Shelly's Announcement...

My friend Shelly who is a photography major at UNF will be getting hitched in 2010 in the lovely Memorial Park in Riverside. Shelly has secondaried for me before at weddings and other events... She once stood in the hallway of the San Jose Country Club and took what I like to call "entry" photos for my couples 50th Anniversary. She's just all round an awesome chick, and I love her to death!

KC is in school at the Naval Academy, and I didn't get to meet him at the same time I met Shelly.... Now... let me tell you how I met shelly...........

Last year I did a wedding for a lady named Jessica, she met me at a the bride2b wedding expo and already had her photographer but booked my DJ friend who's booth was right next to mine, come to find out her photographer fell off the face of the earth a few weeks before her wedding, so she called me first to see if I was available for her date and I was.... so we met up talked about packages and booked the date. A few days before the wedding she said she wanted my DJ friend, his girlfriend, my husband and I to all come to the rehearsal and be part of the rehersal dinner as well... this took place at her father's house.... (subsequently KC's stepfather, and mom's home)

Wes and I are the ONLY people with no kids and under 35 there.... so we felt like total bumps on a log.... In walks miss Shelly, talking to KC's mom about photography classes etc etc... Anyway we chit chat a bit and end up sitting (oh the rehearsal dinner was a BBQ at the brides father's house I think I neglected to mention that) end up sitting at the kiddy table with Jessica's eldest son, Shelly, Wes and myself.... Keep in mind we don't know these people from a hole in the wall! Juuuuust a weeeee bit awkward. We talked with Shelly and I told her she was more than welcome to play with my secondary camera at the wedding and get some shots if she wanted or just follow me around or whatever she wanted to do and she said yes... and we've kinda been in contact ever since...

Yesterday Shelly posts on my facebook wall that she's ordered her first wedding planning item... and says I should be proud then gives me a link to the photo...



and I am proud!!!! it's one of my fav couples photos of all time!!!! :)

Thanks Shelly for sharing, and I'm sooooo excited to be part of your day!

Just A Teaser

Next year I have an awesome wedding coming up in Orlando that I'm soooo stoked about. Anna's family is a lot like mine Disney Vacation Club members, spending a few weekends a summer at Disney, like a second home stuff like that... That's how my family was and still is really! Look at the Fay thing when they got diverted to Orlando we stayed on Disney property, LOL!

Anyway Anna has a beautiful wedding planned at the Grand Floridian, and Tara and I are stoked about our vacation.... I mean Anna's wedding!

I'm not anywhere done with editing their session but I thought this one photo was kinda sweet. A lot of couples have a hard time making out with a photographer and assistant watching them intently but Anna and DJ didn't care at all! Which is great! I love it when a couple can get all PDA for their photos...

I think we might have shot their session on the hottest day of the year and darn Fay messed up all our plans for our first location but it all worked out!!!!

Here is a sneak peak of their session, it's not my fav... it's my second fav... I'm saving my fav for the full post about these two :)

My Fay Experience Pt. 2

Some photos from this weekend.... View the story

Jackson sitting in his spot, loving the powerless house


The rain outside our house, draining off the house


Wes' un-showered bed head... LOL


Oscar Chillin


Wes and Linds playing Jenga!














The storm......


Look little patches of blue!!!!! on our drive to Orlando


gettin mom


kinda pretty really


Our hotel room thing...


our keys to a hot shower!

The Lovely Little Fay

Can I just tell you how much I hate this silly little storm....

My Fay Story:

Months ago my little sister planned a trip to Florida to see family (my mom, sister and stepfather moved to PA about 6 years ago) She planned her trip for the 20th - 28th giving her enough time to see family, friends etc... My Mom decided to follow suit and come the 21st - 26th since that was the only time she could take off work and her birthday fell on the 23rd so she'd be with both her girls for her birthday. Sounds like a sweet little story right.... WRONG!!!!

Linds came in right before the storm hit, she arrived at 5pm on the 20th after having one flight delay. Mom on the other hand didn't come into JAX at all. Her plane was first delayed, so she had to stay over night in an airport (I think they eventually got a room of some sort) the next day the flight is canceled and they were asked where they wanted to be re-routed. Well in the weeee hours of the AM on the 22nd we lost power. Then we learn that Mom is re-routed to Orlando where they are getting a room showering and sleeping... and of course we are all invited to drive through the tail end of Fay and join them. Only issue there is I have dogs, and I can't send my husband and sister to go get mom. Linds was at her friends house (who had power and working showers) so we arrange for Linds to stay watch our dogs in our powerless house overnight. We get to Orlando, shower, parents arrive at midnight we all get a nights rest and drive back to the powerless Jacksonville. Power finally came back on the 23rd in the afternoon!!!

So...... yeah.... it's been a wild weekend...

Randomness....

Blogging just to blog, imagine that... Everyone is blogging about Fey coming... and well I'm rather angry with Fey cause I think she might mess my upcoming Engagement Shoot... My couple is pretty upset too! Our location might not be available after that date either! So crappy!!!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be alright for our shoot Friday AM... maybe Fey won't arrive till the afternoon!

