Music has always been an important part of my life. Besides photography, music is my other love. The other man perhaps. If I ever choose to take a different route in life, music will be involved. I have never been the one to think logically. My husband is a rational thinker. It’s always how are you going to get there,from all the way over here? I’m going to ride a magical unicorn and fly past the cotton candy clouds. What’s not rational about that really? 

Music inspires me. I listen to it while processing every session I do. I feel that it puts me in a creative place where I take a nice photo and turn it into a popping piece of art. Every blog I write,I have my Pandora station playing.The “are you still listening.. we try not to play to an empty room” pop up regular interrupts my work flow. I’ll tell you when I’m done pandora. Geeze. In all honestly, I really love Pandora. I am thankful for such a great free music player.

When I was going over the list of things I needed for my site,I came across the music question. Should I have music on my website or not? Being the non-logical thinker I am,I blurted out “of course I need music”. After spending time focusing on the pro’s and con’s of both. I decided not to have music on the main part of my site. People view websites at work,people are normally listening to their own music,sometimes speakers are turned up too loudly,maybe it’s not the type of music they like,maybe they can’t stand folk music… There were too many con’s over the only “It would make me happy” pro I had listed.

I came to a compromise and chose to put music on my Lea Who Page. Music belongs in my about me section. I had to think of what song should I use? I spent hours upon hours searching for the right music. I came across an artist in Greenville, IL. All great artists come from Greenville. The singer/songwriters name was Steven Deeds. He’s sings the type of songs that tell us to never give up on love. Being a wedding photographer I wholeheartedly believe that. His new EP, Sincerely Yours, Love & Heartache was released this September. Go ahead and check out his music! I think it’s important for all types of artists to support one another. Check him out,buy,enjoy,befriend him.

Let’s show local artists that we support them.

A couple months ago one of my good friends Abby made an announcement,she was getting married! Abby and I went to high school together. Sang alto together in choir. We sat next to each other during a 16 hour bus ride to New York City. Longest car trip of my life. Abby was my seat buddy which helped me survive it. Being on a bus full of sleep deprived 16 & 17 year old girls was interesting to say the least. Good memories. It’s been a while since highschool and I don’t get to visit with her as often as I’d like. I was honored that she asked me to shoot her engagements photos. I had the pleasure of meeting the love of her life back in August. When your friends with someone you always get an idea of what type of guy they should marry. You want the best for them. After spending the afternoon with both of them together,I know that they have something special. I’m excited for them! They are blessed to have found one another.

^Abby did great.You can’t even tell that she was fearing for her life. : ) He was getting major air. 

Subway:Eat Fresh

Central West End was the location that I shot all of these images. A question I get asked often is “Where do you suggest we take our photos”. It’s a question I love to hear. It means that they are open to ideas. Like a library…..

We came across a library and had to go in for a few photos. We did have a few spectators. I chose not to use flash because of this. I didn’t have to be removed from the library by security, which was good.

Abby had mentioned that she “didn’t know that our shoot was going to be so exciting”. The idea of possibly getting caught in a library taking photos was defiantly a fun time. The worst that of could of happened was they could of asked us to leave. Library security could of been intense though…

If they are having fun is how I determine if I am doing my job. That’s my goal for every shoot(well besides getting good images) I like being able to think outside of the normal engagement photo box. That being said, I’m looking for a couple to allow me to take engagements at Walmart or a Laundry Mat. So if that sounds fun, contact me.

Also, Don’t forget about my contest! You could win that free Walmart photo shoot. Or somewhere else if that doesn’t sound appealing. You don’t have to use the package yourself.If you know of anyone who would love to be given a photography package, enter for them! Kids,couples,boudoir,facebook photos…You know you text. Text now to win! Right now. Do it right now!

1 (314) 266-4982  Include your name & email address.

The aroma of homemade apple pie is radiating from my kitchen. Well somewhat homemade(what’s the point of making your own crust… thank you pillsbury.) 

Every year my family drives across the river to Grafton,IL for apple picking,wagon riding,cider drinking,pony feeding, and pumpkin chucking. I enjoy watching the pumpkin canon. There is nothing like watching a gourd fly through the air and smash into a million pieces as it crashes into the ground… ; ) They don’t launch pumpkins until October so we missed it last week.

My pie looks a little rough,but it tastes wonderful. We had an apple filling leak which was due to my overzealous idea of how many apples could realistically fit. Didn’t quite have the right apple to pie crust ratio. I should of gone with the deep dish crust. Live and learn.

