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About Dustin
Dustin Steller, owner and creative director for Five Loaves Creative and Steller Photography, is passionate about life and strives to capture the beauty of life's most important moments in an enduring way. He is a seasoned photographer, professional designer, and creative jack-of-all-trades. Dustin's fun, friendly, energetic, humorous, flexible and approachable personality makes him a favorite of clients. Dustin and his wife, Carrie, have two vibrant red-headed daughters and a puppy.
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Five Loaves Creative
Dustin owns/operates this small, creative design firm specializing in print and web design for high-end clients.
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Steller Photography
An artistic photography boutique for weddings, portraits and stock.
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Baldology
A partnership with another bald guy producing custom web design for photographers. New site coming soon!
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Steller gear
Cool stuff for the pro photographers, like presets, actions and apparel. New site coming soon!
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October 12, 2008

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This blog is the source for the latest info about Steller Photography based in Kansas City, MO, primarily shooting artistic weddings and senior portraits.

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Distractions

Category: Weddings

Oct
8
Filed Under:
Weddings

Blake+Jenn Wedding

What a fantastically fun day! It kicked off with me over at Blake & Jenn’s house where the girls were pretty much all getting ready.The guys were getting ready over at their neighbors’/dear friends house. Yah for Tony and Angela! When I arrived, nearly everyone was pretty much ready to roll. On the way over to the main venue, we stopped at some groovy little spots for bridal party photos. I think some of the bridal party were having fun, so I decided to post some of my favs from those sets. What do you think of those? I was kickin’ it with my new wide angle glass. Gotta love the sturdy 17-35mm f/2.8!

After those shots we hurried over to one of the prettiest venues of the year… Renée Kelly’s Caenen Castle. Yes, you heard me correctly, a genuinely restored castle, originally built in 1907. Chef Renée Kelly produce’s it’s flawless fresh cuisine and the experience of the entire place was just too cool for words. It is definitely a quiet little gem in the Kansas City area. I hope more bride’s use it in the future. Nice find Jenn! Anyway, the ceremony, dinner and reception was held at the castle. An incredibly fun time was had by all ages.

Oh! This was my second week in a row to have some yummy Rebekah Foster cake! It was my first time to meet the ever-so-awesome dj, Marc O’Leary. He put the f-u-n in fun! :-)

I would love to know your all’s thoughts on the myriad of photos from this day. Leave a comment and let me know!

Getting ready…I love Jenn’s glasses. Such an artist.

Hot dog! Check out the crew at an empty lot in an industrial park.

Walking back to the cars…man, there were a lot of crickets in the tall grass!

Check out the handy, dandy backseat of a minivan. Perfect place for a picture, no?

The yellow building brought some groovy opportunities…

Pretty peoples….just makes you sick, you know what I mean? :-)

Lovely, intimate ceremony.

A rockin’ Rebekah Foster piece of art. Sigh….I could eat it everyday.

“Dance with meeeee, oh my darlinnnngg….” I always love the first dances.

Chef Renée Kelly let me come in and bug her. She is a cute sweetheart and ta-len-ted! Her crew rocks, too! Fantastic staff.

The inside of the castle…detailed and more than charming. Breathtaking.

Aren’t they a dynomite couple? Smokin’ hot even when they are serious! I promise I got lots of happy photos, too! :-)

Their neighbor & friend Angela, enjoying a good ole cigar.

Party time! Marc O’Leary brings it all when he DJs. Look out for a good time! In the bottom left, that’s Tony, Angela’s husband, break-dancing king…or trying, anyway. Better than I can do! Ha!

Tweet, tweet…wook at the wittle wing shot!

Goodnight moon. Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.

Toggle comments (4 Comments so far. Add your comment!)

  1. Brian Stevens

    These are great! I can only imagine how happy they will be with these. You just keep rocking it and setting the bar higher each time!

  2. Blake and Jenn

    AH! I’m so excited! Seriously, my kids have been teasing me b/c I like refreshed the blog like, once an hour checking, lol. I love the first group shot, we look like the mafia, ha! And the shot with Blake and I close; our eyes look amazing. Oh Dustin, I can’t tell you enough how happy we are. You’re a master of your craft. We are just buzzing with excitement to see the proofs.

  3. neal

    Your ring shot made me laugh. So smooth as always…

  4. Heather

    These are amazing!

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Sep
26
Filed Under:
Weddings

Eric+Emily Wedding

A fantastically beautiful day for a wedding. Fluffy white clouds, a slight breeze, and bright blue skies showed the way to this latest wedding. Eric and Emily are a couple bursting with laughter and a contagious kind of raw joy. They share knowing glances and inside jokes and they are adored by their friends and family. Shooting their wedding was an extension of that happy feeling.

Although we initially met and got all ready down at Hotel Phillips on 12th and Baltimore, the main festivities took place down at the historic Hobbs Building in the West Bottoms of Kansas City. This was my first time at the Hobbs Building and I immediately fell in love with the space, both inside and outside. It was kind of a tight timeline, so I didn’t have any spare time to explore and find the nooks and crannies I usually do, I did love all the texture and warmth and homieness of the building and I look forward to shooting there again someday.

