Lavender Field Summer Senior Pictures | Kiera | Benton Community High School

Lavender field summer senior pictures with Kiera

Newbo District | Pine Hill Farm | Pleasant Creek State Park

Kiera got the PRETTIEST day for her senior session! Her mom reached out EARLY to get her on the books for late July, the same time of year I did her sister’s senior photos a few years ago. Her sister’s session (her blog here) is STILL the hottest session I’ve ever photographed to this date! (Or it may be tied with the wedding I photographed in Aruba (that blog here)… So dang HOT!) So we were a bit worried that it would be a crazy hot day for Kiera. We met for her consultation, came up with some ideas that we thought would fit her aesthetic, as well as a mini family photoshoot we were going to do in the middle of her session. A few days later, I was looking at her questionnaire I had her fill out and I realized her favorite color is lavender and we have a local lavender field that allows photographers to rent the field for an hour. I emailed her mom and asked if they’d be interested in doing part of her session there, including her family photos. They discussed and weighed the pros and cons, and ultimately decided to go for it. And of course I was pumped to do something unique!!

Session day came, and almost the whole fam joined us for the day (remember, family photos were also happening later on). We met up for hair with Ingrid and makeup with Lindsey and Kiera LOVED how it turned out. And yes, that’s a spray tan for Bare Tones she’s sporting! And then we headed right outside our doors to hit my favorite spots around Newbo.

We spent a lot of time at the first spot, and hurried through the rest, as is typically with photoshoots with me - ha! And then it was time for an outfit change as we headed to Fross Park in Center Point to use their easy-to-access soccer net for some quick soccer photos!

After squeezing feet into a brand new pair a shoes, a round of bug spray and some fun experimental shots, we changed and headed out to Pine Hill Farm for the lavender field. It was mosquito-crazy out there but smelled oooh so good! We used half the rental time getting some SUPER cute photos of Kiera in the lavender and then Dad arrived and it was time for everyone to change into their family photo outfits. We snapped a few quick ones of the whole family, and then just the sisters. What a beautiful family! I’m so glad they did this - it sure can be stressful to plan for, but it’s worth it to have a quick update on family photos before everyone moves away and get busy with their own lives.

Time was up, so we headed out to Pleasant Creek Park where we would spend the remainder of the night. I chose this location because it had a few things that Kiera had gotten excited about: a willow tree, beach and long grass. We started at the willow tree. This area isn’t easy to walk into. The grass is LONG and thick. And we spent a lot of time getting there, got bitten up my mosquitos and left pretty quickly. But there were some wildflowers that we got photos with, of course!

As we waited for the sun to get lower in the sky, we headed to the beach area. I honestly thought we would have more sun on this spot at this time. So I pivoted and I decided to have some fun with the lighting here. It’s not my typical go-to style but after looking at my regular lighting vs this lighting, Kiera liked the vibes and uniqueness of this so we shot the whole location this way. I love it too - it just gives an ulta-summery vibe!

And then we went to head to my long grass location and the sun was just.. gone. So we turned around and tried to chase it down the hill and it just wasn’t happening for us. I later found out that there was a lot of extra cloudiness happening from wildfires up north and that would be why our sunsets were “off” that day and a few days following. But I honestly loved the unique vibes I was getting from this spot as well. Between the wildfire smoke and the campground fire smoke, we were getting hazy mountain vibes and I just enjoyed doing something a little different again! But we were still pretty bummed that the sunset was just gone.

And just like that, Kiera’s session was done! Isn’t she just a natural?!

Your calendar likely fills up as fast as mine does and it’s SO easy to forget to schedule photos! If you are graduating in 2025/2026 (or a parent of an upcoming graduate) - reach out with any questions or to start planning!! Check out my Senior Gallery or contact me for more info!

