quad cities portrait photographer

November 6, 2018

The Hall Ladies

I had the privilege of photographing these lovely ladies a few weeks ago. They are actually our neighbors as well. So I’ve had the joy of watching them (the daughters) grow into the lovely ladies they are. Even though they are all grown up, I’ll still think of them as the cute little girls playing around the neighborhood. My how time flies!

I had a lot of fun hanging out with them for this session, even if the sun was blindingly bright and the wind was messing with their beautiful long hair. I look forward to seeing the paths that each of these girls chooses. They have very bright futures ahead of them.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

November 6, 2018November 5, 2018

Share Six | Silhouette

This month’s theme is Silhouette. I planned on actually orchestrating some silhouette pictures with off camera flash, but while on our vacation back in August, the sunsets on the lake created the perfect opportunity for some great silhouette shots. So I decided to take advantage of that opportunity. I may still execute some plans I had in my head, but for my blog post on the theme, these are the shots I chose.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! I hope you enjoyed my images. Continue on in the circle by heading on over to Kathy’s blog to see her amazing interpretation. These ladies here at Share Six never cease to amaze me!

June 10, 2018June 10, 2018

M & M

Well another year has passed and I had the privilege of photographing Miss M’s birthday photos. I can’t believe she is 7!! Her older sister (I’ll refer to as Big Sis M), who she looks just like, was turning 13, so we took some portraits of her as well. My how time flies. These girls have grown up so much!!

We started the session with a few shots of Big Sis M with one of her favorite hobbies…reading. We incorporated her favorite book series. I can’t believe how much she’s grown up! And she’s so mature!!

We continued the ongoing theme of incorporating something rainbow. This year it was a rainbow umbrella and a “paint” splattered dress. What a cutie!!

Look at that beautiful smile!

And that laugh!

I love how big sister incorporated some Disney things!! Our families share a common love of Disney.

We finished up the session with some pictures with the hoop swing I made. I was a bit unsure how it was all going to work out, but it turned out pretty well. These girls are just so darn gorgeous!!

My goodness she’s gorgeous!!

After walking back to our cars, Miss M said she wanted pictures in front of the lilac bushes. We took a few there. For years everyone has said how much Miss M looks like Big Sis M. Seeing the two side by side in the same picture, you’ll see the resemblance. It’s incredible!

Oh and I had to include a goofy one.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed the pictures! I know I enjoyed taking them, These girls are so much fun!!

June 6, 2018June 6, 2018

Share Six | Abstract

June’s theme over at Share Six is abstract. Those of you who know me personally as a photographer know that I am a portrait photographer. This is what I love though about being part of a photography group that does themed challenges like this. This group of gals is constantly stretching me and helping me grow. If you are a photographer and haven’t taken part in these monthly challenges or any other challenges, I highly encourage you to do so. You will find that it’s very fun and you learn a lot, therefore your skills improve.

As I said, abstract is not something I’ve really even dabbled in. So I was really racking my brain trying to figure out what I was going to photograph. It dawned on my that I could use intentional camera movement to make ordinary objects become abstract. I haven’t even really played with intentional camera movement either, but what better time than now?

For my first image, I waited until later in the evening. I knew because of using a slow shutter speed I’d need less light. I pointed my camera up at some trees. When I pushed the shutter button, I twisted my camera creating the swirl.

For my next image, I just pointed at some grass (still in the evening when it was getting dark) and moved the camera a bit as I pressed the shutter.

For my third image, I actually shot it during the middle of a bright sunny day. I pointed up at a tree. I shot at ISO 100 and f/29 and 1/2 sec. shutter speed. I used my 28-135 and started wide, but zoomed as I pressed the shutter.

My fourth image was the same technique. This was a picture of the pond behind our yard. This is one of my favorites of the set. Who knew I’d like intentional camera movement and zooming so much?

For my last two, I waited until after dark and headed to the carnival/fair that happens to be in town right now. I wanted to do some light painting, and I once again used a slow shutter speed and intentional camera movement.

For this first one, I just left the shutter open and moved my camera all around.

For this second one, I held the camera still for a second so I could get the ferris wheel somewhat defined, then moved the camera in a wave pattern.

I hope you enjoyed my interpretation on the theme abstract. I have to say, I had a lot of fun playing around getting these images. I hope you will too! Get out and have fun creating art! First though, continue through our circle to see Janet’s blog. You won’t be disappointed!

May 6, 2018May 5, 2018

Share Six | Urban

This month’s theme is urban. I live in the Midwest in a community of a few cities which are surrounded ultimately by miles and miles of farms. We don’t necessarily have what I would call a big city feeling to our communities, but urban ultimately means “of or relating to city”. So I guess it doesn’t matter the size of the city.

My first picture is of my boy on the sky bridge here in the Quad Cities. For those of you not familiar with the Quad Cities, the sky bridge is one of our iconic landmarks.

