Happy Halloween!

It's late and we just got back in - but we had to post some costume and pumpkin pics!

Alyssa made this completely awesome Thomas the Tank Engine costume for Murphy to wear. We made it through about 5-6 houses with it on, but we didn't carry a camera at all while we were trick-or-treating (typical - this is what happens when you're photographers for a living - we've really slacked on taking pics of Murph the past couple months). We dropped it on the boy for a quick snap in his jammies so everyone could get the idea:

And just for fun, I found some pics I snapped the other night while we were carving and painting our pumpkin family...babies and carving knives, not a good combo Alyssa tells me...so we decorated with acrylic.

...and that led to maybe some paint going places other than the pumpkin. I'll spare everyone the photo I took with a LOT of paint around the boy's mouth...

We hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween and got to eat a TON of these, my favorite roasted snack this time of year!

Happy Halloween, and we'll be posting a TON next week with new weddings, family shots and engagements!

JT and Carolyn

We couldn't wait to get home and start working on Carolyn and JT's wedding photos! We love shooting at "The Church" or "Babeville" or whatever it's being called these days.  Either way, it was a wonderful evening in a wonderful place we got to enjoy with a favorite couple of ours.

Alyssa headed downstairs with Carolyn to shoot some cool detail shots after we arrived. Carolyn and JT are artists, and the details of their wedding weren't lacking. Carolyn's shoes were, as she put it, the kind of shoes that come from the kind of store in NY that you can never actually afford to buy shoes from. And they worked perfectly with her (short!) repurposed wedding dress. She took her mother's dress and had it remade into an amazing wedding gown. The lace on the sleeves are all from the original and some of the lace on the bodice and back was new and matched the original perfectly.

I was hanging out with JT in the balcony, waiting for Carolyn so we could sortof engineer a "first look." JT and Carolyn had planned to see each other before the ceremony, but they still wanted to have a fun reveal and it totally worked. You can really see how excited they both are - no encouragement from us necessary!

JT checking out the AMAZING dress...

And then we rocked a mini wedding-day couple shoot! Carolyn put a lot of thought into the details of the wedding and really went for a "Mad Men" kind of of style - so I got a touch old-school with some of our processing. 

More from inside the church:

And into Hallwalls!

JT is a really talented musician and composer and we were treated to some marimba compositions by a friend of his, including a transposition by some Bach (I think?)  by the groom. Alyssa and I were both shutter-dragging...

This is one of my favorite shots from our first look at the wedding photos. We knew it was going to be really dark in the former sanctuary, so we had some stobes in strategic locations that let us do some fun things with spot-lighitng...

The is apropos of nothing - but we just love places with balconies for shooting - how else can you get a top-down shot of the perfectly set tables? 

Carolyn absolutely glowed during the ceremony - she and JT have been together for a long time now, and you could just see all the tension and pressure of the wedding day melt away in her smile.

Their first dance was so sweet...

Here' s a fun wide-angle of the Church from the balcony while the wedding guests were bellying up to the buffet...

And then some cake...

And some dancing :)

Awesome, Awesome wedding JT and Carolyn!

Cathy and Todd

I think maybe we should start defining "Fall" differently around Buffalo, because Fall is supposed to be mild, pretty and require just a sweater - and it is NOT mild outside our studio right now (think 40 mph winds - it sounds like it did when we had a storm window blow completely off the house last year - yeah, that was awesome) and I have a space heater cranked next to the editing console.

Anyway, I'm rambling...because it may be nasty outside, but we're still shooting amazing, beautiful couples all the time. This past week we got to see Cathy and Todd again and went to Glen Falls for some shots. They were really excited to get them done, and so we all tried to ignore the cold the best we could and make some killer frames.

Did I mention that Todd and Cathy are a really good looking couple? The biggest key to a beautiful, successful photo of a couple isn't the pose or the aperture or the post-processing - it's the two people in the frame loving each other and letting go.

