Random Thoughts for the Day | WEDDING, FAMILY, & CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER | EFFINGHAM, ILLINOIS

I have a ton of new things to post...including new videos of Colby (because I know my family likes to see posts of her occasionally). But, to brighten your day, I thought I would post these little anecdotes that my good friend Brea sent me over email. I laughed outloud when I read them....sitting by myself at my desk.

Whoever wrote these, I REALLY want to be their friend. There's a ton of them; so, I'm only going to post a few at a time. Yes, I'm holding some back for days like this when I need to post something new and don't have a huge amount of time. Sorry!

Also, I've added a few of my own.

RANDOM THOUGHTS OF THE DAY:

-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

-KM - What does it mean when your own mom won't confirm you as a "Friend" on Facebook? My sister Kim and I have both sent her friend requests, and our own mom ignores the requests. I, too, have friend requests that I ignore, but they're weird relatives or people from high school that I don't remember (or want to remember). Do we fit into one of these categories with our mother? Mom, if you're reading this, please accept our friend requests so that we feel loved!!!

The Carruthers Family | WEDDING, FAMILY, & CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER | EFFINGHAM, ILLINOIS

A couple of months ago I got an interesting phone call. There was going to be a huge birthday 80th celebration and would I come and take pictures of not only the event itself, but also take family pictures. Having not met a single member of the celebrating family, I wasn't quite sure what to expect! I arrived, met several of the family members, and when the guest of honor arrived, he looked around and said, "Well, every one in the this room belongs to me in some way...except you, who are you?" "I'm the photographer," I replied. He came up and gave me a hug. That's how I met Cloide Carruthers.

As Cloide and Patty's ten children....and 30 grandchildren...and 14 great-grandchildren all began to arrive, I began pulling people outside to start snapping family portraits.

When we were done, Cloide walked up to me and told me for the rest of the day I was an honorary member of the family. I could not have been more honored.

I'm sure Cloide isn't probably going to be checking my blog, but if any of the family members happens to read this, please tell him and Patty both that they have a beautiful, warm-hearted family and it was a thrill to be an honorary family member for the day!


A few of my favorites from the day are below. Click here to see a few more!


Thanks for checking in! Kelly

The man of honor and his Mrs. This is the smile that was on Cloide's face all afternoon.


Cloide, Patty, and their ten children.

...and with the majority of their 30 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

With their four sons.

The six Carruthers sisters. By the way, the six sisters reminded me of my own aunts and sisters. They were heckling each other throughout the picture-taking process. I told them that my aunts all call each other by the same vulgar name. Here they were trying to guess what that vulgar name was!!! :)

OK, this is the one that I'm worried about. I'm 99% sure this is Amy and her daughters and grandson. There's 1% of me that is worried that I have this wrong and this is Heidi! There were so many new names to learn!! :) Heidi/Amy, I am so sorry if I have this wrong!

Kelly and his wife Ann serve as missions in Botswana and made the trip home for the celebration.

Tim wanted his pictures taken with the Wayne Feeds sign. Eydie wasn't quite so sure about it!

By the way, Kathy, your family is VERY photogenic. I couldn't believe the pictures when I downloaded them to my computer!

Granddaughter Megan was there with her fiance. They are getting married in October and didn't have engagement pictures; so, while we were waiting for family members to arrive, we headed outside for ten minutes and took a few. They are a beautiful couple!

J&C...aka "The Troupers" | WEDDING AND CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER | EFFINGHAM, IL

I always get a little nervous when I'm taking pictures of someone for the first time...especially if they're people I've never met before. What if they're really serious and dont get my weird sense of humor? What if they want traditonal, posed family pictures...because I don't do traditional, posed family pictures for the most part. What if the kids don't like me?

The list can go on and on.

So, when I set out two weeks ago to meet up with Andrea and Chris to do portraits of their little boys and a few family pictures too, I had a few butterflies walking up to their door. Pictures are stressful enough, but this family had just gotten back from a trip to the St. Louis zoo in 90-degree weather! I had called Andrea earlier in the day to see if the boys were still up for it, and she assured me that all was good! And, as soon as I was in the door of their house, all of my butterflies went away and I knew that it was all good! These boys were troupers!

Andrea and I started talking clothes for the boys and what props we could bring along to use from their house. The boys were laughing and running around like little boys do. Chris and I began talking about local churches and religion. No one was shy and formal! This was going to be a fun photo shoot! And, not only was it fun, but I had the best light, with an even better location, and the bettest, most photogenic family.

Andrea, Chris, J, & C, I hope you enjoy your portraits as much as I enjoyed taking them. A few of my favorites are below. You can click here to see even more!

God bless! Kelly

Here's the birthday boy. Part of the reason for the family pictures was to get "C's" one-year pictures. Happy Birthday!

Hello, Blue Eyes!

Big Brother "J" is a handsome little man.

