staley wessel

2013 Seniors Earn Free Pictures!!!

Staley — Wed, 30 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Just a reminder.
More details HERE!

Clouded Yellow Butterfly at Lake Jacomo

Staley — Mon, 28 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT

This little beauty was at Lake Jacomo Marina also.
This is resized for the web but I think you can see the detail in it's face and legs.
I like the way it's little black eyes reflect the yellow of it's body.

Staley Wessel Photography
Blue Springs, Mo Photgrapher

Great Blue Heron Lake Jacomo Marina

Staley — Sat, 26 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT

This Great Blue Heron (I think) was not too keen on getting it's photo taken and kept creeping away from me so this is about as close as I could get.
They are so lovely.

I see them all the time out here but it is usually when I don't have a camera handy.

Staley Wessel Photography
Blue Springs, Mo Photgrapher

Gold Carp at Lake Jacomo Marina

Staley — Thu, 24 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT

I am sure any of you who visit the marina even once a summer will recognize this guy. Or girl - I don't know. This one and a white one have been out there for years and even though you see them they typically stay a bit farther away than the black carp. This year I have not seen the white one yet but the gold one is there almost every time we visit and is getting a bit braver when it comes to begging for food. Pardon the glare on the water. I did not have a polarizing filter with me.

Staley Wessel Photography
Blue Springs, Mo Photgrapher

Bird and Snake at Lake Jacomo Marina

Staley — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:24:16 GMT

You may already know that when I get some time to myself I like to take photos out in nature. It is not really my strong suit but it makes me happy.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to go to the marina and take some pictures of the mallard ducks.
I did get a few of the ducks but also happened to catch something else that I thought was fun.
Please forgive the lower quality of these. I was not anticipating seeing this and my settings weren't right for the action and distance - but I think it is cool anyhow.

This Common Grackle caught a Northern Water Snake and was trying desperately to keep a hold on it. That snake was a wriggilin' all over the place and did eventually get free.

Attention 2013 Seniors!!!

Staley — Mon, 21 May 2012 23:15:43 GMT

It may seem a little early to be thinking about your senior portraits but, believe me, it most definitely is not!
This is a great time of year to get those senior portraits done. They days are longer and the light is great late in the day. More importantly though, if you schedule your senior session NOW - to be taken before the end of September 2012, you have the opportunity to earn free prints and products.

Here is how it works:

Phase 1
1.Schedule your session before the end of June 2012 and pay your session fee (non refundable but it is applicable to a rescheduled session)

2. Refer your friends.

3. Wait for them to schedule and pay for their session.

For each friend who schedules and pays for his/her session and claims you as their referrer you receive $20 credit toward your prints and products.
Only one referral per person so you will want to get to your friends first of course.
You must have already paid for your session for this to work. If your friend schedules and pays before you do, they would be the one getting the referral credit.

Phase 2
1. After your session sneak peek is posted on the blog - encourage your friends to look and leave their positive comments within one week.

2. Tally 20 unique positive comments on your blog post and receive $20 credit toward prints and products. You can earn a maximum of $40 credit on phase 2.
(comments must be from individual posters - multiple posts from the same "poster" will count as one for the purposes of this promotion.)

RECAP:

Save money by contacting me and scheduling your session before the end of June 2012.

Sessions must take place before the end of September 2012.

Refer your friends and earn credit when they schedule their sessions.

Earn even more credit when by getting positive comments on your sneak peek after your own session.

Your friends can also get in on the promotion when using you as a referral as long as they also schedule their own session within the time frame stated above.

Keep in mind when scheduling:

*Emailing me is best because it gives me a chance to check my schedule before responding.

*I work on location as you will see from all of my images.

*The best time of day for your session will be about an hour and a half before sunset. Sunrise works too BUT most people tend to look puffy for a while after they get up. Sunrise is early - in June it will be around 6am for example. Sunset however is around 8:30pm in June which makes 7pm a good time to schedule a session. Which would you prefer? My vote is always going to be sunset.

*Sunrise and sunset change all the time so September won't be the same as June. Check the internet or ask me if you are trying to work around sports or work schedule.

*When contacting me it is good to have a few dates in mind that would work for you so I can pick one. With busy teen schedules this seems to work best when scheduling senior sessions.

OK now...go look at your schedule and email me

Sunset Silhouette.....Tips if you are interested.

Staley — Fri, 18 May 2012 20:12:16 GMT

A friend and I went on a short photo walk that included her three boys and two of mine. This takes some of the relaxation out of the activity but does lead to photo opportunities that would not otherwise have occurred.
We went to a lake nearby and she showed me a couple of areas that I did not know were there.
One was this nice little peninsula where we could watch the sun set over the lake and trees.
She accidentally got a silhouette image and it occurred to me that I am never in the right place at the right time to do one - so of course I joined in.

Typically when taking a sunset silhouette image you want to be in an open field or on a hilltop. This is so that the trees, or buildings, or whatever happen to be on the horizon do not chop your subject in half. In this case we were still too low for a typical sunset silhouette BUT we had a lovely reflection in the lake. This allowed us to get the silhouette even though we were below the horizon line. It did make for some problems with getting images of jumping children though. Unfortunately I deleted all the ones where someone had no head - because it blended in with the trees across the lake. However, I think that you can get the idea of what it looked like. Just legs. Not quite what we wanted. In this instance the kiddo had to be down the bank close to the water for this to work. This is because if he was up the bank he is closer to that horizon line AND because of perspective. If he is closer to the camera he is bigger in the frame of the image. That said if he was closer to us he would blend with the horizon and have no head even if he didn't jump. I wish I had not deleted the images so you could see what I mean but it would be like if you made the boy above larger. All you would see is a torso. No head and no legs.
Meter for the sky - if you know how. If you don't know how or are using a point and shoot just don't use flash. You should get a similar effect - although not as colorful.

