Shauna : Kansas City Portrait Photography

Shauna is a very talented photographer (check her out at Shauna Renee Photography) who I had a shoot day with recently. We were both needing some good pictures for our websites, so decided we'd shoot each other. Doesn't she just have the best smile? Seriously, I'd kill for a smile like Shauna's. I've got the whole massive gums thing going on when I smile. We had a lot of fun wandering the Legends and taking pictures. Plus it's always good to get to talk cameras and business with someone since Jake gets tired of hearing me ask questions that he doesn't know the answer to.

Kendra: Kansas City Photography

Remember my gorgeous cousin Kendra? She needed a few shots to feature in the newspaper for her win of the Miss Teen Lawrence World pageant, so we had a quick shoot and got some great pictures! Not that it's ever hard to shoot Kendra. :) And I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to my aunt and uncle for their HUGE amount of support for me! I love you guys!

And this one obviously is not Kendra, but how funny is my little golf pro?

Emily

See, I'm being good about getting up the rest of my sneak peek. I talked a little about Emily, but what I didn't tell you was that she was game for anything. And she just laughed at my rambling like it was normal for a person to talk about nothing for as long as I do. We had a lot of fun during this shoot, both while shooting and while driving around Manhattan looking for places to shoot. We also had fun afterwards having a few drinks, watching YouTube videos (I would post links because they were all hilarious but we watched a ton and some aren't super appropriate) and going to Aggieville with Jake and his friends. So now that I've talked a lot about Emily, here are the rest of her pictures!

For more from this shoot, click here. And keep your eyes peeled for more of miss Layla because I am going to get them posted before we leave for Michigan tomorrow!

Emily (Sneak Peek)

You already know Emily. You met her and her fiance Jason in their engagement shoot. Emily said she had an idea for a shoot and asked if I was game. I didn't give my old response ("Is my name Claire Leet?") because a) my last name has changed and b) I was boring and just said yes. So here is a preview of images from her shoot, I should have more to come later in the week!

This dog was SO funny. A lady was walking her, and Emily asked if we could do a few pictures with her. The dog was ALLLLLLLL about having her belly rubbed.

Kendra

SO sorry I've been way behind. I hope these pictures of Kendra make up for it! Kendra is a beauty queen - and I'm not just saying that because she's my cousin. She was National American Miss's Pre-Teen Miss Kansas a couple years ago (I'm a terrible cousin who doesn't remember which year). She still competes in beauty pageants and wins various awards. Look at what a gorgeous model she makes!

Tyler

Since I already showed off some of Tyler and Michael, I'm just doing ones of Tyler now, even though they had so many adorable ones together. I had to stop myself from picking more and more because she seriously had so many good ones that it was hard to pick just a few! I really am happy with this shoot, it increased my confidence times a million. I feel like I'm finally figuring out light, although I know I'm bound to make more mistakes with it. Tyler made it easy with posing, she was such a natural in front of the camera.

Look closely and you can see the dandelion thingies blowing away. Sure amused me!

Savannah

Savannah was my first shoot with a complete stranger (aside from in class where we still had some guidance). She was easy to talk to and fun to shoot. She's starting a photography business and her boyfriend is in the Army, so we had a lot to talk about. I'm gonna go do a senior portrait shoot with her on Saturday morning, so hopefully I'll do better on the lighting then.

Like I've said before I really just need to work on lighting. And posing too, but I'd be a lot happier with my pictures if I could work with the light better. I'm pretty comfortable with Photoshop (not that I don't have lots to learn there, I just know my way around PS4 decently). And dangit, I still can't figure out what's going on with my stupid resizing! I don't want to mess with Photobucket but I hate how Blogger resizes.

Melissa

Our first day of class (with Kelley), Melissa was my model. She was so easy to work with. She told me that I put her at ease, but it's only because she put me at ease. Hearing stories about her daughter also made me a little bit excited for Jackson to learn how to talk - although I'm not sure I like the thought of him trying to reason with me!

How gorgeous are her eyes?

Kelley - Babies - Rambling

I shot a TON of these two playing and I'm just making a dent in editing them, so I'll show the beginning. I also finished my assignment for class and eventually will get to play with the rest of the pictures I shot Monday. I also finished the ones from the barn party and the day I shot Jackson in his button-down shirt and diaper. Now I just need to work on the ones I took at our very first photo class and of another shoot that I did on Wednesday. Two steps forward but I'm still about twenty back.

First Kelley:

Then the kiddos: