Lyndsey & Nate 8.26.05

Wow, I can't believe I'm up and out of bed. But you know I just had to look at these images first thing. Yesterday was the wedding of Nate & Lyndsey. They had a 7pm ceremony at Tuthill Park, but photography started at noon with the guys on the golf course... that was fun! We then went to the hair salon to get the girls and then to the park for the finishing touches, formals and then the ceremony. After the ceremony we traveled by bus to the reception at Westward Ho and they were still dancing when we left at around 12:30. Yes it was a 12 hour day of coverage.... worth it!

When I first met Lyndsey she asked me, did you play soccer at USF? Why yes I did. Well guess what Lyndsey and I played together her freshman/ my senior year.... small world. It gets better, a couple of the bridesmaids went to HS with my hubby, and the minister Dennis Thum, well Andy and I didn't want to be married by anyone else, so we flew him to Cali a few years ago for our wedding. Everywhere I turned there seemed to be a connection. It was rather cool especially since I'm not from this area.

Back to Lyndsey and Nate. Everything was amazing.... the dress from the French Door, the flowers and decorations by J.Dupic Event Design, the setting, the weather, the food and of course how beautiful and handsome the bride and groom were. Pre-ceremony hot air balloons just happened to fly over. During the ceremony there were many moments and laughs. And the reception was outside on the patio at Westward Ho and the candle and lantern lighting made for a lovely atmosphere. The speeches were hilarious, the food and cake yummy, the dance floor full and at least one person went into the pool. I think in all a wonderful celebration!

Here are some of the ones that stood out to me during uploading.

Congratulatations to Nate & Lyndsey!

Laney 8.24.05

This evening Laney came down from Watertown for her 2 year birthday pictures. First we went and tooled around McCrory Gardens and then we went back to the studio. I think we got some really good natural images. Her eyes sparkeled when she smiled. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Eric & Heather 8.23.05

This evening I had the engagement shoot for Heather and Eric who will be getting married next June (yes I'm booking that far out). Heather's dad was kind enough to bring down his 30 something Plymouth to Sioux Falls to be in the pics. We had some fun utilizing the car... I love the character in old cars and Heather and Eric let me play and get creative and I think there are some awesome images. Here are two with the car and another more casual shot.

Meow. (inside joke)

Maleah 8.23.05

I just got done looking through Maleah's 6 month pictures, her shoot was this morning. There are a lot that I like and she had such cute outfits, it was hard to choose what to post. I thought I would post what made me think of the session. First we have Maleah being a perfect little subject. She sat up and smiled wonderfully. She was such a happy baby. Then we had to get a picture of Maleah with her mom and grandma. You know 3 generation pics are always fun and it's important to get the people who are important in a child's life too. And last this little girl didn't just ham it up, but wanted to take the pictures too. Here she is attacking my camera. I say she's my future competition.

Leslie & Joe 8.20.05

This weekend I traveled to the Omaha, NE area to photograph the wedding of a good friend. Some of you may recognize Leslie and her new hubby Joe from my website and my sample guestbook.

Leslie and Joe got married at the beautiful Fontenelle Forest in Bellevue, NE. The decorations were simple and elegant and matched the natural environment perfectly. It was a rather hot day, but still lovely. You can see here the shade was just a little too slow in covering the ceremony area, but created a neat spotlight effect on them. Leslie's dress had wonderful detail, I almost cried when she put it on. Joe was the ever loving new husband who even surprised Leslie with a chocolate fountain.

Thank you for allowing me to share in your day. Congratulations you two!
Love ya,
Cory Ann

New Studio Space!

Some of you may already know that I officially branched out and rented studio space. While not completely finished it is comfy and fully functional with 4 shoots under it's belt now. I believe that the addition of this space will allow me to better serve my customers. It's convenient location allows for quick trips to downtown urban settings or a short drive to many other park and outdoor settings.

The location is downtown Brookings on the corner of 4th and Main on the second floor. I recommend entering from the 4th Street entrance door 410. There is signage on the doors. The studio will be open by appointment only so please call 605.212.1617 or e-mail me at coryann@acellis.com to schedule your visit, meeting, or session. Here are some before images...

