Find the Best Photographers in Ankeny

Shalyn Donofro’s Des Moines photography business centers on the earliest possible window in a baby’s life, offering birth photography inside the delivery room in addition to standard newborn portrait sessions. That birth-photography specialty sets her apart from most newborn photographers in the metro, who typically start their work days or weeks after delivery rather than during labor itself. For families who don’t want a birth photographer on call, Shalyn also offers traditional newborn sessions and maternity portraits, aiming for a documentary, unposed feel across all three rather than a heavily styled studio look. Her site describes her as approaching the work personally, drawing on her own experience as a mother, which she says shapes how she talks families through what to expect from a birth or newborn shoot before they book. Sessions favor natural light and quiet, close-in framing over posed studio setups, and galleries include a mix of black-and-white and color images. Because birth photography requires being on call around a due date rather than a fixed appointment slot, Shalyn recommends families book several months ahead so she can plan her availability around the expected delivery window. Her newborn sessions can be booked independently of birth coverage for families who only want portraits taken in the days after coming home. 

Morgan Moon photographs newborns almost entirely inside the family’s own home, working the greater Des Moines area with a lifestyle-first approach that skips studio backdrops and posed beanbag setups in favor of natural light and real rooms. A standard session runs $495 plus tax with a $50 deposit and produces fifty to sixty edited images delivered through a downloadable online gallery, a pricing structure Morgan publishes directly on her site rather than requiring a consultation call to get a quote. Her newborn galleries favor neutral, warm tones over bright whites, and she leans into raw, in-between moments, a sleeping baby mid-yawn in the crib, an older sibling peeking in to meet the new arrival, rather than a run of identical posed portraits. Morgan pairs newborn work with a Fresh 48 option for parents who want images from the hospital in the first two days, plus maternity sessions for clients who want to book the same photographer across pregnancy and the newborn stage. Though her business grew out of wedding photography, where she markets herself as entering her sixth year shooting weddings, newborn and family sessions now make up a regular part of her calendar. Sessions are scheduled directly through an online contact form on her site rather than by phone. 

For more than fourteen years, Michelle Lovell has photographed newborns out of her downtown Des Moines studio on Ingersoll Avenue, building a portfolio that spans thousands of Central Iowa families. Her newborn sessions begin with safety as the first priority: babies are only posed in positions a trained eye can support safely, and Michelle works around each baby’s feeding and sleep schedule rather than a fixed studio clock. Sessions typically start within the baby’s first two weeks, when infants sleep more deeply and can be guided into the curled, womb-like poses that make up much of her signature style. Michelle also offers milestone add-ons, letting families book newborn, sitter, and first-birthday cake smash sessions as a connected series rather than one-off appointments. Her studio, Studio 457, is set up with a full wardrobe closet of wraps, headbands, and props so parents don’t need to shop beforehand, and a consultation call ahead of the session helps set expectations for what a two-to-three-hour newborn appointment involves. Client galleries include soft, warmly toned portraits alongside candid detail shots of tiny hands, feet, and lashes. Michelle’s long tenure in the Des Moines photography community, including work at Mainframe Studios, gives her session a calm, unhurried pace that many first-time parents mention afterward as the most surprising part of the experience. 

Katie Lindgren photographs newborns almost exclusively in the family’s own home rather than a rented studio, an approach she’s built her West Des Moines-based business around for the better part of a decade. In-home sessions mean no travel for families still adjusting to life with a days-old baby, and Katie works with whatever natural light a nursery or living room offers instead of bringing in strobes and backdrops. Her newborn galleries mix quiet, posed portraits of the baby alone with candid frames of parents and older siblings meeting the newest family member, giving clients a fuller record of that first week than a studio session alone typically produces. Katie also shoots weddings and maternity portraits, and many of her newborn clients first found her through a wedding or engagement session years earlier, a pattern she mentions on her site’s personal blog. She keeps her newborn scheduling flexible around due dates rather than locking in a fixed appointment months ahead, reaching out to confirm timing once a baby actually arrives. Session galleries are typically delivered as an online gallery within two to three weeks, faster than many studio-based competitors in the Des Moines market. Her blog categorizes work by session type, so prospective clients can browse newborn and maternity images specifically rather than scrolling through her full wedding portfolio to find relevant examples. 

