01.19 | Daughters of The King | Fashion Shoot for Once Vintage

Last month, I worked with a stellar team of women on a fashion shoot to create a gorgeous imagery for Once Vintage clothing. Once Vintage is owned by a very dear friend of mine, Molly Hoeltke. She currently hand-makes all of her one-of-a-kind pieces, keeping her designs original and her clothing sustainable. So, yes, she's pretty much amazing. We've worked together many times before (check out her Spring/Summer Lookbook here) & are already planning our next collaboration. A huge thank you to everyone involved (especially our beautiful models who were rocking it out, even in a 30 degree warehouse!)

• Clothing Created & Styled by Once Vintage
• Photography by City Lights Studio Photography
• Videography by Shannon Madden
• Featured Models Kimberly Cohen & Madeleine Alexandra Browning
• Accessories by Yours to Reign and Felise Marie
• Makeup by The Makeup Parlour - Stephanie Signorelli
• Hair by Elizabeth Dugan Freelance Hairstylist and Makeup Artist

Also, check out the video version of the lookbook, by Shannon Madden :

Once Vintage Presents: "Daughters of the King" A Video Lookbook from Once Vintage on Vimeo.

06.23 | Mini-Getaway : Baltimore, Instagrammed!

During the craziness of wedding season, we wedding photographers really savor, celebrate & basically just go nuts for rare Saturdays off. Every time I have a free weekend, I have to plan something (you can't spend a precious Saturday sitting around the house!)

I'm just getting back from a great little getaway with my husband this past weekend. We took our car & drove down to Baltimore where we spent the weekend just being tourists. We checked out the Walters Art Museum, Edgar Allen Poe House, The Lexington Market (home of the best crab cake I've ever had), bummed around Fell's Point, ate some famous Bertha's mussels, toured the Civil War Museum, drank margaritas out of a hubcap at an Elvis themed Mexican restaurant, played around the Inner Harbor & spent a day at the Aquarium (where, as you'll see, I was full-on captivated by the jellyfish!)

Anyways, it was an awesome mini-roadtrip & per my husband's request, I didn't bring my big ol' fancy pants camera or lighting gear (he knows I get into 'work' mode with that stuff around). Instead, I just spent the days wandering the streets with only a small purse and my iPhone. While the quality will never compare, it was wonderfully liberating not to have to worry about a $10000 bag on my back; not to mention the physical joy of not having to carry that bag on my back in 100 degree heat!

More and more, for my personal collections, I've been using my iPhone & Instagram to capture little bits of my daily life. A lot of people are surprised that a professional photographer would embrace such a chintzy method of capturing and sharing images, but I simply love the ease of always having a camera on me & being able to instantly share. When your fun, favorite hobby becomes your daily job, it's important to keep a small part of it as just a hobby; my daily Instagram diary is a way to just have fun collecting bits of the world around me.

So anyways, I wanted to share some photos of our trip & invite all of you to follow me on Instagram. If you have the app, you can follow me at city_lights_studio OR if you don't have an iPhone, you can view on the web at this site : http://instagrid.me/city_lights_studio. There's more added almost everyday, so please check back :)

07.31 | Eichelkraut Dairy Farm

For those of you who don't know, I am lucky enough to have a 91 year old diary farm in our family :) Every year, I go to Wisconsin to visit my grandparents & Dad near Madison and always make a stop to the farm, which is currently run by my Dad's cousin and his lovely family. It's one of my favorite places to photograph, and I explored the farm this year with my tilt-shift lens and 5D Mark ii (even took a video of my little brother's first attempt to milk a cow, which is posted on City Lights' Facebook page!)