Saturday was a beautiful fall day! The leaves were bright, it was warm and not raining (a nice change of pace for this fall). I was very happy to take advantage of that to do some senior portraits in Rogers. We started at Lake Atlanta, then moved to a small city park that had a spectacular tree shedding bright orange and yellow leaves. Here are a few images from the shoot:
It was just barely warm enough for this dress! This is not the obvious fall foliage shot, but the trees add a nice reflection to the water.
This is why I love shooting on-location! It would take a lot of effort to make a background this pretty in a studio.
Categories: Seniors · portraits
Amanda and Craig were married at Cooper Chapel in Bella Vista, AR on October 11th. It was pretty chilly for this time of year with temps hovering in the low 50s and a very overcast sky. But that didn’t dampen any spirits, and everything went very well. The reception was at Shrimpman’s Yacht Club in Bella Vista. It was my first time shooting there and it is very pretty. The view off the deck over Loch Lommond is very nice, and the food was good, too. As is tradition, here are a few images while I work through the rest:
A beautiful ceremony at Cooper Chapel in Bella Vista.
The bride's niece getting all gussied up.
The chilly weather was not going to stop us from getting the nice outdoor portrait shots.
This beautiful cake was a collaboration between Harps and Shirley's Flowers.
This shot was done on the deck overlooking the lake at Shrimpman's yacht club. I took a little fussing around in photoshop to pull out some color in the sky, but the results were worth it!
Categories: wedding photography
The never-ending home renovation project rolls on. It takes such a long time to do anything when you are doing it yourself! The new bathroom/changing room attached to the studio is almost done! It is looking really good. Paint is on the walls and the trim should be up in a few days. The actual studio space has a ways to go, but I am hoping to have it up and running by early November for doing Christmas portraits. I will post pictures when it is all done and pretty!
Categories: Uncategorized
Whew! What a weekend – bikes, blues and BBQ was in town, and West Fork had its annual festival, and the Fall Bridal Fair was at the Hammond Center. The bridal fair was very nice, lots of really neat booths and vendors. I picked a spot across from the Harps cake display area because I know people are drawn to the cool cakes. But I was also next to the table where they were giving out samples and I had more than a few of their fantastic “cake balls”. My booth was between my friends at Destinations Travel and a very nice woman with the Pratt Place Inn and Barn. I only had a chance to snap a few pictures before the fair, owing to the fact that I got distracted by a magician with Dancenhance Entertainment before I made it all the way around the hall. I will put more images up on my Steely Joe Facebook Page. A big “Thank You” to my mom who came up from Little Rock to help out and to Ladybug floral who provided the flowers for my booth. I think the event went well and excited about all the new contacts I made!
My photography booth. My mom took the picture - she comes and helps me out at Bridal Fairs but likes to mostly stay behind the scenes.
A very pretty table by Festivities Events.
These boquets from Shirley's Flowers were used in the fashion show and were even prettier in real life!
Mmmm...moss balls for supper! An odd trend I see cropping up in decorating - moss balls are everywhere. In vases, in stacks, on pillars and even on these place settings from Eventures!
Categories: Uncategorized
September 18, 2009 · 1 Comment
Recently I watched a video about a photographer named John Ridgeway who specializes in newborn portraiture. He has an amazing gift for working with babies! After watching him work, I really wanted to try some newborn photography (I really have not done much). As luck would have it, one of my existing clients just had a baby, so borrowed him as a test subject. He was very cooperative and stayed sound asleep for most of the shoot. The was a great learning experience for me and I think the images came out pretty nice.
Madden is 12 days old in these pictures. I washed some of the color out of this shot in Photoshop to give it a kind of sleeping-on-a-cloud look.
Look as his cute little fingers!
I thought jeans would be a fun alternative to the traditional stack-of-towels baby portrait.
He woke up long enough to give a collossal yawn, and then he was out again!
A great big Thank You to the Fields family for letting me do this!
Categories: children · portraits
Normally, I get a few images up within a few days of an event, but here it is Thursday, and I am just now getting something on the blog about Saturday’s wedding! Lisa and Eric were married at Cooper Chapel in Bella Vista on September 5th. I had not shot at Cooper Chapel in quite a while, and it is always nice to shoot in a place you are familiar with (and that looks so nice in pictures). There were lots of kids in the wedding and in the audience, which is always fine with me since I like taking kid pictures. Here are a few pics while I work on sorting through the rest:
We got a chance for a few quick bridal portraits before the ceremony by using the little porch beside the office/changing room. I like the lighting in the image with the bright areas of the background bringing the focus to Lisa's face.
A cute candid shot with one of the many kids in attendance.
The ring ceremony. At Cooper Chapel, I like to find a spot in the front row to shoot sitting down, that way I am not blocking everyone's view, and the picture will have more of the upper curved window showing.
