We are ready for our Seniors 2012!

It is that time of year already!! While we all prepare for summer, there is a whole new crew of soon-to-be high school seniors who are already preparing for senior year! It always surprises us when we start getting calls about senior sessions in May-we love that these juniors are so excited for their final year of high school! We love their energy, enthusiasm and zest for life. We thought we would post a few of our seniors from past years-it is fun to see what they are all doing now!

If you have an incoming senior in your house, call us soon to schedule your planning session with Melissa. We are currently booking into July-and you know how fast summer flies by! Call 651.343.4823 to book your session!!

Cassell - the superstar!!

Before the Memorial Day long weekend begins, we had to post another precious Dog Days of March session for you all to enjoy! Meet Cassell-a stunningly beautiful golden retriever whom we met through our portrait display at Dog Days in St Paul (http://www.dogdaysinc.com/) Cassell used to walk into Dog Days for daycare and stop to gaze at one of our dog portraits on display. So when Cassell's owner, Debra heard about our March promotion, she knew she had to bring Cassell in for a portrait session of her own! During the session, Cassell was a charmer!! As soon as the couch came out, Cassell knew exactly what she needed to do and before we knew it, she was posing like a diva on the couch!! It was priceless-and one of our favorite images from her session! We are so excited to help Debra celebrate Cassell and have created amazing portraits for her to display in her home.

Happy First Birthday, dear Eleanor!!!!

You will probably recall Baby Eleanor from previous posts when she was a brand newborn (wide awake!!) and as a happy 6 month old! Well, now she is a year old and there is nothing stopping her!! Eleanor is absolutely darling and she definitely keeps up with her two older brothers, Brennan age 5 and Davis, age 3. Although being the only girl, Eleanor certainly has a sweet feminine side that we captured as well during this session. Mom needs to become our studio stylist as she always finds the BEST accessories and outfits. It has been such an honor for us to capture Brennan, Davis and Eleanor since they were all babies-and we are excited for the many more sessions with this lovely family in the years to come!

The two sides of Miss Sallie!

During our Dog Days of March month this year, we met many new furry friends that we would love to introduce you to over the blog! Over the next few weeks, we are going to blog on many of these new friends. First up is Miss Sallie, white miniature schnauzer who is beyond adorable! Sallie's parents, Joe and Laura, adore their girl and were so thrilled for us to capture Sallie's personality and charm. One of the fun things about Sallie was she is a super-girly dog who looked stunning in our pink chair with the floral pattern around her but she also quickly transitioned into a Harley Davidson girl when she sported her Harley shirt to match Joe! We loved it!!

Family of 3!

Have we mentioned before how much we LOVE babies?!? Maybe just a couple of times, right? And what could be better than a newborn baby just days old? Meet Baby John who was 8 days old when we met him for the first time. His parents, Rick and Kim, were super relaxed and calm for having a baby just days before-we were impressed! Baby John was a star-he slept through almost the entire session (we are hoping his parents are that lucky with him through the night!) The result of this beautiful, peaceful session-darling newborn images that Rick and Kim will one day look back at and wonder where those newborn days went? It is a fleeting moment so it is so special to have these beautiful portraits to remember the quiet moments at 3am when they have soothed John back to sleep. We look forward to capturing John when he is sitting up by himself and all smiles-it will be here before you know it!!

Featured in Animal Tracks Magazine

We are thrilled to share with you the current edition of Animal Tracks Magazine. Animal Tracks is the magazine of the Animal Humane Society. It is published three times a year in April, August and December. It is mailed to donors and individuals enrolled in our Training School and educational programs. Last fall, Melissa was asked to photograph for the Spring/Summer 2011 publications for two articles. The first article featured the AHS's Animal Ambassadors program. Volunteers are trained with their pets to provide animal-assisted therapy and activities to people
throughout the Twin Cities metro area. They visit schools, nursing homes, hospitals, and other facilities to provide comfort, enrichment and learning opportunities to the people who need it most. We spent a morning at the Southside Family Nurturing Center photographing therapy dog, Duke, his owner Mindy and the preschoolers there. It was such an enriching experience to see how Duke would light up the faces of so many preschoolers.

The second article featured AHS staff and their pets: specifically pets they have adopted from the AHS. We met some of the very dedicated AHS staff and their lovable pets including a pit bull terrier, a Doberman Pinscher, several cats and even a guinea pig. It was a great assignment and one that we loved to do. Thanks to the AHS for such a fun few days!

You can read more of these articles online at: http://events.animalhumanesociety.org/site/DocServer/SpringSummer_AT_2011.pdf?docID=681
Check it out!!

Zoom Photography Camp for Kids!

Now that is is May, we are gearing up for ZOOM Camp next month!! We still have a couple of spots available for campers so if you have a 10-13 year old who loves photography, call us today!!

June 13-16 2011 from 9:30am-12:30pm daily.

The camp will be held at our Saint Paul studio location, in addition to local Saint Paul locations within walking distance of the studio.

During the week we will be creating a portfolio of images that will be displayed at the Zoom Art Show by the campers on Thursday June 23 in the evening (this was definitely one of the big highlights of camp last time). Images will demonstrate knowledge gained of basic composition, camera controls, location shooting and portraiture. Each camper must bring a digital camera (SLR preferred).

Registration fee: $255 required upon enrollment (enrollment is limited and on a first come first served basis)
Call 651.343.4823 to register!

Dixie the dog!

Last month we offered Dog Days of March for all of our furry friends-and what a hit it was amongst our clients!! We had many furry friends-new and old- come to the studio for sessions (and as you can see from these images, we even had a cat or two come in! But, shhhh!, don't let the dogs know!) Meet Dixie the dog! Dixie's owner, Tara, brought Dixie in for the photo session to surprise her hubby (Dixie is his hunting pal!) with portraits of Dixie for his birthday! Accompanying Dixie that day, was Belle, the new kitten who was more than happy to "jump" into a few images. What a hoot this pair was! We loved it!
(watch for more blog posts of our dog friends in the weeks to come as we share more images!)

Mr Andrew turns 6 months!

6 months sessions are the BEST!!!! Baby Andrew turned 6 months old and came in with his brothers and sister for an awesome photo session! Mom always has the best ideas for their sessions so we loved having Andrew in a necktie and a diaper-how cute is this?!?! It was also special for us to update all the kids' portraits to be displayed in their kitchen-and add Andrew's to the wall collage! We can't wait to see what lies in store for Andrew's one year old session this summer - and a side note: these cuties have a brand new baby boy cousin born last week whom we photographed this past week at 8 days old. Super sweet-stay tuned for his images coming soon on the blog!

Tutu cute!!

Ava and Audrey (how cute are those names for sisters?!?) came to one of our Tutus and Tiptoes sessions back in February and boy, did they have fun!! These sessions are always some of our favorite sessions of the year-how can you not just love these super-girly, darling sessions with barefeet and poofy tutus?! We loved capturing these sisters together and on their own as their darling personalities shone through. Such a special time!!