Casual Country Rustic Senior Pictures | Elisabeth | Center Point-Urbana High School

Casual Country Rustic Senior Pictures with Elisabeth

Newbo District, Cedar Rapids, IA | Center Point, Iowa

I met Elisabeth’s mom and sister several years ago when I did her sister’s senior pictures!! When her mom reached out about me doing Elisabeth’s pictures AND wanting to fill a last minute opening for me, I was SO excited!! Her mom told me how different she and her sister are, that’s she’s super low-key and doesn’t typically get dressed up/do hair and makeup. Honestly, I LOVE that! That just means that this would be an extra special experience for her!! When my client’s see “professional hair and makeup” included in my package, they tend to get a little worried. They worry that the makeup will be too much for them. The mom’s are worried the senior won’t look like herself. But that’s not the case at all!! (Then I show them all of my gorgeous seniors with their hair/makeup all done so naturally and perfect.) And that was definitely a concern for Elisabeth’s mom. We met for our consultation one night at Apple Creek Coffee and we chatted about hair, makeup, spray tans at Bare Tones, outfits and location ideas. She wanted something I hadn’t done in a while: a rustic red barn and a country vibe. Heck ya!

When photoshoot day came, our first stop was hair and makeup with Ingrid from Aurora Blush and Lindsey on makeup!

After wrapping up hair and makeup, we headed to Newbo. Side note: I had a whooooole photoshoot day itinerary all planned out. But Elisabeth sent me her outfits the day before her shoot, I changed it all. LOL. Mostly because of this ONE rock-tee outfit that I felt like needed it’s own grungy-ish vibe. There were a few favorite spots in the Newbo district that I LOVE and felt like they’d match the aesthetic well. So after a changing up the game-plan for the day, we started there!

It worked perfectly!!! I knew we were in a bit of a time crunch because of my addition of these locations to our plan, so we hit up those 2 spots and did a quick outfit change for some cute urban photos with this adorable dress!

We couldn’t stay long, but she looked so dang cute in this dress! I was gladded I had planned for her to use it more in the next location: the Cedar Valley Nature Trail in Center Point! This is one of my favorite spots to incorporate nature without going INTO it - I love the mix of city and natural aesthetic here. But also! We did some of Elisabeth’s sister’s senior pictures in this exact spot! So that’s special!!

After wrapping up in this spot (that I had only planned to spend 15 minutes at… ha! I should know myself better), we headed to a friend’s private property for the requested red barn! We got SO many cute ones here and I LOVED how the sun hit on this vine-y fenced area! Isn’t she GORGEOUS?!

And then it was off to our last stop of the night, which happens to be another favorite spot of mine in Center Point.. and another spot we did her sister’s senior pictures! Elisabeth wanted to incorporate her love for show choir so she brought her shoes and sheet music and I thought this was the best way to showcase it all - and the perfect spot!!

And the sun setting across this field is just my favorite thing! Awwww, I love me some golden light! And I LOVED this dress and hat combo on Elisabeth too! Although we were THIIIIS close to heading down to the river for more pictures (…but this time of year, brrrr!), this is how Elisabeth’s senior session ended! Perfect weather, bathed in golden light and crickets. :D

Your calendar likely fills up as fast as mine does and it’s SO easy to forget to schedule photos! If you are graduating in 2023 or 2024 (or a parent of an upcoming graduate) - reach out with any questions or to start planning!! Check out my Senior Gallery or contact me for more info!

Colorful Hometown Senior Photoshoot | Chelsea | Anamosa High School

Colorful Hometown Senior Photoshoot with Chelsea

Wapsi State Park | Stone City | Anamosa High School

Chelsea was one of my FIRST seniors to book this year! We chatted wayyy back on one snowy day and when we met for our consultation in June, I learned that the two things she wanted for her senior session were: 1. golden light and 2. to use the areas around her hometown that she grew up in, because they were really special to her and her family. I LOVED the idea and they were places I’d never photographed before - so I was excited! When I sat down to make her schedule for her photoshoot - our timeline was TIGHT! We had a lot we wanted to squeeze in and I wasn’t really sure how accessible each location would be or how it’d photograph so I knew it would take me a little extra time at each new spot. We decided to give it our best shot!

