Mandy and Doug (Part 1)

It never fails - if you plan to be outside for your photos on a certain day, it will rain! :p Luckily, Mandy was very calm about the unfortunate weather, and toward the end, we were still able to sneak out and get a few photos by the beautifully blooming trees! Today, we headed over to campus to finish their engagement photos at the Ralph and near the Spiritual Center, where their wedding will take place. Here are a few of the photos from their first session:

Victoria and Jakob

Okay, if I can ever say that a couple must be perfect for each other, it HAS to be true with Victoria and Jakob. It was fun to watch them interact during their engagement session, and I had a lot of laughs. Victoria was in "Hair", and I took the cast photos for the show, and now we'll be doing her wedding photographs in October. It's at the Masonic (Kem) Temple - a very cool location that we haven't covered yet. We're very excited!

Their theatrical side came out at the end [to say the least]... we got a lot of honks in the street :D

Owen, Ava, and Elise

Owen came in for a photoshoot with his sisters one week after his sisters came in for North Dakota Ballet Photos. He's in the stage where he doesn't really want his mom to leave his side, but we were happy to get a few great smiles out of him before he remembered how attached he was :) Thanks Ava and Elise, you did a great job entertaining - you are wonderful big sisters!

The girls did a jumping photo with the company as well as during this shoot - they really know how to rock the jumping shots!

Katie Lien School of Dance - Recital week!

The Katie Lien School of Dance recital is this Friday, at 6:30pm at the Chester Fritz. Come check it out! It's FREE, and always a great time - my husband and I still talk about how great some of the company dances were last year! Here are a few of the images from our sessions with the groups this year:

We'll be posting images after the recital, too - it's so much fun to photograph!

Aaden

Aaden came in for photos on Friday with his brother Lucas. It was mostly supposed to be about him this time, but Lucas really liked to be behind the camera too. Our "snap while they play" philosophy worked really well with them; boys tend to not sit still and just like to play with things. But if you can catch them as they run around or look up from what they are doing, you can get some great shots. Here are a few:

Lucas, Rylan, Kyler and Family

I've taken Lucas and Rylan's photos in the past, and it was fun to have their baby brother Kyler with them in the studio this time, too! Capturing three boys together on camera (especially at these ages) can be a challenge, but they did quite well and I think we got some great photos! Here are the favorites from Friday's session:

Launching the "Giving Back" Program!

We have been feeling very blessed, and we've decided to start a "Giving Back" program here at Reeves to pass that joy along to others in our community. Every month, we will pick a person, family, cause or organization that we believe is deserving of some financial help. We will donate a minimum of 5% of all regular print sales to that cause. We'll also be doing a free photoshoot with the person/family/organization (if they are local, willing, and able) before their month of sponsorship. They'll have a chance to share their story in writing, which we will post to the blog along with their photos.

For the month of June, we have decided to donate those profits to Bobbi Jo Brenner and her husband Willi. They are an amazing couple, and we are blessed to know them. Bobbi Jo has been on dialysis for 14 years, and just received a kidney transplant TODAY! We couldn't be more excited for them! Bobbi Jo has had two other transplants in the past, both of which failed (one of which wasn't a good match from the start, and the other due to a blood clot), so we are praying that "the third time's the charm" :) The kidney was donated by Willi's sister, and it's an incredibly touching story. As you can imagine, several weeks at Mayo clinic, on top of having done dialysis for 4-5 days a week for 14 years, is a huge financial burden, and we want to help alleviate a bit of the financial stress. (Photo below taken during dialysis in March).

In July, we'll be giving to Josh, Yvonne and Nick Jones (photo below taken just before Christmas of 2009). Nick was recently diagnosed with Alexander's disease, and will be traveling to Mayo clinic and doing a lot of physical therapy in the near future.

We'll let you know what's on the schedule after that soon-- we still have a lot to sort out and get ready for this program :) Thank you SO much for following our blog, coming to our studio for photographs and now, for the financial blessings that these families will be receiving. We truly appreciate you!