Tag Archives: Personal

Engagment Photos

/

/

From Minneapolis to Chicago & just about every region in between, we have captured couples this past year. One common thread that ties them all together is their mutual love for each other and thrill of a great adventure. Many of them have a great passion for the outdoors and enjoy taking in every moment of it together whether it be fishing, hunting, jogging, hiking, or camping. While some live in the big city, they often have roots here in the Northwoods or Central Wisconsin and it is their down-to-earth personalities that make them all so easy to get to know.

Katie and I are an open book. We may share with you much more than you ever hoped to know when it comes to life, marriage, and raising a family during one of our meetings; our story stretches back over nearly 20 years. Many of our couples met online or through mutual friends while in college or grad school. In our initial hangout dates with our couples, I like to ask how our couple met and more often than not, one will look at the other and hesitantly say, “Online!.” I then reassure them that they are not alone and it isn’t weird. We think online dating or long distance relationships are great! They’re often driven by strong communication and algorithms designed to match people based on their personalities and interests. Gotta love psychology!

Dating can be rough. I know that Katie and I wouldn’t know where to start. We’re so very thankful that God matched us when we were pre-teens to become best friends and it wasn’t until nearly a decade later that we would say, “I do.” It is so neat getting to have conversations with couples from around the country who are willing to open up and share a part of their story with us. Even more so, it is is an honor when couples entrust us to capture one of the most important days of their lives. We feel privileged to be able to spend our weekends with such extraordinary people who place a premium on their wedding experience and their marriages as a whole. They know this [marriage] is a once in a lifetime event and they want to embrace it for all it has to offer and hold dear to every passing moment; because they know it will fly by so very quickly.

You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Hold on to one another and invest as much time in your marriage as you will on planning your wedding day! Life is truly made up of all the little moments and you will remember the times that you slowed down and intentionally reflected. Make time, better yet, schedule time to be alone without your phones, screens and the like and simply be present with one another. Listen. Be quite. Just exist in one another’s presence. That feeling of complete comfortability combined with butterflies is what we all wish for in a soulmate. Take a walk, ride a bike, go on the trip you always wanted. Sometimes life gets a hold of us and once it does it is hard to step off the merry-go-round. If you’re the journaling type, which we hope you are, take a few moments out of your week to put pen to paper. Write it all down, the good with the bad. When you look back and reflect, you will want to be as true to yourself as possible – and to your future generations who read your words you will want to provide wisdom. Share your mistakes, your frustrations, your passions and your regrets. Life is short, but also precious – so cherish and revere it. #liferevered. Make memories and dream big!

“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”
― Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

LIFE REVERED

/

/

www.james-stokes.com | James Stokes Photography, LLC

Today I am moved by just how awesome God is. I know we hear that word often, sometimes to describe pizza or the latest lipstick but the truth is NOTHING compares to the wonders of our creator. The more time I spend away from the things that distract me from His word the more at peace I feel.

I am a person who almost always feels like they are being pulled in a million different directions, pleasing, serving, perfecting. Much of this has robbed me of joy due to a lack of prioritizing God first. I still and always need His Grace in this, but he has been so patient with me, always reminding me of how much he loves me through the stories and promises he is weaving into my life. As I approach 30, I can see God’s plan, discipline, trials, and blessings in my life much more clearly.

He moves when we are still and works when are  patiently waiting on him. This is the Christian walk; trusting in the Lord. For some, it is years, decades, but always he is faithful and just. I find myself complaining when the smallest of things don’t go the way I had planned and I am reminded of Joseph and his time in prison. My molehills are put rightly into perspective in this moment when I take time to ponder on what is eternal, what is most important!

As I begin to prepare for my brother’s wedding 1 year from today, I think about what I will say to a captive audience as I deliver the message. What words will be remembered years from now? How can I make Christ the center? That is always the goal; making less of ourselves and much of Christ. There is so much freedom in this.

The comparison game ends at the feet of Jesus. None of us are worthy or can claim our own greatness. We are clay, made of earth and poured into by the Holy Spirit.

