Exhibit Project ~ Beginnings… Rochester MI Photographer April 12, 2013

Although days like today severely diminish my convictions, I do believe that Spring is coming.  It’s been a busy winter here.  I kept waiting to catch up with myself.  My IT jobs were busy at times then taxes took me wayyyy too long (I WILL be better organized next year but that’s another story), and life as a mother to three is usually never too slow.  I wanted to focus a lot of my photography business.  My to-do list is a mile long.  I love checking into new products both for clients and for myself (enter better tax tracking software that I purchased!).  I’ve been organizing my hard drive and moving files to a NAS drive.  Go ahead and ask me if you have a techie question and maybe I can help!  I’ve also taken some on-line workshops to improve many aspects of my business.  One workshop was ReStart with Jasmine Star and it was amazing and inspirational.  I became involved in an off-shoot project headed up by Sharina Wunderink.  She explains the Exhibit Project in this blog post.  Basically a group of 36 photographers will post on the 12th of every month.  Yes, I’m starting to work on mine on the 11th!  Hey, better than the 21st, right!  We will follow monthly themes and share stories and inspirations, as we like to do best, through photography.  Although, I must say that in speaking and writing I do get to use my native sarcasm more so I’ve gotta have that too.  Guess that’s why I like to blog!

The first theme is Beginnings.  We haven’t seen much of the beginnings of Spring here in Michigan.  Ok, I do have crocuses but that is about it!  Bring on the forsythia and red buds!  So if I can’t showcase a glorious Michigan Spring, then my next thought was coffee!  It’s one of my first thoughts each day.   I decided to showcase a more powerful Beginning and share some newborn images.  I love these sessions I think it’s time for some more sessions like this!

To see more photographers in this project please check out Tamra Horner Photography.  If their Beginnings post is not up yet, it should be soon!

Snowy Photo Session – Oakland County Photographer February 13, 2013

These girls have been friends since they were very little.  What better way to celebrate a good friendship than with a photo session?  They gathered their hats and scarves, then boots and even some capes!  We headed out into the snow.  It was just perfect.  A few minutes before it was snowing really hard then it settled into gently falling snow, just perfect for outdoor winter portraits.  These girls were troopers as we tried out new spots, all while trying to keep their toes and noses warm.

Winter Photo Session by pArt of Life Photography – Oakland County Photographer
http://www.partoflifephotography.com

Winter Photo Session by pArt of Life Photography – Oakland County Photographer
http://www.partoflifephotography.com

Blue Cape Winter Photo Session by pArt of Life Photography – Oakland County Photographer
http://www.partoflifephotography.com

Stylish Winter Photo Session by pArt of Life Photography – Oakland County Photographer
http://www.partoflifephotography.com

Winter Photo session by pArt of Life Photography, Oakland County Photographer
http://www.partoflifephotography.com

Winter Photo session by pArt of Life Photography, Oakland County Photographer
http://www.partoflifephotography.com

Winter Photo session by pArt of Life Photography, Oakland County Photographer
http://www.partoflifephotography.com

Winter Photo session by pArt of Life Photography, Oakland County Photographer
http://www.partoflifephotography.com

I know I shared a lot but I had so many favorites.  Can you believe they even had capes to bring with them?  I was lucky enough to borrow the rose colored cape to use for future photo sessions.  I can’t wait to use it again, maybe this time in some lush woods when Spring returns to Michigan.

I’ve got another winter photo session to share soon.  There is still time to get one before Spring comes.  I’ve got my eye on some new locations for some great Spring sessions.  I’m always location scouting and am getting pretty good at finding some great unique places.  Email me at info@partoflifephotography.com if you are ready to talk about how we can create a special photo session just for you!  When you have a minute stop by my website at http://www.partoflifephotography.com  Thanks!

Big Bright Light Show in Rochester, MI January 8, 2013

I’ve been a slacker, or busy as I prefer to call it!  I finally made it to the Big Bright Light Show in downtown Rochester, with my camera.  Yes, it happened to be the last night they were on (or if history repeats itself, until the Snow and Ice Festival, shhh!).  If you haven’t been you’ve got to check it out!  Rochester has completely redone their main street: road, sidewalks, planters – the WHOLE thing!  The lights go on for the holiday season on the last Monday of November.  That night is Lagniappe, which means “a little something extra” in creole.  The sidewalks are filled and stores often give a little something extra.  My kids’ favorite is the flashy led item of the year from Lucido Fine Jewelry.  Anyway, the lights turn on at 7pm that night and shine every evening until this year on January 6th.  I love to see the downtown bustling every evening, as I’m sure the businesses are after a tough summer due to the construction.  Oh, and if you are out walking around don’t forget to head down 4th, which is pretty lit up as well.  Where 4th meets Water you’ll see the Knitting Mills Building with huge flashing snowflakes up the side.  That building is home to the Rochester Mills Brewery, some businesses, and Paint a Miracle.  From there you can walk across the bridge, and along the river and the Royal Park Hotel.  Every year there is a huge gingerbread house in the lobby of the hotel, complete with giant recipe card if you are feeling inspired to make your own!  Whew, I sound like a tour guide instead of a photographer.  On to the images from my little downtown photo session!  Of course, ‘someone’ had to jump in some shots and throw a few poses my way.

