Melinda and Ben E-session (Teasers).

This is Melinda and Ben.  They met at UGA right before Ben graduated, so it was only appropriate to do the engagement session in Athens



This was a very special tree for them, because it was under this tree that Ben asked her to be his girlfriend.



Melinda was also a cheerleader at UGA.  She was telling us how after every game that Georgia won, they would have to run up to the bell and ring it.



On the set of Honey, I shrunk the kids.



The stadium was where Ben carried her blindfolded to propose to her.



Taking a break from studying. ;)

Vanessa and Mark E-session Slideshow.

I'm very excited to present to you this slideshow of my very first vintage golf themed engagement session!  It was definitely one of my most memorable engagement sessions.  I learned a thing or two about golf, listened to Mark's guitar playing, and I got to go off-roading on a golf-cart.  Couldn't possibly call it work, because it was too much fun!  The song set to the slideshow is Dream a Little Dream of Me by Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong.  Vanessa's pick and very fitting.  Hope you enjoy!

Which one is more "Great Gatsby"?

I am double posting today!  I'll make this first one short.

I need an opinion for a very vintage-themed slideshow.  Which font do you think gives more of a Great Gatsby feel to the image?  I was actually looking at the book I owned, but I'm not a fan of the cover.  I can't decide.  The first one makes it look more like a book cover, and the second one I just like for no particular reason!

One.



Two.

My gmail inbox is clean!

This may quite possibly be the cleanest I have ever seen my inbox, and it only took 8 hours..... started out with 400 something and then I had to go back and reply to everyone that had ever messaged me on facebook/xanga/friendster/myspace/younameit just so i could delete the email.  Feels good to be less cluttered.  Let's hope it stays that way!

Just a brief update on my life:
* My dad's celebrating his 59th birthday tomorrow.
* My all-time high score in bowling is 139 as of 09.14.09!
* Listening to Cry in my heart (Starfield) has been my stress therapy during long hours of editing.
* I've been slowly but surely uploading photos onto flickr and facebook.
* I can finally strum my DOWN up down UP down UP DOWN UP.  Soon I will be a youtube sensation.  haha just kidding. I'm not even gonna go there.

I had a conversation with a colleague that had shot my very first wedding with me, which made me realize how far I've come since then.  I want to thank all my wonderful friends and family who have continually supported me over the years and have been part of this incredible journey. XOXO.

Anik Designs - St. Regis Hotel.

Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend! I spent the majority of the time doing what I do best... eating! Ribs, BBQ, hotdogs, salmon, shrimp, kabobs, chicken wings... you name it, I ate it. :) I had the chance to enjoy the beautiful weather and spend time with friends and family that were in town! Hopefully, in the next month or so I can get the chance to look at some of these personal photos. For now, I am piled high in work!

Meanwhile, I wanted to share some photos I took at the St. Regis hotel. I love shooting details, and sometimes I even joke around about being a wedding details only photographer. A couple weekends ago, however, I had the perfect opportunity to do just that for Anik Designs. The arrangements and the venue were absolutely incredible!



















Next up... Frank and Gloria's wedding teasers. :)

Inspired to live with gratitude.

My computer has been way to slow lately. Hopefully, the new Mac Snow Leopard (I <3 Macs) will make some difference, but meanwhile I've been trying to clean out some space on my hard-drive. As I was transferring photos onto my external, I found a batch I wanted to share. It was only a month ago, but why does it seem longer than that? Although, it doesn't happen every time, it's nice to get a chance to check out the venue to see what you're working with. This was at Huntington Beach, California. I don't even have to tell you the location, you can already tell by the looks of the place, it has a very socal feel to it with such gorgeous weather. I miss it.

A few gems I found while exploring the area. This photo makes me want to sunbathe.





When I saw this sign, I thought to myself, ' we are SO doing group shots here!' ;) Always tempted to break the rules, but we decided to play by them.



