Another beautiful Michigan fall day! This type of weather is one of the reasons I love Michigan and this fall has been exceptional!

My fall schedule has been full of great family sessions and about a week ago I had the opportunity to photograph the G-Family at their beautiful home! We had a great time walking around their yard finding great locations for a few images. The boys kept it fun with Luciano adding his own comic relief to the afternoon! Here are just a few of my favorite images from their session:

Love this smile :) She just got her braces off last week!!

Thank you so much G-family for a wonderful afternoon! It was wonderful to meet all of you! I am excited for you to see all of the great images we captured...I will be in touch soon :) M

Those sweet little faces:)

Last week I had the most adorable little girls here to photograph! Tricia is 2 and and her little sister is 4 months. Tricia had a great time checking out the studio and all of the fun things to sit on & climb. She was also very helpful in making sure her little sister has her pacifier at all times! It was very sweet...of course we were able to grab some adorable expressions without the pacifier along the way too! Check out these eyes....Beautiful :)

And we were even able to grab a few smiles from big sister too! Love those blue eyes :)

I had a blast "playing" with these adorable sisters! Thanks so much mom & grandma for letting me spend a little time with them! I am excited for you to see all of the great images we capture from there session. I will be in touch again soon! M

Brooklyn & Joshua

Yeah! It's Friday...and it all began with Brooklyn & Joshua's session this morning! I just couldn't wait to post a few of my favorite images of these cuties! Mom brought the most ADORABLE outfits for Brooklyn...and she was lovin' the beads! We captured some wonderful images of both the kids....here are just a few of my favorites!

Joshua turned on the charm in front of the camera :)

Thanks mom & dad! It was wonderful to meet all of you! I will be in touch again next week once all of your images are ready to view :) Have a great weekend! M

Sun & Smiles!

Another amazing Michigan fall day! Could the weather get any better? No way! Last week I had so much fun photographing the S-Family! Talk about a fun session! It was a beautiful 75 degree Friday night and we just had fun walking and "playing" in the neighborhood (which also happens to be where I live too...I have wonderful neighbors :) The sun was AMAZING this time of day and I LOVE the beautiful golden glow we captured in their images! Here are just a few of my favorites.

Thank you so much S-Family for letting me photograph your beautiful family! I cannot wait for you to see all of your amazing images...I am not sure how you are going to choose your favorite...I can't :) I will be in touch again soon! M

It's good to be GREEN!

It is a good day to be a Spartan after an awesome win at the Big House over U of M this past weekend! It's good to be GREEN!

What a perfect day to post these wonderful images from my session with the M-Family! It was another beautiful Michigan fall day and they were all decked out in their Spartan gear ready to "play"! Of course we went to the campus of MSU to photograph :) I had so much fun walking around campus and finding some fun locations! We had to get a little creative when our original plan had to be changed...the Diamond Dash was going on and it was a little nutty with all the bridal couples scrambling to get their pictures taken at various MSU landmarks & finish the race...they were EVERYWHERE :) But we had a great time! The kids were awesome and we captured some fun pictures! Here are just few of my favorites from their session:

Thanks so much M-Family! It was wonderful to meet all of you & spend some time photographing your family! I am excited for you to see all of the great images we captured at your session and the fun holiday cards I designed! I will be in touch again soon! M

A Little Adventure

Aren't adventures fun!! I think so! So last week when I met Sophie & Miles for their session we went on a little adventure. Mom even brought the "power pellets" aka M&M's to keep up their strength. Awesome job mom!!

For a little while that afternoon we followed the paths to see all the different flowers, especially orange ones which is Miles favorite color, all the neat benches, trees & even a fountain! All along the way we captured some beautiful images.....here are just a few of my favorites:

Sophie ROCKED it! I could photograph that little girl all day.