My second image is a double exposure of my son and part of the Davenport skyline (mainly the skybridge).

My third and fourth images are of my girl during a session we did downtown. She wanted more of an urban feel for her pictures.

I had to include a picture I recently took while we were downtown Chicago. Most people will recognize this iconic location.

And last, and quite possibly least, LOL, is an image that I think accurately depicts urban areas, or at least our urban area here in the QC. You wouldn’t be in the urban areas without being surrounded by construction. I thought I’d end with a bit of humor. This is obviously not a very artistic image, but it depicts our urban area we live in.

Continue though our blog circle by heading over to Janet’s blog to see her amazing images!! You won’t be disappointed!

February 6, 2018February 6, 2018

Share Six | Color

I chose this month’s theme. Every time it’s my turn to choose a theme I agonize over the decision. I really want to choose a theme that will force me to stretch my imagination and help me learn new skills and techniques. My plan was to use gels and OFC for all of my images for this month’s theme. I had some fun ideas for some outdoor shots. I became a wimp though and didn’t want to brave the cold. I did execute one shot inside. I tried another one of my ideas inside, but it didn’t work. So I strayed a bit from my plan of stretching myself by using gels.

My first image……While at a children’s museum I saw this bubble “wall”. It was absolutely beautiful!! The colors were stunning!! So naturally I had to photograph it. I’m seriously contemplating printing it real big. It just looks like abstract art to me.

My second and third images were taken at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. My favorite exhibit was the jellyfish. They are simply fascinating and the way they were lit was absolutely beautiful.

My fourth image is from our annual Balloon Festival at the evening glow. The balloons were so colorful and the ambience of their glow was so neat.

My final two images were ones that I used gels and off camera flash. The first one did not turn out how I wanted it to, but I kind of like that it looks like abstract art. I lit a stick of incense to get some smoke. Then I lit the smoke with a purple gel on the right and a magenta gel on the left (and a little lower). As I said, it wasn’t quite the effect I was going for, but it was still kind of cool.

My final image is of my son with his Spiderman costume on. I’ve been wanting to get a cool shot of him for a while now, using some very specific lighting, but hadn’t gotten around to it. While I had hoped to take the picture outside, I ended up just doing it in our living room. I lit him on the right with a red gel and grid, and on the left with a blue gel and grid.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my images! Thanks for stopping by!! Continue through the blog circle to see our other contributors’ interpretations. I know you won’t be disappointed. They never cease to amaze me with their talent. Also, don’t forget to post your own images with our tags #sharesix and #sharesix_color!

Next up is Kim of Kim Sidwell Photography. Head over to her blog to see her lovely images!!

October 6, 2017October 6, 2017

Share Six | Double Exposure

So this month’s theme is Double Exposure. I unfortunately have an old DSLR that does NOT have a double exposure function, which means I have to do it in Photoshop. I did however find that one of my favorite photography phone apps has a double exposure function, so some of my photos are done in photoshop and some are done in my phone app.

My first image was one that I did in the app using a picture I took of one of my antique cameras and another picture I took of a flower a while back. So every aspect of this image was done with the phone, except I used photoshop to add my watermark.

This next image is two of my favorite things – the Milky Way (at my favorite vacation spot) and a piano. These photos were taken with my DSLR and merged with the phone app.

The next four images are of myself and my family members with something that we love. First up is my husband and a baseball. These images were taken with my DSLR and merged in Photoshop.

Next is my son. He LOVES the outdoors and climbing trees. So I took a picture of him (with my phone) and a picture of some branches of a tree (also with my phone) and double exposed them in the phone app. I have to say, this is probably one of my favorites.

My daughter’s images were also taken with my phone and double exposed in the app. She is an avid reader, so the other image is of some of her favorite books.

(Their pictures kind of remind me of those childhood profile cutouts we did in school as children.)

Last is a self portrait of me that I took several years ago. I LOVE playing the piano and have been playing since I was five, so I double exposed the image of me with a picture I took of our piano. I took the images with my DSLR, but I double exposed them in the phone app.

I hope you enjoyed my take on this month’s theme. Oh, and if you are like me and your DSLR does not have a Double Exposure function, download the app Snapseed. It’s a great photography app!

Head on over to Claire’s blog and see her lovely images! Be sure to continue through the entire circle. You won’t want to miss everyone’s awesome images. Also, don’t forget to post your own take on this month’s theme either on our Facebook page or on Instagram! Tag #sharesix #sharesix_doubleexposure

September 6, 2017September 5, 2017

Share Six | Reflections

September’s Share Six theme is Reflections. Back in August we, as well as my in-laws, took a trip out to Virginia to visit my brother and sister-in-law. So we all took two days and visited Washington D.C. as well. It was a whirlwind trip to D.C., but it was well worth it.