As a sidenote, the vintage car is owned by the bride’s Grandfather. We used it in a lot of the photos because of the sheer awesomeness of the darned Packard! :-)

The details of this wedding were fabulous! Emily (and her awesome wedding planner/coordinator, Holly Davidson of Simple Elegance) did a wonderful job. The floral arrangements and design (like the dance floor lighting) were under the skilled hands of Neil and Drue from Blue Bouquet. The oh-so-amazing cake was artistically created by Rebekah Foster, Cake Artist. Fantastic catering by Feasts of Fancy. Incredible DJ’ing by Mario and Tim with DJs For Hire. I hope you all can appreciate their hard work and talents from my photos.

Four pretty ladies. | I love window light. :-)

See what I mean about the laughter?

Beautiful ceremony, with mom and dad looking on…

Happy newlywed, yo!

What a fun crew around the Packard!

Sultry gaze at his new bride.

Lip-smmmmaack!

Little video light love (Neal and Eric from Lemon Lime helped on the left image).

Yummy details!

Ring shot…on one of the tall centerpieces (look above)

Husband/Wife and Daddy/Daughter…Love it!

Get down, get down! (Lemon Lime got done with one of their weddings and crashed mine late that night. Neal and Eric are hiding in the photo. Can you see them both?)

This was my last shot of the night, as I was walking out the door.

Toggle comments (4 Comments so far. Add your comment!)

  1. Katrina

    I love the tone and contrast in this album especially with the lighting. Excellent work!

  2. ErIn

    BLOWIN ME AWAY EVERYDAY!! :)
    those car pics are a must have…

  3. neal

    I never thought I would be a wedding crasher!! But I did have fun. Might need to be added to my ‘Things to do’ list!

    Great images! Glad that video light portrait turned out so nice.

  4. Roger

    Love the car photo with the faces in the mirror.

    That is one awesome car !! Makes an amazing prop !!

    Well done

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Sep
23
Filed Under:
Weddings

Hadley+Allison Wedding

Imagine with me…a dynamic couple’s wedding full of wonderful details and a crowd of amazing people to celebrate with them. The setting is on a stately 160-acre farm north of Topeka that has been in one family for 4 generations…now add a bit of warm, drizzly, non-stop rain for good luck! That describes this day to a T. It was an awesome day and I am not just saying that because I have to…it really was.

Hadley and Allison wanted me to cover their wedding with a bit more photo-journalistic flair, versus my  usual portrait-driven photography. This was a bit out of my comfort zone, as I love to bring all sorts of photography to the table, so today I am proud to show you these photos. Subtly different for me, but still me nonetheless.

If you pay particular attention to some of the scenes during the ceremony and you can see the drizzle coming down and the hearts of all those people melting as Hadley and Allison pledge themselves to one another for life. How cool is that?!

There was not enough hairspray to battle the drizzle, but in spite of it all the ladies all tried.

A quiet moment of privacy as they see each other for the first time on their wedding at the side of the huge yellow barn.

Yes, it was a bit wet as we all prepared for the ceremony. The musicians, dear friends of the bride and groom, were very talented. I think they play any instrument utilizing strings!

Priceless expressions from daddy and daughter, with Hadley looking on in the foreground.

I must share this! The wedding arbor was made by the groom! He is an architect…should we expect anything less?

There were lots and lots of fun umbrellas. I have a whole series of them now. :-)

This ring shot is one of my favs. It was raining during dinner (yes, we ate outside). Water was drizzling and dripping from a tree onto the wet tablecloth of the bridal party’s table, so I had the bride and groom help me push the glasses up (thanks Allison for the idea!), and I happened to catch the drips with my 50mm and two video lights. Fun!

Anyone care for some strawberry shortcake?! Yeah!

Twinkle lights were used e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e! Trees, barns, rafters…thousands and thousands. It was really beautiful.

Toggle comments (7 Comments so far. Add your comment!)

  1. Sandy Farrar

    love,love,love these wedding pics! What wonderful memories you have captured for this couple to treasure forever. I love that they had it at the family farm, and I’m sure even the drizzly rain left its mark in the memory book as well. Love all the shots, but I think the dance in the barn might be my favorite! Great job as always Dustin:)

  2. Shannon

    Dustin these are gorgeous. LOVE the ring shots in the rain… wow. The rain added such a beautiful element to the whole wedding. Phenomenal job my friend :)
    ~S

  3. Roger Pike

    Stunning photo’s, the last one just blows me away !

  4. Katie Mae

    i’m so glad the umbrellas were in the pictures. i love it!

  5. beth

    I don’t wish rain on any bride’s special day, but these photos will be treasured in a whole new way because of it! Soo glad you didn’t invite me to 2nd shoot w/you (hahaha) my hair would’ve scared everyone away ;). Great work as usual.

  6. Rachel Gardner

    I love all of these. So awesome. I just shot my first wedding and I have a great appreciation for it now. You do amazing work.

  7. emily law

    what a fun wedding. didn’t let a little rain get them down, that’s wonderful, great shooting!

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