The Ralls' Maternity Portraits

We had a beautiful, crisp, sunny Saturday in February to shoot the Ralls' maternity portraits in Heritage Hills. I'm about to run out and shoot a few headshots for a friend who just won an award (congrats, Julie!), so I don't have a lot of time, but really want to try to keep you guys better posted about the sessions we do this year, so we're putting it in as part of our workflow as much as we can. =)

Here are a few of my favorites from the day!






This next shot was my favorite from the day. As soon as he did this, I just knew it was going to be a great image.





Working with romantic, affectionate couples is the absolute BEST! Thanks, guys, for being so great to work with! You can see the rest of your images here. Hope you just love them!

Wedding Planner :: Embellished Weddings

My good friend (and former bride of ours) Amanda Taylor has officially launched her wedding planning business, Embellished Weddings! We're SO excited for her!

I've had the pleasure of photographing many couples who hired Amanda to plan their big days and I've personally seen Amanda handle some sticky situations with ease to the huge relief of her brides. That said, without reservation I wholeheartedly recommend Amanda to any bride who is looking for a little help (or a lot!) with her wedding planning.

Check out her sweet website and blog, too. Here's a snapshot preview... with one of my images right on the front! =)


Nice work, Amanda! I'm looking forward to another busy wedding season and working together lots!

Personal Pics from the Park Today

Wow, what a wonderful February this has been! I couldn't resist taking the kids to the park and getting some fun shots of them today. Here are a few of my faves, but we blogged about 20 on the girls' blog if you want to check out some more.


Love this one of Storie with Mamma in the background watching.


Oh my goodness... why can't we have this expression all the time! =)




My honeybun, looking fiiiiiine as usual!


It was really fun to get out and just shoot for fun again. When the business gets really busy like it does every year from Spring to Fall, I almost don't want to pick up the camera in January and February. Shooting for fun allows us to try new things and shoot in conditions we normally wouldn't (like the shots above, all taken mid-day) so it stretches and inspires us, and that's always a very good thing. =)

Actually, constantly testing new ideas the situations is one of the biggest points I'm taking home with me after attending WPPI last week. It was overwhelming in every way with thousands of vendors and over 10,000 attendees, parties every evening and sessions starting early every morning. I think I got about 12 hours' sleep total for the 5 days I was there, but it was so worth it. I met so many of our favorite photographers and got to chat with many of the best photographers in the world. I'm excited at the difference it's going to bring about in our work and workflow, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Oh, and in case you noticed, we disabled music from our website. I guess the main reason is that we didn't really have permission to use the music commercially and technically it's a copyright violation. Now, that's not good business to expect our customers to respect our copyrights when we weren't with the music on our site, right? Honestly, it wasn't something we gave much thought to, but I heard that it was an extreme irritation/pet-peeve to some other photographers and I really hate to be an irritation. So, no need to turn down your music any more when you visit our site! Crank it up and create a mood with your own favorite tunes!

I would be really grateful to know what you think, though, if you miss the music or if you don't think it's that big of a deal. I know site music can be a real irritation if you already have tunes playing. I'm considering buying some commercially licensed music (no muzak, I promise!) if everyone really misses the music.

So let us know! Very gratefully, C&H (yep, like the sugar =)

Tots-2-Teens Workshop :: Location Changed!

Hey, a kind blog reader commented that the location for tonight's workshop has been changed to the Renaissance hotel downtown. Just wanted to pass it along in case any of you were planning to go!

Please say "hi" to us if you come! We'd love to meet you!

Tots to Teens Seminar More Info: (from their website)

4:00 pm - 10:30 pm

Seminar Trade Show 4:00 pm - 5:00pm Seminar 5:00pm - 10:00 pm

Renaisssance Oklahoma City Convention Center Hotel

10 North Broadway

Oklahoma City, OK 73102

(405)228-8000

www.meetrenaissance.com

Colplay Music Video - Life in Technicolor ii

I just watched this music video to promote Coldplay's new single "Life in Technicolor ii" and was really impressed with the creativity of the whole thing. Thought you might enjoy it if you haven't yet seen it since it debuted less about a month ago.