Kate Van Dorn builds her West Des Moines newborn sessions around a mix of posed studio portraits and candid, in-between moments, telling clients upfront that she’d rather deliver a real expression than a technically perfect but stiff pose. Her portfolio includes named newborn sessions such as baby Finley’s and baby Archie’s galleries, both showing the soft wrap-and-pose style layered with a handful of unposed frames of parents holding their baby. Kate offers outfit and prop guidance before each session so parents arrive with a plan rather than guessing what to bring, and she walks clients through pacing expectations, since newborn sessions often require pauses for feeding and soothing that a family portrait session wouldn’t need. Beyond newborn work, she also shoots maternity and family sessions, and her site groups galleries by session type so prospective newborn clients can see comparable work rather than a mixed portfolio. Client reviews highlight her unusually fast turnaround, with one family specifically noting they were surprised at how quickly their finished images arrived. Kate markets her business under the initials KVD Photography alongside her full name, and her scheduling runs through an online inquiry form rather than a published studio address, consistent with a home-based or client-location shooting model common among West Des Moines portrait photographers. 

Located directly in downtown Ankeny at 209 E 1st Street, Kampens Creations Photography gives local families a newborn studio they can reach without a drive into Des Moines. Owner Jodie Kampen structures her ninety-minute newborn sessions around posed and wrapped portraits, working in soft, styled setups that use client-provided blankets, headbands, or heirloom pieces alongside her own prop collection. Rather than treating newborn photography as a single appointment, Kampens Creations built its Kampens Kids Club membership around it: families enroll during pregnancy or right after birth and receive a connected string of sessions covering newborn, three-month, six-month, and first-year milestones, plus member pricing on prints and digital files. That structure means the newborn session is planned as the opening chapter of a longer relationship with the studio rather than a stand-alone purchase. Sessions are scheduled within the first two weeks after birth, when infants settle more easily into the closed-eye, curled poses associated with studio newborn work. The studio also handles maternity portraits, so families can book a pregnancy session with the same photographer who will handle their newborn’s first portraits weeks later. Online reviews frequently mention Jodie’s patience with fussy or hard-to-settle babies and her willingness to pause and restart a pose until both the baby and parents are comfortable. 

Jenna McEntee built her reputation shooting weddings around Des Moines before expanding into a dedicated newborns gallery on her site, and that documentary wedding background shows up in how she handles newborn sessions: natural light, minimal posing, and a preference for real interaction over a strict shot list. Rather than a studio full of wraps and backdrops, Jenna’s newborn portfolio favors simple, uncluttered frames, a baby asleep against a parent’s shoulder, small details like fingers and eyelashes, shot with the same natural-light sensibility she uses for outdoor wedding portraits. She schedules newborn sessions in the family’s home or at a location the parents choose, rather than requiring a trip to a fixed studio address. Because weddings remain a core part of her business, Jenna’s newborn calendar tends to be lighter during the fall wedding season, and she recommends families reach out as soon as a due date is confirmed to lock in a date during busier months. Her site organizes work into separate galleries by category, letting prospective newborn clients look specifically at baby portraits instead of wading through wedding albums to judge her style. Reviews collected on wedding-focused platforms speak mostly to her wedding work, but her newborn gallery itself demonstrates a consistent, soft aesthetic carried over from that side of her business. 

Jaime Hough runs her maternity, newborn, and family portrait business out of Ankeny, working with Des Moines-metro families on a mix of in-home lifestyle sessions and outdoor location shoots. Her newborn work leans toward a documentary, lifestyle-driven approach rather than heavily posed studio setups: sessions often happen in the family’s own home, where Jaime works with the room’s existing light and lets parents, siblings, and pets appear naturally in the frame instead of staging every shot around a beanbag or wrap. This approach means less equipment and fewer strict posing requirements, which some parents prefer for a newborn who won’t settle into classic studio poses. Jaime pairs her newborn sessions with milestone add-ons, including first-birthday cake smash portraits, so returning clients can book with her again as their baby grows into toddlerhood. She also offers a Squarespace web design service alongside her photography business, a detail that shows up in the clean, fast-loading portfolio site she maintains for her own work. Client reviews describe her as responsive by text and email during scheduling, and note that she sends a prep guide covering outfit choices and home lighting ahead of each newborn appointment. Families booking with Jaime can reach her directly by phone at 515-257-6008 to check open dates, since her newborn calendar fills several weeks in advance during the fall and winter. 

