Relay for Life : Freeborn County

Giving back to the community is such an important part of being a business owner, but even more importantly, it’s a crucial part of the human experience. Doing things for others, while expecting nothing in return can help boost your mood, and reward you with a sense of fulfillment that money just can’t buy.
The American Cancer Society helps coordinate volunteers across the country to help raise money for cancer research, supporting the families of those dealing with it, and helping educate the public on ways to prevent and detect cancer.
I was honored to be asked to volunteer my time to photograph some of the teams that raised money for the Relay for Life in Freeborn County.
It was a hot and humid day that turned into a beautiful evening. I encourage anyone who has never experienced attending the Relay for Life to try to make it to the next one in their community. You don’t have to be on a team or even donate money to just go and walk the path lined with paper bag luminaries. The luminaries are decorated with the names and sometimes pictures of people who are fighting, survived cancer or in memory of someone.
It’s pretty rare to find anyone these days who hasn’t had cancer touch their lives and it’s a moving experience to see all the names and faces on the luminaries… especially after dark when they light the candles inside.
I want to comment on something in particular that I found very inspiring. It was all the purple shirts I saw at the kickoff event. Purple shirts represented survivors. Seeing so many people who had battled cancer and are doing well. You wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at them either and I believe Relay for Life and the work of the ACS has something to do with that.  Let’s keep kicking cancer’s butt!!!
Enjoy!
Becca

Taylor-Davis Wedding Photography – Superior Shores Resort, Two Harbors, MN

When a past senior portrait customer asks you to photograph her wedding in the Duluth area of Northern Minnesota on Lake Superior, what’s a girl to do but say “YES!”?

Saying Yes to photographing Rachel & Tim’s wedding seems to set off a domino effect and I’ve been booking weddings left and right.  The good Lord must be telling me it’s time to start serving more brides again.  I used to do quite a few weddings each year until we built the house and I had our second son, when I backed off from doing wedding shows and all that.  At that time it felt like there were so many weekend warriors out there photographing weddings and at that time I saw more value in focusing on high school seniors and families.

Times seem to be a changin’ and I for one am grateful for it.  I keep getting the feeling that families have seen too many of those weekend warriors fall flat or make mistakes… or just plain deliver less than dazzling results.  There’s a reason wedding photography should be a big portion of your wedding budget… it’s hard, takes a lot of time and equipment to do it right, and it’s a huge responsibility (and honor).

Rachel and Tim’s idea of the perfect wedding was a beachside ceremony at noon with just immediate family & grandparents and a casual BBQ lunch to follow.  Even with their desire to keep things casual, they realized they wanted a professional there to capture the milestone event and provide them with heirloom quality memories.

It had rained quite a bit the day before so the water in a few of the photos looks a bit muddy but I have some photoshop magic up my sleeve for whichever ones they decide to order reprints of.   And since it was a 89-degree, full-sun kind-of-day, we didn’t do too many on the beach and then headed for the shade for the rest of the family groups.

I hope you enjoy a few highlights from the day.  Feel free to share this with family and friends.  I love you guys!

Hugs,
Becca

Baby Victor – Newborn Photography

I’m excited to post the gallery online today for Baby Victor’s parents!  They’re close friends of mine.  His mom and I go way back to story hour at the public library!  So it’s no exaggeration to say I care deeply about her and I was so thrilled when I found out they were expecting and then I prayed with all my heart for a healthy pregnancy and baby.

When she texted me to say their little one had entered the world a healthy, (almost) 8 lb baby boy and they named him Victor, my eyes filled with tears of joy.  I was THAT happy!

So without further hesitation, here are some of my favorite portraits from his newborn session.  I captured all these images at their home in the Twin Cities.  Needless to say, I had LOADED my van down with blankets, backgrounds and wooden crates… anything that might be needed for this monumental photo session!  I am sure they thought I was moving in when I arrived.  I suppose they would have been grateful for an extra set of hands to help, although Victor’s daddy is not averse to changing a dirty diaper!  He jumped at the opportunity to handle any of his needs, which I admire.

Congrats M & J!

Enjoy,
Becca

Extended Family Portraits

One of the best investments you can make is doing an “Extended” family portrait session.  And no, I’m not talking about having a photographer come to your family reunion where people are just trying to have fun and are wearing their comfy clothes and flip flops.  I’m talking about a fully coordinated effort to get all your adult children and grandchildren together in a well-coordinated photo shoot.  To be totally honest, it is a bit of work sometimes.  Making sure everyone is on the same page.  But if you pick out three colors for people to pick from when pulling together outfits.  Think Navy, white, khaki and denim or jewel tone fall colors… red, white, black and denim… you get the idea.

