Well the wind didn’t subside any on Saturday either, but it was a terrific day for a wedding.  We headed around Kansas City in a Trolley for some fun pictures.

I love photographing at Our Lady of Sorrows.  It is a beautiful church with stunning architecture and great natural light.

Ironically enough, we were on the 2nd floor at Club 1000 the 2nd night in a row!  This sounds like a country song?  The rooftop shots at nighttime were amazing.  Even though it was windy all day, there wasn’t even a hint of wind at 8pm!

Michele with Iced Art made the cake.  It was not only beautiful, but tasted delicious!

Bonterra Catering is always one of my favorites.  I don’t always get a chance to eat at the reception, but I make a point to hit the line after the guests whenever they do the catering.  I used to work with Dawn at Eddy’s catering a lot at the Little Theatre.  I haven’t seen her in a while.  Hi Dawn!

Doug & Emily had their wedding day last Friday May 2nd.  The early morning hours produced some devastating storms around Kansas City, but the inclement weather cleared off by morning and Friday afternoon was a beautiful day with periodic strong wind gusts.

It was the first spring day that all the trees were in bloom, the grass was green, and all the flowers were fully bloomed.  The tulips were fully bloomed at the JC Nicholas fountains. 

The strong winds blew the bride’s veil off twice!  The first time Doug saved the day by catching the veil inches away from falling into brush creek.  The second time the bridesmaid had to chase it down the street.

The reception was at Club 1000off Broadway.  It was a fun evening, and everyone seemed to really enjoy the festivities.  Nita and I did the photography.  It was terrific working with Jeff Stultz again with Image Video.

The wedding coordinator Leslie with You’re Invited was a pleasure to work with.

Jeff Holmes was a first class dj!  We both share the distinction of being in the Best of Knot fraternity.

Well it has been two months since we started moving into our new location.  Things are going very well, and it is hard to believe it is already May!  The Square is a beautiful and unique area.  I truly believe there is no other place like it.

We have met some great neighbors up hear, including our next door neighbor Corporate Copyprint.  The Main Street Coffee House is a favorite spot to visit….daily!  They also have great live music. 

We are excited to launch a new division of Freeland Photography,  Freeland Media.  This area of our business will focus on commercial, editorial, and corporate work.   If you need head shots for business, interior/exterior for brochures and advertisement, or corporate events we are excited to offer our services.We have always been at the top of our game when it comes to our website.  Website design has been an integral part in our photography business since 1997.  We used to scan proofs by hand.  In the early days of our website it took us as long as 8 hours to simply scan an event and upload it online.  As a professional photography company we understand design, composition, and art.  We have recently decided to launch Freeland-Media and offer website design for other businesses.  Our newest website is www.theindependencesquare.com

I also am using this blog post to mention a couple of my favorite vendors.  Rosemary Clyde with Final Touch Studios is simply amazing.  It is rare to find someone in the business that is the best at what she does and is also a pleasure to work with.

I also want to mention one of my best friends and a business associate, Jeff Stultz.   He is the owner of Image Video and is the BEST videographer I have ever worked with.  Every time we work together it is a true pleasure.  His artistic ideas compliment mine incredibly, and I am always amazed at the images we produce when we work together.

Bob & Kathleeen got married March 8th.  The location was in southern Missouri at  Dogwood Canyon.  It was a beautiful location that included scenary of waterfalls, covered bridges, and a wedding chapel that resembled a log cabin.  It was a fun place to shoot, and had some incredible craftsminship in all the detail work.

 You can view their entire wedding here:

www.freelandphotography.com/buck

I have been asked several times recently if I have photographed at the Hilton President downtown Kansas City. Well last Saturday was the first event Nita and I had photographed at their venue. The bride and groom, Mike & Jill, had an incredible wedding, with perfect weather and stunning details.

Jill Crowley was the coordinator at the Hilton. Her and her staff did a wonderful job and took care of us very well. thanks!

Michael J. Nolte and his assistant Monique coordinated the wedding.  The bride wore a stunning dress from Nolte’s Bridal. The beautiful flowers were from Connie Bell, and the DJ, Mike Shortino, did a great job with the reception. I am very excited to photograph down at the President again later this year.

Our forte’ will continue to be documenting Weddings, but are excited to relaunch our portrait work.

This includes High School Seniors.

Our new location is simply a gallery with computer workstations, so all of our portrait work from here forward is all on location.  This is very exciting!  (We do still have backgrounds we can utilize for company head shots and such).  Artistically we can be unique and creative for every portrait session.

This is especially true with Seniors.

I used to work for a photography company in the mid 1990’s that did over 4,000 senior portrait sessions per year.  You read correct, 4,000 sessions!  I now refer to this work experience as a monkey pushing a button.  I did get really good at capturing expressions, but the art of photography was completely lost. 

 This is why we are so excited to be in our new space.  Our surroundings here in the Independence area provide a plethora of backgrounds, textures, and scenes.  If you are interested in having your senior pictures taken, contact us in the month of April and May for a free photo session (normally $100 creation fee).

I’m obviously a little behind on my blog posts. We are just about finished moving into our new studio, and now I get to have fun and write a little bit!

Josh & Megan were married on the ninth day of February. It was a nice day, especially considering how long and cold the winter has hung on.

I had never photographed at the Ball Conference Center in Olathe. It was a beautiful facility, and the staff was great to work with.

We are excited to also announce that we are now offering Save the Date, and Thank you cards.  Josh & Megan were the first to use our services. Here is an example of the front of their card:

Here is the direct link to the entire wedding gallery of Josh & Megan.

We wanted to thank all our Bride & Groom’s for selecting Freeland Photography as one of the nation’s best Wedding photographers!  We were completely surprised, last year, when we were selected for the inaugural issue with a write up.  I have to admit, there has been a little bit of pressure on ourselves to make the cut again for this year.  Our hard work has paid off, and just wanted to say thanks to everyone!!  Mike Freeland

We are moving to our new location this week.  We will be closed an unavailable most of the day Wednesday, February 20th for the final move.  The phone company is putting in our phone and internet on Wednesday, and have informed us that our phones may be down and unavailable for 2-4 hours on Wednesday only.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.  If you call during this time you will not be able to talk with us or leave a message.

We will be open for business and meeting with customers starting Thursday February 21st at our new location:

115 South Main

Independence, Missouri  64050

We will be updating our website in the next few days with a new map and our new address.  Also we will be launching new features on our website in the next few weeks including:

Client login page

Portrait page

Fine art page

Community page featuring locations and places to visit around the Historic Independence Square

During the first month in the new studio we will keep our current business/phone hours of:

Tuesday-Friday 10am-5pm CST

We will have new longer hours including Saturdays from 12-4pm, but we still need to work out final details in the next few weeks before we will post our new hours.  Of course evening and weekend times are still available by appointment.

Stephanie and Dustin are getting married this September, but wanted to get pictures done now for their Save the date cards.

Dustin proposed to her while flying this plane.  He hid the ring in the glove box and asked her for a map.

We finished up inside the airport hanger.  This was a fun shoot! 

Jeff Stultz with Image Video Productions was at the engagment shoot with me.  Watch their save the date video Jeff produced here: