Practice makes perfect

So over the past year or so I have taken on photography as a hobby. My cousin Mitchell got me started on it when he bought a Canon DSLR and let me play around with it...I was instantly hooked. Robby organized for everyone to just donate towards my camera as my birthday present and a few days before my 24th birthday we went out and bought a Canon Rebel T2i. I have had so much fun over the past year figuring out how to shoot pictures manually (and by figuring out I mean reading the books Mitch sends me as surprises in the mail and asking him tons of questions at every family get together....he may or may not deserve the "Cousin of the Year" award.). Recently I was talking about my new hobby at school and a couple of my co-workers asked if I would be interested in taking family pictures for them. While I jumped at the chance to practice more, I was incredibly nervous to actually take pictures of somebody who wasn't a family member (or one of our dogs). I was pretty pleased with the way they turned out so I thought I would share a few here on the blog!

The first family I took pictures of my friend, Van's. Van and I started at Park Hill South the same year and shared a pod office and though our friendship is based on him making fun of me for how much I love my hometown, I can't say enough nice things about him and his family. They were so easy and laid back and I appreciate them taking the time to let me "practice" my skills. :)

 Some of my favorite pictures were the candids...their little boy Louis was NOT in to posing and I secretly loved it!

Marin had some of the prettiest eyes I had ever seen...and unlike her brother...she LOVED posing for the camera.

Kamryn was the oldest and it was so fun to see how sweet she was with her younger siblings.



Yesterday I also had the chance to take some pictures of my friend Katie's family. Katie is also in our pod and a phenomenal story teller. I have heard the most hilarious stories about her two kiddos and was excited to finally meet them.Unfortunately it started raining about 20 minutes into our picture taking adventure, so we didn't get everything we wanted to. We are going to go back tomorrow to snap a few more just for good measure. Katie and Chad met while in college at William Jewell so we went up there to take the pictures...there were so many great places for pictures I'm excited to go back and take more!

Cameron....the source of many of her hilarious stories...he is just as ornery as he looks here. :) 

I love that Halle is covering her face  in embarrassment at her brother's antics.

One of my favorites from the day!

Chad played basketball at WJ and Katie was on the dance team...can you see it in this picture? :)

This is in front of Jewell Hall...I'm excited to go back and get some more with the whole building tomorrow!

Halle has the most beautiful dark blue eyes...I feel like you don't see such a dark blue very often.

Snapped this while we were trying to wait out the rain...didn't work out for us, but this pic is adorable!

I love seeing the dynamics of kids relationships with their siblings...probably because I love my own so much!

Well, that is it for now! I have taken some senior pictures and baby pictures recently as well. I'll try to post some of those before too long as well! Hope everyone enjoys their extra long weekend!