melissa's bridals

last weekend i photographed melissa and justin's wedding at our church. i'm excited to get started on editing their photos, but while i'm working on that, here are her bridals that we took a few months ago :)


this is the one that she chose for the large portrait--i always love these seated poses and how they show off the details on a full dress.
we had another gorgeous afternoon at this spot in williamston, same place i've used for kristi and connie's bridals.
and the sunlight was just beautiful!

melissa's mom had requested a couple of shots with a solid white background--so we made good use of her many helpers/bridesmaids that came with us and set up a little studio backdrop right there in the grass!
this took a lot of editing, but i was happy with how it came out. tough to replicate full studio backdrops and lighting when you're essentially in a nicely manicured park!

and finally, a fun shot with all of her assistants. it makes bridal shoots so much easier when you have a whole crew to help with dress placement, holding umbrellas to create shade, keeping eyes out for bugs on the skirt, etc!
i hope you've had a fabulous honeymoon, melissa, and i can't wait to work on your wedding photos!

(i'll set up the bridals for the wedding that i'm doing tonight to post tomorrow morning--they are beautiful and we had the best location for them--check back to see them!)

summer evening family portraits

i love word-of-mouth referrals, so when two of my past photo clients recommended me to a co-worker, i was happy to meet these sweet kids on beautiful summer evening.

needless to say, it took a little while for this guy to warm up to me :)

but this pretty girl quickly became comfortable and had a great time coming up with different poses!

love autumn lakes and this gorgeous spot (though i could do without dave mirra's new house being built in the background there.)
i also had fun with some of the lightroom presets in editing this batch--the black and white and faded color ones are just awesome.
so once we got this little guy smiling, he reminded me a lot of alan at his age--blond curls and all.
then we made our way over to the bridge for some more shots...


and got a couple of great smiles from the little man!

and when we all worked together (mom, dad and sister) we were able to get a few of both kids together!
so cute and so fun to work with them :)

belly update

(and proof that i'm going through the same dresses/jewelry right now)

here's the belly at 25 weeks--love this dress i got from motherhood maternity online.
and the coral dress again, this time at today's wedding (that i was photographing) with megan and lindsey (and davis's soon-to-be buddies isaac and collen.)
we were all in small group together for the past few years, and megan and joel moved several months ago (but still keep in touch.) collen will be here by the end of august, while davis and isaac will likely be just a couple of weeks apart.

today's stats in my weekly pregnancy update e-mail says that he's 13 1/2 inches long and about a pound and a half. hard to believe how quickly he's growing! and that we're getting closer to the end of the 2nd trimester...

a few of my favorite summer beauty products

it has been quite the summer to deal with heat and humidity, let along being pregnant at the same time. i have found comfort in a few products that i thought i'd share, just because they are helping me beat the heat and the sun!

i love all things fresh and cool during the summer--there's actually nothing i enjoy more than a lukewarm (almost cold) shower after being out in the heat to help bring my body temperature down. i've been doing this since band camp days in high school, and it hasn't changed. this new suave professionals haircare line in the rosemary and mint scent is so refreshing! i wish they made a body wash in the scent, too.

i've always had sensitive skin that doesn't necessarily handle sunscreen well. it was a trial and error experiment every summer to figure out what sunscreen would work for us, and which ones would sting and burn our faces as soon as we hit the water or started to sweat. i've learned over the past couple of years that baby sunscreen is the way to go. it's always a strong enough SPF, doesn't sting or burn if it does get in my eyes, and will stay on even through some of the toughest sweating (because it's thicker and feels like you're putting paste on--but it's worth it not to burn!) this summer's brand has been neutrogena, though i've used aveeno baby in the past, too.

love clinical strength secret to help deal with those super hot days. it has a nice scent and seems to work even better when paired with...
certain dri in the evenings. that's the recommended time to use certain dri (before you go to bed), and then i'll put on the secret in the morning to have an actual scent (and to reinforce the antiperspirant.)
ooh, this has been a life-saver. garnier fructis anti-humidity hair spray--love the scent and the weight of it, and it's helped with the frizzy hair that often comes with our humid days here :)
and finally, i found this product at wal-mart recently and all i can say is that it's awesome and has been great for this summer. i love wearing skirts and dresses to stay cool in the summer, and this has helped so much for those uncomfortable heat rashes or chafing spots. amanda had recommended clear desitin for the same issue, but i like the powder feature of this product.
what summer products have gotten you through the season?

a few things we've been up to

i have three weddings coming up over the next three weekends, and they all have beautiful bridal portraits that i've been working on... but i can't share them yet! so here are a few other pictures i thought i'd share :)

i have done my first set of edits using lightroom, and i am really liking it. the interface is smart, and i felt like it took less time than using photoshop. they also have some nice presets that come with it, and of course, there are tons of presets you can download out there. it may end up being a long-term purchase!

