Love

 by Terri

Fall Wedding in New York…


This past weekend I had the pleasure of photographing a wedding in Batavia, New York. Batavia is located in Western New York, between Buffalo and Rochester. I arrived on Thursday evening and had the pleasure of seeing a bit of the surrounding community on Friday…and just loved it. The countryside was beautiful and the fall colors were early, but splendid…I knew right away that I wanted to return again someday when I had more time to explore the area.

Jessica Palmer and Shawn McAlister were the bride and groom and what a delightful couple. Their hopes were to take some photos outside before the wedding at a local park…but that was all dependent on the weather…and on Friday it was grey and drizzly…and Saturday started out damp, but by the time we had planned to head to the park, it was dry, sunny with clouds and just about perfect! What a great sign for their life together…of good things for them in their future!

We had fun at the park…their dog joined them for some photos and Jessica’s dad brought his Harley there as well…what fun we had! The wedding was in the evening and although quick – it was just perfect…and what fun the reception was…a great group of people…such nice families and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone and having the opportunity to share this special day with Jessica and Shawn! They are now enjoying some time as “Mr. and Mrs.” in Cancun and I look forward to sharing all of the photos from their special day with them soon!







In the middle of the brides bouquet is a flower from her great-grandmothers memorial service…a wonderful reminder how special grandmothers are and a way to keep her there for such a special day!





Haley and Alex were adorable as the flower girl and ring bearer…and did a great job, besides looking adorable!





Look what the groom found when he went to get the garter…quite a surprise…to the bride…who was a GREAT sport with this! It certainly added some exitement to the wedding…and later in the evening…it added a bit more spice and laughter!!


This cute little girl was really “swinging” it up on the dance floor…and was so much fun to watch…if she didn’t sleep well that night, I don’t know what would wear her out!

Congratulations Jessica and Shawn…here’s to MANY, MANY years together!

I’m heading out of town again this weekend, another wedding next week…this time in Maui, so keep your eyes peeled for a preview from that in the days following!

in Families / Love / Travel / Weddings 0 comments
 by Terri

A Rainy Afternoon | {Josh, Amanda & Jayden}

Lesson two for this great course, Advanced Pro with Brooke Snow, and I’m loving the ideas, inspiration and encouragement…it’s just what I needed, especially this time of year. Late winter/early spring around the Pacific Northwest is a real questionable time of year for weather…it’s completely unpredictable and nearly impossible to plan outdoor sessions, without being somewhat flexible. My session for this week became subject to the crazy weather and it required we move the session indoors, although near the end, the rain let up and we moved outside for part of it as well. My subjects…or maybe they might call themselves “victims” for this week were our son, his girlfriend and his daughter…as well as two dogs, one being about 12 weeks old! Our granddaughter is 6 years old and very used to the camera, but had just returned home from a classmates birthday party, so was a tad bit “energized” and the dogs, especially the puppy…well, totally unpredictable (even worse than the weather!). Planning and posing ideas were all running through my mind and although I was able to utilize some of them, a lot of the time, I had to just adapt to what was happening and try to keep things moving along. I suppose, I should have expected a bit of a challenge before I even began because our son tends to be a goof whenever the camera comes out…following directions was a challenge for him…he either was making crazy faces or laughing…and trying to get some “serious” photo…well, that took some work. The planning did help with that, I must say…I just moved them past those “crazy” photos into something else and in the end, I was happy with what I was able to capture. Thankfully, their living room has windows across the front, so that allowed a LOT of light coming in and my husband helped by adding some fill light with the reflector where needed…thank goodness today’s cameras are much better with higher ISO’s!! Of course, I wasn’t able to “freeze” the dogs very often, unless they were being held…just keeping them out of the photos was a challenge as they were continually “wrestling” around the living room and even under me as we were shooting! Oh, the joys of kids and animals…I love it!!

 

in Children / Families / Love 0 comments
 by Terri

Advanced Pro; lesson ONE | {LeeAnn & Jerad}

LeeAnn and Jerad are a wonderful couple who I’ve known for many years and had the pleasure of shooting their wedding nearly four years ago. It’s exciting to follow them now to the next chapter in their lives as they prepare for a new little one to join them later this spring. We were fortunate the weather was dry and not freezing, so that worked in our favor and they were both excited about getting their session in outdoors rather than in the studio. For this lesson for our first assignment, I scouted a location, a place I’ve driven by, but never used before. So the morning before the session, I returned to look at it again and that was helpful. I also made the decision we’d drive a mile or so down the road after that location for a bit of diversity, to a park on the waterfront. The week before the session I searched online for some new and different ideas poses and/or props to use during the session. I contacted them with some ideas and asked for a few props (baby items) from them and came up with a few on my own. This was very helpful, not to mention inspiring with some new ideas for my maternity shoots. During most of my sessions, I’m fortunate enough to have my husband (he calls himself  my “sherpa”) to help with props, carrying things for bouncing light from the reflector. Our first location was great…I loved the light and the wall behind them, but there were a few obstacles I hadn’t noticed upon scouting…some crazy blackberry vines (which can be quite spiky and sharp!!!) and we found tons of “landmines” aka dog piles, which created some obstacles to work around, along with the blackberry vines. My preparation was very helpful and communicating ideas to the couple beforehand also helped prepare them for how the session would go. What I learned – REALLY walk around the location, looking up and DOWN, when scouting, just so your are prepared…as we drove home, I had to leave my shoes (a bit stinky!!) in the back of the vehicle because I tend to not look down when photographing, my eyes are always scanning the area and thinking about how I can get more out of the area!

in Babies & Bellies / Families / Love 8 comments