Senior Spotlight Feature ~ Mid Michigan Senior Photographer

This past weekend I was so excited to learn one of my photos was chosen as the Senior Spotlight image of the week at Seniorologie. 

We have been getting so much rain here lately it's been making it very difficult to get sessions in.  When Taylor's session date came around guess what it was doing...yup, raining!  So we decided to go ahead and get her indoor shots done and catch up another day for the outside shots. When we got done with the indoor stuff I thought why not?  A little rain never hurt anyone right...so we ventured outside and had a little fun.  Sometimes the "in the moment" plans are the best!

“The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.”  ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thank you Seniorologie for featuring this photo! So excited and honored to be chosen :)

Here is the featured shot of beautiful Miss Taylor. Show her a little love for being such a great sport!! :)

Featured Senior~ Rachel {Mid Michigan Senior Photographer}

When summer is coming to an end and you are just posting one of your first senior sessions of the summer on the blog, you know you are pathetic...lol. It's been a crazy busy summer and fall is not going to let up. At this rate in order to get a post of all my 2012 seniors, it may have to be one big senior post!!

Loved her laugh and smile :)

Rachel was one of my first seniors this summer, she is a local senior from Alma High School and was also one of the first ones to try out my new loft downtown :)

This was one of my favorite photos from her session, but what the artist loves is sometimes different than what the client loves... and that was so in this case. But I am sharing it anyway, because I love it :)

The "fun" side of her being playful with her dogs!!


till next time...

Their Words~My Art Thursdays...{Mid Michigan Child Photographer}

"To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your own path, and don't worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest”
~Unknown

Happy New Year~{Mid Michigan Newborn Photographer}

So here we are, the last post of 2010!! I can't believe we are already saying goodbye to another year, it sure went fast, but it was a year of blessings and I am thankful for them all!! So, as we enter a fresh new year I can't think of anything better to post about than a newborn baby :) Ella was one of my last sessions of 2010 and she couldn't be more perfect to share in this New Year's post. But before we get onto the little sneak peek I do want to say another thank you for blessing my life and my business in 2010. 2010 was a wonderful year for Hayley Hamlin Photography and I look forward to what 2011 brings. I have set many goals for the next 2 years of my business and I am excited to see what 2011 has in store for me. Many of you may not know this but 2011 is also a huge milestone for my business as it marks 5 years of being in business. Who would have known that a little over 7 years ago when I was expecting my first child and my husband came home with a little Sony point and shoot for me so I would have something to take pictures with I would end up here? I immediately fell in love with photography and a few years (and cameras~ha ha) later, well....the rest is history. I truly am blessed to do what I love!!
And as for new year's resolutions, well, I am not much about making them, but I do know one thing about the next year I will be much better at and that is blogging!! I promise :) I think I only blogged about a quarter of the sessions I did in 2010 but I will continue to feature those sessions through the winter months to try to catch up. Again, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for letting me capture your heart and soul moments!! I wish you all a very Happy New Year and I look forward to making new memories in 2011 and continuing in the memories of the many clients I've met since beginning this journey. God Bless!!

And now, the beautiful and sweet, Miss Ella :)

In this first photo Ella is wearing a beautiful Tutu and headband from Stone Soup Gifts & Home Accessories, located in Downtown Mt. Pleasant.

Love it when they smile, even better when you are lucky enough to catch it :)


This antique scale was a find at "Treasures" located in Downtown Alma :)

Till next time....

Featured Senior~Bethany~Mt.Pleasant High School {Mid Michigan Senior Photographer}

Mt. Pleasant High School was my largest school this year for seniors, and I have not shared any of their sessions yet, so we are going to get started with the Beautiful Bethany!! Bethany came to the Alma area to have me take her photos and we hung out around Alma and some neighboring towns :) I have some awesome clients who let me use their private property for shoots, and I am very thankful for them!! :) We ended Bethany's session at one of these locations so I wanted to say a special thank you to them for letting me use their property!!

I'll share some more MPHS seniors soon!!

Bethany's eyes are just amazing!! I loved all the texture of this background :)

I love this one of her, I still think it's my very favorite :)

I love these next 2 photos. Thank you Bethany for going with the flow with me on these!! I am so glad you loved them as much as I did !! :)

You are never too old to play in the "wishing flowers" !!

And these are always favorites of mine, when you catch them in "real" moments. I am sure she was laughing at me. Probably one of those "you want me to do what?" moments...lol :)

And 1 more from the last location we went to :)

Thanks for letting me be apart of your senior year Bethany!! You are gorgeous and I have enjoyed getting to know you!!

till next time...

