Rialee Photography Studio Tour

Rialee Photography Home Tour

While I was taking photos of my home for this article, I decided to snap some of my favorite things around my house as well…

                   cue Julie Andrews “These are a few of my favorite things”

First… a photo of our living room. Probably my ‘favorite-est’ thing in my house because it is the only room that always stays clean!

1. My collection of vintage green glass bottles… collected from everywhere.

2. A bulletin/inspiration board hanging in our family room… given to me by my BFF!

3.  An old stained-glass style window. A find from The Moorhead Antique Mall.

4. My dining room light fixture from Restoration Hardware.

5. Paperwhites growing in my dining room… haven’t killed ‘em yet!

6. The vintage wall phone hanging in our kitchen from Sturbridge Yankee.

7. A ‘faux’ cake that sits on our kitchen table… can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked if it’s real. My reply? Of course!

1. Family sign… a find from Patina White.

2. Sweet little Mary Charity sits on my kitchen window sill reminding me to pray for her daily. She is our sponsor child from Children’s HopeChest.

3.  The retro 1934 cafe chairs in my dining room from Sundance.

4.  The lamp in our bathroom… a find from an antique store down by the cities.

5.  A flower frog holding a vintage flashcard.

6. The light fixture over my kitchen sink from Rejuvenation.

7. A custom painted wood sign hanging in our foyer… trying to make it our life’s motto.

1. Our “Daily System” from Pottery Barn.

2. The sign hanging in our back hallway from Retro Planet.

3. Vintage letters found at Patina White… yes a little crazy I know but even our garage has a little style!

4. The wire storage system in my laundry room. I got mine from Patina White, but they are also available at Sundance.

5. Vintage egg baskets store pucks, baseballs and golf balls in our garage.

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Don’t forget that registration for the spring PhotographerMAMA workshops begins today at 10am! Click the link for dates, times and details!

~Ria

Head on over to The Savvy Photographer for another interview with me!

And make sure to visit tomorrow and Saturday too… especially if you want a little peek at my house.

To Miss Marsha from the Savvy Photographer blog… love your style, love your blog… thanks so much for including me!

My daughter Kennedy and her friend Kenzie modeled for us at the workshop. People who bring their kids in to model always ask me what they should wear, and I always respond by saying it doesn’t really matter… they are just there for learning purposes and don’t have to be dressed like they are going to be in a magazine. Well, it turns out when it is YOUR kid, it kinda does matter. And I WAS worrying about what she was going to wear. All of these items were things we already had… a skirt from the GAP that I got last summer on clearance for $6, a shirt from big sister’s closet, t-shirt from Target (also last summer) and flats from Walmart. Tah-Dah!

I love that girl…

I also need to send out a quick birthday wish to my grandma… she is 80 today! Yes.. that is baby me she is holding!

I heard that this little darlin’s parents had some difficulty when it came time to decide which images to order. I felt the same way when I was trying to decide what photos to blog. So… I went with the idea that “more is more” for this post. [Typically I'm a very "less is more" type person.] Too cute!

I am so lovin’ the little tummy and green shoes in the photo on the right below… I can hardly stand it!

And this photo displayed on our front desk… it stopped you in your tracks. So powerful.

Look at all these beautiful children!

My dear friend Brandi helping me look through the hundreds of profiles of children available for sponsorship at Bukedea. It was SO good to catch up with her! She lives in Florida and had to buy a sweater especially for her trip to freezing Fargo. And… she is now writing a book! Can’t wait to read it… she is an amazing woman.

Brandi and me with my new bloggy/photog friend Laura!

While looking through all the profiles, someone handed me this one, and as soon as I looked at it, I KNEW I had seen that sweet little face somewhere before.

I immediately ran to my computer and looked up my photos from Africa, and sure enough. There she was.

I’d like to introduce you to the beautiful little girl that our family is going to sponsor, Mary Charity. I loved her when I spotted her at Bukedea, and I love her now. Isn’t she precious?

