Proud Members of the following organizations:
Scott and Jen Elder, Lead Photographers
At Midwest LifeShots Photography, we don't believe a single photographer is enough. Weddings, families, babies and seniors are treated with the same level of coverage: two sets of eyes capturing every moment from multiple angles. We have husband/wife and mother/daughter teams that have great chemistry (with themselves and with you!).
At Midwest LifeShots, our passion is photography, plain and simple. We are constantly experimenting with the latest gear and techniques and we truly love what we do. Our passion shows through when we capture and reflect the joys in your life.
Please contact us...we'd love to visit with you!
From this page you can view our Blog, get Directions, see Galleries including:, Gallery Seniors, Gallery Families, Gallery Weddings, Gallery E-Sessions, read Testimonials and most importantly Contact us!
Where do I begin to explain who we are in a simple page labeled About Us. As chief photographer and web designer, I (Scott) will attempt to tell the story as first person as possible. Jen and I met online, using America Online and a quote from Austin Powers to bring us together. I was attending Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and Jen was going to Mayo High School in Rochester, MN. We became friends and kept up communication as such for the next year.
Jen moved to Northwestern College in Roseville, MN and I relocated to Tuscola, IL (my hometown). We started talking on the phone quite a bit (thank you night and weekend packages!) and time flew. Soon we were discussing how the two of us would meet. My brother and I wanted to take a road trip together and Minnesota entered the equation since I now had someone I wanted to meet there :). The Mall Of America became our destination and the two of us finally met. From there sparks flew and we knew we wanted to be together. I soon relocated to Minnesota and started working with Jen's father, Ken McCasland. Having worked as a Realtor for Coldwell Banker At Your Service, Ken started a company called Southeast Minnesota Technology, providing virtual tours, professional level photography and websites to Realtors. The photography aspect of the business grew each year and seven years later here we are.
We devote much of our time to education and improving our craft. We frequently attend seminars from NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) and various photographers such as Bob and Dawn Davis and Sandy Puc. We aspire to be members of the TCPPA (Twin Cities Professional Photographer Assocation), PPA, Cornbelt PPA and WPPI. We read blogs and books from everyone we can, learning from Jasmine Star, David Ziser and Dane Sanders. Education is enormous and we constantly search improvement and knowledge, a factor present in our ever evolving portfolio and style.
We have ventured primarily into wedding photography, but also have a passion for working with engagements, children and even families. We simply love to be behind a camera, and ours are Canon by the way :). We use two 5D Mark IIs, a 24-70mm 2.8L and a 70-200mm 2.8L as our primary equipment. We have upgraded, via Gary Fong, to a Lightsphere and two Whale Tales as well as a set of Radio Poppers Bob Davis talked me into purchasing. Our equipment is top notch in the industry.
Though we have a number of photographers working for us now, we are still a mom and pop organization at heart. Everyone is on a first name basis, we all do charity events together (Carefest was our most recent) and we all participate in each other's lives on personal as well as professional levels.
Give us a shot as your photographers and you'll see!
Visit each of our pages for more information on other sessions and how to book your own!
There are many pages within this site. The site has been optimized for all browsers, including Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari and FireFox. This site contains Adobe Flash. Flash players are free of charge and can be downloaded at www.adobe.com. A generic sitemap is listed below:
Home, Contact Us, Thank You Page, The Latest, Blog, About Us, Directions, Testimonials, About Us Contact, About Us Thank You, Wedding Home, Wedding Pricing, Photo Booth,Wedding Contact, Wedding Thank You, Families Home, Families Pricing,Families Contact, Families Thank You, E-Sessions Home, E-Sessions Pricing,E-Sessions Contact, E-Sessions Thank You, Seniors Home, Seniors Pricing, Seniors Thank You, Seniors Contact, Gallery Seniors, Gallery Families, Gallery Weddings, Gallery E-Sessions.
If you have any further questions about how to navigate the site, feel free to contact us at info@midwestlifeshots.com or at our phone number, 507-424-1044. You can ask for Scott Elder, Jen Elder or Ken McCasland. You may also visit our chief photographer's Facebook site at www.facebook.com/scottelder1 for contact information or to browse photographs. Our galleries may be accessed on our SmugMug site at http://midwestlifeshots.smugmug.com. Many of our site pages as well as our contact information may be accessed by searching for us on Google, Yahoo or Bing. Other search engines indexing our site are Ask, AltaVista, Dogpile, Lycos, Cuil, Excite, Go, Hotbot, AOL, Live Search and Alexa. Nationwide wedding planning sites that assist us in marketing and therefore list us as a vendor include Go2Wed, WedPlan.net, Wedj.com, Facebook, BlogSpot, Rochester Post Bulletin, Linked In, Twitter, PhotoLinks.com, Pelaez Creative, SmugMug, Yahoo Yellow Pages, Rochester MN.com, YouTube, Gathering Guide.com, BNI, 101 Photographers,Wedding And Party Network, HotFrog, My Punch Bowl, Party Pop, More-Videos, Rochester Carefest, SuperPages. There are hundreds more, but those are some quick links for ya!
Contacting us right away when considering professional photography is very important. We offer discounts to Mayo Clinic employees, IBM employees as well as military discounts to all branches, inlcuding the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and National Guard. Our vast involvement with the community and number of discounts offered makes our appointments fill up very quickly and failure to book us soon may result in weeks, sometimes months out for open appointments. We sincerely hope to hear from you soon!