Another tip would be to get the sizes of everyone who will be in the picture and having one person purchase all the shirts so you KNOW they’ll all go together.  (This works great if you’re a bit of a control freak or can’t trust your in-law to know what you mean when you say cherry red and you’re certain she’ll show up in a maroon sweatshirt)

Having an on-location session is a wise investment for this type of photography session as well.  Many adult children will agree they love visiting mom & dad’s home and to capture it in the background of your images, part of the yard, or a nearby park you associate with “home” is always a great choice to add that extra level of meaning to your images.

I feel like after doing so many weddings early in my career, it gave me lots of practice posing large groups and now I have a talent for working quickly and keeping them entertained.

Here’s a selection of my favorite extended family photo sessions from the last year.  (and here’s a previous post where I shared an extended family session)

The great part about these sessions is that I’m able to capture a beautiful image of the big group and then do individual family groups and portraits of each group of grandkids… and the ultimate shot… all the grandkids together (+ grandma & grandpa!)  And they all LOOK AMAZING TOGETHER on grandma’s wall in a artful grouping because they’re not a hodgepodge of sessions in different colored outfits/seasons/photographers… they all coordinate beautifully for that high-end designer look in home decor.

If you’d like to schedule your extended family portrait session, just call the studio at 507-383-2344.  Things like this are best booked well in advance to coordinate so many schedules and get the time most ideal for your whole family.

Enjoy these images to get the ideas rolling…

 

 

Brennyn : Newborn Girl

This angelic newborn is the daughter of one of my wedding clients from way back.  I was so honored to have them back in my studio with the birth of their first child.  She is a doll!

It’s not easy getting ready for a photo session while trying to tend to a newborn, so I always do my best to reassure the moms (and dads) once they get here not to worry about a thing.  If they forgot an item or just had a rough morning, not to worry, I will take it from here.

I have LOTS of great newborn hats, headbands and hairclips to style a little boy or girl’s newborn photoshoot.  I also have blankets and baskets galore.  Another wedding client that recently returned with her baby said I needed to post a picture of all my stuff so people realize I have it for them to use.

So here it is!  Last year I worked on updating the look of my dressing room and created this cute display of a lot of my baby girl accessories.  (The boy ones are in a tote!  I ran out of room!)

And here are some beautiful images of Brennyn and her adoring parents.

Enjoy!

Rebecca

Kenison-Smally : A Rustic, Country Wedding

It’s amazing how complicated life gets sometimes.  It seems so wonderfully simple when people see you in the grocery store, they say hello, smile at your kids, you both agree the summer is going to quickly and the kids are growing so fast, and you move on… but when you own a business, things are never quite a simple as they seem.  LOL!

Case in point:  I had been talking back and forth with a bride, answering questions about wedding pricing and she had told me I would be the photographer for their wedding.  She was excited and so was I.  A few weeks later, I get a call from a wonderful family friend, Jordan…

Jordan is a girl I took senior portraits for back when I was just getting started doing photography full-time.  She loved her photos, we ended up doing a “cousins” family photoshoot, then I photographed one of those cousins the next year for her senior portraits as well.  After all that, I asked this same gal to babysit my oldest son for me when he was born (I was pregnant when she was graduating and she seemed so genuinely excited and interested I knew I could trust her with my new precious baby boy.)  She was beyond amazing.  She brought him back to her mom & dad’s house and was never impatient to get him back to me even though I worried he must be getting in the way of her social life.  She didn’t feel that way at all, in fact, her and her mom took him all over the place to eat out for lunch with the rest of their extended family, go on little shopping trips and all sorts of other interesting adventures.  He (and I) inadvertently became “adopted” members of their extended family and we often celebrated birthdays, holidays and just regular old Sunday afternoons with them.  I also ended up photographing her older sister’s son’s newborn portraits a few years back.  Needless to say, we are all very close.

… back to the phone call…

she’s asking me about wedding photography and the date has not been set, but she’s thinking about the same date as the other bride I’ve been talking to and who “unofficially” has booked me (AKA: no deposit has been given or contract signed).  I beg her to pick one of the other dates but she warns me it’s pretty likely this will be the date because it also happens to be her parent’s anniversary!  How can I argue with that?!

{It also just so happens to have another element of ginormous significance… it’s my BIRTHDAY!!! 😉 Hahaa!}

… When it all was said and done, that was the date, June 25th, so I had to debate whether or not I risk upsetting the other bride, possibly ruining my reputation and delicately retract my commitment to photograph her wedding, or risk missing one of the most exciting moments in one of my friend Jordan’s life…  Oh, decisions!

