It’s always an honor when a client returns to allow you to further document their lives. It’s especially an honor when they return for a first year plan. Jill and Craig called me in October to let me know they were expecting their second beautiful daughter, Reagan, and asked me to document her first year. I was excited to get started and couldn’t wait until little Reagan arrived in December. We hadn’t seen eachother since big sister, Reese’s one year proofing session, so it was an fun time. Reese is so grown up, and Reagan is beautiful newborn. Even doggie, Slim, got involved and posed for few. Here’s a sneak peak…

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Meet Miss Holly!  She came to La Bonne Vie after an unsuccessful experience with another local senior photographer.  Hoping to capture a few images that fit her personality, she called upon me.  Holly scheduled both studio and outdoor session looks.  Unfortunately due to inclement weather, we were only able to shoot her studio portraits.  I’ll keep you waiting with baited breath for the outdoor portraits at our fabulous waterfall location!

There were a few things that Holly didn’t like about her first senior portrait experience at that “other” studio.  Being a custom photographer, I was able to  take Holly’s ideas, likes, and dislikes, and tailor a session just to meet her needs and fit her personality.    I typically whittle down the number of images that my clients see to 30-40 fully retouched images.  One of Holly’s request was to have more images to select from.  With La Bonne Vie, ask and yee shall receive.  In Holly’s case, I’d retouched the 10 images shown below to give the full affect of how our images change with professional retouching.  I’ve also attached a slideshow link of Holly’s studio session that includes all of the proofed imags.  Enjoy!

Click to View Holly’s Slideshow

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It all started with an outdoor maternity session, and now little Reese is 1 year old!  With a beautiful personality, Reese, absolutely shined at her First Year portrait session.  After getting a few classic shots we let Reese dig into both a giant cupcake and a giant lollipop.  For being hyped up on so much sugar so close to bedtime, Reese did a great job of smiling and didn’t have a breakdown when the lolli was finally relinquished.  Here are a few of my favorites from the session.

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I started working with Owen when he was 10 weeks old, and I’ve enjoyed each moment.  Being related to Lucy, it’s no surprise that he’s such a happy little boy! (Lucy was our first baby plan graduate, and Owen’s cousin.)  Owen’s stuck with me through thick and thin… and he’s always come thru with a beautiful smile for me.  It’s little one’s like this that make my job easy!  For Owen’s one year portrait session we met at Fernbank Park… taking time to grab a few snaps of the family before turning Owen loose in all his glory!  Hopefully I did his first year justice.

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Brianna and Tim’s wedding on Saturday was the closest I’ve every come to a photography rain out.  I checked weather.com before I left for the wedding, and despite the ominous skies the website reported a 5% chance of rain… Committed to outdoor portraits at Eden Park, Brianna and Tim saw each other for the first time by the bench where Tim proposed.  Armed with umbrellas, the sprinkling went relatively unnoticed as we captured some of the most awesome wedding images of the season.  The clouds parted revealing a bright blue sky just in time for the wedding party images… We quickly finished up at the park to head to the church.  Just as we arrived, a monsoon commenced.  I breathed a sigh of relief as I stepped inside to capture a beautiful wedding ceremony.  The entire day was everything that exemplified Brianna and Tim’s relationship and how much they care for each other.  A beautiful ceremony shared with warm and loving family and friends.  Definitely a day to be cherished!

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Sunday was the big day for Lanita and Kyle.  Close to my heart, they are a Miami Merger.  Ever since we shot their engagement session on Miami’s campus, I had been dreaming up image concepts for their wedding.  We met under Upham arch, where they saw each other for the first time on their wedding day.  I know I may be a little sentimental about the whole arch thing, but I’m serious when I say it had to have been one of the most picture perfect wedding moments of the season.  Lanita and Kyle braved the hot August afternoon as we shot portraits up one side of campus and down the other.  I couldn’t have asked for a more willing couple.  Hopefully the end result was worth the discomfort.  I’m not exactly sure how many days Lanita’s feet will take to recover, but her shoes were definitely cute!  Here are a few favs just in my first pass, I’m sure there will be more.  Enjoy!

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Gina and Rick have been waiting patiently to see their wedding images… all good things come to those that wait.    I promised Gina yesterday that I’d post my favorites from their big day as a little sneak peak.  Gina and Rick got married at St. Ignatius, formal portraits at Spring Grove and a very fun reception at the Woodlands.  A fun crowd to be around, everyone was very patient with me as I strove to get the perfect images… I was pretty excited with the results.  I typically present some images in color and some in black & white… but for this wedding, I was struggling to lose the color.  They all were so bright and vibrant.  Hopefully as I edit more, I’ll be able to find the right images for black & white, but until then, it’s all color baby!  Enjoy!

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Jill and Craig requested to take Reese outside for her 9-month session.  Always happy to accommodate, I was very excited about the idea.  Quite often 9-months can be a tough age in the studio… babies are crawling at that point and very difficult to contain.  Being able to go outdoors is often a blessing as the natural light is much more forgiving, and moves with you… and the baby, of course!  Reese enjoyed all the different textures and feels, and rose to the occasion with some beautiful expressions.  Here are a few of my favs from the session…

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I can totally identify with Hilary… balancing graduating from college, planning a wedding, and starting a whole new life all at the same time.  It’s a lot of firsts!  I met Hilary and Joey last fall learning their love story during our engagement session…  Hilary a young undergrad met Joey, a grad student at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville.  After dating for 4 years, they finally found themselves in Hilary’s home town of Harrison, OH on their wedding day.  Everything turned out beautifully, and as the day unfolded, it was hard to not get emotional.  Hilary had a special candle light ceremony planned that included her father walking her down the aisle and both her father and grandfather performing the marriage ceremony.  Joey was pretty easy going through the whole event and only had one request for me…  The reception was held at Higher Ground Conference and Retreat Center, home of the UC Bearcats summer training turf field, and Joey wanted to make sure we got some images of the guys on the field… No problem!  At the end of the evening, Hilary and Joey’s guests lit giant sparklers to send them off into the night to begin the rest of their lives…

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