I am so excited to finally offer SNOW SESSIONS! I have had this idea for over a year now and it has finally come to fruition. Similar to confetti sessions, we have faux snow to throw around to create a winter wonderland effect. For those who are too young for faux snow I have a little snow magic up my sleeves to add during editing. Who wants to come make an epic mess in my studio and NOT have to clean it up?? You can book here or contact me for more details ..read more

Welcome home CVW-5! We are so happy that you are home. There were big emotions, a little stress and a whole lot of love. I am beyond honored that I was asked to be apart of these special memories. Welcome back ..read more

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The first year of life is full of milestones for both baby and parents. Nothing is much greater than your child’s first birthday. Why not celebrate with CAKE (or an alternative) and a huge mess that YOU don’t have to clean up?! Cake smashes have become a right of passage for little ones as they move into toddlerhood. Melissa Captures Photography provides beautiful, simplistic backdrop for your child’s cake smash based on your theme color selection. Your session will include portraits, cake smash and bubble session at the end. Does Melissa Captures Photography provide cakes? No. I feel that due ..read more

Life does not always go as planned. This sweet family had a huge change in plans which meant we had to hustle to get their maternity session done before they welcomed their newest edition. It was a gorgeous day and the light was just right! It couldn’t have turned out better ..read more

Day 3 After a quick breakfast at the hotel we heading down to Takachiho gorge for a boat ride through the gorge. I recommend going early. It got really busy around 10am, we head a 930 boat ride. It was so beautiful and definitely worth it. (Just a heads up, there are a lot of stairs going down into the gorge to board the boat.) After we finished our boat ride, we walked around the area. We found THE photo spot, so of course I took pictures. Then we fed the ducks and watched the koi at a little pond. We found a Nagashi somen restaurant, Inakaya. A quick internet search told me that this dish wa ..read more

Day 2: Beppu and Oita The Easter bunny found us at our Air B&B all the way in Yufu. He even hid Easter eggs around the house! After we packed up and bit farewell to our amazing private onsen (hot spring) we headed to Oita for a special breakfast at Kona’s Coffee. The kids enjoyed their pancakes hidden under the mound of whipped cream. The hubs and I sampled a few items from the menu, including the guacamole which came with sweet chili tasting nacho cheese chips. I don’t think I will be able to eat guacamole without them now. After breakfast we set off for Beppu to the Beppu Jigoku Meguri H ..read more

Day 1: Yufu We went to Cafe Hive for a quick and delicious lunch. Of course we had to try the ice cream. The bamboo charcoal chocolate was quite tasty. Then we strolled through the Floral village and Yunotsubo street. We made a little detour to the 3D Trick Art Yufuin before we headed to Kirin lake. We found a flat fee lot to park in that was pretty conveniently located to everything. As we drove in I saw to most gorgeous sakura umbrella at a little shop. As we sat down to eat at Hive my husband noticed that the umbrella store was attached to the restaurant…so I took it as a sign that I was me ..read more

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