Iris & Willow Photography works out of a ten-acre property in Madrid, roughly thirty minutes north of Ankeny, where owner Amy Mulford built a dedicated newborn studio away from the noise of a commercial storefront. Beyond standard newborn portraits, the business is known locally for two specialty offerings: complimentary rainbow baby sessions for families who experienced a prior loss, and fresh-in-the-delivery-room photography for parents who want images from the hospital itself, not just the studio session that follows weeks later. Newborn appointments run by appointment only and are typically booked during pregnancy, then confirmed once the baby arrives, since infants settle into posed portraits most easily in their first one to two weeks. Amy’s approach favors soft, muted tones and simple wraps over heavily styled sets, letting the baby’s features stay the visual focus of each portrait. Client testimonials collected on her site repeatedly describe her as gentle with babies who need extra time to settle, and several mention that she talked them through the rainbow-session process with unusual sensitivity after a previous pregnancy loss. Families driving out from Ankeny or Des Moines trade a longer commute for a private, home-like studio setting rather than a shared commercial space. The business communicates primarily by email and an online booking system rather than a phone line. 

Diana Marie Photography operates out of an uptown Ankeny studio built specifically for newborn work, with blackout curtains, in-floor heating, and a full wardrobe of wraps and headbands kept on hand so parents don’t need to pack extra outfits. Diana’s newborn sessions are scheduled within the baby’s first ten days, and she asks families to fill out a short health questionnaire beforehand so she can plan poses that are appropriate for that specific baby’s age, weight, and any medical notes from the hospital. Her style blends classic posed portraits, the curled and wrapped images typical of studio newborn photography, with a smaller set of lifestyle frames showing parents holding their baby in natural light near the studio’s front windows. Diana also photographs maternity, children’s portraits, and weddings, and several of her newborn clients book a maternity session with her first, giving her a head start on family dynamics before the baby arrives. Reviews on her Birdeye profile specifically mention her gentleness and patience during sessions with newborns who needed extra soothing time between poses, along with fast turnaround on finished galleries. Because her studio sits in Ankeny rather than downtown Des Moines, she serves as one of the few dedicated newborn specialists based directly in the city, which several client reviews cite as a reason they chose her over a Des Moines-based alternative. 

Koral Hull describes herself, only half-jokingly, as “your new favorite hype girl behind the camera”, a fitting tagline for an Ankeny-based photographer whose whole approach is built around making people who hate having their photo taken feel comfortable anyway. A wife and mother of two, she brings a relaxed, story-driven style to weddings: she’ll step in with direction when a couple needs it, then step back and let the day happen when they don’t. That flexibility is central to how she talks about her work, less about forcing a specific aesthetic onto every wedding and more about capturing what she calls “the best version of your real life,” even inside a highly staged event like a wedding day. Her packages start in the $2,000 to $2,999 range, putting her among the more accessible options for Ankeny couples working with a tighter photography budget, and she also books engagement sessions, family portraits, and headshots outside of wedding season. Because she’s based directly in Ankeny rather than commuting in from elsewhere in the metro, she has a level of familiarity with the area’s venues, including The District at Prairie Trail, that out-of-town photographers sometimes lack. 

Jessi Johnson built her Des Moines wedding photography business around a specific tension: candid, documentary-style coverage layered with just enough editorial posing to make sure couples still get a handful of intentionally composed, magazine-worthy frames from the day. Her branding leans hard into the phrase “Real Emotional Moments,” and in practice that means she’s less interested in orchestrating every shot than in positioning herself to catch the ones that happen on their own, a father’s reaction during a first look, an unscripted laugh during toasts. She covers the Des Moines metro, including Ankeny, with no travel fee, and will also take on out-of-state elopements and destination weddings for couples willing to cover travel. Every booking starts with a free consultation call rather than a canned questionnaire, which she uses to figure out how much posing guidance a particular couple actually wants versus how much they’d rather be left alone. Iowa wedding coverage starts at $2,850, with engagement sessions starting separately at $900, and couples can add a second shooter, videographer, or dedicated content creator on top of the base package if they want fuller day-of coverage. 

