Can't wait to be born...

Well, today I called to reconfirm a pregnancy portrait session that was to take place tomorrow only to learn that Baby "K" is already here!!! Yep, 5 weeks early!!! Apparently, he just couldn't wait and came into the world on August 19th! At over 5 lbs. and 18 inches tall, he was a mighty preemie! Even so, he had to spend a few days in the NICU in Billings.

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Congratulations to new parents, Kelly & Travis. Can't wait to photograph your precious newborn!!!

WHERE did you get your bag???

That's the question everyone's been asking me whenever I hit town with one of my Gina Alexander photo handbags! I ordered 4 samples and they're awesome!!! The women of Bozeman and Livingston, especially the new moms, are marvelling at the exceptional quality and just what absolute fun they are! The bags are a perfect way to showcase your adorable baby or children. Even the new puppy!

My sample bags feature our own set of boy/girl twins...as babies on up to the age of 6...

That's the elegant Candy Bag in the middle with Larissa's baby face on the front. Sam's baby photo is on the back...

Here's Sam on the back of the Classic Bag with Bamboo Handles option. Larissa is on the front of the bag...

This is the lovely Audrey Bag...

And finally, my favorite, the Classic Tote Bag with 2 different images on each side, fuschia leather, candy-stripe lining and underglass options. Yep, I went all out!

These beautiful leather handbags make fabulous gifts for yourself and others!

And as if you needed another reason to order one, Gina Alexander also donates a portion of every handbag sold to the charity Hope for Children, committed to assisting families interested in adoption without the financial means to accomplish it.

Tucker & Pearl

My girlfriend and fellow high-altitude gardener, Nicole, has been wanting me to photograph her "baby" Tucker all summer long. Tucker is cute as can be and oh, that tongue! When elusive Pearl came out of hiding, I quickly snapped a few of her as well...

I mostly do pet portraits as part of a family photo session so it was great fun to just do "the dog". And the last time I did a cat portrait was a few years back when I flew to San Francisco to photograph a pair of cats! Meow!

Gorgeous Mikal ~ Class of 2009!

A few years ago, I snapped a few portraits of Mikal and her family at a beautiful wedding I was photographing at the Elkhorn Lodge in Helena. Now Mikal is a senior at Capital High School! She and her mom drove all the way from Helena to have me do her senior portraits at Sky Ranch!

She is an avid golfer and an aspiring model. Have a look...

Have a great senior year, Mikal! And thanks to you and Terry for making the trek up to Sky Ranch!

Raves from Hamburg, Germany...

It is a small world indeed. I recently received a beautiful e-mail from Hamburg, Germany...my father's hometown. "Omi" Dagmar was here in Bozeman, Montana visiting her newest grandchild and came along for the newborn photo session I did last month of baby Cooper and his big brother, Jonas.

My husband entertained her while the session was taking place, so she only first saw the images online once she was back home in Germany.

Here's what she had to say:

"Ich habe mir gerade die Fotos angesehen und bin total begeistert. Sie haben eine super tolle Arbeit gemacht. Ihnen und Ihrem Mann noch einmal vielen Dank fuer den netten Empfang. Sie wohnen ja wie im Paradies - vor allem fuer jemanden wie mich, die aus der Gross-stadt Hamburg kommt. Die Landschaft ist wunderschoen und mitten drin Ihr wunderschoenes Haus. Ich habe den Aufenthalt sehr genossen..."

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What does that mean? She is totally thrilled with the photos and she thoroughly enjoyed her visit to the paradise called Sky Ranch.

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Oh, and the above photo is of the Rathaus in Hamburg (one of my favorite buildings) with the Alster in the foreground.

Celebrating 7 years at LillyLu!!!

How time flies! This month marks the 7th year I have exhibited my Fine Art Portraiture at LillyLu, the beautiful children's boutique in downtown Bozeman.

