I'm all booked up! (almost)

I'm in Chicago right now enjoying a rainy and foggy spring break (an update on my adventures and engagement shoot in the rain coming soon!), but I wanted to send a quick note out to anyone still waiting to book a senior session or family session. I am almost completely booked for portrait sessions until mid-summer, so if you want to get your session in before the St. Louis temperatures soar (because believe me, perspiration is not pretty in photos ;) ), shoot me an email at lisarhessel@gmail.com, and we can chat!

More to come soon, but check out where I spent most of my day today :).

Marvelous Monday

It's time for this week's installment of marvelous monday, my attempt to make mondays a little less miserable. It's not too hard this week since, well, I'm on photoshoot in Chicago today with an awesome couple ;). But for the rest of you, here's some happiness...

There's one place that I always seem to turn when I'm having a rough day... (or just an ok day... or let's face it, if it's just a day). I LOVE LOVE LOVE me some TEAVANA. Especially since I'm not officially addicted to coffee anymore, Teavana always cures my cravings for something warm and savory. Their iced herbal strawberry kiwi is quite delectable, too (and my trusty assistant's favorite) and I'm in love with the hot Spiced Nut Mate. They brew their loose leaf tea in these magic little cups that extract just the right amount of flavor to make me happier than a Brit at tea time. So if your Monday is more miserable than marvelous, go get you some Teavana and that'll do the trick :).

In the meantime, check this out:

Kinsey's going to Brazil

During our lovely warm spell, I couldn't resist heading out to Queeny Park to take advantage of our break from the St. Louis snow. This is one of the first times this year that it has actually been warm enough to shoot outside and not get frostbite :).

Meet Kinsey.


Kinsey is a college student and this summer she's taking a 6 week missionary trip to Brazil with Campus Crusade and let me tell ya, this chica is so excited :).



See what I mean? I asked her to tell me a little about her trip and she couldn't contain her excitement.






Here's some new texture that I've been experimenting with. At first, I didn't like textured photos at all, but now, they're really growing on me. What do you think? Does the texture work?


Going on an international mission trip is not only a sacrifice of your time, but also of funds. Kinsey plans to use these photos in the support letters she'll send to her family and friends. If you're interested in supporting Kinsey as she serves in Brazil , shoot me an email and I will get you more information :).


Kinsey, I'm so proud of you and I'll be praying for you while you're serving in Brazil. God bless you!

It's Monday. It's Miserable.

Ugh. I hate Mondays.

In addition to being a photographer, I also have a day job where I am the photographer and graphic designer for a Christian Liberal Arts University . It's such a cool job because I get to photograph all sorts of cool stuff and work with tons of great people... PLUS I get to design a magazine and lots of other fun projects. It's a great job that lets me be really creative, but let's be honest... nothing can make 8am on a Monday morning seem even somewhat appealing. Nothing.

Usually, I start getting in a funk on Sunday afternoon. I start thinking about having to wake up early and about all the paperwork I need to get started on. By the time I go to bed on Sunday, I have a scowl engraved on my face... furrowed brow and all. And then, as I walk in to work on Monday morning, I usually sigh very over dramatically and say something stupid like, "I need another spring break."

I'm such a wuss.

Well, I'm done with that.

Miserable Mondays, as I've referred to them for quite some time, start in my head. So I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to institute Marvelous Monday. Instead of dreading Monday, I'm going to start my week out with a positive thought, and I'm going to share it with you. So here we go... what can I talk about today that's positive.....

A few weeks ago we discovered something that changed our lives... or at least our shopping habits. It's Sabra's Supremely Spicy Hummus. I love me some hummus and I've tried tons of different varieties, and this is by far the best I've ever had. It's really smooth and spicy and oh so much healthier than most of my other favorite snacks. I can't even describe it. Go get some. Seriously.

Yup, just thinking about that hummus has put me in a better mood. Marvelous.

Why I Love Thursday Nights

You all know I love me some LOST. It makes Thursday feel like Saturday. I gotta give props to one of my clients ... She scheduled her engagement session with me for a Thursday night and then had to change it to another day of the week so she wouldn't miss LOST. I tell ya... she's a girl after my own heart :).

