I borrowed this cute little owl hat from a photographer friend of mine intending to use it on my nephew, Henry.  It fits his little head perfectly right now, so I ran to my sister’s house this week and borrowed baby Henry.  Unfortunately, he was not into my planned photo shoot and boy did he let me know it.  I don’t think he liked me taking off his clothes, laying him down or putting the hat on him.  He was awake for the entire shoot, this shot was a just a lucky shot when his eyes were closed.  I thought I’d post a couple pictures so you could all see the adorable hat and my beautiful nephew.  Enjoy!

Every year I dread doing my own family pictures.  Especially trying to get a picture of the boys for the Christmas card.  But this morning I woke up with nothing planned for the entire day.  And for those of you that know me, that is really saying something.  Heaven forbid we just stay home and relax.  So I dug through everyone’s closets and came up with somewhat matching clothes, we all got dressed and were out the door before 9:30am for family pics.  We headed downtown Grand Rapids to one of my favorite little spots.  I also grabbed my tripod.  Everyone was so well behaved (I’m sure the bribe of a trip to Target for toys afterward helped some) and I feel like I got a ton of fun shots.  I already have my Christmas card designed and waiting to be printed at the lab 🙂

Click HERE to see a slideshow of the complete shoot!

I was so excited to take pictures of baby Owen on his one week birthday. I was blessed to be able to photograph his parents wedding a couple years ago, and one week ago little Owen was born. Thanks Jessica and Aaron for having me over this weekend to meet your new gift from God. Congrats!

I was blessed to be able to take baby Eli’s newborn pictures almost six months ago.  Now he is back for his 6 month photo shoot!  I love this age, they can’t crawl away and are almost always smiling.  What a precious little guy!

Every year it seems that one specific color dominates the wedding scene.  Last year, 2010, it was orange.  I loved seeing that awesome pop of color throughout the wedding season, it always looked great pictures.  I thought I would share a few of the pictures today.  Enjoy!

I had the opportunity to photograph Kim and Nick’s wedding in South Bend, Indiana.  The wedding and reception took place at St. Mary’s College.  What a beautiful place for a wedding!  So many spots outdoors and indoors to take awesome wedding shots.  And Kim was a beautiful bride.  I’ve been waiting for one of my brides to wear a wedding dress from the JCrew bridal collection, and she did.  Thanks again Nick and Kim for allowing me to spend this very special day with you and your families.  Enjoy!

To see the slideshow from the beautiful wedding, click here.

I love having photos on my walls.  Luckily, I have very high ceilings that allow for lots of wall art and I take lots of pictures, so I always have a lot to choose from.  I have one wall in my living room that I update with new canvas prints or a gallery mount every January after my annual New Year’s Day photo shoot of my boys.  That means that I always have last years’ canvases to find a home for somewhere in the house.  Therefore, my bedroom wall is the dumping ground for old canvas and gallery mounts that move from the living room.  I also love to make up large canvas prints for my living room and kitchen area from photos taken throughout the year, steering away from my kids and using nature.  I’m always asked where I get good canvas prints made.  For my clients, I use a professional lab here in Grand Rapids.  Their work is awesome and I love their product.  But for my personal home canvas prints, I will use Costco or the professional lab.  While the quality of the Costco canvas is not the same as Prolab Express, I feel like the look is just fine for my personal use.  The following are some canvas I have up in my home.  I will follow each pic with the lab I used to print it.  Leave me a comment if you have any questions!  Happy Saturday!

my bathroom canvas.  i need this to remind me daily that God’s compassions are new every morning and His faithfulness is great!  this was done at Costco 20×30

three canvas across top of window, these were done at Prolab Express, Grand Rapids

the boys done at Prolab Express, Grand Rapids.

the boys done at Costco.

my kitchen up above the cabinets, done at Costco 20×30

I have been so very busy the past week!  I had two weddings last weekend and have been hard at work editing pictures the past two days.  Needless to say, I have been a bad blogger.  I completely ran out of time this morning to post anything.  So today’s post will be a sneak peek of the wedding I photographed on Friday.  While the day started with some rain (they say rain is good luck on the wedding day), it did clear up enough to allow us to hit a local park in Holland for beautiful outdoor pics.  Enjoy!

Cake:  Cake Occasions, Hudsonville

Floral Design:  True Vine Creations, Jenison

Catering:  Above & Beyond Catering, Holland

As a wedding photographer, I get to attend numerous weddings every year.  My wedding “season” in Michigan normally runs from May until the end of October.  And I tend to have a lot of outdoor weddings during the summer months.  My wedding today is actually indoors, but we will be doing all the photos outside.  I give my brides and grooms a lot of credit planning an outdoor wedding in Michigan.  I don’t care what month of the year it is, you have the potential for rain, snow or blazing heat.  Out of all the outdoor weddings I have shot over the years, none of them have been rained out.  But I have had a few with high temps and lots of humidity.  In honor of the wedding I am doing today (temps are supposed to reach the mid 90s with some humidity thrown in), I am pulling out a few shots from previous years weddings that were held outdoors.  Enjoy!

This week the temps are going to be in the 90’s.  And our A/C is on the fritz, so if I don’t have to turn on the oven I’m happy.  While on vacation last week, I poured over a bunch of recent cooking magazines.  A popular recipe for this time of year is pizza on the grill.  So I thought I’d give it a shot tonight.  This turned out better than I could have hoped, I actually ate three pieces and my hubby at the rest!  And while most of the recipes called for homemade dough that you cook on the grill, I cheated and used a thin crust Boboli crust.  Try this recipe this week, I promise you’ll love it!

Shrimp Pizza on the Grill:

frozen tail-off deveined shrimp (as much as you want on your pizza)

1/2 cup butter

extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves minced garlic

1/2 t. parsley flakes

1 t. italian seasoning

1 can of mushrooms

sliced sweet onions

quartered cherry tomatoes

1 cup feta cheese

1 Boboli thin crust

start with a thin crust Boboli

I used my extra virgin olive oil from Old World Olive Press in Rockford.  I also used their Italian seasoning.

Throw a dash of olive oil in a fry pan.

mmm…add butter, garlic, seasonings and shrimp.  scampi it up!

brush crust with olive oil

once shrimp is done, place on crust

keep the butter in the pan after you’ve removed the shrimp and add the onions and mushrooms.  saute till tender.

meanwhile, cover crust with feta and tomatoes

add onions and mushrooms.  i also drizzled just a LITTLE bit of the butter sauce because it was so darn good!

bring outside and throw on a grill heated to medium high.  cook for about 5 minutes until crust is crispy.

this was my first helping.  yummmm!

this was my hubby’s plate.  he loved this and ate the entire pizza other than my three pieces.  mmm…