Ahnna and Dodrick are the daughter and son-in-law of my good friend Carrie.  I used to work with Carrie when I came back from England to work at Mayo Clinic 10 years ago.  We worked in an office full of women and it came with both its pros and cons.  One of the pros was the amount of laughing we did on a daily basis thanks to Carrie's awesome sense of humor.  For as much as we complained about working there back then, I do miss seeing my friend everyday.

When I asked for models to launch Momarazzi Photography's photo sessions, Carrie was quick to tell me that I needed to ask Ahnna and Dodrick.  I didn't hesitate and I am so lucky that they agreed to work with me because these are some of my favorite images.  We trekked out to Quarry Hill Nature Center in Rochester on a Saturday morning after a fresh couple of inches of snow had fallen the night before.  Cross country snow skiers and families visiting the nature center joined us in the wintery wonderland.  It was a beautiful day to photograph such gorgeous models.

I photographed the Becker family in some of my favorite locations in Rochester, Minnesota last weekend. It was right before the "polar vortex" made those historically low temperatures spread across the country. It was still quite chilly though (probably right around 20 degrees), but thankfully the sun was out and could keep us a bit warmer. William is just 7 months old and Callan is going to be 3 soon. I didn't want those little guys to freeze, so we did some of their family shots inside one of the skyways over downtown Rochester.  The light in the skyway was great for photography, I'm going to have to keep that in mind for the future.  They also braved the cold outside on Historic Third Street and on the steps of Old City Hall. Jen was a student in my "Momarazzi Photography" course through Rochester Community Education this past fall. I loved having her in my class and it was so great to meet the rest of her family for these photos!

Shameless plug:
I am offering the Momarazzi Photography course again this April and registration is open!


Now, onto the photos:

Family members came from far and near to celebrate Christmas at the Peters' Family home where I had the pleasure of taking their photos. Luckily I had some adorable "assistants" to help me for this session. Mother Nature was kind that day and the temperatures were nice enough to get a few shots outside as well. Unfortunately that warm up did not last and we are back to negative temperatures again. The Minnesota winter has been unfairly harsh to us this year.

 My favorites: