My Weblog

The First Wedding

Wow!!! I know there are photographers who have this down to a fine art and are very efficient. That is a work in progress for me. The experience of shooting my first wedding has been wonderful albeit a challenge. I think I even been editing editing photos in my sleep the last week and a half. But I am happy to say they are complete and the album is underway. Here's the first couple of pages and a link to the photos.

I tried to keep them in some order, but a few may be out of place. Please be gracious, I feel like a babe in the big city. My hat's off to the folks who shoot weddings every weekend, they should be sporting some type of cape with an "S" for Super Shooter.

I hope you enjoy.

Wedding Bells

I'm sure Chris and Mark are anxiously awaiting their wedding pictures. While most are edited, I decided to give her a little sneak peak here.

My good friend and fellow photog, Stephanie and I were honored to shoot our first wedding together for Mark and Chris. You may remember their engagement pictures with Chris' beautiful daughter Nicki grabbing a bit of the limelight with those beautiful eyes of hers.

Here's a couple of the girls getting ready.
And Chris and Nicki.

And the cool grooms men.

The ceremony was in the heat of the afternoon, but the good news is the rain stayed away until later. Immediately after the ceremony the bride and groom were all smiles.

Here's a couple of the post wedding girls.

Chris and Mark are great to photograph. They are extremely in love and very affectionate. It was wonderful watching them sing to each other during their first dance.

Here's one of them cutting the cake.

I should have most of the photos up by this coming Thursday. Hopefully the full album. Be sure to check back then.

Chris and Mark your wedding was beautiful and we had a great time. Congratulations!!!!

China Girls

A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor of shooting a reunion of families that adopted daughters from an orphanage in the Guangdong Province of China. These families traveled together on this monumental life experience and decided too have a reunion in St. Louis during the Chinese Festival at the Botanical Gardens. The 5 girls I had the pleasure of photographing are all in the four year old range and what a joy they were. They kept us hopping.

Here is Gracie.

...and Cate,

...and Meg

...and Hannah

...and last but certainly not least beautiful Mia.

Thank you to all the families and girls I met. Your daughters are precious in every way and very fortunate to have such loving families.

click here to see their album.

Awake

Allow me to introduce you to a kindred spirit and friend. You may remember Bridgette's shots with my daughter at Anna House, one of the places Bridgette performs. She is an amazing person with an amazing story. When she asked me to do some photos for her I was honored.

Her license plate sums up nicely her life and her mission. "Awake". In 2006, Bridgette was over 100 pounds heavier than she is now. Her doctors prescribed medications and gastric bypass surgery but Bridgette awakened to the voice inside her that lead her down a beautiful new path to health, and well-being. It has blossomed into many beautiful endeavors: she joined with others to start a community garden as well as a community sponsored farm. She teaches others to awaken to the food they eat and learn how to make the fruit of her success their own. Please visit her site, and see what Food From The Ground Up is all about and read her full bio.

We decided on on early morning photo shoot and were blessed with beautiful morning light. I hope you enjoy her photos.

To see more of Bridgett's shoot click here.

LaVerne & Kenney Engagement

You know as you get older you start to hear yourself saying "I've known him for over 20 years," or "has it really been 25 years." When you're in your 20's you obviously aren't saying that, but it seems like everyone you know has history, and for some reason the 40's to me feel like I have roots, and I like that.

I met Kenney well over 20 years ago. We've both been involved with the CityPlace properties in one way or another for that long, and I am happy to say Kenney is getting married. Kenney has the ability to laugh with his whole body in kind of a humble swagger.

He is adored by many for many reasons, but his genuine friendliness tops the list. We watched Kenney and LaVerne fight one of the longest, hardest battles with cancer and come out the winner. For that we give you a great big. Congratulations.

I am honored to shoot your engagement and your upcoming wedding.

We thought it would be fitting to shoot at CityPlace since we have spent so much time there over the years. We started off by CityPlace One.

It is alwasy landscaped so beautifully and we were enjoying a beautiful spring day. It didn't take long for LaVerne and Kenney to get into the fun of posing.

As we walked and talked I learned that they would play kissy face if I asked, but it wasn't long before I didn't have to ask.

We had a marvelous time, and I am looking foward to their wedding. Best wishes to you both!!!!

To see the rest of the photos from this shoot click here.

Sweet Baby Claire

Okay, there is definitely joy and satisfaction in photographing a baby. That joy was mine when I had the honor of photographing 6 week old Claire and her wonderful parents Loni and Jordan. As you can see she is just adorable. We started off in their home

It was a beautiful spring day, so we decided to take a walk and wound up on the grounds of a beautiful seminary.

We took advantage of the trees in bloom and the beautiful tulips.

You can see how much these new parents love their beautiful daughter.

We decided to pack up and leave the beauty of the seminary grounds....

...because someone was getting sleepy.

