• Welcome to my here today

    My name is Melissa Squires.. What I do is to capture frames of you that show your real true inner shining rock star self. It isn’t about being someone else, dressing some certain way and you don't need any secret sauce, you are what makes YOU and wonderful and interesting and special. My images reflect the beauty, joy, and inner soul of my subjects, and the moments they inhabit.. these images are forever.

    Photography is how I express myself, how I see, how I celebrate who we are today.

    My son is my breath and my husband is my life. I will be quite satisfied when I am 80 if I have loved them well and taken some amazing photographs along the way.

    Booking weddings now for November and December 2010 and into 2011

    Portrait sessions are limited and booking two - three months in advance; thank you for contacting and booking ahead of time to guarantee your session

    contact me : email melissa@agirlinlove.com, text me or call me at 517-902-3905, follow me on twitter @agirlinlove and of course I'm all over facebook www.facebook.com/agirlinlove


  • Â

olivia graduation

Olivia told me when she booked me for my largest senior package that she had been waiting to schedule her senior pictures since she was a freshman.. I totally understood her to mean she’d been looking forward to getting her pictures that long, which was pretty cool.  But she went on, she’d seen my work hanging in a restaurant three years before and had been waiting to book me for her session since that day.  I was gobsmacked and completely touched. We spent the day shooting in Detroit at the Greenfield Village, such an amazing day and again an amazing young woman. Olivia I am so so touched and honored to have been chosen to photograph such a huge milestone in your life. You shine. Here are a few of my favorites.

courtney graduation

Our first session was rained out, we got the yearbook image taken care of though, and the reschedule was perfect, an old farm and grain mill provided the perfect backdrop and Courtney is going to be an amazing adult, she is already an amazing teenager.  She’ll be a rockstar someday no matter what she decides to do.

tidying up

I had a shoe fitting for a wedding in two weeks (in which I am in!) and it got canceled and so I was left with some found time, so I started to tidy up… with weddings every weekend, sessions during the week, processing and ordering in between as well as a monster little dog a son and a house full of people well I am not the neatest person… I have an organization to the madness but there is that touch of madness in there.

Next to my loveseat is a pile of what I’m looking at and what I’m wanting to read this summer .. and it all was so pretty and there is so much good stuff in that small spot I thought I’d share some of the goodness..

a. My brand new to me zenit b, totally inspired by Annette’s work, I look at so much film and I have a medium format camera (a couple) but her zenit b work and the work I’ve seen with it other spots as well as the 100% manualness to it (no lightmeter all flat out up to me) well I can’t wait, I have a few projects lined up and if they turn out I’ll share! (maybe even if they don’t!)  Check out Annettes new zenit b book at her hymn to cigarettes

b.the lovely wrapping paper my magazine from dream and awake came in h. which is an independent clothing line and they published a book featuring the photography for their site… it’s a strange mixture of fine art, fashion and publishing and I really love it.

c. who doesn’t love strong beautiful men, strong beautiful women and mystery, all tied up with romance and steam punk, I especially LOVE that the main characters are married, happily, and it isn’t boring at all (just like my life I suppose :) minus the dirigibles.

d the selby is in your place, if you don’t have it you should it’s fantastic fantastic images and design and just good, another strange mix of art worlds colliding gloriously.

e. if I’m not reading something about photography, if I’m not trying to learn more than just processing and poses well I may as well stop, the learning and the growing is so interesting to me.. this one is pretty interesting and I’m reading it small chunks.

f. one of my flickr contacts published hotshots and it’s got some GREAT images and some of the best indepth but attaniable descriptions of exposure, metering, shutter etc.. it’s going to be gifted to all my friends who are learning their dslrs! He has two others published and they look fantastic to!

g. um I listened to most of it on audio traveling to a shoot and it was horrible and wonderful, I bought the book finished it, and than reread the original, again! sheer genius.. gimmick, yes, but fun, yes yes.

anyway that’s what I’m looking at every evening when I peel myself away from this computer, there is so much good stuff out there and I don’t feel I share  like maybe I should… what are you reading, what has inspired you OFF the matrix this summer :)

suzy and josh . engagement

I have to say that I met up with Suzy and Josh in Ferndale after driving about six hours from a wedding up on Mackinaw Island I was wondering if I’d have the energy I needed for the session.  After getting started I realized there was no way I couldn’t have the best session imaginable, their energy, and their love, and their amazing selves made me totally forget about anything but the reason why I love photographing people more than anything.  We checked out AJ’s and then wandered a bit downtown, I have two posts, this is the first, there will be another one with a little find we discovered in a thrift store.  Thank you both for being you and letting me capture that :)

michelle and brendon . wedding . mayan riviera

I had the immense pleasure of meeting Michelle and shooting an event she was covering a few years ago.  We had a blast.  When she called and asked me if I would photograph her wedding in Mexico I didn’t hesitate one moment!  I was honored.  Michelle and Brendon with their friends and their families, the most wonderful group of people you could ever meet, all celebrated their big day on the beach and on the dance floor.  It was beautiful, magical and a total blast.  Here are just a few of my favorites from their day.

brunch this sunday

this summer despite a crazy hectic session and wedding schedule, a full house and more travel than we’ve done before, I have tried to make sure I don’t forget to photograph those about me (and maybe sneak myself in there once in a while)  So as I wait on one machine for Michelle and Brendon’s wedding to be ready to blog and upload I thought I’d use my other computer to share a few snapshots from this last weekend, our first non wedding shooting weekend in a while.  I really love my guys, they are well, they are everything.

I took that one myself of course and the next one, well my sister took it, it’s the only one in focus that has our faces in it out of the batch :) so I’m considering it a keeper!

more more more of the amazing beautiful and wonderful other people in my life coming soon!!!  Michelle and Brendon, Laura and Eric, Courtney and Olivia and so many more :)