Baby Jared, One year

Baby Jared was super adorable. That red hair still growing in with a little bit of baby mohawk, irresistible! We had quite a few "first times" in this one year shoot. It was so much fun to watch his parent surprise and see them experience some new things together.

Meet little Jared.
Not too sure of the grass at first, had never crawled in the grass, but we overcame that. It was too cute to watch him figure it all out.

He swings at day care all the time but this was the first time swinging at their local park. He had a blast.

Jared is almost walking, oh so close. This may be my favorite image from the session.

He was very animated.

Dad rescuing him after his long crawl up the grassy hill. Love this.

Story time with mom.

Love this little moment.

He loves playing behind the gate on the stairs.

Happy Birthday little Jared!!

I had so much fun with these guys! Thank you so much for having me out. Jared is super adorable.

Enjoy your slideshow

Erika & Ryan Married 6-27-2009

It was an absolutely perfect day for Erika and Ryan. Where do I begin really? Through all the planning and phases of preparing for this wedding I really bonded with them. We had such a blast during their engagement session, Erika had an amazing boudoir session with me an Jenn Childress and getting to know them over this past year has been just an overall awesome experience. Showing up on the wedding day, being welcomed by family and friends and just feeling a close connection with Erika and Ryan made for a perfect day.

Some other vendors that helped make this day perfect:
Venue: Appleford
Flowers: Hilary Felton of Country Meadows Florist
Cake: Masters Baker
Caterer: Sage
Wedding Planner: Roni Venonsky of Perfect Weddings
DJ: Jason Weldon of Synergetic Sounds
Videographer: Pete Malone of First Floor Films
Dress Designer: 2be
Second Photographer: David Schrott (David will be out on more weddings this year with me, he is awesome.)

So on to some images. As always there are more in the slideshow at the bottom of this post.

This may be one of my favorites of the day. Erika's first look at herself in the dress.

Dad's first look at Erika

I think we all had some tears at this point. Ryan was SOOO nervous and excited to see Erika for the first time. He was tearing up even before he got his first look.

Love this moment.

I love seeing the softer side in men. You can see the overwhelming love he has for Erika right here.

Its always good to look at things a little differently sometimes.

I can see this image printed and framed in every family members house.

Erika is one of the most strikingly beautiful women I have ever known.

Another favorite, just love it.

Gorgeous day, gorgeous bride.

You have to have a little fun in the dress.

The beginning of one of my motion sequences in the slideshow. I particularly like this image on its own as well.

What a great bunch of bridesmaids and a great moment!

Ryan with his boys and best lady.

Erika and her girls.

Now this moment, makes me tear up every time! Erika is very close to her Me-mom. June 27 wasn't a date chosen at random, June 27 is the date her grandparents were married 60 years ago. The garter Erika wore was the same garter her Me-mom wore on her wedding day. I just love this, the first time Me-mom sees Erika, you can just tell how close they are.

Okay, wiping away some tears? Well you have to love the moments after they are pronounced man and wife. These images are always some of my favorites.

I loved this little detail Erika had for her Moms flowers.

First dance.

I love this room at Appleford! This is moments before they are announced, taking a second for a photograph.

This wedding was one of the biggest dancing groups of the season. Jason Weldon had them dancing all night long!!

Can't leave out the bridesmaids new best friend, Pete Malone. I can't wait to see the video from this wedding. The whole day the bridesmaids were harassing Pete (in a good fun way) the phrase of the day was "ya get that Pete?" Oh girls he got it, don't you worry! haha.

Such a fantastic day, fantastic couple and fantastic vendors. Thank you so much for making me part of such a wonderful event. You guys are awesome.

Check out the slideshow, the music is an Italian wedding song in honor of Erika and Ryan's Italian honeymoon. It is very enjoyable and gives a good encounter of the whole day.

Mandy & Ryan Married 6-20-2009

Mandy and Ryan's wedding was an awesome experience. They were married in Lincoln Nebraska, where they are from but they live here in Philly. Lincoln is a cool little town and Mandy and Ryan's families were so hospitable. Both sides of the family have been waiting for this day to come, Mandy and Ryan have been together for nine years! It was truely a weekend of celebration. We had an amazing time. I am going to jump right into the images, there is a slideshow at the end if you want to see more images.

