Back to the studio for a great family

I can't make up my mind. After an outdoor portrait session like the one I just did on Sunday, I think, "Oh, outdoor is my favorite!" And after a studio session like this one today I think, "Oh, studio is my favorite!" I guess I just love it all!

This evening I photographed the Wood family (no relation to me) - one of my favorites! They are just so nice! And today I got to meet a member of the family I had not yet met - which was an added treat. I am fascinated by identical twins, so getting to photograph G & G again was really neat for me.

Thank you, Laurie and John, for coming in this evening for portraits - I look forward to showing you all of your proofs soon.

The outdoor season has begun

I had the pleasure of photography Katy and Brian and their sweet daughters yesterday. After months of mostly studio sessions it was so nice to get outside again and stretch my creativity and photography. The girls were so easy to work with, and wanted to know all about my own children, which I think is so cute. Look for many more outdoor photography from me in the next couple of months.

Katie - your proofs will be ready soon. Until then, enjoy!

I love "my" babies

This is just so fun for me! Seriously! Just seeing these babies coming back for portraits -- I got to know them as teeny tiny newborns and that is probably how I shall always think of them. But then they come to my studio and they look nothing like they do in my mental image and that is just so disorienting!

Christina and Jason brought Baby B back for portraits yesterday - I just have to show a before and after. Remember this sweet baby (and handsome daddy, too?)

Well, now look at him! He's already 16 pounds at 3 months old. What a chunky monkey! And I finally got to see his eyes =)

Thanks Christina and Jason!

Design Aglow E-Zine mention

I am thrilled to tell you that my work was recently featured in the Design Aglow e-zine "Success Issue." Design Aglow is a very chic magazine for photographers full of inspiration and ideas and advice. The latest issue contains a feature about how important it is, in a world seemingly filled with photographers, to develop a recognizable and individual style to achieve success.

The article's writer, Andrea Joki, an American living in Finland and an amazingly talented photographer, chose me as one of the featured photographers in her article, "The Success Advantage: Style."

She writes: In contrast to the current trend for bright, high key studio portraiture, Kansas photographer Lori Wood Habiger, owner of Center Stage Photography, found a different path when developing her style. Using a rich combination of low key compositions and unusually arranged lighting, Lori created a very distinct look that keeps her customers returning for her artistic eye. She describes her work, "I like to think that my work is dramatic and emotional; traditional with a bit of a modern element. I love shadows and how they compliment the human form and face; and how the dark and the light emphasize the emotion of the moment."

This portrait of beautiful Christina Lehman was one of two of my portraits used for the article. By the way - high-key means the overall tones in the image are very light; low-key means the overall tones in the portrait are dark, and typically a lot of shadowing is used.


The other portrait is of a lovely teenaged Overland Park dancer named Lauren - the daughter of a photographer, which I just love! This portrait was taken at a mini-session event at a South Overland Park dance studio. Andrea Joki herself chose these portraits from among my body of work as ones she finds to be illustrative of my very unique style of portraiture.

Have you signed up for my newsletter?

I just sent out my September newsletter -- if you did not get it and would like to be added, please send me an email or else you can subscribe yourself via the area in the right hand column of my blog -- down under my little photo. It's a good way to keep up with what's going on at my studio, and I also have special discounts and incentives that I give only to my newsletter readers.

A historic presidency

We are on the brink of a truly historic presidency - check it out:

Lori for president

How cool is this?

The Beauty of Dance - Carly

I have had the luck to be able to photograph some of Kansas City's most beautiful women over the last month - tonight's subject of my dance portraits was the stunning Carly Prenger, 22, a dancer and dance instructor. I have to admit that these "sneak peak" blog posts have been difficult -how do I choose only 3-4 when I love so many of them? Carly's session was just amazing this evening and I'm so happy to be able to share these portraits with you.

Isn't Carly a beauty?


And finally, Carly really touched me with the story of her remarkable grandmother, and the inspiration Carly has gotten all her life from this amazing woman. Carly told me about portrait of her grandmother, herself a dancer, in pointe shoes, and Carly was eager to create a similar portrait this evening. Here's Carly's homage to her grandmother. I'm proud to have helped her honor her grandmother in this way.

The Beauty of Dance - Krystin

The lovely and talented Krystin Quilty Sanford is just the latest dancer to be photographed by me for my new "dancer sessions." She is such a great person, a talented choreographer, and a skilled dancer as well. Besides teaching at the Academy of the Arts dance studios, she also coaches the drill team at Shawnee Mission North high school in Overland Park.

It was fun photographing you Krystin - I can't wait to show you the rest of your gallery.


Krystin's choreography is a theatrical mix of dance and drama, so I thought a masquerade mask was an interesting way to illustrate that side of her.