I can’t even explain how much it means to me to have been able to meet our sponsor child. I can’t wait to start a relationship with her.. to write her letters and send her gifts, and  provide a better life for her in Uganda with our sponsorship dollars.

I will be posting photos of other children that are available for sponsorship in the coming weeks. If you are interested in sponsoring “one of the least” of His precious children, please let me know.

What good sports they were when we wanted to take them outside … it was one of those freezing windy 50 degree days we had in July!

You can read more about Issue 8 or purchase it by clicking here.

Okay… so for my “photog” readers who regulary read the fabulous blog over at Design Aglow… you may have noticed something familiar in their post today.  Their newest issue [Issue 8: The Essential Issue] should be available for purchase very soon, and yep… you guessed it… the studio of YOURS TRULY is being featured. I can hardly even wrap my head around this honor. Even though I did the interview with them several months ago, I haven’t mentioned it on here before; mostly because I thought that it must have just been a dream that they wanted to feature ME…. that I wouldn’t be able to believe that it was really true until I saw it in the publication for myself!

For those of you who don’t have the slightest clue what I’m talking about, Design Aglow is an online resource for photographers that provides inspiration on all things having to do with photography and design. They publish a quarterly online magazine jam-packed with information and inspiration. Some of the names they have featured in previous articles include Tara Whitney, Audrey Woulard, Sarah Petty, Carrie Sandoval, Barb Uil [Jinky],Brianna Graham, Laura Novak, Jesh De Rox, Nicole Van, Jeff and Julia Woods and more. This issue will also feature devine photographer Jasmine Star. These are the “major-leaguers” of the photography world people! So… to be counted among them is just … well…  there are not words to describe what this means to me. I will post more photos of the article [a 17-pager!!!] when it becomes available! To see their entire article collection, click here.

To celebrate I am going to give away a free children’s session to one of my lucky blog readers! Just leave a comment on this post and I will randomly choose the winner around 11am Monday morning! In honor of the big day, I am posting ONE YEAR photos of little “S” [yes...ANOTHER little girl whose name starts with "S"!]… she was just so yummy. Her auntie gave her this fabulous Anthropology dress for her birthday… I absolutely LOVED it!

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And, I need to say a big thank you to everyone who has donated to our Feed the Forgotten project. As of yesterday, we had raised over $8000, which translates into 57,000 meals for starving orphans in Uganda. Thank you so much! For more info on creative ways to GIVE… click HERE.

Don’t forget to send me your favorite images… here are some of mine!

He gets on my case for drinking too much Diet Coke. I took this photo before noon and there are already three lined up. I would like you to note Ryan, that they are almost all half-full. [He can't understand why someone would open a pop if they weren't going to finish the whole can.] How can I explain to him the feeling of euphoria that comes with the sound of the can being cracked? Somehow, half-way through… it has lost it’s luster and I must open a new one. Raise your hand if you think I have a problem. Nevermind… it doesn’t really matter. My diet coke is here to stay… bring on the toxins.

Also… have you picked up any of the local magazines lately? I have had so many people tell me they love seeing my photos in the magazines and can always tell which ones are mine. That is so fun to hear! Congrats to Nora, Cole, Elizabeth, Aubrey, Lola, Reece, and Liza who all had their photos featured in the April/May issues of Area Woman and Village Family Magazine.

And finally… a quick sneek peek for the mama of this one-year-old “C” who was in for her photo shoot this morning~~~Just some visual proof that YES your daughter rocked her session even if she got a little tired toward the end. There will be lots more adorable images for you to choose from in your gallery! Love her expression in this one…

Coming up this week…. photos from  my “baby week” last week… two newborns and 3 six-month-olds!

yep.. that’s me.. handy-girl of the year.

I am officially the worst painter… EVER.

The ”Mom” basket… Megan Benavidez.

