We are very excited to announce that Staja Studios is launching a new side to our business.  We have been photographing weddings for many years and have built some fantastic relationships along the way!  Many of our past clients have begun growing their families and  we are always excited to hear about these changes and exciting developments in their lives. Simply put, it would be an honor to help document them.  With that thought in mind, we are in the process of rolling out Life Stories Photography.  Life Stories Photography will be taking a very relationship oriented approach to family, children, and high school senior lifestyle-portraiture.  We are focusing on high quality, personalized service and products.  It is our goal that with each session, you will not only gain beautiful art-pieces for your home, but memories and heirlooms that will last a lifetime.

The holidays are upon us and we wanted to get the word out by offering our first day of Holiday Mini-Sessions.  These will be taking place at our studio this Saturday, November 20th (possibly Sunday also) and will be available for $65 plus a non-perishable food donation for STEP.  This includes a 30 minute session and 25 custom-designed Christmas cards.  At the session, we will schedule your viewing and ordering consultation.   

If you are interested, please call Stacey at 612.387.7292 to set up your session, we hope to see you there!

Recently Stacey and I pulled together a fashion shoot for the Minneapolis PUG group that we host!  We worked with some great local talent to pull together a couple gorgeous custom couture gowns, fabulous floral design, models, hair, and make-up.  We had about 20 different photographers and split up into two different groups to try and maximize everyone's shooting time.  While Stacey and I weren't moving lights, getting reflectors, and trying to get everything going, we joined the fun and shot away!  It was a lot of fun to see other people's shooting styles and how they interacted with the models. 

With a recent whirlwind of activity, we finally had a chance to go through the images and pick a few of our favorites, which I have posted below.  We also want to take a moment to thank all of the great people who donated their time and talents, you all do amazing work!

Dress Designer:
Kaja Foat
Foat Design
www.foatdesign.com

Floral Design:
Lacie Swartzendruber
Pearls and Lace
pearls-and-lace.com

Make-up Artist: Collette Harrington

Hair: Aly Zacher

Model: Rachel Petrie (gown with black sash)

Model: Haley O'Brien (gown with copper sash)

Here were the very cool and original bouquets (and matching boutineers) designed by lacie of Pearls and Lace.

Overall Event & Floral - Sadie's Floral
Paper & Signs - A Milestone Paper Company
Cake - Jessica's Cakes
Food - We Cater to You

Stacey and I were incredibly honored to be asked by our friends and local wedding photographers, John & Katrina of Studio Laguna, if we would capture their vow renewal.  They recently had their 10 year anniversary and wanted to publicly renew their vows to one another and their three lovely children.  In preparation for the big day, John has spent the past summer putting in a patio and retaining wall, while Katrina came up with a beautiful orange and blue backyard picnic theme for the event. 

The guests were invited to come with blankets and chill out to watch the ceremony and then go through and fill up apple buckets with the food for their picnic.  It was a gorgeous day and a lot of fun for us to watch our friends enjoying themselves with the people they are closest to!

Here are some of the highlights and gorgeous details of the day!  Everyone involved did an amazing job at helping the couple pull together a day that was distinctly them.  Congratulations John and Katrina, we are so happy for the two of you and your growing family!

This past Tuesday for the Minneapolis PUG meeting, Stacey and I hosted a photo shootout, and it turned out to be a lot of fun.  We will be posting more images later with a rundown of all the fabulous professionals that participated.  In the meantime, Stacey gets a huge round of applause for putting a lot of time in and coordinating all the final details.  Here is one shot from each of us showing the two beautiful gowns that Foat Design created. 

This is going to be a multi-faceted post, but I found it perfectly fitting.  It's a quick sneak peek at Rochelle and Jeremy's wedding, but also a chance to explain why it is we love what we do. 

I recently had the opportunity to attend a presentation by a VERY well respected wedding photographer, Joe Buissink.  His images have always been so moving and he challenged everyone in the audience to really search what images of our own speak to us and grab us at the core.  He followed it up by saying, that is who you are as a photographer. 

As I was looking through some images from Rochelle and Jeremy's wedding this past weekend, this sequence from when they first saw one another really spoke to me.  In my opinion, we wouldn't have to show any other images from the whole day and these two would be enough to show the love Rochelle and Jeremy have for one another.  Given the opportunity to capture moments like this is truly an honor.  I couldn't think of anything more rewarding than being invited in to someone's life to preserve their true and deepest emotions!

We hope you find it as moving as we do!