But, I love this picture of him laughing even better!

I can't even remember what I asked him to do right now to make him laugh like this. I think he was going to put his face in both of his hands and not smile. Once again, the 'not smiling' always brings the best smiles.

This is seriously one of my favorite pictures of all time. I love that he doesn't know that the camera is taking pictures. I love that his dad's legs are right behind him. And, I love all the fun, vibrant colors.

This is my favorite of their family pictures. And, right now my mom is thinking, "But, Kelly, most of them aren't looking at the camera." But, Mom, that's what I like about it. They're all caught up in each other...except for "J" who looks like he's laughing about what's going on!

Usually it's the moments with mom that I get to witness. This particular day it was with dad.


At the end of the evening, we took just a few minutes to get a few images of the photogenic couple that produced such photogenic kids!

The Luce Family | WEDDING, FAMILY, & CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER | EFFINGHAM, ILLINOIS

Well, even though it's still summer, the fall portrait sessions have begun! With the weather we've had the last few weeks, the sky has been blue and the sunlight has been golden, and Mark and Melissa Luce and family were the first to take advantage of the weather!

Over the last few months, it seems I've dedicated a lot of my time to portraits of babies and toddlers...which IS fun; however, I have to say that doing family portraits with a group of people that were all 14 and older was almost downright relaxing! We laughed at timess, we were serious at times, but more then anything, I think we all enjoyed being outside on a somewhat cool evening in August.

Mark, Melissa, Sarah, and Jonathan, thank you so much for allowing me to capture your family at this point in your lives! I had a great time, and I hope you had as much fun as I did!

Below are a few of my favorites from the evening. Click here to see a few more of my faves!

Thanks for checking in! Kelly

I mentioned in a previous post that I sometimes ask people to not smile for a few shots. Sarah couldn't keep it together, which of course, gave me one of my favorite shots of the evening.

I should have posted the color version of this photo. Jonathan has crystal blue eyes!

I love this picture of Mark and Melissa. They're not quite smiling and not quite serious...caught somewhere in the middle.


A serious one of the family. I think Jonathan somewhat enjoys being taller then his dad! His stance says it all!

How I like to see famlies...lauging and having a good time, even if they're in front of a camera.



I'm a sucker usually for the black and white portraits, but hands down, this is my favorite picture of the entire evening. The colors and soft light were great!

Colby- 7 months | WEDDING, FAMILY, & CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER | EFFINGHAM, ILLINOIS

Today is Colby's seven-month birthday! Geesh! Where has the time gone!

She's starting to develop quite the personality. She's pretty giggly and smiley still; however, she has started to do the whole whining thing when people leave the room. It's quite annoying, and we hope she gets over it.

She's army crawling everywhere, and this week she started pulling herself up to things. It doesn't matter if it's a couch, toy, or person, she gets herself into a standing position and wobbles back and forth for a while until she takes a tumble. I took video of it today, but since I didn't have time today to download it to my computer and upload it to the blog, in it's place I'm offering some recent pictures that Carolyn sent me of Colby and Henry playing!

Video will be coming sometime this week hopefully...along with some family and children's portraits I've been working on!!

Thanks for checking in! Kelly

Carolyn told me that Colby figured out that she could pull on the tabs on Henry's diaper. Geesh. Last thing a mother wants to hear about her little girl.

She's always so excited to see Henry in the morning. She gets all smiley when she sees him. :)

Btw, this picture was taken the day Colby got her six-month shots. Little story about that: There were a TON of 5-year-olds in the lobby waiting to get shots for kindergarten. We went back, Colby cried for a second and was done by the time we left the room. As we exited the building, I heard someone yell, "Hey!" I turned around, and there on the sidewalk outside the door was a group of 5-year-olds. The one that had yelled at me proceeded to ask, "Did she get shots?" "Yes," I replied. "Then why isn't she still crying?" she asked back. "Because it only hurts for one second. It's like someone pinching you. If you cry longer then one second you're being a big baby," I told the group. "Hmmm," the ringleader replied, and the group went back into the building They had to think about that one for awhile. I chuckled the entire time I was putting Colby in her carseat.


Either hanging out or in timeout. Knowing my child, it's probably timeout.

Carolyn had to get a second exersaucer/walker because they would each get upset when the other was playing in the exersaucer. Now they get upset when the other's getting a bottle...even if they've just had one and aren't hungry. God bless Carolyn and her patience.

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away.... | WEDDING, FAMILY, & CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER | EFFINGHAM, ILLINOIS

WARNING: This is a REALLY long post. Why? Because I just couldn't decide which images from a recent shoot were my favorites!!! So, I've posted a TON of them!!!

I have to admit, it's a treat when I get to shoot a couple of young men that are as handsome and cute as these two are, but when you throw in FUN personalities too, what's a girl to do! That's how you end up with 100 'favorite' images from a session!!!

Since moving to Shelby County 2 1/2 years ago, Hair Extraordinaire Brigit has been taking care of my mane needs (hehehe...like my play on words?). Occasionally, while Brigit snips away, her polite and adorable boys come in with a quick question. Sometimes it's 'can I have a snack'...'sometimes it's can I play a computer game'...and sometimes it's 'Mom, where's the stapler? I need it to make Peter Pan pants out of this green paper.' I love their big eyes and their even bigger imaginations.

I do truly believe that you should capture kids' personalities as they are; so, when Brigit asked if I would take her boys' pictures, I asked her to trust me and bring a couple of their superhero costumes along!

A few of my favorites from our session are below. Click here to see a few more!...or read through all the way to the bottom of this post where there's a link to see all of Briar and Wyatt's images!

Look at those eyes!!!

One of my tricks that I use with kids (and adults) is that I tell them not to smile. They either can't contain their smile (and I snap away), or when I tell them that they can now smile it's a great natural smile. Wyatt informed me during one of our 'non-smiling' moments that his mom probably wasn't going to like any of those pictures. :)

I think this is my favorite picture of Briar out of the whole day. I love his eyes and his gentle smile!


I think this one will make Brigit both happy and sad. Happy that her son looks so handsome. Sad that he looks so grown-up in this picture!!



Wyatt has the J Crew pose down.

A sweet, simple pose from Briar. At one point, I was down on the ground shooting pictures. Seeing me down on the grass, Briar all of sudden asked, "Kelly, are those your play jeans?!" Yes, Briar, when you're my age, they're ALL play jeans. :)


I've actually had these pictures done for over a week. However, at the original shoot, almost every time I'd ask the boys to smile, Wyatt would turn and look at Briar and I wouldn't get his smile head on. So, I called Brigit this week and asked her if I could come over for just ten minutes to get this picture! I had to get one where I could see their beautiful eyes AND their beautiful smiles!

Briar cracking up at either me or Wyatt! For my own pride, I'm going with Wyatt! You have to love his expression though!


After we were done with the 'real' pictures, the boys changed into their superhero outfits. Watch out! Superman is mad!

Spiderman is mad too!

Spiderman is stretching...getting ready to take off and catch some bad men!

I asked Briar who his favorite movie character was. He told me Darth Maul off of the Star Wars movies. "Isn't he bad, though," I asked. "Yes, Kelly, but he has a double-edged light saber." Duh, Kelly, duh!

When I asked Wyatt about characters he liked, he told me he liked "Edward" off of Twilight. Well, any followers of this blog know how I feel about that. Wyatt, if you treat girls like Edward treats Bella, you will get all the girls!



Wyatt and Briar, I had SO much fun at your shoot! Not only are you both handsome young men, but you are also polite, caring, and have great imaginations! I wanted to do something special for you. So, I put together this slideshow for you. Click here to view it. I hope you recognize the music!!!

The Andersons | WEDDING, FAMILY, & CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER | EFFINGHAM, ILLINOIS

I've had several people remind me over the last few days that I promised a lot of posting last week...and failed; so, I'm trying desperately to make up for it this week! Yesterday I posted Trent's Senior Pictures (see post below), and today we have the Anderson family!

My sister Kim and her family live in northern Minnesota...what my family calls "The Great White Nort'". Every year during the summer I make the trip up to spend time with her family and all of her great friends. I used to go up over 4th of July and partake in their killer annual celebration; however, this year I decided to pick a more Colby-conducive weekend.

Kim and her husband Scott hadn't had a family picture taken since they were married five years ago, and while Kim and I had discussed it briefly in passing, it was Scott who took the lead on this project! The night I got up there he took me on a 45-minute 4-wheeler drive through hills, pastures, and streams to scope out beautiful sites for their pictures! It was the most fun I've ever had looking for possible locations!

A few of my favorites are below. Click here to see more of their family pictures.

Jacob is 2 1/2 and picked that night to be my best friend. He wanted to help me with the camera vs. being in the pictures. But, we still managed to get a bunch of fun shots of the little guy!

Scott and Kim just purchased a combine, and Scott washed it all up so that it could be in the background.

You know me. I'm a sucker for a candid image...especially one as sweet as this.

Isn't my brother-in-law handsome? To get to this hill in a wheat field, Scott had to take each of us on a 10-minute 4-wheeler ride through trees and brush. Scott, Kendall, and I went first to test out the light before he went back for Kim and Jacob.

Props to my excellent assistant for the night: Our sister Kendall!

Jacob loved playing in the wheat field.

But he loved playing on the fence at his grandparents' farm even more!

Kim and Scott displaying their ornery relationship.

Probably my favorite picture of the day.


My favorite picture of Jacob that day. He's practicing his GQ pose for when he gets older.


Thanks for checking in!!! Kelly