On a more personal note, I was being sneaky and eavesdropped on a phone conversation my mom had with one of her friends, and I was reminded of something very important. She mentioned how her commute is an hour and sometimes over an hour one way. She leaves at 5 in the morning to avoid traffic, and it's still an insane commute, but she continued on about how thankful she was even to have a job. That inspires me... To live life with more gratitude and not to lose sight of all that's amazing in my life already. :)

Gloria and Frank E-session Slideshow

Frank and Gloria met through teaching Sunday school. Soon after, they began dating and were engaged! After hearing about their clever proposal story, I could not help but share it with one of my guy friends. My friend responded, "Yeah, this guy makes the rest of us guys look really bad." haha I think the more I hear these stories, the more I realize how much thought and effort is needed to orchestrate such a perfect proposal. It's hard to be original. Since I'm not as great of a writer/story teller as Frank is, I'll just give a shortened version his story below the slideshow. (Hope you don't mind me sharing. It's really *that brilliant. But, of course, God is *that brilliant.)



If you can't view this image link, click here.

*******

Frank's proposal story:

I tried thinking for many months, even soliciting the help of my good bros and sisses, but just couldn't come up with something I was excited to do. Then a few weeks before the actual proposal (on 2/23/09), I was joking around with Gloria. I told her how wonderful she was and how I had no clue how we ever came to be (or in her words, how I tricked her into dating me). In that same breath, she made a comment to the effect of 'You're going to have to trick me into marrying you by luring me to the altar with chocolates and ice cream'. (Gloria eats cookies, chocolates, and ice cream as often as I drink OJ. Okay, maybe not THAT much but she enjoys her sweets.) We both laughed and I warned her that it just may happen. Of course, she didn't think anything of this conversation but I knew right then and there that's how God wanted me to do it. (Quite ironic as I felt God was teaching me a lesson about futility in depending on self even in this piece of my life.)

If I recall, the moment she stepped inside the front door she saw a dimly lit hallway with strange footprint cutouts (made of construction paper) on the ground, beckoning her to walk ahead. On each footprint was an M&M cookie, some Lindt dark chocolate truffles, Ferrero Rocher chocolates (regular), and Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares (both Milk Chocolate with Caramel Filling and Dark Chocolate with Mint Filling). Strings of white christmas lights lined the sides of the hallway off in the distance. As she walked forward, she would see a poster displayed on an easel on her left, saying:

Want to travel to every continent on earth?

------------>

(Free ice cream!!)

(I was trying to include things we had discussed that she wanted us to do together before we died. A couple's "bucket list" if you will.)

As she continued ahead, still following the footsteps and chocolates on the ground, another sign became visible:

Want to learn how to play 'old people' sports?

------------>

(Also, free ice cream!)

As she came near the entrance to the sanctuary, she could see the christmas lights turning to direct her view to the front of the sanctuary. As she turned, she could see the footsteps (and still more chocolates and M&M cookies) leading her to the front of the sanctuary to the altar.

At the front of the sanctuary on the table usually used for communion, I placed one last sign that read,

"Want to start a family? (Try the ice cream)."



(Photo courtesy of Joshua Fu.)

Beside the sign were the same chocolates and cookies, but also three ice cream cartons - one of which being her favorite, Haagen-Dazs white chocolate raspberry truffle, which I introduced to her to early on in our dating relationship. By this point, she was out of sorts, both because she knew what was going to happen, but also because it all felt so surreal. She moved slowly towards the raspberry truffle carton, carefully opened it, and found inside it a ring box. She took it out, placed it in her hand, and studied it for what seemed like an eternity to me (I was standing in a nearby room in the dark, peering out at her throughout the process). Eventually, she opened it and upon finding no ring inside the box, I walked out in a suit - having changed from my casual clothes - with the ring in hand, told her how much she meant to me, knelt on one knee, and asked her to marry me.

*******

Reading the story over to write my blog just put a smile on my face. So very cool to see how God is always faithful. :) I'm excited to be shooting their wedding, which is in EIGHT days! Hope ya'll are excited!!

Jean and Mike Slideshow.

Below is Jean and Mike's slideshow to finish off the set. You can view all of Jean and Mike related blog posts here. I loved how they added a bit of their own twist into every aspect of their wedding, from all the smaller details in having a picnic-style wedding to their first dance. The first dance was mos def one of my favorite parts of the day. :)

I have a couple girlfriends of mine in the wedding planning process, and it's has been a hot topic of conversation over the past month. You can really take it anywhere.... granted that your man will be willing to take dance lessons. ;) I have to admit that I've done plenty of research of my own. hehe I can't help it. I love dancing!