Here’s a few shots from the other night.

Big Bright Light Show, Rochester MI

yearly Big Bright Light Show in Rochester MI

yearly Big Bright Light Show in Rochester Michigan

portrait session at Big Bright Light Show by Rochester MI photographer

Gorgeous teen headshots! Rochester MI photographer October 4, 2012

I had the pleasure of meeting Olivia last week.  What a gem!  She is in high school and has been doing some local acting.  I really enjoyed talking with her and getting to know her.  What a sweet young lady, and very smart.  She is going places, I’m sure!  Olivia found some time in her busy schedule between acting, sports and all things high school for a photo session one evening last week.  We decided to meet up in Rochester for a downtown photo session.  We were having so much we also stopped at the Clinton River Trail for some more photos.  Here are a few samples from her gallery.  Isn’t she just gorgeous?!?

actor head shot, Rochester MI photographer

headshot by Rochester MI Photographer

headshot for actor, Rochester MI photographer

I’ve been busy with a lot of head shots lately, from corporate to acting to realtors, in addition to family portrait sessions.  I strive to get to know my clients and let their personalities show through.  Everyone ends up with quite a gallery of choices, from standard head shots to full body images.  We also get a variety of environment in the photos and there is enough time for outfit changes.  On-line representatives for actors and models often let you up-load more than one image so these sessions work out great – giving you plenty of options.  In addition to head shots, images can be chosen for zed cards or comp cards.  These are approximately 5×8 cards with a 5×7 image on one side and a compilation of about four smaller images on the other side.  Stats are also printed on these cards, with name, features, etc.  I’m looking forward to two more acting headshot sessions next week.  It’s so fun to come up with new places to go and meet new people.  I love my job as a photographer.  I’m also here after your session to help with print decisions, a few pointers to acting/modeling info, product choices, wall displays for portrait sessions and more!

Van Hoosen Farm ~ Rochester MI Photographer August 2, 2012

Another thing I love about photography is it never gets old.  I love it when a great photo session comes together!  I love falling in love with new images and I love having new people fall in love with their new images!  For this session I got to help pick out the outfits.  I was even able to supply some new goodies that I picked up at the Rochester Sidewalk Sales, hot off the rack from earlier that day!  We had a gorgeous evening, not too hot, which we learned to be thankful for this summer in Michigan.  I never thought a Michigan summer would be too hot for me.  Ok, back to the photo session.  We visited Van Hoosen Farm for a nice walk and some photo ops!  If you have never walked around VanHoosen Farm and Museum I highly recommend it.  The Stony Creek runs along the back, the 1840 farm house is so well kept, the museum is a gem and the children’s garden is a lot of fun too.  I look forward to seeing the renovation of the dairy barn as well.  What a cool place to have right in the Rochester/Oakland Township area.
I love when we can relax during a session and let true personality shine through.  This is a great spot for a Stoney Creek High School, Rochester High, or Adams High School Senior photo session!  I’ve also got a lot more out of the way places to bring you during your photo session.

VanHoosen Farm photo session

And who can resist these great purple wildflowers?

VanHoosen Farm Rochester Portrait

We took a walk over to the grassy fields and had some more fun.  The new location called for an outfit change.  The colorful scarves were fun for running, twirling and just feeling fancy!

VanHoosen photo session, Rochester MI

VanHoosen Farm photo session pArt of Life Photography Oakland County Photographer

pArt of Life Photography photo session at VanHoosen Farm

Thanks for reading!   I’ll post a few extra images from this photo session to my Facebook page.

Let me know if you are interested in a fun, unique portrait session!

Jumping the sun! July 22, 2012

Sure, rumor has it some ol’ cow jumped the moon but my kids jumped over the sun last week in Charlevoix Michigan, while we were there for a beach photo session!  Have you been to Charlevoix lately?  You know I’m a big fan of Michigan, especially northern MI – yup, all the way up to Copper Harbor.  “North” starts anywhere you begin to relax for those of you unsure.  Must-do’s on a trip for me are the Ironton Ferry, a drive by or tour of Castle Farms, a drive by Earl Young mushroom houses, a walk through town with stops at Cherry Republic and more.  I have two new favorite places to eat as well.  The menu is huge at Scovies and the food is very good.  We went back to Roquette Burger Bistro again.  It was closed when we got to town so we just ‘had’ to spend the night and get in line for lunch the day.  I learned about Roquette Burger on “Under the Radar Michigan”and we are already repeat customers.  We were there on opening day this Spring.  This time I had the Fire Burger.  It was soooo good and not too spicy!  That place is worth the wait.  They use lots of fresh local farm food and local grass-fed beef.  At the end of the day we always make our way to the beach.  Dinner ran late so we didn’t get there as early as I like to but I had just enough time for what I had in mind.  This visit we didn’t make it to the spray fountain by the marina until 10pm but it was so cool to go when it was dark and the colored lights were on.

