M Family Preview

"If your baby is 'beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time,' you're the grandma." -Theresa Bloomingdale

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W Family Preview

"It was the tiniest thing I ever decided to put my whole life into." -Terri Guillemets

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Baby S Preview

"I am fond of children... except boys." - Lewis Carroll

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D Family Preview

"I do love nothing in the world so well as you." -William Shakespeare

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K Kids Preview

"There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million." -Walt Streightiff

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C Family Preview

"Son(sun)n. 1.a collector of treasures and heroes 2.source of found objects in laundry (e.g., rocks, twigs, etc.) 3.his father's pride and his mother's heart SYN.- adventure (ad ven'ture)." -Author Unknown

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R Family Preview

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." -Jane Howard


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C-R Family Preview

"In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future." -Alex Haley

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A Family Preview

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." -Elizabeth Stone

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F Family Preview

"Little girls are the nicest things that happen to people. They are born with a little bit of angelshine about them, and though it wears thin sometimes there is always enough left to lasso your heart..." -Alan Beck

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H Family Preview

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about." -Angela Schwindt

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K Family Preview

"How wonderful to have siblings. They know where you have been and encourage you in where you are going. They are friends who are permanently built into your life." -Author Unknown

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C Family Preview

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You." -Dr. Seuss

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W Family Preview

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family." -Anthony Brandt

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S Family Preview

"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, 'You're tearing up the grass.' 'We're not raising grass,' Dad would reply. 'We're raising boys.' " -Harmon Killebrew


Our first official Sova photo session preview! These are dear friends whom I have been taking pictures of for years, so it was fitting that they be the first official Sova clients. Thanks for a fun fall evening, friends.

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Play Group

I got to hang out with my friends & their kids at "play group" today and snap some pictures. Good thing my friends have such CUTE kids!


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Kids!

"There is nothing more thrilling in this world, I think, than having a child that is yours, and yet is mysteriously a stranger."
-Agatha Christie

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Families.

"What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life - to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories."
- George Eliot

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Introducing Sova

Welcome to the Sova Photography blog. Let me introduce you to Sova.

Sova Photography is a partnership of sisters-in-law and friends, Heather Hetteen & Lori Hetteen. Heather takes the pictures, Lori works with you to set up your appointment, carefully edits your photos and gets them safely into your hands.

Sova photography specializes in natural light images, which means we do all of our sessions outdoors. Since we live in Minnesota, this makes us "fair-weather photographers" and we do all our work from April through October. We'll work with you to find the right location for your photo shoot. If you live in the Twin Cities metro area, we'll come out to your home, a local park, or one of your favorite locations. And if you don't have anything in mind, we have great spots we can recommend.

Our business is run with an innovative, yet simple approach to pricing. We charge a flat fee which covers the costs of the shoot and gives you an entire set of photos on a CD in digital format. The files are then yours to do with what you want. You can get as many printed as you like without having to pay marked-up prices for each print. You can share them with your friends and family, post them on your blog, use them as a screensaver. You now have full access to the images you've invested in.

To find out more email us at sovaphotography@yahoo.com. We can get you information about current prices, more details about the sitting, and available appointments and begin a conversation with you about your unique session.

Behind the Name

by Heather

Many people have asked me where the name Sova came from. Sova is actually a made up word combining the names "Sophia" and "Ava". Sophia & Ava are my twin nieces (daughters of Lori) who were really the original inspiration for my interest in photography.

In the fall of 2003 these little beauties made an early appearance in the world. They had a syndrome called Twin to Twin Transfusion where their circulatory systems were connected inside the womb, causing one twin to get too much blood & nutrients and the other not enough. At 28 weeks, the smaller one had stopped growing, and doctors made a risky decision to remove them and hope they would make it. It was a tough call because the odds of survival weren't great (they were smaller than normal 28 wk babies), but they were even less if nothing was done.

I remember anxiously awaiting their arrival in the hallway. We had just made phone calls to their dad (my brother Allan - who was stationed in Egypt with the Army) and to other groups of friends & family who were all fervently praying for their safety and awaiting the news. I remember when the nurse rolled out the first baby girl to take her through the tunnel over to Children's Hospital. She was the smallest thing I had ever seen. Sophia Mae - 2 lbs, 13 oz. When I found out she was the bigger of the two girls, I couldn't imagine what her sister must look like. After some close calls and multiple attempts at getting the little one ventilated, Ava Grace - a mere 17 oz, finally joined her sister in the NICU.

Long story short - we had many months in the hospital to come to know & adore these little ones. Because very few people were allowed in their room, we took tons of pictures in order to introduce them to the world. And I began to get excited about the fun pictures we could take when they were finally home and we didn't have incubators and ventilators and monitor cords in the way. My grandmother was one of those we sent a lot of pictures to. She was never able to meet her great-granddaughters and passed away while they were in the hospital. It seemed like an appropriate purchase to spend her inheritance money on a nice camera that we could use to continue to enjoy these little girls.

The girls grew & healed & thrived in a way that we could never have asked for. They just got more healthy and more beautiful with each day and I've now spent almost 5 years annoying them with my camera in their face! So it's only right that I leave them alone & expand my photography energies to some other poor kids now.

Ava Grace

Sophia Mae

One of the girls' first times being held together with mom.

Finally leaving the hospital!