The Celebration of Smiles Event was a huge success, thanks to everyone who participated!! Rice Lake Printery donated the fliers and cards -  The Chronotype generously gave advertising space,  Arrowhead Family Dental helped to market and gave a matching donation to sponsor 1 surgery, and  Thyme Worn Treasures graciously hosted the event, offered yummy treats, shared advertising, promoted the event, AND gave a matching donation to sponsor 1 surgery!! All together we raised enough for FOUR cleft lip or cleft palate surgeries.

Some of the smiles we photographed for the event: 

We are excited to announce that on April 21 Seasons Photography will join with PPA Charities (and other Professional Photographers of America around the U.S.) to promote “Celebration of Smiles Day.  This national fundraising effort will benefit Operation Smile, which treats children around the world who suffer with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities.

During our Celebration of Smiles Event on April 21 at Thyme Worn Treasures in Rice Lake we are offering mini sessions that include both a 5X7 custom print and a FaceBook image for a minimum $24 donation.  100% of that donation will go directly to Operation Smile and additional prints will be available for purchase. This donation represents one tenth of $240, the amount needed to help fund a single surgery. This is the perfect opportunity to have your portrait made or that of a loved one, because in doing so you are making it possible to truly change the lives of children who would otherwise face a lifetime of pain and rejection.

In as little as 45 minutes, one cleft lip surgery can change a child’s life forever. Every three minutes a child somewhere in the world is born with a facial deformity. One in ten will not survive to see their first birthday. Those who do survive often live in isolation and pain. Each year, more than 100,000 children are born with a facial deformity in Operation Smile’s 26 partner countries. Tens of thousands remain untreated.  

Recording smiles and other great expressions is what we do, so we are excited to be a part of this.  Please join us in our goal to raise enough money for two children to have this necessary surgery!  Call our studio to reserve your time slot.  715-234-3187

A HUGE "thank you" to our partners: Thyme Worn Treasures, Rice Lake Printery, The Chronotype, and Arrowhead Dental.  With your support and generosity, I know we will reach our goal!

For more information about the charity Operation Smile go to www.operationsmile.org 

I'm thinking "Spring" and with Spring I think of babies.  Babies of all kinds.  I was in Scotland one Spring when all the lambs were coming.  What a glorious site!  Lambs everywhere!  (I wish I had images of them to show too.)  With all the baby thoughts, I want to share some images that I made of Baby Wrigley.  He is 9 months old now, but here he was just 3 days old.  He was such a sweet baby.  Isn't he beautiful?!  Does it make you think of Spring too?

Ken and Kelly's wedding celebration was at Kelly's parents beautiful home.  It was a perfect fall day.  The colors around and in the dresses and details were so vibrant.  We ran into town for some fun at the train station too! 

Baby Kate is just 1 week old in these images.  I love to work with newborns under 10 days old!  She was so sweet.

Once her belly was full and we had her nice and toasty warm she slept peacefully while we had some fun! 

 Kate and her big brother...

This is one of my favorite families to photograph.  I have had the privilege of photographing both Sophie and Sam as babies all the way to now.  They are so fun and full of spunk!  Bridget is always up for new ideas for using their family photography as artwork in their home.  I was excited to photograph them at their home this year.  You wouldn't even know that it was cool and breezy on this late fall day!

Nick & Jessie

I loved how Jessie had her hair pulled over one shoulder, the color of the violet dresses her girls were wearing, and the garden  hors d'oeuvre reception where their guests gathered after their ceremony.   Nick and Jessie are such a pleasant and relaxed couple, the details were truly representative of who they are.  We had so much fun photographing them and their families in and around the gardens.  It was such a wonderful setting.  We actually got a few raindrops, but it only added to the greatness of the day!  I always tell couples not to worry that it might rain on their wedding day.  Sometimes it adds to the fun and it almost never rains the entire day long anyway.

Hailey.  She is one year old already!  Her parents are one of our wedding couples from a few years back.  I love it when we get to photograph the babies of our past brides and grooms.  Hailey kept us on our toes and running for an hour!  She is on a mission and so independent.  By her parent's own admission, she is the center of their world.  I know for a fact that is true for her Grandparents as well!  This location is a cute little park right here in town.  It's great for small children because they can run and be safe.  Adam & Amber, enjoy your little "sneak peak"!    

We love to photograph weddings at Tagalong.  It's such a beautiful setting and a great fit for our photography style.  Aaron and Jessica had a perfect early fall day to celebrate.  Katie from In The Woods Weddings did the flowers and decorated for the reception and everything was so well done.  The colors were wonderful, Jessica was so pretty, and we had fun telling their wedding celebration story through our lenses!  

We are excited to offer our Christmas Mini Sessions again in 2011.  The session is $125 and will be on Saturday, September 24th...call or email right away to reserve your time slot!  Email vicky@seasonsphotography.net or call 715-234-3187.

