Meet beautiful Mikayla! We had such a fun day evening and it was such a gorgeous day!
I am announcing my new logo and a new updated website. Yay, I am so excited! I really wanted something very simple and well, something that was very much me. 🙂 I have always loved handwritten logos and I have always loved butterflies. Butterflies have always been a special thing in my family, my grandmother loved them. I was extremely close to my grandmother and when she passed away, my sister and I talked about how it seemed like we seen so many butterflies that first year she was gone. I personally felt that is was God’s way of sending me some comfort and just a little hi from grandma. I believe God comforts us in many ways and for me when I was seeing so many butterflies after my grandma passed, I felt peace. When I was first coming up with logo I had no doubt it had to have a butterfly in it. So the butterfly is hand drawn and attached to my name. The drawing was done by my 9 year old daughter Maretta, who was named after my grandmother. I am so excited to have a part of my child’s creativity in my logo. So I gave my thoughts and ideas to my amazing friend and graphic designer Veronica Louchart and she made it happen.
I also wanted to update my website, as I feel I have grown and changed in my photography journey. I feel and have always felt this journey for me has had its ups and downs, but I have always felt 100% this is where God wants me and I am happy to oblige. I love it so much and it is worth it. He has placed amazing opportunities in my life to help me to grow and one of those was working with the amazing talented Jean Smith Photography. I took her and her husbands He Said She Said workshop about 4 years ago, which was amazing, they simplified everything for me and I was so beyond inspired. About a year later, I started assisting her at weddings and now I second shooting weddings with her. It has been an awesome 3 years shooting with Jean and I feel so blessed to work with such amazing talent, that has taught me so much! I have now added weddings to my website and soon to come will actually be a separate wedding website, that is still in the works. So I hope you check back.
I hope everyone loves the new website and logo as much as I do. To introduce the logo, here is a photo of my daughter resting in the cool summer grass as the sun goes down.
This weeks photo challenge at I heart faces is called “All Boy”. I decided to enter this photo because these two brothers are true little farm boys. I just adored them and how they look like they are discussing some serious farm business. 🙂
I did a blog post on Makenzie a few weeks ago. You can see it here. I talked about how Makenzie was going to do something special to honor her beautiful aunt. Her aunt Amy lost her life way to soon to breast cancer. When Amy was going through treatments, she had a vision of a pink tattered ribbon draped over a cross. Amy’s nephew drew a picture of the cross for her and it was exactly what she had visioned. Well, Makenzie has been growing her hair out for a long time and decided she wanted to shave all her hair off and donate it. I just think that is so amazing and courageous for a 16 year old girl. This was not out of rebellion, this was out of love for others. She is so loving and caring and this was something that was really on her heart to do. Then with her parents support, she took the picture that was drawn of the cross to a tattoo artist. She along with her brothers all got a tattoo of the drawing to remember their aunt and honor her in their own special way. Makenzie has one of the most beautiful, giving, and loving souls! Here she is with her new tattoo and hairdo. 🙂
Here is a photo of Makenzie and her beautiful aunt Amy. I had the pleasure of taking photos of Amy and her family. This was taken a week before Amy went home to be with her Lord and Savior. Makenzie often used her hair to cover up her aunts balding head due to chemo. They have many photos like this. I love how much love is in this photograph.
             In Loving Memory of Amy Heeg 03-05-2013
Seniors 2015 is here. What an awesome start to the season with beautiful Makenzie. What a wonderful soul this girl has and her smile is so contagious! She is a country girl and that just speaks to my soul. We are doing a two part senior shoot, this is the first part and coming in a month I will be posting part two. Makenzie has down something so amazing, brave and well, just plain special to honor her aunt who passed away at such a young age from breast cancer. Part two of her senior photos will reflect how she decided to honor her aunt. Check back soon.
A few weeks ago, I started a new goal. It was to take some photos on my girls everyday. So the other night, I decided what better time to take photos then bath time. They loved it, they were being so silly and just danced and played. The window light was so beautiful and I just could not put my camera down. Here are a few of my favorites.
This weeks challenge over at I heart faces is called “Let’s hear it for the girls”. I always think about entering and then I go back and forth through all my pictures trying to decide which picture is best of this challenge and then sometimes just decide that I will not enter. This time I just picked one of my favorites of my little Lilah. I am very big on having my girls feel how they feel, dress how you want (as long as it is appropriate) be yourself! I am their mother here to guide them, but I want them to be themselves and find who they are as an individual. It has been a rough year with Lilah this year and needless to say it has been rough on the rest of us as well. She has a very strong personality, very emotional and very dramatic. She is also one of the funniest kids ever, her stories are just hilarious! I love and choose this photo of Lilah, because she is always so emotional, but at this moment, she is so full of joy and laughter, dancing in the bathtub with a washcloth on her head, she is just enjoying life and being herself. 🙂 I will look back at this photo someday and I will remember what joy this beautiful child has and has brought us and I really believe the struggles we have faced this year with Lilah will be faded out of my mind and just filled with this beautiful joy that is on her face. 🙂
Hey 2015Â graduates! I am now accepting 2015 Senior Rep application. My senior reps become the face of Laura Finley Photography, by representing the business and acting as spokes models for Laura Finley Photography. You can have the opportunity to receive a free session and earn many free prints and products! I will only be accepting one senior from each school this year. If you are interested please email me at laura@laurafinleyphotography.com. Look forward to hearing from you!