Telltale Photography - a wedding and portrait photographer

margot – newborn session in grand rapids, mi

I was so excited when my friend Jeanette facebooked me about taking pictures of her beautiful daughter Margot. I went to college with Jeanette (and we even lived together for one brief January) but since she now lives in San Francisco with her husband Joel it has actually been a couple years since I last saw her. So I was more than thrilled to hear she was coming to Grand Rapids and I would be able to meet her new baby. Margot is such a lovely baby and even though she has a bit of colic (an experience I can certainly sympathize with) she was content and even happy throughout our photo shoot. Margot is definitely a charmer and it was wonderful to see how in love Jeanette and Joel are with their baby girl. It was wonderful seeing them again and I am so glad they asked me to document their growing family.

a new year and new beginnings, welcome to the world shiloh diane

More so this year than any other New Years I have been spending a lot of time rejoicing in the past, thinking about the future, and trying to establish priorities for the next year. 2010 and 2011 were absolutely amazing years—but also a complete whirlwind. 2010 was jam packed with fabulous clients and great weddings and I managed to top that (just a bit) by welcoming my daughter into the world spring of 2011. Since Tilly insisted on making her arrival right as wedding season began I scaled back on shooting weddings last year and found a new passion for portrait photography. As I enter another year I finally feel like I have time to take a breath and also take a good look at my business.

I have been so blessed since I started Telltale Photography and have the unique privilege of loving what I do. But I also know that since my daughter was born my time is a lot more precious to me now. So I want to make sure that I don’t loose sight of why I started this business—I love photography and I want to be able to tell stories through great images. It’s so easy to be distracted by what is trendy, what wedding blogs are claiming is the next big thing, and shooting for publication and exposure instead of for my clients. This year my resolution is to stay focused on what I love, which are people, their personal stories, and creating images that actually mean something.

While some changes are in the works (a new website, maybe some new branding), what I am really excited about is staying true to my convictions by creating the very best images I can and continuing to hone my skills as a storyteller. I look forward to lots more weddings and portrait sessions in 2012, and I am excited about every opportunity I have to create not just pretty pictures but important images. I want each client to feel like their wedding images or portrait session really captured the way they are and how they felt—I want to tell the story of their lives not recreated in fiction but told in authentic detail through beautiful images.

So it isn’t just the New Year that has brought on this feeling of rebirth and renewed passion, a lot of it has been brought on while editing one of my last shoots of 2011, the birth of Shiloh Diane. I have always wanted to shoot a birth and I feel so blessed that Lauren and Kory asked me to document the arrival of their first baby. What an amazing honor and changing experience. It was so overwhelming emotionally (yes, I bawled my eyes out when she was born) and it has helped rejuvenate my enthusiasm for photography and helped me realize what a gift it is that I get to use a camera to share someone’s personal experience. So instead of posting my favorite images I am posting a slideshow that chronicles the over 30 hours of labor it took to bring beautiful Shiloh into the world. It isn’t too long (I promise) but I hope you take the additional time to watch the entire slide show and that you experience the raw emotion of the day and the absolute joy of welcoming a new life into the world. Thank you Lauren, Kory and Shiloh for letting me tell your story. (If you would like to view the slideshow in a new browser window you can reach it at www.telltalephotography.com/Plockmeyer)

stella & mack – lifestyle session in white lake, mi

Stella is becoming quite the regular on my blog. This is the third time this year I have been able to photograph the lovely Stella, this time for her 7-month photos. I couldn’t believe how big she is now—she scoots around so well and even sits up on her own. And Stella is definitely one of the most expressive babies I have ever met. Her smile is absolutely infectious and you can tell that she has a ton of fun with her mom and dad. I just love the images of the three of them interacting together. This session was also special because it included Stella’s little cousin Macarius. After taking some pictures of the cousins together I got to spend some time photographing Mack and his parents Elisa and Jackford. Mack is absolutely adorable and it was so much fun getting to see this new family together. Stella and Mack are going to have so much fun growing up together and it was a pleasure to photograph their first official joint photo shoot.

abbot – newborn session in lansing, mi

I love photographing newborn sessions because it is such an amazing time in a family’s life. Abbot’s newborn session was particularly special because it included his super cute and very attentive sisters, Annabella and Vivienne. Abbot is such a calm and peaceful baby and Vivi was clearly transfixed by him—she couldn’t stop smothering him with kisses (and I couldn’t stop photographing them together). I had the pleasure of photographing this family last year and it is so cool to see how in just a year this family has grown and changed so much. I feel really honored when I get to photograph a family over a period of years and it was really special to be able to document the addition of Abbot to the family.