About lunch at Humble Pie pizza today, I've only heard back from people who can't make it. Won't that be embarrassing if nobody shows up?! Actually, no, it won't. I'll be eating pizza with Holly and the girls and it's hard to beat that. =) Hope some of you will make it, though! I'd love to meet some blog stalkers. =)

Vegas, WPPI & Humble Pie Tomorrow!

After packing in about 2 weeks worth of education, fun and tons of new friends into 5 days, I'm back in Oklahoma and excited about the year ahead! It was my first time to attend the annual WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers) conference in Vegas and it was everything I thought it would be... maybe more, even. =)

It's funny, after being chauffeured around for 5 days, it actually felt strange to drive myself today. Seriously? Just 5 days away and driving felt foreign? Yep. Not sure why... Maybe I was meant to be driven around? =) No, I enjoy driving too much to let someone else drive me.

Anyway, I have yet to review my WPPI notes and if there's anything that seems appropriate to share, I'll blog about it.

In other news... Humble Pie has opened! Holly's brother's pizza shop is open for business and is making the best Chicago-style, deep dish pizza I've ever tasted. The deal for this first weekend is, if you come in as "family and friends" you'll get a whopper of a deal on whatever you order. So, if you want to go, let them know you're a friend of ours and he'll take care of you!

Okay, change of plans, I just called him and they're open tomorrow (Saturday), but not this Sunday (he doesn't have a manager hired yet, so he needs a break).

Sooo.... Here's the plan! Let's meet tomorrow (Saturday) at 1:00PM for lunch! Comment, call, email or Twitter to let me know you'll be there so I can get a table for us. It's the soft opening, so it's a great time to try out probably lots of different pizzas that he will have made.

For more info, he has a Facebook Page up, but not a website yet. Hope to meet up with lots of you there!!!

Oklahoma is OK! :: License Plates

For all of our out-of-state readers, I've been meaning to blog about Oklahoma's new license plates for a few weeks. Holly was one of the lucky ones to get one the first month they came out. She's not a big fan, but I like them. What do you think?

I personally like it, though it's kinda hard to make out the picture from more than 15 feet away. I wonder if this will result in a huge increase in Oklahomans getting rear-ended when driving out of state. =)

The other thing is that they all look like vanity plates now since the numbers and letters don't have any spaces between them. Not a big deal unless you get stuck with three letters that could be misconstrued... Holly thinks hers sounds like "Ala"... maybe we'll break into the Muslim photography market with it!? =)

Tots-2-Teens Workshop

Just wanted to mention that Sandy "Sam" Puc will be in OKC on Feb. 23rd to host a 5-hour photography workshop called Tots-2-Teens, for anyone who may be interested. Here's a link to more info.


I plan to be there, so maybe I'll see some of you, too!

A Perfect Proposal

One of our brides is a finalist in Naifeh Fine Jewelry's "Perfect Proposal" competition! They have a great story, too. You can read it here and don't forget to click on the vote button at the bottom of the page! If they win, they get all the makings of a really great date night out on the town, so we hope they win! =)

You might recall that Rachel & Anthony have been featured in past blog posts... the proposal and the wedding at the Chesapeake Boathouse. Here's one of my faves from the wedding...


Hey, everyone have a great weekend! It's beautiful weather here in OKC... a little windy, but who notices the wind anymore? =) I've already been out for a little jog, so I'm feeling energetic and ready to wrap things up for the week. (Trying not to think about doing taxes just yet =)

Superbowl 43

Well, it's the day after the Superbowl and the accepted, expected thing to do is rehash all of the ads, right?

Here's my fave:



Until the last 3 minutes of the game, I probably paid more attention to the commercials than to the game. =) It was a pretty good game, though, unless you're a Cardinals fan. I'm honestly not much of a pro football fan at all. College ball is way more exciting to watch in my opinion.