Wendi Riggens Riggens Photography

As a kick-off for 2010, I am starting a new special.  When a post gets 25 unique comments, the client featured earns a free 8×10 from their session.  If the post gets 50 unique comments, they get a beautiful piece of wall art!  So comment away, help Kristen & Nathan earn free prints from their session, and call today to book your session for your opportunity to earn free prints, too!

A couple years ago, when I was in Mexico, my roommate and I were sharing our portfolios. Erin flipped through mine and commented “you like to put your subjects in really interesting places.” She wasn’t lying. I’ve shot in old warehouses and pretty parks, been kicked out of malls, explored dirty alley ways, and hung off ledges precariously to get the right angle. I’ve asked brides to lay in creeks of freezing cold water and climb trees, and asked couples to climb on John Deere tractors, dance under the St. Louis Gateway Arch, play on the ice at the Nashville Predator’s stadium, make out in elevators, romp through Principal Park (home of the Iowa Cubs in Des Moines), and splash around in fountains.

Sometimes I get an idea for a shoot, and I have to wait for the perfect subject to come along to make it happen. Last weekend when Kristen and Nathan came down for their engagement session, and we started talking, I knew that one of my ideas was going to come to life that very day. We ventured out and about and played in the snow, and then headed downtown to warm up. Guess where we went?

When I ask a couple to go make out in the stacks at the library and they get excited about it, it makes me smile! Some people are too shy for that kind of stuff, but not my awesome clients!

We also played in the snow. I was apparently in a very B&W mood when I picked favs for the blog tonight!

These two are so beautiful together!

I think this is just about my favorite image. I can’t really say why, but I think it is the body language. It just screams “love!” to me!

Kristen & Nathan, thank you for being such great sports!

On Sunday, I photographed Sarah and Kyle for their engagement session here in Burlington.  I wanted to share a few of my favorites as I was editing, because I love them so much!  Being photographed isn’t always the easiest thing, which is why engagement sessions are so great.  It gives me a chance to get to know my clients better, and for them to get comfortable with my shooting style.  Sarah is beautiful in front of the camera, and Kyle is a natural!

I am really looking forward to shooting their wedding next June here in Burlington.  It is going to be amazing!

This just might be one of my favorite engagement images ever!

What can I say about Jesse and Courtney?  The connection between them is incredible, and the love pours from their engagement images.  They complement each other perfectly, and are beautiful to boot.  And as if that weren’t enough for a happy little wedding photography, this girl’s got style!  I love fun clothes and color!  We walked around the Snake Alley part of Burlington and found some beautiful spots to shoot.  I love the old homes and all that comes with them in that part of town!

I had a really, really hard time narrowing down my favorites for this post, so had to collage them. Enjoy!

I’ll be shooting their Iowa City wedding in a few weeks, and am really looking forward to it.  Keep an eye out for the wedding sneak peak!

Earlier this month, I had the privilege to meet up with Amy and Josh in downtown St. Louis. My dear friend Devan roadtripped with me, met up with fellow St Louis photographer Paula Jost, had a delicious lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory, and then spent 4 hours shooting this amazing couple! Amy and Josh are getting married back in Burlington in August, and I am really looking forward to it!

Ready for image overload? I had such a great time, it was hard to narrow it down!

We started out walking around Laclede’s Landing, photographing against the beautiful buildings.

A little parking garage fun!

Then we headed to the Gateway Arch. Thanks to Paula for these shots of me hard at work. Who says you can’t lay down on the job?

Here is what everyone around us saw…

And here is what I saw…

What everyone else saw…

And what I saw… (a couple minutes later, that is)

Amy and Josh are Cardinals fans, so we couldn’t resist shooting at Busch Stadium, but first we took a ride in their Jeep!

The End!

As I posted a few weeks ago, I traveled with two of my best friends down to Nashville for a destination engagement session!  Kristin and Jason are getting married in Keokuk this summer, but live in Nashville and wanted to bring their every day lives into their engagement session.  It was my first weekend away from Maddox, but we both survived!

It was a lot of fun tromping around a new city and getting to know these two better!

Jason works for the Nashville Predators, and we just had to go out on the ice and have some fun!

I have been told that Jason spent some time at the top of this tower dressed in the mascot costume for the Predators…  :)

We stayed at The Hotel Preston while we were there, and I absolutely LOVED the elevators.  I just had to take advantage of the cool red animal print walls.  I’m sure Kristin and Jason thought I was a little crazy when they met us there for their session, and the first thing I did was say “stand in the corner of that elevator and make out for a minute!”  :)

Yesterday was a gorgeous day to be out shooting!!  I hope we hav just as nice of a day next July at their wedding

Crapo was gorgeous, and we ran into Alana’s mom downtown, just about the time I had them playing in the street.  :)

Alana has the best smile!  It was contagious!  And I had to give props to Chris, he was up for about anything, even braving this big ol’ ugly spider on the way up the slide.  Ew!