Grant

While I was home visiting family over Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to take Grant's senior pictures. Grant is a good friend of Jared (who I also took his senior pictures) and also attends Bettendorf High School with him. Grant and I had a great time walking the riverfront, and hitting some spots around his home. We chatted about future plans, and traveling the world. Grant is a great soccer player and he's planning on playing when he goes to college. Here are a few of the shots that we got on this cool late fall morning.

Thanks again Grant, good luck with everything the rest of the year. I'll talk to you soon!

Erik - Inspired Images

Jason & Amber

I'm not sure what happened to the warm fall that we were having but that went away this week and yesterdays wedding with Jason and Amber was COLD! They didn't let the weather affect their beautiful day though, and had a great wedding. The ceremony took place at St. Francis of Assisi Church in West Des Moines, and the reception followed at the Celebration Barn in Cumming. We had a great time taking pictures of them with their friends and families. The pictures all turned out really nice, here are a few from their special day.

Thanks again guys for allowing us to photograph your special day. For more pictures head over to Kelly's blog. I hope that you have a great time in Mexico and I can't wait to hear about it.

Erik - Inspired Images

Tim & Mary's wedding

On Saturday we got the chance to take the wedding pictures for Tim & Mary. It was an absolutely gorgeous November day for a wedding, the temps were mild and there was barely any wind at all. The wedding was held at the St. Mary church in Elkhart, and the reception followed at the Holiday Inn in Des Moines. Following the lovely ceremony we followed the limo to a random farmer's field and got some cool shots in the newly picked corn field. With not a lot of time in between the ceremony and reception we had to head for Des Moines. Luckily we left when we did cause the limo ended up making more than one head scratching turns along the way. The reception was very nice, with toasts coming from their families as well as everyone in their bridal party. Here are a few shots from the day.

To see a few more shots head over to Kelly's blog. Thanks again guys, I hope you have a blast in Mexico and I can't wait to hear all about it. Talk to you soon.

Erik - Inspired Images

Eric & Jodi

On Thursday night I was lucky enough to take the pictures for Eric (Murph) & Jodi. We had a great time walking around and talking a little bit. These two are just great together, with all their goofing around and having fun it was easy to see that they are in love. We headed to a park to take advantage of the fall color that was really beautiful especially since the weather had cooperated. I posed them several times and with a great amount of sarcasm Murph would say oh yeah, we do this all the time, which would make Jodi laugh. It didn't take much to make her laugh though, and the easiest thing to do was just to say, okay this one is going to be a serious shot....there was no chance of that! Here are a few from their shoot.

And a couple of outtakes....you see what I mean? This one is supposed to be "serious"...

And some random dude jogging through our shot.

Make sure to check out Eric during sports on the channel 5 news here in Des Moines. Thanks again guys, we'll talk to you soon!

Erik - Inspired Images

Paul & Mandy

I'm having a great run of wonderful weddings right now. I can't believe how lucky we are to get the couples that we get. Paul & Mandy are a wonderful example of that, from the moment we started until the very last frame we shot they were fun, energetic, and completely in love. It certainly shows in the photography and makes my job a whole lot easier.

The ceremony was held in Ankeny at the very nice Ankeny United Methodist Church, with a very lovely service filled with a lot of arithmetic. (I think that was for Paul's benefit) Following the service we all headed down town to the Capitol and then down near Court Ave to get a few more shots and more importantly some more drinks. There was a polka band playing at the Hessen Haus and they got the whole wedding out on the dance floor when they played "No beer in Heaven". The time got short and we all headed to the Jester Park Lodge for the reception. It was really beautiful with candles lining the entrance adding to the ambiance. A nice touch to the evening was that they had Pianopalooza a dueling pianos duo instead of a DJ, it was fun as they were able to take requests & I think the highlight was when all of the men sang "You've lost that loving feeling" while on their knees to Mandy. This was such a fun wedding, I could probably go on forever about it, but I'll just post a few pictures here.

Thanks again guys, for more pictures you should head over to Kelly's site as I'm sure she'll have some up soon. Have fun in Mexico and we'll talk to you when you get back!

Erik - Inspired Images

Neela

Last night I head out with Neela for a last minute senior shoot. We had a great time hitting up some of the great color that we have as well as heading downtown to get some grungy urban stuff too. Neela was up for anything and did a really great job, she was very natural in front of the camera. She wasn't all that familiar with Des Moines and I'm not sure that I took her to the best parts, but the pics look great! Here are a few of them.

