McCarthy Family + | Eagan, MN Family Portraits

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to head to Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Eagan, MN to meet Maggie, Jarred, and their eight-month-old. We were met by Maggie's extended family to do a few large group pictures as well. The gorgeous park and dusting of snow made for picture-perfect backdrops!
 




I can't even look at this grouping and not smile!






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Holiday Mini Sessions 2016 {River Falls, WI Studio}

Last weekend, I spent an entire day with awesome clients! I decided to try something I'd never done before...mini sessions!

What makes a mini session different? Well, rather than a full 1-2 hour session with multiple location, backdrop, or outfit options, we spend 20 minutes in studio with a designed set. This is ideal for families who just need a couple themed pictures (in this case, especially for holiday cards). It may also be good for those who would rather do a few small sessions than one longer session. To me, it falls between a standard photo studio session at a big box store and a full-blown portrait session. Of course, with minis, your portraits are more limited than in a full session and you have to be okay with the theme! :)

During our sessions, we had a ton of fun! We played in the "snow" on the ground, pretended to be cold, warmed back up, had candy canes and cookies, and made a mess by blowing fake snow at the camera. I can't wait to do it again next year - or maybe even before then!

Baar Family {River Falls, WI Family Portraits}

🎶Singing in the rain!🎶

Okay - not singing, but Heather and Nathan's kids decided they would rather have a portrait session in the rain (i.e., get it done!) than reschedule for the next afternoon. Luckily, Karissa and Blake were good sports and we had a great time walking through the park and exploring the gorgeous natural features of River Falls!






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Langevin Family {St. Paul, MN Family Portraits}

I had the opportunity to meet up with MaryAlice and her family a couple of years ago for family portraits. This year, we went to Rice Park in St. Paul and were able to find lots of different spots for pictures! Luckily, since one of us was very, very hungry, the "reward" for making it through pictures was a nice dinner out. :) It was great to see everyone again and we had a great time walking around the area & discovering beautiful urban backdrops!
 









Show me how you really feel about being done with pictures...can you tell who was hungry?


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Wegge Family {River Falls, WI Family Portraits}

With the sun shining over the valley, Tanner quickly got over any hesitation he had with this random new person with a camera. I can't get over how beautiful this location is - can you imagine living here?! It was so great to meet Rachelle, Ross, and Tanner. Tanner may not have been so interested in having his picture taken, but I think we definitely captured his personality. ;)
 





"All I wanna do is run"

The first one in this set cracks me up... :)





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Willenbring Family 2016 {River Falls, WI Family Portraits}

In west central Wisconsin, we're just past peak for fall colors. The Willenbring family managed to schedule their portrait session at exactly the right time to hit the perfect fall ambiance! During the session, we discussed how long we had been doing sessions together...I looked back and realized that this is our 8th year of sessions - our first was in 2009! I've been so lucky to watch the kids grow up and document their family as it's grown.

Like always, we started out with some fun (which continued through the session - with 3 boys, it's all fun! :) )





Nice smiles+funny face



We ended with fun too!


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