Recently Jessica, Oteil, myself, and Heather Bryson of Carolina Wedding Design set off on a chilly afternoon to conduct an engagement session. Being artists themselves, they were up for anything and everything, a blank photography canvas. I am lucky enough to be shooting their wedding later this year!

Engagement photography sessions are a great idea for any couple. Not only do you get fantastic images, it helps to build a familiarity with your photographer. This typically will make the wedding day sessions much more relaxed and comfortable. Engagement sessions are customized to the couple’s personality, and can take place anywhere and everywhere.

Here are just a few of my favorites of the afternoon.

Another year come and gone, another thirty weddings I had the pleasure of documenting. Thirty couples gave me the privilege of peaking in on one of the most special days of their lives, and for that I am truly grateful.

Here are just some of my favorite 2009 shots, there are far to many to post them all.

Getting Ready

Ceremony

Reception

Pictures with ankles…(how is this a category?)

Portraits

Favorite photo with random shirtless guy wanting to be in said photo…(you won’t find that on another blog)

All in all 2009 was a fantastic year and I can say I truly enjoyed spending time with every one of my couples. My gratitude goes out to all of them.

My wedding season starts again in early February in Negril, Jamaica. Until then!

Mary Blake and Raymond are getting married in May of 2010. Had a great time shooting their e-session. Very fun couple and bound to be a very fun wedding.  Here are some e-session pics…

Jenna and Brian were married at Mt Zion Methodist Church in Cornelius, NC and held their reception at River Run Country Club. The ceremony was candle lit, always a challenge for photography. If you are planning a candle lit ceremony be sure to choose a photographer with the needed equipment and experience.

Here are just a few of my favorites from the day, and no I am not scared to post images featuring couches from the 1980s.

And my favorite of Jena’s bridals…

What would a trash the dress session be if it was not glamorous, was not pretty, but instead told a story? That was the question at hand for this photoshoot with Nicci Nelson and her husband. The result earned eighth place overall in the International Trash the Dress Contest of the WPJA.

Big thanks to Nicci and her husband for having the guts to go along with it. Any of you other recent brides want to do something extreme and out of the ordinary with your dress? Just let me know! I have plenty of ideas….

I have had a few emails lately asking about glow stick exits from receptions.  Its all the latest rage. Here is a recent example, followed by how it was accomplished….

1. Make sure the venue exit is dark. And when I say dark, I mean DARK. Any ambient light will interfere with the effect. Glow sticks are much dimmer than any light bulb.

2. Use the long skinny kind that really move when you wave them, the more motion, the better.

3. Unlike sparklers,  glow sticks will not provide enough light to stop any motion in the picture, especially not a running bride or groom.  So unless you are going for something especially creative, you are going to need to drag the shutter, big time.

To give you an idea, the above image was shot at ISO3200, 1/10 shutter at F2.8. I tend to shoot them wider angled to keep as much of the crowd in the shot as possible, just a personal preference. The Flash is on a TTL Cable, allowing for more directional lighting, again, personal preference. The flash is firing rear sync, to help keep any ambient motion off of the subjects.

Hope that helps, please email me your shots!

Amanda and Jason are getting married in 2010 and decided to do a fun engagement session. This is something I always recommend to couples as it is great practice for the wedding day. A level of comfort is built between the couple and the photographer which really shows in the results. The nice thing about having a studio in NoDa is that you are just a short walk away from endless interesting shooting opportunities.

Here are a few we came up with….