Noah + Eli | Kansas City, MO Brookside Photographer

Noah and Eli are my little buddies! I love hanging out with them and their wonderful mommy Heidi! (And their daddy, Austin, too!) When we were at the park yesterday, I asked Heidi if I could take some photographs of her amazing little boys and she said yes! (Yay!) 

Eli (also known as "E") is Noah's little brother and the sweetest little boy you could ever meet! His eyes see into your soul (I swear!) Yesterday, he just wanted to show me his cool pocket on his blue shirt! "Did you zee my pock-it?" Oh. My. Gosh. Adorable! And when he says "thank you" my heart literally melts inside my chest. I can't get enough of him!

Noah is simply amazing-so smart and so caring-the best big brother to Eli! He is always asking me how "Alien" is doing, which I think is the cutest thing ever! (He says that because the way I say Alan is the only remnant of my nasal-ey Chicago accent, haha!) Noah loves to sing and dance and he was showing me his awesome moves yesterday. (He did a combo of the sprinkler with a little bit of the boogie). He was also great at finding things for me to photograph! "Hey Hilary-look here, look here! You should take a picture of this spider!" (It was a pretty cool spider, if I do say!)

We took many pictures in the "Dinosaur Park," named by the boys for the dinosaur fossil under the feux rock wall. Noah and Eli were fascinated by this creature in the plastic, as was I! Noah sat under it by what he called the "space ship" (one of the ladders), looked up at me with his warm eyes and I went shutter crazy! Eli couldn't get enough of the slide. This was fantastic because there was the most amazing lighting coming from behind the trees behind the slide and with Eli's head sticking out over the side, it was great! Below are just a few of my favorites.

I choose this song by Jack Johnson from the Curious George soundtrack, because every time I hear it, it reminds me of Noah and Eli! Have a listen while flipping through if you'd like!

Briana + Steve | Kansas City, MO River Market + City Market Photographer

Talk about an absolutely wonderful couple's shoot! Briana and Steve are the winners from our Facebook giveaway contest we held in May. They won this whole shoot and an 8 x 10 for free! (If you don't "like" us on Facebook-you should! We do contests all the time and you can win stuff too!)

Our session started in Steve and Briana's beautiful River Market Apartment. I loved the exposed brick wall, giant windows, and fantastic furniture! They had the most amazing low back couch that worked great for formal shots (and for funny-serious ones too). I even got to take photos of the most adorable cats in the world, Murs and Hegel! Hegel is the fluffy guy and Murs is the orange and agile one. It was interesting to see the differences with Hegel and Murs' personalities. Hegel was all about lounging whereas Murs was all action. Murs was so funny, actually! In the window he kept on switching up his poses. I got tons of favorites of the cats.

After formals and family shots were done in the apartment, we moved outside to the beautiful City Market/River Market area, where what Steve called the "Neighborhood Garage Sale" was going on. Whatever it was, it was cool. There were so many people moving back and forth. I thought it was the perfect backdrop for Briana and Steve! My all time favorite shot is one of the ones below, where Steve and Briana are just looking at each other and smiling with KC as the backdrop. Their love is such a fantastic and beautiful one! I am honored to have been able to photograph such amazing people.

I chose "Home" as a song to listen to while flipping through this sneak peak. It's always on the radio here in KC, and I know that Briana and Steve just moved back here from Milwaukee, so I thought it was a good fit :) Feel free to listen while reviewing Briana and Steve's session!

1st Post | Kansas City Photographer | Hilary Hope Photography

Hello great big internet world! It's me, Hilary! I'm so happy to be here. :)


It's my first blog post on the Hilary Hope Photography blog and I couldn't be more happy to share it with you. In honor of our amazing blog launch, I'm doing something special! An amazing 30% off coupon code which you can use on either a session or photo order. Here is a little bit more about that deal:

I'm so excited about having a photography blog! I know-that sounds really nerdy-but I am totally stoked! I can't wait to upload sneak peaks of all my photo sessions here. It's going to be fantastic. Well, aside from my excitement, and because this is my first blog post, I think I will tell you a little bit about me! 


My full name is Hilary Hope Bloomquist.  I'm 23 and am deeply in love with my husband, Alan and my amazing floppy-eared basset hound, Harley! I'm the oldest of four kids and am extremely passionate in absolutely everything I do. I love being with people and butter pecan ice cream, and playing my guitar on Sunday afternoons.


Alan, Harley and I moved to Kansas City about 2 months ago, and we are loving it! We set up shop here in Dutch Hill/Longfellow-a fantastic neighborhood in downtown Kansas City next to the Crown Center. I love waking up to the sounds of the city. I think that might have to do with me being a Chicago native. (Go Hawks!-I'm a huge hockey fan). 


I love dresses and am a huge endorser of vintage styles. You may have gathered that from the HHP pinup gallery, but incase you didn't, I would have loved to have been around in the 40's & 50's. Something about it seems so cinematic to me. I am so pleased to bring a little slice of that glamour to my pinup clients-who also happen to be the most beautiful girls in the world!

I don't think it's possible for me to love photography any more than I do, but every day I find myself falling more in love with the amazingness of recording life in photographs. My favorite thing to shoot (besides weddings, pinups and all the wonderful life moments of my fantastic clients) is my little sister, Madalyn. She was my first model at age 0, and I just love her to pieces! She also does a magnificent "blue steel"...haha. 

A lot of people tell me when they first meet me that they feel like they've known me forever. I'm not sure why that is, but I thought it might be worth mentioning. My mom tells me all the time how I have "an old soul." That's a pretty great compliment from my mom I think-but it also would probably explain why everyone has thought I've been 25 for the past ten years, haha. 


That's a good chunk about myself. I'm not really used to writing exclusively about me, but since this is the first post and you might not know me yet, I figure this is a good start! I can't wait to get to know you better.


Lots of Love,


h i l a r y  h o p e