who's otter creek creations anyway?

Hey there! I’m Delaney Hoops but feel free to call me Laney. I'm a South Central Nebraska based photographer specializing in senior portraits and western portraits. This is me in the Summer of 2023, in an old feed bunk on our farm .... pretty on brand if I say so myself! 

I grew up as a small town girl in Seward County Nebraska, showing horses, goats & cattle any chance I could get. At the age of about 8, my mom let me use her point & shoot camera to start a photography project for 4-H. I fell headfirst in LOVE with the creativity that photography brought to my hands & mind at such a young age. Literally, that very next year for Christmas my mother, bless her heart, bought me my very own camera! Here are some of my favorite photos that I took with my first camera!

Since at the time I wasn't legally old enough to drive around the country side looking for things or people to photograph, every day when I'd ride my bike to go feed my horses; I'd take my camera along with me for the 2 mile round trip .... nothing was going to stop this little cowgirl with a camera, two horses & a slick lookin' bike!

Over the years, I continued to grow my passion & knowledge of photography. I'd enter the MAX. amount of photography entries at the Seward County Fair every year. I did not attend a class or any workshops for photography, my biggest teaching came from trial & error with a TON of Youtube searches. :) The photography interviews in 4-H helped me gain confidence speaking to adults, answering questions on why I took the photo, what makes it stand out, etc. I can really safely say that I owe my entire career and personal skills to 4-H, because without the photography project I would have never learned my greatest passion. (So shameless plug here, JOIN YOUR LOCAL 4-H CLUB!! It has more opportunities than just showing animals.)

Now, although I am too old to enter 4-H exhibits anymore, I still find joy in entering my photos in Open Classes and have even been the 4-H Photography Judge at the Thayer County Fair in Nebraska!

So now present day, besides photography and 4-H ... truth be told, not much has changed in my lifestyle! I settled my roots in an even smaller town than the one I grew up in & cannot get enough of the agriculture industry! My husband, Benjamin, and I farm & raise cattle with his family near Byron, Nebraska. Our operation at Hoops Family Farms consists of 2 dogs, an unknown number of cats & chickens, along with a cow/calf operation to keep us busy in the winter months. Although this past winter, when it was about *negative too dang cold* we may have been questioning why we raise cattle when we could vacation to Texas or Arizona like some. ;) I'm kidding ... if you raise cattle, you know we're all sometimes complainers but we love it and there is no other lifestyle for us! When we aren't chasing around the livestock, our family farms a healthy rotation of yellow corn, white corn and soybeans. (Fun Fact: Our white corn is food grade, so it gets turned into your favorite taco shells & tortilla chips!)

I absolutely love all things agriculture, but behind the camera I truly come to life & feel at home. I've been a senior portrait photographer for 7 years, as my first senior clients were my classmates in 2017! Here are their senior pics from "back in the day" ...

My editing style & business name (Delaney Ann Photo) has changed a bit since 2017 and I think it's safe to say that it's changed for the better! (HUGE thank you to my high school friends & their parents for trusting me with their senior photos, when back then I literally had NO clue what I was doing photographing people ... at the time my expertise was pretty much anything in-animate & barrellyy stretched to animals, let alone humans haha y'all are amazing!!!)

With a lot of growth in editing styles, learning how to pose people and thankfully learning photography FAR BEYOND Auto-Mode; people describe my current photography style at Otter Creek Creations as western, with airy warmth yet still true-to-color. 



So you're probably also wondering ... since I ditched "Delaney Ann Photo" as a business name, where did "Otter Creek Creations" come from??

It's truthfully a multi-meaning name but that's what I love about it! Since getting married in 2021 and settling my roots permanently in Byron, NE, I fell in love with one of our farms. The farm used to have an old farmhouse, which has now been dosed under BUT the property still consists of our cattle feedlot, multiple sheds/outbuildings and two pasture's that have "Otter Creek" which we actually call "the sand creek", run through it. (Nobody needs to know it's a dry creek ok!!! OCC sounds better than SCC, right?!)

When I was searching for a new business name, I knew I wanted it to be somehow related to our farm as this is our home, our lifestyle and everything to us. It just felt right to inter-twine the two, so "Otter Creek" it was! The other half to the business name and rebrand is the word "Creations." One important thing about me, is my Faith for the Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ. At a young age, I felt that the Lord gave me those opportunities in 4-H to begin a journey. No matter what was happening in school or at home, over the years in the back of my mind I always felt deep down that photography was something big to me. Back then I wasn't sure what that all meant, but now it's a bit more clear .... This gift He has given me, is something that I want to do not for myself, but to glorify Him to the best of my ability. In the rebranding process of Otter Creek Creations, I found comfort with this verse from Ephesians 2:10 ...

10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.


This verse has stuck with me as I've grow in my Faith and photography over the years. I feel as though God created me & my purpose (photography) to spread His kindness, love and compassion. So this is where the word "Creations" comes from. We are created in Christ Jesus and photography is the art of creating.

Truthfully, I still don't quite understand the WHOLE picture He has ahead for me, but sometimes we aren't meant to understand His Will for us ... In that, I can find comfort in knowing that I felt photography had been laid on my heart by God so here we are ...

Delaney Hoops
Otter Creek Creations, LLC




Honorable Mention for Potential Business Names were : Photography by Otter Creek, Cardinal's Creations, Seven Springs Photography or Road B Photography (if we ever move out to the farm & I need to rebrand again, "Road B" still has a special place in my heart ... comment below which name you would choose!)