A Winter Wedding: Amanda and Alex

This was the wedding that almost didn't happen. The Great Snow Storm of '09, almost prevented it from taking place. But, the persistence of the newlyweds-to-be and their wonderfully accommodating vendors allowed the happy couple to proceed with their plans despite over a foot of snow on the ground. I suspect I was not the only person that day, saying many prayers of thanks for AWD vehicles! :-)

The wedding was scheduled for a Saturday, but actually took place on Sunday. I would estimate that nearly half of the guest list braved the snowy roads to come and see the wedding take place. What an amazing show of support and love for the Bride and Groom, that so many people came out to share their special day. Very impressive.

The ceremony and reception took place at beautiful and stately Oak Ridge Estate in Nelson County. This 200 year old estate has everything a perfect wedding day requires: elegant furnishings, breath taking scenery and warm, welcoming hosts.

The upstairs rooms of the mansion were spacious and elegant with full length mirrors and beautiful natural light streaming through the windows. An absolutely perfect place for the Bride and her girls to make their final preparations for the Big Day.

Putting on the final touches

Because of the snow, we were a little limited as to where we could do portraits of the Bride. This doorway opening onto the snow covered grounds behind the mansion provided an interesting place for a silhouette.


The Groom and his boys were very dapper in classic white, black and red. They braved the falling icicles and melting snow to get this picture on the front porch.


The beautiful bride and her lovely entourage are simply glowing as they proceed down the grand staircase, ready for the beginning of a new life.

Amanda and her Dad heading down the hallway towards her waiting Groom.

Alex gets the first look at his beautiful bride coming down the aisle.

Wiping away a tear of joy.

The decor of poinsettia's and greenery made a perfect compliment to a December wedding.

Amanda and Alex's wedding day was filled with so much honest, unaffected emotion. The two of them were such a pleasure to behold that it literally brought a tear to my eye. As a hardened veteran of many years of wedding photography, this was no mean feat.

Amanda receives a heartfelt hug from her Mom



Such a beautiful couple, all glowing with that newlywed joy

This is one of my favorite images from the event. It captures the snow-scape, the style and the emotion of the day so well.


The reception was held in The Carriage House It was resplendent with fine details.


The delicious and well presented dinner was provided by Liberty Catering



The Bride and her Dad share the first dance

In a symbolic gesture, the Groom cuts in :-)

At the end of the day everyone was relaxed and happy and some impromptu dancing broke out.


The happy couple departed the scene in a flurry of bubbles and well-wishes from family and friends

And I leave you with one final image which I like to call "The Future is Bright"

I think that about says it all, don't you? Thanks Amanda and Alex for letting me play a part in your very special day! Best wishes for the brightest of futures together!!

Gotta Love Dave Barry

Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space. ~Dave Barry

Hannah's Senior Session

  I had a great Senior Session the other day with Hannah. We started in the studio and ended up in the cemetery! But it's all okay. No one died, it just happens to be a really, really gorgeous cemetery so we used it as our backdrop to add some Fall colors to the session :-)

 I have to go ahead and admit something right from the get-go. The very minute Hannah and her family walked into the studio I was struck with serious "hair envy".  Hannah, her Mom and her sisters all have these gorgeous tresses in varying shades of brown and blonde. We fine-haired gals notice these things and turn quietly green with envy. Hannah's hair is so thick and luxuriant that we had to put the fan really close to her face and on full-blast mode to get her pretty hair to flow for the pictures! But, all hair envy aside, look how awesome they turned out:

  We had a lot of fun with this guitar, too. Hannah is an aspiring player and we used that to add a little something extra to her portraits. Capturing the personal interests of my subjects is very important to me, especially in a Senior Session.

We headed out from the studio and in to the city to grab some cool urban backgrounds. 

I was in such a hurry to get to our next location that I inadvertently gave Hannah's parents the slip in traffic. Embarassing! I really have to learn not to drive quite so aggressively. It's hard when I'm all full of picture ideas and the sun is setting quickly...aaaahhh!! :-D

Again with the hair! How cute is this!? I say, if you've got it...work it!! And Hannah definitely worked those gorgeous locks for this shot. I LOVE it!!

We zipped down to the railroad tracks and took some more cool images with the guitar. While we were there, a funny little incident took place. A lady passed by walking her adorable little white puppy. Something startled the pooch and he immediately slipped out of his collar and went tearing down the tracks with the poor lady in hot pursuit. The little doggie was fast, but the little lady was amazingly faster and scooped up the errant fluff ball before he could get too far!! I was looking at Hannah through my camera the whole time (not noticing anything going on around me) when suddenly this woman appears in the background of my picture tearing up the tracks after this wildly running floofy white puppy. Naturally, I took a picture of the action. Hey, don't judge me...YOU would've taken the picture, too. That's just funny stuff! 

Our final stop was the cemetery (no pun intended...well, okay, maybe a little!). We took advantage of the fall colors and the final golden rays of the setting sun to create some really scrumptious images

These are just a few of the many beautiful picture we created of Hannah. All-in-all it was an eventful and successful Senior Portrait Session. Hannah was sweet and cooperative and just a pleasure to work with. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to meet her and her exceedingly nice family. Have a great Senior year, Hannah!!

For Amanda and Alex' s Engagement portraits, we traveled out to Oak Ridge Estate in Nelson County. In less than two months, the couple will hold their wedding ceremony on the Estate and they wanted to capture some of the beautiful architecture of the buildings.

We started the session with a few studio shots.




It was an absolutely beautiful day and the crisp Fall sunshine gave a beautiful natural backlight to this image


Amanda was not too thrilled about the idea of lying on the ground, but she was brave and took one for the team. And I LOVE the way the pictures turned out!! Thanks, Amanda! :-)

Random factoid about yours truly: I am TERRIBLE with names. I will never forget your face and WHO you are, but your name? Yeh. Not so much. In the picture below, this fact worked in my favor. As I was looking through the camera, giving posing instructions, I mistakenly called Alex, "Adam". And didn't catch myself before I did it AGAIN!! Well, the couple found this to be hysterically funny and flashed these beautiful, big natural smiles at the camera--which I caught!! LOVE IT!!

I'm definitely going to remember to call them by the wrong names on their wedding day, just to get those awesome smiles, again, LOL!! :-)



My wonderful niece Savannah (which in the original Latin means "incredibly talented assistant who works for tacos") was my P. A. that day and she grabbed a couple of pictures of me working. Here I am setting up the shot...

And here is the resulting image...



The day of our session was also Amanda's birthday and she arrived at the studio armed with a beautiful bouquet of roses given to her by her mother. Naturally, we incorporated them into some of the portraits



I made a collage of images we did behind the main house, with the sun angling over the roof. It gave an almost ethereal quality to this set of portraits. I SO dig the ethereal!!



We took a whole bunch more great images, but I'll just leave you with one final picture that I thought was TOO adorable.


That last one kind of says it all, eh?

I'm looking very forward to capturing Amanda and Alex's Big Day in a couple of months!