Michael is the kind of guy you can’t help but love. He’s the kind of guy you would let your only daughter marry. Michael is an avid hockey player and gives of his time and talent coaching others. Michael is political.. very political! He is the co-chair of the Minnesota Young Republicans (if I got that right). He helps with campaigns and was a page for one week at the Minnesota State Capital. He and I definitely shared a connection.

We began the shoot at his uncles ranch… maybe they don’t call it a ranch, but it used to be home to over 200 head of buffalo! yes, buffalo! He told me of an amazing story of how they erected 6 foot fences, yet they weren’t high enough… the buffalo actually jumped over them… now that would have been a great shot! The property had a cool barn with a bunk house… just totally cool! he said his grandpa spends some time out there with the guys, playing cards and enjoying life.

We headed into town and hit the arena for some hockey shots and down to my favorite stop at the court house. Mike’s sisters, Holly and Katie joined us and we did a few shots of them for their mom, Ann. From the sounds of it, when Ann heard that we did the shots at the court house, she was concerned that it would Look like it was at the court house…. that’s the beauty of making great lighting work for you… I think anyone would be hard pressed to figure out some of these shots were done there.

It was getting warm and we needed a break after all of the brutal work we were doing ; ) so we grabbed a DQ and went to Green Lea Golf Course to finish up. It was great timing as Barb Johnson, Brenda Morris, the Goodnature brothers and others were there celebrating a 50th birthday. After finishing up the session with Mike, Holly and Katie, I sat down and caught up with some of my favorite people in the world. Dang, my “job” is tough! : )

I get all smiley when I think about the day we spent with Barbara. When I say “we” I am referring to Isaac and I. Brynn was in Albert Lea for the fair and Barbara, being from Albert Lea, opted to come over to Rochester to experience what the Rochester downtown had to offer. While talking with Barbara, we realized that Isaac was born on the exact same day as her littlest brother, Matt! Such a cool coincidence!

We picked her up at the Apache Mall and loaded up her wardrobe. It was all neatly pressed in a pile… looked like something fresh out of a store. We had a lot to work with, which I totally appreciate.

Barbara loves hockey and manages the AL hockey team. She didn’t bring that jersey, but instead a classic Northstar jersey.. remember them? We never did find an ideal place for that shot and I am planning a date with her yet this summer to fulfill that outfit.

The day was brutally hot, reaching a temperature of 91 with a heat index of who knows what. Whenever we passed by a business with a door open, we stood there and went “ahhhhhh….” ! It was so warm that we stopped into Chester’s for about an hour for lunch and cooled down. It was just amazing how hot it was. Barbara was such a trooper.

We closed up the day at the Plummer House, a photographer’s fave destination, and Barbara changed into her gorgeous prom dress. It wasn’t poofy or frilly, but classic and brown. It would be something I would pick out and it went super well with Barbara’s color tones. The final shots we took were Barbara and Isaac together. She is just such a dear person, I just love her! Truth be told, Isaac has a crush himself!

Jordan chose me to shoot her senior portraits because her sweetie John booked a session with me. She said after looking at my website, she was basically sold. I was honored to be chosen to photograph both of their senior portraits. Jordan and John are the first seniors from Austin that I have photographed.

Austin has cool things, just like there are cool things everywhere, Austin was no exception. We went to Jordan’s house to gather her things for the shoot. Her home is stunning and I fell for the leather sofa in the living room. The lighting was amazing and I went to her closet to dig out something to coordinate. Found that purple dress and she appeased me by putting it on. Seriously, I think the combination is fabulous and I am hoping she feels the same. Her dinning room was a gorgeous burnt orange color with beautiful artwork. I pulled her up to the window for the perfect lighting and shot away.

We left the house with a barn as our next destination, but didn’t even make it to the end of the street…. flowers… a field full of yellow and purple flowers! We hit reverse and Jordan dashed up to her room to grab a bright top for those shots. Off we went, but not to the barn yet when we hit the brakes again. A sweet walking path with flowers for her prom dress. Then we hit the barn, found some unique railroad tracks (usually I think they are over done, but these worked well), a phenomenal weeping willow tree, John’s house, Austin’s football stadium and back to her house.

Who ever said anything about limited clothing changes or locations? pshhhhh! Not with me : )

There was this guy… John. Not “my” John, but John from Austin. John who has taken flying lessons. John who wants to be a pilot. John who didn’t “really” want to do senior portraits at the airport. John who made the arrangements anyway.

There was this photographer… Robin. Robin was THRILLED he did : )

I met John at his house. His mom Mary, works with Tyler Petersen’s mom, Lory… thank you Lory for this awesome referral! I got to meet Mary, his brother James and dad, Jerry. I would just say they’re just another nice family… well, it’s true… they are. They really snuck into my heart, one of those groups of people who will forever stick in there. I got to hang out with them maybe more than some others. John rides a Harley, his dad rides a Harley, and if they were going to do senior portraits at the airport, they were going to park two rockin bikes in front of a plane on the runway. Add Friday the dog and the image was complete. We needed everyone to get all of the props to the airport so I got to spend time with them, which was a rewarding time for me.

