Little Rock Lifestyle Anniversary Portraits

There’s something special about seeing connection in a photograph. While love at times feels as real as gravity and as tangible as the dirt we walk on, it can also be extremely difficult to explain; a depth almost impossible to describe.

Not everyone wears their love like a colorful jacket, and that’s just fine, but I’ve realized that I find most joy in photography through peeling away the layers to help truly describe their cares, joys, sorrows, and anything that tells a piece of the story of a person’s intangible inner being. A picture can be beautiful and inspire awe, but I believe that these are the things that really add value to a photograph.

That’s maybe a strange introduction to Kayla and Corbin’s 5 year anniversary session, but it’ll do. These two are so full of joy and are such inspiring people which made doing their portraits that much more exciting. For this anniversary, Corbin and Kayla wanted the pictures to revolve around their morning routine of making coffee, hanging with the cat-oes, and listening to music. Oh yeah and you can’t forget to have an impromptu dance party either. :) 


Jamie

Continuing on in my friend portrait project, this is my friend Jamie! She’s been a great friend who can always add wise and thoughtful words to any conversation, is quite cultured and intelligent, and is a class act friend. :)


Bethany

One of my goals this year is to do more personal work. It’s easy for me to get in the zone of doing only wedding and client work, so experimentation and trying new things can take the back burner. I’m not sure how I’ll compile all this in the end, but I had the idea of getting portraits of a few of my friends. This is part one.

Bethany has been a wonderful friend to me for quite a good while now. She’s a fantastic artist, is super wise and encouraging, and I give her 5/5 friend points–would befriend again. :)


Thanksgiving Wonderland

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope it has been an incredible time for you, dear reader, and will continue to look up and up. :) You wouldn’t be able to get this vibe from my quiet blog and social media pages, but I’ve been reinvigorated to write more on here and share more of the work that I’ve been involved in. This won’t be too sappy or introspective, that’s for a later day, but I do intend to post on here more often and share my thoughts and process behind my photos.

Today I’m going to highlight arguably the most special time of the year for the Yoder family — Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it’s the one time of the year that most all of my extended family gets together to share, feast, and do a family tradition or two or three. :) One of the greatest gifts that I’ve been blessed with in life is having such a loving family and extended family, so it’s always a good time when we’re all together.

Here are a few glimpses of my week back in Pennsylvania.

In order:

  1. It snowed!
  2. Friend thanksgiving at my sisters house. Extra thanksgiving food is always welcome. :)
  3. Yoder Thanksgiving! Always full of wonderful memories.
  4. We visited Centralia, Pennsylvania! A mystic nearly abandoned town not far from where my parents live. It has quite the story to it and is most famous for its underground coal mine fire that wouldn’t go away. Quite a cool place!

I photographed my cousin Rebekah and Justin’s wedding several summers ago and wasn’t able to do engagement pictures due to the 1000 mile distance. So–I couldn’t help but get a couple. :) A few years later and more in love than ever!

And that was my week in Pennsylvania.


Kristy

This girl is the bomb. Kristy is always smiling, laughing about something or another, and wholly spreading holiday cheer for all to hear all year. :) We had a blast tromping around Riverside looking for good photo places and talking about Lion King, travel, and probably  a handful of other things. She’s super great! We did take some non-happy-smiley pictures, but these are my favorites. :) This is Kristy!

 


Chelsea & Corey

Chelsea and Corey just passed the big 365 days of marriage landmark! We decided to celebrate with cutting of their wedding cake. These two are a joy to work with! It was fun taking pictures and reminiscing around the ol’ Harding stomping grounds…the place where so many memories have been made and where Chelsea and Core were married!

Here’s to a countless more years of marriage. :)


Shawn & Mallory

It’s Shawn and Mallory! I’ve gotten to know these two really especially well this past year and they’re very near and dear to my heart. They’re more in love now than ever (they just passed the big 3 year anniversary mark!) and it shows. :) Enjoy their photos!

 


Snow Portraits

My favorite local town of Searcy took a little break from the beautiful spring weather to get cold for a week…and then it snowed. :) Extreme weather always makes me want to go outside and take pictures. This past week when it started snowing, I grabbed a few of my closest favorite people and went outside to do some snow pictures.

So far I’ve been fortunate enough to never have a wedding that I’m photographing get rained out…but part of me would be excited for some rainy wedding pictures. :) Photographing in the rain or snow can add difficulty to the photography but can aid in some pretty cool results.

snow portrait

snow photography

snow silhoette portrait

dogwood tree snow

searcy photography

So long, winter.

~ Jon