I’m just glad that we made time to visit Eckerts in Grafton last weekend. The temperature this morning was in the 50’s. Fall never seems to stay around long enough. So drink up your hot apple cider,have a bonfire,make s’mores,bake a pie, just spend time with your friends and family. Fall comes quickly and never seems to stay long enough…

A couple of months ago I celebrated my birthday. I recieved an email from Sephora telling me to come in and recieve my free birthday gift. So I made my way into the Sephora store,trying to stay as far away from the girls that have the job of trying to get me to smell things. When they start asking me to smell the newest Justin Timberlake cologne, I forget why I am there in the 1st place. Justin’s play cologne by Givenchy is fantastic by the way. Like I said I get off track when I walk into any store that sells both makeup and fragrances. I had to remember the task at hand. Free Gift. Yes my free birthday gift. Heck yes I said to myself as the girl behind the counter smiled and wished me a Happy Birthday.

 Oooo a nicely packged lip gloss set. Score. I like how it made me feel.So that’s how I get to here from there. 

I have been waiting months to give away things to my old and new followers. My 1st giveaway starts today. Over the course of the next couple months I will be giving away packages. “What will I win?” you ask. Today the free portrait session giveaway starts(which includes children,seniors,modeling,bands and boudoir).Maybe you just want photos of yourself for your facebook page,that’s ok too.) Fall is here and the perfect time for photos.

Giveaway Portrait Package- 10 processed/retouched high resolution images( DVD with print release) and one 11×14 print.

How to enter: Text “I love photos” to 1 (314) 266-4982  Please include your name & your email address.  The winner will be chosen by my lovely 3 yr old assistant that has a hat and is willing to pull out a winner. I thought maybe I should go high tech with choosing a winner,but if it ain’t broken… You can enter for 2 weeks. Please just enter once a week(2 times max). I will post the winner the morning of October 16th. Online voucher must used before January 1st 2010.

I will be giving away photography packages a few times in the next couple of months. If you don’t win this round you have more chances to win….

It’s been a long time coming. I’m excited to finally say “Welcome to my new blog”! For those of you who are following me on my old blog please subscribe to this one. Please be patient while navigating the site, we are still working on getting out any possible bugs.

I started my re branding  journey officially in May of this year. I spent hours upon hours looking at flash sites and wordpress templates. I was in the mind set of ” I need something that looks professional”, something legit. Site after site, I just couldn’t find what I was looking for. I just couldn’t find one that fit me. I needed something that fit my style and personality.

I threw out the idea of keeping it strictly professional and decided that I wanted to be personable. So I wrote down ideas. Flash site. Splash page. Inspiring floating words. Blogsite. Just a blog. Thats what I wanted. Just a place that I could write about my photography and personal life. I follow photographers that have gone through rebranding themselves and I was given great advice from many people. I read a forum about a photographer who used a designer out in San Luis Obispo. I wasn’t planning on using an out of state designer. I thought  to myself “well I might as see what all the fuss was about” and checked out their site. I was instantly engaged with their style. Mostly the great music…kidding, but they do have great music on their site. As I was scrolling down, I noticed that they did the website for the band Delirious,which I found extremely rad. Being in a youth group my whole preteen/teen life I spent many a times listening to their cd’s. ”We’ll see miracles, we’ll see angels sing  we’ll see broken hearts making history” After I spent a few minutes listening to my delirious Pandora station I sent 805 collective an email.

I wrote about how I needed a custom blog-site. I crossed my fingers for a reply. I had a reply email from a guy named Jeremy a couple hours after I sent it. He said he could do what I was looking for. During the nights that I was in rebranding mode I had a dream about peacock feathers while trying to decide on designs. I make peacock fascinators (aka feather hair clips). I told him about it and asked him to run with it. I then sent him a photo of an anthropologie window display that I was in love with.(photo above found here)

We emailed back and forth and rest is history. He has skills. Thanks Jeremy! You Rock. He also designed my logo,letterhead,thank you business cards. That’s all for another time.

Now I couldn’t of launched my site without my wonderful husband Caleb who supported me. He put up with my whining. Those who known me would be surprised that I whined…

My indecisiveness on every aspect of re branding. “Light blue or navy blue”

“Does this look too big to you” “do you like this one or this one” “Does this fit my style”

Not only did he help with that part,but he made my site work. All the links,the gallery,the menu, everything..all the coding. So a special thanks to him for putting all those hours in so that I could launch today. I love you..(ps thanks to nick r for helping caleb with whatever it was on this site you helped him with I’m not that technically savvy.

Lastly a couple of things.

If you would like to subscribe to my blog to read my weekly posts than click the RSS button on the connect page.

This week I will be having a giveaway. Keep checking in to see how to enter and win! Who doesn’t like free?