Lauren and Mike should feel like total celebs by now — first the WPJA win, and now they’re in a magazine!

We’re thrilled to see their wedding featured in a 6-page spread in The Knot’s Georgia publication for spring/summer 2008! Theirs is the biggest Real Wedding story in this issue — and they totally deserve it! Lauren and Mike’s wedding had so many super-cool details; I’m thrilled to see them get props for a party well-planned!

You can purchase these magazines at most bookstores and newsstands. Look for this cover:

I was really happy to see that they included the b&w photo above from Lauren and Mike’s first dance. It’s SO rare for a magazine like this to include truly photojournalistic images, and I’m glad they liked this one enough to make it part of the spread!

P.S. Don’t ask why all the pages above are different sizes. It’s what they sent us. Ha.

I’ve always loved this photo of Lauren and Mike running through fistfuls of rice at the end of their wedding! To me, it says so much about the total joy that encompassed that day for them.

For that reason, I was really excited to see that this photograph was awarded 10th place in the Wedding Photojournalist Association’s3rd quarter international competition.

Be sure to check out the other winning photographs on the WPJA’s website. I’m thrilled to be among so many incredible photographers, including several of our fabulous colleagues from here in Georgia!

The judges comments (in case they’re too small to read here): “Wonderful expression on the bride’s face with a groom whose adventure is obviously only beginning. Nice focus on the couple while including enough other elements in the frame to tell a story. I can hear the bride’s crazy laugh.”

Yay!

We just finished creating Jana and John’s coffee table book, complete with nearly 170 photos! WOWSERS! We love the challenge of putting so many images into a clean layout with lots of yummy white space!

Oh, and fun news: Jana and John’s wedding has been selected for publication by Bride’s Atlanta magazine! We’ll be sure to post photos once it hits news stands.

Here are a few of the layouts from the book, beginning with Dan’s awesome cover…

You wouldn’t necessarily think it, but live music can be really tough to photograph — especially for someone like me who is paranoid that I will stand in someone’s way or distract from the performance. This is extra-challenging when shooting formal classical and jazz performances in a concert hall!

But that’s just what I did for six nights in November at the newly-christened Dr. Bobbie Bailey and Family Performance Center at Kennesaw State University. I was given the job of photographing six nights of performances by the school’s own ensembles, including the KSU Orchestra and Chorale, the KSU Faculty Jazz and Percussion Ensembles, the KSU Student Mixed Chamber Music Ensemble, the KSU Wind Ensemble, the KSU Opera Gala, and the KSU Jazz Ensemble. I got to hear some great music; I had no idea KSU had such an incredible arts program!

Anyway, I just wanted to post a few of the photos I liked best… oh and to share a quick reminder to ALWAYS CAP YOUR LENSES. I rammed my 200mm lens into a doorknob as I rushed from one room to the next in the dark performance hall. I was rewarded with a long, unbuffable scratch right across the surface of the lens. ARGH! Thanks to Canon’s excellent repair services, it’ll be back in the camera bag in good form in no time. Yay!

Last but not least, it was a fun change of pace to photograph these members of the opera department. This shot was taken before the performance, and was a reenactment of a scene from an operetta that mimics the old daytime soap operas!

I’ve known Lena since middle school, so it was really special to photograph her for the first time with her husband and their new little baby, Render Joseph!

Lena’s mother passed away suddenly last year; and only weeks later Lena found out that she was pregnant with Render. It was truly incredible to meet this little testament to the circle of life.

I love you, girl! Congratulations!

The weather turned seriously nice one last time for our E-Shoot with Sarah and Derek! If we held a “hot couple” contest, these two would seriously win. They are so gorgeous, SOOOOOOOO nice, and seriously fun. It’s going to be AWESOME photographing their wedding!

Sarah is an artists’-rep-in-training (though I can totally see her hosting the MTV music awards), and Derek is the super-bad guitarist for Family Force Five!

Thanks, you two, for taking time out of your busy, busy schedules to come and shoot with us!