Baby Adaley... for the 5th time this year!

I spent the afternoon hanging out with Baby Adaley! She was a joy, as always, and I've pulled a couple of my favorites from the session to share with you!

I love these images of Baby Adaley with her mom and dad. They're just little slices of life, but I love the interaction and expression!





The whole family hanging out...









How cute is this little face? She's SO adorable!





We had a yummy dinner of spaghetti... which was a royal mess :) See the slideshow for more fun and messy dinner pictures...



And then, of course, we had to clean up! Jackie just remodeled this bathroom... you may remember it from our last session... well, it looks completely different now! I love it!



Laura and Jackie, thanks so much for letting me hang out! I love you guys!

As always, I hope you enjoy your slideshow!

A quick Saturday post...

It's been quite the laid back Saturday! It's so nice to be in a position where we aren't photographing weddings every weekend so that we have the freedom to do things that we enjoy! The flip side of that is that we get to work with a great group of select wedding clientele which makes photographing the weddings we do take all the better!

So anyway, the day kind of started with Austen taking my photo for my new passport with our Panasonic FX30. It's weird, because they say you're actually suppose to have a "neutral" expression on your face for the image! Great job to Austen!



We later dropped the kids off at our friend Laura Martin's home while we went to coffee with our former clients and now photographers Keith and Nema Heptinstall. It was a great time of business talk and good ol' Starbucks!



We then headed back to Laura's to pick up the kids. I took the kids to go hang out (following images from a quick dinner out)....







... and Amber stayed at Laura's to photograph a session for Baby Adaley and to have her hair done by Laura!

Check out Laura's amazing skills and my incredibly BEAUTIFUL wife!!!

Austen's Growing Up!

It seems like Austen was just barely older than a baby at 5:00 this evening... 6:00 rolled around, and we walked into his new school for orientation, and suddenly, I am looking at a mini-grown-up. The elementary principal cautioned all the mothers to fortify themselves with tissues for the official first drop-off on Monday morning, and as my eyes watered just a little bit, my mini-grown-up boy reached his hand over, patted my knee, and said "it's okay to cry sometimes, Mommy."



There's a lot to be said by this one image... in the lower left hand corner, you can barely see Addison entertaining herself with her Dad's PDA... Austen looks bored (already!), and for those of you who've never seen it, that's my, I'm smiling so I won't cry face :) Next to me, is Austen's future wife, Alli... daughter of our dear friends from waaaaay back, Matt and Kristen! We haven't seen them in ages, so it was a relief to walk into a room full of strangers and find familiar and loved faces!

I'll be posting on Monday sometime after school starts... we'll fully document the process! Here's hoping Addison and I survive the upcoming seperation anxiety!

A session with friends...

Yesterday evening, I picked up friends and former wedding clients, Ricky and Esta, and headed downtown for a portrait session!

We photographed their wedding about four years ago in New York, and I'm totally going to have share some their images later on! (Those were the pre-blog days.)

Ricky and Esta were totally into each other, and quite easy to photograph! We started in a cool alley-way, and then moved around the downtown area, including some new spots for me!

















I love this shot! It's totally them!





Beautiful light!








Thanks so much to you both for hanging out for an evening!

Upcoming Workshop! So excited!

I am so excited to share this with you guys! I have recently been given the opportunity to be a guest speaker at my buddy Corey's upcoming workshop! I am really thrilled about the workshop itself and all of the learning opportunities (and fun times!) involved, and then, to be invited to share about my Lifestyle Baby Photography, well, that's just an awesome honor! Here's the blurb about my day from the Rockstar Wedding Photography Workshop website...



The whole thing looks to be loads of fun! Lots of education (other guest speakers include Parker Pfister and super cool Asheville wedding planner, Tara Jordan) , shoots, and fun parties... and even a pass to the beautiful Biltmore Estate! It'll be a huge time of learning and relationship building... I am really hoping to get to spend time with a lot of my buddies there! Come and join us!

Check out www.rockstarweddingphotographer.com for more information. There's an early bird special that ends August 8th, so be sure to get registered soon!

Kyle & Katie... for Real Simple Magazine!

Our good friend and fellow photographer John Bamber was incredibly kind in calling yesterday to refer a great opportunity our way - an opportunity to photograph a wedding for Real Simple Magazine!

Real Simple is doing a feature story for their special wedding edition about weddings planned at the last minute. They needed a photographer to cover the story, so I drove up to Knoxville today to photograph Katie and Kyle's wedding and reception!

Katie is absolutely beautiful!





I love this unusual perspective of the bride and her mother conversing!




How adorable is this! The bride's daughter was also the flower girl, and needless to say, she was a little apprehensive about going down the aisle!





This moment is priceless! Katie and Kyel were exchanging vows that they had written themselves. Katie got emotional in the process and her daughter is trying to figure out why exactly mommy is crying as Kyle reads his vows to Katie!





After the ceremony and some formals by the contract photographer, I got to photograph the couple near their reception site. We got to photograph in a couple of old train cars that made for incredible images!









The train manager then gave all three of us a ride back to the reception location on a golf cart! I jumped on the back with my equipment and Katie and Kyle squeezed into the passenger seat for a fun ride!





We then photographed for a little while on the train tracks themselves, and the bride and groom were a delight to photograph!
I love the simple emotion in these images!






One of the coolest things about the evening was watching Kyle's parents interact! They're crazy about each other! And this after being married for over 20 years! Kyle's dad told Kyle's mother on the first date that he was going to marry her! How incredible!




One image that I worked incredibly hard to get during the evening was a photograph from above the dance floor of Katie and Kyle together. I think this shot is so great because you can see them, highlighted by my Nikon SB800 Speedlight, but also get a feel for the incredible surroundings! It was a beautiful evening!



Congratulations to you two, and thanks to Real Simple Magazine for a great opportunity!

Baby Norah... She's hot 'cause she's fly! (Just for you, Alison!)

My dear dear friend and fellow photographer Alison Bynum and her wonderful husband Brad recently adopted the most beautiful baby... 10 week old Baby Norah is incredible! Prepare yourself for a slightly longer than normal blog post :)

I cannot get over how precious her little face is... She's so Beautiful!



My favorite thing about the session was seeing Brad Bynum with Baby Norah. I have never seen a more doting father in my life, and Norah is completely smitten by him, as well!



It was amazing to see Alison in mom mode as well. Watching her interact with her new baby made me just a little teary eyed! Look at this amazing tenderness...





Of course, it can't always be tenderness... sometimes Moms just have to get some work done!



There were a couple other family members who joined us during the session...

Katy.... who obviously adores Baby Norah....





And Misty... who had a slight attitude of disdain about the entire scenario (check out the slideshow to see an image of Baby Norah and Misty side by side.... guess who's bigger :) )



A few family moments...











And of course, we had to take a couple of cute naked sleeping baby pictures... (lots more in the slideshow!)





And of course, although she tried, Alison was not quite able to refrain from taking a few pictures herself...




She also took a few fun pictures of me shooting! (Thanks so much for these Alison!)





I had such an awesome time hanging out with Baby Norah, Brad, and Alison! They are wonderful, and an absolutely perfect little family! I am crazy about them, and cannot wait to hang out again. Let's make it soon guys!

Enjoy your slideshow! We love you!