Staci + Ryan's Wedding Sneak Peek

Hi friends! I just posted a sneak peek of pictures from Staci and Ryan's wedding last weekend to my photography blog, but since I haven't posted anything there in ages, I thought I'd share the link here, too. Their wedding was beautiful and perfect!

Click here to go see!

I Heart Faces: By The Book

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is By the Book. I had a hard time choosing between a couple of other great pictures of people reading, but when I remembered that I had this one, the search was over. I had so much fun with this sweet family, and I loved their precious kids!

I Heart Faces: Bust a Gut

I haven't entered an I Heart Faces challenge in a while, but I knew I had the perfect picture for the bust a gut challenge.

A couple of weeks ago while shooting the precious Dandeneau family, I was getting some of the mom and her two grown daughters when they got the giggles... or more like the gut busting laughs!

I Heart Faces: Tickled Pink

This week's  challenge on I Heart Faces is Tickled Pink. I, for some reason, happen to have a lot of pink pictures. Maybe because I'm the only girl in my house, I'm drawn to pink in any other context that I can possibly find it. I finally settled on this picture of Anner Nanner at her birthday party this summer having a blast floating around in her pink bikini and puddle jumper swimmy-thing.

How can you not smile just looking at that sweet, happy face?!

Fall Mini Photo Sessions!

Over the past few months, I've been quietly growing my interest in photography from a hobby into a real side-business. Please allow me to introduce you to Wild Berries Photography. We frequently describe Jude as sweet and wild, and one day, Josh asked me if something really could be both sweet and wild. I immediately responded, "sure... like wild berries!" That is my vision for Wild Berries Photography. I want to capture the sweet wildness in life.

I'm really excited to announce that Wild Berries Photography will be offering fall mini sessions in October in both Hardin and Louisville!

I am offering three different package options so that you can choose the one that best meets the needs and budget of your family. With Christmas coming up, each package includes a credit to Tiny Prints. We have ordered from Tiny Prints on more than one occasion, and have always been beyond happy with their design selection, product quality, and customer service. 

I'm also excited to offer sets of three custom-designed accordion mini albums along with the Gold and Platinum packages. These are such cutie-patootie little albums-- they make great gifts for grandparents or just to carry around in your own purse.

If you would like more extras than are included in your package, feel free to talk to me about add-ons.

One last note for those of you in the Hardin area: I will also have free time on Saturday at sunrise and in the early-to-mid afternoon to do full sessions for anyone who would like more time and photos than comes with a mini-session. Just let me know what you would like to do and we can talk times and prices.

I Heart Faces: Beautiful Eyes

I haven't done an I Heart Faces challenge in a while, but when I saw that this week's theme was Beautiful Eyes, I knew exactly what picture I wanted to enter.

This is a very itty-bitty Jude compared to what he is now! We had just been in Moldova a few days and took him around the camp to get a few 7 month pictures. I have always loved this picture SO much--the colors, the expression on his sweet face, the little stream of drool going down his chin and the glimpse of his amber teething necklace (which were both SUCH huge parts of our lives at that time), and the way the hills of Moldova are perfectly reflected in his eyes.

I Heart Faces: Bright and Vivid

This week's I Heart Faces challenge is Bright and Vivid. I edit most of my pictures to be bright and vivid, so it was kind of difficult for me to choose just one to enter. I eventually kept coming back to this one I snapped of Edita last summer licking on an ice cream cone:

Daniela and Valeriu

I had the joy a few weeks ago of photographing Daniela and Valeriu, our only married couple here at the school. Daniela speaks very good English and we have gotten to be good friends over the last two years. I think it goes without saying that I'll miss them (and especially her) very much, but I'm going to say it anyway... I'm going to miss them SO MUCH.

Anyway, we had a great time trekking around in the tall grass, and they were great models. Not only are they a great looking couple, they seemed so natural in front of a camera. Daniela said they had a lot of practice at their wedding two years ago. I was also surprised by how much more of a goofball Valeriu is outside of class! He's a very serious student, and this was a side of him I'd never seen.

I did a little bit of a softer look on the second and last pictures than I normally do. I just felt like they were asking for it.You know, as much as I love the current trend of hazy, vintage, yellowed pictures, I just never feel like it looks right on my pictures. I've seen a lot of great photographers do amazing stuff with that look, but I'm realizing that it's just not my style. The more pictures I take (of people other than my husband and son), the more I'm starting to feel out my style, and that's a really fun thing to discover.

Every time I look at my pictures, I see things I want to change and fix, but I'm just going to stop obsessing now and post them anyway!

I Heart Faces: Best Face Photo in May

I didn't participate in the I Heart Faces challenge last week, and then when I saw the winners, I was kicking myself over it. Not because the picture I was thinking about entering was super amazing, or because I think it would have won, but just because these challenges are fun to be a part of. I really enjoy participating. They're open to any and everyone, so if you interested, why don't you enter, too? Here's this week's challenge if you want to know more.

Anyway, the challenge this week is just for your best face photo that you've taken this month. It's a people's choice award, which means that everybody votes for their favorite. Entries are only open today, Tuesday, and then on Thursday they will post their favorites and you can vote on your favorite of the favorites. It's probably not likely that mine will get chosen, but if it does, I'll let you know so you can vote for it if you want.

