started raining.

Shelly is my first cousin…I was in their wedding my senior year of high school and she was big and pregnant with Adam when I got married. When Justin was deployed with the US Army to Germany during the second year of our marriage, I lived with them for almost a year. That seems like an eternity ago!

I’m a big fan of photographing each individual in a family…whether they like it or not. After all, who doesn’t want a GREAT Facebook profile picture?!! I did give them a hard time however, because these Texas A&M alums wore UT colors!

Thanks for letting me photograph you guys…my first official Edmond clients (even if you’re not from here!). I still can’t believe this was your first EVER family portrait session with all four of you!

In the spring of 1998, in the third year of our marriage, I received the best birthday gift ever from my sweet husband…a puppy. We had just survived a year of being separated thanks to a US Army Deployment, and it was a perfect surprise.

We named our black miniature schnauzer pup Lila, which in Hebrew means night. She was my first baby, staying right by my side while I studied my way through grad school and often begging to get in our bed and under the covers by our feet. Eventually she would come up for air and settle down by our heads.

As we moved on from Dallas to Nacogdoches, I couldn’t imagine loving a real baby as much as I loved her. Yet of course I did, and Lila got demoted when our son was born. I begged for her life when she bit our toddler Jack, because he WAS in her food bowl after all. She eventually mellowed and got used to one, then two, then four crumb-droppers.

Lila was the most faithful and loyal friend I’ve ever known. It was unconditional love. When I ignored her after we had kids, she still stayed right by my side. When she was banished from sleeping in our bed to the laundry room, she missed me. When I treated her poorly, she always forgave. Lila hated to be left behind when we would leave town, sulking when she saw the suitcases, yet thrilled to see me when I returned. Many times over the years when I was down, Lila was the one who crawled into my lap and caught my tears. She was my constant companion, following me from room to room as I worked in our home. She loved me the most, and I loved her for that.

When I stop and think about it, I suppose her faithfulness to me was just a tiny glimpse of how much I’m loved by the One who created her…and me. Dogs are truly one of God’s best creations.

Last week we had to say goodbye to Lila. I had been avoiding it for months…in fact, we probably should have let her rest in Texas. Thirteen-and-a-half dog years is 94 people years, and Lila was blind and deaf, could hardly stand up because of her arthritis and was downright miserable. We snapped this last photo with her…and then Riley and I promptly bawled our eyes out. It was the right decision as she was suffering, but such a hard one. Even now the tears are falling.

Don’t get me wrong, Lila was a dog, not a person. Unfortunately our family is very familiar with great loss and losing our dog does not even compare. At all. Yet, the house has been very empty this week…now I’m really at home alone in a new town while the kids are at school. I miss my Lila but am so very grateful for our 13.5 years of friendship. And of course, in this household full of kids, discussions have already begun as to what kind of dog will be next.

Oh, and one more thing…I really don’t need or want to hear opinions about putting dogs to sleep. It was a difficult decision. Thanks.

Hey Guys! I loved seeing this little guy 18 months later…he’s changed a lot from this! More images to come soon…