There are so many ways to make your wedding details a reflection of who the two of you are and what is important to you.  Over the past couple of years, we've noticed that wedding couples are getting buses - school buses, greyhound buses, 'short', limo-type buses - to transport their wedding party and families from the church to reception to hotels.  I'll usually hop on  the bus (or the wagon) as well and get some fun images.  Call me old fashioned, but I love to see the groom helping his new bride into a car or carriage.  The transportation for you as a wedding couple is a really important detail to consider.  It is very individual.  It can be a nice service for your guests, a great opportunity to steal away together for a few private minutes after the ceremony, or a fun event for your wedding party.   

Images from a recent wedding...  Stephanie was absolutely gorgeous.  She just told me the other day that she knew she wanted us as her wedding photographers because she was familiar with our work from some friends weddings.  Referrals are our very best marketing resource. 

I love combining my photography skills and my design background to create artwork for my clients homes. These are design ideas I presented to two recent clients and they now have these in their homes!  The great thing is, I can show them what it will look like in their home, in proper scale, before they even make their purchase.  These are Canvas Gallery Wraps which don't require framing, but a framed collage is a great option too.   

I LOVE flowers.  I love the color, the smell, and the little bit of joy they add to a room.  One of my favorite things about wedding photography is the punch of color that flowers add to the images.  I just wanted to share a few of the wonderful styles of flower design that I've enjoyed at weddings we've photographed and give you some ideas for your own wedding.  One of the things to really consider when you are planning your big day is how you will use fresh flowers and greens to complement your style.  As you will see in these examples, the flowers and the way they are presented create a design element that portrays the 'feel' and the 'look' of your wedding, not to mention the wonderful scent some of these bouquets add to the room.  Every part of your wedding; bouquets, the isle,  the church, the reception tables, and your cake is blessed by the beauty of flowers.   

We love to photograph weddings at the beautiful Dobie church and Turtleback Golf Course.  Bjorn & Claire had a perfect May day for their wedding celebration.  I love May weddings because the greens are so green. 

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Isn't Claire such a tiny bride?  Her dress was so perfect for her.  I love it.  I'm amazed that I haven't seen the same dress twice in all the weddings we've photographed.  A wedding dress is so individual.

This is precious Cameryn.  Her mom found us online and I was so thrilled to be able to photograph her new baby girl.  Sweet.  Sweet.  Sweet.  She is 1 week old.  I like to photograph newborns before they leave the hospital or within a week of their Birthday.  They will still curl up and they still have the wrinkles and the belly button.  I went out to Cameryn's home so Christen didn't have to bring her out that first week.  All I need is a little window light!  Even if you don't have your newborn professionally photographed, be sure to take lots of pictures before you even leave the hospital.  They are never the same as those first few days.

I just want to share a sample of a few of my favorites from Katie's session. View a video of her whole session on our facebook page.   

                                                                       Believe it or not, this first image was taken town.                                                                        I saw the sun coming through the trees above her and had to get this great source of light in the image. 

Baby Lincoln waited to arrive until after we returned from our family vacation.  We were all afraid he'd come the week I was gone and we had planned to get some pictures of him while he was brand spanking new - at the hospital.  I love the wrinkles and belly clips and ankle bracelets from the first couple of days there.  Sean & Sami are so sweet together and Lincoln will have the benefit of their strong commitment to one another.  He has changed and grown already!  Here are the images from his second day...  Oh, and I thought this song was so perfect for them because a friend of theirs read the book I'll Love You Forever to them at their baby shower.

Jesse & Katie are such a great couple.  It was a beautiful sun shiny day for their wedding and we had fun documenting their celebration.  I love the color of the bridesmaid dresses - John Deer Green!  This is just a little sampling from their day...

We had the priviledge of photographing Sean & Sami's wedding a couple of years ago and now a Maternity Session this summer!  I've also photographed their new baby boy - those images to come...  This is a 5x30" image I created for them out of some of their favorites from the session.  I call it the Waterfall...

 Bart and Jamie's wedding was at their home.  The ceremony site was set up so beautifully with an isle of tool leading past a neat little garden to overlook the river.  It was tons of fun for Josh and me as we know many of the same people they know from our hometown.  (Ok, we're a few years older than they are, so we met them for the first time when they chose us to photograph their wedding.)  Outdoor photography for weddings is our favorite.  It was HOT and perfect with a downpour during the recieving line that forced everyone under shelter for about 20 minutes.  They had their dinner reception at the park and tastefully decorated their tables with pretty little flowers and other details. These are just a few favorites to overview their wedding... 

I wanted to share this piece to show how you can be a part of the creative process.  Krista wanted me to create something special for her husband's birthday.  She had an idea to represent all the things that are important to him on one image - God, his wife, and his children.  Krista wanted to include an image of a church to represent God and asked me to use some graphic type letters to spell out her husband's motto "Anything short of sin".  So, we arranged a time to photograph her and their three children when he wouldn't suspect anything.  The kids changed clothes in the car on the way to the session location and we got lots of fun images to choose from.  I found a cute old church to photograph and went around town photographing signs that I could extract letters from for the graphic lettering.  We put it all together and she ordered the image on a Standout Mount for his office!  btw: the kids are doing an "air benders" thing from the movie that their Dad had recently taken them to... I love the humor. 

