Repeat clients

I was very lucky and had loads of clients repeat with me.  Some I worked with them for their engagement photos, wedding, babies and beyond.  It is always nice to see a family start and grow.

Allison and Andrew.  Later joined by Carson.

I was lucky enough to meet this wonderful couple and later meet the life they brought into this world.  They were always so much fun to work with and their son is incredibly fun to work with.  He was so happy and fully of good spirits.

2008 Continued...

It was feeling a little empty to not include some of the wedding photos I did take in 2008.

I was able to travel to Southern Missouri for one unforgettable wedding.  There was a tank involved and everything.

Then there was the wedding with 16 attendants.  It was actually a lot of fun.  Lots of bright colors and fun kids around.

Oh, and the Christmas wedding in a snow storm!  So beautiful and so much fun.

Weddings are fun.  Especially when there are fun props, clients willing to get crazy and have a good time.  The beauty of those kinds of instants in time are hard to express.  Hopefully the photos speak for themselves.

Settling in to a style

Seems that 2008 was the year of the Senior Photo for me.  By that, I mean, I had a whole three seniors for the year.  For me, that was a lot.  I don't know a lot of people with kids.  I don't advertise to seniors.  But it can be interesting and fun to take those photos.  But it can also have its challenges.  The teens want their photos to be similar to their friends and yet, somehow unique.  Parents want photos that the families will appreciate.  It can make for quite the juggle.

I also had the chance to work with several families.  I like working with kids.  Can be a lot of fun to get down to their level and show off their personalities.

I really would like to take photos of more kids.  I have more fun working with them.  Especially when they are in their own element, playing at a park or playground.  Those are the photos that everyone should want.  Their personality captured so perfectly, a way to remember exactly how they were at age 2, 6 ...10 years old.  Plus, no meltdowns or screaming fits from being overwhelmed with posing requests in a studio.

Yea, I'd really like to do more photos of kids.

After the beginning there was ... improvement?

So, last time we talked about how I, hopefully, made some improvement between 2005 and 2006.  I was super busy, constantly shooting weddings and all sorts of other portraits.  I started building my studio in 2007, once we bought our house.

Oh yes, I think I definitely got braver in my photo taking.  As evidenced by the gravel road photo. Yikes! I can't believe I took that.  But it was a fun time, for certain!

This was also the year I started doing Trash the Dress Photos.  I never did get a lot of brides willing to do that.  Which is too bad.  Trash the Dress sounds so much worse than it really is.  Seriously, I don't think anyone's dress was actually ruined in the process.  But, boy did they get some cool photos.

Gorgeous! I need to do more photos like that!  I need volunteers!

In the beginning....

While I'm going through my transformation to a different photography style, I decided I need to revisit my past.  Look at how far I've come since the beginning.

All I can say is WOW!  The beginning was not exceptionally pretty.

From 2005:

OK, so NOT terrible, right?  Right??

Definitely not excellent though.  But everyone starts somewhere.  That was my first real year in business.  My first couple of weddings.  I was still learning.  There is a quote, "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson.  I think this is true.  No matter how many you have taken before, after another 10,000 photos you will be better.  I've rounded 10,000 photos a couple of times since 2005.

From 2006:

Better.  Definitely better.  More creative, to a point.

I had so many weddings in 2006.  In fact, one weekend I had two weddings.  One on Saturday, one on Sunday.  Strangely enough, same location.  It was fun.  Serious fun.  I loved being that busy.  I loved having so much to do.  I was creative, I was busy and I was having so much fun.

What do you think?  Did I improve?  After one short year, did my style seem to change at all?

Changing face of Cherished Photography

Over the last couple of years I've changed my focus slowly from Weddings and Family portraits over to a more artsy and edgy style.  It took awhile for me to wholly embrace this switchover.  Goodness knows that Weddings and family type portraits are money makers.  But truth be told, I just wasn't enjoying it as much as I would like.

When I first started Cherished Photography I actually enjoyed taking photos of weddings.  The dresses, the flowers, the kids; everything was magical.  Over the course of 9 years doing it, everything started to look the same.  I decided to take a step back and reanalyze my feelings about doing those events.  Had I become jaded from too many brides and fluffy dresses?  Or was it stagnation, doing the same poses and set ups over and over again?  Probably a combination of them both.

I did notice that towards the end I was doing the same exact photos for every wedding.  That is not the type of photography I wanted to be doing.  I want to be doing fun things.  Pushing the envelope type things.  Things that I can't post on Facebook.  Things that get people talking.  I want to have FUN.

So, towards that end, the website came down.  I decided not to pursue weddings at all, anymore.  (Maybe someone can talk me into it, but it will be only for certain special people.)  I decided to go out and take photos that make me happy.  Hopefully other people will like them also.  If not, too bad, at least I like them!

Welcome to the new blog and enjoy the pictures.

I'm going to start by posting some of my favorites and then move on to more recent and new photos.  Maybe everyone will see how the style has changed.  Maybe everyone will see the improvements I've made in technique, the journey I've taken to find my new style.  Please feel free to comment, critique and otherwise be involved.  I'd love it if everyone left some sort of comment.