Craig's Senior Session

Phew! It's been a nice relaxing time off and now that I sit down to get caught up, I'm realizing just how much I have get caught up on! I can't wait to share images of my trip to Florida, I even ended up scheduling a session with the happiest 6 month old while I was down there. I love that I can work from anywhere!

But first, I'd like to introduce you to Craig. I don't do many Senior Sessions, in fact the 2 that I have shot this year have been for family. It's not that I don't want to photograph Seniors, it just hasn't been the direction my business has turned at this point. So if you are looking for a Senior session, don't hesitate to contact me and we'll set yours up!

Craig is a Senior at Algonac High School and also happens to be my cousin. I was excited and honored when he had asked me to do his Senior Portraits. Even more excited when he suggested the location! Normally my clients rely on me to suggest locations for their sessions and Craig had everything he wanted in mind. Rock on!

We met up on Harsen's Island one morning to capture him in some of his favorite locations. He's a duck hunter and spends a lot of time on the Island, and mentioned this really cool looking broken fence that he thought would be cool. Oh yeah, I was stoked. And it happened to work out pretty good for him too. After we wrapped up our session, he mentioned that there was a draw for that afternoon's hunt and wanted to see if they could get lucky. Turns out they did! They were picked right away and had a great choice of locations. And I got lucky too! It happened to be "Youth Hunt" day and I got to run into a couple of friends and their kids getting in on the excitement.

Here's some of my favorites from our session.

Out of the Office!

I have been meaning to post this for a while now, especially since I've been out of the office since last Wednesday! Things were just so hectic before leaving, that I never got a chance. Tons of shooting and client meetings, and processing orders and then of course last minute emergencies which only rear their ugly head, when you seriously have an hour before you have to leave for the airport! But I digress...

So here I am now, to tell you that I'm still out of town, just wrapping up an awesome (almost) week with my sister and family and am headed to my mom's tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving there. I'll be back 11/28 and will respond to all messages when I return!

For now, thoroughly enjoying this much needed vacation in sunny Florida with my family! Holla!

And because every post is better with a picture or two, here's a few of my favorite images from some recent shoots. Their own blog posts to follow...

Craig's Senior Session!

David Breuhan's Book Release Party!

Jenny & Tim's Wedding!

Lisa & Steve's Wedding!

Meet the Mace Family!

This is what I see when I look at this family. I see the love that Julie & Gino share for each other in the way they're touching, how much they love their son and the way Joey looks at his parents, not only with love but as friends.

I'll never forget the first time I met Julie and Gino. We were living in our rental house in Roseville and pretty stoked about having people our age living next door. One day I saw Gino outside cutting the grass and thought it was the perfect opportunity to introduce myself. As I approached, he shut off the motor and turned towards me. All of a sudden I wasn't so sure about them... There he was with his U of M sweatshirt facing me in my MSU sweatshirt.

And that is where it began... From us serenading them while they tried to sleep. Gino renaming my Kitty from Bo Duke to Bo Schembechler. On game day they awoke to a couple of Spartan Scarecrows chilling on their front lawn, only for us to come home that night to the largest U of M sign I've ever seen nailed to a tree in our front yard! It was definitely fun having them as neighbors and I'm so glad that we've been able to stay close all of these years!

I met with the Mace family at Metro Beach for a nice walk through the Nature Trail on a beautiful afternoon. If you remember the surprise Mother's Day session I shot earlier this year, well now they wanted to have some family portraits done! Holla!

Such a beautiful family!

The colors were amazing! We seriously could have wondered around the rest of the evening taking it all in and catching up!

If you didn't notice from the early post, Joey is a crackup! He has such a joyful personality and is always laughing. Wonder where he gets that from? :-)

Just love his toothless smile!

Most of my typical catch phrases that I use to get kids smiling and laughing just weren't seeming to work that day. Maybe I'm loosing my "coolness". ha-ha But Joey sure did have some things of his own to say that had us all doubling over in laughter.

One of my favorites from the day!

See what I mean? You can just feel the love in this image.

Joey & Gino

Julie & Gino

Guys it was so fun spending the time with you and we're looking forward to the next time!

Sterling's Supercuteness...

Last week I got to visit with Heather and photograph her adorable daughter Sterling. Heather was a little apprehensive of having our session at her house. She warned me of her 4 crazy Boxer show dogs and a parrot. But I assured her I was up for the challenge! I came prepared with some treats in my camera bag, you know, just in case... but when I got into the house I had completely forgotten about the treats and the dogs. Sterling was just waking up in her car seat after a little nap on their way home from the post office and was all smiles! I knew it was going to be such a fun session!

Now I know what my dog is like the instant anyone comes walking up the driving, he's at the gate greeting them in typical Coby fashion. Did you remember me saying that I forgot that there was 4 dogs there? Well, I can tell you, you never would have known. Those dogs were sooo quite! They weren't out when I arrived, but I swear they never even barked when I came in or started talking! Oh, but their parrot was all about saying hi!

Sterling was one of the happiest babies I've met!

And full of smiles...

Who wouldn't want to kiss those little cheeks?

One of my favorites from our day! She loves watching the ladybugs dance overhead.

What made this session so fun was that Sterling was so interested in my camera. She couldn't take her eyes off of it and wanted to check it out in every way. Here she is crawling for it. Hmmm.... Could photography be in her future? :-)

Birds don't seem to like me much, even to the point of attacking me during Jola & Brad's engagment session! And I have to admit I jumped when it squaked at me. But I was all like, "I'm not afraid of you". And then Heather let her out of the cage... Thankfully there was no attack this time. She is one pretty bird though.

Another top fave of the day...

Heather, thank you for having me over! It was so good to see you and catch up, and you do have a very very cute little girl!

Not you're typical girly girl!

The weather was perfect on my drive out to Clarkston. The sun was shining, it was already in the upper 50s and the temperature kept climbing. It was turning out to be a glorious fall day. A picture perfect day! Which happened to make this session rock so much more.

She is not your typical girly girl. She enjoys shopping and loves the color pink, but growing up with two older brothers and a father that are all avid hunters and outdoorsmen, she has also grown to appreciate the Michigan outdoors. She loves everything that the 4 seasons bring us. Boating, water skiing, and fishing in the summer. Snowboarding, skiing and ice fishing in the winter. And of course planting a big huge kiss on her father's heart, hunting in the fall.

We had so much fun wandering around their property capturing some of her favorite things.

I was in awe of her as I watched her with her bow and arrow.

Look at the way she works that pink bow! Love it!

Love her deep concentration in this image.

Oh yeah, she rocks it!

She amazed me yet again watching climb the tree in stand. I have to tell you my knees were knocking watching her. I don't know that I'm afraid of heights literally, but I do know that I definitely prefer to be grounded!