I like taking tightly-cropped frames of what parts of a peoples' body are doing when other things are going on. A lot of times Alyssa will be working a particular pose (she's great at it and I'm...well, not so much with the modeling poses) and I'll shoot the in-between, "other" stuff, which is why I noticed Cathy and Todd's hands. It's like they couldn't possibly hold each other any tighter, yet there they are, trying to find new purchase and tugging at each other with a longing that you only see in the most in-love couples. It's not the best photo from the day, but I think the way a couple holds hands says a lot about who they are together.

Do not let that beautiful rock distract you from the eyes!

The biggest reason we shoot engagement photos for every couple who books us is that Alyssa and I feel it's so important to get to know our couples better. The more you know someone's personalities and their traits (how they hold their head, or how the bridge of their nose wrinkles up when they smile), the better prepared you are to tackle a wedding day and nail photos that show who they really are and visually translate what they're feeling.

Alyssa shot this just as Todd was telling us about the time he played Captain Planet and totally saved a duck in the pond at Glen Falls from a snapping turtle's crushing maw. It may seem like just a story about a duck - but it also shows the kind, caring (and selfless?) man that Cathy loves....so that's why the ducks :).

Definitely my favorite shot of Alyssa's :

And this is my favorite, with the happy couple among the leaves :

Thanks again, guys, for working with us on the coldest outdoor day yet (not that it isn't going to get more and more brutal from here on in). We're really, really looking forward to your wedding next year!

Deanna and Kirk

So, Deanna and Kirk were our last outdoor wedding of the year -- and it was dangerously close to freezing, but things turned out perfectly and the sun came out and kept everyone warm through the ceremony. The car had a nice layer of frost on it when we left, but the stunning Hillside Inn had a beautiful fireplace that kept the dancers warm throughout the evening. We arrived at the Inn and Kirk was making sure some last-minute details were in place, while Deanna was getting her fabulous makeup and hair done.

Deanna is no fool -- she went with comfort footwear all the way. I love a bride that loves sneakers!

The gorgeous dress -- she had this beautiful black detailing, and what I really loved was that instead of an all-white veil, hers brought the black elements of the dress into it. Totally sweet.

Meanwhile, Kirk and his boys were in another of the Inn's stunning rooms getting ready.

And Deanna was taking a beautiful portrait in her room, before she headed downstairs to get married. When Rich saw the hallway, he immediately knew he had to get the "girls coming out of the room" shot -- I think it looks perfect!

Then it was time to head down the aisle!

A nice fall ring shot!

And then we walked around the grounds to do some portraits; first with the group, then just with Deanna and Kirk.

Then it was into the beautifully decorated reception space. I seriously couldn't love fall weddings more -- the colors, the fact that I'm a sucker for fall, they're my favorite.

The toast!

And then it was time for some dancing. Thanks, again, guys for having us with you -- it really was a fantastic time, and I know your guests absolutely enjoyed themselves. We'll talk to you soon!

Bethany and Adam

We've been looking forward to Bethany and Adam's wedding all summer (though, probably not as much as they were!), and finally, the weekend arrived. Going into it, we knew it was going to be a pretty large wedding as Bethany and Adam have the most amazing friends and family -- seriously, a lot of the time, you see groups of 200 and you wonder if the bride and groom even know everyone at the wedding, but at this wedding, we knew they had very personal realtionships with all their guests. And it's no surprise -- Bethany and Adam are some of the most warm, welcoming, relatable people we've met.

When we shot their engagement shoot this summer, we told them we needed to finish up by eight. Within seconds, Adam had us cracking up because he completely pegged as having to finish, not because of our child or a deadline shoot, but because of our fantasy football draft -- which he knew because he and Bethany had finished theirs up right before our shoot. What I'm trying to say (probably less eloquently than I'd like at 2 a.m.) is that we immediately clicked with them and knew that when we shot their wedding, it would be like shooting our friends.

