I havent blogged much this month at all.

Life has been crazy.  Packing up my oldest daughter’s room so she could move to her next adventure……….. transferring Junior to Northern Illinois University.

She has grown up way to fast.  Time flies by.  My once little girl is now experiencing apartment life with roomates.

I have gone through many ups & downs this week as I learn to let go and allow her to spread her wings and fly…….

The hardest thing for me was seeing her empty bedroom.  So I quickly got to work cleaning up the very little remains she left behind and transforming her old room into her little sister’s new room.

We torn up carpet to reveal the hardwood floor underneath.

It seems to help not to see the closed door and empty space.  But I still miss our daily chats, or disagreements……….lol

Now by moving her little sister in there it has left a new empty space……….. which we began transforming over the weekend……..

It will become the new home for my photography studio.  Clients who have been to my basement home studio will want to be sure and book to see the new space I am creating.

Hope to have it operating in the next week or so……….  but it will remain a work in progress until I fine tune a few things.

No pictures of the new space just yet…… hopefully next weekend it will be far enough along to show it off.

This process of moving, remodeling and room swapping has taken up alot of my August……………. oh that and of course driving to Dekalb to visit my oldest in her new place……. 

I am currently also working on some fall specials to get a jump start on the holiday photos…… check back soon for details!

Today this husband and father boarded a plane for deployment………..  Off to serve this country.

Very touching moments were witnessed between father & son as well as between husband & wife

Also lots of arm slapping fun too as we swatted away the mosquitos that were out in record numbers last night.

It takes a very strong person to put ones life on hold to serve this country.  I salute you and all other military families.

If you know of someone who is leaving on deployment or returning from deployment please get in touch with me as I would like to offer them a “no session fee – discounted prints” photography session.

Here is a few images from this families session…….  Please leave this family some comments to let them know you appreciate their service.

So as not to steal the spotlight from the big brother on his senior images post I decided to post these sneak peeks of them together on my family site instead.

I love traveling to new locations and family homes to capture images of families.  Atmosphere is much more relaxed and I think we can see more the true personalities.

Call me today to book your family session!

Here is a few sneak peeks of the brother and sister together………….

As you can see here we tried to capture some family farm history with a little fun mixed in!  I played around with a few different color techniques to put a more vintage feel to them.  Which one do you prefer?

And like all 1 year olds was more interested in moving than sitting.

We did manage to capture a few images of him in between his juice, snacks and toys.

Looking forward to capturing more at their family session this fall.

He was such a good dog and definitely the largest dog ever to step into my studio.  I should of put something in the shot so you could tell how large this cutie really is.

I am just guessing that when he was sitting his head was approx 4ft off the ground.  He made my little dogs look like little mice in comparison. 

This little cutie pie was so sweet and snuggly.  He came by just in time to get a few 1 month shots and some family pics with Mom & Dad.

I do believe he was my first little boy baby to NOT christen any of the blankets during the au natural shots.

Here are few sneak peeks of him………..  almost done preparing the rest for Mom & Dad to see and share!  Gallery should be online Wednesday or Thursday.

Decided a little macro lens play was in order.  Not the easiest task with the wind blowing my flowers and trying to manually focus up real close.

Thought I would share a bit of the color in my yard with all of you.

Enjoy!

We fought off mosquitos for an hour to grab a few shots of Mother & Son.

Poor guy was full of bites in just the first few minutes.  I had to photoshop out a bite on his poor forehead

This mom and son have a special place in my heart and will always be part of the “family”.  Love you guys!

Here are a few sneak peeks………… rest are uploading to the proofing gallery now.

I sat and watched him for several minutes then decided to run off and grab my camera.

Usually that is the time what ever I want to take a picture of decides they are done and moves on……….lol

But not this time.  This litle guy spent a very long time climbing up, sliding down, and clinging tight to get the sunflower seeds inside.

So determined in fact I was able to almost walk right up to the bird feeder.  I would take a few pics, take a few steps,

take a few more pics then a few more steps  you get the picture.

Until I was maybe 5 ft from the feeder then the tail starting flicking and letting me know he didnt appreciate me interrupting his task.

In fact I do believe in the one pic he was giving me “the look”  haha

Enjoy!