Complete Weddings + Events takes a different approach than most studios on this list: instead of a single photographer building a personal brand, it’s a full-service local team based in Clive that bundles photography together with videography, DJ services, photo booth rental, and day-of coordination under one roof. For couples in Ankeny who don’t want to coordinate five separate vendor contracts, that consolidation is the entire appeal; book once, and the photography, video, and reception entertainment are handled by people who are already used to working together on the same timeline. The company markets itself around the tagline “Easy. Simple. Complete.,” and its bundle pricing structure means the more services a couple combines, the more they typically save compared to booking each piece separately. It’s picked up recognition from The Knot and other regional wedding-industry outlets over the years, and its Clive location puts it squarely in the Des Moines metro, a short drive from most Ankeny wedding venues. This isn’t the pick for a couple chasing one specific photographer’s signature editing style, but for anyone who wants fewer vendor relationships to manage during an already stressful planning process, its full-service model solves a real logistical problem. 

Katie Maynes runs Picturesque Photography out of Polk City, just northwest of Ankeny, after growing up in Wisconsin and later graduating from the University of Iowa. Her stated mission is simple: “photographing genuine moments in dreamy light”, and it comes through in a portfolio built around soft, natural lighting and unscripted connection rather than heavily posed formal portraits. She shoots on professional Canon equipment and edits in Adobe’s suite, a fairly standard setup, but what distinguishes her work locally is her willingness to travel: while most of her bookings are Midwest weddings, she’s also photographed destination ceremonies in Colorado and Costa Rica. For an Ankeny-area couple, that means access to a photographer with wider-ranging experience than someone who has only ever shot within a fifty-mile radius. Beyond weddings, she also books portraits, maternity, and senior sessions, which keeps her actively shooting through all four seasons rather than being purely dependent on wedding-season bookings. Katie can be reached directly by phone or email, and her Polk City base puts her within easy reach of Ankeny, Ames, and the northern half of the Des Moines metro for engagement sessions and wedding-day coverage alike. 

Kellie Keenan picked up a camera for the first time in high school back in 2004, but it wasn’t until her own daughters were born that photography turned from a hobby into something she wanted to build a business around. That personal, kid-and-family lens carried directly into her wedding work: she’s known locally for zeroing in on fine details, the flowers, the dress, the small accessories a couple picked out months in advance and might not otherwise get photographed properly. Based in Ankeny and married with three children herself, Kellie brings a down-to-earth, unhurried energy to wedding days, with an explicit goal of keeping clients relaxed in front of the camera rather than making them perform for it. After roughly twelve years behind the lens, she’s developed a reputation among Ankeny couples for being easy to work with under pressure, treating a wedding timeline as something to adapt to rather than rigidly enforce. Her business has grown almost entirely through word of mouth in the Ankeny and greater Des Moines area, a track record that speaks to how consistently her clients have felt cared for on one of the most stressful days of their lives. 

Lisa Lytton has been photographing weddings, families, and seniors professionally since 2009, and in that time she’s built a practice that regularly takes her well outside Iowa; she describes having flown all over the country, covering everything from Midwest weddings to ceremonies on the California coast. Her Des Moines-based studio blends an artistic sensibility with documentary instincts, meaning couples get both intentional, composed portraits and the loose, real-time storytelling of a day as it happens. She describes photography less as a job than as a lifestyle, and that shows in how willing she is to travel for a couple rather than asking them to work around her location. For local Ankeny-area couples, that same national-level experience is available without the destination price tag; she also offers additional-hour add-ons and a one-event-per-day policy, meaning a couple’s wedding gets her full attention rather than being squeezed between two bookings. Beyond weddings, she works in family, senior, and real estate photography, giving her a versatility that a lot of wedding-only studios don’t have, and fifteen-plus years behind the camera means she’s seen enough different venues and timelines to keep a wedding day running smoothly even when things don’t go exactly to plan. 