And friends are very important to Adam and Bethany -- in fact, their friends and family helped them with virtually all the details of the wedding, including their flowers. They bought the flowers wholesale and had a big craft project. I think they came out perfectly (including the ivy from the front of Bethany's mom's house to add a really personal touch).

The rings!

We were outside Bethany's parent's house taking some photos before heading to the chuch, and Bethany's shadow was perfect!

When we got to the chuch, Bethany was waiting in the nursery for the ceremony to begin. While her girls made sure all her details were in order, she snuck off to the world's smallest table and chairs to read over her vows.

At the same time, Adam was in the hallway outside the sanctuary getting ready to get married!

Some of our favorites from the ridiculously touching ceremony...

The kiss!

In the movie 27 Dresses, Katherine Heigl's character talks about her favorite moment being when the groom first sees the bride. But Rich and my favorite moment is the first few seconds after the ceremony -- before the maid of honor and best man even exit the church, when the newlyweds have that first moment together. A lot of the time, that's the last moment they'll have alone as husband and wife until the end of the night, and the utter joy they have that they've just finally married without having a few hundred people looking at them is amazing.

We headed over to Chestnut Ridge Park for some portraits before heading to Lucarelli's for the reception.

This was a groom who seriously couldn't stop playing with his ring all evening. He and Bethany were both beyond thrilled to have them on their fingers.

Then it was time for their first dance!

Bethany and Adam put together a very personal, fun reception. After their first dance, they shared a slideshow of their lives.

Then it was time for the bouquet toss!

So, Bethany is from Buffalo and is very much a Bills fan. Adam is from Pittsburgh and likes (ahem) the Steelers. As Bethany sat down to start the garter ceremony, their friends ran up and put a custom t-shirt on her.

Now, Bethany and Adam have a great sense of humor. Instead of going the traditional route of pulling the garter out and tossing it, Adam found almost all of Bethany's earthly possesions up her absolutely unforgiving dress, which she perfectly pulled off -- to the point that Rich and I didn't even notice anything lumpy when she came out for the garter! First he found a Terrible Towel...

Then a Bills jersey!

Finally, he got the garter out and in the air.

A great dance shot of Rich's.

When Bethany and Adam left, they did through a whole boatload of sparklers. Totally sweet exit. Thank you, Bethany and Adam, and your families, for having us with you to celebrate your really amazing day.

Carolyn and JT

When I was 13, my dad handed me my first camera -- his old Pentax. He was a photographer and artist, and he taught me the basics of photography. After my mom died, I spent hours in our basement looking through his old photos of her, and one of the best photos of her, now a family classic, is of her kneeling in a field of wheat. It's got that early-70's-yellowish-hippy thing going on, and it's my favorite photo ever. So, when we asked Carolyn what kind-of feel she was going for in her engagement photos, and she replied, "70's record cover in a wheat field," I knew I was going to love working with her. While Carolyn is very into vintage (she's been antiquing for her wedding centerpieces for months), we did want to do some slightly more modern shots, as well, so we headed to Niagara Square to start our shoot with her and JT.

After we hung out for a few minutes, we headed down to the waterfront for some more photos. I think we're dangerously close to the end of fall (I know -- I hate to say that in October!!), so it was really nice to be able to shoot some outdoor photos without heavy coats (or, I should say, without coats AND without freezing anyone).

Then we went to Tifft Nature Preserve for our awesome 70's field shoot. We were waiting for the sun to get a little lower in the sky, so we walked slightly in to the preserve and took some shots by the water.

I love this shot of Rich's! Even though we shoot the exact same event, it's always a really cool moment when we get to see each other's shots from the day. When I saw this photo, I literally clapped! I love it, ridiculously so.

Then the light was about where we wanted it to start rocking the field shots.

We absolutely loved shooting you two, and we can't wait for your wedding. Without a doubt, it's going to be seriously unique. We hope you love your photos, and we'll see you soon!

