| Dodson Family Portraits Backyard & Downtown Decatur |

Today’s blog post is coming to you a bit later in the day than normal but for a very good reason. This morning when I got to the office I got a sweet, kind but heartbroken email from Heather about some bad news they’d gotten about one of their adorable dogs who won’t be with them much longer. This gal was just looking for some happiness in her sad day and was hoping their blog feature happened to be coming up this week…. though it wasn’t scheduled for a week or two, of course hearing such news I bumped it up a bit!

I know our dogs are a big part of our family and were included not only in our family photos before BabyB came along but were also included in her newborn portraits and hang in photos all over our home/walls. I’m SO glad we included these two in their session and am happy to be able to share them all with you today. Prayers and good thoughts to this family this week as they hug and love on this special girl for a bit longer. She may not have wanted to be in the spotlight of the images but she made her presence known especially with some amazing facial expressions (like the one below!).

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The below image is one we all loved but I kept going back and forth on if I liked it best black and white or color and these two kept debating horizontal or vertical… what do you think they picked?!?

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I’m really excited for how dedicated Heather was to selecting images she knew she wanted to display in their home and deciding how they wanted to display them (so they don’t just end up in a box somewhere at home) which is right in line with what I love to do with clients. The following three are planned for a series collage.

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And the one on the left below we designed as a thin horizontal canvas to fit perfectly on their wall.

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| Kuznia Family Portraits | Decatur IL Photography Studio |

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Today, I get to share the Kuznia Family with you! Katie has to be the sweetest daughter ever and she called me to book this family session for a Christmas gift for her parents! And, of course, when she asked if they could bring along their dog Jake the answer was ABSOLUTELY! We had these four in for our last Limited Edition session date right before the holidays and I swear Jake is the perfect little model. Usually, I have to pull out a number of trade secret tricks to get pets to pose and/or pay attention to me during our sessions but not with Jake! He sat perfectly for nearly every photo in whatever pose we chose and not only looked right at me but even did a few top model head tilts to add just a bit of extra flare.

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It’s always important to me with every family session (even at our shorter Limited Edition sessions) that we take time to not only photograph the whole family but also couple’s portraits with mom and dad, and some individuals with each parent and kid. And for this session we even took individuals of Jake with everyone!!
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Last, but not least it’s time to share the family’s favorite image! I’m so glad this made it to their wall as a classic framed portrait so they can not only enjoy it for this year but for many to come! family portraits, family photos, family, families, family photographer, family pics, studio portraits, studio, classic studio work , studio photography, sarah jane photography, with dog, photos with dog, dog portraits, dog photos, sjp, sjanephotography, decatur il, central illinois family photographer, black backdrop, christmas portraits, annual portraits

Don’t forget to pre-book your 2017 Limited Edition Session. Dates have already been set and have begun to fill. You can book ONLINE HERE. These sessions will not be themed so all session types are welcome; children, birthdays, families, prom, couples, pets, seniors, etc.

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| Orrick Family Portraits | Downtown + Country Club of Decatur |

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Check out the Orrick Family!!! I swear these guys are the most photogenic and well-behaved little guys I’ve photographed (maybe ever lol). The Orrick family was amazing to work with and when Kristi said she wanted to do our longer session to work in two locations I was a little skeptical that I could hold the attention of three young boys for that long. But these three (and mom and dad) did amazing! They were perfect at following directions and boy did they bring the charm (just look at those smiles).

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And Kristi already knew she wanted to make sure we fit in time for images around the Country Club golf course since Steve works there and these guys are quite the golfers! Well I love any time we can add a personal touch to a session like this and the golf course is absolutely beautiful (one of my FAVORITE Decatur wedding venues!!)

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I’m so glad that we were able to not only design a feature wall art piece and some accents for their home but also that they decided to showcase all their favorite images in one of our legacy albums. This is always my favorite way to preserve and highlight this slice of time in my client’s lives.

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Don’t forget to head over to our facebook page soon to give them some love with your likes & comments! And if you’d like to work with us to design a family session this year give us a call. We are now booking all of 2017 (including fall which fills quickly) and we’d love to work with YOU.

| Smith Family Portraits | Decatur IL Limited Edition Sessions | Sarah Jane Photography |

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It’s time to show off the Smith family today! We fit this gorgeous family into an EARLY morning Limited Edition session this fall and I’m so glad we did. We were working to find time to fit them in before a day full of activities/games and it came together perfectly with this beautiful sunrise light.

While I loved this session, I’m most excited about how this family decided to display their images! This was the first time this family had worked with us and Aimee was excited to not only have professional images created but also to display them in their home. She came in with a number of wall images so we could design something perfect for their space (one that already featured a gorgeous shabby chic door hung right on their wall – real statement piece!). While she wasn’t opposed to moving that large piece to replace it with a portrait similar in size (60″ +) we instead decided to design with it in mind and create a smaller series of images that could be hung together or moved around as they like.

Doing a number of canvases also allowed us to feature each of the kids’ favorite portraits of themselves and a couple different family poses for different spaces in the house.

By far my favorite thing to create for families are their personal home galleries! We wake up to 3 of our wedding images each day, and walk down stairs past 60 inches of portraits of ourselves (which will soon be growing with the addition of at least 5 new wall art pieces in our gallery to show off BabyB). And while writing this it seems a bit narcissistic, in reality it doesn’t feel that way at all. It instead fills my heart with love and joy for my family each day when I get to see us happy, loving and together on our walls. And the best part is little BabyB points and says ‘mommy, daddy, bear, lily’ when she sees them too!

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Full family sessions are often tough to fit into your busy schedules (I know, scheduling acrobatics is a bit part of my job!) but imagine what we can create for your family and for your home with just 15/30 minutes… just a single Limited Edition in 2017 could add a little love and light to your home and I’d love to be a part of creating that for you.

Booking is open NOW for our 2017 Limited Edition Session dates and full sessions are already filling fast (sunset spaces in for fall especially!). You can book your Limited Edition Session right HERE right NOW!

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| The Allen Gals Annual Family Portrait | Decatur IL | Christmas Photos |

I absolutely LOVE working with this beautiful family! I get to work with Melanie every year for the senior yearbook, dances and organizational photos for Warrensburg-Latham High School. And for the last couple years I’ve had the chance to photograph both Melanie and her lovely girls, Savannah & Sophie.

This year we did an in-studio session for a little change and created a Christmas look on our fireplace, something a little traditional and classic and then finished up with a little personality with our very own BoxDropsbySJP Sweet Scarves backdrop (a personal favorite).

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I think this family image below ended up being my favorite. The laughs and cuddles with just a tiny hint of tween ‘ew do I have to’ mixed in made that one the most genuine to me and I just love it!

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Head on over to our Facebook Page to give this family some love with your likes & comments!