We walked to the Asian Festival, where watched a game of Sepak takraw, tasted Filipino AND Indonesian food (my fave was the Filipino, Brad's was the Indonesian), bought a parasol (hello photo prop!) and hung out with the cutest boy ever. Seriously, cute picture overload coming up.
Then we had a cookout at the in-laws where I failed to take many photos. Today we jetted off to Zanesville where we visited my grandmother...
(She doesn't dye her hair and remembers everything single thing I tell her...I hope I have her genes. And oh my goodness she loves this boy!)
...and had lunch with my high school buddies. This is where we realized that it has been 7(!) years since we graduated. I miss all of them so much but am so glad they are all doing such wonderful things! Theo found the Ruby Tuesday menu to be VERY interesting.
With less than two weeks to go until her high school career is over I shot Dymonica's senior photos. It was a pleasure to meet her and her mom and spend the afternoon with them at Franklin Park Conservatory (it was a rainy day). She is a vibrant, polite & beautiful young woman who is going to be a Bearcat next year at the University of Cincinnati.
Look how GORGEOUS she is!
Love, love, love this shot. I do a lot of sessions at Franklin Park so it's always a challenge for me to come up with unique uses of the backgrounds that are there, but I think that the next two shots definitely do that.
I think this last one is my fave. It was the dress that almost wasn't. Dymonica's mom packed it last minute without her daughter's knowledge and begged and pleaded with Dymonica to do a few shots in it:) It was her homecoming dress from last year and I think it looks amazing on her.
Thank you so much Dymonica, enjoy your graduation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I rarely get choked up when I shoot weddings. I'm usually too concerned with aperature and composition to think about how beautiful the love of a bride and groom is...but there were definitely a few times during Andrew & Courtney's wedding that I about lost it.
Like during their beautiful portrait session at Goodale Park.
When Courtney's dad saw her all dolled up for the first time.
And, of course, walking down the aisle.
Or their first few moments as husband and wife.
But really this wedding was full of laughs. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Courtney's sister, Caitlin, was the maid of honor and definitely kept things light. She was a bit *ahem* forceful when it came to applying Courtney's makeup.
Popsicles are always funny.
See Zach, he's the groomsman on the far left? He played guitar at our wedding and went to high school with my husband. He also has the BEST (this is sarcastic) ideas when it comes to posing photos. Like getting popsicles from the ice cream truck. Or making me lay on the ground so we can get an "Eight is Enough" shot.
I kid, I kid these ended up being some of my favorite shots!!!
Andrew & his mom did an amazing mother-son dance to "Bennie & the Jets"
There was also the mother of the bride doing the best rendition of "Me & Bobby McGee" I have ever seen.
Seriously, this was a good party.
And here is my fave shot from the photobooth (which I will get into more detail in another post). They spelled out love. Flippin' sweet.
I will leave you with a new feature of my wedding blogposts, a slideshow! The image quality is not the best, I still need to find a slideshow program that I like, but enjoy!
Andrew and Courtney are getting married. Tomorrow. I'm so excited for this wedding because 1. it is the first wedding I will shoot since having Theo and 2. because they are our friends.
Andrew & Courtney are high school sweethearts (cue simultaneous "awwwww"). Brad went to school with them and they all worked at Pizza Hut together. I'm pretty sure I met them at a party once with a bunch of other people from Westerville (I swear I know more people from Brad's school than I do my own) and immediately took a liking to them. They moved to NYC a couple of years ago to pursue school and careers and I was very happy when they asked me to be their wedding photographer:)
Given their tight schedule (living out of state and all) we decided to do their engagement session yesterday. As in right before their rehearsal dinner. I could tell they had a busy week full of last minute wedding preparations but you would never know it by the looks of the photos. They cracked me up the entire time, especially when Courtney's friend and bridesmaid Sarah (who came along because she just got into town) would give them directions such as "act like this is the part in the zombie movie where you've reached a wall and can't go any further" as demonstrated in the 2nd photo below.
For their session we perused the Short North
Danced in Goodale Park
Tasted ice cream at the North Market
and trespassed at an abandoned warehouse
All evidence of why I can't wait for their wedding tomorrow!:)
It's a good thing my husband is a web designer because I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to that type of thing.
I've completely messed up my blog and now half of my pictures are cut off. I promise this is temporary and I (ha, mostly Brad) am working on setting up a new and improved blog that will be integrated into my site. So bare (bear?) with me while I figure out what in the world I did wrong.
Thanks!!!
PS - Please pray for good weather on Saturday...it's my first wedding of 2010!
Leslie is graduating from CCAD this year with a degree in Fashion Design. Pretty awesome, right?
I've known Leslie for what seems like forever. She is the younger sister of my best friend from high school and I remember spending countless hours at their house through the years. I always thought my house was boring so I loved going to theirs, and my friend Natalie thought her house was loud and crazy so she loved going to mine. Guess you always want what you can't have:)
When Leslie contacted me to take her portfolio pictures for her design work I was super excited. I remember her making her prom or homecoming dress one year in high school so I think it's amazing that she's turned a love for sewing and design into her career.
I was blown away by the garments when I saw them. They are absolutely beautiful and I know Leslie is going to do just fine in the fashion world.
Thanks so much Leslie, I truly loved this photoshoot. Congratulations on such beautiful work and the ending of your college career!
The first dress was shot at Franklin Park Conservatory.
Umm she made all of the ruffles. By hand. I'm jealous of her mad sewing skillz.
The model, Victoria, rocked this dress.
The 2nd (and my fave) dress was shot at the Jeffrey Mansion in Bexley during the peak of spring flowers.
The model, Rachel, fit this dress perfectly. So stinkin' beautiful.
Dress # 3 was also shot at the Jeffrey Mansion. Totally different than the other two, but I love it!
The CCAD fashion show will be airing next Saturday evening on 10tv at 7PM. Check Leslie's other design out!
Duncan & Ashley say they met on the most shallow website ever, Hotornot.com. I think it's awesome they have such a funny story to tell people about how they met and I think their wedding will be a reflection of their awesomeness. They are getting married August 28th of this year at Blacklick Metro Park with a reception at Schmidt's. Oh yea, it's gonna be a fun wedding. What could be better than beer & sausage?
They suggested Hayden Falls for their engagement session and although I had never been before I've always heard good things. I didn't expect it to be this beautiful, though. The evening light was so romantic and the area around the falls is so quiet and serene, not something I expected to find inside of I-270.
What a beautiful couple. I can tell they are always having fun together.
Duncan is a little quiet and shy so I found that some of the best and most natural shots I got of the couple were when I would "hide" behind something. Example 1- Behind a rock:
Example 2 - Behind a tree:
And example 3 - Far, far away:
I tend the push the limits of my clients when it comes to posing. I get these ideas in my head and most people probably think I'm crazy, but I love when they go along with it and it turns out amazing. As I reached down to feel how cold the water was I could see it in Ashley's eyes that she knew what I was about to ask them. They cheerfully took off their shoes and socks, rolled up their pants and waded into the water so I could get the shot I wanted. I love it, I know they are going to be up for all kinds of things on their wedding day. It's great to get to push my creativity to the max.
I think the next couple of pictures are adorable. They are two shots I took one right after another.
And we ended the night with a few shots of them in the t-shirts of the band that was playing at the concert they got engaged at. Such a great proposal story too!
Thank you so, so much Ashley & Duncan. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to your wedding!
I've been so busy posting sessions lately (!) that I haven't written much personal stuff. Theo is now 6 months old and I'm still trying to figure out how that happened. I know that just last week we were bringing him home from the hospital and just yesterday he was smiling for the first time. Now he sits by himself and thinks he's all kinds of big stuff. I'm pretty sure his BFF is Harvey the dog.
We are truckin' away on our house. We have now replaced the glass in our yard with grass and even have a few flowers planted! Before long it might actually look like someone lives here!
I was supposed to have a senior session tonight that didn't work out so I took Brad, Theo & Harvey back over to Franklin Park for a walk and some photos:)
Raquel is a beautiful young woman that I met at Franklin Park last week for her senior photos. She is passionate about cheerleading (she's been doing it most of her life!!!!) and is attending OSU in the fall. Is it just me or are ALL of my seniors going to OSU? I guess it's just that fantastic of a school:)
Raquel brought along her father, sister & beautiful little niece for support. She was definitely on top of things and brought a fantastic variety of outfits for the session. The tulips at Franklin Park were AMAZING that day!