Susan and Mike

I've known Mike since college when we first became friends, and since he and Susan had been dating for, I think, about 8 years - I've known her just about as long. There was no way we weren't going to shoot their wedding when Mike let me know he'd finally gotten off his goldbricking ass and asked Susan to marry him (Susan, are you sure you couldn't have done better?)

Being young(er) wedding photographers, we have a lot of friends who are getting married right now and a lot of times we're happy to be guests at a wedding without any cameras at all...but Mike is easily one of my best friends despite his personal hygiene issues (just kidding, Mike - you looked great...at least for your wedding day) and it just felt right.

Let's jump right in with some photos of the killer outdoor wedding. It was held at the Overhills Mansion in Catonsville, MD (near Baltimore).

Here's Susan and her father taking "the walk" :

One of the best things about outdoor weddings is that Alyssa and I can really move around the ceremony without being distracting at all. We love beautiful church weddings, too, but being outside usually means we have some vantage points that we might not otherwise have access to. I was hanging off a fire escape for part of the ceremony with one of my "football sidelines" lenses while Alyssa was working her magic in close.

I think I'm going to pretty much shut up and let the photos do the talking. It was a short, sweet ceremony and Susan looked AMAZING.

So, one of the best things about shooting a close friend's wedding is that well, you get to show off for your friends who may never get to otherwise experience what you do first-hand. I mean, most of my friends in Baltimore remember me as a jazz-guitar-playing, religious studies major (aka, a hippy) who liked taking photographs and joined the Marines to start his photography career. That part is cool. But then you also have to deal with your friends making smart-ass faces at you while they walk back up the aisle. Actually, I think this face Mike is making is best described as the "Holy crap, I didn't think she'd actually go through with it, I really pulled this one out" face.

Right after the ceremony and the formals we took the couple to the side for some of our super relaxed portraits.

And then we partied with our cameras!

My favorite detail shot of the night was Alyssa using the centerpiece as a backdrop/holder for Mike and Susan's wedding rings.

Something else we thought was really cool was that Susan and Mike opened an account on Shutterfly and printed the log on information on a card that came with the favors. They're hoping all the guests will upload some of their favorite photos from the wedding and reception to the account for them. At the end of the wedding season we're going to do one giant blog post of all the most interesting and fun ideas we saw at weddings this summer - and that is definitely on the list. Oh, and Mike if you're reading this (stop looking at porn for a second), I got that email letting me know you had signed me up for the "NKOTB" fan club - thanks, buddy, I may have some pretty, um, "interesting" photos to upload to that shutterfly account later...

These last photos are from the first dances. We really, really enjoy shooting first dances because you're just thinking about all the history of someone growing up with their family and starting a new one of their own...and, wait a minute - is Mike's mom about to hit him?

One of the hallmarks of our friendship with Mike and Susan is constant kidding and practical jokes, but it's been pretty amazing to be their friends all this time and we don't take that lightly. Good luck in everything you both do together and we can't wait to see you guys again!


++++++++++


One quick note: Today is Blog Action Day with a focus on povery throughout the world. We thought we'd be remiss, as pretty regular "bloggers," to not participate and hawk our favorite online poverty-fighting organization. Alyssa and I are huge fans of Kiva.org and, well, I'll start by letting the words on their website explain the concept verbatim:


"Kiva is one of the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending websites, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. These entrepreneurs use their loans to start businesses that lift them and their communities out of poverty. It doesn’t take much and the majority of loans are fully repaid!"

Basically, you paypal 25 bucks to someone in some remote part of the world who maybe just needs a small amount to drastically change their lives and the lives of those around them. When they repay that loan, you can do it all over again and even cash back out if you want. We've had some money floating in the Kiva.org lending program for over a year and have been able to support a handful of different folks in parts of the world we might never have otherwise dreamed of trying to support! Try it out - it is really cool.