derek & kristin – e-session in grand rapids, mi

I first met Kristin last year at Bethany and Justin’s wedding (she even makes an appearance in the blog post about their wedding). Kristin loves photography and so we talked about cameras and picture making. Fast forward about a year and I was excited to get an email from Kristin saying she was engaged and wondering if I would be available for her Illinois wedding. I am thrilled that it all worked out and that I will be able to photograph her wedding to Derek next summer. On a recent trip to Grand Rapids to visit Kristin’s family I had the pleasure of meeting Derek and photographing their e-session. We started the session at the Calvin College Nature Preserve to take advantage of the last of the fall color—although I had been to the Nature Preserve as a student I have never photographed there and it made for a great location. Afterwards we headed downtown and found some great spots while avoiding a short rainfall. Derek and Kristin shared with me that they love doing jigsaw puzzles so it seemed appropriate to bring along a puzzle to our session, turns out this is the same puzzle they did together on their first date and it made for some of my favorite images of the day.

mark – senior session in lansing, mi

I think I first met Mark around nine years ago (although that seems awfully hard to believe). Mark is my husband’s cousin and I can’t believe that he is graduating high school and going on to hopefully study fisheries and wildlife. I can thank Mark for a lot of things, introducing me to Deadliest Catch, reigniting my interest in X-Files and teaching me how to locate Sasquatch by wood knocking. Since Mark spends much of his free time fishing we thought it was only fitting to take his senior portraits on the Grand River and to visit a local bait and tackle shop. Mark was a great sport and braved less than ideal conditions (you can’t even tell how cold he is, but it was absolutely freezing that day). It was a pleasure taking his senior portraits and I can’t wait till our next X-Files marathon.

boonstra family – lifestyle session in grand rapids, mi

A little over a year ago I had the pleasure of photographing Cora and her parents, Joel and Leslie, right after she was born. To this day it is still one of my favorite lifestyle sessions—it was filled with some incredibly sweet moments including Cora getting one of her first baths. You can see my favorite images from that session here: http://telltalephotography.com/blog/?p=1420. So when Joel contacted me about photographing Cora again I was so excited. Cora is now just over 1 1/5 years old and she is incredibly cute, not to mention sweet and very bright. I got to hang around with this threesome for the afternoon and capture them just hanging out (my favorite kind of lifestyle session). We did some playing and reading as well as a trip to the local park. It was so wonderful photographing this family again and documenting this great time in their lives.

george & richard – lifestyle session in lansing, mi

I was so happy when Richard contacted me about doing a portrait session—he had purchased a session package I donated to the annual Westside Neighborhood Association fundraiser and I was excited that he had won the package and was supporting our awesome neighborhood. The session included Richard and his son George who is sweet and very mature for his age. I had a wonderful time hanging out with these two guys at Richard’s lovely Westside him and Francis Park—my favorite local rec area. I wanted to capture George, who is in middle school, just being a kid and doing the things he enjoys doing with his dad. So they spent some time playing Nintendo DS, Xbox Kinnect and telling jokes, then we headed to the park to fly a kite on this especially windy fall day. I loved capturing the wonderful relationship Richard has with his son and it was a honor getting to document this time in George’s life.

derek & julie – lifestyle session in lansing, mi

Derek and Julie have been incredible neighbors and we are so sorry that they will soon be leaving our little neighborhood on the Westside of Lansing. While I am sorry to see them leave I am so excited for Julie to be completing her PhD in Music Education and to continue her life in academia, now as a professor. And as sad as I am to see them go I was so excited and honored when they asked me to shoot a lifestyle session with them to commemorate their life in Lansing and their beautiful home. Since we wanted to capture their real life we decided the perfect Sunday afternoon activity of baking an apple pie was in order. So maybe baking a pie wouldn’t be so natural for me but for Julie who learned how to bake from her mother, an award winning pie baker, this was perfect. It was really lovely to watch Derek and Julie bake together—they had an ease that only a couple that has been together for a long time and are truly in love can show. We also took some great shots around their really beautiful home and even took some photos in their double office (and you know they must like each other to make that work). Good luck to Derek and Julie on their move and I am glad I get a few more months with them before they leave.

april & kathryn – lifestyle session in lansing, mi

When April called me about photographing her daughter Kathryn I couldn’t believe it had been nearly two years since I last photographed these two lovely ladies. Kathryn has grown quite a bit but she is still the same sassy girl with beautiful brown eyes who likes to throw her hand on her hip and pose like a rock star. We started our session at the Country Mill Apple Orchard in Charlotte where Kathryn got to do a little apple picking and then spend some time at the orchard’s playground. Afterwards we found some beautiful fall colors and Kathryn founds slugs—I have never seen a slug in a field before but Kathryn found several. Here are a few of my favorite images from the session.