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I knew exactly what to do for this week.

  At the beginning of the year, I switched from drinking coffee to tea.  I use a ridiculous amount of cream and sugar and my coffee and it was getting out of control.  I’m a weirdo in the south and don’t like to drink sweet tea- hot or cold.  So every morning I put a kettle on to brew my choice of tea for the morning.  I brew loose tea and it’s so relaxing and peaceful watching the leaves swirl and dance in the hot water while brewing.

Now head on over to

Now head on over to see what Emily Bjornson | ND Natural Light Photographer is up to this week.

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Words….

 

Now head on over to see what Erin Dahl, Memphis, TN Children’s and Family Photographer, picture of Words is.

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Another Friday, another Project 52 post.  The theme for the second week was “Landscape”.  My intentions were to go and take pictures of the Raleigh City skyline and I did go and do that.  But when I turned to get back into my car, I loved the reflection of the city in the large plate glass windows.  What a happy little accident!

Now head over to Westchester, New York to see Viviana Serrano’s blog.  I know she has something fantastic for this week.

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To continue with the pictures from Courtney and Jared’s wedding.  My last post left off at the end of their ceremony.  Now here’s the rest of their wedding day.

Enjoy!

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Wow!  How quickly 31 days went by.  I feel like it was just last week that I was in Hilton Head and had shown you my sunrise/sunset collection of pictures from that day.  But a lot has happened since that week.  Our family has celebrated the month with smiles and hugs had moments of great sadness with the loss of a dear family member.

We celebrated in grand style this year.  We packed up the entire family, including grandparents on both sides and made the 9 hour road trip to the happiest place on Earth.  Yup.  We celebrated Christmas and my daughter’s birthday at Disney!  What a magical way to end the year this has been.  Not only was this my children’s and husbands first time to this magical place.

My daughter’s birthday is two days after Christmas.  I feel guilty that her birthday and Christmas all get rolled into one.  For my daughter’s 6th birthday, we spent the day at Epcot where she got to talk to all the princesses and had a very special dinner with just dear old mom, Grandma and Nana.  I decided to use the pictures from this day for my 10 on 10.  When you get done looking at my pictures be sure to go to head on over to Dana Cubbage’s blog to get a peak at her day.  Then follow the blog circle around so you can see what all 10 of us have been up to.

 

Just entered the park at Epcot.  Waiting with Nana.

These gorgeous topiary were in all the parks.  On a side note, not sure what was going on with Grace’s hair here.  It has a wild woman look to it.

First Pair of Ears!  We have ears, say cheers!!!

Some of the princesses that the kids met.  Cooper seemed to have problems keeping his tongue in his mouth for most of the pictures during the trip.  Boys will be boys!

The beautiful Epcot sphere!

Funny little chipmunks that would stop hugging Grace.  The poor girl behind us was trying to get her autograph book signed and Chip (or Dale, not sure which) wouldn’t stop hugging or kissing Grace.

Sitting on PaPa’s lap waiting to go into Mr. Ray’s lagoon, which was very entertaining.

Formal picture with Belle right before sitting down to eat dinner.

Excitedly waiting for the princesses to come to our table to talk with her.

The birthday cupcake.

A birthday card signed by all the princesses!

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Just a gorgeous wedding this was!  It truly was a happy day.  You might remember Courtney and Jared from their engagement session last year.  I was so excited when their big day came about.  I have so many favorite images from this wedding, that I’ve decided to break it up into two posts.

Courtney and Jared’s big day started at the Lions Gate Inn a Bed and Breakfast in Wake Forest, NC.  This was such a beautiful and charming home.  Courtney spent some time with all of her gal pals getting ready here.  Lots of laughter filled the Katherine Room as they got ready.  Before we headed to the ceremony, we were able to take some beautiful bridal portraits before Courtney left.

The ceremony and reception were both held at the Cotton Company in downtown Wake Forest.  The room was gorgeously decorated with little white twinkle lights, tea lights and red and orange flowers.  Just a beautiful warm and cozy room.  The ceremony was sweet and beautiful.  From Jared meeting his bride halfway down the aisle to the very personalized vows exchanged, it was hard not to keep a dry eye.

As soon as the ceremony started, the partying began.  And this group loved to party.  Once the dance music started, the dance floor was not empty once.  There were guests and family members of all ages dancing the whole time.  It was so wonderful seeing everyone having a nice time.

These are just a few of the many beautiful images that I received from their wedding.  I’m so thankful that Courtney and Jared trusted me and hired me to captured their beautiful day.  I hope you enjoy their images as much as I do.

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You will be seeing couple of repeat posts over the next couple of weeks.  My blog had caught a virus and in order to fix it, I had lost about a month’s worth of posts.  The posts were to wonderful not to share.  So to start off, I will be sharing my children’s pictures as well as our holiday card from this year.  I’m proud of these.  This was the first year that my kids cooperated, there were no tears and no fighting during their portraits.  Being a photographer, you would think it would be an easy thing to capture pictures of my own children.  Oh, no…not so.  There have been plenty of crazy faces, backs turned and the kids have practically done everything possible to make the pictures not happen.

But I have learned a few tricks along the way on how to take better pictures with fewer tears.

If they want to take a toy to the session, let them.  Having that toy can be a comfort to them.  And keeping the kids calm is key.  You can see in this series of pictures Cooper has a small Matchbox truck in his hand.  I don’t mind it in his pictures.  He loves these trucks and they are as much a part of him as his messy hair and freckles.

