Sometimes you go into a wedding having certain ideas or plans of pictures that you will take.  That all went out the window when we realized the sun ROSE over the ocean rather than set (This is obvious when you think about it, just never occurred to us until we got there!)  The bride and groom, as laid back of a couple as they are, agreed to meet us on the beach for their first look at 5:30am for sunrise. 

(Caty's favorite)

After the first look pictures we went back to bed for a while, had breakfast, then started getting ready for the real deal.  If you didn't know this already, the Cloud Nine photographers are a multi tasking duo.

Kassidy did a reveal to her dad as well...

And a second first look with Cameron...

Mexico is hot... it was completely necessary to take a break to stop at the beach swing bar for a drink.

The flower girls and ring bearer were triplets... and two years old.  And even though they weren't going to sit still for a picture even for a split second, they were still the cutest things ever.

(Terry's favorite)

A quick picture with the couple...

Three weeks later we photographed their reception back in cold, cold Minnesota.

Resort: Dreams Riviera Cancun

Hair: Caty Larson

Reception Venue: Shooting Star Casino, Mahnomen, MN

Cake: Althea's Cakery

Thank you Lee and Lehmann families for letting us be a part of your week in Mexico!  Everything about it was amazing. 

P.S. We're also super excited about the fact that Kassidy and Cameron announced just last week that there is a little one on the way! 

The weeks went by and he never called for this "camo event".  We thought he maybe chickened out.  We knew this was supposed to involve grain harvest... and we've seen all the other farmer's harvesting.  No phone call from Isaac. 

We were preparing for our busiest weekend as photographers (Two weddings, three families and one senior in three days) when an hour before we were set to leave the phone rings.  Caller ID says its Isaac.  All I could do was giggle and hand the phone to Terry. 

Even though we were busy, we knew we had to figure out a way to get Terry there to do this for him.  (Isaac was a classmate of mine and simply a very, very nice guy... the kind that would do anything for you).  As luck would have it, the timing worked out perfectly for Terry to leave the wedding we were photographing and get all the way back to his farm with just enough time to go over Isaac's plan. 

On this hot Friday night in August, he was going to take her on a little drive in the combine just before sunset then propose to her by the lake... all while Terry hid in his camo clothes in the woods behind an old tractor. 

As Terry told me, he was more nervous than Isaac was--maybe.  To be asked to photograph an event as intimate and special as this was quite an honor. 

Since the combine was running, Terry couldn't hear anything that was said, but by the looks of the pictures she must have said yes. 

Thanks Isaac for asking Terry to do this, and congratulations to you and Catelyn! 

(We suggest watching the slideshow on a device that plays audio to get the full effect!)

I can't remember if I mentioned it in the last post, but I will be teaching a class called "Photographing your life" at the Sisters Sojourn event in Mentor, Minnesota in September.  You can visit their website for more information at www.sisterssojourn.com.

At first when I finished the project I was relieved that I no longer had to look for something to take a picture of every day.  I certainly didn't miss bringing my camera with me every where I went.  

After a while I started I started to miss it, so I started again.  It ended on August 16th, the day our baby was born.  

Life in our house has been busy.  Three kids not in school yet.  Two businesses.  There was no way I could handle taking and editing a picture every day, keeping our pictures organized...  it just wasn't a priority.  Then suddenly I realized how quickly the time is flying.  Our oldest will be in kindergarten soon, our second is at an age that he does the most hilarious things, and our baby will be doing so many "firsts".

I've got one month in the books and it was easier than ever.  I am doing my best to take pictures that tell a story just by looking at it-no need for writing a story for each image.  My goals for this project are to creatively capture the most exciting thing we do each day, to keep the pictures organized (delete unused images immediately), and to make a photo book as I go.  When you get a pile of 365 pictures to design in a book, its quite overwhelming. 

I don't want to overload our photography followers with pictures each day of our own kids, therefore each month on the 1st I will be doing a blog like this, recapping the previous month.  Hope you enjoy this little peek into life in our house!

This little two year old?  She wasn't scared.  She wasn't sad.  She wasn't naughty.  She just wasn't.going.to.smile.  Or do anything we asked her to do (a typical side effect of being two). 

