Hannah: Senior 2014

Hannah and her sister (who is my amazing friend) drove over 2 hours to come to Kansas City so we could do Hannah's senior pictures.   In spite of the long car ride (which isn't fun), she was super photogenic,  sweet, adorable and beautiful.  :)  We had a lot of fun taking pictures at my house, then going to Town Center to get some city shots.

It was windy!

Stunning.

I LOVED her outfits. 

This was a parking garage!  This exterior looks better than my house!  -_-

Love this!

How to get beautiful head shots...

I remember looking at other photographers pictures a couple of years ago and wondering, "How do they do that?"  These pictures were normally head shots that looked so easy, but there was something special about them I couldn't put my finger on it.  And I couldn't duplicate it.  For a long time.  But finally it clicked (Ha! no pun intended :D) when I started taking pictures more, then I got it.  So I'd thought I'd share it with you so you don't have to go through the same frustration I did.


So this is a nice picture, obviously this girl is beautiful and adorable, but I needed to do something different to make it better and even more flattering.

So I told her to look down at the ground (I normally tap the place with my foot where I want them to look), and this just made a beautiful and totally different picture.

Then I told her,  "Okay, great! Now don't move your head, but bring your eyes back up to me".

And BAM!  Beautiful picture that is SUPER flattering!  What I did was bring her eyes closer to the camera so they looked their biggest by tilting her chin down.

See the difference?

Maybe you're thinking why didn't she just say at the beginning, "Tilt your chin down, slightly turn your head to your right, so I can give you a better picture."?  Well, I like doing what Jasmine Star calls, "Getting your client into a pose."  I knew what I wanted, but I didn't fire a bunch of confusing commands at her.  By telling her to look down, it naturally put her head into the best position.   Remember, your clients look their best when they're comfortable and not trying to remember 3 different commands you just gave them. ;)

Well this is all for now, hope it was helpful! Please comment if you have any questions or just to say hi! :)

Backlit Portraits

I've been wanting to take dramatic backlit photos for a while.  So when I saw how foggy it was one night, I asked my brother if he would PLEASE pose for my pictures.  I was super happy when he said yes. :)

A Special Lady

       I came across her blog a couple of years ago, and I loved her photography.   More than any other photographer.   Her photography was fresh, beautiful and popped with life and color.  Just like her.

      I was crushed when I saw on her blog she had been diagnosed/ battling cancer earlier this year.   This really hit me because I've had people very close to me battle cancer.  It is so hard, for the person battling and for the family.

     She passed away yesterday.  Abigail has such a powerful story how she walked out this trail in love, faith, and with an amazing eternal perspective that you rarely find in a young person.  Please watch her video and share it, it's so powerful.  Also please pray for her family, because they lost such a huge part of them.

Blake: Senior 2014

I had only seen Blake a few times (even though his sister was one of my best friends when I was little), but that didn't keep us from having fun taking his senior pictures. :)  He was totally chill, enjoyed climbing up on a crazy high platform thingy (I'm posting the picture, tell me if you know what it is), and he was fun, as well as photogenic.  I absolutely love how SO MANY of the pictures turned out, so I'm posting a bunch. :)

See? This thing was TALL!

JCrew?  Yeah... ;)

Love this one and the next four...