I just have to share this one because he looks a little psycho
Don't cha just love those forced smiles they give sometimes.

makeshift macro spider

Staley — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:41:47 GMT

Finished with other folks photos for the moment so I took a few minutes to rummage through some I have taken just for my own enjoyment.
I have been having a lot of fun with macro and makeshift macro
(putting the lens backward).
Every summer we get these little spiders and this one was in my kitchen sink - which made him a wonderfully captive model.
However I did find it difficult to get the parts of him I wanted in focus to be in focus since I was sticking my head and camera in the sink with him.
Lucky for me he was very patient.

In case you are wondering - no I did not smash him after his photo session.
I did move him out of the sink into the nearby plants.

Staley Wessel Photography
Blue Springs Mo

Senior Session Sneak Peek

Staley — Sun, 06 May 2012 18:50:10 GMT

Today is family day but I wanted to share one quick sneak peek from yesterday's senior session.
Just beautiful!

Staley Wessel Photography
Blue Springs Mo

Newborn Girl Sneak Peek...

Staley — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:15:03 GMT

Oh how I love what I do!
Here is a sneak peek of from a newborn session this morning.

Update...had to add one more...what a doll.

Staley Wessel Photography
Blue Springs, Mo

A little wild arachnid kingdom...

Staley — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:36:09 GMT

I was having a little fun today trying to take macro shots with my 50mm reversed on my camera. I did this because I don't have a dedicated macro lens and my zooms can get some macro-ish images but nothing quite as close as a real macro. This is not easy because the depth of field is soooooo very narrow. The following images are of nature in action but if you have the stomach to look at it closely you will see that only parts of the spider and insects are in focus. That is because the depth of field "the area that can be in focus" is so very narrow that it is not possible to get the full depth of the critter's body in focus. I don't know what kind of spider or insects these are but I found it interesting that there are little flying things joining in on the activity. Some of the softness is spider web which is also not in the field that is in focus.

Look at how the spider looks like it is wearing black lace on it's backside. So pretty.

And here is something a little less icky for those of you who only like the pretty side of nature.
First is a clover - weed from my own back yard.

Next is the top of the onion in my garden that looks like it's about to bloom.

Awesome launch party with freebies!!!

Staley — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:50:08 GMT

A good friend of mine has a really fun homeschooling blog at
Teaching Boys.Net

This Friday she is having a launch party with freebies and giveaways!
Woo! Hoo!

LAUNCH PARTY!!!!! CLICK HERE!!!!!

While you are there take a look around the blog. Even if you don't homeschool you are likely to find some fun activities and words of wisdom. Not everything is homeschool related. Some is simply uplifting and thought provoking.
Look for the post about cheese <3

Spring Senior Session at Burr Oak Wood

Staley — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 20:57:05 GMT

This beautiful young lady had her first session with me a few months ago but it was getting late and we lost light fast. Although the images were pretty they didn't have that sparkle that gives the image life. We decided to wait till spring and re-shoot and I am glad that we did!

Ahhhhhh spring. Tall grasses softening the foreground and pretty "pops" of color in the background trees.

Well, that's our sneak peek for today.
Now that it's warming up and I am feeling a bit more perky hopefully I will do better at updating the blog and sharing the fun with everyone.

Video of one of 2011 senior sessions...

Staley — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:08:13 GMT

It seems the best way for me to embed these videos that I have been struggling with is to upload to facebook or youtube and then embed using the code from there.
Please keep in mind that this is not meant to be played full screen and will not look good if you try.
This is from a fun senior session up in Parkville Mo.

Things aren't always what they seem...

Staley — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:50:06 GMT

The is a video of Mike Rowe from the show "Dirty Jobs".
It is good and thought provoking BUT the story at the beginning may make you cringe a bit.
Don't skip it though, it's an important part of the story.

arg....

Staley — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:14:45 GMT

I have all these fun videos from portrait sessions on my computer that I want to post to the blog but I can't figure out how to except for using a link. That is visually uninteresting. I thought I had it figured out but no luck

I know I can just upload them to youtube or facebook but it's just not the same.

Wish me luck figuring this stuff out.

My eldest son...

Staley — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:38:43 GMT

I was taking pictures at a family Christmas party and did one of those - off the hip tilt the camera and shoot without looking - type things. The focus was shallow and I was lucky to have gotten anything at all.

And.....

I LOVE IT!

This is so him. Unshaven, drinking coffee, and wearing that hat that may, in fact, be permanently attached to his beautiful fluffy head.

I just love him all to pieces :o)

jeans refashion to skinny jeans...

Staley — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 04:41:31 GMT

My most recent contribution to refashion coop.
He!e's the post.
Just narrowed some 25 cent jeans from the knee down so they fit in my boots better. I love these boots that my hubby bought for me last winter but I don't so much the bunching of tucked in pants.

Parkville Mo senior picture fun

Staley — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 03:58:32 GMT

I've said it before and I am sure I will say it a million more times but ...

"I LOVE MY JOB".

Today I had a fun senior session in Parkville, Mo. The whole family was really great and the dog....Oh My Goodness! How Adorable!

Here are a couple from the end of the session.

I'll share more as soon as I can ;o)

Refashion fun...

Staley — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 04:12:01 GMT

I am now a contributor on Refashion Coop.
Those who know me well know that I love to shop the thrift stores. A little less known is that when I can find time I like to dig out the old sewing machine. That doesn't happen often but when it does the combination is great fun. I have only made one contribution to the Coop blog and if you are interested you can find it here. It is actually a shirt that I altered this summer. I don't think I will have time to do any more until senior portrait season is over.
You can find Refashion Coop here:
Refashion Coop