Smiling or not, she has got to be the prettiest two year old I've ever seen. 

We tried everything-being silly, playing, inside, outside, Mickey Mouse.  It just wasn't going to happen.  That's ok though, because I think these pictures perfectly capture "Life as a two year old". 

Even hiding behind sunglasses didn't help.  

These little cuties were here about a month ago already!  I'm sure this little guy has already changed a lot.  

I love those baby toes!

His big sister came along for her two year pictures.  What woman wouldn't want those eyelashes?

Now she's a happy little six month old and she did awesome during this session.  So awesome that I wish I had some of these shots of my own little baby girl. 

Future little farm girl.  I can only imagine the possibilities for one year tractor pictures!

I absolutely adore these next two pictures.  I love the simplicity, the soft tones. 

First of all, you will need to choose a paper type.  You can have your cards printed on photo paper (only one sided) or on press paper (available in smooth cover stock, linen or pearl paper, one or two sided).  The prices vary slightly between photo paper and press paper but not alot.  We have samples of each of these, let us know if you want to stop by to see.

Then pick your size.  Most people go with a 5x7 card because you can get a nice big picture and plenty of room for what you want to write.  You can also smaller or square sizes if you want.  Prices really don't vary much when it comes to the size of your card.

Photo greeting cards have a minimum order of 25, after that you can order whatever amount you want.  Press paper cards come in packs of 25 only.  Both types include envelopes.

You can also get "Luxe Cards" and tri-fold or accordian fold cards.  We have used these for our own Christmas cards and birth announcements in the past couple years and we always get tons of compliments.  These styles can give your card a very stylish look as well as way more layout options.  Of course these do come with a bit more investment, though.  Here's two pictures of the luxe card samples that we have:

Once you've decided your card size, shape, and paper here's the next steps:

Decide exactly which pictures you'd like to use; you can use as few or as many pictures as you want

If you want to include a baby picture, be sure to have it ready to scan

Decide your style {traditional, modern, athletic, whimsical, simple, vintage etc.}

Take color schemes and fonts into consideration as well

Decide what you want the message to say

You can look at the samples that we've added for reference to what you want and what you don't want.  If you have no idea what you want we will help you out :)

When you've decided these things, contact us and we will custom design three choices for you.  We email you the designs to check out and we will do two revisions for you.  (Revisions after that will be $15 each)

Once you give us the thumbs up, we will order them right away.  You can expect to receive your cards within a few days of ordering. 

Didn't have your senior pictures taken by us?  If you don't own the rights to your pictures, we are offering a super quick ten-minute photo session to get pictures to use for your invites. 

Please contact us for pricing information or if you want to set up a time to meet to discuss card designs or to get any senior pictures ordered!

Here's the samples we've made.  These designs are on a first come first serve basis; we won't be making the same design for two people. 

This is the fourth time we've taken these kids pictures.  They were the first "family"  we took pictures of about two years ago so its fun to see how our work has changed as well as how the kids have grown up.  Their mom and I communicate alot prior to the sessions, we discuss everything from the clothes to the hairstyles to the locations.

This young lady above was born to be a model.  All I had to do was give her a little direction of where to stand and which way to look, she took care of the posing herself.  There's no denying the natural beauty.



As I sit here and type this blog, the icicles that have been hanging on our eves outside our office are disappearing and it actually sort of looks like spring might be coming.  Spring is just in time too- we've been getting tons of messages lately about spring photo sessions.  We have ideas bursting at the seams, as well as all the new things that we spent the winter learning and practicing.  To be honest, we think our photography is going to rock once we can finally get out there and take some pictures without being waist deep in snow. 

I've compiled a bunch of pictures and color swatches to give our spring clients some direction when choosing outfits for their families.  By no means do we expect you to show up in head to toe brand new clothes, or even any of these colors.  These are strictly some suggestions so you can see how the colors might work together. 

I plan to do a blog post like this once a month or so throughout the busy photography season to keep fresh ideas in everyone's minds.  For legal reasons, I need to stress now that I did not take any of the pictures in this blog post.  I've tried my best to provide websites for you to see where the photos actually came from.