But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 2 Corinthians 4:7

While we may be easily broken, God has entrusted the Good News to us as a vessel reminding me again that I am not my own. The gospel is not merely a message of truth that confronts our hearts, but an explosive power that turns a person’s life upside down. How has your life been turned upside down by Jesus?

Maybe you’re in the midst of planning your wedding or simply a person looking for inspiration. I challenge you to make a choice to live a life in total reverence to your creator and Heavenly Father. The whole world comes into focus through the lens of God at the center and  as the author and artist of our life. Through trial and blessing, he remains steadfast, drawing us closer to him.

Look for ways to be a vessel; ask to be molded in the likeness of his son Jesus and search for beauty beyond the screens that permeate our daily routines. God broke the mold with you, with all of us. We’re fearfully and wonderfully made for his purpose. How will you live a LIFE REVERED?

Class of 2015 – Happy New Year

/

/

So many bright and intelligent young men and women stepped in front of my camera this year! It is an honor getting to share a few hours with you, listening to your story and getting to capture you at your best. We hope you had a wonderful 2014 and are ready for all that 2015 is going to bring.

Best Wishes on your next Adventure,

The Stokes

stratford high school senior rib-lake-high-school-senior-photographer-04 medford-wisconsin-senior-photographer-15 Colby-High-School-Senior-photographer-Kenna.-17    medford wi senior photographer Stevens Point Senior Photographer Athens High School Senior Photographer Stevens Point area senior photographer Portage Co. Abbotsford High School Senior photos northern wisconsin senior photographer    SPASH SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER bow hunting senior photos Native American Head Dress Senior Photos with feathers hispster style senior photos rosholt-high-school-senior-08 www.james-stokes.com    best senior photographers in northern wisconsin prentice high school senior photographer marshfield wisconsin senior photographer

Wisconsin Wedding Photographer Branding

/

/
Wisconsin Photographer Logo Branding James Stokes Central Wisconsin

October Ink

Our rebrand has been a long time coming and so has this post. It is hard to put into words the process by which a company becomes a brand. The brand is a story. But it’s a story about you, not about the brand. Seth Godin said this and other insightful things as to what a brand is and how it affects what we buy and how we shop. What we buy and who we hire are all extensions of ourselves. The goal for us is to create meaning and to have that meaning convey a story that attracts the people we want to work with.

For us, our business has never been anything but us. From our approach to our style and website, we did it all. It was difficult to realize that sometimes you’re too close to situation to be able to critically analyze what you’re trying to convey. Often it is our inability to make decisions that keep us from our reaching goals. Knowing this made it easier to hire a professional designer to take on the daunting task of telling our story and pleasing Katie and myself, which is not an easy challenge to say the least.

October Ink, a Salt Lake City, Utah design studio, was the perfect fit for us and Jayne did such an incredible job taking our jumbled thoughts and putting them into something tangible and beautiful. For us, it was hard to completely say goodbye to the design we had created four years ago, but we also know it didn’t quite fit who we are and where we wanted to be.

A Pinterest board served as the starting point in creating what would become the inspiration for the logo, pattern, & fonts. I had been working on this for over 6 months and it had become a collection of images that truly spoke to my overall aesthetic and my personality. It is hard to put your personality into words without feeling cliché and it is even harder in this industry to doing something that feels original. The same goes for creating a logo. Our goal has always been to stay true to ourselves and to create a business that not only served our hopes and dreams but served our clients well and conveyed a message of trust and integrity.  The challenge is not so much that our business has changed, but that we have changed. Over the last 7 years we have evolved and our business along with us. Out styles and preferences have evolved and we have grown as people and photographers. We have a clearer picture of where we want to be and the types of images we want to create. When people say they put their heart, sweat, and tears into something – it is true! Owning a small business is a labor of love and it truly isn’t what people often think it is. It is the challenges and the uncertainty that makes me feel alive and it is the emotional and mental struggles that push us forward each day as a husband, father, and small business owner. I couldn’t ask for a better partner in Katie – she is the backbone of everything we do and without her none of this would be a reality and our children would starve, truly.

