Romantic Winter Engagement Portraits | UW-Arboretum Madison, WI

Lynnea and Brian's engagement session was just a dream! When Lynnea asked if they could split their time between and in-home session and outdoor winter portraits I immediately got excited and said, yes!! But then Lynnea to their engagement session to the next level when she got a gorgeous red gown from Rent The Runway. Their amazing style and crazy amount of adorableness together easily made for one of my favorite sessions! And I have to give a quick shoutout to their cat Bandit, how cute is he?!

Matt + Megan | Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

If you saw my last blog post about visiting a friend in Oregon last month you'll know that I got to do a couple portrait sessions while I was out there! This wasn't my first time in Oregon, but if you couldn't tell I'm kind of in love with it and am always looking for excuses to go back :)

Luckily I was able to take advantage of the gorgeous landscape and do some portraits at the Columbia River Gorge! And to make it even better, I had an absolutely amazing couple to photograph!! Megan and Matt are married and judging by this portrait session even more in love than their wedding day. These two were just effortless in front of the camera having fun with each other, laughing, but then also able to snuggle up for some more romantic and intimate moments. Basically it doesn't get much better than this! Super fun couple and gorgeous locations is all I can ask for really! I already can't wait to get back out to the PNW and photograph more couples in even more epic locations :)

Jason + Mel | Windy Oregon Coast | Cape Kiwanda, OR

Last month I went out to Oregon to visit a good photographer friend, and I got to photograph some pretty cool couples while I was there! The first couple was Mel and Jason who met us out on the coast for an evening portrait session. This all seemed easy and innocent enough, until a storm came up fast and almost blew us away. I have never been scared for our safety on a shoot before until this one!

I have always loved the rugged Oregon coast, but when you're trying to take portraits in probably 60 mph wind gusts?! That's a just a little too rugged. Unfortunately we had to cut the session short, before we were blown off a cliff, but we had one crazy adventure and got some beautiful portraits before trying to make our way back through one of the craziest storms I have ever been in! I always love couples that are adventurous and willing to go the extra mile to get gorgeous portraits, and clearly Mel and Jason are one of my favorites!

Mattie | Madison, Wisconsin, Senior Portrait Session

I often get asked, "besides weddings, what do you like to shoot?" The answer? Senior portraits!! That's why you'll notice a mix of wedding, engagement, and senior portraits in my portfolio. I should probably create a different website just for seniors, but I'm all about simplifying my life right now ;)

Senior portrait sessions are so much fun for me because it's a time dedicated to bringing out each person's personality and interest through portraits. If I have extra time some day (haha sorry I usually don't have that much free time) I'll scan some of my prints from my senior portraits and share them with you, but for now you'll just have to see some of Mattie's awesome session last summer!

Mattie is a super busy senior this year with basketball and softball, but she also loves the water so of course we just had to go in the lake for a bit! Why not?! I love the variety of locations we used in downtown Madison and just how effortless is was to photograph Mattie!

Destination Elopements + Weddings | Hiking Washington National Parks

For a lot of wedding photographers it is the dream to get to photograph a wedding in some exotic or adventurous location. Haha I know I will raise my hand and yell "pick me!!" any time someone asks to travel somewhere for their wedding. But for me it goes a little further than that. I seem to have this burning desire to see the world and all of the unique and beautiful places in it.

For those of you that don't know, photography is actually my second career! I started my adult life as an accountant, but a semester studying abroad in college taught me that life is just too short and you shouldn't settle for anything. That is why I'm now following my passion as a photographer, and that is why I want to photograph more destination weddings and elopements! I LOVE getting to photograph so many beautiful weddings here in Wisconsin, but I want to push it just a little further than that. There are so many amazing places to see and experience and I want to do that with my camera in hand.

Last summer I spent some time exploring Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier, Puget Sound, and the North Cascades. I will hopefully be going back to the area of the PNW soon, but it's just a little reminder of the gorgeous places even right here in the United States that we should all take advantage of and visit. Haha and of course take advantage of having portraits in these epic locations :)

I've been posting a lot more images like this in my Instagram feed (@jendederich) to hopefully inspire people to not only get out and explore but to try something new and adventurous for their wedding, elopement, or portrait session. Happy traveling!