Lyon County (George) Freedom Rock®

Below is a picture of the George (Lyon County) Freedom Rock. As always, I'm in awe of my husband's artwork and I think he did a fantastic job! This is his explanation of the George Freedom Rock:

"The Freedom Rock for Lyon County in George, Iowa was finished on Sunday August 11th but I waited for some pics without a tent over the rock for a better view. The road facing side features a nighttime scene circa World War One. There is a lone soldier waiting to board a train at the old George, Iowa Depot. The lone soldier represents Jack Sauter the soldier from George killed in WWI. In the smokestack of the train is what Jack may have been thinking before boarding the train going off to war. In the background there are fireworks, which are important to the town of George. The eagle and American Flag are self explanatory but on the other feature side I painted all 5 branches marching in a parade because the 4th of July is a point of pride in George. The people of George are very welcoming so if you're in the North West corner of the state there are a few Freedom Rocks in the area as I've finished rocks in Hawarden and George and will be completing the Freedom Rock in Lake Park in September"

On a personal note, here is a fun picture of Reagan (our dog) and Indie on the way to George. We had a lot of fun accompanying Bubba on this trip and are so proud of him for all of his hard work. We love being his support team and we're so blessed to have our work be a family affair. For more information on The Iowa Freedom Rock Tour, click here: http://www.thefreedomrock.com/tour/

New Beginnings...

Hello There!

Been a long while and I have so much to update you all on but I will try to keep it short and sweet. Things have really changed here at Sorensen Studios. After becoming a new mommy, we decided to make the studio by appointment only so I can take care of our little one and Bubba does a lot of on-site artwork jobs...so it just made sense.

I was still shooting weddings, families and senior pictures when I could find the time to schedule around being a full time mom but then last fall we announced the Iowa Freedom Rock® Tour and things really got interesting!!

As you can see from the Freedom Rock website, the tour was designed to "boost tourism and spread the message of thanking our Veterans while providing a unique to their area Freedom Rock for all 99 counties in the great state of Iowa." Announcing a project as big as this takes a lot of courage and I completely admire my husband for putting himself out there and setting such a high goal for himself, and it looks like others agree. To date, we have booked and/or painted 51 Freedom Rocks for Iowa counties. Our goal when announcing in the fall was to at least book 20 and now we are booking into the 2017 year...feels awesome-THANKS IOWA!

So as you can see, dealing with the whole state of Iowa as clientele takes some time and I am now the full time Public Relations Director of the Freedom Rock Tour. My job consists of answering all the phone calls, emails, inquiries etc. I book each county that applies for the tour. We are also booking inside murals for the winter months so it's not as if things calm down when the weather changes! I have been able to meet so many amazing people through this project and it's awesome to see each county have such pride in our military men and women.

My heart will always be in photography so I still dabble here and there, I even have a wedding to shoot this fall-I'm so excited! Speaking of that...it feels great to still have clients email me and see if I'm available to take their photos, and if I am, I sure make happen what I can-so keep asking! And if I can't make it happen, I will refer you to some wonderful photographers who can!

Indie and I travel a lot with Bubba to each county when we can and it's so nice to have communities open their arms to us and see the excitement around a Freedom Rock for their county. Here are a few of the rocks already completed this summer:

Adams County Freedom Rock @ Corning, Iowa

Shelby County Freedom Rock @ Earling, Iowa

For a list of completed rocks and their locations, along with Iowa Counties already booked please visit: http://www.thefreedomrock.com/tour/

And if you have any questions at all please give me a call at 641.343.7110 (leave a message) or email me at sorensenstudios@yahoo.com

Until next time...

Take care!!

The world is your canvas-paint it!

Some memories were made in the Sorensen household this morning. I would just like to say once again how incredibly blessed I feel to be able to work from home and not miss these moments! Although on the very busy days it can be quite stressful juggling parenthood and running our business(es)...it's all worth it.

Moving on, Miss Indie completed her first artwork masterpiece today! While Ray and I were both getting ready for the day, I realized Indie was quiet...like super quiet. While I think most parents would agree when you catch yourself hearing complete silence, you think ahh that's nice a moment to think, but then your brain quickly snaps into "oh my gosh!" mode. Quiet doesn't usually equal good things...we all know this.

I came around the corner to find Indie drawing on the wall. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all about boundaries but how do you discipline a child for doing something she literally sees her father doing every day? You don't, well at least we don't. I grabbed the camera, yelled for Ray and I think he was pretty proud. I guess you could say that considering he drew "Indie's Art" next to her scribbling.

She seemed to really enjoy herself and stay at it for a good amount of time-which never really happens either. Not sure if she is going to be into art, bowling, swimming, softball or whatever, but I do know I'll try to capture her life in photographs.

