Baby Cooper is 1!

Our nephew turned one last week, and boy is he wonderful! These are random favorites, not really the story-telling type of photos, just bits and pieces that I'd like to share.


I had a goal to get the Coop to walk for his aunt Nikki for his birthday. My name means "easily comes success when reaching for your goals" or "victorious one"... I guess that was right.

Cozy.



I loved this candid of three generations with baby, mom, and grandpa.

Next door neighbor over for the party... she's one of the cutest children the world may ever see. No joke. No exaggeration. It's true.


Mmmm. Cake.

And for all the family & 35 friends who came to celebrate this soon to be British boy, you can view the rest of the images from the party (well, at the least the final cut). Click here.

From Okinawa to St. Louis

Recently our daughter-in-law and grandson came half-way around the world to visit. :) Hats off to Brianna for traveling with a toddler spending endless hours in air and at numerous airports. Their journey took them approximately 36 hours. We had a spectacular time! Zach is all smiles, full of energy, and quite the curious little soon to be 2 year old. On Monday, it was 72 degrees and we took Zach to the zoo. The melting snow created puddles which naturally attracted Zach. While they were here, we also visited The Magic House which he loved. As you can see, it was a hair raising experience. Zach has definitely mastered his small motor skills. Uncles Ben and Daniel enjoyed coloring with him. We also took pictures of them at the Arch and Busch Stadium and e-mailed them to Kevin. Zach also got to see his new cousin, Hayden. Grandchildren are the best! They make you want to have fun and not work. Brianna and Zach have since returned home safely to Okinawa where Kevin is serving in the Navy. We are looking forward to the next time Kevin, Brianna, and Zach can visit. Our prayers are for them and all military men and women serving our country.

Please take my picture!

I was taking some standard photographs of our small group leaders at church and all the kids thought it would be a good idea for them to get a picture, too. This delightful young lady decided to raise her hand each time she knew I was about to hit the shutter button. She's cute as a button. That's for sure.

Sunday morning

This post is a continuation of the church photos I'm working on for my churches website, which is www.citylightschurch.com, by the way. These are from a typical Sunday morning. I was loving how many fathers I saw bringing their kids in to worship with the family. Also, it was great to see the joyful countenances of our community.

Team City Lights

Once a month, those who serve in our church come together for worship and prayer. It's one of my favorite times in the life of our church. I have been asked to take some pictures for our website and Team City Lights was one of those time I got to capture what it is that we do on camera.

I was talking to some people about how over the years I've had several opportunities to take photos during worship. It's a time of conflict for me. On one hand, normally when engaged in worship, I am not focused so much on the people around me but on praising God and hearing from him. But when I take pictures I get to watch everyone else and it brings such joy to see how much people are worshiping God with great intensity and love for Him. On the other hand, though, it is hard because I want to allow people to worship without distraction. People are engaging in sacred and intimate moments with the Lord and there I am trying to take a peek.

On a more technical note, Team City Lights takes place at night and with low lighting and plenty of movement. I wanted to limit distraction so I used no flash. We have lots of different light sources so I played around a bit with white balance and later some sharpness techniques and other fun things in photoshop. These are a few from that night.

Avoiding being hit by cars

There is a bridge I drive over many times each week and on this bridge there are ramps down to the bottom. As I have been driving past this little area, I kept imagining taking pictures there. Then I realized that my friend Janele would be a perfect model to stick in that space and create a nice urban, bleak winter day kind of photoshoot.

Then my husband said, "Nikki you are going to get hit by a car." Apparently he's a Mr. Smarty-pants and knew there was no sidewalk to get up to the ramp and that the ramp was closed off at the bottom. Convinced it was possible, I stuck Janele in my car and we drove down the street. And then she said, "Nikki, we're going to get hit by a car if we go up there." So if your model wont' go, you don't go and we had a great shoot at the bottom of the ramp instead. She and I had such a great time and did so many shots I wasn't anticipating, I have too many to show off! She is a natural and I gave very little direction. Thanks, friend!

This first one exemplifies the style I was going for at the start, and then it just got crazy from there...