Andrea Dozier Dayton Wedding & Lifestyle Photography

When I moved to Dayton, I was just starting sixth grade. My new experiences didn’t go very well at my new school. I went from being the president of my student council to “Can anyone… anyone… let me sit at your lunch table please…Â maybe if I beg?”

On the other hand, I made some good friends at my church. During that painfully awkward year, Sarah became a good friend and we’ve been able to stay close. We’ve had so many long conversations about husbands & children before either of those things were a reality for us. There were years of wonderful, innocent memories made enjoying life {even though we always longed to be “adults”}. Our sons were born on each other’s due date, two years apart. We always look forward to their birthday month & discuss how quickly they are growing. Her family is beautiful & she is blessed with two good “mans” {as my son would call them}. These were taken in the ripeness of fall and I hope they do her favorite season justice. I wanted most of them to remain colorful, because there is such a short time when the colors are naturally this amazing.

Her Shiba Inu, Cider, is so adorable! I love when pets can make a cameo in family pictures, especially one as photogenic as hers :]

I love you Sarah Ann… I’m so glad you are part of my life.

My cousin, April, has two very sweet baby girls. It’s so cool to see how her family has grown & to be able to document it with my camera. She is from Northern Ohio, but was gracious enough to meet me at a park in Sydney (about half way for both of us). I usually like to scope out locations before we shoot, but only Googled this one. Turned out, {to my relief}, we had plenty to work with!

Miriah is a year old, and I love how at that age, everything is new & their curiosity is so obvious. She made me smile all over again working with these pictures.

And because her shoes were insanely adorable, had to show them in color :]

Recap of October II still in the works as well as three weddings & three engagements. I am gonna be a blogging machine for the next couple weeks ;]

I’ve known Tara & Tiffany for years. We met through my church youth group, and they were like big sisters to me. I’ll never forget sharing chimi-cheesecakes at Applebees {where I eventually worked with them} or piling into Tiff’s old white station wagon for high school football games on Friday nights. I was actually with them, at an Elms concert, the first time I ever remember being introduced to my husband.

Photographing them with their children is pretty much as good as it gets. When people make your life more beautiful for so many years & encourage you through every teenage disaster, then, you have an opportunity to show them how special their life is… it’s just cool.

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With all my love, enjoy.

I love standing back quietly as a witness. Watching. Waiting… for innocence to bloom through my lens.

Tara{h}: He is growing so fast. But he couldn’t be more handsome or sweet. You’re a beautiful mama!

Love the colors in the next two of Tara & Zak. They were some of the last ones we took as the sun was setting.

Love my lens. Especially how it enables me to give Photoshop a break so often…

Tiffany had asked me to do her wedding while I was still in school for graphic design. It was a really big encouragement, since I had never thought of doing photography that way before. I regret not doing her wedding for her, but she has continued to help inspire & coax me in that direction.
The next time I was asked by another friend, I said yes.
And good things have happened.
I will always try to continue making it up to her…

And one more…

Sometimes I add lens flare in my “digital darkroom.” This one was natural {rainbow & all}. Lucky timing.

Hope you enjoyed these photos, they were truly a labor of love. Thanks for being part of my life {for so long} you two!
Which one was your favorite?

October has been a pretty {busy} good month. I feel so blessed to be busy doing something that I love more & more all the time. It’s kind of scary that after all the pictures I’ve taken lately, all I want to do is take as many as I can before we hibernate for winter. Then keep taking them until my fingers freeze.

Thank you for keeping up with my work & viewing my stories. I am thankful for all of you who support & encourage me… and… who contact me about working with you or people you know. I realize that all of my work comes from your support. Thank you.

Here are a few samples of pictures from some of the shoots that I’ve finished recently.

Sebastian was nine months old in these pictures. I loved watching him discover leaves & sticks, then see how his eyes reflected every thought in his head.

I was able to sneak in the Frazee family portraits while I was in Columbus a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it rained. Kelly {mom} was really flexible & we did an impromptu shoot inside. I love the way these look in black & white, I think it helps show the mood of that day & the way the kids were feeling being stuck indoors.

I have one more post ready for this week. Other than that, I’ll be baking a wedding cake. Then delivering it to Columbus. Then photographing that wedding.
After a long long nap… you’ll be seeing more of the October family, babies, engagements, and weddings on here!

When Samantha contacted me about setting up some family pictures, I was so excited to discover that she has beautiful twin boys. They are both very handsome & I loved watching them interact with each other and play with the fallen leaves. Get ready to swoon, they are adorable!

These little guys had me wishing I was a videographer instead of photographer… seeing them walk around like little men was hilariously priceless!

I loved watching them play together… how cool to be born with a best friend?

When we are doing family pictures, I love to snap a few of mom & dad too.

Samantha’s soon to be sister-in-law, Becki, came to help. Always a great idea with little ones!

Finally, the definition of Fall {I hope it doesn’t end too soon!}…