After this surprise first dance video blew up on youtube, I can see that a lot of couples have chosen to go the unconventional route. There are literally tons floating around on youtube. You can get lost on there, and I wouldn't recommend it. lol I still must say that Jean and Mike did a very good job executing their first dance and keeping it very fresh. What was even more impressive was the fact that they involved their parents. Too cute! Here's a link to the youtube clip: Fresh Prince of Bellaire First dance - Jump on it. This one is definitely worth a watch. ;)

Enjoy!



If the above image link doesn't work, click here.

Flowers - Anik Designs

I had the great pleasure of meeting Anik of Anik Designs right before Melissa's bridal session. While we chatted, we discovered that we both came from very similar backgrounds. She has a background in biology and is now does wedding planning and flower arrangements, while I had a background in Chemistry and am now doing wedding photography. I suppose you have to really know the flowers to arrange them so beautifully! ;) As for me? Maybe Chemistry gives me good people chemistry. lol I sure am not mixing chemicals to develop my photos. That's for sure.

I just wanted to show off a few photos of how beautiful the bouquet and centerpieces turned out. Love all the bright, vibrant colors.











Check out her website for more of her work. :)

Vanessa and Mark E-session (Teasers).

I had too much fun over the weekend learning a thing or two about golf... riding around in golf carts doing some off roading... this all through shooting an e-session. The first photo is me practicing a pose. ;) Sometimes you gotta learn how to model to direct a good photoshoot.



Now for the real deal. Here are a few teasers from Vanessa and Mark's e-session this past Sunday. :) Even before the shoot, I was very excited that they had picked a vintage golf theme. It was going to be too cute!









This is what serenading a lady looks like. ;)







Hopefully, those will do for now. :)

Happy Hump Day!

Hair and Makeup - Spencer Malay

Like I said in the previous post, I want to highlight a couple of the vendors that also contributed to Melissa's wedding day. The ladies at Spencer Malay did a fabulous job on the hair and makeup and were so fun to work with! I must admit that lately I've gotten into a bit of a make-up craze, watching hours of tutorials on youtube and spending a good amount of money on all these brushes, etc. lol This is all thanks to one of my gfs who really should go into cosmetology.

It's definitely a skill to get the make-up to look just right. Heather of Spencer Malay did a flawless job.







The finishing touches. What a beautiful color.



A little time to relax with nice reading selection. I guess every salon has to have a variety of magazines for the variety of tastes. ;)



I've always wanted to do a photo like this. Here Melissa is with her maid of honor, Sophia. :) This is my personal fave of all the getting ready shots!

Melissa and Paul Wedding (Teasers).

Melissa and Paul were truly a joy to work with. Even from the get go, when we first met up over some yummy Suno dessert, we really hit it off. I enjoyed hearing about their very unique engagement story that all started off with running a 10k. It has definitely motivated me to run more often... and at least nail a 5k. haha They run the Peachtree road race every year, so maybe next year I can join them! :)

Melissa happens to be a designer. I will have to post photos of the guestbook she designed. It came out beautifully!! She will also be designing her own album, which I am very excited to see how it comes together. Once things slow down a little, I'm also hoping on getting some business cards designed from her as well. ;) You can check out her work here for any of your design needs.

Now for a few teasers from Melissa and Paul's wedding.

A little fun with the girls.





Paul and his groomsmen. His best man was his father and other groomsmen were his brothers. :) It's so sweet to see such a close-knit family.



Their only request. Paul's dad and brothers had taken a photo like at their weddings... looking at the time anxiously waiting, so of course we had to continue passing on the tradition.



This pretty little lady was feeling under the weather, but she was a good sport and still made it through the wedding. :) So adorable.



Beautiful church: Immaculate Heart of Mary



They had a big surprise for all the guests at the wedding... a bagpiper! :)



How cute! They even had a vintage car (Charisma Coach) pull up to take them away to the reception.





Found a quiet spot in the garden of Villa Christina right before the reception to get a few quick shots.



I had such a great time shooting the wedding. The family, bridal party, guests, AND vendors were all such a pleasure to work with! Congratulations Paul and Melissa. Enjoy Hawaii! :)

This week, I think I may do something a little different and highlight a few of the vendors with a set of photos.