We met at Onyx Salon on photoshoot day for hair with Nicole (she owns the salon) and makeup with one of my makeup artists, Angie. Chelsea’s dad actually brought her while mom got ready at home, prepping for their family picture we had scheduled into the night. (A family picture is one of my bonuses you can choose from for pre-paying for your photos.) I thought that poor dad would have to sit through our girl talk feeling awkward but he used Onyx’s cute screened in porch to get some work done while we got Chelsea ready for her big day! Then it was off to Anamosa!

First stop: downtown Anamosa to explore for a city-look. I had previously Google-mapped out this area and had pinpointed a few cute areas and Chelsea’s mom met up with us and had some ideas too. There’s 2 big murals on one road in downtown Anamosa and everyone does their senior pictures there, I’m told. We opted to do the less popular, bright one and do the soft, original mural instead. Which happened to match Chelsea’s shirt perfectly and I loved that choice!

After I spent wayyy too much time in this area (it was so dang cute and Chelsea was ROCKING her session), we decided we better start looking around for more spots. I spotted a few I had seen on Google Maps and we stopped at those!

And right on the main street were these CUTE pink doors. And Chelsea’s next outfit was a pink dress… we had to do it! So we snapped a few in her pink dress and ran out of time! We didn’t have much time to spare so we headed to our next stop - Chelsea’s house for a quick family photo in front of their gorgeous house!

We only built in 15 minutes for this, which was plenty of time! We changed outfits and left for Wapsi State Park - a MUST visit when you’re in Anamosa and a special location for Chelsea and her family. There were several places we wanted to stop at here - first up, one of the cute bridges. Umm, perfect location with these wildflowers!

We drove up further into the park to our tree location, which turned out better than I expected (the lighting was tricky)!

For our last stop, we change outfits and when we showed up to the tall grassy field, it was beautiful. We were racing the clock and as we walked out there we realized the grass was SOOOOOO tall. Probably the tallest grass I’ve ever trekked through. It was quite comical to watch us, I’m sure! But I’ll do pretty much anything for that perfect lighting. It was WORTH it!! Gosh!!!! Isn’t Chelsea just GORGEOUS?!

This was DEFINITELY the spot that put us behind our time schedule, so we rushed out and met up with her dad to head to Stone City. There are several really cool historic buildings there and the quarry (that we had special permission to use). The lighting at the quarry was AMAZINGLY pretty!

We stopped at the old building that was just at the entrance to the quarry as the sunset. We tried to chase it up to the top of the hill, and caught a few images (I mean, just a few, we probably had 3 minutes of pictures here) and knew we had to be quick to wrap up the night before there was no light left at all. We stopped quickly at the rock/sand pile on our way out because it’s a concept I had always wanted to photograph (so thank you guys for letting me) and then we decided that the gorgeous old church would be our last stop.

The church is a well-known historic landmark in Stone City and incorporating some of the old buildings into her photoshoot was important to Chelsea. I’m so glad they chose to keep this image, because not does Chelsea look perfect, but it really shows off the cool architecture and windows of the church. How cool!

We were ALL ready to wrap up the crazy night! But we had a blast and I hope it was something Chelsea and her family will never forget!

Your calendar likely fills up as fast as mine does and it’s SO easy to forget to schedule photos! If you are graduating in 2023 or 2024 (or a parent of an upcoming graduate) - reach out with any questions or to start planning!! Check out my Senior Gallery or contact me for more info!

Trendy Summer Senior Pictures with Kitten | Olivia | Jesup High School

Trendy Summer Senior Pictures with Olivia

Newbo District | Center Point | Jesup High School

I met with Olivia and her mom at Jam’s Coffee Bar, a new coffee place in Urbana that I had been wanting to try! I still get blown away when I think about my seniors coming from outside of my surrounding areas of Cedar Rapids, Marion, Center Point and Alburnett. It’s always feels a little extra exciting knowing that they SOMEHOW found me through Google and decided to pick me! Anyway! I met with them and the first thing I noticed was Olivia’s beautiful blonde hair. And I felt like I clicked right away with the both of them - they were so down-to-earth and easy to talk to! I was excited to plan Olivia’s session!

We decided on using Newbo for a downtown vibe, and she wanted wildflowers (and she noted that she especially loved purple flowers) and water. So after scouting some locations, I decided to try a new patch of flowers I had found outside the CPU High School and use the boat ramp area in Center Point, too! This worked out extra-well because we got SO much rain leading up to her session that the water was high, but I knew the boat ramp would have treads and a gradually decline so she’d still be able to get IN the water if she wanted to! So we started with hair and makeup at Onyx Salon where Nicole did both her hair and makeup! We LOVED how it turned out! And then it was off to Newbo.

I LOVED Olivia’s outfits and the vibes she was wanting. She had a couple more trendy outfits and a more classic outfit that would fit with a few spots in Newbo that was more casual. We started by exploring one end of the area and slowly making our way to the other with a few outfit changes in the crazy, popup tent in between.

After our first outfit change, and as we were heading to our next location I realized I had left my ladder at our last location. That was a first for me! A big thanks to Olivia’s mom who volunteered to go grab it while we continued on. We were heading to one of my favorite spots at Newbo and knew she wouldn’t have any trouble finding us there - I knew I’d take wayyyy to many pictures.

We walked around a little more in this outfit, heading to the blue and white mural at Newbo for some pops of color!

After changing into the outfit that Olivia seemed the most excited about, we started our last venture at Newbo. We stopped at my last few go-to spots that I thought would pair well with this outfit. And they turned out SO GOOD!

We were perfectly on time the whole day… with a little time to spare thankfully. It was HOT on Olivia’s senior picture day and we had to take some air-conditioner breaks in the car. We left for Center Point to hit up the natural trail first.. and to meet up with Olivia’s dad and KITTY!!! To tell you I was excited for this part was an understatement. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE kitties, and I was SO excited for Olivia to get some sweet pictures with her baby, Millie.

We made it as quick as possible with Millie because cats don’t love new places and there were a lot of walkers/bikers on the trail this day. We probably only had her out there for 10 minutes and we got SO many cute pictures!! We finished out with some more pictures of Olivia in this super-cute outfit, and then some volleyball pictures!

Next up was the wildflower fields. I had happened to find PURPLE flowers, too! Which made me extra excited, but also a bit nervous since I had never used this spot before. We showed up, walked all the way out to the front of the field, started shooting and I realized the sun was still too high for the lighting we were hoping for here. (Although, after some editing tweaks, they were FIRE!!) I knew we had a little extra time to spare, so I had Olivia go get cooled down for a bit in the car. After a few minutes, we used the shaded parts of the field for the pictures were she’d need to be laying/sitting down. The long grass and flowers would’ve been too long anyway. All the while, the CPU volleyball girls were starting their outdoor practice RIGHT next to us. I thought for sure that Olivia would be thrown off her game, but they were hyping her up and she was ROCKING it!

After a little more cooling down, the sun was finally low enough for the PERFECT lighting inside the flower field. So we trekked back out there and started doing our thing! And HOLY COW! It was PERFECT! We are obsessed with these photos!! Isn’t she STUNNING?!

After wrapping up this hot, sweaty part of the photoshoot, we were all looking forward to the water portion of her session. So we headed out to the boat ramp, changed outfits and spent the last few minutes of the sunset taking these images of the gorgeous Olivia looking SO summery in the water. And they are soooo cute!!

Your calendar likely fills up as fast as mine does and it’s SO easy to forget to schedule photos! If you are graduating in 2023 or 2024 (or a parent of an upcoming graduate) - reach out with any questions or to start planning!! Check out my Senior Gallery or contact me for more info!