Be Still

Ok, so don't get too jealous, but Jon and I had a really cool opportunity to meet Steven Curtis Chapman last Wednesday. He played a concert here in St. Louis on Thursday night, but on Wednesday, he was a special guest at a small event hosted byJoyFM, and we got to attend! It was really cool because he walked around and greeted everyone at their tables while we had desserts, and then he played a short set of songs in between answering questions from the audience. It was held at in the great hall at MBU, so everything looked just beautiful.

yummy desserts from Imogene's


And we all got signed cd's


He took some requests and played some favorites, including one of my favorites, Be Still. After the concert I couldn't get that song out of my head. And really, it couldn't have come at a better time.


After the concert that night, I got an email from my father-in-law letting me know that Ainslie Rose, my 6-day-old niece, was having a small bit of trouble with her health. The next day, I had a photo shoot in St. James, which is about eleventy billion miles away from here. Throughout the day, I received calls that updated me on Ainslie's condition. Within about two hours, the prognosis went from very hopeful ... to a terminal diagnosis of NEC. I made it back to St. Louis just in time to be with the family before Ainslie passed.



This has been such a weird weekend... it seems like it's been months since I've been home. But, I can't get that Steven Curtis Chapman song Be Still out of my head. Everyone is struggling to find words of comfort and words of hope, and for crying out loud, I don't even know what to pray. But right now, all we can do is just be still and know that He's God. He's still all at once trustworthy and powerful and all-knowing and full of understanding. And that helps.

We've been spending a lot of time with family and helping here and there, so to all my clients, thanks so much for understanding the delay in my response. I'll be back to answering emails again shortly and I sure do appreciate your patience and prayers.

Photography Class Progress

My latest set of assignments for the photography class I teach at MBU was pretty simple. There were two photos of the same group of guys. One guy had his eyes closed, so the class had to copy his head from the other photo and combine the two into one, so that everyone had their eyes open. One of my students who will remain nameless did this when I asked him to make sure everyone's eyes were open:



Yeah, I'm a pretty awesome teacher ;).

Engagement Guestbooks

I've been working hard this winter on lots of exciting new things for next year's brides :). One of products that I'm most excited about offering this year is the Guest Book Album. This piece is a press-printed book of engagement photos, surrounded by lots of white space so your guests can sign around the artwork. Basically, it looks like a book of photography that you could find in Barnes and Noble... only the photos are of you! The books come with a hard cover, dust jacket and an embossed luster sleeve. I've just ordered my first of quite a few books, and I can't wait to get them in. I'll be sure to post a few photos when they arrive :). I've worked in graphic design for almost four years, and it's always fun to infuse my wedding work with some fun designs.

If you'd like to see an example, click here or play the slideshow below for a recent design I completed. For this book, I used black space instead of white space, which created a bit trendier design. I include a smear-proof pen with all my guest books, so for books with more black space, I would include a silver pen, making it even cooler :). If you're interested having me make a guest book of your engagement photos, shoot me an email, and we can chat :).

Welcome Home, Colin

My cute, cute cousins added a little brother to their bunch on January 17. After being sick with jaundice for a little while, Colin made a full recovery and is now doing just great :). I had the chance to go visit Colin at home for a little photo shoot, which was, I'm sure, the first of many :). I just can't get enough of these kids!

I had some fun ideas for some shots of Colin while he was sleeping, but he was one alert baby!  I thought we were getting close to a nap here, but it was just a yawn.  A super cute yawn.

Sleeping (momentarily) with mom and dad.

When Kathy (mom) went to the hospital to have Colin, she left her oldest daughter, Maddie (5) cute little post-its all over the house to let her know that she was thinking about her.  So when Kathy came home with Colin, she found these on her mirror from Maddie.  Isn't that just the cutest?!

Sarah and Maddie with their new brother

New Website!!

I'm so excited to finally announce that my new website is LIVE!!!



I've updated all the galleries, added new categories, and even updated my bio info. Check it out and let me know what you think!