update

Be sure to bookmark the new blog or subscribe to it or whatever you're supposed to do to get updates on new blog posts! We are trying to post like crazy over there!

www.nolenphotographyblog.com

all good things...

I am kind of surprised at how sentimental I am about this! I am also so excited and hope that you will visit us soon at the new home of the Nolen Photography blog. See you there!

http://www.nolenphotographyblog.com/

looking ahead...

*Just to be clear--these are my only weekend dates for now! I will continue to offer shoots in the week usually on Monday or Tuesday mornings, Thursday and Friday afternoons. I can often offer other spots during the week depending on my schedule!

The perpetual boy who cried wolf has turned into me: the girl who cried blog posts. We have been busy but who isn't? I do think that I am probably burning a few extra calories these days by chasing an extremely busy little baby all over the place. He is on the move and loving it! As much as I wish I could slow these sweet days down, I know that I cannot. In honor of looking ahead, I've been thinking about spring sessions. With weddings, I have so few Saturdays available for portrait sessions. I wanted to go ahead and let you know these Saturdays that I will be shooting sessions all day! They are already filling up so let me know if you want one!

Birmingham--March 28 and May 9 (I may add others but this is it for now)
Memphis--April 11
Nashville--March 12-14
Huntsville--TBA

I've had a little time today to go back through our shoots from summer to the end of 2008. There are SO many that I've never posted! I'm going to try to do some mega-posts in the next couple of days so stay tuned! Here are two cuties that always find their way to the blog...their slideshow here.

growing up: alex at 6!

This is Alex, our sweet niece who is somehow already six and a half years old! I moved to town just weeks before she was born and have always been so grateful that we have had the chance to watch her grow. When people ask me how I got into photography, I cannot tell the story without mentioning Alex. Taking pictures of her was really my first try at this whole thing. When she was little(r), I was always sticking my camera in her face, always following her around trying to capture every expression and detail. Most of the time she'd oblige me but always made it clear that taking pictures wasn't really her favorite thing in the same way that it happened to be mine. Sometime last spring, she said the most surprising thing to me. "You never take my pictures anymore!"



Due to some unexpected but very happy events in our life over the summer, we did not get to do our session until this past September. My favorite thing about it is that Alex planned the entire thing! She chose the place (the gardens), the outfit (a slightly too small pink dress with purple crocs), fixed her hair, set up every pose and location as well as expression. It was her custom photo shoot from start to finish! I cannot believe that she kept the whole thing a secret from her parents from May until late this fall. She worked with her Mimi and made a beautiful scrapbook as a Christmas gift for them. Here are a few shots from our time together!

Allison and Matt

It was a cold but brilliant December day. The kind that deceives you when you look out the window. The kind that makes us a little nervous about how excited a wedding party is going to be about outside pictures. Oh, and it also happened to be the day of the SEC championship game. If you live anywhere remotely close to where we do, you know that you do not mess around with game days.

With all of that being said, I have got to say that we could not have asked for any more from the wonderful Allison and Matt, their fabulous wedding party, and their sweet sweet families. There is nothing that makes our job more worthwhile than leaving a wedding and feeling like people have truly given us the honor of stepping into their lives.


We were so excited to find this super cool site just down the street from the church!




The groomsmen totally rocked these shoes.
Classic. Every time I book a wedding for a fall wedding in the south, I know we are pretty much guaranteed to get this shot. Though we are not always as fortunate to get expressions like these!
Need I tell you that these two are C R A Z Y about each other?

This ceremony was one of the most intimate that we have photographed. We do this week after week and yet the gravity of two people committing their lives to one another never grows mundane to me. Thank you, Matt and Allison, for the honor of photographing your wedding day! And happy almost 2-month anniversary!

hello there...

I can hardly believe how many beautiful new babies I have been meeting lately. Meet the precious Jonah and his fabulous big sister, Grace. Click here for their slideshow.

hope

Winter is always hard but there is no question that this one has been harder than any other for several people that we love. In the midst of dark days such as these, I was comforted by the sighting of these daffodils out my kitchen window this week. I thought that it might be appropriate to share them here.

welcome, baby sam!

When Corey and I first met over ten years ago (crazy!), one of the first people I heard about was his best friend and next door neighbor, Stokes. In some ways, the two of them could not be more different but in others, they are EXACTLY the same. Connie and Stokes started dating soon after we did and married just a couple of months before us. Their journey to parenthood started a little earlier than ours and for this, we have been so grateful. We have so much to learn and their wisdom is priceless to us. An added blessing for us (and them) is that their newest son, Sam, is just months younger than Grayben. We are so excited about having boys close to the same age! I was so excited that they let me come over to take some pictures of sweet baby Sam.

checking in...

Hi there, long lost blog readers. Remember when I used to post to this blog? It was sometimes once or twice a week and sometimes more. I have to admit that I think it's really sort of disappointing when you go to a blog and all they have is a message such as this. But here is mine anyway. The last week has been mostly a blur and we have been pretty inaccessible for most of it. We have been walking with some precious friends during incredibly hard days. We would not have been anywhere else and have no regrets of our absence. I do want to thank you all for your faithfulness to our blog and let you know that things will be back up and running on a much more regular time frame very soon. There is much to do, much to post, and maybe a few things to say! We are so thankful for you all!

tis the season for bridal shows

I love meeting with newly engaged brides-to-be. I love the excitement, the anticipation, the joy. It goes without saying that planning a wedding is also filled with a lot of details and work as well. It seems that you can't plan a wedding these days without attending a bridal show and there is a big one coming up this weekend here in town. Corey was asked to shoot the cover for a Bridal Guide that is being distributed at the show. We did the shoot at American Village which is a really great and popular venue for weddings and receptions.

We did most of the outdoor pictures on the porch of what they call Washington's house. Kathryn is an amazing model and I have got to tell you that she is also enormously brave. The day of our shoot was seriously freezing with an absolutely vicious wind. She did not complain at all. The dress she is wearing came from the always amazing Bella Couture and she could not have looked more gorgeous in it.  So, with an amazing dress, model, and location, the rest was left up to us.  As we have learned with publications, only a select few make it to print so we thought we'd share some of our favorites from the day.