Luckily the crayon she found was her washable one from the bathtub. But Ray did suggest we make that wall her canvas and invest in some more washable markers, even frame it in. I think it's inspiring to see her little creations on the wall (just this one wall of course). It's far better than anything I could buy at the store.

I hope you're all capturing these precious moments of your little ones as well. Isn't that what life is all about-the little things? :) Here are a few pictures from today's event:

Hello 2013

 

Indie, Maria & Ray Sorensen at the St. Ansgar Rock.

Hi All-

It's been awhile since we last wrote (sorry we do that a lot through our Twitter & Facebook pages). Seems to be the quicker alternative! But in case you missed those updates...we'll catch you up to speed.

2012 brought a lot of changes with our business (Sorensen Studios). Maria decided to specialize in wedding/engagement and high school senior photography. She is home full time with the little one and the scheduling for those sessions are the easiest fit for a mommy job! We're also proud to say we have reached our full wedding quota for the 2013 season already. It's going to be a very busy year-but we're up for the challenge!

Bubba decided to specialize in mural paintings. Again, the same for him-large scale murals are what works best with our new parent schedule. He still does some canvas painting/drawings but they're usually personal and not for commission. He completed about four large scale murals in 2012 so it was a busy time!

One of our biggest projects we are looking forward to this year (and the reason for a fully booked wedding season already) is the 99 County Freedom Rock Tour. In the spring, we will be setting out to tour our beautiful state of Iowa while Ray aims to paint a rock in every county. If you visit the site, you will see we have already booked seven counties and we have just started promoting the tour! We're so excited to say the least and are really grateful for our home state's support.

We've already met some amazing people through this project and we feel very lucky to get to know so many fine individuals. We're also so thankful to our sponsors who are helping get this off the ground. We're hoping this [tour] can be a unique and beautiful gift to our military men and women, all the while benefiting our state with national tourism.

This will be our fifth year of business for Sorensen Studios and they say if you make it past year three, then you're good to go and that year five is when you're really "get started"...here's to hoping!

Thank you all so much for your continued love and support. We will try to stay updated more often but will most likely be doing the majority of it via Facebook/Twitter. You can follow us here:

Sorensen Studios Twitter: https://twitter.com/sorensenstudios
The Freedom Rock Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheFreedomRock
The Freedom Rock Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheFreedomRock

We wish you all a very blessed and prosperous new year.
Please feel free to call or email us with any questions (please leave a message): 641.343.7110 | sorensenstudios@yahoo.com

Shelby Venteicher

Here's a recent senior shoot with Shelby-what a beaut!

Click the link below which says "Shelby Venteicher" to view her video.

The below image features all of Shelby's products she received with her Senior Package via Sorensen Studios-lots and lots of good stuff! :)

Enjoy!

Shelby Venteicher

Her first photo shoot

I said I would share a picture of Indie's first photo shoot (not including all the times she was along in my belly last summer of course). So here it is...her shooting an engagement session in Missouri with us! It was a ton of fun.

So now she has helped paint The Freedom Rock and assisted in some picture taking. Even if she doesn't hold any interest in photography or painting in the future, she certainly can always say she started at a young age!

A little poison ivy means a lot of really good pictures!

So yes I will remember this photo shoot for the rest of my life for a couple of reasons: a.) Erin and Travis are our really good friends and I'm lucky enough to be a part of their wedding in October! b.) It was Indie's first photo shoot with mommy and daddy (out of my belly) and c.) I apparently got into some poison ivy and have got the lovely rash to prove it...

Let me just say Erin and Travis's shoot was simply amazing. They basically showed me around to a few of their favorite hang outs, what they do as a couple and how they spend their time together which equals = The Perfect Engagement Session! By doing what you normally do together it creates a perfect and comfortable setting for everyone. 

We visited everything from a little old train station, a place where they go to fish and share a bottle of wine (oh and Erin caught a fish at the very end of the shoot by the way!) They also took me to this legendary tree that was turned upside down by a tornado...eh em insert where I contracted poison ivy here. I guess that's how it goes though; if you're a photographer you know what I'm saying. You see the view of your photograph but it requires you lying on the ground, upside down or looking like a complete fool-anything for that perfect shot!

Anyways, it was a great day and I just wanted to share a couple of my favorite photos from it. If you're thinking about engagement pictures, again I would suggest creating your "perfect setting".

To view all of their photos and to see what a typical Engagement Session with Sorensen Studios is like, please visit: www.sorensenstudios.us, click on the "client" tab and type in: 6312

If you're interested in hiring a Sorensen Studios photographer for your wedding/engagement photos please call or email us at: 641.343.7110 | sorensenstudios@yahoo.com