Thanks again Neela, I'm so glad that you found us! We'll talk to you soon.

Erik - Inspired Images

Sutton Family

On Sunday afternoon I took some long overdue family pictures for the Sutton family. I go to church with them and I used to work with Denice as well at LeMar Industries. I was glad to have the opportunity and they were a great group but I think Ally stole the show, she was so cute running around though she wasn't big on posing for me. I was able to get some cute shots of her when she didn't know I was around though! Here are a few of the shots from Sunday.

Thanks again guys, hopefully we'll see you more often at church though that's totally in Max's hands! Talk to you soon.

Erik - Inspired Images

Beelner Family

On Sunday morning I took some family pictures for the Beelner family, and I'm not going to lie I may have been more than a little tired from the wedding that I had the previous day. We took some indoor shots and finally the boys started to warm up to it and we were able to get some good shots of them together. I totally forgot that the Des Moines marathon was going on and the park that I wanted to go to wasn't accessible so we hit another one in Beaverdale. It was a little bit chilly but the boys didn't seem to mind and they had a great time especially Duncan who was happy when he was able to play on the equipment. Here are a few of the pictures from the morning. Don't you just want to squeeze Griffin's little cheeks?? :)

Thanks again for working with me on a time guys, I'm so glad that we were able to do it. We'll see you soon sometime while we are up north. We'll have to get Griffin and Max together to play a little bit. Talk to you soon.

Erik - Inspired Images

Matt & Ashley wedding

I don't know how we keep getting so lucky, but the couples that we book for weddings are just awesome. On Saturday we took the wedding pictures for Matt & Ashley. They were married at the beautiful St. Francis of Assisi Catholic church in West Des Moines. The ceremony was gorgeous, touching and humorous all at the same time. Following the ceremony the wedding party jumped into a trolley and we all headed to downtown Des Moines to grab a few more pictures and to party before going to the reception. We ended up at the Hessen Haus where they went through more than a few boots in the time we were there. The time got late and we all headed to Wakonda Country Club so that we weren't too late for the reception. We grabbed a few more pictures on the golf course and then hit up the party. Here are a few shots from this very enjoyable day.

Thanks again guys, we'll be in touch soon!

Erik - Inspired Images

Alyssa & Joe

Last Thursday I was lucky enough to get to hang out with Alyssa & Joe for a little while and take their engagement pictures. Unfortunately they are getting married near Chicago and already have a wedding photographer, I say unfortunately because I had a great time getting to know them and enjoying a beautiful fall afternoon together. We headed to a nearby park and were greeted with awesome colors and great light and the results are fantastic. Here are a few of the shots that we got.

Thanks again guys, I'll talk to you soon!

Erik - Inspired Images

Zoe

It started raining at about 2:00 yesterday and I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to get Zoe's senior shoot in or not. When she arrived it was barely drizzling so we decided to head out and see what happened. It turned out to be pretty decent even though I'm sure that Zoe was a little bit cold in some of her shots. We did some stuff around Beaverdale and then headed to the park to get some shots with the nice fall colors. Here are a few from last night.

Thanks Zoe, I'll talk to you soon!

Erik - Inspired Images

Jennifer & Kevin's engagements

Tonight I headed down to Grays Lake and had a really great time hanging out with Kevin and Jennifer while I was taking their engagement pictures. We got a few with their dog Chase before Kevin's brother came and got him. The trees are starting to change now and the colors are looking great in pictures. We took advantage and headed off the beaten path for a while before heading back to the lake to get some shots with the sun setting. Here are a few that we got tonight.

Thanks again guys, can't wait for your wedding it sounds like it's going to be awesome! Hope to see you soon.

Erik - Inspired Images

Dusty & Shauna

This weather has been so fantastic lately, and Saturday certainly was no exception. We had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Dusty & Shauna in Madrid. The wedding was really beautiful with nice personal touches including a David Letterman inspired "Top 5" list about Dusty and Shauna delivered by Pastor Marcus. Following the wedding we followed the ISU bus (I refused to let my Hawkeye pride influence the pictures, though it was hard) to Jester Park to get a few shots down by the water. We had a great time and were getting some interesting looks from the campers and those having a picnic around the area. We then headed into Des Moines to the Sheraton and had a really fun time partying with their friends and family. Here are a few of the shots from the day.

Thanks again guys, for more pictures you should check out Kelly's blog here. She has a few additional pictures. I hope you have a good time on your honeymoon and we'll talk to you soon.

Erik - Inspired Images