We have learned that you cannot measure success with a bank balance and how we feel about something doesn’t necessarily make it true. It is very easy to become overwhelmed by all the things you could be doing or the ways in which you could be improving both personally and professionally, but unless you allow yourself the room for grace and failure, life will pass you by and success will remain just a word.

Moving forward with our vision, we wanted to refresh the way we looked and yet maintain the feeling of familiarity and nostalgia. Our goal was to create a sense of newness and allow us to engage our new and future clients in a fresh and authentic way. We are still James & Katie and we do things the same way, but we are always striving for ways to improve and grow and we felt this was the perfect start!

Just for fun here are a few images SOOC (Straight out of camera) and then the edits. Images are an extension of a brand and cohesion is so important when it comes to delivering a quality product every single time.

Katie and I would love to hear what you think and we thank you all for supporting us on our journey!

Special thanks to October Ink for doing such an incredible job and for making our vision come to life.

 

Totally Rad replichrome Fuji400h noritsu scan SOOC Before and After Images VSCO vs replichrome Wisconsin Photographer Branding Images VSCO Black and White Image Presets Wisconsin Photographer

Wisconsin Birth Photographer | Arawyn’s Birth Story

/

/

The Birth of a Child and a Mother

 

9,113 days. That is how many days I lived without my little peanut in my arms. I knew I wanted to be a mother. I just didn’t know if I should be a mother. Would I be a good mother? Would my husband love me the same? Could we even have children? Was I ready? In reality, nobody is ever ready. You will never have all of the answers. You will never have “enough” money. You will never be at the “best” spot in your life. You just have to roll with the punches. Thus, the journey began…

309 days. That is how many days my husband and I tried to conceive our little peanut. The moment we were married we decided to start trying to conceive a baby. I sure thought this would be an easy task. It seems that people get pregnant from drinking water these days. My husband and I were young and relatively healthy. Month after month and pregnancy test after pregnancy test I literally thought I was going crazy. Scratch that. I was crazy. I was an obsessive, pee-happy, hallucinating, crazy person. Why was there still only one line on that stick? Then the game began of “seeing a second line”. “Line eye” as the Trying To Conceive community would call it. I was peeing on stick after stick. After seven months, I was completely discouraged. Not only did I still not have a baby, but also my intimate relationship with my husband became a chore. Intercourse was no longer filled with love, passion, and emotional connection. It was a daunting task that was resulting in no little peanut for us. My original fears were becoming real. “Could we have children?” Apparently not. I convinced myself that I was not getting pregnant because I would be a bad mother. Not only were all the tests negative but my cycles were a mess. I was having a hard time even tracking when I could get pregnant. Therefore, I decided to go to the doctor and see if she could regulate me. At that appointment, I learned that I did not ovulate. Well, that sure answered my question as to why I was not getting pregnant. It sure helps if the sperm has an egg to fertilize, and I wasn’t dropping any eggs. After a few more doctor appointments for both my husband and I, we began to try again. This time, we had the help of Clomid. Clomid essentially makes you ovulate. Round one began! And… was followed by nothing. Round two began! And… by golly there were two lines. What!? Two lines!? Not possible. I couldn’t get excited. I mean, I was excited but I had also turned into a crazy person during this time while hallucinating that I saw two lines before. I couldn’t trust myself. The blood test, ultrasound, heartbeat, morning sickness, mood swings, and everything else confirmed that my little peanut was in my belly.

291 days. That is how many days I carried my little peanut in my womb. Now the fears really began. People asked me all the time what my fears were. Money? No, I’m great at saving money and budgeting. Lack of sleep? Not really, coffee is amazing. No social life? No, I don’t really like people anyway. Okay, I like people, but I’m a homebody. Love. That is what I was worried about. Will my peanut love me? Will I love my peanut? What if I dreamed about this baby, tried so hard to conceive this baby, carried and birthed this baby, and then didn’t love this baby? Or, what if my peanut didn’t love me. I couldn’t shake this fear. The months flew by and the due date was getting closer and closer. I wasn’t afraid of the pain, although I should have been. I wasn’t afraid of anything really, except those fears I just expressed.

11 days. That is how many days “overdue” I was. I had been dilated for weeks, was pretty much completely effaced, and had been having contractions for quite some time. Of course, why would I think my body would do what it was supposed to… it hadn’t this whole time! Tuesday, December 17th, I called the Family Center to set up a time for induction as my doctor had recommended. I really did not want to. I wanted to let nature take its course and let my body do what it was supposed to do when it was ready to. I thought, maybe if I schedule an induction, my brain will chill out and things will start happening naturally. In addition, I figured I would have another three days or so until they would fit me in. “6:00 AM,” the nurse says, “Come on in at 6:00 AM tomorrow.” Oh yeah, did I mention it was almost 5:00 PM when I called? Umm, yeah… talk about freak out. The crazy person had come back. After a few hours, I went back to being normal, and got ready. Morning came and my husband and I made our trip to the hospital. I came bearing gifts of Christmas cookies for the nurses. They got me all set up and ready to go and we began our first dose of Cytotec. Cytotec helps start contractions and you can slowly increase the dosage to make the contractions stronger. I chose this option instead of Pitocin, which I was told, makes your contractions go from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye. Yeah, I chose the slow and steady route. Here we go! 9:00 AM I got my first dose. This continued every hour, all day. Sure, I was having contractions, and they “looked” intense on the monitor, but I didn’t feel a thing, except the tightening sensation. Obnoxious. There I was, stuck in that awfully uncomfortable bed, just waiting. Waiting and waiting and waiting. Still, no baby. Not even a sign that baby was coming soon. 7:00 PM was my last dose. The doctor said that we would start Pitocin in the morning. Now I was just frustrated, and drained, and scared, and annoyed. I was so annoyed with my husband and I’m pretty sure he was annoyed with me. Why? Oh, just because. Our spouses tend to be our emotional punching bags. It’s not right or fair, but that’s the way it seems to work out. I was a nervous wreck and he was calm, cool, and collected. How was he not feeling what I was feeling? Why wasn’t he anxious and crying and frustrated. Well he was anxious; he was just being a solid place for me, which I wasn’t appreciating for whatever reason. My husband doesn’t talk when he is nervous or stressed. He just paces or stays quiet. I’m the opposite. I’m that obnoxious person that talks about anything and everything to try to distract myself mentally. Clearly, our own coping methods were clashing and I was angry. Night came and we tried to sleep.

7 hours. That is about how long I labored to get my peanut in my arms. It was roughly 10:00 PM when we went to bed. Of course, I had to get up to pee every half an hour. Nothing new there. I was running on minimal sleep from the night before and was emotionally drained. Apparently, my bladder was not drained. Shortly after midnight, my fourth bathroom break since I went to bed, I had one of those forever pees. You know, the kind where you sit there for what seems like 20 minutes still peeing. Still, nothing totally abnormal, pregnant or not. As I was going back to my bed, my husband woke up and asked me if I was okay. I said I was fine and sat down. I wondered if my water had broken… but I didn’t want to hit my call light and tell a nurse that my water broke and then have it not be true and then feel like an idiot. So, I sat there. Then, I peed everywhere. Okay, now my water broke. Oh, crap! Crazy lady was back! I looked at the clock and it was about 12:30 AM. Ouch. Painful contractions had finally made their appearance. I was finally dilated to a four, as opposed the one centimeter I had been at for weeks. I tried to stay moving, walking, bending, leaning, anything to try to ease the pain. My husband followed me around and became a railing for me. I looped my arms around his neck and dangled from him, I leaned on his lap, and I leaned against his side. Nothing really helped and I couldn’t concentrate very well. Helplessly, he asked if there was anything he could do. I finally looked him in the eyes and found my pain relief.  I stopped focusing on the pain and just focused on his beautiful crystal blue eyes and hoped that our peanut would have his eyes. I could feel my body relax just looking at him. “Count” is all I could say. As a result, he counted. He counted to ten repeatedly for hours all the while keeping eye contact with me. He made the mistake of breaking eye contact and I had a mini flip out moment where I panicked until our eyes met again. It was just my husband and I working on getting our peanut in our arms. I can’t tell you how many people were in the room or who was in the room. However, I can tell you I have never felt more love for my husband before. Every girl dreams of having a man to be your rock and to hold you when you are weak and this is exactly what he did for me. He held me and kept me calm. I had been so angry with him for being calm and collected before and now his calm demeanor was the only thing keeping me focused. It’s funny how things work out sometimes. Within a few hours I was nearing seven centimeters and was totally ready for the drugs. The rest of my experience is somewhat of a blur. I remember getting an epidural and it most definitely eased my contractions. However, I was still throwing my legs in the air and had complete feeling of them. That was a scary thought. I thought that was all supposed to be numb… but what did I know. I was a first time mom that had never done this before. Things calmed down some and I was checked again to see what progress we had made. I was ready to start pushing. Well, technically my body was ready for me to start pushing. I was nowhere near ready to start pushing. Too bad so sad. I had to push. The first few pushes were easy. I thought that the rest would be a breeze too, with this epidural and all. Ha. Wrong. Oh my holy searing pain. I had to keep pushing. That was the only way to meet my peanut. After a few more pushes, she was out and in my arms at 6:51 AM. My heart melted and my chest ached with love. Within seconds of seeing her, I loved her so much that it actually hurt. “Happy Birthday,” I said. Of course, they swoop your baby away so quickly. “Come on baby, breathe,” I heard somebody say. I couldn’t see my peanut at this point as she was surrounded by nurses and my husband. So I looked at my sister (in-law if you want to be technical), best friend, and birth photographer and said, “why isn’t she breathing?!”She smiled oh so sweetly at me, waved her hand in the air, and said, “she’s fine, there is nothing wrong at all.” Phew, I breathed in relief only to hear the doctor say that she was going to start on my stitches. The what!? Oh no… “how bad is it?” I asked my doctor. She replied, “mmhmm”. Gee, thanks for the comforting words doc. O well. My peanut, Arawyn Mae, was finally here. She was in my arms and she was breathing. She was here and I could kiss her and love her.

Forever. That is how long I get to love my peanut, Arawyn Mae. My birth story is a blur, as I’m sure is the situation for most women giving birth. I barely remember certain parts. Even with all the pain and fear, it was the fastest seven hours of my life. Luckily, my story has been captured in photographs. I can look back at those photos and be told by others the parts I don’t remember. I can look back at those photos and become overwhelmed with emotions. I can cherish those memories and the story of Arawyn’s arrival.

Northern Wisconsin Birth Photographer Memorial Health Care center

Central Wisconsin Newborn Photographer Serving Marshfield – Wausau – Medford

Merry Christmas from the Stokes

/

/

We have so very much to be thankful for this Christmas! Our family has grown this year and so has our business. Katie and I feel like we were just celebrating the Holidays, but that is how all of life feels these days, a wonderful snowy-blur of life, love, and children. We are mindful this season of the Providence of God and how faithful he is even in the times when we’re not sure what the future holds. We make so many plans and fill our calendars a year in advance, but ultimately he is in sovereign over it all and so we make plans and remind each other “if the Lord wills.” Because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. If this year has taught us anything, it is that; to live each day as if it were all you were given. To say this is one thing, but to live it is another. We say this on the eve of Katie losing her great-uncle to cancer. We rejoice because we know he is with the Lord, not because he was such a great person, but because he put is hope and trust in Jesus Christ. He lived out his faith in the simplest and most humble of ways. My children loved him and all who met him were greeted as if they were his best friends, and eventually they would be. We will miss his songs and  jokes and the stories he would tell. Butch will be missed, but his legacy lives on in the hearts of those who knew him. Pretty sure there is a lot of Uncle Butch in my son Jasper.

Our hearts and bellies are full as we celebrate the birth of the Savior and reminisce.