/end blogging soapbox

Natalie and Brian

I love weddings. I know -- in our line of work, that's probably pretty obvious. But since we're working so hard at getting the shots we want during weddings, I sometimes take what's going on around me for granted. I just finished going through the shots from Natalie and Brian's wedding, and although it was only two days ago, it surprised me how beautiful, emotional and full the day was. When I see someone choking up, I'm thinking how I can get to the best angle for the lens I've currently got on me, where the light is coming from, how I want to manipulate the light and how to avoid the four people between my camera and the person starting to cry without climbing in the person's face and having them notice me and wipe the tears or turn away. I don't think about what's going on for them, but after going back and remembering the day and seeing it again through the photos, I got really sentimental. I hope that's how our photos are for the people we shoot, as well -- a way to relive the emotion of the most important day of their lives.

Anyway, here's some of my favorite's from Natalie and Brian's wedding. First, a couple detail shots of her shoes and dress.

Natalie was a stunning bride and her dress was gorgeous. Her mother and sister helped her get dressed, and she almost lost it when she finally saw herself in her wedding dress on her wedding day, but she kept it together. Well, for the most part :)

The rings with a bowl of peppers than Brian grew! That makes me so ridiculously jealous -- I pretty much manage to kill every plant I try to grow. Rich bought me an Aerogarden about a year ago, and while it's pretty much fool proof, I even killed those!

Natalie was dressed and ready to go!

They were married at the Annunciation Church which was the first time we'd been there. It was a gorgeous church and full of light, which is a dream for us.

After the ceremony, we went to Green Lake in Orchard Park for some pictures before heading to the waterfront downtown.

A shadow kiss!

The reception was at Shanghai Red's. Cocktail hour was up on the roof at sunset. And it was a beautiful sunset that day!

Then the sun set, and the moon rose and it was time to head into the reception.

I loved this shot of Natalie's bouquet on the table that Rich took.

And this one of the cake topper.

After some first dances, they did the bread dance -- Brian's family is Macedonian, and they have some of my favorite wedding traditions. The bread dance is a circle dance where guests can pay money to dance with the bread. It's hard to explain, but it's really cool to watch. And that's it for this blog post -- it was a beautiful wedding, and we were honored to be a part of it.

Welcome back Sabres!

I'll be shooting the Sabres this season, and it was a very good night to be a fan and a photographer. I can't show off stuff I shot during the game until I get permission, but I took this shot I really like of the Arena before all the fans started streaming in:

I think a lot of our hopes this season will rest with the leadership of Craig Rivet. Welcome to Buffalo, and here's to hoping you make your mark (beating one of your old teams and a favorite to take the East is a great start). It was so good to have Miller be rock solid in the shoot-out...hopefully we'll see more of that this season.

Let's go BUFF-A-LO!

Dear Murphy: Brown's Berry Patch

Hey there, kiddo. We've been slacking on updating your blog these days and no small amount of people have reminded us about it. So, since we had a break today, we have some photos from this summer for your friends and family to see. These photos are actually a couple months old (as you can tell from the scorching sun). Your Nanny was in town for a visit, so we decided to go berry picking. We headed up to Brown's Berry Patch for a fun day in the sun. I absolutely love these kitchy photo-op boards, as your Dad unfortunately knows.

So, the first thing we saw when we got there were two goats running around on top of the barn. They built this cool walkway up for the goats to wander around on and have some feeding stations. You're supposed to put your feed into the cup and pull the strap so it heads up to the goat, but apparently the goats wised up after waiting twenty minutes for a two year old to pull on the belt, and they just pull it up with their teeth.

Then we headed into the berry patch!

We had a wagon to carry our berries, and you insisted on pulling it yourself. We went on a very indirect path, and it took a lot longer than we'd anticipated, but you did it!

We started with blueberries, and you were a machine. Daddy didn't have to show you at all -- you just knew to grab the blue ones, and you rocked it. Seriously, you had your game face on and went to town. I don't think you picked one unripe one. We didn't have as much luck with blind Nanny's basket. Her method was that if it came off the bush, it must be ripe! Needless to say, I spent more time picking out branches from her basket than picking myself. :)

This is you and I waving to Daddy!

