Senior Portrait Session :: Phillip [Elizabethtown]

Last weekend's sunny warmth was a welcome relief amid a few weeks of uncertain weather here ~ and Phillip's family homestead was a wonderful location for his senior portraits. This 2010 Elizabethtown High School senior is currently a member of the lacrosse team and looking forward to the team's first-ever district playoff this later today (GO BEARS!) Besides playing lacrosse, he also enjoys creating music~ playing guitar and more recently, piano. Phillip will be headed to Lock Haven this fall to major in geology. Here are a few of my fave images from his portrait session... even though he has amazing green eyes, I found a new b&w post-processing preset that I love with some of the images, and his hair and skin tone was a perfect fit.

I am also booking portrait sessions for 2011 area high school seniors for June and July~ I have limited openings, so don't wait!

Elizabethtown Family Portrait Session :: The Johns'

A good number of the people featured on this blog are either friends of our family, or soon become so~ we met our good friends John and Donna Johns through our church. For several years, Donna has been our daughter's Sunday school teacher, while John and our boys have a weekly catch-up conversation about sports while thumb-wrestling. Donna and John's sons, Kenny and Ryan, have also been involved in helping with our church youth programs and our kids just love them. Daughter Amy is getting married the end of this month~ and her fiance, Ben just fits in perfectly with the rest of the crew.

We had a great session this past weekend on a rather muggy day~ I had a particular image in mind (in a field) and had been praying all week for the weather to just cooperate... the day of the session we were literally watching the weather radar to head out between storms.  The first rain had passed, so I knew time was limited and yet needed keep things low-stress and fun. The boys (including John) are all avid frisbee players and were happy to throw frisbee as we went along.

Sometimes it really is work though, both for me and the people I am photographing. At one point we were in the field and these swarmy fly thingies were all around my head (eeew, yes gross) and we soon realized that they would swarm to the tallest person. So we literally formed a fly diversion by passing the swarm of flies to Ryan who stood there in the field with his arms up. Covered in flies. This process was repeated several times with different family members until I had all the images I needed...we surely looked ridiculous... the lengths we will go to for great images! And the best part was at the end of the session... no more than 30 seconds after we started driving away huge raindrops started falling... what a perfectly answered prayer!

Here are a few of my faves:

Baby Portrait Session :: Little Starlet

I met Kim & Jared with their beautiful 9-month-old daughter in Harrisburg on a warm and muggy Saturday morning for her baby portrait session. Anyone who was out and about last weekend may know just how buggy it was~ apparently we hit the 'swarm' time for little flying things~ thankfully we found some areas where it was not too bad and all three were real troopers!

As I was editing these images, I kept thinking how pretty Kim is and what a great couple she and Jared make~ I have truly been blessed to meet awesome people through my work. I guess it's possible that I become a bit biased about my clients~ I just love them all! And I love the dynamics of personalities within families. Kim is a self-professed non-girly girl, but her daughter already prefers things glittery and stylish (check out her shoes~ yep, she picked them out herself!) When Kim was putting on her makeup for the session, this sweet little one protested until her nose was 'powdered' too! She is just a darling, and certainly has daddy wrapped her finger already. With those gorgeous blue eyes, how could she not?

Giving Back :: Pillows-of-Love 2010 Derby

A rather cold and blustery April Saturday could not stop kids and their parents from coming out to participate in the 2010 Pillows-of-Love Derby held at the Milton Hershey School gazebos a few weeks ago. The Pillows-of-Love ministry was started in 2004 by Kimberlee Jerrehian to provide beautiful pillowcases and Bibles to women and children who are displaced, in a recovery shelter, a pregnancy center, or an international orphanage.

Each pillowcase is handcrafted by a caring volunteer and embellished with the message of Psalm 4:8. A gift of The New Testament or a children's book about Jesus is included with each domestic pillowcase.

The derby is held each year to raise money for materials and distribution of pillowcases & Bibles. Children hop, skip, walk or run around the track and earn punches on their card. Donated prizes such as stuffed animals, gift cards and items from local businesses were given away throughout the event. Face painting, clowns, fun games and a quilt raffle were all part of the festivities.

More on the story behind the ministry can be found here: http://www.pillows-of-love.com
as well as images from previous years, and more images from the 2010 will be added soon.

Please note that all images here are copyright protected and may not be copied or downloaded without permission. You are welcome to bookmark this page, or email me for information on purchasing images. All proceeds from image purchases from this event are given to Pillows-of-Love ministry.