Thank you Loni and Jordan for letting me photograph your beautiful family!!!

Paintings and albums

What an exciting time to be a photographer!!! I thank God every day I get to wake up and record such remarkable people in such a variety of ways. Years ago, you simply took a picture and developed your film. If you were fortunate to have access to a darkroom you could express your creativity in the development process. Now, however, most of the creativity comes prior to development. The tools at our disposal are fantastic and hold no bounds when it comes to creativity. Two tools I am fond of are Photoshop and Painter. They allow us to complete albums that tell a story and show families and friends in many different photos rather just one to hang on a wall. We use to be beholden to our school photographer, or JC Penneys where each family member puts on their canned "say cheese" smile, and is limited to the few minutes the whole clan will hold still.

I like to get down and playful with the folks I have the honor of photographing. I think I routinely get a workout from holding a crunch position on the floor to climbing on chairs, but I think the result better captures the personality and relationships of those who are modeling.

As you will see from the linked album these children had great expressions and were very playful. How in the world can you choose just one pose??!!! Check out this book recently completed for Angie of her four wonderful children. I was able to use the tools to not only design the pages of the book, but to replace walls and carpet with my own unique backgrounds.

I am also able to do paintings that add a whole different feel to the portraits.

In addition to creating backgrounds, paintings and books, we can create a montage for an entirely different look and feel.

Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down In My Heart

So Tuesday produced an unplanned festival. In the last post you met Amy. As I told you Amy is the "connected" one, and one of the folks she's connected me with is Bridgette. She has an amazing story you will hear more about in future posts. So, to prepare yourself, you should visit her site, Food From The Ground up.

Like Amy, she has an amazing heart. When she contacted me to do some photos for her, we talked for quite awhile and found we have quite a bit in common, including singing in bar bands in the 80's. Perhaps I'll post some of our "band photos" in a future post. I learned that Bridgette has continued her professional singing career to a different audience these days and she invited us to hear her at Anna House. You know my daughter Sophia is always up for a little singing and dancing so Tuesday we met Bridgette and the fabulous residents of Anna House.

Sophia was a little shy at first, but once the instruments came out she started to get her groove on. First she stayed in the back and entertained the back row.

But then she started to get curious...

So Bridgette asked her if she wanted to come up front. Sophia wasted no time and ran to her place to lead the boogie.

A gentlemen in the front row wanted to get involved too.

Sophia found a couple of retired nuns that she wanted to play balloons.

I think she had fun!!!

This next lady, Madame X, also known as Sister Xavier, had a blast with Sophia, but she seemed to bring fun with her wherever she went.

At the end of the program Bridgette, asks everyone share the love in their hearts with a world in need of our love. What The World Needs Now Is Love never sounded so beautiful.

Thank you Bridgette for a fabulous afternoon!!!

Healing Harp

I had so much fun on Thursday photographing Amy Camie. I took way more pictures than I needed, but we seem to be able to talk as if we've known each other forever, so before I knew it we had been talking and taking photos for hours. An added bonus for me is that Amy is a phenominal harpist, so I enjoyed listening to her play while we did our shoot.

I'm not really sure why I felt the need to photograph Amy, but when I heard about her from a mutual friend, I knew it was meant to be. After she visited my site, she said the same. So we both just went with it and I am glad we did. I hope you will visit her sites and see the work she is involved in. I told her recently that I was going to quit calling her the harpist and and start calling her the connected one, because it seems everyone I tell about her, her music and the work she is doing with cancer patients, already knows her.

So before I ramble too much let me share a photo or two.

Amy was kind enough to share her music with me, which I listen to every morning during my prayer time, and often while I'm editing photos. I am able to decrease the mental chatter and to-do lists and it seems to put my brain in the right place. A place to breath and just be. According to the studies that have been performed on her music's affect on cancer patients, it has amazing affects on brain chemistry and the immune system. Be sure to read about all of this on her site healingharp.org

There is definitely magic in those fingers. Actually, I think the magic is her loving heart, making it's way out through her hands.

We had such fun, I had to show you the side of Amy I enjoy the most.

We are kindred spirits when it comes to our belief that all of us are creative, and when we send that out in the world, the world is better for it and so are we. So let those creative flags fly. Here's her site on Scientific Arts.

Plus Two

So last month I had the joy of shooting Jack's 2nd birthday party. At the party I met the beautifully expressive Abby and her twin brother and joyfully handsome brother Owen. Well we had such fun shooting the twins, their mom called and asked if we could get the older siblings involved in the fun. Absolutely!!! So please let me introduce you to the animal loving, (especially horses) big sister Haley.

You can tell she's a wonderful big sister.

Here is the very imaginative and handsom big brother Jacob.

Haley and Jacob were great and played along with everything we tried.

Here's all four.

I'm in the process of putting together an album for the this lovely family, so be sure to check back soon and see it. Thanks Angie.