Day After Session: Jennifer and Todd
Posted on October 16, 2009
? Although they live in D.C. they are still die-hard Browns Fans and wanted to go tailgating for their Day After Session.
? There was too many people coming out of the tailgating lot so they just mingled with the fans on the way to the game.
? Apparently, if you are wearing a wedding dress you are free game to hug, grab, touch, high-five and take pictures with.
? Jennifer didn’t mind.
? Wedding Dresses also get you onto Johnny Cash’s tour bus.
? I feel bad for anyone going to downtown Cleveland on a game day that is NOT going to the game. Finding parking was IMPOSSIBLE and not remotely affordable. ANYWHERE.
? I love how unique this idea was and had a blast shooting it!
Sharing a steamy kiss on Johnny Cash’s Tour Bus!
Rings!
Day After Session: Carla & Craig
Posted on October 8, 2009
A couple months back, Carla and Craig had a beautiful wedding… but the problem is they ran out of time for pictures. It happens sadly more often than you think. However with Day After Sessions you can still have some great pictures of you in your fancy dress without all the stress of the day!!! I knew it was going to be a great day with Carla and Craig when upon walking up to our first location we saw the “A Christmas Carol” train from Disney! We didn’t go down and see it but it was so cool to randomly see downtown! After that we wandered around the city, hitting up spots that they had picked out prior to the shoot. I love when my clients have ideas of where they want to go and what their vision is!
Thanks again for having me along guys, it was a great time!!!!
Since the flowers are pretty much dead I didn’t feel TOO badly about having them sit in them…
Especially when I got images like these.
Yeah, it was worth it!
Carla “caught” herself a husband!!! LOL! She did this all on her own… but it was pretty darned funny!
This is one shot that was on Craig’s “must have” list!
I.love.this. It may be due to my slight bridge obsession though.
Just be glad you can’t SMELL where we were at! However the view was pretty much amazing!
Day After Session: Stacie and Chris
Posted on September 2, 2009
Being your own boss isn’t always easy and sometimes you have to make the tough choice of who comes first – your clients or yourself. With Stacie and Chris, I sadly had to decide that I came first when they inquired about their wedding – which happened to fall on our two year anniversary – and decline the opportunity to shoot their wedding. However, it all worked out when I got to work with them for a super fun Day After Session when they got home from their honeymoon and before they headed back home to Michigan. They also had their precious pup along for a few shots!
Thanks for such a fun afternoon!!!!
Isn’t their puppy ADORABLE??
Lucky for us, the beach was mostly deserted for the shoot!
I adore this picture for so many reasons… I think mostly though it’s because Chris’s sunglasses are just awesome.
Had to run with the Baywatch theme that was looped in my head after seeing Chris’s sunglasses.
Can you tell they are newlyweds???
I wish that every honeymoon could end with a session with images like these…
A final kiss before we left the beach!!!
Final Day of Corey's Favorite Things!!!!
Posted on August 25, 2009
The final day of our trip also happened to be our second wedding anniversary and more important IT DID NOT RAIN!
I begged and pleaded with my hubby to at least take me to ONE NC lighthouse I hadn’t seen so we went off to see Oak Island Lighthouse. We then followed that up with stopping at Orton Plantation and finally Poplar Grove Plantation. That was a perfect anniversary for me!! We ended the day with our final day of visiting my husband’s uncle who lives in the area before heading back to our hotel.
All in all it was a good vacation but I’m going to have to make sure to put in an order for no rain next time!
Oak Island Lighthouse is one of the newest lighthouses in the United States, being built in 1958. It’s definitely one of the most unique lighthouses I’ve ever seen. The lighthouse is made up entirely of concrete which was colored when it was poured so it will never need repainting. It is also the second brightest lighthouse in the world, following one in France. Finally this lighthouse does not have stairs inside but instead it has multiple ladders – which is why I chose not to climb it (you can’t take pics inside and can’t climb to the top w/o an appointment). It was a very interesting stop and I’m glad I got to see it!
I love Sea Oats. I wanted them in my bouquet for my wedding but there’s that pesky law about not picking them and I just didn’t have time to grow my own (or the climate). Ah well, I guess I’ll just have to keep taking pictures of them!
Our next stop was Orton Plantation which sits on the Cape Fear River and is one of the only surviving plantations left on the river (most were burned during the Civil War). As I’ve said before, I love old homes and when they’re done up so pretty – well it’s hard not to love them! This plantation is still a private residence but the gardens are open to the public – and they are stunning. For the movie & television fans out there, you may like to know that this plantation is also featured in Firestarter, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, A Walk to Remember, Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill.
The Scroll Gardens which overlook Cape Fear River.
The Crooked Bridge – there is an old belief that ghosts and evil spirits could only move in a straight line, so the owners built this bridge crooked so that any evil spirits that were following them would fall into the water and die.
There are a lot of birds, animals and insects on the plantation but this one is the one that held still the longest. They sure don’t make spiders like this in Ohio – thank god!
Luola’s Chapel which was featured in A Walk to Remember as the place where they got married. It has been used a lot in movies…. I love it! Does anyone getting married here need a photographer?? 
The one thing I think I love more than the houses themselves are the gorgeous Live Oak lined driveways that lead to the estates in the south. The Spanish Moss is a lovely touch too!