The adorable Zutano hat and socks from Pout, and sippy and stacking toys… Deb Griffey.

The “Toddler” basket… Holly Flach

The kids “ART” basket… Joy Thomas.

The 11×14 Canvas… Nancy Callendar.

The iPod… Cora Turner.

The Pout gift card… Melanie Unser.

And the Grand Prize of the free “Evy” collection went to Joan Kirk.

Congratulations to all the winners. You can come up to the loft and pick up your prizes!

She fell in love with this little green-haired dolly and insisted in having it in just about EVERY photo!

Pure joy I tell you…

Donations in memory of this sweet little girl’s baby brother can be sent to:

Children’s Foundation

2910 Centre Pointe Dr.

Roseville MN 55113

Attn: Heart Fund in memory of Evan Thomas Tamlyn

I’ll be out of the studio the rest of the afternoon to spend it with my littlest birthday girl…she is 8 today!

Not only do I photograph children, but did you know I also do insects? “E” brought this little treasure along to the park because she really really wanted to show it to me. How could I not capture that? There is just something I LOVE about this image…

She IS the most amazing child to photograph (this is the same child that I got to stand with her hands in her pockets when she was 13 months old)…she listens and does exactly what I ask and looks directly into the lens and she only just turned TWO! Someone must have trained her at an early age!

Love you “E”!

And her big brother is as studly as ever…

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This post is for the triple “A” girls…they came in for a fun morning at the loft and downtown Fargo. Here are some of my favorites from your session…I hope you had fun!

well not really… (can you imagine being asked to do that shoot?)

But these fabulous parents do have brand new boy girl twins! Because of some time in the NICU they were almost a month old on the day of our shoot, but since they were just 3 and 4 pounds when they were born they were still teeny tiny…and so sweet and delicious.

Oh I remember those days of double feedings…

Little “E” already smiling…or is she dreaming?

And my favorite….

Get a load of this beautiful little guy’s eyelashes… the LONGEST I’ve EVER seen!

Can I take your five-day-old baby outside today for a few shots?

Trust me.

How about if we lay him in the grass?

Trust me.

And is it okay if we lay him on the concrete?

Just trust me.

You guys were so great… and we got these incredible images because of it!

Now before you start going all …”she is so creative…blah blah blah” I stole this idea DIRECTLY from one of my favorite children and family photogs, the uber-talented Tara Whitney.

Thanks for such a fun session… can’t wait to work with baby “C” again.

Two-year-old “L” really got attached to this wooden duck during the shoot, so it shows up in MOST of his pictures. Here he is feeding ducky a fruit snack!

And little “G”…I really hope I get to work with her again in the future! At just three-months-old, she is already skilled at giving me the “LOOK” that I am always after.

And of course, as much as I love sleeping newborn shots, I am just as excited when I get newborn “eye contact”!

I told you I have had a lot of one-year-olds lately… and they were all girls! This adorable little girl had the cutest little earrings and had so much fun with her photo shoot, until we took her outside and made her sit in the grass…then she was not so happy with us!

Also…I am going to be working on a few commercial projects in the next couple of months that are very exciting… especially for the mommies of Fargo Moorhead. I will announce them on the blog as soon as I get the go ahead! I may be looking for models of specific ages, looks, etc. for some of these shoots in the near future so stay tuned.

He was happiest in his mama’s arms….

But we did manage to coax him into sleeping for just a few minutes for us…we wanted to get some shots of him in this adorable hat. It has such a neat story behind it….. His mom was in Peru when she found out she was pregnant with him and so she bought this baby hat there. How cool is that?

You can also click on this link or copy it to your browser.

www.rialeephotography.com/projectchildhood.exe

After you click “run”, it will take a couple of minutes to load but it is worth it…I promise!

If you click “save”, it will save to a folder on your computer and you will be able to watch it multiple times with out having to wait for it to load each time!

I don’t think “D” and “A” knew they would have this much fun at their photo shoot!

