The archer is the true weapon..
"The archer is the true weapon; the bow is just a long piece of wood."
Sebastien de Castell, Traitors Blade
Senior Dylan Roe began shooting archery after a visit to a local range in 2014. After picking up a bow he became hooked and immediately joined a youth archery program. He purchased a Olympic Recurve bow and began competing locally in 2015. 'A recurve bow has tips that curve away from the archer when the bow is unstrung. When strung a recurve stores more energy than an equivalent straight limbed bow and therefore offers more thrust to project the arrow through the air to the target.' (JordanSequillion.wordpress.com)
To date Dylan has competed in 21 local and national tournaments including the USA Archery Outdoor Nationals and the Buckeye Classic USAT. His highest finish was 4th place at the 2016 NFAA Indoor Nationals and he was recently accepted as a member of the Shrewd Archery Factory Staff.
Dylan received his Level 1 Instructor certification in Spring of 2016 allowing him to instruct Beginner and Intermediate archers in the JOAD program at Washtenaw's Sportsman's Club as well as Cub and Boy Scouts at local camps
Dylan also received his JOAD Bronze medal for Indoor Olympic Recurve this past May and currently ranks 47th in his division in USA Archery.
What a list of achievements, especially for someone so new to a sport!!
Adding to the fun, his mother and father bought bows and started shooting in competitions in January of 2016 so that they could be actively involved with their youngest son's sport. How cool is that??!
Dylan has been in the Milan, Michigan school district his whole academic life. After starting to play drums in 6th grade he became a member of Milan High School's drum line in 2013 and is currently the co-captain.
After graduation Dylan plans on attending Eastern Michigan University to major in Political Science with a minor in Economics.
With his dedication to excellence I am quite sure Dylan has nothing but success in his future. I wish you the very best Dylan! Enjoy your Senior year!
The Major and his Minors
Well this family definitely makes my list for one of my cutest family groups, that is for sure. And when it came to coordinating the color scheme, with just the right amount of accent patterns to make it interesting, Marilyn Rauschenberg NAILED IT!
Marilyn and her husband Major Justin Rauschenberg just relocated to Michigan from Virgina. Major Rauschenberg has been in the Army for 12 years now and did one year in Kuwait. He told me the hardest part of the experience was being away from his family. I can understand that--they are adorable!
And what personalities the girls Sydney, age 7, and Riley, age 4 have. Both were always ready for their close ups until the very end when 4 year old Riley was ready to move on to other things haha.
At one point the girls discovered a lady bug...Sydney was quite mesmerized by it but Riley decided the bug belonged in a better place and made quick work of it with a quick solid stomp from her boot. Oh em gee. I was dying!!! What a hoot!!!
While I know they miss the mountains of Virginia the Rauschenbergs are learning to love their new Michigan surroundings very quickly. Which is good, because I hope to see them the next time they need some images done! They were truly awesome :)
Welcome to Michigan, Major Rauschenberg, and your adorable Minors ;)
Fun and Fearless in the Big City
I am always a big fan of new sites, as I've said before, so photographing at Promontory Point in Chicago was a cool new place for a Senior session.
As I had only seen the location online, I was happily surprised at the awesome views and peaceful sereneness the Point allowed.
My Senior Maya Pancer loved it there too! She jumped right in with her fun and fearless self. Despite a few times when her boyfriend's staring perusal threw her off a little bit she was a total professional. I guess I could have thrown her boyfriend, Jacob, off the 'set' but he is my nephew so we worked around him haha! (In truth he was a big help--thanks Jacob!)
Maya is a Senior at Lake Central High School. Unsure of which college she plans to attend she is looking at her local options. She does know that she wants to minor in Fashion Design with most likely a major in Business. She loves reading, writing, drawing, painting, and music, so she definitely has an artistic bent.
Good luck during your Senior year Maya and I hope college is everything you hope for :)
Mothers are all slightly insane...
"Mothers are all slightly insane."
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
As a mother myself I can surely attest to that sentiment! Look cross-eyed at one of my children and you will see just how insane; and 4 out of 5 of my children are adults themselves!
But mostly we mothers are insane with adoration and love for our offspring, despite their faults we see past to who they really are. We see the beauty of our child's soul, no matter if that child is 3 or 30.
Meeting with Kris and her two children, Isaac and Ciara, was my third shoot with members of the extended Holman Family. A large tight knit group, I am always impressed by their closeness and the love they radiate not only for their children but for each other.
Those are my kind of people :)
They surely come by their easy family camaraderie naturally, as the matriarch of their family, Susan Holman, practically glows when she speaks of any of her 4 daughters or her many grandchildren.
Every child, no matter their age, should have a mother and grandmother speak of them in such a way!
So here are some more members of the Holman family..Kristen and her handsome son Isaac and her picture perfect daughter Ciara.
And you can tell by the look in her eyes that she is definitely crazy, insane, in love, over them both :)
From making horror movies to music...
From making horror movies to music, Austin Holloway is very much a creative soul. At our first meeting he seemed very quiet but the more we went along the more he opened up, even contributing
some ideas for posing when we got his electric guitar involved--I love that!
Due to time constraints on my schedule we actually changed our location at the last minute to Whihala Beach in Whiting. From the beach to the pier, the photo opps were endless as you will see in this blog post, making me realize I definitely have to start utilizing this location more-- especially since I live 5 minutes away lol.
After talking to Austin I learned that after his graduation, from Crown Point High School, he plans on becoming a Union crane operator---lots of big money there! But he will continue to work on his film making and his music on his down time, so he will definitely have all his bases covered.
Good luck in your last year of high school Austin! And keep up with your creative projects--
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”.
~Thomas Merton