We photographed Matt & Yvonne's wedding and have had the pleasure of continuing to photograph them - now with thier two boys!  I am sharing some of our favorites from their session.  I enjoy the more interactive or 'relationship' images of family more often then the 'everyone look happy and smile' poses, but I see the beauty of both and work to give families both options.  There are different places in your home to display the different styles.  The images of Carter below are great artwork for decorating in a bedroom.  They are fun and playful and would be beautiful in a large size.  The image of Calvin is more like a portrait and you can see the spark in his eyes.  When you photograph your children or are having someone else photograph them, try not to make them too aware of the camera.  Try watching and waiting and photograph them when they aren't looking directly at you.  When someone becomes camera aware, they often tend to stiffen up or fake it - you know what I mean, you probably do it too! 

Carter.

Calvin.

Dad was just helping Carter in the river.  I love these timeless images.  

I had so much fun working with this young family.  We have photographed a few of their friends weddings over the last few years, so that is our connection.  It's great to have connections!  For Father's Day, Leiah gave Cory the Pinwheel with four, story telling images of his relationship with their oldest daughter.  It was framed with a rich brown mat like this and was beautiful!  I wanted to keep it in my studio to show everyone, so I thought I'd share it this way instead.  I love photographing a series of images that show personality or relationship.  It's a really fun thing to do with your kids.  When you photograph them, zoom in really close and fill the frame with their face and photograph a few different expressions as you have them dance around, or look mad, or share about their favorite book.  These images are priceless in the years to come.  Our family albums have lots of little series because I have to keep every image that is showing their unique personalities.  I'm so glad we have them.  Our first daughter is going to be 14 and her pretty blue eyes are still captivating.

Ben & Katie are one of the nicest couples we have worked with.  Both of them are so layed back and genuinely friendly.  We are looking forward to their Fall wedding!  Here are a few of our favorites from their session:

Notice the bird's nest in the corner of the window...

I finally got the courage to call and get permission to go to this location.  This is our first session at this "urban" setting and there is so much variety here.  This will be a great spot for children too!

After a couple of years of my family begging to get a dog, I had a weak moment and agreed that we should go look at the "Adorable Little Yorkie Puppy" that was advertised in the newspaper.  I was thinking I didn't want a pet in the house - like I need another thing to do!  But, after looking online at the characteristics of the Yorkshire Terrior it seemed he would have all the qualities we are looking for in a dog.  He isn't supposed to shed - #1 prerequisite for me.  He is very sweet and has been sleeping through the night in his crate in Marissa's room.  We had a hard time coming up with a name that all of us liked, but have settled on Riley!  He looks like a Riley, don't you think?

Pets can sometimes be difficult to photograph.  Riley kept coming to me when I got down on his level to get a good angle.  I photograph animals by filling the frame with their face or body and limiting background distractions.  It works well to stand over them and make a noise to get them to look up at you or to get down on their plane and zoom in.  I like to control the settings on my camera so I can use a high aperature that puts the eyes in focus and the background out of focus.  Don't forget to photograph your pets when you first get them - they are only babies for a little while!

Does anyone have advise on training a puppy?  I'd love to hear from you.  Also, are there some of you who are interested in having your pet photographed?  If there is an interest, I would schedule a couple of days and run a promotion or a fundraiser for a non-profit animal service in our area. 

I had so much fun with this crew and had to share some of my (and Mom's)  favorites. 

I had to post this one because I think it is soo funny... I laugh every time I look at it.

Look at these eyes!

Mom's favorite!  I love the spunk here!

A few days after this session, they took the old railroad tie steps out and replaced them with new ones. 

I'm sad about it, but I'm sure they will be safer now.  The sun was behind the kids and low, creating some great backlighting.

How great is it to be 3?!

 Some family in Norway sent these outfits and the kids were so cute.  This image reminded me of the movie 'Sound of Music' for some reason.  When I said that to Bridget, she said "I don't have that many children!"  

It's the clothing and the running and the laughing.... Grandma loves this one. 

These are a few of my favorites from Amber's session at her home last fall.  It was a beautiful overcast day.  Perfect lighting for outdoor portraits!  A lot of people assume that a bright, sun shiny, day is the best for their session but the sun is very difficult to work in.  It creates harsh, unflattering, bright and shadowed lighting on the face.  If you are photographing someone outdoors on a beautiful summer day and want even lighting, bring your subject into a shaded area and use your flash to put a little light in their eyes. 

I photographed baby Kaia in her beautiful home.  She was 1 week old and with a full belly and a space heater she slep through most of the session.  Even though she is the first for her parents, they were like 'old pros' with her! 

 Jon and Angela, it was so nice to work with you.  I can't wait for you to see them all!