Clear Sky Portrait Blog

I just have to say it—God amazes me.  A dear friend of mine was widowed a little over a year ago; she was suddenly a young mother on her own raising four little children.  Fast forward to present day: she is now busy planning a wedding to a wonderful man who has been a blessing to both her and her children.  It is incredible to see the way God provides for one’s needs and even the desires of one’s heart.  It is incredible to be taking pictures for this soon-to-be-wed couple and soon-to-be new family.  These engagement pictures started first with family pictures.

Just the couple:

They were both so kind as to indulge me in some fun pictures (thanks, guys!).

And here I was stalking them ala paparazzi-style from across the street.  I wonder what passersby thought of us in our small little town!

Many blessings on a life filled with happiness, my friends!

I still have a hard time thinking of photography as my job or my profession. I think of it as just a hobby of mine that God has allowed me to use to meet new people, to capture memories for my family and for other families, and every once in awhile, He lets me use it for things that are close to my heart.

Some friends of mine and their three beautiful children are planning on adding to their family through adoption.  It blessed me tremendously when they asked me to get some pictures of them for the adoption profile book that birth mothers would look through when choosing a family for their baby.  With a deadline looming, we made plans to get pictures taken, giving ourselves just enough time to get the pictures edited and sent off.  Well, of course rain threatened to ruin our plans.  Instead this beautiful family braved wind, cold, and drizzle to get some pictures.  Here is round one (we ended up adding another session a couple of days later to get a few more pictures for them to choose from….you’ll see those right below this post).

My favorite pictures are those where you can just hear laughter.  I love laughter and I love when we can share it during a session!

Ok, in addition to laughter, I love when couples have a glance……one of them glancing at the other……it makes my heart smile.

Did I mention their delightful children?  I mean just fun, sweet, and beautiful kids!

I gave each kid a chance to “be in the spotlight.”  You’ll be able to tell that they liked it.

The night ended with the rain we were dreading, but it meant some wonderful shots with the umbrella!

Since an adoption profile book needs to really focus on the two people who will be raising a child, we really needed to get more pictures of just Mom & Dad.  The previous session had been cut short and lacked a lot of choices thanks to rain and wind.  So I was happy that I had a chance to spend some more time getting pictures of these two!

Not only is my friend a good mother, she is also beautiful and has such a great smile!

Like his wife, this guy is a terrific parent and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.  Do they make my job easy or what?!

And just for fun…….

My friend has sweet kids…I believe it’s rooted in good parenting and a good marriage.  Every time these two love birds snuggled up to one another, their kids whispered, “Sarah!” and pointed, hinting that I should get a cute picture.  I loved this because it showed that they are used to seeing Mom and Dad so affectionate with one another and it helped me get cute pictures!

These are a couple of the “on the sly” shots:

And when they were expecting it…..

And some individual shots….

A couple of final family ones:

Here are those three adorable siblings again.  These are a couple of the family pictures from our rainy photo shoot this last week.  We are giving it another go next week and hoping for better weather!

I look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Is with a fun family!  I had the opportunity to meet and spend a little time with this cute family last weekend.  Their little guy is 2 years old and was so adorable that I couldn’t stop taking pictures of him! 

He did a lot of this:

Isn’t he SOOOOO handsome?!

And here is one of Mom & Dad (the little guy was content in a swing while we snapped a few of these!):

Thank you so much for the opportunity to capture your family! 

The advantage of being in the family means a little visit can turn into another photo session!  I took a few more of my brother-in-law and his fiance this last weekend when they were staying with us.

My brother-in-law and his beautiful fiance are getting married in July.  They let me take some engagement pictures for them this last weekend.  We walked around Minneapolis and also spent some time at the Conservatory.  They were so much fun and were sweet enough to go along with some of my wacky suggestions or ideas.   I  had a great time!  Thanks, guys!  Love you….we’re all so excited to share in your special day this summer!

I always look forward to editing my images.  It’s fun for me to play around with different looks.  I recently found a fun set of actions in Photoshop that made these images more unique. I like the aged look that I can get with some of these.  (And it was kind of fun to go through and find some of my older pictures to play around with!)

Well, if I can even count taking pictures of one of my favorite families as working….

The cute blondes again!           I love sneaking shots like this!

Thank goodness they know how to be silly!  It makes for so much fun!

Still in love….

Look at the little guy’s face!

Thanks to all of you for such a fun photo shoot!  Families don’t get much better looking than you guys!