Let  your kids have a say in their outfit.  I picked out my kids outfits for the most part but Grace still likes to have a say in what she wears.  I gave her a few choices on what headband to wear and this is what she chose.  She also picked out a small special necklace to wear.  This made her feel special and realize that this was a special event.

Timing is all important.  These pictures were taken at 7:30 on a weekday morning before school.  My kids are best in the morning.  They’ve had a full 10 hours of sleep.  Their bellies are full from breakfast.  And lest be honest, they are still a little sleepy and easier to manipulate.  The idea of waking up and taking pictures before school sounded like a great adventure to both of them.  And they got a treat of a doughnut after their shoot.

Keep it short and sweet.  With older kids, you can drag out a session but with these little tykes I knew that I’d have to be quick.  I only spent about 20 minutes on these pictures.  And half of that time was spent walking to and from the bridge.  I had the session planned out in my head and knew exactly what kind of portraits that I wanted to take.

You are not above bribery.  See the doughnut mentioned in #3?  That was an all out bribe.

Take advantage of the unexpected moments and go with the flow.  Walking down to the bridge, there was a hill covered with dandelions.  The kids ran to then and started making wishes.  If I didn’t keep my mind open to other ideas, I would have ended up fussing at my kids to stop playing and get to the bridge.  I would have completely missed this adorable moments.

And most off…

Enjoy your time with your kids.  This time is fleeting.  The pictures do not have to be perfect.  A toy in the hand or crazy crooked smile does not ruin a picture.  Life is not perfect.  Nor should you stress over having a perfect pictures.  They just have to be a representation of your life at that moment in time.  And remember…life is art.

 

 

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So I’ve done it again. I’ve signed up for another year’s p52 project. Last year, I failed miserably. I did participate but not consistently. This year, one of my goals is to participate every week. I’ve got a lot of goals this year. Actually for the first time, I physically wrote down a list of goals for 2012. I’ve written down goals for my business, my personal life, my photography and my home. I’ve always had goals in the past but never written them down. I actually went out and bought a pretty little notebook to keep track of all the things that I want to do and have accomplished. There really is someth ing to see

ing your dreams written in front of you.

While I was at the stationary store, Cute Buttons, I picked up a MyAgenda planner. I haven’t had a paper planner in over 10 years. I keep one religiously in school and through college. I did find that writing things down keep on target. But after getting married and working, I found that my life got pretty mundane so the use of a planner wasn’t as necessary. I could write things down on a calendar and then switched to a palm pilot. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been using the calendar feature on my iphone. But I’m now finding that it’s just not as satisfying as sitting down with a pen or pencil, writing the tasks that I need to do and crossing them off. Oh, I’m sure that I will continue to use my phone to remind me of important things like doctor’s appointments and sessions with clients. But I’m not converting back to my old way. I sat down this week and slowly started to transfer dates from the icalendar on over as well as the kids various school calendars to the the new agenda. I will admit it. It felt good. I even have a spot to keep track of my chores to do and exercise (yes another goal for 2012.) So my picture for this week is of the new calendar but really it could also be of the old. Reverting back to my old ways feels good. I’m so excited about this new year and I can’t wait to see all that it has in store for me.

Now head on over to see what Christine Blaylock | IL Photographer has photographed to represent her vision of “New”.

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Now that life has slowed down, the holidays and the vacation to Disney are over; I can sit down and blog about this gorgeous couple that I photographed in December.  I worked with Wendy Boyer of Dancing Heart Photography (which was an absolute blast!)  Kristi and Jake were just the most adorable couple ever!  With her flair for fashion, drama and a little bit of silvery, wintery bling the wedding was gorgeous.  The girls all got ready at the Sheraton in downtown Raleigh, where there were flat irons everywhere and hairspray floating in the air.  There was the sheer giddiness that you could fee from all the gals.  Just so much excitement and joy in the air.

While Wendy photographed the bride before the ceremony, I went to the Jones Chapel on Meredith College’s campus to photograph the groom and all his guys waiting for the big event.  Jake was adorable.  You could tell how excited he was to get “the show on the road”.  He was so touched when he opened his special gift from Kristi.

The ceremony was beautiful with very many intimate touches at the chapel.  You could just tell how excited the couple was to finally become a couple.  Eyes were twinkling with tears of happiness from everyone.

After some formals were done at the church, on to the reception at the Sheraton we went.  Before heading inside to the party, Wendy and I took some alone time with the bride and groom for some fun and unique shots.  We took complete advantage of all the gorgeous lights outside Fayetteville Street for the holiday season.

Then we headed inside to the warmth and get down to party!  This was a family whose love was great for each other.  There were many hugs and kisses, congratulations and just joy flowing all around!  After a delicious dinner the dancing began.  And this group knew how to dance and get down.  The time quickly flew by and before we knew it, it was time for the newlyweds to make their grand exit, complete with sparklers, into the dark night.

I wish Kristi and Jake the best of luck on their new adventure together. Thank you for including me in your incredibly special day.

 

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I was contacted by these two sisters about two months ago.  They wanted to surprise their parents with new pictures of them with their pups.  Now aren’t these sweet, doggie faces too cute!  And for all the other people around us during their session, they did splendidly.

The sisters are die hard Carolina fans and wanted to do their session at UNC Chapel Hill’s campus, at the historic old well.  (Die hard to thee point where they flew out to San Diego to watch the big game against Michigan State on the aircraft carrier.  Now that’s a fan!)  The legend is that if you drink on the fountain on the first day of class, you will have good luck all year.  Well I hope these pictures bring them good luck in 2012!  And if nothing else, they will be sure to bring some smiles to their mom and dad’s face.

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