STEPHANIE // CLASS OF 2018 // CRESTON, IOWA

“You have the sweetest dreams in your eyes 

that burn with the fire of chasing sunset skies.”

I had so much fun taking Stephanie's pictures! 

Let me tell you - this gal has spunk.

She tore her ACL recently - not once... but twice. And she had to have surgery. TWICE.

The second time, we waited till her cast was off and she was able to walk without crutches. 

As you can see, a torn ACL is no big deal to her - she did track anyways!

Steph, 

you are a beast. Thanks for letting me take your pictures! It was so special and I cannot wait to see where life leads you! 

I'm thankful to be your cousin and to have a front row seat at watching how God uses you.

xoxo,

Anna Rose

Jacob { Class of 2017}

“You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!” 
― Dr. Suess

     

When did this crazy cousin get this tall, this handsome, 

and since when is he allowed to graduate?!

Just kidding. I'm proud of you, kid!

xoxo

-Anna Rose

{ dakota} sneak peek

xoxo,

Anna Rose

Shoot and Share // Photo Contest >> Personal

Let us rewind to last year. 

There was this photo contest I had heard about. 

I was too scared to enter, so I just watched and voted for my friends pictures as I saw them.

I thought this photo contest was great! It was created by photographers, but there was something just a leeettle different about this one.

For this contest, the people were the judges. 

Here's how the voting worked:

1. 4 pictures appeared on the computer screen, they were chosen completely at random. Since there were 110,000 pictures, I very rarely saw the same picture twice

2. I clicked on my favorite picture of the group of four and then I did it over and over and over again. 

3. The pictures with more votes stayed while the pictures with fewer were eliminated. This went on for weeks and weeks. 

I did not go into this contest with the expectation of winning or becoming a finalist. So although I did not win, becoming a finalist (with not one, but two of my pictures) was *super* exciting!

So now that the first year of college is over and I actually have a little time here and there I decided I would show you a few of my shots that I entered.

You remember Hannah from her senior session in August?

And Dakota from her senior session.

Heres another shot from Hannah's session.

Here's Abby from this summer.

Another one of Dakota.

This was a funny shot from Thomas and Erin's wedding. 

All the groomsmen wanted to play football with the bouquet.

This ring shot was from Scott and Rachelle's wedding the day before I left from college.

All in all, it was a lot of fun entering and it was fun seeing how my pictures did in the contest. 

And now, I'm off to try to finish a different blog post about this entire semester... We will see how far I get. 

-Anna Rose

Naomi >> Portraits

In 12 years a lot changes.

We no longer have chubby baby cheeks...

and we've grown a few inches (some of us more than others.)

 We've both changed a great deal, and even though we don't spend much time together anymore, our friendship is always there. The years of friendship have built a layer of trust that cannot easily deteriorate, and I'm thankful that we can always pick up right where we left off.

You've seen this blue door pretty recently, but it's been a while since this pretty face has graced my little blog with her presence.

World, meet Naomi.

xoxo, 

Anna Rose 

Dakota >> 2014 Senior

"Why didn't we think of this sooner?" Hannah said as I hopped in her car.

It had been decided 5 minutes before this that I would accompany Hannah to Dakota's senior pictures.

The three of us have been good friends for the past few years and we have many things in common, coffee and photography being just two of them.

You've seen Dakota before on this blog. She and I did a misty morning October session here.

She and I both got our first cameras within two months and our very first session was together... three years ago. Wow! So much has changed since then.

Now that we're going to college, our early morning coffee dates will have to come to an end for a short time, but as soon as we're home for Christmas we'll have more. :) 

Mmmmm.... That smokey sunset is so pretty.

Dakota, You're going to rock at college. I'll miss you like crazy, but I know that those Skype dates will make everything better. Keep pointing other to Christ, dear girl. 

I'll see you at Christmas. 

XOXO,

Anna Rose