The colors above are supposed to be "The Colors of Spring 2013" from www.pantone.com. 

This website: http://www.southboundbride.com/pantone-spring-2013-colour-report/ did a fantastic job of collecting images using these particular colors in different combinations.

I made a couple idea boards myself:

I think women and little girls are really easy to style.  Colors, textures and layers.

Men and boys are a little harder.  I tried to find clothing ideas that I can actually see guys from our area wearing.  For boys, layers and accessories are really cute.  If they don't like bright colors, try sticking with chambrey or linen colors.

This adorable photo is by Crave Photography. 

This one was found on www.iheartfaces.com

When choosing outfits, it usually works best to choose three colors and work them into each person's outfit.  Maybe your son won't wear a bright shirt, so put him in jeans, a linen colored shirt with a yellow belt.  Put your little girl in a yellow sun dress with a linen colored head band and a denim jacket. 

If your family isn't into bright colors at all, or maybe bright colored pictures won't go well with your home decor, nuetral colors like the picture below (www.dotcommom.com) are also great.

We hope this helps you get excited for spring (I had all I could do to not order all these clothes for my own kids!) and gives you some ideas for your next photo session.  If you'd like to book a session you can message us or call us at 218.945.3747.  If you have further questions about photo styling, don't hesitate to ask or make suggestions.

This year we had a few kids who wanted winter pictures taken.  It is a beautiful time to take pictures, but it doesn't come without challenges.  We've had so much snow this year that it made it difficult to even get through it, not to mention how cold it was.  Each of these kids were out in less than 10 degree weather to get these shots.  This posed another challenge: glasses fogging up and rosy cheeks and hands.  We really love how these turned out and we think it was worth the chill!

Here's a few of our favorite shots:

We solved that problem by killing two birds with one stone.  Josie is an extremely talented dancer.  She's been invited to exclusive workshops around the country.  There has been times when she has needed a nice photo of herself to submit to these workshops and contests.  We told her she could wear whatever she wanted, pose however she wanted.  We had a great time working with her!

Here are some of our favorites:

As of 2012, I have been the football cheerleading advisor for six seasons.  I also coached basketball cheerleading for two years, and was a cheerleader in high school myself for three years.  When you add that up, thats alot of high school sports.  When I first started coaching it was a fun way to be involved with kids and to be a part of cheerleading which was something I enjoyed.  As I've gotten older the purpose has evolved for me.  High school sports teach kids things they won't learn in a class room, and being a part of that is pretty cool.  These kids that graduate this spring... they were some of the little guys playing catch during the varsity game behind the bleachers when I first started coaching cheerleading.  Watching them stand on the sidelines as ninth graders, go in at the end of a game as tenth graders, and now run out with the starting line is a very cool thing that not everyone gets to witness, let alone be able to witness it year after year. 

Before the first game, the football coach had mentioned to my husband that he'd like if I could take some pictures at the games, since I was going to be there anyway.  I thought to myself, perfect, I need to be there with my cheerleaders.  I love the challenge that different situations in photography gives, and mostly, I don't fit in with most of the spectators (I like to WATCH the game more than most women and the men are a little too rude for me to stand next to) so I might as well be doing my own thing.

I missed the first game because our little baby girl was just two weeks old.  The second game comes around, I'm standing on the sideline with my camera.  I look to my left and there's two journalists for the Fertile paper taking pictures, as well as the yearbook photographer.  I look to my right and there's an alumni who takes pretty awesome sports shots herself.  I look behind me and theres about 10 moms with DSLR cameras.  Holy smokes we've got a football paparazzi.  Feeling a little embarrassed, I decide I need to think out of the box.  I need to challenge myself so I headed to the other side of the field. 

Terry gave me the idea to challenge myself each week and post one of these football pictures on our Cloud Nine Facebook page each week, problem was I wasn't sure how I would do better than the sunset picture.

Most people taking pictures of the games were sure to get basically the same picture.  I wanted to make sure each of mine told a story or showed emotion, and that was hard sometimes.   Below, the original picture posted during this week was of Cody #61, but since I had a few of these I thought I'd add them all to this post.

Yes these girls are the reason I'm at these games.  Next year I'll make sure to take lots of pictures of them on and off the field and we'll do a little post to show how awesome cheerleaders are and how much they do for the school and for the team.  This was a quick photo op on our way to the football game in Warren-Alvarado-Oslo.

I will bet that these boys one day will not remember the exact details of this moment, the score, the date, the temperature, but beating one of their biggest rivals in over time as the under dog in the game... and then eating their food... is a feeling that they will remember.  My favorite part?  The coaches hugging on the left side.

Before this game started, everyone was huddled in a small area protected by the wind and snow.  I over heard an old-timer who was getting coffee tell a high school kid a story that went sort of like this "It was our homecoming.  We played Erskine on their field, it was snowing so hard you couldn't see the field..."  Things these kids might remember from this game: cold, lots of snow and a very bitter loss.

 In all the years I've been coaching, this is the first time I hid in the press box.  Those announcers may never get me out of there again.

My expectations of my cheerleaders this year were realistic.  I was having a baby during the season.  Half the team was going on a two week vacation right before the first game.  The other half of the team was completely new to cheerleading.  Wouldn't you know, these girls put in so much time and effort that they were able to accomplish everything they wanted.  My best year of coaching, no question about it.

This game was in the Fargo Dome, here's a couple more action shots that I liked. 

Never in all the years of cheerleading or coaching have I seen so much snow, fog, rain, or sleet.  This was at the end of a victory against the Lake of the Woods Bears.  Moving onto sections. 

This is where I add a little personal story:

When I was a sophomore, our team was in the quarterfinal of the state tournament.  I don't remember the final score (we lost because of a safety).  What I remember most is the biggest, toughest guy on the team hugging his dad on the sideline, both sobbing when the game was done.  To give you an idea, imagine the meanest, toughest guy you know at 350 pounds, hugging and crying with his equally tough and mean dad.   

While I don't keep track of touchdowns or what happened in each quarter or how many tackles someone had, there are certain things that stick out during a game.  This touchdown might stick with me for a while.  Nice move, Alex.

This touchdown is also one that I may not forget for a while.  I may just need to give up coaching and become a ref, because clearly cheerleading coaches know what is a touchdown and what isn't a touchdown.  This one?  Not a touch down. 

I've watched enough high school football to know that the final quarter has a lot to do with clock strategy and luck. 

The game nears the end and the lead has just slipped out of their hands.  Gunnar gives a quick glance to his dad on the sideline, maybe looking for some reassurance and suddenly I'm back to 2001 watching those men cry.   

These kids walk off the field for the last time with more than a season record.  There's memories.  There's life skills.  Team work.  You may not remember details of each game, but you will remember the important things, which might not have a thing to do with the game at all. 

You just never know what to expect when working with two year olds, especially twins.  They had just woke up from a nap.  One was perfectly happy, hamming it up with the camera.  The other not so much, but we were able to sneak in some smiles here and there. 

These little guys also have older twin boy cousins.  I happen to know a tiny bit about them.  Charlie (on the left) reminded me so much of his cousin Eli.  As the football cheerleading advisor for eight seasons, Eli is the only athlete who has made a point to thank me, and hug me on several occasions after games.  I always laughed and said "I didn't do anything, I just brought the girls here".  Charlie was more than willing to share his toys with me, sit for me to take a picture, smile and giggle...  Asher was a bit more like his cousin Taylor, who from what I've seen is just a little quieter and keeps to himself. 

These boys have such beautiful, distinguishable eyes. 

With two year olds, there is almost always the moment where we say "Well, I think we've got enough pictures, Thanks!"

Introducing our first blogged session:

Meet miss Brynn, just two weeks old. This little one was born on Christmas Eve. Normally the first 10 days gives you the best baby poses since they tend to sleep pretty hard those first days. I wasn't sure how Brynn would behave since she was actually 16 days old. Turns out she was the best behaved little babe we've worked with-even better than our own! She slept the entire time and we were able to finish the session fairly quickly.