Paul and Tammy run Red Door Photo out of a studio in Des Moines’ East Village, the kind of husband-and-wife partnership where one person’s strength on the wedding day covers the other’s blind spot. They founded the business in 2009 and have since photographed more than 400 weddings and 800 senior sessions, along with countless families, newborns, and the occasional dog. Their approach starts from an unusually honest place: they’ve said outright that most people don’t actually enjoy having their photo taken, so their whole process is built around making sessions feel easy and low-pressure rather than performative. That philosophy has earned them a The Knot Best of Weddings award and a loyal following among couples who want portraits that feel like them rather than a stiff, staged version of the day. Working from their East Village location at 500 E Locust Street, they cover weddings throughout the Des Moines metro, including Ankeny, and their range across seniors, headshots, family, and pets means they’ve built a broad, repeat-client business rather than relying purely on one-off wedding bookings. Sixteen years in, Red Door remains a two-person operation, which couples often cite as the reason their day felt personal instead of transactional. 

Brenda Shank picked up her first serious camera after fifteen years running an in-home daycare, a career pivot that traces back to being the yearbook photographer at her Newell, Iowa high school. She holds a degree in Elementary Education with a computer science minor from Iowa State University, and shot her first wedding in 2005, two years after founding Marque Photography in 2003. Two decades and hundreds of weddings later, she still operates out of Clive with the same clean, natural, and timeless approach that built her client base. There’s no hourly limit on her wedding coverage, galleries are delivered within six to eight weeks, and packages start at $3,250 for couples anywhere in the Des Moines metro and beyond, including Ankeny. What sets Brenda apart from newer studios is simply the volume of experience behind the camera; she’s guided hundreds of couples through timelines, locations, and styling decisions, and that comfort shows in how relaxed her galleries feel compared to more clinical, over-directed wedding photography. She also shoots engagements, family portraits, seniors, and business events, but weddings remain the core of Marque Photography’s twenty-plus years in business. 

For more than a decade, Laura Wills and her team at Laura Wills Photography have been documenting weddings across Central Iowa with a photojournalistic eye, the kind that hangs back and lets a day unfold rather than directing every frame. The result is a body of work built on candid, joyful images with bold, rich color rather than the muted, posed aesthetic that dominates a lot of wedding photography. Based in Des Moines, the LWP team is known locally for writing detailed guides to Central Iowa wedding venues and things to do around the metro, a sign of how embedded they are in the regional wedding scene rather than treating Iowa as a stopover between bigger cities. Clients consistently point to Laura’s ability to put people at ease, both during the planning process and on the wedding day itself, along with her attention to both the big emotional beats and the small in-between moments that couples often forget happened until they see them in a gallery. The studio is happy to travel to a couple’s chosen location, whether that’s a Central Iowa barn venue or somewhere further afield, and with an Instagram following of roughly 15,000, their candid style has become a recognizable presence in the Des Moines wedding photography community, including plenty of work in Ankeny. 

Morgan Moon didn’t set out to become a wedding photographer. She earned a degree in Kinesiology and Health from Iowa State University in 2009 and spent her early career working at a physical therapy clinic outside Washington, D.C., before relocating back to Iowa to raise her family closer to relatives. Now in her sixth year photographing weddings around Des Moines, she brings that same hands-on, people-first instinct to every wedding day. “I love connection,” she says, “and I believe it’s through connection that an image can be powerful.” That philosophy shapes how she works: she spends the day building trust with couples so the resulting images feel like real moments rather than posed ones. Morgan lives just outside Des Moines with her husband and three children, Isabella, Ashton, and Sawyer, and her own family life shows up in how she photographs others, with warmth, patience, and an eye for the small, unscripted gestures between two people. Her wedding packages start at $3,000, and she’s happy to travel for destination weddings when couples want her documentary, modern-vibe style somewhere beyond Iowa. For couples getting married in Ankeny and the surrounding Des Moines metro, she’s built a reputation on making the day feel less like a photoshoot and more like being genuinely seen.