Farewell: Brock and Sheba

We never expected our choice to rescue a dog would take us down the road that it did. Last summer we rescued Sheba after being abandoned. Little did we know she came to us 2 weeks pregnant. 7 weeks later, we had 7 dogs, not 1. It's been 4 months, and we still have Sheba and two of the puppies. Tomorrow Brock will be getting a home with a couple driving 280 miles from New York. For all my photographers out there- these photos were taken on my new 50 mm 1.4 lens.

Sheba will be getting a home soon as well. She needs a bigger yard and more exercise. She's been trying to tell us this in several ways- none of them good.

In some ways I feel like a jerk for having to get rid of our dogs, but I think it takes a bigger person to admit defeat. They deserve more than .1 acre of land and someone who has two full time jobs and not much time to give them walks.
Farewell!

Jessica and Chase- October 4th Wedding

Remember that sneak peek of wedding photos I showed in the fall, but never posted the rest? Well I've been busy!
Jess and Chase held their wedding at the Carriage Hause in Newville on October 4th, 2008. The day was clear and beautiful. I treasure my laid back brides and grooms- and I just adored Jess and Chase.

I start the story with Jess's true personality.A little naughtiness with the cake while waiting. That's right, she's eating the icing.
Adorable.
Waiting with mom for the ceremony to begin.

I often get to witness new twists to traditional and non-traditional ideas. I like this idea to involve the parents.

This one is a bit of an out take- people getting a little crazy in the back.

On to the reception and the toasts.

First dance as husband and wife.

Jess and Chase were so much fun- always keeping it light and joking around constantly- even during the ceremony. Thank you so much for allowing me to capture ALL of your moments on your special day!

High School Indoor PA State Track Meet

I spent this past Saturday taking photos for Don Rich of PennTrackXC. It was a long day. We left for PennState University at 6:30 AM and I got home around 7:30 PM. It's so neat to photograph these top athletes in the state- it also reminds me of how out of shape I am.

Here is a sport of which I can't figure out the physics. High jump. How does someone jump 5 feet 8 inches high? One of my main tasks for the day is photographing the awards stand.

Congratulations to all the althetes- to even make it to states is such an honor.

Click here to check out the PennTrackXC website and the rest of the photos and stories.

Family and Orange Shoes...

Here is a family I took photos of back in January. Seems like such a long time ago now.This one was inspired by mom's idea of dad laying on the ground with everyone around him.

I love these shoes. Really helps to show personality! Sam was so happy to show them off and was excited that mom let her wear them for a few shots.
Orange is my favorite color :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

A few weeks ago I announced that I would be running a special on boudoir photos for Valentine's Day. I had only a handful of ladies sign up, so I have decided to do the special again next year as well, only start advertising in December, rather than mid-January. This should give everyone time to work out and go tanning- not that you're not already TOTALLY beautiful and your men (or women) love you just the way you are! It's also a great idea as an aniversary or Christmas present.

During this shoot we had so much fun. I was even able to get someone to come do professional make-up from Empire Beauty Schools. Joy was awesome to work with and I will be able to help her build her portfolio. Give me a shout if you want Joy's info to have your make-up (she even does hair) done for your wedding day, or for any photoshoot or occation for that matter.

This is Joy on the left.

I started with some bridal shots for Andrea, which she is planning on using later as a groom's gift for their wedding that I'm photographing in May.With this Valentien's special, the girls each got a 10 page (20 sided) 5x7 album that was amazing. The special also came with full retouching of the photos. For any horizontal photo, I split them and made 2 5x7s into a panoramic 7x10. I must say that it was a brilliant idea.

If you think these photos look good, you should see them prined out in the ablums! I'm so happy with the way everything turned out. I hope their guys like them just as much.

Totally Spring

It totally felt like Spring on Wednesday. I adore the spring. But I have a problem. I have a thirst for life that I cannot contain, which exhausts me. Springtime heightens this uncontrolability. There is not enough time to do all the things that I want to do, let alone the things that I HAVE to do. I want winter to stick around a little longer because I'm not ready for Spring. I usually have crazy Spring Fever. This year, not so much.

Here are a few sneak previews for my upcoming Valentine's Day post:

Flushmount Album Design

I've wanted to share this on my blog for quite some time now. It is my studio's sample flush mounted wedding album. I like so many things about this album option- mainly that each one is fully unique. You can customize the cover and the client can have input on the design with unlimited changes. It incorporates a lot of images without having a bulky heavy album. Down sides are that it's more expensive than a traditional album and if you spill something on a page, it's not individually replaceable. I want to know who would drink red sticky Kool-Aid while looking at their $700 wedding album anyway? Oh YEAH! (said like the big Kool-Aid pitcher)I usually will have Pictage design the album, then I go back in and put my personal touch on it. I've had Pictage design 3 different options for a bride before, then we combined them into one design. This was a wedding I did for Kristin Kilker and Matthew Drummond in September of '07 at the Eagle Rock Resort in Hazelton, PA. Most possibly my favorite reception site ever. Everything was an unknown for me that day and I was so plesantly surprised by every aspect of the day.

I have added a ton of photos with several details for future brides and for Kristin and Matt, who have oddly enough, never seen this album before. They did not get an album in their package- I'm hoping this blog entry may change their mind :)

This panoramic photo overlooking the valley is one of my favorites of all time. This was one of my album specifications- use this photo as a large panoramic. A lot of these moments were unstaged and just so precious. In the photo on the left, one of Kristin's brides maids are fixing her dress and I just kept on shooting while no one was watching.

One of my favorite first dance photo. How could a photographer not love these huge windows?


This is the view of the Eagle Rock reception site from outside. I was about to get on the shuttle back to my car, when I turned around and saw how beautiful it was- and decided to capture this last photo in the album.I highly recommend a flush mounted album. As a creative person, I just think it's reaches another level through the design elements. You can really create something unique and suited to the bride and groom. Adding quotes and notes is another option you have with this design.

Now you've seen it, so what do you think?