Obviously, I knew I couldn’t miss out on Jordan’s wedding, even if I wasn’t photographing it.  So, I picked up the phone and gave the unlucky bride a call.  She was so amazingly gracious and I was so full of gratitude and relief that she still had plenty of time to find another photographer and not to worry.  Happy dance time!

Fast forward to Engagement Pictures… which you can find HERE.

And now it’s time to share some from the BIG DAY!!!  It was the most beautiful, rustic country wedding.  Set at her parent’s home with all her closest family and friends in attendance.  It was a nail-biter though!  There was predictions of lots of rain but we only ended up with LOTS of wind, and no rain until later that night around 10pm when everyone was safely under the tent and a little too tipsy to care that their feet were getting all wet.

The wind did make portraits quite challenging.  Think wispy hair and ties flying sideways… yeah… not cool.  I just had to let go of some of the ideas I had to take pictures in other parts of the yard and stick to an area behind a couple of sheds to keep my subjects from looking like they were about to be swept away.  But even with all that, we have a TON of amazing images to choose from for Jordan’s wedding album which I’m excited to start designing soon.

Don’t miss noticing the amazing bridal party flowers that were created by Flowers By Bree.  She is a local, Kensett, IA florist that works out of her home and she has a God-given gift for coordinating colors and textures with flowers in the most amazing ways.  She can take any bride’s vision/request and bring it into a spectacularly beautiful reality.  (Was that enough adjectives for you???  Seriously, she is THAT good!)

Enjoy!
Becca

 

Camellia + John Paul : Children’s Portrait Session

These littles are very dear to my heart. They just so happen to be my niece and nephew who live just far enough away to make taking photos a little hard to coordinate with school and work schedules. Needless to say, I was thrilled to finally have them back in my studio for some fun portraits documenting their ages (4 & 7).
The outfits their mama dressed them in were adorable and classic and so fitting for their ages. Camellia loves the camera and strutted her stuff like a girl who has seen a few episodes of America’s Next Top Model. Such a honey.
And JP, he’s golden. He really is. My parents get to spend lots of time with them since they live right next door and they never have a bad word to say about either of them. Gotta love grandparents.
I hope you love these images as much as I do… well, maybe that’s asking a lot if you’re not also related to them, but leave me a comment below and let me know which picture is your favorite!
Enjoy!
Becca

Daisy Blue Naturals – Commercial Product Photography

Hello friends!

This time of year is just INSANE!  I’m taking senior portraits, I’m doing a couple weddings, I’ve got a business headshot and a couple kid/family photo sessions in the mix… it’s just hard to keep on top of it all in the late summer.  Not to mention the fact that my oldest son isn’t in school but isn’t real excited about daycare anymore and it’s not like we live in town and he can go play with the neighbors.  It’s a crazy, but GOOD, very good life.

But you might wonder, what do you do when it’s not the busy season, Rebecca???

That is a great question and I’m about to share a photo session with you that I did in my slower season (AKA Jan/Feb/March).  In addition to filing my taxes, taking care of any newborn sessions, attending conventions and creating new marketing materials… I pick up a session for commercial product photography here and there.  (I was thinking that was a slow season, but it still sounds like I’m doing a lot, doesn’t it???)

This past year that included a photo shoot for a local company, based out of Albert Lea, MN that has been creating natural based products for 16 years now.  It’s owned/managed by Jena Thompson who is a wonderful, inspiring woman with a great entrepreneurial spirit.   She has decided to use the direct marketing model for her products so she has consultants that host home parties as a way to encourage other people to try these amazing lotions, soaps and other great products.

I had the honor of seeing Jena in action speaking passionately about her company for the June meeting of the Albert Lea Entrepreneur Advancement Program (ALEAP).  It was there that I finally got to see the images I had captured of Daisy Blue Products in print, in their Spring/Summer Catalog!  Here’s the link to view the catalog virtually.  You’ll be able to see my images below so you know which ones are mine in the catalog.

My main objective capturing images for Jena was simple.  I wanted to blow her away with some really great, lifestyle product photography.  I made sure she knew I had a beautiful new home that would be perfect for staging some “real life” type of shots.  Thankfully, she was game!  I’m excited to see what kind of images we can create in the future with live models and put into action all sorts of other ideas we have.

Do you have a business that has product photography needs?  Give me a call today and let’s chat about what Rebecca Lynne Photography could create for you to elevate your marketing materials and help them convey just how amazing your products are.

