My art :) {Collinsville, IL; St. Louis, MO Photographer}

I will be watermarking my blog photos here on out. It is very important to me to protect my work. It is even more important to me to protect my clients. I have been fortunate so far that no one has stolen any of my blog photos, cropped, edited or claimed them as theirs. These are very low resolution so they cannot be printed. If they were, they would look awful. Plus, they are copyrighted works and it would be illegal. I work for an attorney, remember :)

Anyway, I do not mind if anyone wants to use these for their social networking sites. BUT, you must put credit to me on each and every photo. It can be in the comment box or wherever but it must say it is mine.

I hope I don't sound to mean. I just have a lot of photographer friends who have been burned on this and I am fortunate enough to have lovely clients who respect my work and have never done this to me.

Anyway, thank you for understanding.

Love,

Amanda

America's Next Top Model! {Edwardsville, IL Photographer; St. Louis, MO Photographer}

Meet Miss Ellie - she is a sweet and sassy angel who walked into my world of photography this weekend. Boy was I excited when I saw her beautiful face and thought how it would look great on business cards ;) Her mom and dad are getting married and wanted me to get pictures of her for their Save the Date cards. That is why different parts of her shirt says "Save" "the" and "date". Cute idea, huh? I will post those once we decide which ones from the session we are going to use. Anyway, I captured some beautiful photos of a beautiful face. Please enjoy!

By the way, did I mention she just got accepted into modeling school? She may be gracing the covers of some famous magazines someday. It does not surprise me one bit :)

Thank you for letting me photograph your little angel. She is a true joy! I can't wait to let you see the finished photos :)

John and Kristen {Collinsville, IL Photographer; St. Louis, MO Photographer}

So John is a friend from high school and Kristen is his beautiful fiance. They have been together for quite some time and they are planning a destination wedding. I am starting to think that destination weddings are the way to go. If Brett and I ever decided to renew our vows, I would love to hit a remote tropical island. Plus, how romantic would that be? The most special day of your life spent with the love of your life, close family and friends and a beautiful location. I don't think it gets better than that. Anyway, enjoy these pictures and be very, very jealous :) Both of these fine folks are two gorgeous people. Watch out in a few years when we see babies more gorgeous than the Jolie-Pitt children.

I am starting out with my favorite photo!

See what I mean! Gorgeous :)

Anyway, John and Kristen, I had a blast with you guys on Saturday and it was great to catch up. I will email the link to your photos once they are finished.

Look how big I am now!

I find so much joy in my job as a photographer. Besides being a mother, I truly think this is what God put me on this earth to do. I promise I will find ways to help others through my art, whether it be charity or putting a smile one someone's face. 

I always get super excited before a shoot too. I take notes for each shoot to make sure that my art reflects not only me, but the person I am shooting. I want each shoot to be different. 

Well, point being said, I was soooo excited for this shoot. Of course, Ashley is my friend and her family is really sweet, but her parents have a cool house with a ton of light - wait, did I mention that this shoot was probably during one of the darkest days I have ever seen during a spring month. WE HAD NO LIGHT! That is really hard to when you work with natural light 90% of the time. Well, I worked with what I had and got some beautiful portraits. I cannot wait for you to see the rest!

I am going to start with my favorite photo first! And of course adding a quote ;)

"We never know the

love of our parents for us until we

have become parents."

~Henry Ward Beecher~

That fits perfect since this was a family shoot and with the first grandchild!

When I see a child I know grow, it always reminds me of this beautiful, and true, quote:

Cooking and cleaning

can wait 'til tomorrow.

For babies grow up,

we've learned to our sorrow;

So quiet down cobwebs;

dust go to sleep,

I'm rocking my baby,

and babies don't keep

~unknown~

Isn't that beautiful? I always think of this when my house 

needs cleaned and the laundry is piled up. What is more important than

spending time with the little people that we love most in this world? 

Well, I can't believe that Carter is already 4 months!!!! He sure is loved though and I think you can tell by the look in the eyes of his family. You can see their adoration.