Funny Stuff...

My brother, Heath lives near West Palm and sent this as Tropical Storm Fay passed by. It cracked me up! We're still keeping an eye on Gustav, he's been downgraded to Tropical Storm status for now but it's still anyone's guess!

Are You Kidding Me???

Lately things around here have been all about the start of a new school year. Well, that and the little vaca we have planned. We've been gearing up for it since about Christmastime and last night while watching bits and pieces of the convention , I see the story on this hit the MSNBC crawler...

Seriously? And they're saying it will likely hit as a Cat. 3. That's the early prediction folks...who knows what the next days will bring. Remembering back to what Hurricane Wilma was like a couple years ago, I'm not so sure I'm ready to go through that again. Don't get me wrong, it was fun to watch the windows bow with the wind gusts...for about the first 30 minutes, but by the time chunks of neighboring roofs were flying past we were ready for it to be over. Oh well, I guess all we can do is sit tight and keep watching the proverbial "cone of death" and see what happens.

While I'm waiting, I'm making some updates to my website, so check it out!

Or, watch this instead...heck, why not do both?

Inez and Mohammed

This past Sunday I had the remarkable opportunity to shoot an absolutely beautiful wedding with amazing Kevin Keefer. Inez and Mohammed were married at the brand new Hilton at Polaris (only the second wedding there in the month or so it's been open). There was so much hugging, singing and dancing it was really phenomenal to see it all unfold for this beautiful couple. My only wish is that I could somehow get sound to accompany these photos as the music was incredible and added so much to the day!

Here's a shot of Mohammed's mother singing while the videographer captures it all.



Mohammed dancing with his brother and father while the Olympics play out on the t.v.




Hugging...see what I mean??




The cake that looked like a piece of scuplted art...

One of the images from the traditional sword dance just before the ceremony began...

Inez' gorgeous bouquet...

She really was a stunning bride...

I love this one...Inez takes a moment before she's escorted down the aisle...

Kevin picked this spot for a few photos because of the great light... It is beautiful, isn't it??

The dancers performing for the new couple...

Inez dancing...and you can see the henna on her palm from the ceremony that took place earlier...

Dancing, dancing and more dancing!

Check out Kevin's blog for their beautiful engagement session here.

Thanks again to Kevin, Mohammed and Enas for letting me be a part of it all! It was an honor!

Brooke and Matt

8.8.08. The opening ceremonies for the Olympics (and also my little brother's 31st birthday). Normally, I would be parked in front of the t.v. watching the teams walk into the stadium with their flags waving and smiles beaming... There's something so awesome about the opening ceremonies, it's almost like you can't help but feel the excitement in the air. You can sense their happiness and their sheer joy of having come so far with their teammates. It's kind of like a wedding, which is where I ended up last Friday (instead of parked in front of the t.v.) thanks to the awesome Chantal Stone. It's been a while since I had the chance to shoot with her so when she asked me to come along for Brooke and Matt's wedding, I jumped at the opportunity! Here are a few of my faves from Friday!

The rings...


The ceremony was held on the roof of the Columbus Renaissance downtown. Their programs doubled as fans so guests could cool themselves if the heat got to be too much (very clever)!




A girl's got to touch up her lipstick before the pictures...

I LOVED these shoes!

One cool thing about shooting downtown is the ability to use buildings as backdrops...

Brooke's veil caught the wind at just the right moment here...

You could smell the chocolate on this cake at 20 paces!

Some detail from the cake (yeah, I had to get in closer)...

Brooke and Matt's rooftop kiss just as the sun went down.

After the ceremony, Chantal shot some formals. I have no idea what was said here, but the flower girls' expression here just cracked me up!

By far, one of the coolest ideas I've seen for a wedding favor. They had word searches custom made with the names of people, places and things that were meaningful to them. See if you can find "Olive Garden", "Pickerington", "Motorcycle" and "Ice Cream"!

A slowed-down shot of a fun little line dance..."It's electric"!

Thank you Brooke and Matt, and Thank you Chantal for letting me hang out and shoot what was an absolutely beautiful wedding! Congratulations!

Check out Chantal's blog for more!

Thought Association

So the other day I'm sitting at the pool with the kids and Eddie has these little sticks that he goes "diving" for. He's just now getting comfortable going under water long enough to accomplish a task like that, so it's been really fun to watch him. Anyway, he dives under, grabs the stick and emergers from the water stick-in-hand and it makes me think of those goofy Mentos commercials from the early 90's. That gets me thinking about a song I haven't heard for many years until recently and who's video cleverly mocks those old Mentos commercials. So today instead of a "New Music" Monday, I give you "Retro Video" Monday (sorry, YouTube won't allow embedding for this one)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhfWzCPRPtg



Check back later this week for some photos from a really unique wedding I shot with my friend, Chantal Stone!

Traci's Maternity Photos!

Last week I had the amazing honor of doing a maternity shoot for Traci and Sean. They are a beautiful couple who will be welcoming a baby boy at the end of the month. It was really hard to narrow down the images I wanted to post, but here's a start!

Sean with their dog, Sire (who's name fits him perfectly)...


Traci and her daughter, Kayleigh (who I'm told was the one who kept telling her mom she needed to get some belly shots done!)



I love the window light here...

Some blue baby booties...

And who says just because you're 8 months pregnant you can't be one hot mama??

After we shot at their beautiful home, we moved over to Sean's parent's home a few minutes away for some more photos as the sun was starting to go down...

It was also the perfect time to get a few family pics in too. Here's the whole gang...

Congratulations Traci and Sean! Thanks for such a fun evening! I can't wait to meet Landen!!!

Reunion!

When I was youger, I used to dream of being part of a big family. I blame the Waltons. Much to my dismay though, my parents decided that my brother and I were more than enough. Things were a little different in my husband's family though. While he had just two sisters, he also grew up with 20+ cousins! All those cousins, uncles and aunts converged on Maysville, Kentucky a couple weeks ago and I finally got to feel like I was a part of that big family I had dreamed of!

Over 200 family members spanning no fewer than 4 generations showed up. People came from all over too! West Virginia, Michigan, Ohio... The coolest part was hearing some of the conversatons that took place. For instance, my sister-in-law and another atendee were trying to figure out how they were related. He told her, "Your grandmother and my grandmother were sisters". I can't quite explain why that struck me, but there was something profound about the fact that so many years ago those two sisters could never have imagined having 200 decendants, let alone imagine them all in the same room someday.

The morning before the reunion, Isaac and I had a chance to run around Maysville and shoot a little bit before the sun came up. Okay, enough of the rambling...on to the photos!

Eddie and Daddy running to catch the train (no, really just running).

The Maysville Bridge just before sunrise...

The Opera.

I've often seen the First National Bank. I've heard of Third Federal Bank, and even Fifth Third Bank...but this???

The reason for the party...

Check out Isaac's blog for another really cool picture that shows the beginning of another branch of the family tree.

Next up, a post from a really fun maternity shoot! Check back soon!