Family Sesson :: The Lamm Family

Meet Lori and Matt.  Meet Lori and Matt's two son's, Ben and Josh.  Meet Ben and Josh's girl friends, Kassee and Kilee.  Now that we have the introductions all set - the story of our session today.  Lori is a coworker of mine, and a few weeks back she let me in a little secret, and asked if I could snap some photos of her, her husband, their kids, and their girlfriends.  Now for the secret - Lori and Matt's son, Josh, is in the military and lives in Florida.  For this reason, the family doesn't get to be together as much as they used to, so whenever they can be together its a special thing.  The even cooler part of this day, and here's where the secret comes in .... Matt did not know that Josh was even going to be in town this weekend.  Kilee secretly went to pick up Josh from the airport last evening, and this morning when Matt woke up, the whole family (including Josh) was sitting in the living room as though it were no big deal.  I could tell they were all so happy to be together this weekend - and I was so blessed to be able to do a photoshoot with them!
  So knowing that this weekend had kind of a smaller window than most photo shoots due to all of the out of town people present, Lori and I went back and forth on locations.  Would we do the shoot indoors or out?  Should we do the session in the morning?  The afternoon?  Would the weather hold? With all those questions - everything turned out beautiful.  Today came, and the weather was fantastic.  We met over at Avon Gardens, but do to a snaffoo, including a wedding that ran late and not wanting to wait around on them, we headed on over to Arbuckle Park in Brownsburg.  It turned out to be the perfect casual setting that we were looking for.  The sun was shining, the trees were green, and the temperature was just right!  This day was a huge blessing, and I was so incredibly happy to be a part of it with them.

My silly little dog.

I find that around my house, there are few living things available to photograph.  I'm always looking for things to photograph in all kinds of lighting, and my husband just isn't a willing party.  He makes faces, or worse yet, just ducks for cover.  Then there are my dogs.  They used to tolerate it, but they see the camera coming, and they follow suit right behind my husband.  Somehow, I still manage to capture great photos... and sometimes video of them.

Oliver, my little dog, has been loving this great weather - he gets so frisky when the warm weather rolls in.  He's pretty mellow most of the time - in fact, as I type this, he is curled up right next to me - but everyone once in a while he just has his (little) energy spurts!  I just love him!  Check out this video taken from my phone of all places - but heck when you see a moment you have to grab what you've got!

Everyone to the field!!

 It was a capri/casual Monday at work today (my previous blog post states the trials of the morning in getting dressed) and it was all because today at my elementary school was field day!  The day that the kids (and some teachers) look forward to all year long.  We get a bunch of games together, and the kids rotate around to each and every game and until they are soaking wet from water balloon fights, sponges, relay races, and all that good stuff.  I was pretty blessed, because my other love besides teaching, is my passion for photography, and I was the day's official photographer!  No "photographer" badge is necessary - when the kids see a camera, each and every one of them become a ham!  Forget "all the world is a stage," because today at Allison Elementary, "all the field was a stage!"  I love snapping the pure and innocent joy on their faces!

The rip heard 'round the world

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a rip heard across the world, but when I tried on my Capri pants for the first time this season they were feeling pretty tight.  Now, what does anyone do when their pants are fitting like your legs are sausages and they being squeezed into the sausage casing?  You do the squat/gonna loosen them up dance, of course!  Well. It just wasn’t working in my favor this morning.  No sooner had I started the loosening charade, I heard a rippppp. My husband was in the room. The room goes silentWe lock eyes. “That didn’t just happen, did it??”  I took them off, and sure enough, yep.  There was a rip.  I guess I won’t be wearing those any more, and I suppose its about that time to get back on workout wagon.   Or get new pants?

Sometimes if you just wish it hard enough, you wish it to be.

Last week, we saw some pretty good weather days - days where I was beginning to think that perhaps, just maybe, Summer was upon us.  Thursday rolls around, and I am super excited because that was the night that I had planned a session (the rainy day give-away session to be exact) with Selena and her boyfriend, Jason.  I woke up, the day was beautiful, and then I looked at the weather (which is something as a photographer, that I do about 15,000 times per day, especially when I know I have a session coming up).  So I'm on the web, looking outside at the fabulous looking day, and the weather website is sitting there open, telling me that it is going to pour down rain.  Not just sprinkle, but an all out downpour that evening.  That's when I start going into denial thinking positive.  It will not rain!  It will not rain!  Please dear God, let the rain hold off... until say, 9:30??  Well whatever I did (ha... or didn't do, but think I did)  it turned out that its just about the perfect evening to shoot a portrait session.  I meet up with Selena and Jason at a bank parking lot in downtown Zionsville - and as luck would have it, we show up at practically the exact same time.  The sun is shining (but not so much to cast a harsh shadow on my wonderful  clients, but it was just about perfect) and I must say, Jason and Selena are looking stunning.  I get asked quite a bit from potential clients, "what should I wear?"  I try to give guidelines about staying away from busy patterns, or other random things, but the most important things are 1) be comfortable, and 2) be yourself!  It sounds incredibly cheesy, but if you don't go by those two things, it will show in your face, and it will show in your pictures.  So I meet up with Jason and Selena, and they look incredibly good looking (I just got a Zoolander flashback..) - they were well put together, but still in a casual look, and one of the things I first notice about them is this comfort level that they have with each other.  I start asking them about how they met, and what they do, and they are amazing people, and really, they are so good together.  They get in front of the camera, and right away, I let their love for each other shine in those pictures.  Great fancy lenses and camera bodies won't do that on their own.  I give them a pose or two, but within those poses, I want them to be them, and I want their personalities to shine.  They did exactly that.  They were willing to get on the ground and sit, as I call it "criss cross apple sauce" (aka Indian style... my husband laughs at me each time I say that, but heck, it's the PC teacher in me, I suppose), and they were willing to lay on benches, and lay in the grass - they were great sports.  I was so blessed to be able to work with them, and I wish them so many good things in the future!

Below are a few favorites from the day!  Thank you Selena and Jason!

Ashley and Corey :: Engaged! (Part 1)

  Ashley and Corey are head over heels, crazy in love, and they are getting married next year!  We have had a lot of rain here in Indianapolis the last couple weeks, so when the sun was shining yesterday, we knew we couldn't pass it up!  We met downtown at the Indiana State Museum, where they will by holding their reception next September.  Ashley and Corey are not only in love and getting married, but they are gorgeous models, too!

Check out a few favorites from the day!