We’ve been trying to shoot this session for a year now, but with the Hughes family living in Salina and Jim being a sheriff’s deputy with a hectic schedule, it’s been hard to get it done.  Finally…we have the Hughes Family!

As I mentioned before, Jim is a sheriff’s deputy with a K9 partner.  I think we spent just as much time chatting about his job as we did shooting the session because I am just fascinated by his dogs.  Being such a dog lover, it’s so interesting learning about how the dogs are trained and what their work duties are.  Jim’s current partner is Leroy.  He’s from Slovakia and responds to Slovakian commands.  He’s still a rookie, but is just so intimidating to look at.  His previous partner, Carmen (from Germany with German commands), has retired due to a work-related injury and is now their pet.  Jim had Carmen demonstrate one of her work duties–finding a foreign object in the grass.  She got on the scent and then sat down beside the object so as to not contaminate the “evidence”.  These dogs are truly amazing and it was so cool to see Jim’s connection with them.  This is Carmen… 

In this last picture, Leroy is on the left.  We joked that he was the Steven Seagal or Bruce Lee of dogs because he’s such a quiet intimidator.  He just knows he’s a bad-ass!

Meet Samantha…senior from Lansing High School and cute as a button!

I’m so lucky to have the BEST clients!  The senior girls I’ve met this year are amazing in every way…lots of personality, beautiful, fun, smart, and just great all around.  Each time, I’m so honored that they chose me to capture all of this for them in photographs.  I feel like Nicole’s images really show how lovely she is. 

Baby Elise has finally arrived…and what a beauty she is!  Ten days old and super sleepy…just perfect.  Congratulations James, Wendy, and Parker on your gorgeous new addition.

I love catching up with former clients and watching the kiddos grow up…as well as meet the new additions!  I photographed the Fisher family two years ago and it was so good to see Nicholas grow up into a little man and meet 1 year old Alex.  Such a gorgeous, blessed family.

Two years ago, I photographed a series of shots of Melissa and Nicholas having a sweet moment.  By accident, I did it again…only with Alex this time.  I thought it would be fun to see both together.  Here’s the first one with Nicholas:

And here’s Alex’s:

I know how stressful photo sessions can be for parents–deciding what to wear, praying your children behave, hoping they’ll stay clean.  I try to make my sessions as fun and stress-free as possible.  You have to remember that you are capturing your children as they are.  Life is messy.  Sometime you just have to laugh and throw perfection out the window. 

I couldn’t help but laugh at this series of photos when we were trying very hard to get a photo of the two boys together.  If you follow the images from the top right down to the bottom right (as if you were reading a book), you’ll see the progression of Alex’s frustration with his brother.  I think it’s hilarious…especially the middle left with Nicholas singing a song, oblivious to what we were trying to achieve.  I just love it.