Milwaukee Wedding Photographer | Engagement Session | Beth and Mark

A few weeks ago we met Beth and Mark at Marquette University for their engagement session. They both attend graduate school and since it's where much of their time was spent as they were falling in love, it was the perfect place for their engagement session.

Beth and Mark grew up in this area and met through friends at church. Mark is a writer and when he decided to ask Beth to marry him, he began by writing her a dear, sweet poem. He took her to a special spot at the beach and he gave her the poem. She read it and got teary-eyed. She said "no one has ever done something like this for me before." As Mark was telling us this sweet story of their engagement, he got a twinkle in his eye and told us he thought to himself, "and now I'm about to do something I don't think anyone else has done for you before either." So SWEET!!!

As you can see from these images Mark shows his love for Beth with his big, wide smile, and Beth shows her love with big, beautiful eyes that just light up when she looks at him. We toured the campus with Beth and Mark and stopped in all the places that were special to them and the beginning of their life together. (A big thank you to the library patrons for tolerating our camera shutters and a bit of giggling while you were studying for your finals!)

Beth and Mark, we enjoyed our time getting to know you! We hope you enjoy your images as a memory of this time in your life that is so special and precious! Your lives will never be the same as in this moment, but our hope for you is that you never forget where you began your love, and that you never ever lose this special gift of each other that you were given!

Take Care,
Jan

Here are some of our favorite images from the day.

















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Orten Family | Grafton, Wisconsin | Family Portrait

Hi everybody! I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. We did...it’s always such a great way to start that “family” time of year!!

The word “Family” brings a lot to mind, all kinds of thoughts, feelings and memories. These are the people you spend your entire life with. We spend a lot of our days and nights with the other people in our lives, but we spend all of our years with our family. They are there for the joys and the sorrows, the wins and the losses. Good or bad, they are where we came from, they are partly responsible for why we are the way we are, and they will be there wherever we end up in life. Looking around at our Thanksgiving table this year I realized that we all have been through so many different seasons of life together. We’ve had good years, and great years, and some not so good. But we are still a family. And I’m grateful that no matter what, they are mine.

So in honor of families everywhere, I would like to introduce you to the Orten Family. They chose to meet at the beautiful Lyme Kiln Park in Grafton for their family photo shoot. This happened to be what was to be one of the very last beautiful fall days in Wisconsin.

I love doing family shoots,. To me it’s an honor to be invited to share a secret view into who this family is and how they work. Always by the end, after meeting each sibling, meeting who they married, and getting to spend a little time with their kids, I get a picture of my own. Seeing them all together at the end, all smiling natural smiles (by this time they’ve realized we are harmless and they have relaxed into themselves), always makes me happy. Here is another family, like my own. All different, yet all have something that ties them together. Forever. Good and bad. Joys and sorrows.

So Orten family, we hope you enjoy your photos as much as we enjoyed spending the afternoon with you!! Happy Holidays!!



















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"There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Most of you know that I'm not only a wedding photographer but I also work in an Apple retail store. And if you pay any attention to the news you probably also know that Steve Jobs, one of the founders and most definitely the face of Apple, passed away this week. He died due to complications from a rare form of pancreatic cancer.

I heard the news in a text message from a co-worker. For the next couple hours I kept Twitter open on my laptop and kept reading tweets filled with inspirational quotes that were attributed to this visionary leader or things people were saying about him. Two stood out to me that night. The first spoke to the impact his life work has had on the world. It was from a statement issued by President Obama and read, "The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented." That was in fact how I had heard the news. And over the next twenty-four hours I kept hearing others share how true that statement was.

The second quote is a statement that I can't get out of my mind. It has had a profound impact on me this week and I want to share it with you here. This is from a commencement speech he made at Stanford University on June 12, 2005. I'm not going to comment or attempt to add to it. But I hope it inspires you the way it has inspired me.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Steve Jobs
1955-2011

Jeff

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Spotts Family | Hartford, Wisconsin | Family Portrait

Pike Lake, early autumn and the super-cute Spotts family were a perfect way for Jeff and I to spend an afternoon!

We first photographed this family when Jayda was a newborn. Now just a year later we were honored to be asked to create their family photos. Jayda is a happy, cute little girl with bright blond pigtails and full of personality. She just loved watching AND learning from her older brothers. Micah and Noah are busy, active boys, in constant motion. I think they found every stick on the hill at Pike Lake during our shoot! After trying to photograph just the five of them, we finally gave in and included sticks in most of the photos.

You could see how happy they all were together by the kind of smiles that appeared whenever Jamie or Chris looked at one of their kids. That's what I love about family portraits; not only the "smile for the camera" shots, but I especially enjoy catching the glimpses that members of a family save just for each other. It's priceless!

Jamie and Chris, thank you once again for sharing a glimpse of your family life with us! We love seeing you and your great kids, and catching up on all that's going on in your lives. We hope you enjoyed our afternoon together as much as we did, sticks and all! Here are some photos from our afternoon together. We hope you enjoy them!

Take care,
Jan

Seriously! How cute is Jayda?!?!?!


Noah and Micah are pretty cute too!






Posing with their favorite sticks of the day.


I think Jayda is daddy's girl!


Speaking of cute!

Why We Want You to Have Engagement Photos

OK, so you’re getting married! And next on your list is hiring a wedding photographer and you’re meeting with us to see if we’re the right ones for you. We all know the economy is bad, money is tight, and if you’re like the rest of us when we planned our weddings, you are over-budget and are looking to cut corners. 
The question we sometimes get at this point in getting to know our clients is this - can we cut corners somewhere? How about taking out that engagement session? After all, you say, we’ve been engaged for a while and we have a lot of photos of us as a couple already. Or maybe you’ve even had engagement pictures taken, so you feel like you don't need them.

Well, our answer is usually no, and for a number of well thought out reasons. And whether you hire us or not, we'd like you to know why we love and almost insist on shooting an engagement session for all of our wedding couples.

We think it’s a really great way to get to know your photographers. We actually call it a "Get to Know You" Session. On your wedding day, you will likely spend as much if not more time with your photographer than almost anyone else! So the "Get to Know You" Session is a really good time for all of us to get ready for that day. You will probably start out nervous but be able to become comfortable around us and our equipment as you learn how we work. You'll learn more about what you want from your wedding images, we can see how the two of you are with each other, and even learn some do's and don'ts about how to photograph you. This helps us photograph you in the best possible way on your very best day. Your photographs will be so much better, more personal and more authentic because you will be looking at and smiling for a friend holding a camera, not some stranger.

Having an engagement session will also ensure you have some truly meaningful photos of a very special time in your life, one that will never be this way again. The time right before your wedding. The way you look on your wedding day will be gorgeous, happy, stunning - all those things. But the way you look in your engagement images is a little different - the look of anticipation, love, hope and excitement is priceless.

Our goal as your wedding photographers is certainly to get great images on your wedding day. An engagement session is an important part of that.

Happy wedding planning!!

Take care,
Jan

Crystal and Alex from the very first engagement session we did.


Danielle and Paul's session on the beach in Racine turned out beautiful.


Lisa and Keran's at Pike Lake wasn't too shabby either.




Alicia and Marc's at the University of Chicago was so fun because the place was so meaningful to them.