Madison SD area wedding photography, family, children & senior pictures
South Dakota family, senior, baby, children, engagement, wedding photographer | Serving Madison, Brookings, Watertown, Sioux Falls, Howard, Flandreau, Dell Rapids
Happy Leap Day everyone!
We spent the day moving furniture for family for an auction sale. So much stuff in such a small house.
We have a small addition to announce.
Melissa will be joining our studio crew next week. She’s going to keep us organized, focused and allow us to spend more time with the kids. Work smarter not harder.
You might have seen Melissa behind the counter at Campbell Supply. We are excited to have her work for us.
Image enhancement is an art form all it’s own.
When we are photographing a senior, we are always looking for a strong base image that we can take to the next level using Adobe Photoshop. We get it right in camera first. We aren’t trying to cover up our mistakes by spending hours fixing them in Adobe Photoshop.
The current trends of overlay textures, oversaturated colors, blown out highlights and twisted horizons are too easily overdone. A few images from each senior session are taken “over the top”, but we try to go more for the dramatic and classic look that won’t look dated the day after tomorrow.
We love the classic look of black and white with a bit of dramatic contrast wihout blowing out all of the detail.
Little John, one of our Baby Plan babies is no baby any more. He’s three years old now.
The whole family has been a little under the weather since sunday, but things are looking up. The coughs, sniffles, aches and pains are slowly going away. Everyone is back at school and the studio…Life is almost normal – whatever normal is this time of year.
It was yet another busy day in the studio this saturday. Babies and kids in the morning and Caitlinn’s senior session in the afternoon.
The sun may be shining and the thermometer may be creeping higher, but it is still a bit brisk when we were taking outside pictures…and bright too.
If you follow Madison Lady Bulldog basketball, you have already seen Caitlynn in action. Notice the very cool warm up pants.
Arlington ended the ORR Lady Raiders season last night. It was a 2 point game with 2 minutes left. Arlington pulled away in the final moments of the game. The Lady Raiders never gave up.
Announcement card flyers are hitting the mail this week for approval. When you get your letter please send it back with any changes you might want. You can also order additional cards.
The senior favorites will be available on our main website under CLIENTS. Check your announcement card flyer for your password.
As photographers, education never ends. We are always trying to learn something new. We go to seminars, workshops and conventions. We share with our peers.
Last week, Mike was in Sioux Falls at Bruce Hudson’s New Directions Tour seminar on Tuesday night. Wednesday noon found him again at the Downtown Holiday Inn dor a SDPPA board meeting planning out next month’s Northern Light Winter Seminar.
Today’s adventure took us to National Camera in Golden Valley, MN. The Twin Cities seems like a long ways to go shopping for camera equipment, but local camera and consumer electronic stores don’t carry the high-end pro equipment that we use. Now we could just order over the phone, but then we would not be able to get a hands on look and get first hand expertise in the pro equipment that National Camera is famous for.
Our favorite camera salesman, Dave Johnson, was at a photoshop seminar so Brandon stepped in. So many times at local camera shops, we end up talking to someone who just isn’t up on digital cameras. This was not the case with Brandon. He really knew his stuff.
Did we buy anything?
No, we did not…not yet anyway. We will soon enough. Now that the research is done, we can just make a phone call to Dave or Brandon at National Camera and wait patiently for the UPS truck.
“Portrait Safaris” allow us to travel and photograph your family on location. Whether we are at Lake Madison like in this portrait of the Anderson Family or as far away as the Black Hills, we are able to capture you and your family happy and relaxed.
This summer’s first “Portrait Safari” will be at the Black Hills the first weekend in June – the same time as the Crazy Horse Volksmarch.
Please give ElizaBeth a call at the studio for more information – 1.877.586.4143.
Congratulations to Kassie for her 2nd place in the SD Class A Gymnastics All Around competition. Despite injuries, Kassie finished her high school gymnastics career in style.
Madison Gymnastics set a new national record of 14 state titles.
Black Studios’ seniors Heidi and Kassie pose with the 13 previous state title trophies.
We headed to Madison tonight for a Lady Bulldogs game in the Madison Middle School gym.
I met Madison Daily Leader sports editor Dan Hollsworth on the way into the gym. Dan and I’ve been friends for a very long time. I volunteered to cover the game for him. Dan has a full plate ahead of him on Friday with gymnastics. Madison is poised to set a national record if they can add yet one more state title to their collection of 13 in a row.
The Lady Bulldogs took on a very tough Dell Rapids team, but never gave up.
Breanne was one of our seniors from last summer.
We’ve known Marti forever. You can see her on the front cover on this year’s senior brochure.
Happy Birthday Madysen!
This is Madysen’s 4 year Birthday Club magnet.
Nicholas was Madison’s New Year’s Baby!
Images with Mom, Dad and older brother Isaiah adorn this portrait panel.
Happy Birthday Isaiah!
Here’s Isaiah’s Birthday Club magnet.
Keri brought Peyton in for her 3 yr old birthday session.
Here’s her magnet – part of our Birthday Club.
Anthony’s sale was tonight. We always make up a few fun things for the parents to look at. This image is designed as a 20×20 composite wall portrait.
Happy Birthday Ainsley!
Being one year old is so cool!
We receive many comments about our display prints that we have in the 2nd Street Diner in Madison.
Marti is a waitress at 2nd Street (and Skippers), plays basketball and is on the school’s powerlifting team. Busy girl for sure.
Beside the three 16×20′s of the girls, 2nd Street also commissioned us to provide images in their Party Room. There are 8 – 20×24 framed black and white art prints of the Madison area.
Chantel is one of our “Prom Girls” from last spring’s Playtime sessions.
Shelby came after school for her senior pictures along with two of her friends to help haul in all of her outfits.
We never knew that basketball could be such a rough and tumble sport at such a young age. Girls are much more agressive than the boys at the elementary school level.
Look what came in the mail yesterday.
We love getting thank you’s from our wedding couples.
Michael & ElizaBeth,
Thank you so much for doing such an amazing job with our wedding pictures. We have had many compliments on how well you guys captured our wedding day! Our wedding day memories would not be the same without you! Also, thank you for putting together the beautiful book for us. We are really excited to show it to our friends & family!
God Bless,
Jeff & Nicole Wilde
You never know what you are going to get when you are working with babies. Sometimes the outtakes are fun to show off too. It’s nice to have that perfect smile, but along the way we can get lots of attitude like we got from Jake this afternoon.
