The soon to be Sloan’s (Steele & Andrea) ~Decatur, Il Engagement session~

I love every session I photograph. Every single one. I laugh, learn, and appreciate every time you let me pick up my camera and catch a piece of time. You all get images that capture a moment in time (that you hopefully cherish and love), but I leave each session changed, and yearning to pick up my camera over and over again.   This particular session reaffirmed my love of photography with its amazing backdrops and more than willing subjects. This past Sunday Steele & Andrea welcomed me onto Steele’s family farm for their engagement session. I love my locations that I know like the back of my hand, but letting me loose on a whole farm? Oh man, so much fun to be had.   I made them get in a creek. Yes. It happened, and the images are amazing. But first, I have to tell you. I’m NOT directionally challenged until you put me in the country, my GPS doesn’t work, and my brain goes into overdrive imagining the pictures I could take if trespassing wasn’t illegal.
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Introducing Gemma Marie

Gemma at 1 week, 6 months, and her first birthday By now, you’ve gathered I have a daughter, Gemma Marie. My life. My pride. This little ball of fire graced us with her arrival (albeit a week late) March 2013 and brought so much light to my life I didn’t know was missing. She’s humbled and frustrated me, made me cry tears of happiness and doubt my parenting skills many times. But my heavens, who knew the joy a child can bring along with a myriad of emotions. Gemma is a cuddly, mischievous, spunky, sweet, and caring 1 year old. Her loves include most foods, her blankie, sleepy time, her kitty & Gigi, Tangled, and of course, her mommy and daddy. She has been the main subject of my camera since she was born. Every idea I’ve conceived, I’ve tried to execute using her as my model.
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Welcome to Hidden Gem Photography!

Ahhh!  I took the plunge!  HiddenGemPhotography.com site is launched, the gallery is under construction, and I’ve got a blog.  Eeek! I wanted to start this first blog by introducing you to my studio space. You’ve already met me on my home page, now meet my studio! I’ve been looking forward to this moment for months (I’ve literally had this blog post written since June when I knew I was launching a webpage).  I’m so proud of what my little back room in my house has become! This little studio has enabled me to expand my newborn photography, as well as milestone, and children photography.   [tabs slidertype="images" fx="slide"] [imagetab width="600" height="400"]https://hiddengemphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Studio.jpg[/imagetab] [imagetab width="600" height="400"]https://hiddengemphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Studio-2.jpg[/imagetab] [imagetab width="600" height="400"]https://hiddengemphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Studio-3.jpg[/imagetab] [imagetab width="600" height="400"]https://hiddengemphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Studio-4.jpg[/imagetab] [imagetab width="600" height="400"]https://hiddengemphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Studio-5.jpg[/imagetab] [imagetab width="600" height="400"]https://hiddengemphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Studio-6.jpg[/imagetab] [imagetab width="600" height="400"]https://hiddengemphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Studio-7.jpg[/imagetab] [imagetab width="600" height="400"]https://hiddengemphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Studio-8.jpg[/imagetab] [/tabs]   As you can see, it’s small.  I’m constantly changing the layout, but I cannot change the square footage. 
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