Thankful for 2013, Excited About 2014

2013 has been quite a challenging year for Patrick and I and we are stronger for it. There have been ups and downs and in-betweens and we look forward to greater things in the New Year. I will dwell now on only the good which consists of finally getting into our own new home on our sweet little ranchette and photographing so many wonderful people around southeast Wyoming. I want to thank them all for a great business year.
I started the year shooting commercial work for the University of Wyoming in the Ecology and Biodiversity Department and in the business school.

Then I had the opportunity to work with COPD Oxygen in Cheyenne. This is a great group of people, a family run business serving several communities in Wyoming that have needs of assistance in breathing and sleeping.

There is a gentleman in our town who’s father had a serious collection of old cars dating all the way back to 1926. Many of these had to go to auction and I had the honor of photographing them for advertising. This is just one of the many that went to auction. This was a really cool shoot!

Wyoming Women First and GE united together for a program to send a mobile mammography van around rural parts of Wyoming to serve women who don’t have the means to get mammograms at their local health clinic. They served many Native American communities which I wrote about HERE. It was and honor to be a part of making things happen for the women of Wyoming.

To get the word out about the Mammovan, we held a contest to meet Jason Aldean at Cheyenne Frontier Days.

Needless to say, we had some happy winners!!

I did a project for a friend before we left the ranch. She bought one of the ranch horses and we did a photo shoot just days before we moved. She  found this poem and I worked it onto the image. We had it printed on canvas and it turned out really lovely.

Then the family portrait business started up.  I had a blast with the Spaldings. I got to hang with them twice this year since we needed to catch up on the yearly portraits of the boys.

We have a cowboy in the making right here!

Once the grass greened up, we could wear short sleeves and enjoy the sunshine.

I put Carol in the thick willows by the river. We couldn’t beat the willows, so we just joined them.

I got a call from the publishers of WREN Magazine, a statewide magazine that goes out to all Rural Electric Association customers. They were featuring our community in the May issue and wanted to feature me in the Artist Spotlight section. I was floored, honored, and shocked at this opportunity. They ended up putting one of my images on the cover and used one for an article illustration inside the magazine, along with the artists spotlight. Such a treat and this was the start of a great relationship with Linden Publishing.  This will be in another blog post very soon. 🙂

Then senior portrait season began. I met some incredibly talented and bright students this year. And I think it’s safe to say we all had a great time.

Caleb,

Logan,

Taran,

Sahala,

Skylar,

Then came babies, families, professional headhots and pets.

This child….I have no words. Well, precious, sweet, patient, a good sport…you name it, Taytum was it.

Miss Dayzee graduated with honors from obedience school. Her momma loves her so much and I was so happy to photograph her graduation portraits. 🙂

Happy, happy Ingram family. Nothing but fun was had during this session.

Had a beautiful evening maternity portrait shoot with Megan and Sean.  Such a sweet couple and good friends. They gave birth to Annie just a couple of days ago. I’m looking forward to getting that bundle of joy in my camera.

Ahhh the Whelchel family. I spent a lot of time with this family this fall and I’m a better person for it. We got a lot accomplished with 2 sets of senior portraits, promotional portraits of Skylar for her successful Christian music career, and family portraits. We also got young Serenity enrolled in some art classes at our local art gallery, Gilchrist Gallery. I’m proud to call this family friends of mine.

These kiddos have shot with me every year since I’ve been out here. They are nothing but sweet, adventurous, and plain fabulous. They crack me up every time we shoot. I’m so glad to know them.

Pastor Jane needed professional headshots for her blog and other needs and we also wanted portraits with Tango. We had a nice morning shoot and I really enjoyed our conversations. Such a beautiful woman inside and out.

The Spalding family came out and we had a great day with Cooper’s 1 year portraits and family portraits. The boys were asleep when hey arrived and were a little groggy when hey woke up. But one look at the cows and horses and we ended up enjoying the afternoon in the meadows.

Again, no words. Well okay; hilarious, sweet, precious, cooperative, and loving. Daxton was so good on this shoot and he is a sweet boy loved by such a sweet family. He was styling in his suit but not long after a few “distinguished” portraits at the piano, he stripped down to his diaper and cowboy hat and hilarity ensued.  Such a fun indoor shoot on a very windy afternoon.

Ethan and Lily were true champions for this session in the snow. We were all so chilly but had a nice time nonetheless. Beautiful kids and I look forward to getting them in the camera some more. It was so cold and we didn’t spend much time on these. We all had runny noses and tears in our eyes before the end of it. Did I mention it was chilly!

Ahhh, the Edwards family. We spent a joyful Thanksgiving Day with this family and did a great deal of eating and shooting. We had so much fun and I was glad to meet more of Patrick’s extended family.

Full sessions of these shoots and more will all be posted on my website when I’m able to update. I’m still processing the last of this year’s sessions and I feel so blessed as the shoots keep rolling in! I am looking forward to a great year of meeting new folks and hanging with those that I met and photographed this past year. Thank you to ALL my clients and followers here on Uprooted Magnolia for your support and friendship.

I wish you a Happy New Year and Cheers to you and yours! See you in 2014!

With Much Love,
Leah

♥

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