naturals

if i had to make a list of the top 5 people who have had an impact on my life and even more specifically, on my marriage, this man would be on the list without question. i know our friends are still haunted by the fact that corey and i were begging (i promise you, begging) everyone we know to go to gordon for premarital counseling because we learned so much and were so so so blessed by our time with him. our marriage has had days so beautiful that i wondered if it were even happening but like everyone, we have walked weary days of arguments, misunderstanding, and the neverending baggage of our own selfishness. our counseling with gordon helped us to understand our marriage in the context of the gospel and we have been impacted by that counsel every day since. having said all of that, i count it pure privilege to have had the opportunity to photograph gordon and his family one day last week. it was the first day of spring break and it was like you could literally feel the gardens stretching for spring and leaving winter behind.

these three girls are really this great. really. they love each other and clearly know each other in a way that is so sincere and real. and seriously, how cute are they?
this may be my favorite picture of the day. but these might be, too. the girls were AWESOME to photograph. complete naturals.

overseas...

well, finally. enp has gone international. i get to email a slideshow and gallery to people who live in another country! i was so excited when cheryl told me that she was in the country for a couple of weeks and wondered if i could take some pictures of little charlie. cheryl and brandon have been living in scotland since early last fall but we met them while they were in seminary with our friends, josh and keely, in orlando. it really was kind of amazing that it all worked out for us to do the pictures during cheryl's short visit to alabama but i'm so glad that it did. charlie is so so cute and it was really fun to see cheryl be a mama!

celebrate

Once you start documenting every major event in someone's life, they start to get kind of comfortable with you and your camera. For us as photographers, this is an awesome thing. It means we get to push some boundaries and try some different stuff. We took these pictures on the night of Beth and Raja's wedding reception in downtown Birmingham. I knew that the minute Corey saw their sweet hotel room (I really mean sweet though it did also happen to be a suite...the presidential suite at that), he would be full of all kinds of creative ideas. Beth and Raja looked amazing for the big event and we were so excited to have an impromptu photo session with them. Here are just a couple of pictures from that. Though you may doubt it from these pictures, they actually were really happy to be celebrating their wedding this night. They were just nice enough to appease us with their best serious faces.

A bit of a switch here. I think this session with baby Matthew was the week after we arrived home from the cruise. It was a Thursday morning. Cold, dark, and rainy, rainy, rainy. Did I mention that it was raining? But the beauty of the indoor home studio session was that despite the rain, we did not have to cancel our shoot! Baby Matthew was the most accomodating of newborns. My theory continues that the calmer the mama and daddy are, the calmer that the newborns are. Perhaps someone (some baby) will debunk this theory eventually but for now, I'm sticking toi t. I love this picture of Lauren and her boys.

Tyler was so great while we were taking all of these pictures of his little brother. I was so happy that he gave me about 30 seconds to capture a little bit of who he is! He really is just the cutest thing ever.

setting sail...

Finally, here is a start to posting some of the pictures from what was formerly known as the month of February but is now known as the month of Beth and Raja's wedding events. We were so honored to get to capture their first wedding ceremony on the cruise as well as the Indian ceremony and all the other events on the following weekend. Needless to say, we took a ton of pictures. The following are the beginning of those. I will try to post more as well as the slideshow soon.

I feel like I would be remiss if I did not post about how incredibly much fun this was. When we took these pictures, we were just pulling away from the port. The combination of the excitement of the wedding, heading out for Mexico, and having this incredible place to take pictures still feels too good to be true.

I love Beth's dress. I love it because it is just so her. To no one's surprise, she was such a beautiful bride. I have to tell you that she was a little bit (okay, maybe a lot) nervous before the ceremony began. These were the pictures taken while we were waiting for the cruise wedding director person to come and get Beth for the ceremony.

The pictures of Beth's dad still make me want to cry when I look at them. He loves her so much. I have to confess that I pretty much cry in every wedding we photograph...there is just something about being a part of such an intimate and holy time. But when it's Corey's uncle walking his sweet girl down the aisle...well, that's all I can say about that.


Here are the smiles of joy that followed the ceremony. I just love this shot of Beth. I don't know which one of us took it but I'm glad that one of us did. After the ceremony, there was a reception in another one of the lounges. I think the highlight was seeing the grandmothers (Beth's and Raja's) hitting the dance floor.

Corey set up these shots in the big lounge on board where they do the shows each night. It is also where they play Bingo all day long. (Why did no one tell me that they play Bingo like five thousand times a day on a cruise?)

And finally, one more on deck shot. More to come...

spring: welcome back

First up, an apology for being so absent this week. I got to spend some great time with people I love and though I didn't really take much of a break from working, I know my blog presence was lacking to say the least. I'm back now and will once again promise a week full of posts to make up for my break. It is almost spring, after all.

How incredibly sweet is this little baby? I am so excited to post some pictures that have green in the background! It seems that there is a little more green outside every day and I am so, so thankful for it. I think this is my first session where there was actually hope that it will really won't be winter forever. Davis was a model subject to photograph--cute, flirtatious, and totally laid back.

snow day

Okay, so it's the Alabama version of one but Attie and I were really excited to wake up to snow this morning. (Corey wasn't quite as excited.) My family is all in Memphis and Nashville and they keep sending me pictures of how much snow they are getting. I was starting to feel left out. Snow makes me miss people I love even more than usual because it's just not as fun to play in it by yourself. So, my mom, brother, and I have been exchanging pictures of our dogs in the snow. Here is possibly the most loved dog in the world.

Also, we have a wedding today! Our last wedding was on the cruise...what a switch.

joy

I knew that April and Jonathan were going to be fun from the first day that we met. You might remember their super fun engagement session from last fall when I mentioned their engagement story. Let me just tell you that it involved a series of events and a hot air balloon. The best thing about April and JJ is that their story is not only filled with great joy and laughter but it is also filled with such love and commitment. Their wedding was such a beautiful day and we were so honored to be a part of it. Click here for the slideshow of their wedding.

penny for...

You may recognize Olivia from her sweet/hilarious picture in her costume last October. She just gets cuter and cuter every session. I love seeing the ways that all of these babies are growing and changing between each session that we do. These pictures are another example of an in-home studio session. The previous post of Claire and Ford was mostly an indoor session but it was with natural light. I love them both. Your thoughts?

victory

I wish that I could convey to you the triumphant feeling I had in capturing sweet Claire's beautiful smile. From our first session last year, her mom warned me that Claire didn't like having her picture made. Unfortunately, I don't think I really believed her. But it is flat-out the truth. I have been around her enough times now to see her sweet, engaging, funny, really happy self and to understand why it makes her mom so sad that Claire literally bursts into tears at the sight of the camera (not just my camera--any camera). Prior to our latest photo shoot, Megan prepared Claire for weeks and much to my honor, even named one of Claire's Little People after me to help get ready for the day. Claire was awesome the day of the session and I was so happy to see her smiles. Her brother Ford was great, too! They have become one of my favorite families to photograph and I am once again grateful for the side benefit of making such cool new friends.