Miller Family

I have many friends from high school that I didn't keep in really good contact with, and as much as I hate Facebook most days, it has helped me reconnect with some of them. One of those friends is Laura Miller, who now has a beautiful family who I thoroughly enjoyed photographing! Their little daughter, Haylee, is just gorgeous and has the most alluring bright blue eyes. Every picture she was in just lit up, so I have had a VERY hard time picking just a few favorites! We had a few rain showers during our session, but the pictures turned out wonderful nonetheless. Good thing we did our session at a park with a few pavilions to hide under!
After much thinking, here are my five favorite shots from the weekend.

Rountree Wedding

On August 6th, my dear friends Ian and Nikki had a wonderful casual wedding... And I was given the pleasure of photographing it for them! It was a HUGE learning experience, as I have never photographed an event as important and special as a wedding. I ordered a new lens just for the occassion, and it got to the house three hours before the actual wedding started! But I LOVE my new lens! It's a 55mm-200mm telephoto zoom lens, and it works wonderfully for all of my sessions. It was definately one of my favorite purchases lately, and a smart one, in my opinion... I already have another wedding to photograph on August 20th, so I'll need the ability to zoom.
There were over 400 photos from the beautiful, low-key wedding, but I'm sharing five of my favorites with you. Hope you enjoy them!

Camden

Friday I got to do a session for a friend of mine from high school, Robin. It was awesome getting to see her for the first time in at least 5 years, and to meet her adorable little boy, Camden! I learned how challenging it can be to get good shots of such a little one, but we got some pretty good ones! We ended up getting 730 pictures because continuous photography is a MUST when you aren't sure when your subject is going to decide to crack a little smile. I also learned that some of the best shots don't even have to be smiles... You can see little bits of heaven in the faces of some young ones, and you can definitely see it in Camden's photos! Look at the wonderful personality this little one already has in my five favorite shots from our session!

Becka's Senior Shots

Yesterday I had the pleasure of photographing one of my favorite teenagers, Becka. She enjoys photography also, so we had a lot of fun conversation during our shoot. It was awesome having someone so cooperative for my first senior session, and the evening ended up being even more fun than I had thought it would be! Here are a few of my favorite photos from our session!

Wonderful Weekend

Last weekend was full of fun for my husband and I. We "kidnapped" our pastor for his birthday, drove to Ohio and went to Cedar Point with him and his wife, and my in-laws came to visit us for the day on Sunday. Having so many adventures in one weekend made for lots of good picture opportunities! I love taking pictures of people, but I really enjoy playing with scenery shots, so our in-laws took us up to Cooper's Rock here in Morgantown for the afternoon. They also decided that they wanted to contribute to my camera accessories, and bought me a very nice 3-way extending tripod stand! I'm super excited to use it with all of the senior picture sessions I have coming up in the next couple of months.
Take a look at a few of the pictures I captured on my fun weekend!

Until next time...


Ohio Sunset


Lake Erie


Cooper's Rock Overlook


My awesome in-laws


Picnic table at Cooper's Rock

Holtz Family

I decided to do my first photo session with my best friend, Liz, and her great family. I have known Liz for about four years, and she is one of the best ladies I know. She has helped me a lot through this new learning process, so who better to photograph first? I am still working on learning how to be assertive in telling people how to pose, where to stand, etc. but I'm getting there! I also used a telephoto lense for the first time this shoot. I learned what to (and not to!) do when using a lense of that size, and it helped me start my process of deciding what the next lense I buy will be.
I've been amazed so far at not only how fun this is, but how challenging it can be. The photographs themselves are not hard to get... But, when you have an older laptop that has tons of programs on it, it's a bit hard to upload and edit anything! I guess Adam and I's next adventure is in buying a new computer that will allow me to do the things I'd like with my pictures without taking four hours to upload them :/
While I search for what computers I like, enjoy my five favorite shots from yesterdays session!

Our Honeymoon

On June 18, 2010, I had the pleasure of marrying my wonderful husband, Adam. We decided to spend the next week in Kissimee, FL, and it was the perfect place for me to learn how to use my camera! Due to the fact that we flew instead of driving, we walked most places, which gave me a lot of opportunities to play with outdoor lighting, some nature shots, and a few random animals showed up also. Because it was just the two of us, I don't have any shots of people from the week. There will be plenty of those to come soon, as I have four senior picture sessions, as well as two wedding within the next month. Keep checking back for the photos of those wonderful friends soon! Enjoy my five favorite pictures from our awesome honeymoon :)


The view from our hotel room in Morgantown


A squirrel decided to wonder near us on one of our walks


An interesting fruit on a tree near one of our dinner sites


A building at Universal Studios


Beverly Hills sign at Universal Studios