I know you've seen this one recently, but it is quite possibly my all-time favorite photo ever. Edita is such a beautiful little girl and such a ham for the camera, and I love the dreamy-ness of the bits of dandelion flying toward the camera and the sun in her hair.

The Rotari Family

Friday, I had the privilege of photographing the beautiful Rotari family. The Rotaris live here on the camp property with us, so we've gotten to know all of them fairly well over the last two years. We are really going to miss them, and we actually had to say goodbye to the mama, Luda, this morning because she is going to America to visit her parents for a couple of months. I'm excited for her, and I know she's excited too, although she will, of course, miss her family like crazy. That's a big part of the reason why I was so excited to get to do this for them before she left. I hope they like the pictures! Here are a few of my favorites:

Right Now: May 12

It's time for another Right Now post! Right now, Jude's toy truck and car are driving through a snowstorm on the kitchen table because I forgot and left an open box of salt on the table and he, of course, immediately found it, dumped it everywhere, and played in it for a while.

I'm drinking the last of the apricot compot that Igor's mom sent us while I make some plans for a photo shoot next week with our two married students.

Jude is playing in just a shirt, diaper, and embarrassingly dirty socks. We took his pants off at the door because it rained for a while today, so the grass was wet, therefore his pants got really wet playing outside. His socks are dirty because he had his rain boots on, and dirt tends to find its way down into them.

And Josh is checking Twitter for the millionth time today. No, he actually works really hard, I just like to give him a hard time about his Twitter obsession.

So that's what we're doing right now. What are you doing right now? I'm really enjoying the weekly challenge of finding special ways to capture ordinary things. If you want to play too, you can go here for more info.

I Heart Faces: Motherhood

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is, appropriately, Motherhood.

This is me, experiencing motherhood for the first time, and so happy and thankful and full of love that I thought my heart was going to explode. More than two years later, I still feel that way when I look at and kiss this boy.

Jude was born just after noon (I actually just posted his birth story yesterday), and that evening after all of our family left, I changed Jude and myself into some of our own clothes and Josh took a few pictures of the two of us. I initially didn't like this one very much because I felt like the IV on my arm ruined it, but as time goes by, I see every detail of this picture as so perfectly a part of our story-- the IV, my wedding band, his little blue hat that was too small for his huge head, and the expression of love and thankfulness on my face.

Thanks, I Heart Faces, for giving me a chance to relive this moment!

Right Now: April 30th

So, Kelly Willette has started a new fun thing on her blog called Right Now. As soon as you see her weekly Right Now post, you're supposed to grab your camera and document what's happening right now. It sounds like fun, right? So here we go!

Right now, it is Josh's birthday! We just finished breakfast, are all still in our pajamas, and Jude is playing with Buzz and Woody on the couch.

The breakfast dishes are still on the table.

The sun is coming up on our laundry that I left out on the clothesline overnight.

And Josh is reading the Bible on the bed, which is the only place in our apartment to go to be alone.

What are you doing right now?

I Heart Faces: Slice of Life

This week's challenge on I Heart Faces is Slice of Life. I immediately knew I wanted my picture to portray a slice of life in Moldova, and this picture is one of my all-time favorites. I took this at the market here in Orhei, and I was just so impressed by how this lady got all gussied up every day with her pearls and fancy updo to go to the market and sell cuts of raw meat.

I edited it with CoffeeShop Simply Vintage, and I just love everything about it. So, here you go, I Heart Faces, this is a very common slice of everyday life in Moldova!

I Heart Faces: Sun Flare

This week's challenge on I Heart Faces is sun flare:

This is Jude (of course) on the beach in Greece last summer playing under the lifeguard stand. I love it!

I Heart Faces: Best Face Photo in February

This week's challenge on I Heart Faces is Best Face Photo in February. This week's challenge is also a people's choice vote, so if you like my picture, you can click over and vote for it. A couple of weeks ago, Josh was reading Jude a bedtime story with just the one little lamp on beside them and I just had to capture it.

I Heart Faces: Red

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is Red.  I had a few pictures I really liked that could fall into this category, but finally decided on this:

These are some kids dressed up in traditional Moldovan attire getting ready to perform some traditional dances at Ziua Orheiului, or "Orhei Day."  I love the delicate hand embroidery on their shirts and the bright red sashes that the boys wear.  Every city or village celebrates the anniversary of its founding with traditional music and dancing, and Orhei's celebration was especially impressive, in spite of it being much colder outside than the kids' light tops would suggest.

Free Photoshop Storyboard Template

I took these pictures of Jude napping yesterday and wanted to put them together in a storyboard.  I didn't have any on-hand that used the dimensions I was looking for, so I whipped up one of my own really quick.  Then I figured I'd make it so I could share it with you as well.

You can download the template here.

It's really easy to use.  The instructions may be remedial for some of you who are used to working with storyboards, but when I first started figuring out how to do it, I needed a little more help.  So I wrote the instructions with myself in mind.  Hopefully that means that you don't have to be a Photoshop pro to be able to use this.  The background color and text are also completely customizable.  It's hard to tell on a white blog (silly me), but the corners of the white background are also rounded, which I think gives it a more finished touch.

If you use this, please comment and link to your picture... I'd love to see what you come up with!

I Heart Faces: Best Face Photo in January

The theme this week on I Heart Faces is Best Face Photo in January.  This was Jude running around outside on New Year's day.  I just never can get enough of his bright red snow suit and blue boots against the white snow, and i love the sweet little look on his face.