With exhibits of 20 new hand-printed pieces each season and artist receptions during Bozeman Art Walk for many years, my business grew and my work continued to evolve coming full circle with the "Windows of my Heart" series in 2005 from which my business now takes its name.

The years have been good to me.

Thanks to Sheryl and all the ladies of LillyLu for their support since 2001!

Its been a privilege and I've enjoyed every moment.

Pop Art Canvas Prints

Not only am I doing Fine Art Canvas Prints, but for those of you looking for something really unique, check out this Pop Art Canvas Print I recently had done. It is a vintage hand-tint and turned out beautifully.

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If you want to have a closer look at it, it's on exhibit at LillyLu Children's Boutique in downtown Bozeman.

And believe it or not, the pop art canvas print was created from an original sepia image!

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More fabulous samples from my boutique offerings coming soon!

Dignity and Respect for ALL...

I received an e-mail notice today from a friend and client that is important to share. The film "Tropic Thunder" has opened in movie theatres across the U.S. It contains offensive material that demeans people with intellectual disabilities,

and it freely uses the r-word.

Words matter.

Please choose another movie.

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To learn more about how you can be a fan of dignity and respect, visit http://www.r-word.org/.

babe in the woods

It's great when a vision becomes reality. All summer long, I have wanted to do a "Babes in the Woods" newborn session and along came baby Cooper, less than 10 days old.

Isn't he just beautiful bathed in golden light and surrounded by wildflowers?

Don't ya just want to pick this basket up and carry him home???

"Honey, you'll never believe it!!...Look what I found in the woods!!"

Thank you Stacey and Karsten for your enthusiasm and willingness in having Cooper be my first official babe in the woods!

Jeans and a Plain White T

It's a clean, classic look that never goes out of style... It worked for James Dean and it works for Kyle,

College Park High, Pleasant Hill, California, Class of 2009...

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Talk about COOL!

These sepia images look like they're right out of the 1950's...

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and is there anything "cooler" than this beautiful old vintage Dodge??

When we found this neat old broken tree is the woods we discovered we were on the wrong side of the barbed wire fence. Easy for me to crawl through it even with the camera, but poor Kyle...he's probably about 6'5" tall! Maybe taller!

It was worth braving the barbs though...

Thanks, Kyle for allowing me to shoot your senior portraits! You were a great sport!

PROUD MAMA

I'm one proud Mama!...The morning after the twins returned from SoCal, they ran in the Sweet Pea Children's Run. I videotaped the whole thing...and I knew my girl could run, but even I was surprised when I saw this little shrimp that looked like my daughter finish right up there with the big girls. IT WAS HER!!! Out of 1,200 children!!!

Larissa, in the 7-8 age category finished 5th behind 4 girls in the 11-12 age category with a time of 6:08...only 26 seconds behind the first place finisher. WOW! She placed 17th overall. Sam finished in the top 25 for the boys and 43rd overall.

Here's the piece the Livingston Enterprise published:

Then to top it all off, our family placed in the Park County Fair this past week. Sam placed 1st in both his press art work titled "The Indian" and in his acrylic painting titled "The Green Glow", both done this summer at Artsplot in Bozeman. He placed 2nd for his pencil drawing titled "The Fire Dragon". Here's "The Indian"...

Larissa placed 1st in Floriculture for "Best Child's Bouquet". Isn't it beautiful?

Larissa and I got up before 6 a.m. on entry day to cut our flowers fresh from the garden and make our arrangements. I entered my bouquet in the "Montana" division which required the use of wildflowers. Using a silver champagne cooler to display them in was just the ticket...I placed 1st and even won the Reserve Grand Champion for Floriculture!!!

Oh, and I can't forget to mention that Doug got a real kick out of learning that his parsley placed 1st! It's been a great week for the Saarel's!!!

They're BAAACK!!!

Our twins, that is...well they've been back for almost a week now, but it's been crazy since they came home...you know how it is...