But we laughed and giggled almost the entire time…especially when we were trying to get them to walk down the middle of the street for this shot. They kept walking over to the side of the street so we had to explain to them that this was the ONE and ONLY time they could walk in the middle of the street!

Lots more to come so keep checking back!

This one will be going somewhere in the new studio…love it!

He walked in and was shy…for about three and a half seconds! Then he proudly announced…”hey Ria, I’m not shy anymore!”

I always try to keep talking to the kids I’m photographing to keep their mind off of trying to “pose” for me. Right before I snapped this photo, “K” said…”Can we PLEASE stop talking and just take the pictures?”

…and this shot was at HIS request…showing off his guns. I also need to thank “K” and his mom for putting up with my chaotic unorganized life the day of their shoot~~ You guys are the best!

And little boy “K” was the sweetest brother…he seemed like he was already being protective of his sister.

He was quite a bit bigger than her–you can really tell in this photo.

He didn’t enjoy his individual shots nearly as much as his sister!

Finally…at the end of their session we got them both to fall alseep at the SAME time for this shot ~ the sweetest ever!

But…it does “perfectly” capture the relationship of these beautiful siblings. I love the way the baby brother is peeking out at me with this perfectly content and happy look on his face, knowing he is surrounded by pure and unconditional love.

Here are those beautiful kids!

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The BIG brother.

The LITTLE brother.

This is another favorite image from this session because I think it captures so well the amount of energy these two boys have!

And here is the little SISTER …who was so shy at first, but really lit up when she saw my pink fluffy petticoat!

Finally…the BABY brother, who I have to say was the most content, easy-going baby I’ve ever met! Such a sweetie!

And little boy “B” had quite the personality! With three older sisters at home and a twin sister, he is going to have to be able to hold his own and let me tell you…he is already practicing. He let us know when he didn’t want to do something…like wear that darn hat!

Since baby girl “B” was a TEENSY bit more cooperative, we got to do a few more of those sweet sleepy newborn shots with her.

A sweet one with mom.

Little “L” was a total girl, and fell in LOVE with my pink rain boots!  Her favorite part of the session was when she got to wear the boots outside for a few shots…she cried and cried when it was time to take them off. So CUTE!

…sigh…isn’t he just delicious??? I love all his hair!

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I will be out of town from this afternoon until Sunday. I will be returning calls and e-mails on Monday!

Well he is now a proud big brother who adores his baby sister…can you tell?

And here….is sweet baby “L”.

And I couldn’t resist posting this one…

He sported a killer mohawk!

  And here are a few of his big sister “H”. She walked in the door and said “Hi Ria!” She was so much fun, by the end of the session I was asking her parents if I could keep her. (I think that was after she told me how pretty I looked!)

And the two of them together….

Being a super model is tough work…sometimes a little juice-break is needed!

Watch out American Idol…I think she looks like such a rock star in this one!

I love the honesty in this photo…it is my favorite from our session. You can just tell that this is one of those laughs that comes straight from the belly.

And for a little pick-me-up this Friday after a COLD week, doesn’t that face just melt your heart?

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This is what she looked like…

She was a little firecracker with enough personality to fill an entire room! She didn’t sit still long enough to catch many of those “looks” I love so much, but we managed to get some great shots anyway.

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I took the day off today to hang out with my kids, so if you have e-mailed or called, I will be getting back to you tomorrow!

I have to start out with a photo from her session that cracks me up…you see…little “K” didn’t exactly like it when we took her clothes off and tried to put her in all these squished up positions. For the first half-an-hour or so she cried. And not just cried but screamed! So..this photo kinda says it all. I don’t want to offend anyone, but I do believe she is giving us her little baby finger in this one.

Okay…now that we got that out of the way…

Since she was sleeping so soundly at this point, we thought we’d give the nakie baby shots another try…and viola!

And one with mom and dad…I love how she is so intently looking at them.