Creole Wisdom

winter in minneapolis

Winter in Minneapolis is usually bitter cold and bright sunny. I think it's my favorite combination only for the sake of photography. January light, I love it! I snapped these last week while in between shoots for work. I love this city, I love my home.

why january light is my favorite

here's why:

I chalk it up to:

Snow on the ground equals more reflection

Bright sunny days but cool temperatures

More light (thank God!)

Don't worry, I'm getting my eyebrows fixed today :)

I love January. Do you? I think I'm going to make some coconut-curry chicken soup.

One last thing, if you want a really cute haircut that looks good grown out (because, let's face it, that really matters), go see Kristy!

favorite photos of 2011

Winter

I took this photo on 1/4 right as I was about to walk into work. The winter of 2010-2011 brought Minnesota record breaking snowfalls and a white new year. I love how this bright Lily Pulitzer cup contrasts with my tundra reality.

Spring

This photo was taken at the end of spring after everything had melted and somehow someone in uptown dropped a few brussels sprouts. I miss those red shoes, they were so worn out and needed to get thrown in the garbage but they were incredibly fun while they lasted!

Summer

There is something so great about the sculpture gardens. I love this iconic cherry and spoon sculpture, look at that pretty sky, taken right after Independence day on 7/5.

Autumn

This seemed to be the fall of crafts. Emma and I went full force into pinterest and celebrating our favorite season: autumn! These festive, glittery pumpkins lasted clear through Thanksgiving and made everyone who noticed them smile (Hi Tyler! :)

I am proud to say that I made it through 2011 by taking a photo for every single day! You can see some of my progress here (a few photos were personal, so I hid them :) I plan to do this in 2012 and cannot wait to get started, I'm hoping to get some inspiration from here.

cute as a button

Photographing kids is so fun. They absolutely crack me up. I love when they are old enough to listen to you, but still young enough to be darling and mischievous. A friend of mine hired me a few weeks ago to take some yearly photos of her cute daughter. We had a blast, these are my two favorites:

"The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day" -John Milton Paradise Regained

favorite places to shoot

So, I thought I had all my favorite places picked out, but... I was just blown away by The Depot this weekend. It's my new favorite! Quick someone put a ring on their love's finger then e-mail me so I can shoot some engagements here! These two (my mom + stepdad) crack me up.

A few of my other favorite places are:

The sculpture gardens

Ingebretsen's mural wall

St. Anthony Main (mostly the Aster Cafe exterior)

I cannot wait to discover more favorites and I've got a few I've been eyeing that are kind of strange but perfect for photos. Sometimes I just drive around and look for spaces, I'm so weird.

recent portraits

Well, I just realized I forgot to blog about some of the great portraits I've had the honor of photographing. I say "had the honor" because I am seriously so grateful that these people even ask me to do this and are happy with the results. Please don't read that last sentence and think I am fishing for complements, I not :) Here is a resource for those of you who also like photography.

Bailey is great. She's one of those people who has a laugh that you cannot get out of your head and a happy, sweet personality. I love her. I'll always remember her in the basement study room of AOPi cracking me up. Plus, we share a love for Mariah Carey!

Joe was a referral from one of my elementary school buddies, Nikki. I am so grateful to friends and family who refer me to great clients! Thank you much. He is the second senior portrait session I've done this fall and the second boy. Where are the seventeen year old girls? Truly, I was so impressed with his great, intelligent outlook and how can you not be kind of excited for someone who is right on the cusp of heading off to college? It's great to spend time with kids who were raised well.

Now that November is here I've kind of turned the tide from portraits to Christmas card photos. I've got three sessions already booked and I'm hoping a few more will get scheduled, too.

yearly portraits

On Friday afternoon I shot some darling yearly portraits of a previous co-worker's daughter. We had so much fun. Kids are just hilarious and this little miss was a riot. Aside from the edited images I threw some canvases together, which makes framing so much easier. 

My philosophy when photographing children is to be fair to them. What I mean by that is: capturing them in their environment, with their favorite things being themselves.

I do not care for the staged department store style stuff with the harsh lighting. Getting outside, playing in their rooms and keeping it short is the way I like to do things.

I loved this mom's idea about doing yearly portraits. What a nice time (besides Christmas card shots, school pictures etc...) to remember your little one at that exact age.

vintage baby scale

My grandma who passed away a little more than a year ago smartly left me her baby scale. I don't know the story behind it, but it's huge and kind of awkward. I love it still. I think it makes a great photography prop. I honestly don't know another use for it, but it sure makes for a cute photo of baby C.

he's arrived

I got to meet someone very special on Monday: Jana's darling little baby. He's so tiny and absolutely perfect. He is the smallest baby I've ever held or had the opportunity to photograph. Baby C has the softest skin, sweet cheeks and the most expressive blue eyes. He's just a love.

Tiny babies are just... so precious. I could of honestly held him all day. Jana is a great new mom and is doing it all with such grace. Total photographer nerd alert: the minute I saw him I thought, he's so tiny like those Anne Geddes babies.

karen + conor's engagements

Well, you heard me discuss wedding photography. Can I just note how much I love shooting engagements? They are so fun. I'm so grateful to be doing some more portraits these days, it's been a long road of mostly food shoots for the past month or so. I crave the diversity. These were such a joy to capture, of course I love the couple and happened to be with Karen in Ireland when she met Conor.





Another reason to love Minneapolis? There's just an incredible amount of good places to shoot images at. Karen and I collaborated and came up with: the sculpture gardens, stone arch bridge and Ingebretsen's (the mural.) Hopefully someone else I know will get engaged and I can shoot more. That mural is probably one of my favorite spots in the city; if Ingebretsen's ever moves I will be beside myself. I love this city and I love this adorable couple! Congratulations to Conor and Karen :)