Mandy's shoes.

Time to get into the dress! Very exciting.

I really love this shot, Mandy watching as her bridesmaids get some finishing touches.

Anticipation to see Ryan for the first time.

Ryan mighty handsome in some window light.

Another favorite, moments after they first saw each other.

The weather was bit off and on, some sprinkles but luckily we had planned on doing portraits in the capital building anyway. It was great we were the only ones there.

Have to love great foot wear!

You have to make sure to have a little fun in the dress, I've been enjoying doing this with my brides this year.

This may be one of my all time favorite portraits EVER.

A quick kiss before heading to the church.

Rust and rings, good combo!

Loved Ryan's tie.

There is a fun series of these two in the slideshow. With kids its always inevitable that they won't want to cooperate for a simple photograph and that's okay as long as you know how to get what you need out of them. For this image the flower girl really wanted her mom, but her brother was quite content and rather chipper. I told them to give me their best funny face, the ring bearer was all about that and in a series of five or so images the flower girl goes from all frowns to a very nice smile, her brother all the while with a goofy face. I love it. This image is the mid point.

Mandy coming down the isle with her Dad.

Woohoo! Married!

They had this awesome bugeye sprite to drive away in. AWESOME.

Off into the sunset, after a few laps around the Hay Market.

weeee! I love Mandy's expression in this one.

The reception venue was amazing, AMAZING. There is nothing like this in Philly. It was the Rococo theater, which has been restored back to its theater dining state.

Check that out! Pretty awesome.

The best speech of the season. "Finding a husband at Target"

Adorable cake toppers to match the lovely couple.

The first dance.

Being sent off with sparklers at the end of the night.

When the reception was over a sever thunderstorm was rolling through the area and it was pouring rain! I love how this image captures all the raindrops.

Big thank you to Don for shooting with me! It was such an great day for a fantastic couple. Check out the slideshow, its super cute. Be patient and let it load, I have it set to load all images before playing so you will get a smoother playback.

Stephanie & Dan Engagement Shoot

I had a blast with Stephanie and Dan. You will see, Stephanie has a very contagious smile. She couldn't help but smile the whole time. We traveled around to a couple of locations in Fairmount park, just missed the Japanese Gardens but we made the most of it. Its been over a year since I have seen these two, so it was great to catch up and get to know each other better.

We started at the whispering benches.

crossed the police limits.

Asian Gothic.

A little reflection.

Light hearted nature.

One of my favorites

They are adorable aren't they!

Steph solo in the tree.

Another favorite. I love the emotion in this one.

A little relaxation. I love the blue spruce in the background, makes for some awesome color.

Another great moment.

This one is for Steph! She kept making fun of me when I would tell them to go into the tree. So she acted like she was being hunted. hahaha, I love the sense of humor with these two.

Awesome expressions here

We ended with walking Thore, their bull dog. He was very sweet.

Such a great afternoon with you guys! I had fun on our little adventure through Fairmount. See you guys in September!

Belly

A new favorite!
This is from a recent session, I was so excited to get this film back. You can see why.

Happy Monday!

Head on over to the Philadelphia Wedding Project to see what's new. We are still accepting entries and stories, you have until the end of August to enter to win.

Emily & Josh Engagement Session

A few weekends ago Emily, Josh and I met up at a top secret location for their engagement shoot. Really its top secret I can't tell you where it is, well maybe if you ask. Anyway it was a gorgeous day and we had a great time laughing it up and taking some pictures. They live in NYC and I would have loved to do the shoot there but our schedules just couldn't make it work. Luckily they come down here a lot and our secret location is one that Emily and her family frequents and I can see why. These guys are getting married in August at the Audubon Society, which I am so excited for. That place is awesome.

Meet Emily and Josh, cute aren't they?

Emily has a secret passion for photography and specifically requested that I shoot some film for the engagement shoot and on the wedding day. The square images you see here are all shot on film with my hasselblad on black and white film.