we've been getting the game room ready to become the guest room when the current guest room becomes the nursery, and we've done a lot of work to take it back over from the cats. their litter boxes have been in there for the last year and a half (i guess since we got pepper, or maybe even before then) and the carpet in there has taken quite a beating. we've been using some borrowed heavy-duty vacuums and steam cleaners to get it back into shape. this coming weekend, we'll be traveling to my uncle and aunt's house to pick up the crib that they're passing on to us now that our two young cousins have outgrown it. once it's here (along with several other items that they're sending our way--they have two boys, 2 and 4, so we're excited to be set up for hand-me-downs!) we'll start moving things around and getting the nursery set up. my "planner" side is thrilled to finally have some productive stuff to work on to get ready for this baby!

so this weekend, i took a break from photographing weddings and just attended one instead. justin's family has been good friends with the bride's family since they moved down here, and the bride's brother was one of his groomsmen in our wedding. we regularly see them for visits and cook-outs when kenny and stephanie come down to see his parents, and they have two adorable kids. fun fact--they are scottish, so this wedding definitely had a scottish flair--right down to the bagpipe processional down the aisle.
they got married in the washington civic center, which is a renovated train station. the wedding i'm photographing in two weeks will be here, so i was excited to get a sneak peek at it. (loved the blue dresses and orange gerber daisies)
then it was time to eat and enjoy our custom-made koozies!
and the cute (and delicious!) cake.
i made sure we got a picture of both of us dressed up for the wedding--i've gotten a couple more dresses to get me through the numerous weddings and baby showers we have coming up, and i really liked this coral dress.
and finally... one of the cutest pictures i've taken of pepper in a long time.
justin set this one up--she doesn't actually hug her little loofa dog like that on her own, but justin tucked it up under her paws while she was napping saturday afternoon, and it's just adorable. i love this dog so much and can't wait to get a print made of this one.

i think that's it for now. more photos coming up as i work through my editing...

catching up

okay, here's my attempt at catching up on blogging! sadly, i'm about a week and a half behind, so here's the pictures i promised from the 4th of july weekend :)

first, let's share some of my photo shoot of our friends heather and johnny, and their adorable little girl abby. loved photographing this sweet girl!

this is devi, heather's dog that has adjusted very well to having a little one in the house.

really digging the candid shots from this shoot
and abby gave me a couple of smiles when she was on her own!


i edited and delivered these photos on 4th of july weekend, when we went over to cook out at their house. the boys headed out and got a big pack of fireworks to set off once it got dark. if you're reading from out of state, NC has a pretty strict fireworks law and you can't buy any that leave the ground. that's why fireworks stores are such a big deal on the SC and TN borders. so we played it safe with some sparklers...

and then some of these little cone ones that shot sparks up in the air.
this last kind was actually pretty impressive!
that's about when i started videoing some of them--i have to admit, my voice sounds kinda southern when i talk about how high the firework is going. talking with heather tends to have that effect on me!


and then we ended the night with these flare sticks that were a little disappointing to the guys, who thought they might be one of the ones that shoot things out.
then they decided to choreograph a little dance for us--please enjoy this one :)


one last picture i wanted to share--our "all american" dinner that we had on july 5th before we headed back to work the next day. watermelon, grilled corn on the cob and hot dogs (all natural organic beef hot dogs, by the way, from our local grass-fed "our cows don't do drugs" beef provider.) and yes, i'm pregnant and eat hot dogs every now and then. i even occasionally have deli meat. moderation is the key!
okay, most of everything else i've been working on has been bridals, so i can't share those quite yet...but i should have some new stuff up later on this week. after hearing from many people how awesome adobe lightroom is from other photographer friends, i've downloaded a trial and am going to use it to edit joe and kristi's wedding and a recent family shoot i did. i'm excited about testing it out and hopefully speeding up some of my editing processes.

justin's gotten several good kicks from davis, especially at night when we're settling down for bed. he's been incredibly active lately and especially likes to punch and kick against my waistband when i'm sitting at my desk at work. we have an appointment friday morning that should be a quick check-up, and i'm interested in seeing where i'm measuring now, since the ultrasound tech had said that he was measuring early.

and i'm collecting a few orders by the end of the month for some thirty-one stuff--if you're interested in ordering, let me know! it's the last month to order from the spring/summer catalog, and i want to get some of the fun prints that they had in this one.

kristi's bridals

i dream of bridal sessions like this one--so easy to photograph, an amazingly beautiful bride with an awesome location and gorgeous lighting.

(it helps that kristi is adorable and just so stinkin' photogenic)
add in the dress, that long, perfectly-coiffed hair and veil....
and you have one beautiful bride.
(i can't wait to share the pictures of joe's expression when he first saw her)
(they'll make you tear up)
(or maybe that's just me with the pregnant hormones)
(i call this the "bridal magazine cover" pose)
and a little different to close them out--a little more pensive, but i like it.
such an amazing bridal shoot and so excited i could share them with you today! next up--tons of wedding photos :)