All studio type/backdrop images will now be taken in studio, with the exception of maternity and newborn which are often more comfortable in the home, but are welcome to visit the studio. With this addition I will be focusing on four different types of settings that you may choose from and combine when scheduling:


Studio: In studio with backdrops. Color, black and white backdrops are available.
Urban: Taken in industrial and downtown settings, with bricks, metal and other random items as your backdrop.
Environmental: At the outdoor park, or other location of your choice with a natural backdrop of plants and vegetation.
Lifestyle: This session will be in your home with your natural surroundings, your backdrop will be your things. Suitable for family and children's sessions. As well as "day in the life" sessions and occasionally graduation sessions.

And some after, still nothing on the walls, that will come soon...

A special thank you goes to my husband Andy, for helping paint and for the cool setee. To Alysia for taping things off and picking up the setee, Tabby for painting, and to Mitch of Boysen Custom Fabrications and Welding for helping move the setee, doing electrical work (notice the nice ceiling fans) and for my custom made shelf that got put in after this pic... and all the other stuff I have on his list of things to build. You guys are all the best!

Bridget 8.16.05

Last night I photographed Bridget's suprise Sweet 16 party. Her parents were cool enough to set it up. They booked the Old Fire Hall and the music was provided by her cousin. Lots of people stopped down, there was a bunch of mingling, a bit of dancing, and a lot of snacking. I got a couple of standard images and then decided to have a play.

Now accepting...

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am now accepting credit cards as a form of payment. Hopefully this will be another little improvement that will make working with me easy. Mastercard and Visa are welcome as well as the usual cash and check.

Tate 8.14.05

Today Tate, my godson, turned six months old. So we had a little fun with some tin buckets courtesy of his grandma Kris. He had to wear the bibs for his dad, Mitch. And mom, Alysia, brought some TP to play with. We had fun, he's a great subject!

Joshua & Danielle 8.13.05

Yesterday Josh and Danielle got married in Pipestone, MN. I managed to pull them away for a few fun shots behind the church and out on the highway at sunset. Danielle wore the poofiest gown I've ever shot, so of course I need to take advantage of that. Josh look handsome in his Airforce uniform. And I loved the contrast of the blue uniform with the white dress. I'm so used to black that this was a good change.


The last shot is me playing with the camera and zooming while utilizing a long exposure, Danielle didn't pose, I waited for her to look my way. I love to play around with new things every now and then.

Cari 8.12.05

Cari drove all the way from Eureka, SD to have me do her graduation portraits. I was honored that she made the trip and had fun doing her shoot. She was fun to work with and Mike, a friend, was a good reflector holder.

Samantha 8.8.05

So after getting a little lost I found the wonderful home of the Cassutt family. Now talk about a lot of work, 6 kids, 3 horse, 3 dogs, chickens, motorcycles and I'm sure all kinds of stuff I didn't get to see. I didn't get to meet Samantha before hand or even talk to her so I didn't know what to expect. Deb, her mom, called me on the phone and scheduled the session. Said she had two outfits and wanted a shot with her horses and her dogs, o and she was simple.

Well I get there and low and behold she is simply stunning. Samantha photographed beautifully. And the farm had so much to offer for backdrops, this session was a blast!

Tina & Jerod 8.6.05

Tina and Jerod got married in the cutest little church in the middle of nowhere, ok not nowhere, somewhere around Toronto or something like that. I loved the small personal atmospher. It was a very nice ceremony and they managed to take off in style... a big ol bus that really didn't want to shut off. But it looked like fun stocked with it's three coolers of beverages.

Kelcey 8.3.05

Kelcey a Brandon senior drove up for her shoot and we managed to get a couple of outdoor shots in before heading inside after the rain started to come down. We had fun in the back alley and then in the studio, another with wonderful eyes who photographed beautifully.

Have I said lately I love my job?!

Tara 7.31.05

I finally managed to get my neighbor to quit taking Tara to JCPenny's, I'm sorry, but these turned out so much better and the collection as a whole shows her many faces and her personality at the bright young age of 2. This is my favorite image from the session.

