Elise & Ryan { Stone Mountain, Ga }

I am so excited to be able to share these images with all of you! Elise has been one of my closest and best friends since I was in middle school. She is like a sister to me, and she has had such a huge influence on my life and my faith. She was one of the first people in my life that showed me the joy that could be had in a relationship with Christ, and for that I am forever thankful. Our friendship has lasted through good times and difficult times, and now I am excited to be able to celebrate her engagement to the man that she has been waiting her whole life for.

On Saturday morning we met at Stone Mountain Park outside of Atlanta. Stone Mountain is a special place for Elise and Ryan because it is where they had their first date two years ago. It was so much fun to wander around the park and get to relive the memory of their first date with them.



These two were an absolute dream to photograph! Their love for each other is written all over their faces, and they love to laugh and goof around together.



I love the following image because I had absolutely nothing to do with posing it. We were up the hiking trail shooting in among the flowers, and Ryan decided to pick one for Elise to put in her hair. She smiled, leaned in and kissed him, and I grabbed this shot



This sign might as well have had Ryan's name on it. Ha! I'm just kidding. This is Ryan giving me his best confident/cocky face.



Elise's ring is absolutely beautiful. Not only does Ryan have wonderful taste when it comes to choosing a wife, but he also has great taste in jewelry. Don't you agree?



We really wanted to go inside the kid's play area to grab a few pictures on the swings, but you had to pay extra to play in there, so we stopped at the entrance to grab a picture of them with the signs.



It was far too hot to hike all the way up to the top of the mountain, but that didn't keep us from climbing up a little ways to grab some cool shots like these.

Meet the fun and fabulous Kit!

Despite being delayed by the sporadic rain storms that visited Atlanta on Friday night, I was so excited to have the opportunity to wander around Atlantic Station this weekend for a photo session with Kit. She is a very fun, spirited young woman, and we spent a good part of the evening passing sarcastic remarks back and forth and laughing like old friends. "I don't smile. I smirk," she told me as we got started. I didn't mind at all, because her eyes are so expressive she really has no need to show off her teeth.

I did manage to get a true smile or two out of her, though.



The post-storm clouds not only provided us with wonderful light, but they made a beautiful background for us, as well!



Here are my final favorites before I head off to sleep:





Ciao!

Baby Emma

Check out this beautiful baby girl! Her name is Emma and she is just under two weeks old. This was my first time photographing a newborn, and I am so excited to have had such a beautiful subject to work with.

She got a little fussy when mom wasn't holding her


but a pacifier fixed that problem pretty quickly. See? Peaceful again.


I am always amazed at the beautiful images that can be captured when you place someone next to a window.

Katie and Kaylee

Wow! What a day! I spent part of my afternoon wandering around Piedmont Park with Katie, who is one of my sorority sisters, and her REAL sister Kaylee! These two haven't had a picture taken together in ages (which counts as a crime in my book because they're both so photogenic!) and they wanted to surprise their mom with a belated Mother's Day gift, so I packed up my gear and we headed out to take a walk.

We decided to start off simple by taking a few pictures separately. This is Kaylee


And this is Katie


And one of them together


Having gotten the "boring but necessary" shots out of the way, we began to explore a little bit. Both Katie and Kaylee were really up for pretty much anything (which makes for a GREAT DAY for me!) and we just took our time wandering, snapping pictures, and generally having a good time.



Piedmont Park was full of people today, and we definitely received our fair share of strange looks. Like when they climbed up the slides so I could grab this:


We spent most of the time walking around barefoot (it is summer, after all) but I had them slip their shoes back on for this shot.


This is my favorite shot of the day. It was so funny because as I got ready to take it, a jogger passed us and said, "It's going to be backlit! You need the sun on their face!" I think it turned out well anyway!


Katie and Kaylee thank you for a wonderful afternoon!

More of Kristy

We decided to take some time at the beginning of the session to shoot in, on, and around the car. It usually takes a few minutes of shooting for someone to relax into the session, but Kristy was so confident in front of the camera and her playfulness really came through in these images.


These show off more of her sultry side.



We began shooting around 7 in the evening, so the light was beautiful and warm. I loved the way the light was coming through her veil, so I jumped on the opportunity to grab this silhouette of her.


Her facial expression in this shot reminds me of Jennifer Anniston. What do you think?


Next we moved the car into the wash area and gave it a good soak down. Even though the water was cold and the car was slippery, Kristy was a good sport and had a lot of fun climbing all over the car.



And then of course there is the shot that I posted yesterday, which was my favorite.


I always love having the opportunity to meet and share my passion with other people, and Kristy was so full of mischievous comments and laughter that everyone couldn't help but have a great time. She sent me this comment last night after she got to see a sneak peek of her images

YOU ROCK GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to see what else you have up your sleeve!!!! You do AMAZING WORK!!!! I am SOOOOO honored to have worked with you...truly! Thank you. I cant BELIEVE how great these turned out! I am soooo excited. I would love to do this again!

Thank you Kristy for your encouragement and your willingness to take our crazy suggestions! Thanks also to Crystal, who organized the session, and to Susan Muscari, our wonderfully talented make up artist. She has been working as a MUA for 10 years, and her work is absolutely fantastic. If you are ever in need, you should send her an email. She stayed with us throughout the entire session, doing touch ups and just enjoying the fun.

If you are interested in trashing your wedding dress, your graduation gown, or your favorite pair of blue jeans, send me an email and we can start working on an idea for YOUR session.

Enjoy your Sunday afternoon!

Dispelling the Myth

You don't have to live near the beach in order to trash your dress in style. Yesterday, I joined my friend Crystal of Beadale Photography for an incredibly fun and spirited trash the dress session at a car wash in Smyrna. Here is an image to wet your appetite- more coming later!

fun on a cloudy day [ Allie ]

Saturday was such a beautiful day that I decided to pull out my camera and head over to my friend's house for an impromptu photoshoot with my little sister Allie. Okay, so she's not really my little sister, but she might as well be. She and I are a lot alike, and her family is pretty much my second family. She loves reading, acting, singing, dancing, and watching Disney channel. She has a great personality that really came through in these pictures, and I had a blast laughing and spending the afternoon with her.









We had so much fun playing with this hat. It's actually part of her halloween costume from last year!


Meet Shadow, guardian of the house and the largest golden retriever I have ever seen.

Fun at the beach [ Kyleen ]

For those of you who don't know, I spent the better part of last week wandering all over SoCal with one of my closest and best friends, Kyleen. She is working for an engineering firm in Moorpark this semester and was hungry for some good Southern company, so I flew out to visit her for Spring Break. She is about the cutest person I've ever met, so of course I had to pull my camera out to snap a few images while we were on the beach. It was one of the brightest days my camera and I had ever encountered together, and I think the results turned out pretty good. Let me know what you think!

I love her expression in this picture






Ciao.

Steph and Ryan

I had a wonderful afternoon hanging out with Steph and Ryan in Atlantic Station on Tuesday! They celebrate their one year anniversary on December 1 and wanted to have some pictures taken as a gift to themselves. These are my two favorites of the day: