Vacation aka creative refill!

Home again! There is absolutely nothing like a 9 day adventure followed by a 6 hour drive to clear your mind and allow the creative juices to flow. As I sit here listening to my new cd (Adele) I find that I am stoked for wedding season!!!! I can't wait to see Angela on Saturday and photograph an amazing bride and good friend.... it's just soooo exciting!!! Wooohoooo!

Ok so my vacation didn't so much as start out as bumpy, let's call it..... ROCKY! Cruising out of NJ sounded like a good idea, until the tornados came through and we ending up in.... what did the captain call it?? Oh yeah "gail force winds!!" yeah that's what we went through! You know it's bad when you start down the steps and have to walk around people throwing up in baggies that the cruise ship ties to all the stairs! No I did not get sea sick......THANK GOD!!! And the waves were AWESOME!!!! I was thinking "ok no big deal I got this!" You should never ever say that..... never, ever.....because I got food poisoning! WTF! I made it through GAIL FORCE WINDS!! Now I'm throwing up!!! What!!! Yep that was my vacation! I totally missed Bermuda (my favorite place ever) but by the time we got to St. Marteen.... it all started to come together. We saw St. Marteen, St. Thomas and San Juan......I thought I would share with you :-)

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!! HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!!

Pee, poop and biting....

It's been a while since I've been able to write on my blog. Life has kinda taken over lately, however today left me inspired. To say that I've had a really rough week is an understatement. I felt like my life had been picked up, turned upside down and shaken violently until I could no longer recognize it as my own.

I started my morning wallowing in self pity with an overall poor pitiful me kinda attitude. I got in my stupid car this morning.... drove my sad self over to Natalie's house to do a photo shoot. I was feeling sad.... pitiful.... pathetic..... moody and plain annoyed with my life. I stomped up to the door and knocked. I was met by one of my favorite people on the planet. She was smiling.... I sighed and smiled back.... feeling a little less sorry for myself. She sat down on her couch and gifted me with her sweetness...... my mood improved (slightly)..... Benji came down the steps and handed me Emma..... I looked into that tiny little face and fell in love. All my problems and bad attitude was washed away. Natalie's dog HATES me..... hates me so much she bit me (again). Yep.... she is a short Chihuahua that wanted to bite me so badly she jumped as high as she could to bite my knee..... but I didn't care. She made me laugh.... Emma pooped on the blanket we were using.... I laughed then she peed on my blanket and I laughed.... for the first time in 24 hours I was laughing. Natalie had given me a gift I will never be able to pay back. She made me realize that there are things in this world WAY more important than my petty problems. No matter how big they seem to me.... they could be worse. My life is blessed with friends and family. I don't say I love them enough, I need to say it more.... and realize that sometimes being baptized in baby poop, pee and dog bites is what it takes to make you appreciate your life :-)

Lauren and Jared

I met Lauren via email, like a lot of my brides. However unlike a lot of brides, she was emailing me 2 weeks before her wedding. She was originally supposed to get married at the Outerbanks on the beach, but hurricane Earl put a stop to that. With a mandatory evacuation all of her plans went up in smoke..... so plan B. Plan B included me shooting on a friday before a wedding 3 hours away on saturday. But I really felt for her and broke my own rule and agreed to shoot 2 weddings on the same weekend. What I hadn't anticipated was that the 2 of us would completely "get" each other. She was awesome, plus as a bonus she came with one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever seen....... Thanks Lauren and Jared for making me feel like an old friend.

The amazing wedding of Lauren and Jared took place at the Picasso Salon in Barboursville. This is the first wedding that I have shot here and I was pleasantly surprised. The house itself is the oldest home in Barboursville, so the architecture was super cool. However, the best part was the service! Lauren was able to get her hair done in the salon on-site and she was given the whole upstairs to get ready. The food was great and the people were wonderful. www.picassospaandcafe.com

The Ryans and bridal tip number....hmm can't remember :-)

I was in my office probably on facebook one day when I get this email out of the blue. A girl named Ryan emails me and says " I don't want a photographer for my wedding but I want you to meet me and photograph me and my soon to be husband Ryan for a formal couple shoot, after the wedding" I thought hmmm this is different... sure I'm all yours! At least I can remember the grooms name! This should be interesting..... well interesting wasn't exactly accurate. Awesome, amazing, fabulous, surreal..... those are appropriate words for what happened last night. This is something I am going to do more of..... let me explain:

Bridal Tip:

On the day of the wedding it is utter chaos. Everyone is on a time frame, you can't enjoy each other, you are constantly rushed.....this is so much better. The Ryans were already married. (no worries about getting the dress dirty) We met at her family farm and took our time. We did whatever we wanted. I fell in love with my job all over again. It was the best formal shoot I have ever done because I was able to work at my own pace....my only clock was the setting sun. When (bride) Ryan says can I jump in the pond in my dress......well you know what I said! Here are some of these amazing photos.....

Thanks to the Maxey family and the Ryans for being so much fun!

Unplugged and unwound

When I think about vacations, I always think that you should go in the summer. However, when we get there it's always crowded. We decided due to my crazy wedding schedule that we would go in September. Thanks to Earl we almost didn't make it, but as luck would have it, he skipped the Outerbanks! Thank you Earl for staying mostly out to sea!! So for one week, the cell phone was off and the computer was unplugged...I rarely used my camera (yeah I know...strange huh!) I caught fish and wiggled my toes in the sand. I even kissed my husband enough that my 6 year old started giving me dirty looks! It was great......here are a few of the very few photos that I took......

The quest

So I've been shooting weddings for about 10 years. I have been a "pro" for about 5, and in that time I have searched religiously for the perfect wedding lens. The lens that I could put on my camera and never take off (unless I just wanted to). I finally found it and it was Amazing! I shot my entire wedding last night with 1 lens. I'm pretty impressed with the results so I thought I'd post a few of my favorites!

PS: My couple from last night was wonderful! They were willing to do anything that I asked them to do plus some. It really made my job a lot of fun! Thanks guys; you were awesome! Have fun on the honeymoon!

Me being me....cookies, beer & cameras

So I'm a little mad at myself right now. I don't know why I do this, but it's a viscous cycle that I can't get out of. I sit down at my computer and I google "the photographer" the one everyone is talking about.....the one who doesn't shoot like me. And here I sit, comparing myself to that person, and I think why don't I shoot like that? What's wrong with my work? Why doesn't my name sound that cool or my website look that bangin' ?? Sometimes it costs me a few nights sleep, sometimes it costs me a new lens or god forbid a new camera!

So I am going to stop it. I am going to love my work because it's mine. I'm going to be myself and stay true to me. I will not jump on some band wagon because this look is hot right now or buy some $2,000 action that I can't use in a year.

I am just going to be me. And this is the photography I like to shoot.