Ryan 7.27.05

Talk about some cool parents. Now I've known Ryan's mom a while. Back when I worked at the Brookings County Jail so did she. And then when Andy worked at the Citgo she was managing it. Well I went in to get some gas and guess who was there. You guessed it. So a quick catch up revealed that her son was a senior and I was a photog. So we went out to Oakwood and had a bit of fun. I loved how well Ryan got along with his parents, a fun, supportive family.

And yes I currently have a thing with lens flare and backlighting.... don't worry I got the shot with out the flare too, I just didn't think it was as cool.

Masondra & Jordan 7.23.05

I cannot tell you how much I love these two. They are so fun and free and themselves in front of the camera. I went up to MN to shoot their bridal session. I thought it would be fun to have a different area to shoot in. Tamer, a fellow photog, was kind enough to drive me around on Friday evening to scout out locations and then second shot the session on Sat. (He got some wonderful images too). We ended up in downtown St. Paul and found some wonderfully cool urban setting to compliment the more natural setting that we had on their wedding day.

You know many people would have been halted by the horrible humidity, but not these two. They were a blast. Here are a couple of my favs. This is from their bridal session, their wedding, which was also a blast, was in May.

Shawna & Brian 7.23.05

I had a fabulous weekend in MN. I got to do two photo sessions and go to dinner with some fellow photogs. And can't forget I got to go to IKEA.. now that was an adventure.

On Saturday morning Shawna, Brian and I got a session in just in the nick of time... it poured right after I got back to the Metzgers. Most of the session was at the Rose Garden, Zen Garden and then we went to the bandshell. It was fun to shoot in a whole new place and we had the perfect lighting of an overcast day. Now let's talk about a bit of pressure, you see Brian dabbles in photography and I know his expectations are high. Hope that I fulfilled them. Here are a couple of shots from the session.
CA

Tuli Fashion Shoot 7.19.05

Casual Clothier/Tadpoles is a women's and children's clothing store in downtown Brookings. They have decided to take on a new name TULI to go with their new look and the dropping of their maternity clothes.

I love this store and shop there all the time. Kristi and Vicki the owners are fabulous. So now that they have the new name... and a new logo by my friend Erin of Edj design edj@acellis.com, we decided to have a little fashion shoot. These images will be used for some new posters in the store and all the kids are of course wearing the wonderful fashions you can find there. These images represent the fashion/urban flare that I like to bring into my portrait work.

Jill & Preston 7.18.05

I'm looking forward to this wedding so much. Jill and Preston were a blast to work with. They drove down from Fargo for their engagement and these were taken on the way to and at Oakwood State Park. I love this place.

April & Tony 7.16.05

April and Tony were a fabulous couple that were a blast to work with! Talk about some serious fun... we had golf, dancing, hanging out at the gardens, raising trouble on the streets of downtown Brookings and lots of people having a fabulous time!

April made a stunning bride in her simply elegant dress. And Tony was of course handsome. Rose, Tony's mom was unable to make it, but she was there in so many ways and I was touched to see the tribute made to her. Instead of traditional wedding favors the couple decided to donate money to charity on her behalf. I thought this was a wonderful thing for them to do.

I am still working on their images, but here are a couple of my favorites from the day.

Other vendors they had that I really liked:
Rehersal Dinner: Old Fire Hall, Brookings, SD
Catering: SDSU Dining Service
DJ (who was amazing): Dakota Entertainement, Garner Hanson www.dakotaentertainment.com
Videography: Steve Raush of Focused Motion: 605-321-5009
Limo: Fantasy Limo, 605-874-2646

Workflow resumed

AC Ellis Photography is back up and running after some computer malfunctions the week before. If you have been waiting for your session to go on-line it will be up in the near future as workflow has resumed. Sorry for the inconvience and thank you for your patience.
Cory Ann

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. A new and exciting endeavor of AC Ellis Photography. This will be my place to share with you all the amazing things and people I get to work with on a regular basis. As well as news, specials, and vendors that I think you may be interested in.

I welcome you to invite your friends and family and to leave any comments. I would love to hear from you and know what you think.

I love my job and now I have one more way to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it as much I hope to.
Cory Ann