Okay, after all of this, I am still stuck at the airport in this synopsis of our day. I used to work in Austin at a 1 hour photo/portrait studio. This was mid 80′s right after high school. I met some wonderful people during my time there and one was a dad and his son. Ralph Angell and his son Dennis. They were pilots. The dangerous kind. Crop dusters. Ralph and Dennis flew their yellow bi wing plane and often buzzed my country home in Albert Lea. I still have the pictures. Ralph has sent passed and I asked the airport manager what happened to the yellow bi wing. He said it was damaged in a storm in 98. When I checked out the hangers for some good shots, I came across the yellow bi wing. That was incredible.

All right… if you’re still here, we did do more than just hang at the airport. We went on to Austin’s football stadium, I think they called it Hale Stadium. They had a super cool locker room and I knew I struck another pot of gold. Our adventure was just getting better! We did shots there, picked up Jordan, and ended up back at the stadium for some Harley motor(sickle) …. you know what I mean, pics. It was a long but very good day. I’ll post Jordan’s next : )

This crazy cool couple from Austin had senior portraits scheduled with me 2 weeks apart. John’s got rained out and we rescheduled for the day we were doing Jordan’s. Great plan because we over-lapped sessions and did some really fun shots together. They were really cooperative and patient with me because I was working off of the connection the two of them had and I got the opportunity to go through Jordan’s closet and pull out this gorgeous purple dress. John’s mom threw in a last minute tux and bammm! I really like the images of them on Jordan’s leather sofa. The Harley images in John’s football jerseys weren’t so bad either!

Who is my favorite boy of all??? Isaac : ) and he’s back for the rest of the summer. He recruited Matt from a few houses down and they had fun on the water trampoline. Boys are so different from girls when it comes to stuff like this. The girls just want to jump or lay on the trampoline… boys… they want to wrestle and play king kong and throw each other off. I sat on the pontoon and got these fun shots of boys being boys. Matt had to go to a family reunion and Isaac started to fish. Now we’re just chillin…

BIG pile of sand.

Brynn and Sarah climbing BIG pile of sand… Did we have Any idea how dangerous that was? Uh, no.

What does it feel like when you live your entire life somewhere, have lasting friendships and established activities, and then uproot yourself and move two states away? Ask Sarah.

She moved from Michigan to Minnesota and has been immersing herself in a new town, new school, new friends and new activities, mostly, a dancing school.

Sarah is a dancer and if I had to find one word to define her, I would say “dance” would be that word.

Sarah’s mom Diana, drove her to Rochester to begin her shoot in the “big city”. We walked around the downtown area, finding things I hadn’t tripped over before.. very cool things. That totally makes this “job” so exciting! Your eyes continuously see things they have never seen before, even when walking the same path you’ve taken before.

We did the downtown tour, had Bilotti’s Pizza for lunch, drove over to the Mayo Civic Center and used some of the great walls outside of the Art Center, went inside to change an outfit and WHAMO… there those steps were with beautiful lighting. We made it our stage!

We packed it up, grabbed a quick ice-cream treat from Culvers and headed to Albert Lea. I was going there anyway to pick Isaac up so we were able to plan this tour with Sarah.

We pulled off to find a cool old country road to do the white dress against the blue sky idea I had, and we drove by this random gravel pit place… Did some shots with Sarah’s letter jacket from her former high school and then they saw it… The BIG pile of sand. Brynn and Sarah were totally drawn to it and I thought that would make some fun shots. I followed them over with my camera and as they were reaching the “peak”, a Sheriff deputy pulled up and asked if I had any idea how dangerous that was??? She was super nice about it and explained that she didn’t want to ruin our fun, but she wanted to make us aware of the danger of sliding down and having sand bury you.

Aware we now are and I suppose if we had thought about the potential we wouldn’t have done it, but how many times do you see those big piles of sand and want to climb it? Sarah and Brynn did their first and last sand climb. Both made it down safely, and the only near casualty was again…. Brynn’s cell phone that was in her back pocket. It was buried in the sand… we called it but didn’t hear it and I began to climb back up, re-tracing Brynn’s path down and ironically put my hand right on it. Thank God!

Made it back to Albert Lea, met up with Ashley Stewart, Sarah’s “bff” and finished the shoot at Edgewater Park.

Oh what a day : )

Did some headshots for Macy last week.

Macy, an up and coming actress/model with a fresh look and a darn nice girl.

I’ve known her since she was a little tyke and have seen her many times cheering for her big brother Alex at his wrestling matches.

Now it is your time to shine Macy : ) You go girl!

Wednesday, Brynn and I ventured over to Austin to photograph Ellie at her home. Her Grandma has the most exquisite garden with so many incredible flowers, herbs, and even asparagus! The flowers were so beautiful, I could hardly believe they were real!

Ellie had just woken up and we brought her outside in a colorful sundress that her mom had picked out for her. She toddled along the garden, picking flowers and delighting in her surroundings. She is so incredibly blessed to live in such a beautiful area out in the country, with so much love to guide her way. I kept saying, oh how I wish every child could be raised in such a loving and caring environment.