I think this little smile was just before he was about to get an orange "power pellet"...he was getting excited :)

Thanks so much mom for letting me have such a fun adventure with Sophie & Miles! It was wonderful to see all of you! The kids were awesome and I had so much fun! And I am totally going to steal your "power pellet" idea for some of my other adventurers...if that is ok :) I am excited for you to see the rest of your images. I will be in touch soon! Melissa

Do you want a treat?

For all those dog lovers out there...you know, if you say the word "treat" your dog will perk up it's ears & turn his head to look! Well I did lots of that from behind the camera as well as squeak toys, make funny sounds or just about anything crazy to get the attention of 3 beautiful sheepdogs simultaneously! Well it worked :) We captured some great images! My session with the H-Family was so much fun and the dogs were awesome (and of course their people were too :)

Here are just a few of my favorite family images from their session

Thank you so much for letting me come and photograph your wonderful family! I had so much fun seeing all of you! Hope Moose enjoyed his birthday celebration later that afternoon:) I will be in touch soon once all of your proof images are ready to view!

Moore Fun!!

Another beautiful (and hot) summer day! I got to take a road trip the last weekend of summer to photograph one of my favorite families...these 4 kids are adorable! Especially little Annemarie...what a spit fire! Their mom also happens to be a close friend of mine who I have known for almost 25 years! That's really scary when you say it like that :)

The kids did wonderful...I think mom & dad were taking them for ice cream after their session...I am all about the bribery! It works at my house on picture day too! There was a beautiful park near their house with trails, ponds and even a huge stone gazebo! It was so cool!

Here are just a few of my favorite images from their session:

Annemarie just finished twirlilng!

Thanks so much for the awesome afternoon of photographing! And the ice cold Diet Coke afterwards too...so good!!! I am excited for you to see all of the images! I will be in touch soon! M

Family Fun x3!

It has been a busy and fun August for me! For the past few weeks I have been photographing families and High School seniors all over the Lansing area. I haven't had a chance to blog since my computer crash, but here is what I have been up too!

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of meeting the "C" Family in Mason for a family session...I had a great time!

The weather wasn't sure what it wanted to do that day...rain in the morning or afternoon, thunderstorms or just be really, really hot! Well I think we hit 2 out of 3! We rescheduled our afternoon session for first thing in the morning to avoid the pending storms later that afternoon and it worked out great! Here are a few of my favorite images :)

Just looking at this image makes me smile & laugh! True family JOY :)

You can also check out some of my favorite images from Phillips Senior Session on the Heartlight Phtography Facebook Page! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grand-Ledge-MI/Heartlight-Photography/21523064855?ref=ts

This session was extra special...and super fun too! This is my daughter's best friend and her big brother! We spent the morning photographing Hayden's Senior Pictures in Grand Ledge and in REO Town and sprinkling a few of Rilee with her big brother too! Here are just a few of my favorites from their session!

Love these smiles :) And of course the laughing giggle too!

You can check out a few of my favorites from Hayden's Senior session on the Heartlight Photography Facebook Page!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grand-Ledge-MI/Heartlight-Photography/21523064855?ref=ts

Another HOT day in Michigan...but another GREAT family session! I was so excited when I got a call from their mom to photograph her 3 beautiful children again this year! I had so much fun last fall and it is always so fun for me to see how much the kids have grown over the past year! Charlie is nearly as tall as me now and he is only 10!

The kids all did awesome! They rocked it for the entire 30 minutes or so that we were photographing! Of course we had to take a few breaks to look at the cool fish in the pond...they swim right up to you when they see you looking down at them...the kids thought it was really cool! Here are just a few of my favorites from their session!

Thank you SOOOOOO much to all of you for your patience & understanding these past few weeks with all my computer craziness! I appreciate it :) I am so excited to show all of you your complete session images...all of you have some great ones to choose from! I will be in touch soon with everyone! Melissa

Time to ROCK!