In other news, my right arm feels like it's about to fall off... I can barely move it above my head (which makes getting dressed a challenge) it sucks! Oh and best of all, haha it's because of a video game. Some silly Smash Blocks game or whatever it's called for the Wii.... We rented it the other night when my brother Josh came over, the three of us played then Wes and I played till like 11pm that night!!! And for those of you who know my "in bed by nine" hubby that's late for him! We really enjoyed it though! LOL

I've done quite a bit of work for the magazine here lately too, there will be three articles two in San Marco Mag and one in the Beaches Mag that will showcase my work so if you live in either area please pick it up and check it out... Beaches Magazine will again feature one of my photos on the cover! which is very cool! Wes makes his food critique debuet in the San Marco Mag this month! We had such an awesome time. We went back to Bistro Aix a few nights ago just to have a date night and saw Chef Tom again, and he actually remembered us! We are such dorks, I know!!

OHHH Speaking of being a dork. Rockstar Photographer Scarlett Lillian held a contest this past week, the winner gets a free blog design by flosites! Sooo, Tara and I entered LOL I guess this means I should show you our photos... neither of us won, no huge surprise there, but Tara's was awesome AND we spent like 2 hours makign her sign!!!! ugh... I really expected her to be a contender but, Scarlett opened up the contest to all photos not just her favs so it was like a popularity race in the end, but we had fun...and this photo is super cute!!! Seeee!!!


I swear we don't need that much mental help! hahaha!!!!

I've got some new and exciting news coming up through the end of the year, Tara and I are super excited about it and just hoping everything works out as planned... I'll announce it all Jan 1st if it all goes as planned, if not then this you'll know it didn't! hahahaha...

So for now... lets hope that Fey doesn't mess up my Friday, or that we can get another date going if it does, maybe Monday.... Anne just doesn't want to be rained on... which I can understand not everyone wants rain in their photos but sometimes like in Jenny's case it works for the better!!!

I'll also be posting up photos soon of Wes and Toby that are going in the Beaches Magazine article :)

The Sassy Ladies of the Salon

Along with my yummy photos for the magazine, I got to spend the day with the lovely ladies of Salon On The Square Salon & Spa.... These ladies were a total TRIP!!!! Pamela (the top photo) was awesome, she wanted the photos to showcase the personalities of each of her ladies, and by George I think we got it!

Did You Go To School For Photography??

I didn't... I haven't had formal training... I started out with out a clue as to what I was doing but I've learned A LOT. I'm always reading up on things, learning from others and on forums etc etc...

To my knowledge a lot of greats haven't had formal training. I remember going to dinner with Scarlett Lillian and asking her that same question and she said no, she just picked up her camera and started learning... I believe she's recently blogged about it too...

Another Great here in town that freely admits to not having any formal training is Mark Pennington, I have such a professional crush on him!!!!

Anyway... I'd like to know who else out there is like me... or even who has gone to school for it and how they feel it makes them different from the people with no formal training....

Again, I have the coolest job!!!!

When Jennifer with the San Marco Magazine asked Wes and I if we were interested in doing a food article for the mag we of course said yes!!! Not are Wes and I huge foodies that sit and watch the food network for entertainment almost nightly, it was a big part of our attraction to one another and also part of our first date even! We love going to new restaurants (well ones we haven't been to before) or just frequenting (when the budget allows) some of our favs in town.

Among those favs are Bistro Aix, Biscotti's, and BB's... along with a few others but those are def the top three! Jennifer secured 4 establishments for us to photograph and "taste" and among them were Matthew's Market which I've been wanting to try and Bistro Aix! Not only did she secure a time for me to be there to shoot, she also secured us actually meeting Chef Tom Gray for the shoot! Wes was like a kid in a candy store when I told him that!!

I know, I know... we are a bit dorky... meeting a local celeb Chef being the highlight of our month... possibly the coolest thing we've done all year is a bit geeky I'll admit but Chef Tom was awesome! Not only can me the man cook... he's a super nice guy! He sat and talked with us on how the meal was prepaired, some cute childhood stuff, even brought us the seasonal "tart" for us to taste.... It was nothing less than my fav Peach Cobbler!!!!! I was so excited that I completely forgot to take a photo of it!!!!

Here is a the photo of Chef Tom that will be in the magazine...



Look for these and other photos in the new addition of the San Marco Magazine... out late September!

Oh To Be 21 Again

I met Heather in her bridal consultation... LOL that's right, she set out to hire me for her wedding... well one thing lead to another we started talking like every day, and now we are pretty close friends!

Since that consultation so many things have changed. She's decided to go back to school vs. get married right away and has loads of other changes/newness coming into her life!

She also recently turned 21, and I told her for her 21st birthday we'd go out and do some photos... Her birthday was in June!!! My schedule has been a little crazy so we just recently went out to the lovely San Marco to do the photos...

Here are some samples and a slideshow at the end.... more photos on my myspace page

A lot of times I can't decide which effect I like best!!! so you'll see the same photo with different effects in the slide... and YES Heather is the same girl in the center photo on my blog header and business cards :)

Anticipating Will

Little Will is almost here! Aug 15th he will grace us with his presence... Will is being born into a HUGE extended family, but his immediate family is pretty cool. In fact his immediate family is part of who I count in my immediate family. Lydia Will's Mom wanted a couple of belly photos and a couple of cute black and white photos of big sister Sydney kissing baby Will. Sooo cute! She wanted the traditional black and white style of photos with spots of color. My dear cousin Billy lent us a hand... and that was just about all we could get out of him was his hand, lol. I did get one photo of them standing together where he wasn't making faces or make believe humping poor Lydia. Sometimes I'd like to claim my relation is to her and not the other way around! LOL but I love them both, I do however love Syd more than either of them but I think they would both be pretty ok with that statement, she's truly something else...

Here's a slideshow of the photos... including some outtakes.... my family folks: