Iowa & Destination Wedding Photographer - Amanda Basteen » Iowa Wedding Photographer – Amanda Basteen

Iowa & Destination Wedding Photographer | Recent Engagement Session

Amanda — Sun, 13 May 2012 06:45:19 +0000

Within the past week or so I have had a huge amount of engagement sessions, all amazing in their own way. I LOVE doing engagement sessions. It gives me a chance to be a bit more creative and play with light. It also gives me a chance to really get to know my clients and I feel that is so important before their big day. By the time their weddings roll around, we are old friends and it’s a blast hanging out with each other all day. That is why I offer engagement sessions in all of my packages as a complimentary thing. It’s always in everyone’s best interest to have one done. I think this post proves why! I am lucky to always have such an outstanding group of clients, they are always so beautiful on and inside and out!

Iowa & Destination Wedding Photographer | Lauren & Dustin

Amanda — Sun, 13 May 2012 05:50:16 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I shot the wedding of Lauren & Dustin. It was a dark and gloomy day, but that didn’t stop us from having a great time and getting some great photos! Their wedding reception was at the downtown Marriot in Des Moines. It was full of win, even with smoke on the dance floor! Loved it! I will be double posting today because I am trying to catch up on editing and blogging before I leave for my Jamaica wedding in a week. I will have one more wedding to blog later this week before I go!

Iowa & Destination Wedding Photographer | Andrea & Justin are married!

Amanda — Wed, 02 May 2012 06:30:43 +0000

Wedding season has begun in full swing and it started with a bang! The first wedding of the season was absolutely STUNNING. Not only that, it was so much fun. I feel like I know this family very well because I have shot 3 of the 4 girls’ weddings and the 4th was already married when they met me. So, it was bittersweet as they have no more daughter’s to marry off! But, now I get to begin the pregnancies and babies I know they will have! They held their reception at The Des Moines Renaissance Savery hotel downtown. It couldn’t have been a more beautiful way for me to start off my 2012 wedding season. Congrats again Andrea & Justin, thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day!

Iowa Wedding & Portrait Photographer | The Art of Dance – Kaytlin

Amanda — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 05:52:28 +0000

It’s not often that I get to take the time for a project that is mainly for myself. Using new ideas and trying them out. I finally got to and this post is the result of that. I know it’s not wedding related, but I have often felt inspired by the movement of dance. I think it’s a beautiful art form and the closest I get to photographing it are people dancing at weddings. It’s always fascinating to me. So, for a long time I have wanted to photograph a true dancer. I wanted it to be natural and raw, not in a studio with mirrors all around. I wanted it to be joyous and in the beautiful sunlight. So I thought, who better to use than my amazingly talented little cousin. She is an amazing dancer and is going to be going to school for it here very soon. I’m very proud of her. Not only did I get to take the photos I have dreamed of taking, but she got the photos of her doing what she loves.

This post is sectioned by the different types of photos I took. Some of the things are pretty random that I just felt like trying out on her (ie: lace shadows, flour, fog). We were very limited in time (45 minutes for the whole shoot!) but we were able to get it all done. She was super excited about my ideas and I think they turned out pretty neat. Some of you may wonder WHAT is the white stuff all over her in some of the photos? Well, one idea I had was to cover her in flour and have her dance it off creating what looks like a big cloud puffing up around her. It looked really neat. I should have probably separated this blog post into a few so it wasn’t so long, but I want to get to blogging some engagement sessions before my wedding season hits (next weekend!) I have a super busy year coming up with weddings all around Iowa and even in Jamaica next month. So pretty soon here the blog will be full of all of the amazing weddings again!

I need to give some credit and thanks where it is due!

Hair and Makeup was done by the amazingly talented Allison Kidney (makeup) and Jenny Raasch (hair) of Estilo Salon & Day Spa. (They also do wedding hair/makeup!)

I also want to thank Kaytie for allowing me to use her as my guinea pig and dump flour all over her! Also our other cousin Anthony who helped me out with the shoot and had the pleasure of actually dumping the flour all over her. Something I’m sure he has been contemplating doing since we were kids!

Iowa & Destination Wedding Photographer | Kelly & Jeff Engaged

Amanda — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 05:36:57 +0000

I wanted to throw a quick few photos up tonight because I absolutely adore them. Spring is my favorite season of the year and this is why. All of the gorgeous blooming trees and shrubs (not to mention the PERFECT weather!). I’m still working on editing this session, but so far, it’s pretty amazing.