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Category Archives: Teens

Arielle [Lakeland portrait photography]

April 22, 2013

A few months ago I was out exploring new parts of Polk County with my family.  We found this great new location that I just knew would be an amazing spot for a photo shoot.  I could immediately envision how the images would look and what kind of lighting I wanted to try.  It has been in my mind ever since.   Finally I decided I needed a model and I just needed to get out there and do a fun session just for myself.    Late one night, I sent a message to my friend Arielle asking if she was up for a “just-because” photo shoot.  Lucky for me she said yes!

Arielle is such a beautiful young lady, inside and out.   She has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know!  Her passion is for the country of Uganda.   I highly recommend reading her blog to find out all about what God is doing for her ministry.  It’s inspiring to say the least.  www.oweittograce.blogspot.com

Ok, now for the images.  There are a lot because I couldn’t pick just a few favorites.  It’s so funny, she and I were both so nervous for some reason.   I was anxious to try out some new lighting techniques and had so many ideas I thought my head would explode.  And she was just nervous about modeling.  But as you can see, she was a natural.  Arielle -THANK YOU so much for hanging out with us that night!  I so enjoyed spending time with you.   Thank you for allowing me to capture the beauty in you and in the nature surrounding you that night.

I love the diffused light from the cloud cover in these….

Then the sun came back out…

So I set up my off camera lighting that I’ve been wanting to work with more… Such a different look isn’t it?

Time for an outifit change…I just loved the softness of this dress, especially in contrast to the boots…

Some details….

Gorgeous!

What you can’t see in these shots is my daughter Sydney standing to my left.  I asked her to be silly and make Ms. Arielle laugh.  So she pulled out every silly noise and silly face she could think of.  She’ll make a great assistant someday!

I’m so thankful for the beautiful sunset we had that night.  These are the images I’ve been wanting to get out of my head for months now!  I could not be more pleased with the final result….

This was literally the final shot of the day.  Perfection!

Siblings [Treasure Island children, family and beach photographer]

March 3, 2013

Back in November I met several families out at the beach for some mini sessions.  I already shared one of them with you, now I’d like to share the other three.  Great weather + awesome families makes for some great images!  Can’t believe I’ve waited this long to post these!

The first folks to come out were this brother and sister.  Even though it was bright, these kids were troopers and even let me run them around a little bit. :)

 

Chandler c/o 2013 [Lakeland | High School Senior photography]

January 24, 2013

At the beginning of the school year I met up with this guy for his high school senior portraits.  He was such a good sport about it all (as you can imagine, this was not a 17 year old’s top pick for a Saturday night activity).:) We had a good time walking around downtown, and finished up at his high school football stadium.

Do you know any graduating Seniors or high school Junior’s this year?  If so, please send them my way!  I love working with teenagers – it’s a nice change from chasing toddlers and babies around all the time.   They are fun to talk to and I love hearing about their plans for the future.  Such an exciting time of life!

Megan [Lakeland High School Senior Photography]

June 5, 2012

I had the awesome privilege of meeting this young lady and her mom one afternoon out at  Circle B Ranch for Megan’s senior portraits.  They were so down to earth, and funny, and love each other so much!   My face hurt from laughing so hard during the entire session.  Megan is such a cool kid – she had this inner confidence that you don’t see in a lot of teenagers.   I commented on this to her while we were shooting, and her response was, “”You can’t expect people to like you if you don’t love yourself”.  I just love that!

The wind was working in our favor that day, looks like we had a fan blowing on her!

Her beautiful Momma – these two have such an amazing relationship.  They really are such great friends!

Her doggie – who did not care for me very much by the way!

Megan is an AP art student, so she showed me one of her pieces on her phone.

After we finished at Circle B, we headed over to her high school to get some shots of her in uniform.  She forgot her cleats, but I love the look of her neon shoe laces with her uniform.  So it worked out ok.:) I also experimented with some off camera lighting, which is new for me. I love how it turned out and hope to do more like this!

Thanks Megan!  I hope you have an awesome first semester of college!

The Holt Family and the Highland City Home

March 30, 2012

I’m so happy to finally blog about this session that I have had to keep secret for over a month!  Meet the Holt family. Their story has a tragic beginning, but ends with one of the biggest blessings I’ve ever had the pleasure of being a part of.   This family lost their home and all their belongings in a house fire in October.   Right after it happened, I remember hearing about it at our church as they asked for donations of food, clothing, and gift cards.   Pretty quickly though, two friends were talking during one of their routine walks about the idea of building the family a new house.  One of the ladies, Kristina Bunch, is the wife of Wayne Bunch of Bunch Construction and Development Inc.  Together with Sheri Carey (who attends my church), the three put the wheels in motion for what turned into a community wide project of love and sacrifice.  I was talking with one of our pastors one day about the project and mentioned that if the family needed portraits for their new home, I would love to donate a session.  The very next week Kristina Bunch (who is the mom of the adorable twins I’ve been photographing for the past year), approached me about taking pictures of this deserving family.  Before she could even finish her question, I said “Yes!”.

The time finally came in February to schedule a time for their session.  They had never had professional pictures taken of their family before.  But we had so much fun on that somewhat cold day in February!  The kids were a blast – I even recruited one of the younger boys to be my assistant in making his siblings (and parents) give me real smiles!  He did such a great job I told him I might have to hire him for all my sessions!

After we finished the session came the really fun part for me.  I met with Kristina and Sheri to pick out which images would be printed and hung in the Holt’s new home.  The entire interior of the house was top secret.  They had donations pouring in from all over, everything from appliances to furniture, electronics to bedding and decor.   We chose this first image as a large 36×24 inch canvas to fill one wall in their living room.  We printed the one of them walking as a storyboard mounted on wood to display on the table by the front door. The portraits of the kids lined the hallways, and the candid family portrait was a 16×20 for Mom and Dad’s bedroom.  I had the opportunity to take a tour of the house before it was totally finished and snapped a few shots of how everything turned out.  They finally moved in this week and I couldn’t be happier for them!

And here are some snapshots of everything on display in the house….

They put a sign out front showing all the companies that donated time, money, labor and other resources to the project.  It was so heartwarming to realize how much the community pulled together to help someone in their time of need.

Be sure to check out their facebook page to see more pictures of the process.  They’ve also posted a video there by Fox13 news that is a must see.