Here is Miss Emma.  She is 2 1/2 and the daughter of one of my sweet friends.  Emma is a precious little girl with beautiful blue eyes and little curls.  She is somewhat shy like her mommy, but warmed up to me right away.  She did great!  I was able to get some sweet pictures of her being a little girl. We really didn't have to ask her to smile, she was just happy and content to look around and do whatever we asked of her.  

Thank you for asking me to photograph Emma.  She was her wondeful self as you will see in these photos.  Enjoy!

My favorite!

On Thursday afternoon, I got to meet and photograph the Young Grandkids.  We were afraid we would get rained out, but only clouds were present.  

We ran around and played and I was able to get some cute shots!  Here are a few of my favorites.

Ellison

Henry

Joe

Brother and sisterly love....

Last Saturday, I had the privledge of photographing Holly (Kendjoria) and Phillip Caston's wedding.  They got married at Overbrook Baptist Church where here mom and dad got married 30 years ago, almost to the day!  (Happy Anniversary Will and Beth, 30 years and counting!!!)  That church photographs just beautifully!  I had the opportunity to get to know Holly when we took her bridal portraits, but didn't meet Phillip until the day of the wedding.  Let me just tell you, he ADORES Holly.  It was so evident all day how much in love they both were with each other.  He was so attentive and wasn't far from her side the entire day!  I loved watching them interact.  They had a blast on the dance floor and you could tell that they were made for each other.

Thank you for asking me to be a part of your wedding day.  Everything turned out perfect!  Congrats!  

Love my ring shots!

The blushing bride!  Doesn't she look amazing?!?!?  My sweet friend and photographer, Marian, shot this photo.

The wedding party!  Don't you just love this church?

The new Mr. & Mrs!!!

And finally, my favorite of the day.  This was taken at Creekside Plantation, the reception site.  Check them out, they have a beautiful house and grounds, perfect for an outdoor wedding and reception.

To view the Caston's album, click here. 

Corletta Brown!!!!

So, in honor of my new blog, I had a contest entitled, "I hate my wedding pictures!"  I have heard many horror stories of how brides hate their wedding pictures, so I thought this would be a great idea for my contest.  However, either people LOVE their pictures or the brides who were victims of bad photography never made their way to my little blog.  So, when Corletta contacted me with her story and photos, she was the obvious choice (one, because no one else emailed me and two, because her story and photos were "contest winner worthy").  I am so pleased to annouce that Corletta and Jay will be getting a fun shoot with me, as well as a 16x20 of their choice, and a 5x5 album with images from their shoot!!!!  Congrats guys!  I am looking forward to your shoot and showing off some awesome pictures that you will ADORE!

Here is Corletta's story, in her own words.  (Very well written, might I add!)

Jay and I got married on November 4, 2006.  Since that day, I have regretted not spending the time and money that it would have taken to have AMAZING wedding pictures.  Instead, we used a lady that no one has ever heard of…I can’t imagine why J.  Not only did she not take many of the pictures that I specifically asked her to take, she didn’t take a single picture that either wasn’t blurry or didn’t have a chair in the background.  I actually called her about the issue and she told me that she must have sent the wrong disc to me because all the ones that she took were GREAT.  For a day or so, I was hopeful.  When she finally got back to me, they were the exact same pictures that she had given me before, except in black and white. I mean really, if it’s a bad picture, it doesn’t matter what color it’s in.  I still to this day can’t believe that she thought that they were great.  I guess my sign that she wasn’t professional should have been when she said that she wasn’t sure how to use Photoshop.  Jana…please help!

p.s. The pictures that are attached are as follows

1.     Wedding Dress- I asked her to get a good picture of my dress before I put it on.  Instead, she took this one.  You can see me and a friend in the back ground.  By the way…all of these were displayed in the album she made as being the “best ones”.

2.     Me and my bridesmaids-Blurry as all get out.

3.     Ring Bearer and Flower Girl-This was the ONLY picture of them by themselves.  Notice how Mavis isn’t even paying attention.

4.     Flowers-I asked for her to take pictures of all of my flowers TOGETHER.  This is what she took.

5.     And…last but not least, the “Wedding Party”.  This is the picture that she took of the “wedding party”.  Notice how it looks more like a redneck reunion.  She says the others didn’t turn out good.  Must one really explain to a professional photographer that the wedding party does not mean a family shot.

This year we travelled all the way to Panama City Beach, FL for our summer vacation.  Why Panama City, you ask?  Well, when I was little, we used to go there for vacation and I even lived there after high school for a couple of years, so we thought it wouls be a good choice this year.  It is quite a haul down there, especially when you have 2 kids in the car.  We stopped about 4 times for Maddie and Bennett decided to cut his first two teeth on the way down!  So, needless to say, it was a very long trip there and back.  When we FINALLY arrived, we were all set to go out on my dad's boat.  We met him downtown at the Marina and got there just as a huge storm had passed, so the water was VERY choppy.  But hey, we were on vacation and this was what we were supposed to do, so out on the boat we went.  Maddie and I were terrified, to say the least!  Bennett just took it all in stride. We did survive and Maddie still says, "I not like Grandaddy's boat".  Who knows, she may be scarred for life?!?!  Kyle and I did get to go back out later in the week when it wasn't so choppy and had a great time!  

It continued to storm the next two nights, however, I was able to get some really cool shots of the skies.  They are in the slideshow, so you'll have to check them out.

We stayed with my mom and stepdad, my stepbrother, Tim and his wife Tara and their son, Lukas.  Once they arrived, the storms left and we had a very fun rest of the week.  Tim and Tara are expecting their second child, a girl, in October, so I was able to get a few maternity shots too.  

We ate some good food, played Putt Putt, got the kids air-brushed t-shirts and relaxed, as much as you can with 2 kids!

We are glad to be back home, but we really need another week to recover!   

Here are some of my favorite shots.

We took Maddie to this same beach 3 years ago when she was Bennett's age, so I will have matching photos now!  I LOVE this picture, so sweet!

Here is my big girl.  She looks so grown up!  These were taken at sunset with the most gorgeous light ever!

There is nothing more beautiful than the sun setting over the water!