As many of you know already it has been a crazy few weeks around here! I have been busy photographing HS Seniors and Family sessions, escaping the heat by playing in the pool with my family, dealing with my crashing computer...which is now officially a very big paper weight, getting ready for back to school and enjoying a few fun family events too! August has flown by!

I am now up and running with a pretty new Mac!!! YIPEE!! You gotta love the Apple Store...walk in pick out a computer and walk out with a new computer in your hands in under 3 hours! I am now getting everything back in order and recreating lost files that I failed to back-up (yes I learned a tough lesson and will continue to learn this for many, many months). Luckily, I was at least smart enough to back up all of my past & present images on the External HD...so no worries there! Thank goodness :)

So I will show you what I have been doing for the past few weeks...Here we go!

Summer Days

Well at least it didn't rain, right? The few days prior to the "N" Family session the weather man was predicting thunderstorms. Well thankfully he was wrong! The day of their session was sunny, beautiful & HOT! It is summer, I know, but it was sweaty, sticky, nothing can cool you off hot! But the "N" Family did awesome :) The kids were fantastic and the entire family worked together to get as many smiles from Teddy as possible (sometimes that can be hard with a 3 year old you know :) Little did I know that I should have brought out my "secret word" way earlier in their session...mom said Teddy would have laughed the loudest!

Here are a few of my favorites from your session!

Thanks so much for smiling through the summer heat! I had so much fun and we captured some great images! I am excited for you to see them all! I will be in touch when the entire session is on-line & ready to view. Have a great weekend! Melissa

It's A Beautiful Day!

Do you ever have those days when you just can't get a song out of your head? For some reason that U2 song "Beautiful Day" kept playing in my head as I was working on these images. It is a good thing I LOVE that song! And it was a beautiful day this past week when I had the opportunity to photograph the family of a great friend of mine! You may even recognize a few of these adorable kids from another blog post this summer :)

Here are a few of my favorite images from their session!

All of the grandchildren! Now imagine all of the parents behind the camera making all sorts of goofy faces and noises...they made some great smiles! Great work moms & dads :)

Love this :)

Thank you so much for allowing me to spend a little time with your families and capture some beautiful images! I had a great time meeting all of you and "playing"! Melissa

Celebrating 50 years!

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Doyle on your Golden Wedding Anniversary! (Funny..no matter how old I get I will always call parents I have known since I was a kid Mr. & Mrs :)

What a great occasion to celebrate! All of the kids and grandkids were visiting here in Michigan for their 50 year wedding anniversary! Since you have families that live in Michigan, Illinois and Texas obviously you do not get everyone together but maybe once or twice a year if you are lucky. So this was a good time for everyone!

I have known this family since I was a teenager so it was an honor to help document such a wonderful event! Here are just a few of my favorite images from their session :)

A great image of all the family! The youngest grandchild is 10 months and the oldest is 16 years. They were all awesome as I kept clicking the shutter so that we could try and get an image of all 20 family members looking good at the same time! I think we got it :)

Just the grandkids for this one!

Love this comic relief photo! All the parents were standing behind me trying all sorts of thing to make their kids laugh! For the most part it worked great...except for little Amanda...she had enough :)

Thanks so much to the Doyle Family for letting me be a part of such a wonderful celebration! I am excited for you to see all of your family images from that day. I will be in touch when all of your images are on the web & ready to view!

Kayla

What a fun session on Sunday! Kayla you are awesome! We started our session at the studio and captured some incredible images! The "wind hair" are some of my favorites! Since we had plans to go outside as well and the weather was not cooperating we moved up Kayla's session to the morning to avoid the pending rain in the afternoon. Well... things were all crazy and it rained her entire outdoor session and within seconds of finishing outside (oh yeah we photographed in the rain...and Kayla just went for it!) the rain stopped. Go figure! Here are just a few of my favorites from her session!

Kayla, I am excited for you to see all of the images from your session! I will in touch once they are ready to view! Thanks so much for a great session & for being up for anything! Melissa