Happy Holidays!

We will be closed for celebrating until Monday, January 5th. If you write or call before then, we will get back to you when we return!

Before signing off and heading out to be with family and friends, we wanted to share this photo of our nephew Corbin receiving his Little Tikes slide during the gift-exchange at Anne’s parents’ house:

Love and peace to all!

I can’t believe Aaron is all grown up!  I’ve known Aaron… well… pretty much my entire life.  He’s one of a group of kids who grew up together, and though we live in different places now and have widely varying lives, we all try to show up for the big celebrations.  We’re family.  

Aaron married his fiance Nichole on Saturday, and I was lucky to attend his wedding not as the photographer, but as a guest, free to enjoy and celebrate with everyone else!  

I couldn’t help but snap a couple of photographs, though; it’s in my blood after all!  I literally only took like 5 pictures.  These two were my favorites.

This first photo is of Aaron’s face as Nichole first walked into the church:

And here they are during their first dance:  (Big thanks to my sister Ellen for holding my flash for me!)

 Aaron, I love you and wish you YEARS of love and happiness with Nichole! You two are truly beautiful together. It was an honor to celebrate with you both!

Okay, fine, so we just watched Kung Fu Panda. Whatever.

That’s how I felt when Dan called me a few months ago to say, “Why didn’t you TELL me you won?!?” And of course, I was like, “Um… won what?”

In my rush to yoga that morning, I had missed the e-mail from Brides Magazine telling me my photograph from Lauren and Mike’s wedding had been selected as the 1st place winner in the “Parents” category of the Brides/WPJA worldwide competition!

I was — and am — deeply excited by this win, because this image is so very special to me. Not many women have this kind of relationship with their biological father, let alone their stepfather. To see Lauren’s stepdad burst into tears upon seeing Lauren in her wedding dress for the first time… well… I’ll admit that I got just a tad bit teary-eyed myself. Lauren and Mike’s was a beautiful, emotion-filled wedding that Dan and I will never forget. I’m so glad that this moment was recognized!

Visit WPJA or Brides to learn more about the contest and to see more winning photographs.

When we found out the fabulous Lara Casey of Bliss fame was creating her own magazine, we were OH so excited! Even more exciting was when Laura and Matt’s wedding was published in the first-ever issue of the all-new Southern Weddings Magazine!

Unfortunately, due to a series of wedding-publication-mishaps, Laura and Matt’s wedding wound up simultaneously being published by The Knot — a big no-no in the wedding industry.  (EEK!)

But time has passed, and our friends at The Knot and the lovely ladies at Southern Weddings have worked everything out nicely and neatly, and now we are THRILLED to share Laura and Matt’s gorgeous spread in the premier issue of Southern Wedding Magazine.

If you’ve never heard of Southern Weddings, be sure to drop by their blog for all kinds of fantastic wedding inspiration!

Hooray! Lisa and Jason’s Halloween-themed wedding was published in the latest edition of The Knot Georgia!

Visit The Knot to see more of their photos and read their interview!

Several months ago I stumbled across a fabulous design website, For the Love of Creating, and felt TOTALLY inspired by the clean design and beautiful graphics. Imagine my joy and surprise when, just a few weeks later, I got a call from FLC’s creative mastermind, Ashley Jankowski, asking if I would make photographs of her family!  Not only is Ashley a graphic designer, but she is also a fantastic photographer!  It was a little scary photographing someone whose work I admire so much, but I had a BLAST meeting Ashley, her engineer husband Paul, and their ADORABLE little boy Opie.  (Yes, OPIE!!!  HOW FREAKIN’ CUTE IS THAT?!?!?)

Ashley… and Opie…

The family:

Opie was having too many serious faces, so Ashley and Paul decided to toss him around a bit to shake things up.

It worked!

I love Opie’s little face as he’s being smooched!

Everyone was getting pretty tired at this point, but we squeezed a big grin out of Opie before giving him a break.

Ashley and Paul:

Okay, so… this was NOT my idea.  Well, it was, but I didn’t say it out loud.  I was just secretly elated when Ashley and Paul came up with it all by themselves.  I mean, nothing says “COOL” like parents willing to plop their baby down on an old DNA testing sign in an empty lot.  And nothing says “HILARIOUS” like Opie’s face.  

The sun FINALLY peeked out at the very end of our shoot, so we snagged a tiny touch of warm sun flare.

Thank you, Jankowskis, for sharing your Saturday with me!  Ashley, I’m looking forward to getting to know you better and swapping tales of self-employment!  Haha!

BIG thanks to my friend Melissa Mullen (another fab photographer!) for sending Ashley my way!

My nephew Corbin turned 2 years old in November!  You can tell he’s the only child, because the refrigerator is completely dedicated to him!

Corbin laughs hysterically as he pokes Uncle Dan in the eyes.

Corbin hugs his new giant stuffed dog. He loves animals.  This kid has more stuffed animals at age two than I’ve owned in my entire life, and he sleeps with all of them in his crib.

Corbin isn’t sure what to think of the birthday cake.  He didn’t understand why we lit it on fire and sang around it.

Corbin gets ready for cake.  (It’s a process when you’re 2.  Shirt off, bib on.)

CAKE!

I’m pretty sure Corbin is the cutest 2-year-old in the WORLD.  No way am I biased.  ;)

On Sunday I held my first-ever Boudoir Day. From 8am to 4pm I opened boudoir photography sessions for 6 women at the W Hotel. It was SO MUCH FUN!!!

I’ve LOVED hearing from each of the women as they’ve viewed their photographs for the first time.  These shoots seem to be so empowering!

I’m looking forward to doing more boudoir work in 2009. I’d love to hear from anyone who is interested in taking part in another Boudoir Day!

And in case you haven’t already noticed… My boudoir site is finally live!

Check it out HERE!