My college thesis lit a fire in me!! The style was loosely based on Michelle L Morris Photography‘s school portrait style. The project was the start of a healing process for me after my grandma passed away. You can read more about it here. Anyway, I realized there was something so perfectly beautiful about shooting like this and that I wanted to run with it. So, for my next class in college, I was asked to create a fresh section for my graduating portfolio. I wanted something simple that I could do without going to far from home, so I decided on School Portraits … why not?! I made a plan, found about 20 kiddos, and went for it! I can’t tell you how fulfilling this type of shoot is to me … which seems odd, and many would argue isn’t very creative or fun … but it is! Envisioning the expressions that you want to capture and then pulling those from children it’s not an easy feat!

These three beautiful, smart, silly littles came were some of the first to come over and help me out this school project just before the the end of summer vacation! My goodness, they’ve grown! I’ve known them for a couple of years now, as my youngest little, Rhylie, is in their mom’s Brownie troop! And wow is she the best leader ever! So creative and always finding fun things for the girls to do! Anyway, I’ve watched them grow over the last couple of years and it just amazes me how fast they go from being babies to saying “I three” in their cutest little three year old voice, in the case of her youngest, Katie! She is such a doll … 3 years old, sweet as can be, and a load of laughs! Oh, I wish mine were littler again! Her older brother and sister were a hoot as well! Here they are, youngest to oldest!

Cheers!

Jaime

It’s 60 degrees. The sun is shining. I. Long. For. Summer.

The weather in Iowa has taken some serious getting used to over the last few years. It is unlike anywhere I have ever lived in my 30 years of life! Between tornado sirens, – 40 degree winters, pouring rain that turns your backyard into a lake and floods your basement, humid summers with …. one minute it can be sweltering hot, and the next it may be snowing (totally serious, friends). It was a really harsh winter last year … -42 was what I recorded … when you inhaled, it was as though your lungs were filling with icicles and you froze immediately upon exiting your front door. It took the cars nearly 15 minutes to really get warmed up. The snow caked on so high that we built these awesome forts and a sledding hill in our flat front yard! Heaven, I tell you! I loved every minute of it!

I am a winter girl at heart, but I right now I am longing for the long, lazy days of summer such as these …