During your session...

I have been sneaking in a few mini sessions that are just for me and just for fun! Sometimes, I cant believe that 3 years ago I wasn't doing photography like I am now and sometimes for a second I think really you want me to look through this camera and take smiling pictures of this snot nosed kid? That is at the studio only... I can't believe how little a white background does for a 2 year old... it shows no personality. I think I have scarred my family and friends as well as myself in never getting studio portraits! A white background describes ABSOLUTELY nothing about the little people in your life who have so much personality! Sorry, just a little soap box in my world. Anyway, sometimes when I am shooting your session you may or may not notice that I snap photos of things around us and not neccessarily your children. Sometimes, I can't help it I am chasing your children and BAM something jumps out at me that I have to photograph! These are just a few of those things!

All my babies are growing up...

So Ms. Maggie, the last time I really remember her she was 4 and had blonde hair in a pony tail and she was bounding down the steps now she is a gorgeous young woman and she is telling me about fashion and her dreams of becoming a wedding planner (yes.. that is music to my ears!). She was amazing to work with and I found all kinds of new spots at Forest Park that I absolutely love! I can't wait to do engagement photos there this fall!

Slammed... That's Me!

Slammed... yea that pretty much sum's up my weeks right now, I love it! I want it to always be this way... I am sorry to the people who I have not called in weeks or who have called and I haven't answered. If it makes you feel any better I haven't seen my neighbor who lives NEXT DOOR in almost 2 1/2 weeks... except in passing when I am driving and she is walking or vice versa. However much I love being busy and I am loving all these amazing sessions I am doing I am not getting to post on here as often I would like so tonight I am going slam my blog with a ton of posts. Well as many as I can keep my eyes open for... and here is... Steph's kids! I love them, the oldest is into fake smiling, or not smiling and wouldn't say any of my funny words and the youngest is a total ham! I am so happy I will be photographing them over the next few years I can't wait to watch them grow!

Learning as I go...

So, I have learned that everything I posted before my last post Happy Thursday was considered SOOC... which means straight out of camera. I have now learned a little better editing techniques and am excited to say they have really turned my pictures from beautiful to stunning! Please don't think that my lack of post's have been because I am not busy, that is completely not the case. I am slammed. I am however booking sessions for August! On Sunday morning, I was able to photograph a lot of beautiful people but one of my favorites was Caiti. When I was 16, I some how landed a babysitting job for my neighbors at the time their kids were 8,6, and 3 and 9 months. I fell in love with all of them but especially their 9 month old David. Needless, to say David and I hung out ALOT. As the years have gone by I have loved this family so much and to stay in contact with them as close as I have has truly been a blessing. I remember Caiti laying on the floor in the hallway and she was absolutely uncontrollable, I had no power over her whatsoever. I believe this may have been in the same week that she set the clocks back and her and her sister stayed up like an extra hour. None the less, in my desperate need to punish her for being as mouthy, and relentless as she was I set her at the table to cut 100 individual circles. That punishment has stayed with us for almost 10 years now and I can still look at her brothers and say "Do you want to cut circles?" and the behavior stops immediately. I was absolutely blown away by her beauty this Sunday I didn't realize that underneath those soccer cleats, gym shorts and t-shirts is an absolutely stunning young woman. I also had quite a few other sessions but more to come from those later!

Happy Thursday!

Today, as I am sitting in my office, realizing my kitchen and my house are a wreck, my office is piled high with papers and books about photoshop and my phone has 7 voice mails on it I realized that I am absolutely the happiest I have ever been. Next to the day I became Mrs. Andrew Brockmeyer of course, although that day was filled with stress and nervous giggling we did survive. Someone asked me the other day at the studio how long I have been doing photography and I almost choked when I told them a year and 3 months. That's it... that's all... I can't believe how every session I do I am learning more and my work is improving every single day. I am so proud of myself. I love the freedom that this company is bringing me and the joy of getting to meet new people and total and complete relaxation I recieve from spending the day at my laptop editing away. I can't imagine my life being any other way.

When I worked at SSD, there were only a few days in 5 years that I can look back and say wow that was a great day, there were many great minutes and moments but rarely was a whole day good. How sad is that? It kills me to not be with my kids every day of the week but I have to say I love my relationship's with them now, we have a higher level of respect and we love each other but I am now the fun one! I don't really discipline but we go swimming and do silly things together. I could never have imagined 3 years ago that I would be building my own company now and loving my life as much as I do. I wouldn't take anything back... it was the greatest journey to get where I am now.

Today, I photographed two beautiful teenagers from North Carolina, their grandmother lives in St. Louis and she was referred to me by another client of mine. We went to Bee Tree Park to shoot Grant's senior pictures and to update Courtney's. They were so much fun, I loved getting them in shot's together and not trying to sqeeze them on a white background. We had so many options to choose for backgrounds it was very hard to narrow down. I thought I would just share a few with you!

In the country...

It's been a minute since I have posted not that we haven't been busy, I just haven't made it to the computer! We have been slammed with portrait parties and they are so much fun! We have booked quite a few for the fall and I am so excited! None the less, my lil' Brockmeyer family skipped the usual festivities this year and went down to the Black River! My husband has property down there and we spent Saturday night into Sunday with his parents. It was a great mini trip and we got to see alot of the country side! Our property is right across from Johnson Shut Inn's it is so gorgeous!!! Drew's uncle has bought a couple property's down in the country and this tree with the reflection is on his 80 acre farm its perfect I love how still the water is, like glass! The metal swing bench is on the front porch of this old farm house, I love it in sepia, it makes me want to sit down with a lemonade and stay awhile. The house and the barn on this property are over 100 years old and they even have a stone well house and a fresh water spring! It's just perfect. Also Drew's aunt Suzanne stumbled upon this old mill on private property in Lesterville, it is tiny but perfectly intact. It has 3 wonderful waterfalls and thanks to my brother we were able to figure out how to leave the shutter open to capture this beautiful water flow. The large sign in the bottom right had corner says Private Property in orange crayon so we didn't leave the road but we still were able to get great shots! I hope you enjoy them as much as we did and look forward to giving sneak peeks to the other sessions we have this week!