The Blog is Back!

Our blog was temporarily down today (I'm not sure for how long) due to masses of folks checking out Wes & Serena's wedding photos. Over 1 million people visited in the last day and it overloaded our hosting servers.

Okay, that's just a joke. Blogger had some kind of issue that corrupted the main page so I had to republish it. A HUGE thank you to Wes Anderson for letting me know the blog was down!!! I don't check our own site or blog regularly, so I'd have never known without being told. We're always grateful to be notified if you see that something's not working properly or if we need to correct a typo or something.

I'm visiting my brother for a few days and we had a great time at Yosemite yesterday. Can you believe that between the three of us (Dad, Sean and I) none of us had a camera better than our cell phones? =) So, I grabbed a few images on my cell phone to share. They're not very good and they certainly don't do justice to the place, but it was too beautiful to not try. =)

(pardon the cell phone photo quality - and I don't have Photoshop with me, either! =)

These were both taken on our hike up to the top of Vernal Falls. The view was breathtaking!

Have a fun and safe Independence Day!

Laci & Sean's Wedding, part 1

I'm just uploading Laci & Sean's wedding photos and I have just a couple of minutes to share a crazy one-in-a-million shot that I somehow lucked out and got. (Part 2 is yet to come, with some faves from the wedding.)

Laci & Sean are big OSU fans and somehow pulled some strings and got Pistol Pete there for the reception! If you've ever been near Pistol Pete, he's got a huge, loud gun that he loves to shoot and in that reception hall, the sound seemed to multiply. I just about jumped out of my skin at his first shot! Anyway, it was at least a 6-shooter, so he had some fun firing the big pistol at appropriate times during the OSU fight song and I managed to catch one of his shots at the exact split-second that he fired! How cool is this? (I darkened the rest of the shot, because they were all singing the fight song and looked really serious. =)


Here it is magnified... You can see sparks coming out from the back of the gun even!


I didn't photoshop this image to enhance anything about the gun, just standard color-correction and some sharpening. Isn't that wild?! I think my ears rang for a half hour after that show. =)

It's been great to start catching back up on blogging and to be catching up slowly on our weddings. Laci & Sean, we sure appreciate your patience as we caught up and I think you'll find that it was worth the wait! =)

Rachel & Anthony's Wedding @ Chesapeake Boat House

I'm feeling just a little bit spoiled today. After last weekend's awesome Seaside wedding, we had another cool venue for a local wedding: The Chesapeake Boat House! I've shot another event or two there, but they were evening events and so I didn't expect the really awesome natural lighting inside the main rooms and the changing rooms. The designers did a awesome job of using glass to use as much natural light inside as possible.

While the bride and bridesmaids were slipping into their dresses, I stole the bride's shoes for some fun shots. I've often heard people say you can judge a wedding by the bride's shoes and when I saw these beauties, I knew we were in for a great wedding. =)


I should also clarify, these are not OSU orange, but tangerine. Rachel is an OU grad and wanted to be sure it was not mistaken for orange. =)

Getting laced into her dress. The B&W was so simple and elegant!

Here's a detail shot of the back.

Rachel & Anthony didn't want to see each other ahead of time, but they did want a fun shot of holding hands around a corner, so we found a cool spot to do that. =)

What a charmer!

I was totally loving this hand-made veil. [Rachel, who did you say made this for you? I'll put a link here for her if you'll remind me!]



The happy couple leaving the ceremony!


And a more artistic shot with the couple as the background. =)


They escaped to the boat house where I caught a few moments of pure delight. More than 1000 words are being spoken right here, I think. =)


A stolen moment outside of the boat house. I am still loving those shoes!


Then the clouds moved in for some amazing, dramatic colors.



The hours flew by and before we knew it, it was time for the big sendoff! I absolutely love sparklers for sendoffs because they make for dramatic pictures and they help light the bride & groom in a cool way.


Plus, after they leave, if there are any sparklers left, you can do fun things like write and draw with them! =)


Thanks to Brandi, Devin and Benj for being our artists in the image above. You guys do great work! I'm sure, for a fee, they can come to your wedding, and do this for you, too! =)

Wes & Serena: The Funny One... =)

Okay, we saw Wes & Serena yesterday and they said we have to post that funny one, so here goes! =)


More coming soon from yesterday's beautiful wedding at the Chesapeake Boat House. We dodged the rain storms luckily, and had some really beautiful weather and clouds. We even got to meet one of our self-proclaimed blog stalkers, Brandi J. who is also getting married sometime before too long! Good to see you again, Devin, and really nice to finally meet you, Brandi! =) Now that you've commented a couple of times, Brandi, I don't think you really qualify as a blog stalker any more, do you?

Wes & Serena's Seaside Wedding

Wes & Serena married last weekend in Seaside, FL and it was one of the most beautiful places for a wedding ever! I couldn't help but go through and pick out a few favorites to share with you.

The Seaside cottages were decorated nicely to complement the detail shots we love to get!


The beautiful silk dress! It was heavy and warm, but the photos will prove it was worth it. =)



I found this long covered boardwalk the day before when I had a couple of hours to scout out the little town. It's in front of the old school there in Seaside. I was loving the beautiful, soft light there...


Time for a little Arc d'Triumph background!


It's always nice when we have enough time to take our time and not rush through every step of the day. Everyone relaxes and enjoys themselves more and there are better moments to be captured!


After the ceremony, we had planned to walk down to the beach for a few minutes and although it was warm, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. I was SO excited to be finally shooting on the beach. We've done the occasional family session on the beach, but I've been longing some wedding photos on the beach for a long time now. Man, I wish we lived closer to a beach! =)





I got a really funny shot of Wes acting like he can't hold Serena... It's a good thing Serena is used to Wes's sense of humor. I really wanted to post it, but Holly wouldn't let me. Maybe if I get enough requests Holly would change her mind? Serena, let me know if you're game. =) The expressions are priceless.

This one may be my favorite from the day...


This is harder than it looks... Have you ever tried dipping someone? I tried it the other day and I'm impressed at how many people can do this and make it look graceful. Nicely done, guys!


Wes & Serena - hope you guys are having a wonderful time honeymooning in Costa Rica! Thanks for bringing us all the way out from here in Oklahoma to shoot your beautiful wedding! Destination weddings are awesome! We're definitely going to start offering our services for more destination weddings. Traveling with all of the gear is a bit stressful, but I love the new locations and the unbelievable scenery that we just don't have in Oklahoma.

Back from a Wedding in Seaside, FL

I can hardly believe that it's been weeks since we last posted! So much has been happening and so much more has been piling up that it's been hard to justify taking the time to blog. Hope y'all haven't forgotten about us! =)

This weekend we photographed a beautiful wedding in Seaside, Florida (located between Destin and Panama City) for Wes & Serena. Apparently, one of my favorite movies - The Truman Show - was filmed there, although I didn't really recognize much from the movie. Photos from that will be posted soon, so check back later this week once I've had time to unpack and work on a few faves in between other weddings and portrait sessions.

Let's see... any other news as of late...

I'm loving audio books! I spend so much time at the computer working on our images, and it works out really well to be able to listen to podcasts and books. I've really been enjoying the Dave Ramsey radio show on 1000AM most weeknights, so I started Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" audio book earlier today and I'm halfway through it already. It's a pretty amazing book, considering how irresponsible we have become as individuals and a nation with our finances. I am so grateful to my parents for giving us a good financial foundation from childhood, but still it's been a really interesting read (or should I say "listen?" =) and I've been learning a lot, too.

Holly got some great shots of our girls the other day and you should be able to see them soon on our personal blog here. She's been retouching them for a few days and there are some really cute shots. We have an old original Coca-Cola cooler that she used and the girls were only too excited to get a bottle of coke to share, too. =)

Well, it's midnight and tomorrow will be here too soon, so I'm off to bed. Sorry for the boring post (no photos!) - I promise to post some soon!

Voice: Gone!

Okay, if you want to hear me sounding really funny, give me a call today. On second thought, that might not help at all... I lost my voice having a blast with the family at Whitewater (water park) over the weekend and it still hasn't come back! I sound so raspy I almost crack myself up trying to talk.

So, if you call today (and probably tomorrow, too), I apologize in advance for how terrible I sound! I really do feel great, I just sound pathetic. =)

I was hamming it up on one of the more mellow rides at Whitewater, trying to scare everyone in line behind us and that's how I lost my voice. I (we) screamed the entire way down and my brother got video of it. You have to love waterproof video cameras! If and when he posts the video, I'll see about including it with this post for your entertainment. It was pretty funny.

Also, I haven't blogged any photos from recent sessions and weddings in a long time so here are a few faves from recent sessions.

Wow, this girl can sing! Seriously, I'm seeing a future American Idol here... or maybe skipping that step and going straight to Nashville.

Thanks for checking in for the latest! I hope to post more soon, I'm just trying to prioritize our time since we're playing a bit of catch-up from weddings and the busy senior season.

Wow, this guy is FAST!

Have you heard about runners who are so fast they can actually run across water? Here's a guy beating two speedboats!


Okay, that's a little silly, but it is an absolutely amazing photo! I noticed that the photographers name wasn't even mentioned, just "AP/Daily American Republic." Bummer! Any photographer is really honored to have their name and/or website given credit for photos and whoever took that photo deserved to have his name mentioned! Thanks to my brother Sean who forward a link to the story. You can see the original Fox News story here if you're interested.

I'm back from two weekends in a row in the Dallas area. The 400-mile round trip is starting to look familiar. =) Should have some photos to post soon from previous weddings... I'm still playing a bit of catch-up.

More soon...