BLESSINGS TO YOU AND YOURS,

The Stokes

We love. And document love because we were first loved. 1 John 4:19

images of our family of captured by our friends The McCartney’s 

Heritage photos James Stokes

Braces & Stirrup Pants | Measuring Success

/

/

Looking back over this year’s work has caused me to stop and think of where I want to be a year from now – 5 years from now.

We have grown over the past three years and as we embark on our fourth year as full-time husband & wife wedding photographers we want to be certain that we’re headed in the direction of our dreams. One of those goals for this next year is to showcase images that really speak to who we are. We see thousands of photographs each day and in a sea of photographers we want people to know instantly what makes us different.

In reality, most photographers use the same cameras, shoot the same glass (lenses), and edit with the same software and presets, but when it comes down to it – it is the person behind the camera that makes the difference. Our personal preferences, our likes and dislikes, our inspiration, and our experiences are all part of the images we take. Hundreds of thousands of times our shutters have allowed pulses of light to pass onto our sensors and very small fraction of those captures are seen. Not because they were necessarily ‘bad’ images, rather they simply didn’t fit the story we want to tell. The luxury of having two people capture a wedding day is that at the end of the day we know we will walk away with images that speak to the true nature of how we see the world. Our personalities are fused into our work and often it is in the chaos of documenting a wedding day that our personal strengths are both tested and utilized.

As Katie and I continue to work together we see how very different we are – how very different men and women are! For that we are thankful. We fall in love with each other’s work. The more I begin to see life through Katie’s eyes, the easier it is for me to relate to her on a more intimate level as a person and as her husband. I get her. Sometimes. I think marriage is a lot like that; a dance of sorts – where we sometimes lead and sometimes follow. But most often we just trip over each other’s feet and laugh. That is us, in a fun non-catastrophic way.  We don’t pretend to be perfect and the remarkable people we photograph aren’t either. They’re real, down-to-earthy people like us.

It is often the flaws we see when we look in the mirror or stare at a photograph of ourselves. We search through old albums hoping to find a memory that didn’t involve braces and bulky glasses. In Katie’s case baggy t-shirts and stirrup pants. Mercy. Adolescence was not kind growing up in the 90s. We survived and so did our ability to laugh at ourselves.

We rejoice in what makes everyone unique and it is often those flaws/quirks/ idiosyncrasies that really remind us of how special we are and that we do have a story worth documenting and remembering. Some day your kids will ask to see what you wore to the prom or what your dress looked like on your wedding day. And when you can pull out your wedding album and show them how stunning you looked and how grandpa cried as he walked you down the aisle you will remember and emotions will come flooding back. The same way it does when you forgot it was picture day in third grade. Katie and I were petrified on our wedding day and it took every ounce of our being to make it through without shaking or crying from sure nervousness. We made it through and you will too. We own those awkward family photos, they’re a token of successfully surviving adolescence and a testament to our implausible neediness.

 So what makes us different from all the rest?

We like to think that it is our outgoing personalities coupled with our impeccable photography skills. But really it is our love for serving others. Many have passion for photography or for storytelling, but for us it is more than that. It is more than just taking pretty pictures and showcasing beauty – it is about investing in the lives of other people. Our calling is to serve, whether that be taking photos of missionary families or devoting our free time to help better community outreach. This is how we measure success, not when we’re so busy that we aren’t able to give of ourselves when we’re needed and not when our bank account is padded and the bills are all paid. The indicators of our success isn’t measured by the amount of weddings we book each year or whether we shoot a destination wedding in some pacific paradise, rather it is visible in the lives of those we meet.

We want our clients to feel like they’re family and not the kind you wish would just stay in the backwoods, the kind you really hope come home for Christmas. The kind of family you want to spend the most time with on your wedding day.

Many years from now, when the flaws become more visible and life’s journey has left its mark, we want you to get butterflies when you brush up against each other unexpectedly and relish the opportunity to share an afternoon with your great-grandchildren. We want you to kiss like you did on your wedding day! 

wi wedding photographers

Photo by The McCartneys Photography