I’d love to be profound with what I have to say, but as I’ve gotten older my ability to articulate my thoughts has declined. The last few years I have watched an illness come over our country. I don’t want to touch on politics, so this is a risk I’m taking, but I feel that it’s something we need to do. These last few years I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on our country, on its history, on our people, on myself…my own life. Those two days in Washington D.C. involved a lot of reflection. It breaks my heart that we (that’s ALL of us, BOTH sides of the political spectrum) can be so filled with hate. A lot of the hate stems from hurt. We all have stories we’ve heard, situations we’ve experienced, things that shape our feelings towards others. That’s never going to change. We will ALL look at things differently because no two people go through life with the same exact experiences. The problem is, we can let those experiences, those stories, those feelings shape us for the better or shape us for the worse. We can act in love or we can act in hate. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.” At some point we have to let go of the hurt, the grudges, the hate, otherwise it will eat away at us and rot our very souls. As I said before, we are ALL guilty of this in some shape or form, in some area(s) of our lives. In the political realm, BOTH parties are guilty of hate simply if someone doesn’t agree with their line of thinking. Here’s the thing, I am a optimist and always have been, but I have to face reality and realize that every person is unique and comes with their own unique perception of how life is. I can not change them or their beliefs. Do you know what I can do though? I can change myself. I am in charge of no one else except myself. So if I want to see change, I need to BE that change. If I want to see love, than I need to show love. Unfortunately the media loves to create hype, they know that hate sells and so that’s what they are going to show. You know what though, when I am out and about around my community I see so much love. Why don’t we take it upon ourselves to spread that love? Take pictures of love in action and share those! Let’s flood social media with images of love in action, because if you open your eyes you will see that there is so much love out there. We’ve all heard people say to get rid of the negativity in our lives and yet we turn on our tvs and fill our minds with the negativity the news media so gloriously loves to spread. We get on our social media accounts and see post after post of all the talk about hate. We even make our own posts about the hate. Are we that naive to think that so much dwelling on the hate is somehow going to take AWAY the hate?? As I was a child I was told that “what goes in comes out”. Why don’t we start filling our eyes, ears and minds with love instead of hate. Instead of ranting about the hate, let’s get off of social media and out of our homes and live our lives for others, spreading the love that this world so desperately needs!! Let’s be the change we want to see in the world!!

Ok, back to my images. Here are a few images I took in Washington D.C. While visiting there, you can’t help but reflect on all that this nation has been through, on all of the people that so selflessly gave their lives for our country. Shame on us for dishonoring these men and women who fought for us and who built this amazing but flawed nation!! Let’s honor them by changing our thoughts and actions and demonstrating love AND respect for every person!

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Head on over to Kathy’s blog to see her lovely images!!

July 5, 2017July 5, 2017

Hanna’s Senior Session

I had the privilege of photographing Hanna for her senior portraits. I’ve known this young woman her entire life. I even babysat her a few times when she was little. Her family is very dear to us as I have also known her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles my entire life. They feel like family to me.

It’s been so fun to watch Hanna grow into the beautiful young woman she is. She is beautiful both inside and out. She is also incredibly smart and talented.

I had a blast doing her session. She drove us around her grandparents’ farm on their gator…her friend beside her in the front and my husband (my assistant) and I in the back with my equipment. What a fun ride. Talk about a dream session. The farm offered wonderful backdrops!! Here are some of my favorites from her session.

Hope you enjoyed these pictures! If you or someone you know will be a high school senior this coming school year, it’s time to start thinking about senior portraits. Head over to my website for info and pricing, and feel free to call if you have any questions!

May 6, 2017May 5, 2017

Share Six | Street Photography

This month’s theme is way out of my comfort zone. I suppose though, that is one of the reasons for Share Six…to stretch our creativity and improve our photography skills. For my first two photos, I went downtown to try to find some inspiration. It became a bit of an eventful evening with the employees of Jimmy Johns begging us to get dollar subs, then some guys trying to photobomb my pictures, and then a drunk man getting mad at me for taking pictures. He was worried I was taking pictures of him. And this is why I take my husband with me most of the time. You never know what you’ll run into. Haha

For my last 4 photos, I took some images at the Dutch Days Festival. It worked out really well that we had this field trip. It made for a great opportunity to get some pictures. I’ve only been to this festival one other time, but I knew I just had to see the klompen dancing. It is so fun to watch and would be great to capture. I even leaned over and told my daughter that she should go learn to klompen dance, but what I really meant is that our whole family should. Think of how much fun that would be, and how hilarious it would be. (My daughter and I aren’t that coordinated.)

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my take on this month’s theme!

Head on over to Aubrey’s blog to see her wonderful images!! Leave some love for our contributors’ as you make your way through the circle! And please come back to our Facebook page or Instagram page to post your images for this month’s theme for a chance to be featured!! We can’t wait to see all of your creativity!!