Enjoy!
Becca

Shay – 1 Year Old – Children’s Portrait Session

Hello my friends!

Today is a beautiful summer day here in Iowa.  I’m thrilled to be sharing these photos with you today because this little lady just turned the BIG 1!!!  She is a sweet, smart, expressive little girl who loves to go-go-go!  This wood on my studio porch is actually from Shay’s great-grandpa’s barn!  So that is pretty awesome and significant, if I do say so myself.

Her actual birthday was Wednesday, but the big bash is this weekend so I can’t wait to see all the fun pictures they post on Facebook.  She really loved the cake they let her dig into Wed night so I’m thinking after a little practice she’ll be a pro at it come tomorrow!

Enjoy!

Becca

10 Tips for a Fabulous Senior Portrait Session

Have you booked your portrait session for your Senior Pictures?  I’d love to have you call my studio and inquire about our services.  This is the time to book your session.  July and August are almost full and you don’t want to be stuck doing them once school starts in the fall, that’s just asking for a headache when it comes to schedule conflicts.

I’ve put together my top 5 tips to get you prepared for a successful portrait experience that leaves everyone, even mom, feeling good at the end of the day.  Read on!

1. Check out all your options
   You think I’d just say, call me, fall in love, be done!  LOL!  Well, that’s all fine and dandy, as long as you’re a very go with the flow kind of person… but if you haven’t researched the options, you won’t have any point of reference to judge quality, service and price.  Is quality important to you?  If the answer is a resounding yes, then choose a professional photographer, someone who has been in the business for a while and you’ve heard delivers a great product.  Service is huge too!  There are amazing photographers out there, delivering high quality photos at high and low prices, but if they’re so overbooked (because they’re cheap) or so high and mighty (because they’re so ridiculously expensive) then they are not going to treat you the way you deserve to be treated.  Finding someone in the middle ground who is going to appreciate your business and work hard to please you, that’s who you’ll want to hire.
2. Find the person you feel comfortable with
   As soon as you get on the phone… and PLEASE, get on the phone with your photographer… you’ll know if this is a person you and your child will “click” with.  The personality of your photographer is going to make or break the outcome of the session (AKA the beautiful portraits you hope to hang on your wall).  Don’t sacrifice price for someone who takes forever to get back to your or seems annoyed by your questions.  Having someone who is cheerful and patient is going to result in images with genuine expressions and natural poses.
3. Ask the right questions
   Instead of asking “How much is this going to cost?” instead ask, “What will I get for my investment?”  You might be able to spend $500 at two different places and you would be amazed at the difference in the quanitity and quality of what you’ll be walking away with at the end
4. Choose outfits with care
   It used to be that there were “rules” about what to wear.  Dark colors, solids, no prints, v-neck & long sleeves.  Now days those rules are blown out of the water.  Yes, if you follow those guidelines you’ll be able to get a nice, classic, simple portrait that focuses on your beautiful face… but life is so much more interesting and colorful than all that.  So I always recommend one “classic” outfit and then ANYTHING GOES for the rest.  Keep in mind, you’ll want to pick items that fit well, that flow over your body and don’t cling to areas you’re not wanting to showcase.  Also, if you wear a print, just make sure it’s a flattering proportion to your body and if it’s paired with other items, let those be more simple so they don’t compete.
5. Communicate with your photographer
   My favorite part about almost everyone having a smart phone with a camera is that they are able to text me pictures of the outfits they’ve chosen and I can spend a day or two thinking about their upcoming session and where I might want to take them if we are going on-location.  I also love when moms send me pictures they have of their older children that they want to capture something similar to, to complement the wall arrangement.  Waiting to announce something like that at your ordering appointment isn’t a good idea, best to be proactive and that way your photographer can make sure they capture it, versus trying to find something that “fits” later.

Well, there you have it!  My Top 5 Tips!

I’m super excited for all the upcoming senior portrait sessions this year.  I hold off on doing them until after July 1st if possible, which most photographers would tell me I’m crazy, not to take advantage of June, but I just feel it’s too early!  I think kids need a little break after school ends, and the mosquitoes get horrendous around here.  We spray for them, but all those great places to get photographed, in the long grass or just off the beaten path will still be bad.  And what about the June winds and rains?  That’s just asking for rescheduling headaches.  So I, along with my high school seniors take a break.  I connect with my kids, take them to the park and the pool and just enjoy being with them.  I hope you’ve been doing the same this month!

Enjoy,

Becca