Our next stop was Poplar Grove Plantation. It was just moments before they closed so I took only a few quick shots before enjoying the tour!
WPPI 2009: Neon Graveyard
Posted on March 16, 2009
Last year I organized a group shoot at The Boneyard aka the Neon Graveyard in downtown Las Vegas. This year I was eager to go again and lucky for me there was a group going from the [b] school. I brought my friend Kate McElwee along whom had to miss out on last year’s shoot due to the yearly horrific “WPPI Funk” that everyone seems to catch at some point. Last year the day was absolutely stunning with clear skies and warm sun but this year it was overcast and pretty cold due to a frigid wind. There was about 40 or so photographers in all with [b]ecker and Jessica Claire in attendance as well. We had 2 model couples (real life couples at that) and two additional ‘bride’ models as well. Despite the winds and chills, I think everyone had a great time! I also made a couple new photographer friends as well, Sylvain Gentile and Bob Knapik whom are both amazing photographers!
Stay tuned tomorrow for the winner of my first annual giveaway!!!
Hawaii Day Three: Rosanna and Jared
Posted on January 21, 2009
The final day of shooting was done with Rosanna and Jared in Kapalua near the Four Seasons hotel. We started up a bit from the beach on a hill with a field and trees and then ended up at sunset on the beach. This was by far my favorite of the three sessions! Again, a million thanks to Rosanna and Jared (are they not the most adorable couple), to Mike Colon for being such a wonderful teacher and the rest of the class for being there with me!
I believe Jared had licked her cheek!
Not the best technically but the sequence made me giggle, wonder what she told him???
This shot of Rosanna and Jared in the field won me one of the top pic choices of the day of the class! Scarlett Lillian won but gave up her spot since she’d won already (aww) so this is technically the runner up but it still made me giddy!
The other choice for the top pic after Scarlett’s two and the other one above! Made for a great ending to my week!
I love the look of this shot, reminds me of a cologne ad.
Shot with Mike Adrian’s one-light setup with pocket wizards.
Shot with onboard flash unit using settings that Mike Colon taught me while others were taking their turns with the off camera lighting setup. I really love this shot, probably due to the moon! I have a thing with moon shots over the ocean…
Hawaii Day Two: Chris and Katie
Posted on January 16, 2009
Chris and Katie were such fun!! It was a rare (or so I’m told) overcast day in Hawaii and we shot around the amazing houses that Mike Colon and the rest of the class were staying in (I was down the street at the Hyatt Regency, more on that later!). They aren’t married or engaged but ARE a couple so making them kiss was so much fun! The forest area around the houses was neat but I felt awful for the classmates that managed to get caught in the thorns that seemed to come from EVERYWHERE! Those things are evil! I was smart and stayed on the paved road – however those that ventured in got some awesome shots. I also go to play with Mike’s 200 2.0 lens – whoa baby! I got to get one of those! Thanks for being such a great couple guys!!
Day After Session: Drue & Meghan
Posted on September 20, 2008
Pretty much from the beginning Meghan knew that she wouldn’t have time for too many formal shots of her and Drue the day of the wedding due to her timeline so she decided to use her engagement session for a day after session instead (or Trash the Dress session as it’s sometimes called). We got really lucky with the weather the day of the wedding but we were not so lucky with the weather the day after, as I was driving up to Cleveland it was storming and raining. Although the storm missed Cleveland it still rained a bit and was your typical dreary NE Ohio day – but Meghan and Drue were still willing to give it a shot! We started off in Edgewater Park and then hit the West Bank and finished up at the East Bank of the Flats in Cleveland for some more urban style shots. Even though the sky was just awful, they were both so awesome that the pics still were amazing!
Shoot with Beckstead
Posted on June 19, 2008
Last week I had the amazing expeience of taking a workshop with David Beckstead, one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the United States. He is just simply awesome. I learned SO much from him and he was the nicest person. Very friendly and easy to get along with. The workshop was hosted by Cat McKinley whom was just the best hostess ever. I can’t rave enough about this workshop, it was THAT good. By far the best money I’ve spent towards my education in photography. We went to some fantastic places in Akron and Cleveland with our model brides – the Akron Civic Theater, Stan Hywet and The Arcade in Cleveland. We also did a quick jaunt around downtown with our bride as well. The best of the best (IMHO) of what I shot is below. Beware it is very picture heavy!
Thanks so much to David for being such a wonderful teacher and Cat for setting everything up!
Ghost Town Fearless Bridal/TTD Shoot
Posted on April 11, 2008
After the awesomeness that was the shoot at the Neon Graveyard, we headed out to Eldorado Canyon where the abondoned Techatticup Mine is located at. Currently the site is run as a tourist attraction. We were there with two model/brides Miki and Michelle. I was unable to shoot Miki but I spent some time with the fabulous Michelle and got some great images as sunset loomed. I want to say a very special thank you to David E Jackson, RLB Photography and Adam Koepke for helping me with the one light at sunset. Another HUGE thank you goes out to Tim & Jaime of Jackson Photography for their help setting up this shoot and for helping me de-cactus myself. Yes, I fell into a cactus and had a whole entire head of the thing stuck in my hand. Which bits are still in actually. I know you guys are really surprised! Ha ha!