I really like this pairing.

Emily coveting my hasselblad.

I love the movement here. (film)

There were so many cool spots! This place is amazing.

Emily and Josh were seriously made for each other. They have such a great connection.

Which do you like best, the digital color version.....

or the film b&w version.....

Emily becoming one with nature. It is fitting because she is a natural beauty.

So many awesome moments with these two.

Relaxation time on the rock couch.

LOVE IT.

Its quite amazing all the detail film picks up, look in the trees and this is resized for web. A large print of this would be awesome.

Some lovin in the ferns.

We had to head back and include Duke their new puppy in some photos.

Too cute!

We will end with little Duke. So adorable and cuddly.

It was awesome getting to know you guys better and spending some time with you. Love little Duke! I can't wait to see you guys on the wedding day.

Baby Ryder Session 2

Wow Ryder has grown so much and is so cute I could just take him home, no worries I would never do that. He has changed so much since our first session in January! It always amazes me how fast these babies grow up. Tina and Nick are more excited in love with this boy every day! It was so funny listening to them behind me as we got the black velvet series of shots, they can sure make that little boy crack up. I had a wonderful time as usual, this family is always fun to be around.

Ryder looks a lot like Nick right now but there is no mistaking he has his mothers gorgeous eyes.

See what I mean about those eyes! No enhancing on my part.

A fun little grouping

See what I mean about getting this kid to crack up, just wait for the slideshow!

Love this of mother and son.

My favorite family portrait.

It was a warm day, so why not go in the pool?

This one is all about the moment. This was the very first time they submerged him under water.

Swimming makes you hungry

And guess who gets to finish the bottle! YUM!

Again it was a pleasure you guys! I always love my visits and can't wait to see how much Ryder grows over the summer! See you this fall.

Enjoy the slideshow

Baby AJ, One Year

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hanging out with baby AJ and his parents. It is actually a little bit of six degrees of separation with this family. I first met AJ's dad Mark back in October when shooting Erika and Ryan's engagement session. Mark had seen us wandering the neighborhood and invited us up to his roof deck to take some shots. An awesome gesture that just made the already awesome day even better. Erika and Ryan actually had one of the shots from the roof deck framed at the wedding last weekend. Anyway, I had mentioned to Mark that I did children sessions, I noticed baby stuff, but Annemarie was not in town at that time. So time went by and I hear from Annemarie, turns out she is in the same play group as baby Abbie and her parents recommended me. She showed Mark images from baby Abbie's session and his response was "yeah thats the girl I told you about!" HA, small world. So we finally got a session scheduled for AJ's one year. I love this family, you guys are awesome. I had such a blast. Lets look at some images and the slideshow is at the bottom.

My favorite of Mark and AJ.

Cracking up at AJ, wanting to eat the triangle.

AJ loves to help make the bed, you will see why in the slideshow.

Their house is AMAZING, love this skylight from the 3rd floor looking down.

You can really see how in love these parents are with this little boy.

This is actually one of my favorites. Just something about the light from the fridge, food on the ledge, foot on the ledge for support and just the beauty in little everyday things.

Trying to escape!

The interaction of this family is very fun, tender and genuine.

high five on the swings!

hahahaha! Mark has this thing between him and AJ. Mark always tries to "eat" him. You know its a father son thing, AJ just loves it. I love this one.

We browsed a little garage sale on the way back, AJ really liked this mirror.

There are many many more, check the slideshow out. You guys are awesome and I can't tell you enough how much I enjoyed our session.

slideshow

Marybeth & Adam Engagement Shoot

Where to begin!! Marybeth and I met in College, we both went to Towson State in Baltimore for one year during our sophomore year. We were roommates for half the year and we to this day have said our sole purpose for going to Towson was to meet each other. Seems a little silly but hey, Marybeth is one of my best friends and I am so thankful for that year at Towson. We don't see each other all that much these days but we do keep in touch and make a trip at least once a year. I remember when Marybeth was first talking about Adam. She had a crush from afar and was just coming out of a long relationship so was a bit timid. We soon found out that Adam had the same feelings and they naturally made a fantastic couple. They both work at Seacrets in Ocean City Maryland, they met there, work there and basically live there, really they live 500 feet from Seacrets.. It was the obvious choice of location to do their engagement shoot. It was also my first time meeting Adam in person! Yeah sounds crazy I know, he is a fantastic guy and totally adores Marybeth. Thumbs up from me MB!

