Tessa's Senior Photos - Maryvile Missouri photographer

Tessa is a very sweet, soon to be graduate of West Nodaway. She plays basketball and has a lot of loving family and friends around her.

Of course, we pick only the coldest day possible to shoot her photos, OH, and don't forget the wind! But we made due and ended up with a really wonderful session.

I love the analogy of an open road, a suitcase, and a senior looking into their future. Congrats to Tessa!

Dr. Seuss said it best:

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Maryville, MO family portraits

I've talked about Daniel Dunlap and his family before a few weeks ago. He's a fellow photographer from Council Bluffs, Iowa. We met online in a photography group and we tend to complain about most of the same things. Correction... I complain, and he mostly agrees.

He presented me a challenge around a year ago when I commented on a photo of his daughter on facebook. "You get her to look into the camera, I challenge you."

Game on.

So a couple weeks ago, I had a issue I needed to sort out, and Dan's one of those guys that knows just enough to get you in trouble. He volunteered to come all the way to lowly Missouri and help me fix it! All I had to offer was a stack of fat T-bones.
*he took the bait!*

So Saturday, they came down early and went to Stoney Creek for a little get away. We went down to have dinner with them, and I started turning on the charm with little Alayna immediately because I knew I'd be taking her photo at some point.

Over dinner Dan and I had this conversation:

Dan: "I'm never going to photograph another photographer's wedding."
Lana: "Yeah, me neither. Talk about pressure."

around 18 hours later:
Dan: "So you'll take our picture right?"
Lana: *eek*

(well, not exactly like that, but you know....)

I want the record to show, I got several shots of Alayna looking at the camera several times.
BOOYAH.

I also made a new little BFF. I'm going to talk her into spending the summer with me. I'm confident it'll work.. I have a pool.

I might have to rent a pony though.

Telling the story - Missouri Wedding Photographer

I once read, some place, a long time ago, from someone that I can't remember...

"A good photo has a beginning and a middle and an end."

I love the story that is being told in one solitary frame, 1/320th of a second, of one special day, tells the whole story.