About Me
Donna Grass is a professional photographer born and raised in Valparaiso, Indiana.. She owns and operates DGPhotoDesigns currently located in downtown Valparaiso. Donna specializes in portrait photography and weddings.
Donna loves to go camping, bike riding, bonfires, and almost never goes anywhere without her camera..
DGPhotoDesigns is located in Valparaiso, IN in the downtown historic Valpo Tech bldg. The studio is located inside door A down the hall on the left along with Bella Studios.
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Headshots
Read MoreChickens
Mackenzie loves to visit her Great Grandma and see the chickens. She couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to play hoola hoop.
August 18, 2016 | Day In The Life Project
Second half of the assignment to shoot a DITL with our camera. The goal was to post 50-60 images from your day of shooting, I think I narrowed mine down to 49. I didn’t get to shoot as much as I would have liked to, like when we went to lunch at Panera (and the ones from there were with my cell phone because it was so crowded and I was not able to leave Mackenzie alone for a second to even try and capture many images from this moment out.)
We started our day out heading to Mothering by Nature because they were holding an event to make banner for Garth, a little boy who swallowed 2 magnets. He is going in for surgery and they wanted to decorate his room with a home made banner of well wishes….
We then headed to pick up Mackenzie to spend the day with her. When we arrived she was in her room playing and she didn’t know we were on our way there. I opened the door and said, “Mackenzie, where are you?” As soon as she walked out the expression on her face just said it all, she is so sweet!!
Our first stop was Barnes and Nobles. Mackenzie loves books and the last time we went here she had a blast and I’m pretty sure she did again. She played with trains, looked at books, played with toys and even made a stop at Starbucks for a cookie and strawberry-banana smoothie.

I did not pick her up as fast as she would have liked me to. She sat down and started yelling UP UP to me and flapping her arms.
Panera for lunch. Brocolli cheese soup and bread for everyone.
We headed to Walmart to get Auntie’s hair trimmed and while we were there we visited the arcade. When Aunti was getting her hair done we received a text message that our neighbor we babysit for fell on the playground at school and broke his arm and was in the ER. Justin & Rachel wanted to get Dacian a get well card, gift and balloon. (I did not get a picture of them looking for cards or his gift..sigh)
Read MoreAugust 16th 2016 | Day In The Life Project
I know I posted about the class I am taking when I blogged about Mackenize @ Target. But I have to shout that I still love this class! We had two assignments to do this week, one was to do a DITL project and only use your mobile phone. The reason to shoot with your phone, so that you didn’t worry about crappy lighting and to just focus on your composition and story telling. The goal was to take a photo every hour, not sure I did it every hour but definitely tried to keep with it telling a story….
My husband is one of the hardest working men, sometimes to a fault as a workaholic, I have ever met and we are truly blessed as a family to have this man in our lives…

i love my early morning coffee on the porch in the summers and I am already missing them as I think of winter quickly approaching

Making the drive to Tinley Park for my physical therapy. I hate that I have to suffer with this, I have the words Pelvic Floor Dysfunction and that I have to take 2 days out of my week to make this drive.
the view as I wait…
Well the stress of driving, and next thing I know I ate almost all the pringles
Trying to remember to shoot every hour was a bit dificult, I missed picking the kids up but once we got home and settled I turned on the laptop and starting watching some of the material from class.
I realized I really needed to wash the bedding on our bed even thought it is a bit late to be starting this.
Spotted Lulu in the window because she was playing with the blind cords.
Read MoreMackenzie at Target
So I am taking a class over at clickin moms called The Documentary Approach and we are in week 2. I have to say this class is very good and my head is spinning with all the information. One of our assignments is to do a short photo essay. It is suppose to be 10 images or less but man I had a hard time narrowing mine down to just 10! So I will post my 11 but then I made a little slide show with my favorite images.
We made our way to Target to attempt our essay…toy shopping. Mackenzie had so much fun having the run of the toy aisles, she mainly stayed to two sections and kept coming back to minnie mouse as you will see more in the slideshow. I think I have found our birthday present for her 🙂 We may have to do this again closer to her birthday and see if she still picks the same toy. Either way we had a fun time watching the joy in her face.
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Fun with polka dots at the beach
I have had this outfit that I bought Rachel this past
winter and I have been wanting to do a portrait session
with her in it for a while now.
I had the perfect opportunity when a client and friend
booked a modeling session for her daughter,
Madison. So I stopped by Party Outlet in Valparaiso, Indiana
to see what they had that I could use for this session, and as
usual they had the perfect thing! We headed up to the
Indiana Dunes in Chesterton, IN and had a blast capturing
amazing portraits for 2 hours.
Here are some images of Madison from the session, modeling bow from Stork Bows Boutique
I just have to say I love red and teal at the beach!!!
Read MoreJustin & Kimmy are tying the knot :)
I am so in love with how this custom guestbook that I designed for Justin & Kimmy turned out! I ordered this book today and cannot wait to see it in print.
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Phyllis Retires 2014
We hope you enjoy the slideshow from Phyllis’ Retirement Party! We truly enjoyed capturing this memorable event for you.
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up to 30 min session with 15 digital files $200*
*does not include senior or engagement sessions
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