This is the very spot that they met. Marybeth has worked at Seacrets for many years and Adam was just starting when she noticed him. Now Adam is her boss, haha go figure!

Some American Gothic Jamaica USA style.

Marybeth gets a thumbs up from Adam.

You will notice that Marybeth is all smiles and just glowing when she is near Adam.

The sand bar, a favorite spot.

Ring the bell for good tips!

They both bar tend, so uh yeah we had to have a drink.

No mistaking, they made a ticket and paid for it!

This just makes me laugh every time. All of Adams favorite things.

Marybeth is one of the most beautiful people I know, inside and out.

They are all favorites, but love the color in this.

Marybeth doing her Miss Seacrets pose.

Jammin in the Vdub.

We had to take the cruisers out for a little spin.

Major props to Adam! He will do anything for his love even if it means holding hands while riding bikes and running around posing for pictures while being subjected to much ridicule from Seacrets employees!

Another favorite. Special request by Marybeth for this one.

And ya know, have to end with some bling.

These two love birds are getting married this coming October in Rehoboth Beach. I can't wait, I am so excited for you guys!

Blair & Mark Married 6-6-09

Blair and Mark's wedding was full of surprises! We were laughing about it because I always ask if there are any special surprises that will happen during the day so that I can watch for them and be ready but they said no there wasn't anything in particular planned. Well that was because they had no idea! They were surprised by Blair's dad and brother with beautiful music and singing, another one of Blair's friends came out belting Tina Turner, the bridesmaids surprised Blair with the song she had originally wanted to dance their first dance to, and it just seemed to keep going. It was a great time, I was so happy to be a part of it.

Before I get too ahead of myself here, check out all the vendors and details that helped this come together:
Venue: Villanova Conference Center Tim Sweeney the coordinator did an awesome job.
Flowers: Ilonka Floral Decorator
Dress: Romona K from the Bridal Garden
Cake: Doughman Baked Goods
Band: Big Ric + Vegas Band
Second Shooter: Steve Langdon Another great day shooting with Steve! Thank you so much for coming out!
On to some images shall we?

Blair's shoes. She was excited about the shoes and more excited about the shot I would get for her.

Steve got some awesome ring shots.

Handling of the dress.

Love this one Steve got of Mark!

Blair was simply beaming all day.

My favorite shot of Blair.

They didn't see each other before hand, this is Marks first look at Blair coming down the isle.

The kiss

Married!!!

Blair showing off her bling and some flare.

Its funny I took this shot just to get a meter reading on Blair's skin tone, it was only a shot for technical purposes, but I really like it.

Walking on air.

Great light, great couple, what more could you ask for?

Another favorite.

The first Dance

Blair's brother Seth and one of the Bridesmaids sang Lucky by Jason Mraz. It was fantastic.

Big Ric even got Mark out to sing to Blair, which was hilarious! Most men would have caved under the pressure and while Mark is not the most musically talented he surprised everyone with his new found ability. Blair and everyone else including me loved every minute of it.

I just love this reaction. It was so fantastic to see the love and support behind Blair and Mark.

YEAH! You go Mark! I love this one.

With all of the surprises that kept popping up during the reception we did manage to get away for some shots with the Meadowcroft sign. They had been talking about this sign since I first met them over a year and a half ago! There had been some mention that we might not be able to make it work with the timing and such of the day but I was not going to let this photo opportunity slip and I knew it was important. Mark and Blair piled into my car and we snuck out of the reception for a few to get these. TOTALLY worth it.

Be sure to watch the slideshow for some more images and dancing. The song was written and perfomed by Blair's brother Seth, he has an amazing voice.

Slideshow