After we finished picking berries, we played for a while before heading off. They had a tractor half-buried in the ground, and you loved driving it.

Actually, you really just like anything with a wheel -- they also had a sweet pirate ship!

We had a blast. I hope we'll go apple picking soon, but knowing your Mom and Dad, that post won't be up until it's snowing. That's it for today -- I'll leave you with one shot inside the ship.

Katie and Elena

We went on the road for our most recent wedding, driving over what I'm pretty sure was ALL of the 90 on the way to Savoy, Mass, where my good friend from college, Katie, was getting married. It was actually a really nice drive, and I was really excited and nervous to see Katie and other folks I hadn't seen in many, many years (i.e., since I had lots of hair). I don't want to over-think the experience, but let's just say it was a very cathartic and happy couple of days for me.

As soon as we got there, we settled in at Katie's mom's house and got to finally meet Elena and her family. I've rarely been in a house that has so much love and passion inside. It certainly wasn't just that the house was warm and inviting because of the unexpectedly cold Berkshire night - it's one of those always-familiar, happy place you can settle in to after a long day, even if you haven't been inside since you were 16 :). Meeting someone you've heard a ton of positive things about is always awesome, too, and I felt like we already knew Elena from the start.

The next morning we got rolling early since the celebration was to start with breakfast (and lots of coffee for the photographers). Alyssa went with Elena and took some fabulous photos of her getting into her ceremonial wedding garb.

At one point during our relaxed couples shoot later in the day, Elena whipped out a comb she had stashed in her belt - this was wedding day attire that was all about utility :).

Meanwhile, back at camp (literally, we were at a local campground, which is really only place to hold a decent-sized reception in Savoy) I got to take some of my first "bride-getting-ready" shots ever of Katie. 

I'm a sucker for shots of a bride's footwear...uh, especially when they're some bitchin' red Durangos!

We headed over the the house, where the ceremony was going to be held out in the yard with the backdrop of a gorgeous Western Massachusetts fall (yeah, we get pretty lucky with our couples, for sure). Not to be out done, Molly the corgi even got dressed up:

Then we were rolling into one of the most beautiful ceremonies we have ever been a part of. Alyssa and I don't always talk about it because we're insulated by aspheric elements and zoom rings and the rules of composition, but we do get really emotionally involved in the weddings we shoot. Two choked up photographers? Absolutely - this one really got Alyssa, too :).

And then we spent a few minutes with the newlyweds (has it sunk in yet, guys?!?) doing some of our slightly-posed casual stuff.

After those shots, we got on to the reception where the contra band was playing and pretty much everyone was already dancing. Some day after the wedding season dies down for us we have to devote a post to the coolest and most original favors and other details of the weddings we shoot - one for the list: Trivial Pursuit cards at all the tables with questions on subjects of importance to the couple.

And then contra-dancing!

...and some toasting...

And we finally wrapped up the day with some soccer before heading back for an evening post-reception reception at Stephanie's hosue. Hmm - who is that incredibly attractive, ridiculously pale man in the argyle getting dusted by a bride? In all seriousness, thank you so much for having us, Tie and Len, and we wish we could be in Sante Fe next weekend for the second ceremony!!!

That's it for us for this week, though we will definitely have another post of some engagement shoots by midweek and probably a LOOOOONG overdue "dear murphy" post.

Chris and Jenn

We met with Chris and Jenn at Spot on Elmwood just a couple of months ago, and shot their engagement session just two days later since they live out of town. We loved working with them on that shoot and couldn't wait for this wedding to come around. These guys are super rad and they got everything JUST right for their day.

