He’s been riding two wheels for only 2 months.
July 28, 2011
July 19, 2011
Ashley and Dave – Newlyweds
Thanks to a little help from: their friends (who also happen to be family); the attentive and helpful staff of The Clifton Inn; Mother Nature, who provided sunshine, a moderate temperature, and sufficient recent rain for everything to be green; and not least of all, good planning by Ashley and Dave, a beautiful ceremony and celebration took place in the rolling Virginia Piedmont just outside of Charlottesville.
My first meeting with Ashley and Dave a couple of weeks before the wedding hinted at how pleasurable the upcoming event would be. They are gracious and easy going and showed themselves to be thoughtful of others (including me!) on a day that is often stressful and distracting.
The Clifton Inn possesses quintessential Virginia charm in its location, scenery, architecture, landscaping, ammenities, and gracious staff. The food was superb. Its quiet elegance and beauty seemed to me a perfect match for the personalities and sensibilities of Ashley and Dave. Kudos to whoever among the staff was thoughtful and considerate enough to recognize the opportunity to add a white table cloth and place settings to the table in the wine cellar where Dave and his groomsmen prepared for the ceremony. The photography in that space was greatly enhanced as a result.
I don’t want to spill all the beans but here’s a few highlight photos from the day –
Is this one a good year? (if it's 2011 - YOU BET!)
This elegant veil matches Ashley's beauty perfectly
On this day at least, the light in the carriage house was wonderful
A touch with special meaning
The garden entrance was beautiful in the late afternoon light. The white exterior of the carriage house was an excellent reflector.
A perfect setting for making promises.
The glow in the background nearly matches Ashley's radiance.
Lovely! Trying to say anything more would risk saying too little.
Is kissing at the table allowed?
The first RELAXED dance.
Tradition!
Tradition!!
Success! I'm not certain if I detect admiration, envy, or a little of both in this image.
A fine exit and send off for the newlyweds.
I see a long and lasting relationship portended in this image :)
I recommend Chaps in downtown Charlottesville for good ice cream and hospitality.
A date and place to be remembered.
Good Luck and Best Wishes, Ashley and Dave.
September 29, 2010
Wedding at Maggiano’s Little Italy
I had the privilege of photographing Jonathan’s and Melissa’s wedding at Maggiano’s over the weekend. It was clearly a joyous occasion, not just for the wedding couple but all of their extended families and friends as well. From my photographer’s perspective a more friendly and considerate group of people couldn’t be hoped for, circumstances that make my job especially fun and rewarding. I worked with a great DJ as well, Christian Flemming of Manny Green Entertainment.
There's lots of love being expressed in these eyes.
Roses as a symbol of shared love. I like the image of love as something held by and between two people
Now that's a kiss!
They'll grow even more attractive as a couple in the years ahead.
Jonathan has a great support staff.
Beautiful!
Their first dance...
and they can't stop looking at each other.
Ready for a toast to mark this day forever.
Nothing but smiles and good times today!
This grandpa is in love!
Without a doubt his "Best Man".
A beautiful happy family!
Celebration!
Jonathan's words were heartfelt...
and humorous...
and clearly appreciated.
August 10, 2010
It’s a Classic
Click this link to see a video of Ella reads to Lucas. Ella was about 3 1/2 and Lucas was around 6 months at the time. This is a classic reading of a classic childrens book.
June 1, 2010
Wedding at The Jasmine Plantation
We dodged three isolated thunderstorms on the Sunday of Memorial weekend while celebrating the marriage of Kristin and Sean…a good omen I believe. Kristin and Sean are a beautiful/handsome couple with wonderful family and friends. It was my first time photographing at The Jasmine Plantation which proved to be a beautiful venue, very well prepared with a relaxed elegance. What a great place to spend the night after a day of celebration, not to mention a beautiful environment for great wedding photography! At the reception Bill Cody of DJ Services by CODY spun some great music, created the bubbles for the first dance, and made certain everyone (including I) had a great evening. Here’s just a few of the photos I enjoyed making.
Our time now!
Love in her eyes
The Ring
First Dance
First Toast
Ready and waiting
The toss!
The catch!
Show it off!
Everyone had a good time
April 18, 2010
A new tree swing
With the motivation of young interest in a tree swing I finally discovered a suitable tree limb for hanging a swing in the backyard. The limb is about 30′ high so there’s not a great deal of arc to the swing but it has a really long glide. Since hanging it a couple of weeks ago I’ve been having some fun imagining and executing new ways to photograph our enthusiastic “swingers”. Here’s a few of my favorite photos from this project. In the interest of full disclosure I have to say that the photo captioned “Spinning Swing” is the product of compositing two images to get a more balanced composition along with some cloning techniques to fill in what was a more open tree canopy. I had a very short amount of time to capture the “Spinning Swing” shot before dinner and only got two exposures before I lost my subject, hence the post production enhancing.
Sunshine in motion
Flying High
Spinning Swing
March 22, 2010
Wedding Weekend
I photographed my first wedding of 2010 this past weekend as one of two photographers, the other being Abigail Volkmann. Abigail had the lead in this one. I spent most of my time with the guys and filled in some different perspectives for the ceremony and reception. I had a great time getting acquainted with a bunch of young men in uniform, friends of the groom, who is himself an active duty Marine. It was my first time ever in Pine Street Baptist Church, a beautiful old church located in the Oregon Hill section of Richmond, Va. It was also my first time photographing a reception in the Science Museum of Virginia, a pretty cool place for this type of event. I enjoyed meeting and working with Martin and Cynthia of United Wedding Productions. Martin’s video light was a great asset for me on several occasions…thanks Martin!
Following are a few of my favorite images from the reception plus a couple of detail photos of the uniform of the day. I hope Adam gets a laugh out of a certain photo in this series. Congratulations to Adam and Lauren and many good wishes for their future together.
February 25, 2010
February 16, 2010
Amaryllis by another light
To avoid disorientation I need to begin by pointing out that the perspective for this image is from almost directly below the flower. Yesterday I photographed with window light. Other than placing the flower near the window and slightly manipulating the light on the background nothing else was done to prepare the subject. For this image I made use of two lights. The key light was a 15×15″ softbox place about 2′ from the flower on camera left. The second light was a portable strobe with a 20° grid placed as nearly behind the flower as possible (slightly outside the top of the frame) to provide backlighting. The camera lens was shielded from the backlight by the table upon which the flower was sitting. I used a polarizing filter on the camera lens to reduce the amount of direct reflection in the highlights. This allowed for more detail in the highlight areas with only a small area on the top edges of the right blossom getting entirely blown out. I also used a gold reflector on camera right to fill in the shadow area on the right blossom. An interesting secondary effect of using the reflector is that the background (ceiling) was lit by two distinct light sources…the reflector warmed the left side of the background and window light created a cooler effect on the right.
Relatively speaking, creating this image was much more labor intensive than the one captured yesterday. Was it worth the effort? Let me know what you think.