Jake {3months} - Coffeyville, KS

This little guy is 3 months! He reached his "head-up" milestone and was so happy to just lay in bed and play with his feet! These are some of my very favorite baby pictures I've taken.  Sidenote: I knew I got a nice new bed/bedspread for a reason - because it photographs well! Check them out:

 

 

Peek-a-boo!

 

 

Ari Jude {3mo}

This sweet little girl is my own!  She's had a camera in her face since the day she was born - and lucky for me, she doesn't hate it yet.  I won't write much, but will just say that I love her to pieces! She is the sweetest little lady with the BEST and biggest dimpled smiles and the cutest giggles.  She makes me so happy!

Ari J. is 3 months old, so I had to capture the 3-month milestone - holding her head up.  We only shot for about 15 minutes, but I got some of my favorite pictures of her yet!  I also tried some new editing techniques for skin and eyes instead of using an action for that and I like the results.  Here she is:

                                 

          

 

 

 

 

And I had to get one of Abram & his sissy - he loves her!

 

 

 -Megan

Shaffer {children}

Ok, so I think this is one of the most adorable families in existence!  Mom & Dad are both my fellow alumni of ESU, and Mom & I used to play softball against each other.  It's always nice to see people you know start a family together, and even better when they ask you to photograph them. 

As soon as they arrived, Miss K was polite & social, saying "hi," calling me by name and thanking me for complimenting her church dress.  Little Mr. S pretty much smiled the entire time too.  We were capturing his 6-month milestone - sitting up - and getting in some Christmas shots.  First we did some shots in what was my father's rocking chair as a boy.

 

 I had to bribe Miss K with a present because she wasn't too interested in sitting there!

 

Little mister was sitting up so good!  His mom & dad - who both have great voices by the way - sang to him to get these grins:

Little miss was being super adorable while she was talking to & laughing with her daddy.

And here, she figured out that there were not actually princesses in my camera lens as we had told her there were before:

 

 

We moved on to the Christmas photos.  The little guy didn't want to just sit there - he was after that tree!

 

And the ornament...

 

 

This series of shots was an afterthought.  It just popped in my head as we were about to call it quits and it turned out so cute!  Little man must've been getting tired - here's a time lapse of he & the bear toppling over.

 

Finally, we got a couple shots of these two cuties together.  Most of the time, Miss K was holding Mister S so tightly she was covering up both of their faces, but we did manage to get these two adorable images:

 

 

 

Nikki & Dawson {couple}

This is easily one of my favorite shoots!  For one, they turned out so well since these two (and a shaggy half) are such good models, but this just so happens to be my best friend & her husband.  To make it even better, we got to shoot at my parents' place and found some awesome new locations.


Check out Madonna's reindeer antlers!  She looked directly at the camera for every shot!

 

 

And antler-free: 

 

Got some gorgeous sun flare:

 

I love the fall colors in these last few:

 

Why You Should Invest in Professional Prints

With the ease and affordability of printing instant prints at big box stores like Wal-Mart, Walgreens, etc., it may be hard for some people to justify purchasing prints from a professional lab (i.e., purchasing prints from your photographer).  The decision to "go cheap" is made even easier by the fact that many photographers, myself included, offer digital images with a print release with only suggestions - not requirements - of where to have the images printed.

While I understand the financial pressure that makes people go this route, professional prints are definitely worth the investment!  You will absolutely be more satisfied with your images if you have them printed by a pro lab.  You've already chosen to invest in the photographer and by having those images printed on the cheap, you are basically trashing that investment.  The reason I say this, is that pro labs will not perform unauthorized edits on your photographer's work.  How he/she meant them to look is how they will print.  Wal-Mart & the others, however, will change the photos upon printing without permission.  They just won't be the same photos your photographer worked so hard to produce for you - they will be of a much lower quality.  

You have to see it to believe it!  Check out this side-by-side comparison done by Paint the Moon: Paint the Moon's Print Comparison