The wedding took place between two of our favorite places in Buffalo, the Mansion on Delaware, and the steps of the Albright Knox. As usual, here are some shots we liked. :)

So, for starters, it makes us feel really good when couples use our photos from a previous shoot in their wedding - but I don't think any of our shots have been edible before, and we were really stoked to see these M&Ms:

We kindof joked about having the wedding date stitched on a couple different items of clothing Chris was wearing (including his custom-made suit) so he'd always have a cheat-sheet to remind him of the date...but I'm not going to lie - Alyssa has our anniversary date tattooed on her ankle and I do occasionally check...not that I'd forget, you know, just to make sure...

Custom Jack Purcells for the groom and his groomsmen? Hell yes:

Fun Fact: Jack Purcell was a world champion badminton player....in case you were wondering.

Jenn and Chris wanted to do a "mini-shoot" before they got married, so we walked across the street from the Knox to Hoyt lake and had a good time while some neo-hippies drummed in the distance.

Just about now, Alyssa tried to go all Gene Kelly on a light pole and fell on her ass while demonstrating a pose we wanted to go for - all photographic evidence of this has been duly erased...just wanted to mention it...

If you're reading this and wondering, "So, how do you get permission to get married on the steps of the Albright Knox?" Never fear, we have the answer for you - you just show up with your friends and family and a judge and you do it because that's what you want to do and it's your wedding day. When they said they were going to get married there, we thought that was awesome. I always say it's better to ask forgiveness than permission.

How good does that look? The ceremony was beautiful. As Chris knows, it is one of THE Buffalo things to do to get photos taken after your wedding on the steps. If you walk into a home in Buffalo, I'd say 8 out of 10 times you'll see the shot above the mantle is there...so what not take it a step further?

After the ceremony, we all shot back down Delaware to the Mansion and Chris and Jenn hosted their cocktail hour in the gardens.

So, Chris really took a super active role in the wedding, which is awesome for a groom - particularly when the bride is a very, very busy doctor. He wanted his love for the city of Buffalo and its art scene to shine through the details - and it definitely did. However, as the wedding date crept closer, he was afraid that Jenn might think things were getting a little "too" Buffalo (is that possible?) on her - so he made a modification to their cake order. The cake is reminicent of a Piet Mondrian piece that hangs at the Albright Knox...

As it was explained to us, Jenn works with a lot of mice in her lab, so Chris thought that would be fitting for their cake. I'd like to have been at the cake maker's shop after that phone call came in...like, "Uh sir, are SURE about that....."

We found out once we got to the reception that a few of Chris and Jenn's friends would be spinning sets in lieu of a standard DJ - and of course the music was killer all night long. The coupled danced to the Velvet Underground for their first dance - rad.

It was a great wedding day and night, and we're really happy to have been part of it. All congratulations are due to Chris and Jenn!

Megan's Senior Portraits

We met up with Megan this week at Stiglmeier Park to shoot her senior portraits. We'd never been to the park before, and it's a huge beautiful park. And, as it turned out, we were shooting Megan on a very important day -- it was the day she passed her driving test. I remember the first time I took the test... and the second... but I digress. Let's get to some photos! Megan was going for a fall feel to her photos, so we started in a really cool grove of trees.

Of course, when we went out, it was dangerously close to raining, so we wanted to get some shots with the softbox in before we got the battery wet and ruined it, so since Megan is a dancer, we started making her jump. I think it came out pretty solid.

So, being that neither of us had been to the park before (she suggested it on a recommendation), we both went to the website. There was this really neat bridge photos prominently displayed on the park's site which we couldn't find. So, we played with a fence with some crazy vines growing on it instead.

Then we hit up the only patch of fallen leaves in the park to rock the fall feel.

There was also this gorgeous pond -- and it had plenty of geese living there. Of course, this meant there was geese poop everywhere, and I really have to give props to Megan for being such a trooper. I think she stepped in it at least ten times and totally brushed it off. Seriously, Megan, you were awesome to shoot!

And a couple of shots to leave you with -- I love the feel of the first one. It feels like it walked out of a magazine ad. And in the final shot, Megan just looks gorgeous so I figure that's a good one to end on.