Resessional shots are some of my favorites, because you get very genuine smiles from the bride and groom.
Another fun candid shot. I like this image both as a color study, and because everyone in the image is doing something different. The "camera face" from the only kid that spotted me is cute, too.
Categories: Uncategorized
September 7, 2009 · 1 Comment
Keisha and Justin were married at Chapel on the Creeks in Rogers, AR on September 4th. The forecast did not look good, but the rain held off and we actually got to do some outdoor portraits after the ceremony. The grounds around the chapel are really nice so I was glad we could use them!
As a photographer, you can’t help when something catches your interest and you end up taking way too many pictures of one thing. In this case I am referring to the two year old flower girl who is probably one of the cutest flower girls I have seen. She was very good, especially considering her age. She was hard to catch smiling, I think there was too much going on, but that did not make her any less adorable! Here are a few images from the wedding while I work on sorting through the rest:
Super Cute flower girl
This was a funny picture that the bridesmaids came up with, they couldn't quite coordinate the jump, but it's a fun shot anyway.
Chapel on the Creeks is very popular with brides, as you can imagine with a foyer like this!
The nice thing about the cloudy weather is that it gave really nice filtered light through the big front windows during the ceremony.
Ok, one more flower girl pic - this one is from the reception where she was hiding under the brides table.
Categories: Uncategorized
One of the things I enjoy most about wedding photography is designing albums. It is fun to take the images and present them as a story of the wedding day. Since I do all the design work myself, I am not restricted to certain styles, and I can make as many changes as the client wishes after the initial design. Usually, I have an idea for a particular page in the album, so I start there and use that to determine the style that particular album will have. Here are a few pages from some of my summer wedding albums:
This page shows images from the traditional first dance and parents dance. I like the kind of dreamy look to the black and whites (added with a filter) and how the outline of the couple in the center image almost makes a heart shape. Add in the bouquet in the background, and you have a very romanitc look.
Sometimes trying to include all the important portraits in an album can be challenging, especially if the album doesn't have many pages! I like this look with one big image being the background for the smaller images. It helps give the page some style even though there are lots of images.
My larger albums usually have what I call a "setting" page, which will have lots of little images to show off the style and location of the wedding. I got the idea for this one from fashion magazine covers where the model's head covers part of the title.
Categories: Uncategorized
I just realized I had forgotten to post any pics from Kiesha and Justin’s engagement session on the 31st of July! Anyway, I had a really great time with this because the location and date were very special to me. July 31st was my 5 year wedding anniversary, and we ate at James at the Mill the evening of our wedding. By the way, I had a 10:30 a.m. wedding – not something I would recommend unless you are really a morning person! All you brides out there can do the math on how early the bridal party had to be at the salon (who opened early). Anyway, when Kiesha called and wanted to set up a portrait shoot for the 31st at the Mill, my husband and I decided to make a date out of it. We met at the restaurant early enough to have a nice dinner before Kiesha and Justin arrived, then strolled outside to do the portraits – it was really nice! We had not eaten there in five years, so it was really a treat. Kiesha and Justin are a very sweet couple and I look forward to covering their wedding on the 4th of September.
The Inn at the Mill is a great place for portraits. There are so many nice settings in a small space.
Often the best ideas for pictures come from the subjects themselves, and this cute imgae is no exception.
Categories: engagement · portraits
Kay and Joe were married on August 1st at the first Baptist Church in Prairie Grove, AR. The reception was at a Fare to Remember at Drake Field in Fayetteville. I am an army brat and really enjoy being around people in the military and their families, so it was quite a treat for me to do this wedding. The family members involved were really friendly, and I was invited to sit down and eat supper with everyone! As a rule, I don’t eat the party food unless someone says its ok – after all, when they are counting guests, they are not counting me and I am there to work. On the other hand, I usually don’t take a whole lot of pictures while everyone is actually eating because I have an aversion to the typical party pics of people chewing or with a fork halfway to their mouths as these are very unflattering (and who would want them in their wedding album?). It’s better to wait a bit for that point where people switch from eating to chatting again.
My typical Monday-after-the-wedding post did not happen, and for that I appologize! I had events Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and got a little behind on the blog updates. But here are a few sneak-peek images while I work on sorting through the pictures:
Usually I use the boquet as the background for the ring picture, but I really wanted bring out the military aspect of the wedding.
This was one of those quick candid shots I like to find at weddings. The wedding party had lined up, and the bride peeks out the dressing room door at the end of the hall to see if its her turn yet.
This was the "sand ceremony" something I had not seen at a wedding before. Each member of the soon-to-be-blended family pours in sand of a different color to make a unique pattern.
If there was any doubt as to who was the real princess up on stage, the flower girl started waving and blowing kisses during the ceremony. So cute!
A sweet little moment with the bride and her son during the portrait session.
Categories: wedding photography