At 8 years of age, this is the 2nd time they've flown to LAX to spend time with my parents, otherwise known as Oma & Opa in beautiful Santa Monica, California. The hitch?...I signed them up for swimming lessons while they were there. Sam & Larissa were gone for 13 days, and successfully passed the Minnow B class. Their swimming has improved tremendously!!! Next year, they'll be FISH! My mom happily took them to their daily lessons followed by trips to the beach to collect sandcrabs and boogie-board followed by romps in the pool at "home", where they splashed around until after dark...

My mom & dad, God Bless 'em, even took them to Knott's Berry Farm one day and to top it all off, their cousins from Phoenix even came to visit. Here are a few photos my dad, the "original" photographer, shared with me of the twins' time in California...

Picking tomatoes in Oma's garden...

With cousins, Rio, Wesley and York at the beach (not shown is cousin Daniel Nolan)...

Seeing my daughter having a good hearty laugh with my mom is a real heartwarmer...
and are you getting dizzy yet???...here they are at Knott's on the Mexican Sombreros followed by Sam on Big Foot Rapids...

Sheesh...it's pitch dark, and the kids are still at it...doing CANNON BALLS in the pool...and I'm sure that neighbors, Marie and Marge were totally amused...

Here are 2 proud "Minnow B" graduates...Sam even DOVE (in almost perfect form) off the 3-meter high dive, while Larissa bravely closed her eyes and jumped!

Thank you Oma & Opa for showing Sam & Larissa a really great time.

THEY'LL BE BACK!!!

sweet sweet baby...

Sweet little Cooper was born July 16 at Bozeman Deaconess Hospital. His parents, Staci & Karsten loved the work I have on exhibit there in the Labor & Delivery Ward and e-mailed me the day after Cooper's birth to set up a newborn/family session to also include big brother, Jonas.

How precious is this with Cooper holding his mama's face?

And is there anything more beautiful than a mother in love with her baby?

This is such a beautiful and powerful image, you could stare at it forever... I'm definately going to have to put some of these up at the hospital...

We did a number of family shots that were "perfect", but this one has got to be my favorite...at this point, 2-year old Jonas was not going to sit still anymore and wanted to play...

Adorable Jonas loves his new brother AND the yellow Tonka truck in my kids' playground!

Congratulations, Staci, Karsten & Jonas! You are a beautiful & gentle family. Es freute mich sehr Euch kennenzulernen sowie die Oma's und Tante. Wir senden Euch alle liebe Gruesse von Sky Ranch!

There's nothing sweeter...

There's nothing sweeter than knowing my clients are happy, really happy. It's why I do what I do! I just received an e-mail from Josh whose family I photographed a week or so ago (see previous post...angel {babies} boy) and this is what he had to say...

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"Words can never ever, ever express my gratitude for taking the most amazing pictures of my family. They were even more beautiful than my wildest dreams could have imagined. I don't think my house is big enough to put up all these pictures. (smiley face) Thank you Susann! You are an amazing, beautiful spirit!"

Sheesh, made me want to cry! Thank you, Josh. And for that, allow me to share a few more images...there's also nothing sweeter than kisses for momma...

angel {babies} boy

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing beautiful Calen and his family as part of my angel babies program. Seven-year old Calen is a special needs child and cognitively delayed. According to his mother, Robyn, he is a "mystery man"... having never been specifically diagnosed after visits to many different doctors and hospitals since infancy.

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Calen suffers from frequent ear infections and fevers. He was recently diagnosed with an immune deficiency disorder. His illnesses come on suddenly and hard. In fact, late in the evening following our photo session, Calen's family rushed him to the hospital emergency room where it was discovered he had pneumonia and would have to spend the night. Just like that!

What struck me most about Calen and his family were the deep love they share and the never-ending smiles! They consider themselves blessed.

.I learned today that Calen speaks only a few words such as "bubbles" and "hi". The beauty of these family photographs is that no words need be said.

The images below say it all...

Thank you Robyn, Josh, Jostin (who opened and closed gates and held my camera while I drove) and Calen for a beautiful experience.