The "B" Family {Mid Michigan Family Photographer}

This past August, the "B" family came from Bay City, Michigan to have me photograph their family here in Alma. I showed you a few pictures of their little guy by himself right after their session, but have not shared any of their family photos yet. I absolutely loved their session, so many beautiful memories were made. There little guy was such a dream to photograph and their family photos are full of love and laughter. I walked away from that session feeling inspired and refreshed. Thank you for letting me be apart of your families memories :)
They ended up ordering a lot of large wall portraits for their home in black and white, so I am going to post a series of black and whites for this post. Even though, I promise, I did do color images too...lol :)




These image melt my heart!! What I would give to have images of my family like this!!

The look of wonder and excitement on his face, I just adore in this one. I just love photographing children, they are so honest and refreshing!!

Can you hear the laughter...love this!!

I adore these, there were a few like this, but this was the one they selected for a large print.

And here is the whole series of little man "D" bring his mom a flower, I adored this moment so much had to put it in a storyboard. :)

Next time, I'll share some of the little guy by himself, I love those images too!! Such a beautiful session!!

Till next time...

Featured Senior~Jordan~Alma High School {Mid Michigan Senior Photographer}

I met up with Jordan for her senior session back in July. Jordan dances for The Academy of Performing Arts located in Downtown Alma so I was very excited to do her session. I shoot the recitals for APA but I have wanted to do some photos of a dancer at the loft location I use, and Jordan's senior session was the perfect time to do so!! I put together a DVD feature of the dance portion of her senior session. Jordan is such a beautiful dancer and I loved capturing the art of dance through my camera lens. Can't wait to photograph her Senior Solo at next year's recital :)

Remember to turn off MAIN BLOG MUSIC (located at bottom of blog) before viewing video.



Till next time...

Featured Senior~Katie~St.Louis High School {Mid Michigan Senior Photographer}

First off I want to thank everyone who played in our Senior Comment Game!! It was a huge success and lots of fun!! The winners were announced yesterday and I thought this was an appropriate time to feature Katie since she was our big winner :) You can check the fan page for all the awesome seniors who walked away with some cool prizes!!

Katie's session was my last session before having my surgery. I was pretty sick at this time, but thank goodness for adrenaline rushes, because I knew as soon as that camera hit my hands, I'd be good to go and I was!! Even though it was back in September it happened to be the coldest senior session I have had this year, but Katie was a trooper!!. Katie is gorgeous, I could have photographed her all day :)

Thank you for letting me be apart of your senior year Katie, I am so glad I got to meet you. I love meeting all these awesome seniors because although many times we meet for the first time as strangers, I walk away calling all of them friends.

I adore this first one. These true honest moments are the best!!

Congrats again Katie on winning the Senior Comment Game!!

Senior Comment Game {Mid Michigan Senior Photographer}

This past year I have had the pleasure of meeting some really amazing seniors from the Class of 2011. So to show my thanks for such an awesome senior season, I proposed a fun comment game for them on facebook. I had 17 of my seniors take me up on the game, which is awesome. These are Seniors from all over the Mid Michigan area. The rules of the game are pretty simple, they just need to direct people to my fan page and get all the comments on their picture they can get in a 1 week time period. If they are the winner they have their choice between 2 awesome prizes valued at over $600.00. But just for everyone playing and being a good sport, they all are entered to win a set of open house announcements.
I do want to add....this is NOT a popularity contest or who has the best picture wins type of thing. Believe me these seniors ALL have amazing pictures and to just pick 1 photo to post in an album for this contest was torture for me. I agonized over it. I have tons of favorites from each of their sessions :) So please let's keep this fun for everyone.
So...if you want to stop on by and leave a comment in our FUN game. Here is the link to my fan page. Just leave a comment for any one of these amazing seniors. Our comment game starts on Monday November 1st and ends Monday November 8th. I am sure they would all love to hear some nice things about their photo :) (1 comment per person though)

Here is a link to my fan page!
Thanks again to the Seniors who are playing !! You guys are Awesome!!

Hayley Hamlin Photography

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Hayley Hamlin Photography/Seniors ~ Original Senior Portraits that capture the true essence of YOU!!

Melissa & Alan ~ Engagement Sneak Peek {Mid Michigan Wedding Photographer}

I recently met up with Melissa and Alan for their engagement session. They wanted to get in a little fall color for their session and thankfully the color held on and we were able to find lots of leaves to play in :) We started out in Downtown Alma and then hit a few other locations. We had lots of fun just hanging out, they are such a sweet couple and I look forward to photographing their Fall 2011 wedding. They will be getting married in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, which also excites me because Mt. Pleasant is another area I love shooting in :)

These first 2 I absolutely LOVE!! They are definitely my faves ;)

This one is so cute :)

I can't tell you how happy it made me to get to this alleyway after the recent events in our downtown. I am SO thankful this building is still standing!!

Hope you enjoyed your sneak peek :) Thank you for letting me apart of this very special time in your lives!!

Till next time...