It’s great to see all the license plates from near and far visiting northern Michigan.  Who knew people from Alaska drove to Michigan in the summer.  We loved showing my sister from San Francisco around all the places she hasn’t visited in a long time – some the same and some new.

Wow, this turned into quite the Charlevoix travel blog post.  I can’t help sharing my love of traveling around the state – with my camera in tow of course.  Hey, I’ve gotta be ready for snapshots and Michigan photo sessions whenever the mood strikes, right?  Let me know where you like to go in Michigan and share some tips.  I’d love to hear them!
Anyway, if you missed them on my photography Facebook page here are the photos of my kids jumping the sun at our beach photo session.

Megan, Senior Class of 2013! ~ Rochester, MI Senior Photographer July 11, 2012

Senior season for the Class of 2013 kicked off  a couple weeks ago with a great photo session with Megan.  Megan is starting her Senior year in September and didn’t want to wait for her photo session.  I can’t blame her with how busy summer gets, then school sports start up and then before we know it school begins and we all know what that entails.  I was totally game to kick off Senior season with Megan.  Megan is sweet, beautiful and comfortable in front of the camera and I feel that all shows in her portraits.  I think she enjoyed the photo session as much as I did and she was a great sport!  She came prepared with a lot of great outfits.  We started out with a studio session with music playing along, then when the light softened at my favorite part of the day we headed into Rochester for some outdoor photo shoot action!  We visited the park and some of my other favorite spots.  I hope Megan and her family are as happy with these portraits as I am.  I’m very thankful that they chose me as their Senior photographer since they do not live near me.  They saw my work and made the hour long drive after seeing another friend’s portraits that I did last summer.  I love referrals and for every one that you refer that books a session you get a $25 print credit.  Ok, on to Megan’s Senior portraits!

We did quite a few different studio set-ups.  This was one of my favorites.

I love this studio set-up – so summery!

Won’t these make great wallet photos?

Part of our visit to the Rochester Municipal Park…

This was taken during our visit to the Rochester Municipal Park.

Then we hit a few colorful spots in downtown Rochester.  I’ll post some more of my favorites on Facebook for Megan to share.  It’s always so hard for me to choose my favorites.

I’ll be adding more of Megan’s images to my senior gallery here.   Feel free to like my business Facebook page here for more session sneak peeks, vendor specials, model calls, etc.  Thanks for reading along and if you would like information on a session let me know!  partoflifephoto@gmail.com

Lena 6 months! Rochester MI child photographer May 30, 2012

I’m cheating and posting some pics before the gallery is totally ready.  I can’t help it, I’m so excited for Lena’s family to see these latest images.  I’ve got to remind them they love making the drive from Ann Arbor to get their pArt of Life images of their cutie!  Lena makes my job as a photographer so fun.  She gave me so much eye content and was so co-operative.  This little girl is so sweet and I think it shows in these images.  I already can’t wait until her next session!

Ask me about my baby plan photo session package if you would like images of your little one through-out their first year.

Love this first one!  It looks like she is sitting in comfy bubbles.  My sister makes these great blankets!

Lena

When her mom said she was bringing a teal tutu I knew I had to break out the purple backdrop.

Love the tutu!

I just had to do the Pretty in Pink set-up again.  She rocked it again!

Pretty in Pink strikes again!

Sweetness! Rochester Mi Portrait Photographer March 30, 2012

He had his cake and ate it too, and even wore it!  This was cuteness overload for me.  Matthew seemed to know what to do and this time he finally didn’t crawl off full speed ahead!  At first he played around timidly then he got a taste and kept digging in.  Not a lot was eaten but I think he liked what he got and he really enjoyed playing.  By the time he was done he had crumbs in his curls and frosting between his toes.  Now to pick my favorites – this part if always the hardest!

This is when he tried to pick up the whole cake.  Ambitious little boy!

Cuteness, from his curls to his toes – Rochester Michigan Photographer March 29, 2012

This little guy started out adorable when I met him at his newborn session last year.  Then I saw him a few more times, including a fun session with his cousins from out of town and holiday mini-session.  Well, last week he showed up as cute as ever with a head full of adorable curls.  I love those curls and I know I’m not alone.  We had some fun with the radio flyer bike and some balloons then changed up the scene for a cake smash session.  Don’t worry, I’ll be sharing those soon!