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.

a quick post...

Happy New Year, friends! I have been thinking a lot about my absence from the blog and how the longer that I go, the harder that it seems to jump back in. The truth is that I have so much to say and so much to post that it continues to feel a little overwhelming. I think it is safe to say that we made it through the busiest season of the year! It feels good to be in a quieter season and be able to take some time to enjoy our precious boy as he is quickly changing before our very eyes. We had a wonderful time celebrating this season of love and grace with our families and had the privilege of understanding the birth of Jesus with new eyes this year. I have so much that I want to post of Grayben from the last few months not to mention so many wonderful weddings and portrait sessions. We're hoping for some mega-posts soon to try to catch up on the fabulous year that was 2008. We are truly overwhelmed with God's goodness to us.

I took these pictures back in the summer but loved everything about this shoot. This family holds a special place in our hearts and I am so glad it worked out to do some family pictures for them!

merry christmas

ode to my 30d

I've had 3 cameras in my lifetime as of yesterday. A Minolta film, a digital Rebel (the very first model), and a 30d. Three years ago I started taking pictures for people who weren't just my friends... 2 years and 7 months ago is when I got my 30d. It has been with me through every wedding, every portrait session, and every shoot in between. Canon says the shutter cycle life of the camera is around 100,000 clicks. We figured I was currently somewhere in the ballpark of 350,000. To say this has been a great camera would be an understatement. It has basically been the foundation on which we've built our business.

Earlier this year we decided we needed to make the investment into newer cameras. The problem was that rumors of a replacement for the camera we wanted started surfacing. So we waited and we waited. Finally in September Canon made one of its most anticipated announcements ever when it unveiled this new model. We immediately ordered them online only to find out that they were already on back order! So, once again, we waited and we waited. Yesterday--three months later--the UPS man finally showed up at our door... he's actually at our door most days but this day he had something for us. So in keeping with the theme of business changes here on the blog, we are proud to announce our new upgrade in equipment. More than that though we are using this as an honorarium to our newly retired 30d. We won't forget you.



Sorry for the lack of session posts. We've been trying to get through the Christmas rush. We'll post lots soon and hopefully unveil our new sites in the coming weeks!

at long, long, long last...

Last January, Corey and I sat down to have a business meeting. It was really official. We wore business suits and sat at a long, fancy table. Not really. Really we sat at Panera and drank hot chocolate. One thing we did do was talk a lot about our vision for the future of Nolen Photography. Our biggest "to do" on our list was to update our brand. Our goal was to come up with something that was more us, something that demonstrated who we are and what we're about. The truth is that this process wasn't easy, wasn't quick, and didn't exactly stick to that original to-do list. We wanted our new website and logo to be original and customized. We wanted our site to truly represent who we are. We wanted to give our current clients and our prospective clients a clear picture of where we've been and what they can expect with us. We hope you'll find all of those things here. So far we only have the wedding website up and running. Please check back soon for the portrait and commercial sites.

And so, after months and months of planning, designing, customizing, emailing, consulting, and who knows what else, we are so excited to show you our new logo and website. Let us us know what you think!


nolenphotography.com

down on the farm...

Dawn had been telling me for months now that she wanted to do a shoot with all of their family on the farm where her mother grew up. We finally scheduled a date and headed out early one morning for the trip to the farm. I was armed with camera equipment and absolutely no knowledge of what to expect. From the moment I drove down the long driveway, I knew that this was an amazing place. A place full of history and memories and experiences. The house itself is truly incredible with its wrap-around porch and tall windows and doors. And the land just seems to stretch on forever. The best thing about this shoot though truly was watching this family enjoy it all together. They explored the old barns, took turns on the 4-wheelers, climbed on the hay bales. A day in the country that I know they will not forget.

Can't you see how pretty this home is?
The kids were all truly interested in exploring the farm. It is easy to see what a cool place this would be to come with your family.
Scott loves pictures.
The view from the house...
All the kiddos. (Jake had had enough of pictures. Also, there were no guard dogs.)
I was told that a picture of this (former) post office hangs in the Smithsonian Museum. How cool is that?

You cannot take a picture of the Harrisons without getting this shot. They just won't let it happen.
The always adorable Fischer.
I love the vintage-y feel of this one.